Phonetics Vs Phonemic s

Written Report for COMA 102

Dave Laurentz Alvarez Charmaine Diaz Justin Rafael Mejos Claire Suerte

Phonetics What is Phonetics? - It is the study of speech sounds - a written element that represents a sound and is used in combination with a radical to form a character. - the science or study of speech sounds and their production, transmission, and reception, and their analysis, classification, and transcription. 3 branches of Phonetics >Articulatory Phonetics This branch of phonetics is concerned on how speech sounds are produced. This also involves the anatomy that is responsible for the production of speech sound. >Auditory Phonetics This branch of phonetics is deals with the transmission and physical properties of sounds. This is also involves the frequency, duration, intensity, etc. of speech sounds. >Acoustic Phonetics It is the perception of speech sounds. It is how we hear and perceive the speech sound that we produce or the one producing.

The 2 Basic kinds of Language Sounds >Consonants consonants are based on the human articulatory system (lungs to pump air in and out, vocal folds, oral cavity including tongue and lips, and nasal cavity). Consonants are described using 3 characteristics: * vocal quality (voiced/voiceless) It is the tone or texture of voice * point of articulation- the area in our vocal system that allows us to produce sounds. * manner of articulation- It describes how our speech organs are involved in making a sound. Articulators Place of Articulation >Vowels The place of articulation, manner of articulation and voicing are not useful when trying to describe vowels. Vowels are all made in the mouth (place), with little or no air flow constriction (manner).

Vowels are described in 4 characteristics * tongue placement * tongue height * lip rounding * Tenseness. Suprasegmentals This is the things that we should observe when we are producing a vowel sound. Length * High vowels shorter than low vowels * Voiceless consonants longer than voiced consonants * Voiceless fricatives longest * Length is influenced by the surrounding sounds Tone * Can change meaning in some languages (like Chinese)

Stress * Stressed syllables more prominent than unstressed ones * Stressed syllables usually contain tense vowels * Stressed syllables are often longer * Unstressed syllables reduce vowel Intonation * Rising and falling intonation can change meaning Some Phonemic Rules to remember: * Aspiration Rule: Voiceless stops are aspirated at the beginning of a stressed syllable. * Liquid/Glide Devoicing: Liquids/Glides become voiceless when they follow a voiceless stop, fricative, or affricate. * Vowel Lengthening: Vowels are lengthened when they come before a voiced consonant. * Flapping: When a /t/ or /d/ is preceded by a vowel and followed by a vowel, it becomes flapped (ex. bitter, butter, batter, ladder, letter, beauty, beautiful).

Phonemes: The Phonological Units of Language Phonemics studies the phonemic structure of a language (or of a variety of a language). Phonemes are what we have been calling the basic form of a sound and are sensed in your mind rather than spoken or heard. Each phoneme has associated with it one or more sounds, called allophones, which represent the actual sound corresponding to the phoneme in various environments. For example, the phoneme /p/ is pronounced with the aspiration allophone [p] in pit but without aspiration [p] in spit. Phonological rules operate on phonemes to make explicit which allophones are pronounced in which environments Knowledge of phonology determines how we pronounce words and the parts of words we call morphemes. Often, certain morphemes are pronounced differently depending on their context, and we will introduce a way of describing this variation with phonological rules. Minimal Pairs: A basic test for a sound's distinctiveness. It consists of two forms with distinct meaning that differ by only one segment found in the same position in each form. e.g. [f] and [v] in fat and vat

Different phones belong to the same phoneme if a speaker used one instead of the other and the meaning of the word remains unchanged (minimal pair). Example: Bead [bd] Bead [bid]

If we replace [] with [i], it will sound odd but the meaning of the word remains unchanged. Therefore, both the phones [i] and [] belong to the phoneme /i/. They are allophones. In contrast, some other phonemes could be substituted (creating a minimal pair) which would cause a change in meaning. Example: Still Spill

The phones [t] and [p] are, in English, different phonemes /t/ and /p/.

Segments are said to contrast (or to be distinctive or be in opposition). E.g. the segment [s] and [z] contrast in the word sip and zip

English vowels are distinctive, so they contrast. E.g. The difference between [] and [e] in [bit] and [bet]

Sounds that are distinctive in one language will not necessarily be distinctive in another. E.g. in English there is crucial difference between these two vowels: [e] and [] But in Turkish this difference in pronunciation is not distinctive. E.g. The word for 'I' is [Ben] or [Bn]

Conversely, sounds that do not contrast in English such as long and short vowels may be distinctive in another language, like Japanese and Finnish. e.g. [tori] bird e.g. [tuli] fire [tori:] shrine gate [tu: li] wind

Variants of a phoneme that never occur in the same phonetic environment*. E.g. voiced [l] in slip [slp] Voiceless [l] in clap [klp] *Environment is the phonetic context in which a sound occurs. But, speakers of other languages like Japanese sometimes find it difficult to distinguish between them, because in their language /l/ and /r/ are allophones of the same phoneme. E.g. collect & correct CONCLUSION Phonetics and Phonemics are two different fields that both deal with speech and language. Phonetics studies the actual sounds used by the speakers of a language, how people pronounce them, how people perceive them, etc. Phonemics, on the other hand, studies the phonemic structure of a language (or of a variety of a language). A speaker of a language uses a finite number of phonemes when speaking, but these may be pronounced differently in different contexts, and thats where

phonemics comes in. It is concerned with grammatical characterization, classification, interrelation and environmental changes of language. Phonetics has something to do with form and phonemics with function. However, when we study language, we study not just its structure and correct usage but also how each word is produced and how they should sound. So Phonetics and Phonemics are not really opposites; they are in fact complementary to each other. They go hand in hand to help us understand language more and use it correctly.

References: An Introduction to Language- Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, Nina Hyams Contemporary Linguistics - William OGrady, Michael Dobrovolsky, Francis Katamba International Phonetic Association http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/ Merriam-Webster Dictionary http://www.merriam-webster.com Phthong! http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~rogers/phthong.228/phthong228.html www.reference.com/motif/Education/point+of+articulation.. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonant en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel dictionary.reference.com/browse/articulation www.reference.com/motif/Education/manner-ofarticulation clas.mq.edu.au/phonetics/phonetics/consonants/manner.html www.reference.com/motif/Education/point-of-articulation... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_of_articulation www.teoma.com/ans/vocal-quality http://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?searchfrom=header&q=phonetics