Name / NPM : Rizqi Ramadhan/201612500795

Class : R4H

Lecture : English Phonology (UTS)

Lecturer : Venny Eka Meidasary, S.Pd, M.Hum

Question :

1. Whats is the benefit of studying phonology ?

2. Please explain the three parameters of producing consonant , and give examples?
3. Why all the vowels are voiced ?

Answer :

1. My opinion phonology is very benefit beacause :

Phonology is the study of the sound system of languages. It is a huge area of language theory and it is
difficult to do more on a general language course than have an outline knowledge of what it includes.

In an exam, you may be asked to comment on a text that you are seeing for the first time in terms of
various language descriptions, of which phonology may be one. At one extreme, phonology is
concerned with anatomy and physiology - the organs of speech and how we learn to use them.

At another extreme, phonology shades into socio-linguistics as we consider social attitudes to features
of sound such as accent and intonation. And part of the subject is concerned with finding objective
standard ways of recording speech, and representing this symbolically.

A phoneme is a speech sound that helps us construct meaning. That is, if we replace it with another
sound (where this is possible) we get a new meaning or no meaning at all. If I replace the initial
consonant (/r/) from rubble, I can get double or Hubble (astronomer for whom the space telescope is
named) or meaningless forms (as regards the lexicon of standard English) like fubble and wubble.

The same thing happens if I change the vowel and get rabble, rebel, Ribble (an English river) and the
nonsense form robble. (I have used the conventional spelling of “rebel” here, but to avoid confusion
should perhaps use phonetic transcription, so that replacements would always appear in the same
position as the character they replace.)

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But what happens when a phoneme is adapted to the spoken context in which it occurs, in ways that
do not alter the meaning either for the speaker ? Rather than say these are different phonemes that
share the same meaning we use the model of allophones, which are variants of a phoneme.

Thus if we isolate the l sound in the initial position in lick and in the final position in ball, we should
be able to hear that the sound is (physically) different as is the way our speech organs produce it.
Technically, in the second case, the back of the tongue is raised towards the velum or soft palate. The
initial l sound is called clear l, while the terminal l sound is sometimes called a dark l.

When we want to show the detail of phonetic variants or allophones we enclose the symbols in square
brackets whereas in transcribing sounds from a phonological viewpoint we use slant lines.

Diphthongs are sounds that begin as one vowel and end as another, while gliding between them. For
this reason they are sometimes described as glide vowels.

How many are there? Almost every modern authority says eight - but they do not all list the same
eight (check this for yourself). Simeon Potter, in Our Language (Potter, S, [1950] Chapter VI, Sounds
and Spelling, London, Penguin) says there are nine - and lists those I have shown in the table above,
all of which I have found in the modern reference works. The one most usually omitted is /ɔə/ as in
bored. Many speakers do not use this diphthong, but use the same vowel in poured as in fraud - but it
is alive and well in the north of Britain.

Accent and social class

Accent is certainly related to social class. This is a truism - because accent is one of the things that we
use as an indicator of social class. For a given class, we can express this positively or negatively. As
regards the highest social class, positively we can identify features of articulation - for certain sounds,
upper class speakers do not open or move the lips as much as other speakers of English. Negatively,
we can identify such sounds as the glottal stop as rare among, and untypical of, speakers from this
social class.

Alternatively we can look at vowel choices or preferences. For example, the upper classes for long
used the vowel /ʌ/ in some cases where /ɒ/ is standard - thus Coventry would be /kʌvəntri:/.

C.S. Lewis in The Great Divorce depicts a character who pronounces.

“God” as “Gud” -“ 'Would to God' he continued, but he was now pronouncing it Gud...”

2. My explain about The Consonant Parameters.

Three factors for describing consonants.

1. Voicing : vocal fold position and movement

2. Place of Articulation : location of constriction in the vocal tract

3. Manner of Articulation : type of constriction made in the vocal tract.

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1.a Voicing is Made To become 2 form. (Voiced form and Voiceless form)

Voiceless : When the vocal cords are wideapart, the airstream is notobstructed at the
glottis.

Voiced : When the vocal cords are broughtclose together, the airstream forces its way
through and causes them to vibrate.

Some Voicing Distinctions:

English consonants:

Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced

[f] [v] [p] [b]

[θ] [ð] [l]

[r] [t] [d]

[s] [z] [k] [g]

[ʤ] [ʒ] [dʒ] [tʃ]

[j] [h] [w]

[m] [n]

[ŋ]

The Articulators

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 Place Of Articulation

A. According to the organs which articulate them,

called by points/place of articulation:

Labial or lip sounds, which may be

subdivided into:

Bi-labial : where the two lips come together

Labio-dental : where the lower lip and the upper teeth come together

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 Bilabial consonants: constriction made by both lips.

Lips

[p] pie [b] buy [m] mute [w] wood

Labiodentals : where the lower lip and the upper

teeth come together.

Upper teeth

Lower Lips

[f] fine [v] vine

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 ( Dental )

Dental : where the tip or blade of the tongue comes in contact

With the upper teeth.

upper teeth

tip of tongue

[θ] thin [ð] this

(Alveolar)

Alveolar : where the tip or blade of the tongue touches

the alveolar ridge which is directly behind the upper teeth

alveolar ridge blade of tongue

[t] tie [d] die [s] Sue [z] zoo [n] night [l] light
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 (Palato Alveolar)

Palato-alveolar : where the tip of the tongue is close to the

alveolar or teeth-ridge, while the front of the tongue is

concave to

the roof of the mouth.

[ʃ] shoe, pressure [Ʒ] pleasure

[ʧ] cheap [ʤ] jeep [r] rack

(Palatal)

Palatal : where the front of the tongue approximates

to the hard palate.

The only consonant in English is: [j] yes

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 ( Velar )

Velar : where the back of the tongue approximates

to the soft palate.

velum

back of tongue

[k] curl [g] girl [ŋ] rang

(Glotal)

Glottal : sounds are produced

when the air passes

through the glottis

as it is narrowed:

[h] as in high.

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 MANNER OF ARTICULATION
According to the manner in which the organs articulate them, called by
manner of articulation:

Plosive / Stop : completely closing the air passage and suddenly

removing the obstacle (or one of the obstacle),

so that the air escapes making an explosive sound.

Fricative : narrowing of the air passage at some point so

that the air in escaping makes a kind of hissing sound.

Labiodental: [f] Alveolar: [s] Palato-alveolar or

post-alveolar:[v] [z] Or[ ʃ ] [ Ʒ ]

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Affricatives : the sounds are

produced by a stop closure

followed immediately by a slow

release of (the closure

characteristic of a fricative)

e.g.: [t∫] , [dʒ]

Liquid: lateral & approximant

There is some obstruction of the airstream

in the mouth but not enough to cause

any real friction

Example :

[ l ] (usually called as lateral),

[ r ] (usually called approximant)

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Nasal :

A nasal consonant is a consonant in which air escapes

only through the nose.

3. Because the vowels are produced differently from consonants

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