ENGLISH 3271 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: English Phonology, Phoneme, Tenseness
8 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
English phonology examines the distinctive categories of sounds in the english sound system, as well as how sounds combine in syllables and words. A phoneme is what speakers think of as a distinctive sound of a language: can have subtle, predictable variations in pronunciation, called allophones. Minimal pairs involve two words that carry different meanings and vary only in one sounds in the same place in the word"s structure. Consonants generally involve stopping or impeding the airflow: distinctive features. Vowels involve unimpeded airflow and function as the center of syllables: distinctive features. Natural classes of sounds share a set of features that distinguish them from other sounds and exclude all other sounds. In the application of phonological rules such as assimilation, natural classes of sounds often behave similarly or cause similar effects on other sounds. Diphthongs: two tongue positions in one movement.
