Phonetics

The study of speech sounds

The study of the sound system of a language -

What sounds are in a language and

the rules for combining those sounds into larger units.

Perceived unit of language that signals a difference in meaning when contrasted to another phoneme (can hear the difference)

A variation of a phoneme. Different allophones of a phoneme occur in different and predictable phonetic environments (can’t tell the difference)

Sounds which are allophones in one language may be phonemes in another.

Ex. Hindi: Tea/Trip (two differing sounds: allophones of each other)

Narrow Phonetic Transcription

• Represents actual speech sounds in as much detail as possible
• First stage of linguistic study
• Shows distinctive and non-distinctive features

• Represents idealized sounds rather than physically real speech sounds; what distinctions the listeners hear
• Phonemes – class of sounds made up of allophones

Sound Substitution

Sounds already existing in a language used to replace sounds in foreign words.

Ex. French phonemic inventory doesn’t contain “th” so they substitute fricatives “z” and “s”