This document provides information about phonology. It defines phonology as the study of the distinctive sound units of a language called phonemes, and the patterns of sounds in a language. Phonology is significant for producing and recognizing sound patterns in English. It is related to phonetics, which studies sound variations, while phonology focuses on sound patterns. Phonetics has three areas - articulatory phonetics examines sound production, acoustic phonetics sound transmission, and auditory phonetics sound perception. Articulatory phonetics further describes the vocal tract, articulators like the tongue, teeth and lips that produce sounds.

1. PHONOLOGY
Code : E21C216/ E21C214/ E21C218
Weight : 2
Semester : II
Class : A, B, and C English Education 2010/2011
Lecturer : Dr. Maemuna Muhayyang, M.Pd.

2. Definition of Phonology
• Richards, et al (1985) defined phonology is the study or
description of the distinctive sound units of a language
(phoneme). It is also the study of word-to-word relations in
sentences, that is how sound patterns are affected by the
combination of words, for example, /du:/do and /yu:/you may
combine /du:yə/.
• Ladetoged (1989) defined phonology is the description of the
system and patterns of sounds that occur in a language. It
involves studying a language to determine its distinctive
sound and to establish a set of rules that describe the set of
changes that take place in these sounds when they occur in
different relationship with other sounds.

3. The Significance of Learning Phonology
The significances of learning phonology are as follows:
1. To produce the sounds forming meaningful utterances,
2. To recognize the sound patterns of English,
3. To recognize a foreign accent,
4. To make up new words,
5. To produce aspirated and unaspirated sounds,
6. To pronounce voiceless stops in the appropriate context,
7. To know what is or is not a sound, and
8. To know what different phonetic strings may represent the
same meaningful unit (Fromkin & Rodman, 1983).

4. The Relationship between Phonology & Phonetics
• Phonology and phonetics are inseparable, they are
mutual dependent.
• They discuss about the sounds of the language;
phonology deals with the sound patterns, while
phonetics deals with the sound variations of the
language.
• Phonetics is the study of sounds used in speech. It
deals with the form of sounds, how they are produced,
heard, and how they can be described.
• Phonetics describes the concrete, physical dimension
of sounds, such as whether they are voice or voiceless
and their places and manners of articulation.

5. The Areas of Phonetics
1. Articulatory Phonetics deals with the way in which speech sounds are
produced.
2. Acoustic Phonetics deals with the transmission of speech sounds
through the air (sound waves). It examines the length, frequency, and
pitch of sounds.
3. Auditory Phonetics deals with how speech sounds are perceived by the
listener.

6. Articulatory Phonetics
1. Vocal Tract
Speech sound is created by airflow through the vocal tract. It is a tube
where air passes. If this tube is open, the airflow creates a sound.
The vocal tract is divided into the oral tract within the mouth and the
pharynx, and the nasal tract within the nose.
The part of oral tract that can be used to form sounds are called
articulators.
Saying out ‘capital’ and noting the major movement of your tongue and
lips.
2. Pharynx
it is part of the throat which extends from above the vocal cords up to
the soft palate at the back of the mouth.
It is like large chamber and in the production of speech sounds its shape
and volume can be changed in various ways:

7. Vocal Tract and Pharynx

8. Articulatory Phonetics
a. By tightening the muscles which enclose it,
b. By movement of the back of the tongue, and
c. By either raising or lowering the soft palate.
3. Soft Palate (Velum)
It is a muscular flap that can be raised to press against the back wall of
the pharynx and shut off the nasal tract, preventing air from going out
through the nose.
4. Hard Palate
It is a thin horizontal bony plate of the skull, located in the front part of
roof of the mouth.
5. Alveolar Ridge
It is located behind the upper teeth where there is a small protuberance
that we can feel with the tip of the tongue.

9. Soft Palate

10. Hard Palate

11. Alveolar Ridge

12. Articulatory Phonetics
6. Tongue
Tongue can be moved into many different places and different shapes.
There are three different parts of the tongue; tip, blade, front, root or
back. The tip and blade lie under the alveolar ridge; the tip is the most
forward part of all and the blade between the tip and the front. The front
lies under the hard palate. It can be flat on the bottom of the mouth or it
can be raised to touch the hard palate. The back of the tongue lies under
the soft palate when the tongue is at rest.
7. Teeth
Teeth are categorized into upper and lower teeth. The upper teeth are
more important than lower ones as there are many sounds articulated
by the upper teeth
8. Lips
Lips are divided into lower and upper lips.

13. Tongue

14. Teeth

15. Lips