Phonetics vs.

Phonology
1. Phonetics vs. phonology

Phonetics deals with the production of speech sounds by humans, often

without prior knowledge of the language being spoken. Phonology is
about patterns of sounds, especially different patterns of sounds in different
languages, or within each language, different patterns of sounds in different
positions in words etc.

2. Phonology as grammar of phonetic patterns

The consonant cluster /st/ is OK at the beginning, middle or end of

words in English.

At beginnings of words, /str/ is OK in English, but /ftr/ or / tr/ are not

(they are ungrammatical).

/ tr/ is OK in the middle of words, however, e.g. in "ashtray".

/ tr/ is OK at the beginnings of words in German, though, and /ftr/ is

OK word-initially in Russian, but not in English or German.

3. A given sound have a different function or status in the sound

patterns of different languages

For example, the glottal stop [ ] occurs in both English and Arabic BUT ...

In English, at the beginning of a word, [ ] is a just way of beginning

vowels, and does not occur with consonants. In the middle or at the end of a
word, [ ] is one possible pronunciation of /t/ in e.g. "pat" [pa ].

In Arabic, / / is a consonant sound like any other (/k/, /t/ or whatever): [

ktib] "write!", [da i a] "minute (time)", [ a ] "right".

4. Phonemes and allophones, or sounds and their variants

The vowels in the English words "cool", "whose" and "moon" are all similar
but slightly different. They are three variants or allophones of the /u/
phoneme. The different variants are dependent on the different contexts in
which they occur. Likewise, the consonant phoneme /k/ has different variant
pronunciations in different contexts. Compare:

keep /kip/ The place of articulation is fronter in [k ]

+
h
 the mouth
The place of articulation is not so front
cart /k t/ [k ]
h

in the mouth
The place of articulation is backer, and
coot /kut/ [k ]
hw

the lips are rounded

There is less aspiration than in initial
seek /sik/ [k`]
position
scoo
/skup/ There is no aspiration after /s/ [k]
p

These are all examples of variants according to position (contextual

variants). There are also variants between speakers and dialects. For
example, "toad" may be pronounced [tUd] in high-register RP, [toUd] or [to
d] in the North. All of them are different pronunciations of the same
sequence of phonemes. But these differences can lead to confusion: [to Ud] is
"toad" in one dialect, but may be "told" in another.

5. Phonological systems

Phonology is not just (or even mainly) concerned with categories

or objects (such as consonants, vowels, phonemes, allophones, etc.) but is
also crucially about relations. For example, the English stops and fricatives
can be grouped into related pairs which differ in voicing and (for the stops)
aspiration:

Voiceless/aspi p t k f s h
rated h h h

Voiced/unaspi (unpai
b d v z
rated red)

Patterns lead to expectations: we expect the voiceless fricative [h] to be

paired with a voiced [ ], but we do not find this sound as a distinctive
phoneme in English. And in fact /h/ functions differently from the other
voiceless fricatives (it has a different distribution in words etc.) So even
though [h] is phonetically classed as a voiceless fricative, it is
phonologically quite different from /f/, /s/, / / and / /.

Different patterns are found in other languages. In Classical Greek a three-

way distinction was made between stops:

Voiceless/aspirated p h
t
h
k h

Voiced/unaspirated p t k
Voiced (and unaspirated) b d
In Hindi-Urdu a four-way pattern is found, at five places of articulation:

Voiceless aspirated p h
t h h c h
kh

Voiceless unaspirated p t c k
Voiced unaspirated b d etc.
Breathy voiced ("voiced
b d etc.
aspirates")

6. Shapes of vowel systems: some common examples:

Triangular: 3 vowels Triangular: 5 vowels

(e.g. Arabic) (e.g. Japanese)
i u i u
e o
a a

Triangular: 6 vowels Triangular: 7 vowels

(e.g. Tbatulabal) (e.g. Italian)
i u i u
e o e o

a a

Triangular: 6 vowels Rectangular: 6 vowels

(e.g. Bulgarian) (e.g. Montenegrin)
i u i u
e o e o
a a

How many degrees of vowel height are there in Bulgarian? On the face of
things, it appears to be not very different from Tbatulabal, which has three
heights: three high vowels, two mid vowels and one low vowel. But if we
look more closely into Bulgarian phonology, we see that the fact that schwa
is similar in height to /e/ and /o/ is coincidental: the distinction that matters
in Bulgarian is /i/ vs. /e/, /u/ vs. /o/ and / / vs. /a/, i.e. relatively high
vs. relatively low. As evidence for this statement, note that while all six
vowels may occur in stressed syllables, only /i/, /e/, / / and /u/ occur in
unstressed syllables.

7. Phonology as interpretation of phonetic patterns: Fang (Bantu:

Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea)

Fang English Fang English

1) etf - shoulder 7) t m branch
2) v bi, v bi - hippopotamus 8) bik q back teeth
3) ndv ( ) dam 9) el n water tortoise
4) kf l - tortoise 10) f q bag
5) kf -
salt 11) t neck
6) kl rope 12) os n Squirrel

Vowels in corpus:

i y ?u expected but not found

e O

Further reading

Lass, R. (1984) Phonology: an introduction to basic concepts. Cambridge

University Press.

Jakobson, R. (1962) The phonemic concept of distinctive features. In A.

Sovijrvi and P. Aalto, eds. Proceedings of the Fourth International
Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Mouton & Co. 440-455.

Jakobson, R. and M. Halle (1956) Fundamentals of Language. Mouton.

Kelly, J. (1974) Close vowels in Fang. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and
African Studies 37, 119-123.