Phonology Resources by Subtopic!

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What is phonology?

In simple terms, phonology is the study of the patterns of speech sounds in different languages. Speakers may be cognizant of these patterns, but they aren't explicitly taught when children acquire their first language. In different languages, sounds interact with each other in different ways, and phonology seeks to understand the patterns or "rules" that these speech sounds follow across languages.

Basic concepts

Phonological rules: unique to each language, linguists have identified patterns that speech sounds make when joined with other sounds in a word. For example, in English, voiceless stops at the beginning of words are followed by a burst of air (aspiration), but not when preceded by an [s] sound!

Phonological environment: the environment in which speech sounds exist and affect each other

Targets: sounds (members of a natural class) affected by a sound process

Triggers: sounds (members of a natural class) that may affect other sounds

Phonological feature: the smallest unit of phonological structure that distinguishes phonemes from one another (for example, the [+voicing] feature distinguishes between the phonemes [k] and [g]

Phonological features

Distinctive features are the smallest unit of phonological structure that distinguishes phonemes from one another. There are several different types of features as can be seen below.

Major Class

These features include [consonantal], [sonorant], and [syllabic]

Laryngeal

These features include [voicing], [spread glottis], and [constricted glottis].

Manner

These features include [continuant], [lateral], [nasal], [trill], and [my professor flew past the slides so I'll have to go back and update this]

Place

These features include [labial], [coronal], [dorsal], [radical] and [glottal].

Vowel Space

These features include [height], [roundness], [backness], and [advanced tongue root] or [ATP].