Phonology Definitions

Term:
the study of the organization of speech sounds in a particular language.

Phonology is viewed as the subfield of linguistics that deals with the sound systems of languages. It should be carefully distinguished from phonetics. Whereas phonetics concerns the physical production, acoustic transmission and perception of the sounds of speech, phonology describes the way sounds function within a given language or across languages to encode meaning. In other words, phonetics is a type of descriptive linguistics, whereas phonology is a type of theoretical linguistics

One thing it studies is which sounds can be grouped into distinctive units within a language; these units are known as phonemes.

Phonology also studies how sounds alternate, i.e. replace one another in different forms of the same morpheme (allomorphs), as well as, e.g., syllable structure, stress, accent, and intonation.

Term:
speech sounds

Term:
sounds that distinguish meaning;
perceive differences
In a language or dialect, a phoneme (from the Greek: φώνημα, phōnēma, "a sound uttered") is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances.

Thus a phoneme is a sound or a group of different sounds perceived to have the same function by speakers of the language or dialect in question. An example of a phoneme is the /k/ sound in the words kit and skill. (In transcription, phonemes are placed between slashes, as here.) Although most native English speakers don't notice this, in most English dialects, the /k/ sounds in these two words are actually pronounced differently: they are different speech sounds, or phones (which, in transcription, are placed in square brackets). In our example, the /k/ in kit is aspirated, [kʰ], while the /k/ in skill is unaspirated. The reason why these different sounds are nonetheless considered to belong to the same phoneme in English is that if an English-speaker used one instead of the other, the meaning of the word would not change: using [kʰ] in skill might sound odd, but the word would still be recognized. By contrast, some other phonemes could be substituted (creating a minimal pair) which would cause a change in meaning: producing words like still (substituting /t/), spill (substituting /p/) and swill (substituting /w/). These other sounds (/t/, /p/ and /w/) are, in English, different phonemes.

Phones that belong to the same phoneme, such as [t] and [tʰ] for English /t/, are called allophones. A common test to determine whether two phones are allophones of the same phoneme or separate phonemes relies on finding minimal pairs: words that differ by only the phone in question. For example, the words tip and dip illustrate that in English [t] and [d] are separate phonemes, /t/ and /d/, in English: the two words have different meanings that are readily recognizable, meaning that English speakers can readily distinguish between the two sounds.

Some linguists (such as Roman Jakobson, Morris Halle, and Noam Chomsky) consider phonemes to be further decomposable into features, such features being the true minimal constituents of language. Features overlap each other in time, as do suprasegmental phonemes in oral language and many phonemes in sign languages. Features could be designated as acoustic (Jakobson) or articulatory (Halle & Chomsky) in nature

Term:
phones that belong to the same class of phoneme

Term:
abstract organization

physical form

In syntax, phonetic form (abbreviated 'PF'), refers to a certain level of mental representation of a linguistic expression, derived from surface structure, and related to logical form. Phonetic form is the level of representation wherein expressions, or sentences, are assigned a phonetic representation, which is then pronounced by the speaker. Phonetic form takes surface structure as its input, and outputs an audible (or visual, in the case of sign languages), pronounced sentence

Term:
one sound becomes more like a neighboring sound with respect to some feature(s);

favors speakers

Term:
nasals assimilate in place of articulation to a following consonant

Term:
two neighboring sounds become less alike with respect to some feature(s);

less common than assimilation rules;

favors hearer

Term:
also called APENTHESIS
causes a segment not present at the phonemic level to be added to the phonetic form of a word

Term:
a voiceless stop with the same place of articulation as the nasal is inserted between a nasal and a voiceless stop

/strɛŋθ/ ==> /strɛŋkθ/

Term:
a sound at the phonemic level is eliminated at the phonetic level. It is often for easier pronunciation. For instance, the word infrared is often pronounced [ɪnfərɛd].

Like dissimilation or assimilation, deletion makes a word easier to pronounce.

The opposite is epenthesis, the addition of a sound.

Term:
the order of sounds at the phonemic level is changed at the phonetic level

/ask/ ==> [æks]

Term:
a pair of words with different meanings which are pronounces the same way except for one sound in the same location.

ex: [tim] "team"
[dim] "deem"
(exhibits a contrastive distribution)
phonemes

Term:
alternating the phones can change the meaning of a word; phonemes

Term:
alternating the phones does not result in a change of meaning; allophones

ex: [tHim] vs [tim]

Term:
phones which occur in similar phonetic environments;
phonemes

Term:
phones which occur in completely different environments when the sounds are related;
allophones

(related sounds [p] and [pH] do not overlap)

Term:
allophones which vary freely in the same phonetic environment;
knowing meaning becomes important here

(contrastive and free variations = overlapping distribution)

"leap" [lipH] p --> pH but doesn't
"soap" [soʊpH] change meaning
troop [trupH]

Term:
alveolar-palatals

Term:
vowels and possibly nasals and liquids;
can function as syllable [n|] (look up)
all
[+syllabic] sounds in English are also [+voice], [+sonorant], [-stop].

Term:
based on an acoustic property;
sounds which create a hiss

[s] [z] [ŝ] [ž] [č] [ĵ]

Term:
nasals, liquids, glides, vowels;

have free airflow

Term:
non-nasal stops, fricatives, affricates;
airstream is fully/partially obstructed

[p,f,b,v]

An obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing airflow, causing increased air pressure in the vocal tract, such as [k], [d͡ʒ] and [f]. In phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes: obstruents and sonorants.

Obstruents are those articulations in which there is either a total closure of the vocal tract, or a partial closure, i.e. a stricture causing friction, both groups being associated with a noise component.

Obstruents are subdivided into stops (with total closure followed by an "explosive" release of air – hence the equivalent term plosive), affricates (with at first a stop-like total closure, followed by a more controlled, fricative-style release, i.e. a stricture causing friction), and fricatives (with only limited closure, i.e. no more than a steady stricture causing friction). Obstruents are prototypically voiceless, though voiced obstruents are common. This contrasts with sonorants, which are much more rarely voiceless.

Term:
fricatives, liquids, glides
which have continual airflow

Term:
stops, affricates

Term:
obstruents, liquids, nasals;

some constriction of oral cavity