Phonemics

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Phonemics

• LIN 3201

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Phonemics, or Why Phonetic is so hard

• You do not hear physical sound directly.
• If you did, phonetics would be easy.
• Instead, you perceive all speech sounds through
  the sound system of your native language(s) and
  the languages you have studied.

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What does that mean?
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• You perceive speech sounds through structure.
• When you deal with sound outside of the structure
  you are used to, it can become confusing and
  difficult to even perceive a sound.

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• When you hear human speech sounds, these sounds
  automatically trigger perceptual units in your
  brain/mind.
• These units are abstractions and are used to
  organize and structure the sounds of your
  native language.

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• The phoneme is the basic unit of organization of
  sounds in language.
• The phoneme is an abstract, structural and
  perceptual unit of speech.

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• To put another way, when someone utters a
  physical speech sound to you, that speech sound
  triggers a phoneme in your mind you do not
  hear the phonetic distinctions directly.
• Instead, the sound triggers a perceptual unit and
  you perceive the sound as that unit.

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• When native speakers (without formal linguistics
  training) say they hear no difference between
  two sounds, it is probably because in their
  language those two sounds trigger the same
  perceptual unit.
• Those two sounds belong to the same phoneme.

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• You will generally not hear a difference
  between two sounds that belong to the same
  phoneme.
• You will generally hear a difference between
  two sounds who belong to different phonemes.

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• Phonemes are used to build words and contrast
  sound unit from sound unit.

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Classic English Phoneme Example
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Key Vocabulary in Phonemics

• Phoneme abstract structural and perceptual unit
  / /
• Phone phonetic speech sound, unanalyzed
  according to phonemic status
• Allophone after analyzing data, the phonetic
  speech sound that belongs to, and thus triggers,
  a phoneme
• under / /

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Key Vocabulary in Phonemics

• Writing phonemes and the allophones that realize
  them
• / / phoneme (choose one allophone as symbol)
• Allophone 1
• Allophone 2 etc.
• Generally, when there is more than one allophone,
  each will occur in its own environment if that
  is the case, list environment, too

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Analyzing Data to Determine Phonemes

• You analyze phonetic data to determine phonemic
  status.
• Phonemic status means how native speakers
  perceive these sounds, and thus, how these sounds
  are organized in this language.
• Do native speakers hear a difference and use
  them contrastively? (allophones of different
  phonemes these sounds belong to different
  phonemes)
• Do native speakers not hear a difference and
  thus do not use them contrastively? (allophones
  of the same phoneme these sounds belong to the
  same phoneme)

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• So remember, 2 languages might make use of the
  same sounds e and i, but organize and
  perceive those sounds differently.
• Language A /e/ /i/ language B /i/
• e i e
• i
• A 2 sounds belong to different phonemes, native
  speakers perceive them as different and they can
  be used to build differences in words, e and
  i belong to different phonemes, /e/ and /i/,
  respectively
• B 2 sounds belong to the same phoneme, native
  speakers do NOT perceive them as different, they
  may not be used to build differences in words,
  e and i belong to the same phoneme, /i/

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• That is your goal in phonemic analysis
• to determine the perception
• and organization of sound
• by a native speaker.

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• Hardmans Definition of the Phoneme

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Negative Definition/Contrastive Definition

• Phonemes act to keep words separate.
• Phonemes make words contrast.
• A Phoneme is what it is because it is not
  something else.

Perceptional Aspect of Phonemes
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2. Positive Definition/ Realization Definition

• Phonemes are built up of a range of phones that
  trigger our perception.
• This definition accounts for physical realization
  of phonemes.
• Speech organs builds sounds which trigger
  phonemes.

Physical Realization Aspect of Phonemes
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3. Structural Definition

• Phonemes build the structure of language and are
  part of the whole phonological structure of a
  language.
• Humans have propensity for symmetry in language.
• There is a linguistic tendency to make use of
  some phonetic possibilities to make contrasts and
  to use them consistently.

Structural Aspect of Phonemes
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Analyzing Data to Determine Phonemes

• There are four general patterns you will find in
  your data that help you to determine phonemic
  status.
• With extensive data sets, there is a fifth
  pattern that also appears.

