...Chapter I THE FUNCTIONAL ASPECT OF SPEECH SOUNDS This chapter is concerned with the linguistic function of speech sounds, i. e. “segments of speech”. We are going to discuss here the definitions of the phoneme, methods used in establishing the phonemic structure of a language, the system of English phonemes, modifications of sounds in connected speech. 1.1. The Phoneme 17 1.1. The Phoneme 1.1.1. The definition of the phoneme To know how sounds are produced by speech organs it is not enough to describe and classify them as language units. When we talk about the sounds of a language, the term “sound” can be interpreted in two rather different ways. In the first place, we can say that [t] and [d] are two different sounds in English, [t] being fortis and [d] being lenis1 and we can illustrate this by showing how they contrast with each other to make a difference of meaning in a large number of pairs, such as tie – die, seat – seed, etc. But on the other hand if we listen carefully to the [t] in let us and compare it with the [t] in let them we can hear that the two sounds are also not the same, the [t] of let us is alveolar, while the [t] of let them is dental. In both examples the sounds differ in one articulatory feature only; in the second case the difference between the sounds has functionally no significance. It is perfectly clear that the sense of “sound” in these two cases is different. To avoid this ambiguity, the linguist uses two separate terms: “phoneme” is...
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...In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful Hebron University Faculty of Graduate Studies English Department Assimilation of Consonants in English and Assimilation of the Definite Article in Arabic By Hamada Shehdeh Abid Dawood حمادة داود Supervised by Dr. Ahmad Atawneh 2013/2014 Assimilation of Consonants in English and Assimilation of the Definite Article in Arabic Abstract This paper aims at discussing the term assimilation. Assimilation is a phonological process where a sound looks like another neighboring sound. It includes progressive, regressive, coalescent, full and partial assimilation. In addition, contextual assimilation is subject to the environment of sounds where historical assimilation is resulted from the development of languages. In Arabic, it is clear that the /l/ sound in the definite article disappears if followed by coronal consonants. It is, however, concluded that the importance of assimilation is to make pronunciation of a word or speech easier. 1. Introduction Assimilation is an everyday occurrence in every human language, and it is particularly common for nasal sounds (McMahon, 2002, p. 4). Thus, sounds in the environment of other sounds, across morpheme and word boundaries tend to undergo various phonological changes referred to as phonological processes (Ofulue et al, 2010, p. 49). Making a sound more like another in the same or next word in continuous utterance is called assimilation (Oxford Dictionary, 2008)...
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...studies, phonology divided into phonetics and phonemics. Both use sound as an object of research. Phonetic is a field of linguistics that studies the sounds of language regardless of whether the sound has a function as discrete categories or not, while the phonemic is a sound of the language to discern the meaning of the word or function. Based on the study, phonetic called the sounds of language with phoneme. Phonetics and phonology are related, dependent fields for studying aspects of language. Phonetics is the study of sound in speech; phonology is the study (and use) of sound patterns to create meaning. Phonetics focuses on how speech is physically created and received, including study of the human vocal and auditory tracts, acoustics, and neurology. Phonology relies on phonetic information for its practice, but focuses on how patterns in both speech and non-verbal communication create meaning, and how such patterns are interpreted. Phonology includes comparative linguistic studies of how cognates, sounds, and meaning are transmitted among and between human communities and languages. Phonetics has concentrated on the three central components of the speech chain, where observation of what is going on is fairly straightforward. The three central components are articulatory phonetics is the study of the way the vocal organs are used to produce speech sounds, acoustic phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds and auditory phonetics is the study of the way people...
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...limited to simple descriptions of the articulation of particular consonants, vowels, diphthongs, and triphthongs, accompanied by sketches of vocal organs, adding explanation of tones (note that Huang uses the IPA symbols in comparison with various romanization systems including Pinyin). Dow (1972) treats the topic more comprehensively (up to stress, but not intonation), although the main emphasis is on description of vowels and consonants (he does not work with Pinyin, using the IPA instead; the sketches of the position of articulatory...
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...understand other people with little or no conscious thought. Sometimes people struggle with language and they feel isolated because they are surrounded by people who use language as a second nature. Individuals can struggle with speech because they have congenital birth defects, physical, psychological, brain, vocal tract damage, or they have problems learning the phonological system. Because of this people have to consciously learn to form words, the correct sounds, or learn how to structure sentences properly. Consequently, people that practice speech therapy need to have a fundamental understanding of phonetics. Phonetics is the scientific study of speech sounds their substance, form, and perception, and relating it to the application of improving linguistic expression. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the sections of the International Phonetic Alphabet with place, manner and voicing of various phonemes, and differentiations between allophones and distinctive phonemes focusing on General American English. Also, to provide knowledge about the integration or omission of a column of compressed air in making different speech sounds. Pulmonic Consonants: Consonants have a relatively closed-position to make sounds. They usually form the boundaries of syllables. The word Pulmonic refers to pulmonary which is the use of air from the lungs and respiratory passages to manipulate air by the articulatory and phonatory structures. Non-pulmonic consonants are...
