https://youtu.be/UCeXfLfVQ2I?si=CPwMqSdyaR5n4wRO
Understanding the differences between phones, phonemes, phonetics, and phonology is crucial for grasping the basics of linguistic sounds. Here's a breakdown of each term with examples:
- Phones:
- Definition: Phones are the actual sounds of speech, the physical sound units produced by the vocal apparatus.
- Characteristics: Phones are concrete and can be described without reference to any specific language.
- Example: The sound represented as [p] in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a phone. It's the sound produced by closing the lips and releasing them with a puff of air. This sound occurs in many languages but may not always represent the same phoneme.
- Phonemes:
- Definition: Phonemes are the smallest units of sound in a language that can distinguish meaning.
- Characteristics: Phonemes are abstract and language-specific. They are not sounds themselves but categories of sounds that speakers of a language perceive as equivalent.
- Example: In English, /p/ and /b/ are distinct phonemes, as they differentiate words like "pat" and "bat." However, in some other languages, these might not be distinct phonemes.
- Phonetics:
- Definition: Phonetics is the study of the physical sounds of human speech.
- Characteristics: It deals with the production (articulatory phonetics), transmission (acoustic phonetics), and perception (auditory phonetics) of speech sounds.
- Example: Articulatory phonetics would analyze how the [t] sound in "top" is made by placing the tongue against the alveolar ridge and releasing it, creating a sound.
- Phonology:
- Definition: Phonology is the study of how sounds function within a particular language or languages.
- Characteristics: It involves the analysis of the systems and patterns of phonemes in languages, including how they are organized and how they interact with each other.
- Example: English phonology would examine how the /t/ sound changes depending on its placement in words. It's aspirated in "top," flap in "butter," and unreleased in "cat."
Examples:
- Phones:
- The [k] sound in "cool" ([kʰ]) and "school" ([k]) are different phones in English, characterized by a more pronounced puff of air (aspiration) in "cool."
- Phonemes:
- In Japanese, the sounds represented by /r/ and /l/ in the IPA are not distinct phonemes. Therefore, Japanese speakers often have difficulty distinguishing between these sounds in English.
- Phonetics:
- An example of acoustic phonetics would be analyzing the frequency, duration, and intensity of the [s] sound in "sigh" and "size."
- Phonology:
- In Spanish phonology, the /b/ phoneme is pronounced differently depending on its position. It's pronounced as a full [b] at the beginning of a word or after a nasal sound but as a softer [β] (a bilabial fricative) in other positions.
Understanding these distinctions is fundamental in linguistics, especially in the study of sound systems in languages and in learning or teaching languages effectively.