Phonology Flashcards
What is phonological analysis?
1) What is the system of a language?
2) What is the system of an accent?
3) What is the system of a speaker?
How would you analyse a language (so what is the phonology of the language)?
Find out what the vowels, consonants and rules of the language are.
How would you analyse an accent (so what is the phonology of an accent)?
Same as for language but adapted to a specific accent.
How do you describe a phonological system?
Not the actual sounds but the phonemes and allophenes.
What is a phoneme?
A family of sounds that are articulatorily similar. If one member of the family (an allophene) replaces another in a word, the meaning of the word does not change but it sounds odd. So /t/ is the phoneme.
What is an allophone?
The members of the phoneme. So a sound that is articulatorily similar to another. So [t+] is the allophone.
What is the phonological structure?
Rules that govern what segments can be used where. Rules for the use of allophenes and phonemes.
How do you test for a phoneme or allophene?
Using the minimal pair test. So you substitute a sound for another in a word and if the meaning changes then the sounds are contrastive (phonemes).
What are minimal pairs?
2 words that only have one letter difference (pill and bill).
Are [p] and [ph] contrastive in Thai in these words- [paan] and [phaan] (they mean different things)?
Yes, in this situation because the meaning of the word has changed.
What is complimentary distribution?
When two allophones are mutually exclusive: they appear in different environments where the other cannot. Sounds in complimentary distribution cannot be contrastive.
What is free variation?
When allophones are unconditioned by environment. So the speaker can choose which one to use (eg. whether to say /t/ or a glottal stop.)
Depends on social information- region, style.
