The Importance of a Phonology - Assignment Example

?Phonology a. consonant Consonant is a term derived from two Latin words, CON means together and SONANS means sounding. "Consonants are the result ofaudible friction or stopping of the breath in some part of the mouth or throat" (Consonants). In simple terms a consonant is defined as a sound which cannot be produced clearly without the aid of a vowel. The shorthand sign made for a consonant is called a character or a stroke (Consonants). The sounds /p, b, t, d, k/ as in ‘pen’, beetle, tip, deer, king, respectively are examples of consonant sounds. Consonants include all breathed (voiceless) sounds, and those voiced sounds produced by means of an obstruction in the mouth, or by a narrowing of the air passage, giving rise to a frictional noise. A consonant may be defined to be an interruption of the effusion of vocal sound, arising from the application of the organs of speech to each other (Walker: 2008: 6). In order to identify consonant sound, one should understand a vowel. The words of Trofimov et al (2002: 22) are significant in this sense when they define vowel and consonant as follows: “A vowel (in normal speech) is defined as a voiced sound in which the air passes in a continuous stream through the pharynx and mouth, there being no obstruction and no narrowing such as would produce audible friction.” They further write, “All other sounds [expect the previously stated] (in normal speech) are called consonants.” Therefore, one can infer that in the production of consonant sounds, there may be an obstruction in the air passage causing for an audible friction. Consonants therefore include (i) all sounds which are not voiced (eg: p, s, ?), (ii) all sounds in which the air has an impeded passage through the mouth (b, l, rolled r), (iii) all sounds in which air does not pass through the mouth (eg: m), (iv) all sounds in which there is audible friction (eg: f, v, s, z). (iv) may be regarded as a particular case of (ii) (Trofimov et al: 2002: 22). To describe the consonant sound, the following pieces of information will be really helpful: a) the air stream mechanism, b) the state of the glottis, c) the position of the soft palate, d) the articulating organs or points of articulation, and e) the manner of articulation or the stricture involved (McMahon: 2002: 30). Various studies have identified that all English sounds are produced with a pulmonic egressive air stream mechanism, that is, the air stream expelled from the lungs is modified to form speech sounds. The sounds produced with the glottis open are voiceless and those produced with the glottis closed are voiced. According to the position of the soft palate the sounds may be nasal or oral. Place of articulation is defined in terms of the articulators involved in the speech gesture (Manell: 2002). The points or places of articulations can be identified by referring to a speech gesture in terms of an active articulator and a passive articulator. b. monophthong Vowels in English language have been divided into two categories, namely, monophthongs and diphthongs. Monophthongs are also called as pure vowels. Bloomer et al writes, “...there are 20 vowel sounds in RP English. Twelve of these are monophthongs, that is, pure vowels and eight are diphthongs, that is, two vowel sounds run together so that the first glides into the second” (2005: 251). Therefore it is evident that “A monophthong is a vowel sound which involves no movement of the tongue during its production - there is no glide, as there is in a diphthong” (The university of Hull). Thus, monophthongs are identifiable in the words like; tap, clip, hit, and bee. Similarly, diphthongs are identifiable in the words, cake, boy, paper, and tape. c. affricate Consonants in English language can be properly understood by understanding the stricture involved, that is, the manner in which the air passage is restricted and sounds produced. Based on the manner of articulation, consonants can be classified in different ways where affricate being one among them. In the production of the affricates also, as in the case of the plosives (a complete closure in the air passage and a sudden release), there is a complete closure, the oral and nasal passage of air being completely blocked. But here, the oral closure is removed slowly and unlike the plosive sound producing an explosive noise, an audible friction is heard (Ashby: 2009: 59). The basic difference between plosive and the affricate is that the release of air is sudden in plosives but gradual in affricates. The affricate sounds in English are /t?/ as in ‘church’ and /d?/ in ‘judge.’ Finegan (2007: 87) makes a clear assessment about the way the affricate sounds are produced. According to him, “In the pronunciation of an affricate, air is built up by a complete closure of the oral tract at some place of articulation, then released (something like a stop) and continued (like a fricative).” Thus, it is clear that the movement of air is sudden in plosives and gradual in affricate consonants. d. Approximant Approximants are formed when two articulators are brought together (‘approximated’: ‘ad_’, ‘to’, ‘prox’-, ‘near’, in Latin) so that air passes through the vocal tract without generating any friction noise, and the velum is raised, sealing off the nasal cavities (Ogden: 2009: 78). Approximants can aptly be compared to vowels as they are having similar way of air passage that is the above definition of approximants is also applicable to vowels. As it is a difficult task to differentiate as vowel from a consonant theoretically, it would be better to “...treat vowels as sounds which form a syllable, and approximants as vocalic sounds which function as consonants” (Ogden: 2009: 78). The frictionless continuants, that is, the consonants that can be prolonged for a long time without any audible friction, are considered as approximants. In the production of a frictionless continuant, the soft palate is raised, closing the nasal passage and the articulators are brought near each other but not close enough to produce friction. /r/ in ‘red’, ‘right’, etc., is regarded as an approximant. Like the frictionless continuants, the semi-vowels are also treated as approximants as they are pronounced with the close approximation of the articulators. The semi-vowels, /w/ and /j/ are regarded as approximants because they are articulated with a close approximation, the gap between the articulators being wide enough for the air to escape without any friction. Therefore, an approximant can be defined as “A sound made with an unimpeded air flow; contrasted with STOP and FRICATIVE” (Chalker & Weiner: 1998). e. natural class By ‘natural class’ is meant a set of sounds, or phonemes, which have a clear phonetic common denominator which defines that class to the exclusion of all sounds, or phonemes, in a language (Carr: 1999: 123). For instance, the set {/b/, /d/, /g/} in English constitutes a natural class (the class of voiced stop phonemes in English), whereas the set English consonant phonemes {/h/, /?/, /b/} does not constitute a natural class (Carr: 1999: 123). 2. Transcription a. narrow phonetic transcription of the following words and phrases as spoken in standard British English. i. inconsiderable - [??nk?n?s?dr?bl?] ii. enthusiastic - [?n??ju?z???st?k] iii. unforgettable - [??nf???et?bl?] iv. angrier - [????ri?] v. unethical - [?n?e??kl?] b. narrow phonetic transcription of the following phrases as spoken in standard British English. i. car park attendant’s mate - [k?? p??k ??tend?nt?z me?t] ii. the honest grumblers - [?i ??n?st ??r?mbl?z] iii. Strictly Come Dancing - [?str?kli k?m ?d??ns??] Narrow phonetic transcription of the following phrases as spoken in standard American English. i. car park attendant’s mate - [?k??r ?p??rk ??tend?nt?z ?me?t] ii. the honest grumblers - [?i ???n?st ??r?mbl?z] iii. Strictly Come Dancing - [?str?ktli ?k?m ?d?ns??] c. Provide a reasonably narrow phonetic transcription of the following words and explain the distribution of the labial stops in your transcriptions. Are the different labial stops that you see in your transcriptions different phonemes, different allophones or different allomorphs? i. spinning - [?sp?n??], the plosive or stop used in this word is /p/ which is aspirated as it is preceded with the voiceless fricative /s/ and becomes [p?] an allophone of /p/. ii. prewrite - [pri:?ra?t], here the stop /p/ is unaspirated as it is followed with /r/ sound. iii. blame - [ble?m], as the plosive /b/ is followed with /l/, it is unaspirated. iv. seep - [si?p], here the plosive /p/ can be aspirated as it has occurred at the end of a word and may be pronounced as [si? p?]. v. pray - [pre?], here the stop /p/ is unaspirated as it is followed with /r/ sound. vi. dapper - [?d?p?], the /p/ is unaspirated as it is followed with a vowel. vii. potato - [p??te?t??], here the /p/ can be aspirated as [p?] as it begins syllable. 3. Observe the made-up words below (in broad transcription). For each word, discuss whether or not it would be a possible word in English, and why. a. [flu:gn] - this word is not possible in English because /-gn/ combination to end a word is not allowed. b. [krankl?(r)] - this is possible in English as it begins with /kr-/ as in ‘crack’ /kr?k/ and ends in a vowel. c. [rb?:t] - this is not possible because /rb-/combination is not allowed. d. [st?b?l] - this is quite acceptable in English as there are many words beginning in /st-/ combination and ending in /-?l/. e. [f??t?gran?i] - this is not acceptable as there is not any word ending in /-?i/. f. [sb?t] - not possible because /sb-/ combination is not there in English. g. [g?] - this is acceptable in English as in words like /get/. Works Cited Ashby, P 2005, Speech sounds, Routledge. Bloomer, A, Griffiths, P, & Merrison, A 2005, Introducing language in use: a coursebook, Illustrated, Routledge. Chalker, S, & Weiner, E 1998, The Oxford dictionary of English grammar, Illustrated: Oxford University Press. Consonants, viewed 9 July 2011, . Carr, P 1999, English phonetics and phonology: an introduction, Illustrated, Wiley-Blackwell. Finegan, E 2007, Language: its structure and use, 5th edn, illustrated, Cengage Learning. Manell, R 2009, Phonetics and Phonology, Macquarie University, Viewed 9 July 2011, . McMahon, A 2002, An introduction to English phonology, Edinburgh University Press. Ogden, R 2009, An Introduction to English Phonetics, Illustrated, Edinburgh University Press. Trofimov, M, Jones, D, Collins, B & Mees, IM 2002, European Languages II: Russian: Daniel Jones: Selected Works, Illustrated, Routledge. The University of Hull 2011, Monophthongs, The University of Hull, Viewed 9 July 2011, . Walker, J 2008, Pronouncing dictionary of the English language, Harvard University. Read More