Phonetics vs. Phonology

1. Phonetics vs. phonology
Phonetics deals with the
production of speech sounds by
humans, often without prior
knowledge of the language being
spoken. Phonology is about
patterns of sounds, especially
different patterns of sounds in
different languages, or within each
language, different patterns of
sounds in different positions in
words etc.

2. Phonology as grammar of
phonetic patterns
The consonant cluster /st/ is OK at
the beginning, middle or end of
words in English.
At beginnings of words, /str/ is OK
in English, but /ftr/ or / tr/ are not
(they are ungrammatical).
/ tr/ is OK in the middle of words,
however, e.g. in "ashtray".
/ tr/ is OK at the beginnings of
words in German, though, and /ftr/
is OK word-initially in Russian, but
not in English or German.

3. A given sound have a different
function or status in the sound
patterns of different languages
For example, the glottal stop [ ]
occurs in both English and Arabic
BUT ...
In English, at the beginning of a
word, [ ] is a just way of beginning
vowels, and does not occur with
consonants. In the middle or at the
end of a word, [ ] is one possible
pronunciation of /t/ in e.g. "pat" [pa
].
In Arabic, / / is a consonant sound
like any other (/k/, /t/ or whatever):
[ íktib] "write!", [da íi a] "minute
(time)", [ a ] "right".

4. Phonemes and allophones, or
sounds and their variants
The vowels in the English words
"cool", "whose" and "moon" are all
similar but slightly different. They
are three variants or allophones of
the /u/ phoneme. The different
variants are dependent on the
different contexts in which they
occur. Likewise, the consonant
phoneme /k/ has different variant
pronunciations in different
contexts. Compare:
k eep /kip/ The place of articulation is fronter
in the mouth [k +h ]
c art /k t/ The place of articulation is not so
front in the mouth [k h]
c oot /kut/ The place of articulation is backer,
and the lips are rounded [k hw]
see k /sik/ There is less aspiration than in
initial position [k`]
s c oop /
skup/ There is no aspiration after /s/ [k]
These are all examples of variants
according to position (contextual
variants). There are also variants
between speakers and dialects. For
example, "toad" may be pronounced
[tëUd] in high-register RP, [toUd] or
[to d] in the North. All of them are
different pronunciations of the
same sequence of phonemes. But
these differences can lead to
confusion: [toUd] is "toad" in one
dialect, but may be "told" in
another.

5. Phonological systems
Phonology is not just (or even
mainly) concerned with categories
or objects (such as consonants,
vowels, phonemes, allophones, etc.)
but is also crucially about relations .
For example, the English stops and
fricatives can be grouped into
related pairs which differ in voicing
and (for the stops) aspiration:
Voiceless/
aspirated p h th k h f s h
Voiced/
unaspirated b d v z ð (unpaired)
Patterns lead to expectations: we
expect the voiceless fricative [h] to
be paired with a voiced [ ], but we
do not find this sound as a
distinctive phoneme in English. And
in fact /h/ functions differently from
the other voiceless fricatives (it has
a different distribution in words
etc.) So even though [h] is
phonetically classed as a voiceless
fricative, it is phonologically quite
different from /f/, /s/, / / and / /.
Different patterns are found in
other languages. In Classical Greek a
three-way distinction was made
between stops:
Voiceless/aspirated p h t h kh
Voiced/unaspirated p t k
Voiced (and unaspirated) b d
In Hindi-Urdu a four-way pattern is
found, at five places of articulation:
Voiceless aspirated p h th h ch k h
Voiceless unaspirated p t c k
Voiced unaspirated b d etc.
Breathy voiced ("voiced aspirates") b d etc.

6. Shapes of vowel systems: some
common examples:
Triangular:
(e.g. Arabic)
3 vowels Triangular:
(e.g. Japanese)
5 vowels
i u i u
e o
a a
Triangular:
(e.g. Tübatulabal)
6 vowels Triangular:
(e.g. Italian)
7 vowels
i u i u
e o e o
a a
Triangular:
(e.g. Bulgarian)
6 vowels Rectangular:
(e.g. Montenegrin)
6 vowels
i u i u
e o e o
a a
How many degrees of vowel height
are there in Bulgarian? On the face
of things, it appears to be not very
different from Tübatulabal, which
has three heights: three high vowels,
two mid vowels and one low vowel.
But if we look more closely into
Bulgarian phonology, we see that
the fact that schwa is similar in
height to /e/ and /o/ is coincidental:
the distinction that matters in
Bulgarian is /i/ vs. /e/, /u/ vs. /o/
and / / vs. /a/, i.e. relatively high vs.
relatively low. As evidence for this
statement, note that while all six
vowels may occur in stressed
syllables, only /i/, /e/, / / and /u/
occur in unstressed syllables.
7. Phonology as interpretation of
phonetic patterns: Fang (Bantu:
Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial
Guinea)
Fang English Fang English
1) etf - shoulder 7) t m branch
2) v bi, v -bi hippopotamus 8) bik q back teeth
3) ndv ( ) dam 9) el n water tortoise
4) kf - l tortoise 10) f q bag
5) kf - salt 11) t neck
6) k l rope 12) os n squirrel
Vowels in corpus:
i y ?u expected but not found
e o
a