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...The purpose of this study was to compare the phonological skills in Spanish-speaking children with phonological disorders from two dialect groups in order to evaluate the impact of dialectal differences on the children’s phonological skills. The two dialect groups used in this study were Puerto Rican and Mexican. The study included 12 Spanish-speaking children with phonological disorders between the ages of 4 years, 4 months and 5 years, 6 months. A total of 6 children spoke the Mexican dialect and 6 spoke the Puerto Rican dialect. The method used for this study consisted of administering the Assessment of Phonological Disabilities-Spanish (ADP) to all children in order to assess their speech. The assessment consisted of single words containing...
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...International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Origin The IPA was first published in 1888 by the Association Phonétique Internationale (International Phonetic Association), a group of French language teachers founded by Paul Passy. The aim of the organisation was to devise a system for transcribing the sounds of speech which was independent of any particular language and applicable to all languages. A phonetic script for English created in 1847 by Isaac Pitman and Henry Ellis was used as a model for the IPA. Uses * The IPA is used in dictionaries to indicate the pronunciation of words. * The IPA has often been used as a basis for creating new writing systems for previously unwritten languages. * The IPA is used in some foreign language text books and phrase books to transcribe the sounds of languages which are written with non-latin alphabets. It is also used by non-native speakers of English when learning to speak English. Where symbols appear in pairs, the one on the right represents a voiced consonant, while the one on the left is unvoiced. Shaded areas denote articulations judged to be impossible. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ipa.htm Contents page Contents page for Vowels and Consonants Chapter 1 Chapter 1 book links Clicking on a symbol will take you to a part of the chart where you can hear the corresponding sound. To hear the sounds in a row or column and get short definitions of the terms click here. The sounds of English and the International...
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...A. LANGUAGE & LINGUISTIC 1. What is the meaning of language and linguistic? Language and linguistic are two different words that use differently all over the world. Language is the capacity of someone to communicate with other because it is the mode of expression of thoughts by means of articulation of sounds, exchanging ideas, feelings, intentions, attitudes, expectations, perceptions or commands, as by speech gestures, writings and behaviors. Therefore, language is a meaningful exchange of information between two or more individual. On the other hand, linguistic is a comparative study of language due to the fact that wherein you make a historical study of languages here. In this field you concentrate about the structure, rules, meanings and forms of languages. 2. How important is language and linguistic? In my own opinion, the significance of language in our lives is incomparable. It is not just restrained to being a means of communicating one’s thought and ideas to the rest, but has also become a tool for forging friendships, cultural ties, as well as economic relationships. In addition, the importance of language is essential to every aspect and interaction in our everyday lives. We use language to inform, to communicate the people around us of what we feel, what we desire and question or understand. We communicate effectively with our...
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...Hearing Loss and Perceptual Development By Audrey Davies due by April, 6 2012 Psych 310 1 Intro Perceptual development is the way in which we use our senses to gather and organize information in order to understand and interpret the world around us. We gather information through sensory stimuli by hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, and tasting. Starting from infancy, perceptual development begins when babies begin to take the world in through these senses. They begin by giving meaning to the objects that they see and hear. According to Mark K. Fagan and David B. Pisoni, “infants learn about their environment through sensory exploration, acquiring knowledge that is important for cognitive development...the fundamental information that infants obtain through sensory perception and exploration of their environment contributes to the learning and development of important cognitive concepts” (Fagan & Pisoni, 2009). Hearing is especially important and key to their brain development, and any deficiency can possibly lead to delays in speech, and language. Hearing loss is a result of several reasons such as trauma, severe ear infections, in utero infections and a vast number of other diseases and disorders. In all actuality we hear with our brains and not our ears. However the ears play an important function which allows us to transmit sound. Before going into further details here is some basics of the auditory system. The Cochlea is the is the most...
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...difficulty in listening and speaking English. While these two skills are very important for students when they begin to work in an environment using English, students need to be aware of the errors in their pronunciation. This paper aims to contrast vowels in Vietnamese and in English. From this analysis, some similarities and differences can be drawn between the two languages. Then some teaching implications will be presented. The teaching implications will help learners to correct their pronunciation and also help them improve other skills. I will divide my paper into three parts. Firstly, I will describe vowels in Vietnamese and then in English. Secondly, I will contrast these two systems through two aspects: positions and manners of articulation of vowels to find out similarities and differences between them. And lastly, I will discuss some implications for teaching language. English and Vietnamese Vowels 2 Vowels in English and Vietnamese What is a vowel? We will find that it is not easy to define exactly what it means. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary, a vowel is a speech sound in which the mouth is open and the tongue is not touching the top of the mouth, the teeth, etc., (Hornby, 2005, p.1648). The most common view is that “vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips” (Roach, 1991, p.18). Another answer is that vowels are the core or “peak” of the syllable. This definition is...
