Anthropology 1027A/B Lecture Notes - Complementary Distribution, Minimal Pair, Phoneme

• School: Western University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: Anthropology 1027A/B
• Professor: Claire Gurski

Document Summary

October 5, 2011: a branch of linguistics that studies the sound systems of languages (example: the patterns that regulate how sounds are organized to form words. Its aim: to demonstrate the patterns of distinctive sounds found in a language and to make as general statements as possible about the nature of sound systems in the languages of the world. In sum: every language has an inventory of distinctive sounds (phoneme, example: /p/ in english, phonological realization), but each of these sounds can have a number of different realizations (allophones, example: [ph] and [p] above, phonetic realization) Definitions: phoneme: sounds used contrastively (they serve to differentiate words). Minimal pairs: through minimal pairs: words that differ by only one segment found in the same position in each form. Example: /paet/ /baet/ /maet/ /saet/, /taep/ /taeb/ /taen/ /taeg/ Conclusion: /p/, /b/, /m/, /s/, /n/, and /g/ are phonemes in english. Contrastive sounds in english: /paet/ /pit/ /pit/ /pet/