5. Phonology: the phoneme and allophone. Complementary and parallel distribution. Distinctive features of phonemes.

The phoneme and allophone. Phonemic means "relevant to differentiate meanings of words " Kate-skate pie-spy take-stake [keit-skate] [pai-spai] [teik-steik]

These aspirated and non-aspirated realizations are allophones of one phoneme. They appear before in different phonetics contexts: -aspirated consonants appear before stressed vowels unless they are preceded by [s] -non-aspirated realizations appear when [p] [t] [k] are preceded by [s]

These two allophones are in complementary distribution: they complement each other and belong to the set of allophones of one phoneme. Although all the allophones are phonetically different, they are not phonologically relevant as they do not differentiate words. However, for the native speakers of Hindi or Korean the aspirated and non-aspirated plosives are different phonemes be­cause they can appear in the same phonetic context and differentiate the meanings of words; in Korean they even distinguish non-aspirated, weakly aspirated and strongly aspirated voiceless consonants. Thus in Hindi and Korean [p^h] and [p] are different phonemes because they occur in the same context and change the meaning of words:

e.g. Hindi: [pal] = nurture, [p^hal] =knife blade; [tal] =beat, [t^hal] =platter.

Conversely, in English and in Russian /r/ and /1/ are different pho­nemes as they can appear in the same phonetic context and cause seman­tic difference:

English: right, light— [rait], [lait];

Russian: ром — лом.

In Korean /r/ and /1/ are allophones of the same phoneme: /1/ appears at the beginning and at the end of the syllable, while /r/ is realized be­tween vowels:

Korean: [mal] horse, [mare] at the horse; [mul] water, [mure] at the water.

This is the way Korean girls sang the once popular song in Russian: Мирион, мирион арих лоз...

Another example: in English the dental voiced fricative /ð/ and the alveolar voiced plosive /d/ are different phonemes: they appear in the same phonetic context and by replacing one for the other we get a dif­ferent word, i.e. bring about a semantic contrast:

English: [dei] day, [ðei] they. From the point of view of distribution the English sounds /ð/ and /d/ have parallel distribution: both can occur at the beginning, at the end of a word or a syllable and between vowels: this, mother, booth, day, today, Ted.

By contrast, in Castillian Spanish the dental plosive [d] and the dental fricative [ð] are allophones of the phoneme /d/, as they appear in different phonetic con­texts (complementary distribution): the dental fricative is used only between vowels: [naða] nothing, [predo] meadow. In all other contexts the plosive /d/ is used: [dias] days, [andar] to go.

Thus we can conclude that two or more sounds are allophones if they are in complementary distribution and if they are phonetically similar. Two or more sounds are realizations of different phonemes if they are in parallel distribution and they serve to differentiate words.

Phonetic similarity is a relevant condition for the case of/h/ and /η/ which have complementary distribution because /h/ occurs only at the beginning of a word, in syllable onset; /η/ can occur only at the end of a word, in syllable coda, but because of their phonetic dissimilarity they cannot be allophones of one phoneme.

In phonology the basic method of establishing the phonemic status of a sound is the method of finding minimal pairs. The method suggests finding at least one pair of words which are different in that sound: pit — bit, man — men, stick — sticks. When 2 words are identical except for 1 sound which makes a contrast in the meaning of words, they are said to form a minimal pair, and the 2 sounds are different phonemes. The 2 phonemes are distinguished by at least one distinctive (phonemic) feature. Sounds are then grouped into classes according to the features which are distinctive (phonemic) for the particular language.

In English the following features are distinctive for consonants:

1. the place of articulation

2. the manner of articulation

3. force of articulation

4. the position of the soft palate

The manner of articulation is determined by the type of obstruction and the manner of noise production. -plosives -fricative -affricates- complex consonants: they starts being articulated as plosives or occlusive and end as fricatives. The transition from occlusion to constriction is not noticeable -nasal -approximants take the intermediate position between vowels and consonants as they resemble vowels by the weaker air stream, but on the other hand, they are articulated with quite a significant force of articulation to overcome the obstruction in the mouth cavity( there 4 approximates: central app. [w] [r] [∫]; lateral app.: [l]

Force of Articulation

According to the data of instrumental analysis, consonants are fully voiced only in a formal setting, when the speech tempo is slow and the vocal cords vibrate all through the time of the sound production. On the other hand, in informal communication, when the speech is fast and careless, the vocal cords might not vibrate at all while producing such “voiced” plosives as [b], [d] or [ɡ].

