Phonetics vs.

Phonology
1. Phonetics vs. phonology

Phonetics deals with the production of speech sounds by humans, often without prior
knowledge of the language being spoken. Phonology is about patterns of sounds,
especially different patterns of sounds in different languages, or within each language,
different patterns of sounds in different positions in words etc.

2. Phonology as grammar of phonetic patterns

 The consonant cluster /st/ is OK at the beginning, middle or end of words in

English.
 At beginnings of words, /str/ is OK in English, but /ftr/ or / tr/ are not (they are
ungrammatical).
 / tr/ is OK in the middle of words, however, e.g. in "ashtray".
 / tr/ is OK at the beginnings of words in German, though, and /ftr/ is OK word-
initially in Russian, but not in English or German.

3. A given sound have a different function or status in the sound patterns of

different languages

For example, the glottal stop [ ] occurs in both English and Arabic BUT ...

In English, at the beginning of a word, [ ] is a just way of beginning vowels, and does
not occur with consonants. In the middle or at the end of a word, [ ] is one possible
pronunciation of /t/ in e.g. "pat" [pa ].

In Arabic, / / is a consonant sound like any other (/k/, /t/ or whatever): [ íktib]
"write!", [da íi a] "minute (time)", [ a ] "right".

4. Phonemes and allophones, or sounds and their variants

The vowels in the English words "cool", "whose" and "moon" are all similar but
slightly different. They are three variants or allophones of the /u/ phoneme. The
different variants are dependent on the different contexts in which they occur.
Likewise, the consonant phoneme /k/ has different variant pronunciations in different
contexts. Compare:

keep /kip/ The place of articulation is fronter in the mouth [k+h]

 The place of articulation is not so front in the
cart /k t/ [kh]
mouth
The place of articulation is backer, and the lips are
coot /kut/ [khw]
rounded
seek /sik/ There is less aspiration than in initial position [k`]
scoop /skup/ There is no aspiration after /s/ [k]

These are all examples of variants according to position (contextual variants). There
are also variants between speakers and dialects. For example, "toad" may be
pronounced [tëUd] in high-register RP, [toUd] or [to d] in the North. All of them are
different pronunciations of the same sequence of phonemes. But these differences can
lead to confusion: [toUd] is "toad" in one dialect, but may be "told" in another.

5. Phonological systems

Phonology is not just (or even mainly) concerned with categories or objects (such as
consonants, vowels, phonemes, allophones, etc.) but is also crucially about relations.
For example, the English stops and fricatives can be grouped into related pairs which
differ in voicing and (for the stops) aspiration:

Voiceless/aspira p t k f s h
ted h h h

Voiced/unaspira (unpaire
b d v z ð
ted d)

Patterns lead to expectations: we expect the voiceless fricative [h] to be paired with a
voiced [ ], but we do not find this sound as a distinctive phoneme in English. And in
fact /h/ functions differently from the other voiceless fricatives (it has a different
distribution in words etc.) So even though [h] is phonetically classed as a voiceless
fricative, it is phonologically quite different from /f/, /s/, / / and / /.

Different patterns are found in other languages. In Classical Greek a three-way

distinction was made between stops:

Voiceless/aspirated ph th kh
Voiced/unaspirated p t k
Voiced (and unaspirated) b d

In Hindi-Urdu a four-way pattern is found, at five places of articulation:

 Voiceless aspirated ph th h ch kh
Voiceless unaspirated p t c k
Voiced unaspirated b d etc.
Breathy voiced ("voiced aspirates") b d etc.

6. Shapes of vowel systems: some common examples:

Triangular: 3 vowels Triangular: 5 vowels

(e.g. Arabic) (e.g. Japanese)
i u i u
e o
a a

Triangular: 6 vowels Triangular: 7 vowels

(e.g. Tübatulabal) (e.g. Italian)
i u i u
e o e o

a a

Triangular: 6 vowels Rectangular: 6 vowels

(e.g. Bulgarian) (e.g. Montenegrin)
i u i u
e o e o
a a

How many degrees of vowel height are there in Bulgarian? On the face of things, it
appears to be not very different from Tübatulabal, which has three heights: three high
vowels, two mid vowels and one low vowel. But if we look more closely into
Bulgarian phonology, we see that the fact that schwa is similar in height to /e/ and /o/
is coincidental: the distinction that matters in Bulgarian is /i/ vs. /e/, /u/ vs. /o/ and / /
vs. /a/, i.e. relatively high vs. relatively low. As evidence for this statement, note that
while all six vowels may occur in stressed syllables, only /i/, /e/, / / and /u/ occur in
unstressed syllables.

7. Phonology as interpretation of phonetic patterns: Fang (Bantu: Cameroon,

Gabon, Equatorial Guinea)

Fang English Fang English

1) etf - shoulder 7) t m branch
2) v bi, v -bi hippopotamus 8) bik q back teeth
3) ndv ( ) dam 9) el n water tortoise
4) kf -l tortoise 10) f q bag
5) kf -
salt 11) t neck
6) k l rope 12) os n squirrel

Vowels in corpus:

i y ?u expected but not found

e o

Further reading

Lass, R. (1984) Phonology: an introduction to basic concepts. Cambridge University

Press.

Jakobson, R. (1962) The phonemic concept of distinctive features. In A. Sovijärvi and

P. Aalto, eds. Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Phonetic
Sciences. Mouton & Co. 440-455.

Jakobson, R. and M. Halle (1956) Fundamentals of Language. Mouton.

Kelly, J. (1974) Close vowels in Fang. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies 37, 119-123.