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...Dedeh Y 4. Firman Setiawan Pamulang University 2015 LANGUAGE CHANGE Definition Language change is a phenomenon studied both by historical linguists and sociolinguists. Historical linguists study basically the change of languages over time (diachronic change) and examine how languages were used in the past and how they relate to one another . Eg. Old English Middle English Modern English Sociolinguists study the origins or the causes of language changes and explain how society and changes in speech communities influence language and generate sociolects . Eg. Spanish spoken by an upper class man/woman in Madrid and Spanish spoken by a working class man/woman in Andalucía. Language change is the phenomenon whereby phonetic, morphological, semantic, syntactic, and other features of language vary over time Language Change Causes * Economy The principle of least effort is one of the basic and most used explanations for many language changes . Eg. She + is = she's; we + have + been = we've been; clothes /kloʊðɪz/ - /kloʊz/; fifth /fifθs/ /fifs/. * Analogy A linguistic process that reduces words which are perceived as irregular by making them similar to other regular forms . Eg. Semantic historically “livid” meant “pale”, its similar sound with “vivid” has led to analogical semantic change. Morphological the verb “thrive” (thrive-throve-thriven) is on its way to becoming a regular verbs (thrive-thrived-thrived). Language contact ...
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...knowledge of phonetics has been ignored.Pupils in Hebei province begin to learnEnglish in grade three in the primary school.But there is no systematic knowledge ofphonetics in the textbooks.Phonetics learning needs not only the phonics imitation method,but also the basic knowledge about phonetics.However,with the influence of quality-orientededucation and the western language teaching mode,pronunciation teaching in China tends touse the imitation method and the basic knowledge of phonetics is undervalued.It is worth tonotice that English acquisition environment for Chinese students is different from the West.First,English teachers in China are mostly Chinese.Even if there are foreign teachers,theforeigners teaching force is relatively weak.Second,the language surrounding to the studentsis mainly in Chinese.And students in the oral English class are not active to participate andinteract.Moreover,English belongs to Indo-European language system,while Chinesebelongs to Sino-Tibetan language system.They belong to different language families andthere are many differences in tone,syllable and phoneme.Thus the negative influence ofChinese on the English acquisition is great.Without any basic knowledge of phonetics,thelearners will meet lots of difficulties when they learn a new language which is quite differentfrom their mother tongue.Therefore,the Chinese phonetic teaching only relying on theimitation phonics method is premature.This study aims at the practical problems in phonetics teaching...
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...Simply defined, linguistics is the scientific study of language. Though various types of language studies (including grammar and rhetoric) can be traced back over 2,500 years, the era of modern linguistics is barely two centuries old. Kicked off by the late-18th-century discovery that many European and Asian languages descended from a common tongue (Proto-Indo-European), modern linguistics was reshaped, first, by Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) and more recently by Noam Chomsky (born 1928). The systematic study of the nature, structure, and variation of language. Major subfields of linguistics include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse analysis. The founder of modern structural linguistics was Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), whose most influential work, Course in General Linguistics, was edited by his students and published in 1916. Source: An Introduction to Language by Victoria Fromkin and Robert Rodman, 6th Ed.) Part One: Introduction to Linguistics Every human knows at least one language, spoken or signed. Linguistics is the science of language, including the sounds, words, and grammar rules. Words in languages are finite, but sentences are not. It is this creative aspect of human language that sets it apart from animal languages, which are essentially responses to stimuli. The rules of a language, also called grammar, are learned as one acquires a language. These rules include phonology, the sound system, morphology, the...
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.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3.5 Minor Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.5.1 Change of [I] and [aI] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.5.2 Changes of [i:] and [e] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4 Differences in Consonant Pronunciation 9 4.1 Pronunciation of Letter t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 5 Change of Stress 10 5.1 French Loanwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5.2 Ending -ate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 5.3 Suffixes -ary, -ory, -berry, and -mony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 6 Changes in Articulation 12 7 Notes 13 1 1 Pronunciation Differences between British English and American English One of the main difficulties a foreigner student may face when learning English pronunciation is the remarkable variety of accents. Like many other languages spoken in such a vast territory and by so many people, spoken English presents wide variation in pronunciation. In spite of that wide variation, three standard pronunciations are...
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...Introduction • Characteristics of human languages – 1. Displaced reference = ability to talk about things here and now 2. Discretion = language with discrete parts merged to create a more complex word 3. Recursively = use finite of building block (embedding a sentence within a longer sentence) • Prescriptive grammar: How you “should” speak. Actively taught Ex: don’t say ain’t • Descriptive grammar: Focuses on how people actually speak. Not actively taught. What are the rules. Ex: plural- house -> houses Morphology • Building blocks: * Morpheme: smallest meaningful unit * Phoneme: The smallest contrastive unit of the language Ex: /t/ and /d/ – tot [tʰɑt] dot [dɑt] • Roots: part of the word that carries the core meaning • Affixes: Attach to the root/stem. Derivational or inflectional. • Derivational: affixes that changes meaning of a word (syntactical category) Ex: drink->drinkable Infect->disinfect • Inflectional: Does not change meaning (morphological category) Ex: Love->loves • Suffix: addition at the end of a root • Prefix: addition at the beginning of a root • Infix: addition in the middle of root • Reduplication: affix not specify for a particular word Ex: bili -> bi-bili • Resyllabification: Katab – CVCVC • Typology: system used for putting things into groups according to how they are similar • Analytic: express grammer with words Ex: Many house • Synthetic: Express various grammatical category ...
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