Phonology

The Role of Communication

We Remember. . .
10 percent of what we read,
20 percent of what we hear,
30 percent of what we see,
70 percent of what we speak.

Cited in William E. Arnold and Lynne McClure, Communication

Training and Development, 2nd ed. (Prospect Heights, IL:
Waveland, 1996) 38.
 World
Referent
(outside language)

Spoken Word Written Word

/kæt/ “cat” or “c - a- t”
(language sound) (transcription of language sound)

ROGELIO ORDANEZA-BIÑAN, JR.,

3
MPA
 There are four operations
involved in producing speech
sounds namely:
1. Respiration
2. Phonation
3. Resonation
4. Articulation
1. Respiration
 is when air is inhaled into the lungs and
exhaled out under breathing control.

 This is known as the Breathing

Stage
2. Phonation
 is the production of sounds by the vocal
cords.
 The vocal cords are the vibrators which
produce speech sounds.
 Also known as the VOICING
3. Resonation
 the process by which the basic
product of phonation is enhanced
in timbre
 the sounds produced by the
vocal cords are picked up and
amplified, enriched by the mouth,
pharynx, and nasal passages.
4. Articulation
 Modification of the vocal tone by the
tongue, lips, jaw and soft palate in order
to produce speech sounds.
 Manner of Articulation - how speech
organs involved in making a sound make
contact
 Place of Articulation - positions of
speech organs to create distinctive speech
sounds
Consonant sounds
Obstructing / constriction
3 dimensions
manner of articulation: The way
the air is expelled as it flows out
of the breath passage
Place of articulation

Voicing (voiced, voiceless,

aspirated)
Manner of articulation
 Stop-plosive
 Fricative
 Glides
 Affricates
 Laterals
 Nasals
 Retroflex
Stop - Plosives
Momentary blocking of the air stream
and then a sudden released of the
blocked air.
/p/ as in pest
/d/ as in dig
/g/ as in go
/t/ as in test
/b/ as in bet
/k/ as in key
Fricatives
 Partial blocking of the air stream at some point
in the mount.
 Partial blocking causes friction and a blowing
noise.
/f/ as in fish as in theme
/v/ as in vet as in this
/s/ as in so
/z/ as in zoo
/h/ as in hot
 as in shoe
as in rouge
Glides
Stopping of the air stream at the
glottis itself
Choking or panting sound
/hw/ as in why
/w/ as in wet
 /j/ as in yell
Affricates
Stopping of the breath stream
and then releasing a narrow
opening with friction
 as in church

 as in jam
Laterals
Passage of the air stream by the
sides of the tongue
/l/ as in late, lounge
Nasal
Blocking of the air stream, then
expelling it through the nasal
cavity.
/m/ as in met
/n/ as in net
 as in drink
Manner of
Articulation

Dorso
Apico
Labio

Lamino
Place of articulation
 Alveolar ridge  Lingua-dental
 Bilabial  Lingua-palatal
 Glottal  Lingua-velar
 Hard palate  Soft palate
 Labio-dental
 Vocal cords
 Lingua-alveolar
Place of
Articulation
Alveolarridge
Hard ridge behind the
upper front teeth,
between the roof of the
mouth and the upper
teeth.
Alveolar
ridge
Bilabial
Upper lip and lower lip
(almost touching one
another)
Bilabial
Glottal
Opening of the vocal
cords
Glottal
Labio-dental
Lower lip touching the
upper teeth
Labio-
dental
 Phonemics is used for the study of speech
sounds as perceived by speakers of particular
language
 Phonetics is the study of speech sounds in a
language
 Articulatory phonetics = how speech
sounds are produced (speech production)
 Acoustical phonetics = how speech sounds
are transmitted from producer to perceiver
(speech acoustics)
 Auditory phonetics = how speech sounds
are perceived (speech perception)
Phonological Awareness
 Understanding that spoken
language can be broken into
smaller units:
 Sentences into words
 Words into syllables
 Syllables into onset-rimes
 Words/syllables into phonemes
34
 “The tiger jumps across the river”
(sentence)
 The tiger jumps across the river”
(words)
 The ti-ger jumps a-cross the ri-ver”
(syllables)

35
Tonal Examples
STRESS banana

IE
BE
AE
IPA
 International Phonetic Alphabet
 A universal system that indicates
pronunciation in all languages.
 The same symbol always stands for the
same sound, the same sound is always
represented by the same symbol, whether
it be in English, French, Spanish, Italian,
etc.
 Phonetic Alphabet
•In a phonetic alphabet, sounds and symbols have a
one-to-one relationship to each other
• Each symbol represents one sound
• Each sound is represented by one symbol
• The use of a phonetic alphabet to represent
speech is called phonetic transcription.
• Our phonetic alphabet of choice:
• The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
 Diacritic Marks

41
42
Long i

Short i

Long e

Short e

Short a

Italian a

schwa
Circumflex
o

Long o

Short u

Long u

Diphthongs
Plan = short a
Plane = long e
Tim = short i
Time = long e
Cap = short a
Cape = long e
Hop = circumflex o
Hope = long o
Bit = short i
Bite = Diphthong
Rip = short i
Ripe = Diphthing
Long i
Short i
Long e
Short e
Short a
Italian a
Circumflex o
Long o
Short u
Long u