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This is probably what you are doing when reading through this website. However as you go through this website more in detail and more thoroughly, you will hopefully (no guarantees or refund of your time spent on this website) get a hang of this soon enough.
Phonology is the study of words and their sounds in language. It is mainly focussed on the organisation of the word's sounds and how it is used in everyday English. Phonology includes the study of vowels, consonants, manners and places of articulation. The study of sounds is known as phonetics. For the first part of this page we mainly look at written text and the sounds they make when they are spoken.
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS:
Our dialect of English (Australian English) alone comprises of forty four contrasting sounds for the twenty six different letters that we have.
Spelling mistakes are often occurred because of the sounds and how there are only twenty six letters.
For example, if we look at the letter c and the different sounds it makes. There is cat (sounds like a 'k'), chicken, advice (sounds like a 's', cease (the name of the letter 'c') and the list goes on. For this reason people who study languages (linguists) refer to the International Phonetic Alphabet. This table allows us to see the different written representation of each sound. The table below also refers to the place of articulation when this particular letter is pronounced.
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS:
Our dialect of English (Australian English) alone comprises of forty four contrasting sounds for the twenty six different letters that we have.
Spelling mistakes are often occurred because of the sounds and how there are only twenty six letters.
For example, if we look at the letter c and the different sounds it makes. There is cat (sounds like a 'k'), chicken, advice (sounds like a 's', cease (the name of the letter 'c') and the list goes on. For this reason people who study languages (linguists) refer to the International Phonetic Alphabet. This table allows us to see the different written representation of each sound. The table below also refers to the place of articulation when this particular letter is pronounced.
Places of Articulaiton
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With reference to the above table, the letters and their sounds come out of these very different and unknown parts inside your mouth.
For Antipodean English (Australian and New Zealand) consonants, we have 6 categories we can place the sounds of consonants. There are stops, fricatives, nasals, laterals, affricates and approximants.
The pronunciation of vowels causes your mouth to form different shapes and the placement of your tongue to change (height and length wise).
Now that I have introduced you to the different types of letters and their phonetics, let me teach you about the word as an entirety. The pronunciation of words can be categorised as monophthongs or diphthongs.
Monophthongs:
You can define these words as words with simple and short vowels within them. Words like 'book, dog, pole' only requires your tongue to be in one position throughout the word.
Diphthongs:
These words comprise of long vowels which require a lot of effort (not really though). Your tongue will move from one particular place in your mouth to another end. Words like 'potato' requires your tongue to move to three different places throughout the entire course of your pronunciation.
Moving on from written text, we go into the everyday spoken part of English.
We are able to convey messages and our emotions of them by the use of the prosodic features. There are 4 different types of prosodic features and these include pitch, volume, stress and timing.
Imagine a simple everyday situation. For example think of you watching T.V instead of doing your homework. Your would hear your mum saying "DO YOUR HOMEWORK!". The volume of the speech would be really loud, she would have an angry tone and would sometimes put stress on the word 'homework'.
The speed of which one person talks with is comparable with the feeling of the person Once again, if someone were to angry or excited they will talk in more of a quick tempo compared to someone who has lost their train of thought.
When speaking to or listening to other people you would often hear people's voice goes higher and lower (not when someone' s voice breaks}. There is a common technique to catch someone out of their lie. When you ask them about a question about their lie, you could hear their pitch go higher.
Intonation contour looks at the concept of the sentence and the relevance of the pitch. If you ask someone "You're coming to the ball game ,right?" and compared to the "Are you coming to the ball game?" your pitch would change. It changes when you ask them a question or if you are stating a statement.
- Nasals: they are consonants that are often voiced
- e.g: the 'une' dune
- spoon
- bling
- Laterals: words that has sounds that allows air to flow in the top or bottom of your tongue when you speak but not over the centre
- For example try saying these three words: "leaf, long, lie". Can you feel your t
- Fricatives: It is where the places of speech (articulation) are pressing against each other and forcing air through the created narrow passage
- Violet (teeth and lips are pressed together)
- The, shhhhh (tongue and teeth)
- Stops: a consonant where air is ceased to flow through your mouth
- Back (enunciation of [b] causes air to stop flowing out of your mouth)
- Tone
- Approximants: it is like fricative consonants; however, this time the two articulators did not touch.
- Whale [w] is pronounced with your lips going to touch but stops and makes an 'o' shape.
- Affricatives: it is a stop combined but ending with a fricative
- Eg dive (brief stop at the letter [d] and then it ends with the teeth and lip pressing [ve]
The pronunciation of vowels causes your mouth to form different shapes and the placement of your tongue to change (height and length wise).
- Example: keys and egg . Try saying these words in front of a mirror. When you say keys, can you see the height of your mouth is greater compared to the height when you pronounce the word 'egg' (might be a slight difference).
Now that I have introduced you to the different types of letters and their phonetics, let me teach you about the word as an entirety. The pronunciation of words can be categorised as monophthongs or diphthongs.
Monophthongs:
You can define these words as words with simple and short vowels within them. Words like 'book, dog, pole' only requires your tongue to be in one position throughout the word.
Diphthongs:
These words comprise of long vowels which require a lot of effort (not really though). Your tongue will move from one particular place in your mouth to another end. Words like 'potato' requires your tongue to move to three different places throughout the entire course of your pronunciation.
Moving on from written text, we go into the everyday spoken part of English.
We are able to convey messages and our emotions of them by the use of the prosodic features. There are 4 different types of prosodic features and these include pitch, volume, stress and timing.
Imagine a simple everyday situation. For example think of you watching T.V instead of doing your homework. Your would hear your mum saying "DO YOUR HOMEWORK!". The volume of the speech would be really loud, she would have an angry tone and would sometimes put stress on the word 'homework'.
- This example illustrates the emotion of anger. Other times when speeches are loud is when the person talking is excited.
- The softness of the speech illustrates that the person is sad or/and upset.
The speed of which one person talks with is comparable with the feeling of the person Once again, if someone were to angry or excited they will talk in more of a quick tempo compared to someone who has lost their train of thought.
When speaking to or listening to other people you would often hear people's voice goes higher and lower (not when someone' s voice breaks}. There is a common technique to catch someone out of their lie. When you ask them about a question about their lie, you could hear their pitch go higher.
Intonation contour looks at the concept of the sentence and the relevance of the pitch. If you ask someone "You're coming to the ball game ,right?" and compared to the "Are you coming to the ball game?" your pitch would change. It changes when you ask them a question or if you are stating a statement.