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• These patterns are built around the definitions
  of the phoneme itself.

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Data Pattern 1 Minimal Pairs

• Based on definition Phomemes are contrastive.
• When you have two or more sounds, found in
  identical environments, (transcribed identically
  except for one sound) that mean different things.
• Example
• bij bee phij pea/pee
• The sounds b and ph contrast in minimal pairs
  and thus belong to separate phonemes.
• suw sue zuw zoo
• The sounds s and z contrast in minimal pairs
  and thus belong to separate phonemes.

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Data Pattern 2 Complementary Distribution

• Based on definition Phomemes are realized by
  allophones.
• This pattern is when you have two or more sounds,
  phonetically similar in some way, that are found
  in completely unique and distinct environments
  sound A never occurs in the environment of sounds
  B and C, and vice versa. It appears that these
  alternations are triggered by specific sound
  environments.
• AKA Spiderman/Peter Parker Superman/Clark Kent
  phenomenon

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Data Pattern 2 Complementary Distribution,
cont.

• Some General Enviornments
• Notations
• 1. Word boundaries
• word initial _____
• word final ______
• 2. Before certain sounds before sound classes
• ___i, ____s, ____ N, ___ palatals, ___C, ___V
• 3. After certain sounds after sound classes
• i ___, s ____, N ____, palatals ___, C___, V___
• 4. Between certain sounds sound classes
• i____i, s____s, N___N, pal.___pal., C__C, V__V

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Data Pattern 2 Complementary Distribution,
cont.

• Example Spanish
• de?o finger
• donde where
• na?a nothing
• pi?e 3p sing. asks
• pwe?e 3p sing. can
• pared wall
• r flap (symbol wont show)
• Also, d dental
• Note that phones are phonetically similar
• Both dental (dental vs. interdental)
• Both voiced

• d occurs in elsewhere
• ___e
• ___o
• n___e
• e___
• ? e___o V___V
• a___a
• i___e
• e__e
• The phones d and ? are found in
  complementary distribution and thus belong to the
  same phoneme. d and ? are allophones of the
  same phoneme /d/.
• /d/
• ? V_V
• d elsewhere

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Data Pattern 3 Analogous Environments

• Based on definition Phomemes are contrastive.
• This pattern is when you find two sounds in
  nearly the same environments, but do not have
  data for a minimal pair. The appearance of these
  two sounds does not seem to be conditioned by any
  specific phonetic environments, because they both
  occur in analogous environments.

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Data Pattern 3 Analagous Environments, cont.

• Example

Environment of s Environment of
___a ____a i___a i_____a i_____a T
hese phones are found in analogous environments
and thus belong to different phonemes. These
sounds are allophones of different phonemes.
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Data Pattern 4 Free Variation

• Based on definition Phomemes are realized by
  allophones
• This pattern is when you find two sounds in the
  same environments, and there does not seem to be
  a change in meaning. In other words, it appears
  that the phones can interchange with one another
  with no effect in meaning. This is usually a
  result of phonetic distinction that you perceive
  that is not contrastive in this language.

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Data Pattern 4 Free Variation, cont.

• Example English

Both of these phones are found in identical
environments, and yet, unlike the analogous
environments examples, alternation of these
phones does NOT create differences in
meaning. Thus, both the p and the p
(unreleased) are allophones of, and thus belong
to, the same phoneme.
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To summarize

• To show you have allophones of different
  phonemes
• Minimal Pairs
• sounds occur in exactly the same environments
  in an IDENTICAL set - AND changes meaning of
  words
• Analogous Environments
• Phones occur in overlapping environments, and in
  near-identical environments, but word meanings
  are different
• Phonemes are contrastive.

• To show you have allophones of the same phoneme
• Complementary Distribution
• phones occur in unique, separate, individual
  environments
• environment of sounds conditions allophone
• Free Variation
• Phones occur in the exact same environments or
  near-identical environments but dont change
  meaning
• Seem to be used interchangeably, or substitute
  for one another,
• Phonemes are realized as allophones.