Here the question arises: how are they then be distinguished from the corresponding voiceless plosives [p], [t] or [k]? How do hearers recognize them as such? What is the feature that differentiates meaning?

Researchers suppose that it is aspiration when the consonants are used in the initial position and the length of the preceding vowel when the consonants are in the final position.

e.g. such words as pay-bay, tie-die, Kate-gate are perceived as different not just because [p], [t] and [k] are voiceless and [b], [d] and [ɡ] are voiced, but because [p], [t] and [k] are pronounced with aspiration. In contrast to English, initial [б, д, г] are always fully voiced in Russian and Romanic languages.

Now let’s consider the quality of consonants in the final position. The difference in meaning between the words coat-code, leak-league is conditioned by the difference in the length of the preceding vowel ([t] and [k] significantly shorten preceding vowels). Similarly, the final [v], [ð], [z], [ʒ] can get completely devoiced in informal communication, when the speech tempo is fast. Thus, such word as eyes-ice, leave-leaf will be perceived as different only due to the length of the preceding vowel.

Many phoneticians consider English voiceless consonants to be produced with greater force of articulation compared to the voiced ones. Consequently, they find it more logical to differentiate English consonants not as voiced and voiceless, but as fortis (strong) and lenis (weak). This is the classification accepted now. As a rule, fortis consonants are also characterized by greater length. E.g. experiment: when the beginning of ([p], [t] and [k] was erased from the recording, native speakers of English got to identify them as [b], [d] and [ɡ].

The position of the soft palate.

English consonants are classified as either oral or nasal according to this feature.

6. The vowel system of English: principles of classification, distinctive features of English vowels. The vowel system of English and Russian: comparison and contrast. Articulation of similar consonants in the English and Russian languages.

The vowel system of English

There are 20 vowel sounds which have a distinctive function in Standard British English. The basic classifying features of English vowels are quality, length and position of the lips, among which quality is the only phonemic one. The basic classifying features: 1) quality 2) length 3) position of the lips

Vowel quality depends on the height and the front-back position of the tongue; according to the vertical position of the tongue, vowels can be close([i:] [u:]), open([o] [a:] [æ]) or mid-open (mid-high[i] [u] and mid-low[e] [ə:] [Λ] [o:]); according to the horizontal position of the tongue, they are classified into front([i:] [i] [e] [æ]), back ([u;] [u] [o:] [o] [a:]) and central ([Λ] [ə:] ). Also, vowel quality includes stability of articulation: if the vowel quality throughout its production is homogeneous it is a monophthongs([i] [e] [a:] [æ] [o] [o:] [Λ] [ə][ ə:] [u]); a change in quality results in a diphthong([ei] [ai] [oi] [au] [əu] [i ə] [u ə] [eə]); however, most of the long vowels are in between, and they are called diphthongoids([i:] [u:]).

Vowel length gives us two groups of vowel sounds, long and short, which are distinct in a number of features, such as tenseness and energy discharge: long vowels, including diphthongs, are tense, short vowels are lax. As for energy discharge, long vowels are always unchecked (free), and short vowels are checked, i.e. produced with accompanying glottal activity, involv­ing a rapid energy discharge in a short time interval.

Position of the lips may distinguish rounded and unrounded vowels.

There is another feature to classify vowels by - position of the soft palate. This feature is not relevant for English, as all English vowels are oral; but other languages, like French, for example, may have nasal vowels; English vowels may be nasalized before a nasal consonant but the nasal quality change is not phonemic as it is not contrastive, it is allophonic.

All the 20 vowel phonemes in English can be distinguished by quality alone, and that makes this feature phonemic.

Thus the 20 RP English vowels are grouped in the following way: twelve monophthongs (seven short vowels and five long ones) and eight diphthongs. The vowel systems of English and Russian: major differences.

The vowel systems of English and Russian differ in the following points:

1. Stability of articulation;

2. Tongue position;

3. Length;

4. Tenseness.