Phonetics and Phonology: An Introduction to Speech Sounds

Posted on Aug 30, 2024 in Biology

Phonetics: The Study of Speech Sounds

Phonetics studies the sounds of human speech. It is an empirical science based on the observation of facts. It tells us how sounds are produced and furnishes us with methods for their classification. Phonetics is not considered to be part of linguistics. It is divided into three branches:

  1. Articulatory Phonetics: Studies the articulation of sounds.
  2. Acoustic Phonetics: Studies the physical properties of speech sounds during the transmission of sounds from speaker to hearer.
  3. Auditory Phonetics: Examines the perception or audition of sounds by the hearer.

Phonetics is used in teaching diction, teaching the pronunciation of foreign languages, speech therapy, helping deaf-mutes to identify and reproduce sounds, and sound transmission.

Phonology: The Sound System of Language

Phonology is a branch of linguistics that studies the sound systems of languages. It applies linguistic criteria to the material provided by phonetics, so its concern is scientific theory, studying the linguistic functions of sounds. It writes descriptions of the sound patterns of particular languages and makes general statements about the nature of the sound systems of the languages of the world.

Concerns of Phonology

  1. The Linguistic Use of Sound:
    • Phone: Any speech sound.
    • Phoneme: The basic unit of phonology; the smallest contrastive unit that distinguishes meaning (e.g., seat vs. sheet / bite vs. might).
      • Contrastive pairs like seat and sheet are called minimal pairs and are established by the commutation test (if substituting one sound segment for another produces a different word, then those segments are phonemes).
      • Near minimal pairs occur when minimal pairs cannot be found because of uncommon sounds or defective distribution (e.g., vision vs. mission).
    • Allophone: A phoneme sub-type; similar sounds that are not contrastive in a language. They are:
      • Concrete realizations of phonemes
      • Contextually dependent
      • Non-contrastive
      Usually in complementary distribution: phot vs. spot, opposite free variation: beta/be?a.
    • Neutralization: Of phonological opposition – flapping in American English (e.g., betting and bedding).
  2. Phonotactics: Concerned with permissible strings of sounds. Two given languages may have certain sounds in common, but these sounds may not be combined in the same way. For example: Spanish and English have the consonant sound ‘theta’ (θ) – thin, but in Spanish, it is not possible to be followed by (r) like in English (e.g., three, thread). Phonotactics deals not only with the way consonants combine but also with the position consonants and vowels may occupy in the syllable of the word. For example: ‘h’ is possible at the beginning of syllables in English (e.g., have, behind) but not at the end. Syllable Structures: Some languages have a rigid CV structure (e.g., Japanese); other languages allow a more complex structure: C0-3VC0-4.

The Organs of Speech

The speech organs include:

  1. The lungs
  2. The larynx
  3. The supraglottal cavities

1. Initiation: Lungs (Air-Stream Mechanism)

The lungs are the source of air used in making sounds. The initiation process is the moment when the air is expelled from the lungs.

  • Air-Stream Mechanism: The method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract. In order to generate sounds, it is necessary to have air pressure. There are three sources of air pressure:
    1. Pulmonic Sounds: Air pressure generated by the lungs.
    2. Velaric Sounds: The back of the tongue is raised towards the velum, and the tip towards the front; closure at the front and back of the mouth creates a vacuum in the middle.
    3. Glottalic Sounds: The oral tract is closed at the glottis; vocal folds are jammed together; air is compressed.
  • Air may flow in two directions:
    1. Egressive: Air flows out of the mouth (exhaled).
    2. Ingressive: Air flows into the mouth (inhaled).
  • Examples:
    • Pulmonic egressive sounds vs. pulmonic ingressive
    • Velaric ingressive sounds – clicks
    • Glottalic egressive (glottal stop) vs. glottalic ingressive

2. Phonation: Larynx (Glottis & Vocal Cords)

The larynx is the hard casing around the vocal cords. It protects the cords from damage and plays an essential role in speech production, eating, and breathing. During normal breathing, the cords are wide apart so that the air from the lungs passes through without producing vibration. In speech, the cords may adopt three principal positions:

  1. Wide open and not vibrating: Voiceless sound
  2. Close together and vibrating: Voiced sound
  3. Tightly shut and sudden release: Glottal stop
  • The Glottal Stop: The obstruction of the airstream produced by the closure of the vocal cords; the sudden release of the air when the vocal cords separate.
  • Pre-glottalization of vowels and consonants is very common:
    • Between vowels (e.g., letter)
    • Before syllabic ‘n’ and ‘l’ (e.g., button, little)
    • To avoid hiatus
    • Before any word-initial stressed vowel

3. Oral Nasal Phase: Resonators (Pharynx, Oral & Nasal Cavities)

The air and vibration passing through the vocal tract are shaped by the articulators into speech. The supraglottal cavities include:

  • The pharynx
  • The oral cavity
  • The nasal cavity
  • Oral vs. Nasal Articulation:
    • Raised: Oral sounds
    • Lowered: Nasal sounds
  • The Oral Cavity: The mouth (soft palate, hard palate, uvula, alveolar ridge, lips, teeth, tongue).

4. Articulation: The Articulators

  • Active Articulators: Lips, tongue, vocal folds
  • Passive Articulators: Teeth, alveolar ridge, velum, uvula, hard palate, and the pharynx walls
  • Velar Closure: Velar sounds involve complete obstruction to the airflow produced at the velum by the back of the tongue.
  • Velic Closure: Nasal sounds are produced when the velum rises and touches the back wall of the pharynx (the air is forced to escape through the nasal cavity only).

Production of Voiced and Unvoiced Sounds

As the air from the lungs is unobstructed, we produce unvoiced sounds, such as (p) and (f). If the cords are so close together that the air from the lungs makes them vibrate as it passes through the glottis, then we produce voiced sounds. When the vocal cords are tightly shut so that the air from the lungs builds up behind them, a glottal stop is produced if they suddenly open.