Phonetics studies the physical properties and articulation of sounds, while phonology studies the abstract sound system of a language and how sounds pattern and relate to meaning. Phonetics deals with phones - actual speech sounds - while phonology deals with phonemes - abstract, meaningful units. Phonemes are realized through allophones, which are variant pronunciations of a phoneme that do not carry meaning. Minimal pairs and sets help determine the phonemes of a language by showing meaning changes when sounds are substituted.

1. Phonetics vs Phonology
Prof. Gustavo Santamaría

2. 1. Provide a list of words substituting just one
segment:
/____æt/
2. Try to describe the possible variants of the
following sound:
/p/
3. What is the difference between the group of
sounds in No. 1 and the group of sounds in
No. 2?

3.  In group 1:
 The sounds belong to different sound
groups or classes.
 In group 2:
 The sounds belong to the same sound
group or class.
 They represent the variants of the same
sound.

4.  The distinction between sound groups and
sound variants lead to the distinction
between two study fields:
Phonetics & Phonology

5.  Phonetics:
 Physical description of
speech sounds.
 Articulation of sounds.
 Inventory and
description of all
phonetic segments.
 Narrow transcription.
 Phonology:
 Description of systems
and patterns of sounds
in a language.
 Study of sound systems
in a language.
 Determines distinctive
sounds of a language
(discreteness).
- Broad transcription

6.  It deals with:
 The speaker’s knowledge to combine sounds in a
language (Competence/ Langue).
 The abstract or mental aspects of sounds.
 The “blueprint” or underlying design of sound types in
our minds.
Phonology

7. Phonology
• For example:
People Apple Cop
– We perceive the /p/ sound as the same.
– Actually the /p/ sound is produced in different ways
(phonetic distinction).
– These differences in pronunciation don’t have
meaningful consequences.
– This aspect is less important to phonology (more
important to phonetics).

8. Phonology
 For example:
/pIt/ /pit/ /peit/ /pat/ /paƱt/ /pƱt/ /pʌt/ /pæt/ /pƐt/
pit peat pate pot pout put putt pat pet
 The different sounds are perceived and articulated
differently.
 The distinction in a group of sounds (vowels) is more
important to phonology.
 This distinction of segments has meaningful
consequences.

9. Phonology
 Trubetzkoy (1939 in Mannell, 2008) wrote:
“It is the task of phonology to study which differences
in sound are related to differences in meaning in a
language, in which way the discriminative
elements…are related to each other, and the rules
according to which they may be combined into words
and sentences.”

10. Phonemes
 Abstract cognitive units.
 Underlying mental sounds (ideal sound).
 The mental blueprint of each sound (despite the
different possible articulations).
 Meaning-distinguishing units.
 Distinctive or contrastive sounds in a language.
(discriminative elements)

11. Phonemes
 Differential/ contrastive function
 No meaning on their own
 Substitution of
one segment in
the same environment
or position
environments
site side
segment segment
Different meaning

12. Phonemes & Phones
 Phonemes /p/ are physically articulated through
speech using phones [p]:
 Phones are:
 Concrete units
 Different versions (articulations) of a sound type (a
phoneme)
 The actual realization of phonemes
 Phonetic units
 In [ ] (Yule, 1996)

13. Phones & Allophones
 [p ] = aspirated – pool
 [p] = unaspirated – spoon
 [p°] = unreleased – loop
 The set of phones that refer to one phoneme are:
Allophones of that phoneme
-Sound class /p/
-No distinction
in meaning
h

14. Allophones
 Allophones are: Page 36 reading material
 Phonetic units [ ]
 Versions of one phoneme
 Different pronunciations/ articulations of one phoneme
 Don’t have a contrastive/ differential function
 So… If we substitute:
One phoneme for another change in meaning
One allophone for another change pronunciation

15. Distinction of phonemes
 Phonology determines groups/classes of sounds to
establish a list of phonemes of a language.
 Phonology examines the distribution of the sounds in
similar environments.
 By the substitution of one sound for another in the
same environment, phonologists can determine if
these sounds belong to different phonemes or not.

16.  If the meaning of the word changes with the
susbtitution of one sound for another, then these sounds
belong to a different sound group or class (phonemes).
 For example: would – could (minimal pair)
/w/ /k/
Change in meaning
Different phonemes
Distinction of phonemes

17.  Minimal Pairs
would – could : pairs of words that differ in one
/w/ /k/ segment in the same environment
or position.
 Minimal Sets
 big pig rig dig wig: groups of words that differ in
one segment in the same
environment or position.

18.  Phonetic similarity
 Allophones of a phoneme must share one or more
phonetic properties.
 Example:
 All allophones of /k/ are –V, velar, stops
 Complementary distribution
 Allophones of a phoneme occur in mutually exclusive
environments.
 Example:

19. Allophones of /k/
[k ] Aspirated: 1) in initial possition (class)
2) when a stressed vowel follows (acquire)
3) final position after ‘s’ (ask)
[k] Unaspirated: 1) after initial ‘s’ (scare)
2) middle possition after a stressed
syllable (income)
[k ] Unreleased: 1) final position (look)
h
°

20.  Free variation
 2 allophones can occur in the same environment
 Example:
[k ] and [k ] are in free variation in final position.
*Important: pages 33 & 36 reading material!
h
°

21. In summary
• Studies sound patterns of a language
• Determines the distinctive sounds of a
language
Phonology:
• Abstract mental units (phonological units)
• Linguistically contrastive units of a language
• Change meaning when substituted
• Represented in / /
Phonemes:

22. In summary
• Phonetic units
• Actual realizations of a speech sound
• Represented in [ ]
Phones:
• Versions (set of phones) of a phoneme
• No constrastive function
• Change pronunciation, not meaning,
when substituted
• Also represented in [ ]
Allophones:

23. In summary
• 2 words that differ in only one
segment in the same environment.
Minimal
pair:
• Group of words that differ in only one
segment in the same environment.
Minimal
set:
• Minimal pairs and minimal sets help
to determine different phonemes in a
language.
Remember:

24. In summary
• Phonetic similarity: allophones
must share phonetic features
• Complementary distribution:
allophones cannot occur in the
same environment.
• Free variation: 2 allophones can
occur in the same environment.
Criteria for
classifying
sounds as
members
of the
same
phoneme: