ETI 105 INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

Week 3

Last week we talked about the following:

The definiton of linguistics and linguist, The place of linguistics among other

disciplines, What does a linguistist do, Micro and macro fields of linguistics, Characteristics of human languages as

opposed to animal languages, The origin of language, A short history of linguistics.

This week we will talk about the following:

A short history of linguistics (continued), Sound patterns, International phonetic alphabet (IPA)

A short history of linguistics

traditional period 19th century modern descriptive linguistics

F. de Saussure (European structuralism)

L. Bloomfield (American structuralism)

N. Chomsky (generativism)

The Sounds of English The English Alphabet has 26 letters (21

consonants and 5 vowels). Derived from the Greek word phonema,

which means sound, a phoneme is known as the basic unit of sound, or a sound segment.

In the English language, there are 24 phonemes for consonants,12 phonemes for vowels (7 long and 5 short), and 8 diphtongs (glide vowels).

In short, there are 44 sounds in the English language, represented by only 26 letters!!

In each language, there is a set of functional sound units. The number may vary: from 20 to 50. The symbols of the alphabet try to represent the sounds (phonemes) of the language (they cannot do the job properly though). The approximate number of phonemes that an average language can use is 34.

International Phonetics Alphabet (IPA)

IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic Association as a standardized representation of the sounds of spoken language.

The IPA is used by linguists, speech pathologists and therapists, foreign language teachers and students, singers, actors, and translators.

The IPA is designed to represent only those qualities of speech that are distinctive in spoken language: phonemes, intonation, and the separation of words and syllables.

The general principle of the IPA is to provide one symbol for each distinctive sound (or speech segment).

IPA - Consonants

/p/ put, pump, cup, pip, pot, pen, lip

/b/ boy, baby, rob, bat, bug/t/ top, cat, tell, table, tick, tan,

story/d/ do, bed, dog, dig, dam,

adobe

IPA - Consonants

/k/ can, cat, leek, key, copy, peak

/g/ get, bigger, dog, gum, go, Doug

/f/ food, offer, safe, fish, phone/v/ very, seven, love, van, vice

IPA - Consonants

/θ/ thirsty, nothing, math, thick, faith

/ð/ this, mother, breathe, then /s/ sit, city, passing, face, sail /z/ zoo, easy, buzz, zebra, zap

IPA - Consonants

/ʃ/ she, station, push, ship, shine

/ʒ/ measure, vision, beige, leisure

/tʃ/ church, watching, nature, witch

/dʒ/ jump, budget, age

IPA - Consonants

/m/ make, summer, time, man, mine

/n/ no, dine, thin, pen, nip, loan, now

/ŋ/ singer, think, long, wrong, pink

/h/ happy, ahead, hop, hut, how

IPA - Consonants

/l/ let, follow, still, flip, leg/r/ run, marry, far, store, read,

rust/w/ wear, away, wait, wasp, wet/j/ yes, onion, yet, yesterday/ʰw/ where, somewhat, when,

why

IPA - Short Vowels

/ɪ/ it, big, bit, silly, bin/ɛ/ ever, head, get, bed, lead/æ/ apple, can, hat, dad, fat/ɒ/ odd, hot, dog, rotten, box/ʌ/ up, mother, mud, cut, nut/ʊ/ good, book, put /ə/ about, clever, problem,

circus

IPA - Long Vowels

/i:/ eat, see, need, cream, seen, tree

/ɜ:/ early, bird, stirring, burn, firm/ɑ:/ arm, father, far, hard/ɔ:/ all, or, talk, lost, saw, corn/u:/ ooze, food, soup, sue, glue,

boot

IPA - Diphthongs

/aɪ/ I, ice, hide, deny, spice, pie/ɛɪ/ aid, hate, day, wait, fate, stay /ɔɪ/ oil, choice, toy, joy, boy/əʊ/ owe, road, below, nose, note,

know /aʊ/ out, loud, how, clown, vow , now/ɪə/ ear, hero, beer, deer, pier/ɛə/ air, careful, wear, hair, bear/ʊə/ cure, fuel, sure, pure, lure

How do we sort out phonemes?

By finding minimal pairs, i.e. pair of words which differ by only one phoneme.

Minimal pairs in English:pin-bin (/p/ and /b/ are different phonemes

because they distinguish meaning)pet-pit (/e/ and /i/ are different phonemes

because they distinguish meaning) Minimal pairs in Turkish:

kal-bal (/k/ and /b/ are different phonemes because they distinguish meaning)

Question

The following is a minimal pair in the Turkish languge. Identify the phonemes that are represented with the same letter:

sol (el) sol (notası)

1. /bʊk/2. /flaʊər/3. /kʌm/ 4. /ritʃ/ 5. /rɪtʃ/ 6. /kaʊ/ 7. /haɪd/

Exercise: read the following IPA symbols

8. /bæθ/ 9. /bæt/ 10. /kʌt/ 11. /koʊt/ 12. /kɔ:t/ 13. /bɔ:t/ 14. /θɔ:t/

Exercise: read the following IPA symbols

15. /sɔ:t/ 16. /bɔɪl/ 17. /sɔɪl/ 18. /bɔɪ/ 19. /tɔɪ/ 20. /tʃɛr i/ 21. /blu:bɛri/

Exercise: read the following IPA symbols

22. /pɛn/ 23. /pæn/ 24. /kɒp/ 25. /kʌp/ 26. /bɒdi/ 27. /fɑðər/ 28. /pɒt/

Exercise: read the following IPA symbols

29. /sɑrdʒənt/ 30. /ənʌðər/ 31. /ʌvən/ 32. /tʌf/ 33. /əmʌŋ/ 34. /krɪtɪk/ 35. /krɪtik/

Exercise: read the following IPA symbols

36. /wʊmən/ 37. /wɪmɪn/ 38. /tæŋk/ 39. /θæŋk/ 40. /mɛʒər/ 41. /dɪsɪʒən/ 42. /vɪʒən/

Exercise: read the following IPA symbols

43. /neɪʃən/ 44. /ʃʊər/45. /ʃaɪ/ 46. /mʌðər/ 47. /ði/ 48. /ðə/49. /wɔtər, wɒtər/ 50. /wɪtʃ/

Exercise: read the following IPA symbols

Phonemes of Turkish

Consonants of Turkish p şapka k kar, kafa b bebek ɟ karargâh t tarak ɡ gar d dere m masalc ikna, kâr n nasıl

Phonemes of Turkish

Consonants of Turkishf fakat h hilev virgül ɣ soğuk s sarı tʃ biçki z uzun dʒ cebir ʃ şiir l leylek, gül ʒ garaj ɫ kal, pulɾ rahat j yer

Phonemes of Turkish

Vowelsa aşıe sevgii erik ı asılo lokumö gölu buluşü kül

Allophones

Variations in the pronunciation of a single phoneme. Allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds (or phones) used to pronounce a single phoneme.

Allophones do not change the meaning. In English, dark and clear l’s do not change the meaning, so they are allophones of the phoneme /l/. However, in Turkish they are different phonemes.

Allophones

In English, for instance, we have two allophones of the same phoneme /p/ in different contexts. As they do NOT make a difference in meaning, they are referred to as the allophones of the same phoneme:

a. park [pha:(r)k] → aspirated [ph]b. stop [stp=] → unaspirated

[p=]

Question

Study these two words, paying special attention to vowels.

etekkel

What do you think about the phoneme /ɛ/ in these two contexts? Are there allophones of this phoneme?

Sound combinations

Languages have their specific ways to combine sounds. In English, if 3 consonants come together word-initially, they obey the following rules:

the first phoneme must be /s/the 2nd phoneme must be /p/, /t/, or /k/the 3rd phoneme must be /l/, /r/, /w/ or /j/

(string, splendid, spring, stew, etc.)QUESTION: Write 1) a word initial syllable permissible in

English, and 2)another one which is not. QUESTION: How would you describe the most basic

Turkish syllable structure in terms of consonant (C)-vowel (V) combination?(e.g. CVC, CCV, VCC, CVV, etc)

Properties of phonemes

Phonemes can be classified according to a number of criteria:

Consonants (Ünsüzler) Vowels (Ünlüler)

Place of Articulationbilabial, labiodental, alveolar, velar...

Angle of the Chinbroad, narrow

Manner of the Articulationplosive, nasal, fricative...

Movement of the TongueLow, mid, high

Voicingvoiced, voiceless

Formation of the Lipsrounded, unrounded