Phonetics and Phonology: Sounds, Articulation, and Spelling
Phoneme: The smallest linguistic unit without meaning. It’s what speakers intend to produce when speaking. Phonemes are chosen from a set that characterizes the opposition between elements, giving different meanings in the context used.
Sound: The realization of phonemes. Each phoneme can have multiple sound variations depending on the context. Sounds of spoken language form the basic sequence of the phonic chain. All sounds are transcribed phonetically through the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
Spelling: A letter or digraph that represents a particular sound. Spelling is the way a sound is written, according to standard orthography.
Key Areas of Study
- Phonology: Determines the phonemes of a language.
- Phonetics: Studies the sounds of language, given their articulatory and acoustic characteristics.
- Spelling: Determines the phonic-graphic representation of sounds with letters.
Articulation of Sound
- If the air vibrates the vocal cords, the sound is voiced; otherwise, it is voiceless.
- If the air goes out through the mouth, it is an oral sound; if it goes out through the nostrils, it is nasal.
- Articulatory organs: upper teeth, dental alveoli, hard palate, tongue, lips, soft palate (velum).
- If the upper interface of the articulation organs is modified, the sound is considered consonantal; unless it is modified, it is vocalic.
Consonant Sounds
Point of Articulation: The point in the mouth where some obstruction to airflow occurs.
- Bilabial (e.g., B)
- Labiodental (e.g., F)
- Dental (e.g., D)
- Alveolar
- Palatal (e.g., L, G)
- Velar (e.g., C)
Manner of Articulation:
- Occlusive: Vocal tract closure.
- Fricative: Incomplete closure, and air flows through a narrow channel, causing friction.
- Affricate: Combination of occlusive and fricative manners.
- Approximant: Articulators approach each other without friction.
- Liquid: Air flows out the sides.
- Nasal: Occlusive, but air flows out through the nose.
Vowels
Vowels are produced by varying the degree of mouth opening and tongue position, creating a peculiar tone. They can be syllabic (tonic or unstressed).
Diphthongs
Diphthongs always contain i or u.
- Rising Diphthongs: The i or u precedes the vowel (e.g., qua-, güe-, quo-, ió-). The semivowels are transcribed as [j] and [w].
- Falling Diphthongs: The i or u follows the vowel (e.g., coure ‘to cook’). Transcribed with a semicircle below the i or u.
Note: In words like “examen”, the final sound is transcribed as [z]. The “ex-” at the beginning of a word is pronounced [gz].
Contact Phenomena
- Voicing: Certain consonant sounds are voiced when in contact with post-syllabic voiced sounds within the same word or phrase. Also, when a consonant is in the final position followed by a pause, “to be [b]” = [p].
- Sound Assimilation: A fricative consonant at the end of a word or syllable followed by a voiced consonant assimilates the voicing of the following sound. “Tap” = [p], “large cap” = [b].
- Labialization: When the phoneme /n/ is produced with a bilabial or labiodental contact.
- Palatalization: When the phoneme /n/ is pronounced before a palatal sound.
- Velarization: The point of articulation of a phoneme changes due to contact with a velar consonant. The final velar consonant may disappear (e.g., “banc” ‘bank’, “blanc” ‘white’).
- Gemination: Doubled pronunciation of a consonant. Some spellings represent this (e.g., “immobile” [bbl], “segle” [ggl]).
- Elision (Emmudiment): A sound that is graphically represented is not pronounced. This often occurs in the final position when we find m, n + l, -nc, occlusives, vibrants, and plurals ending in -s, -igs, -nxs, -xs, -cs.
- Sound Awareness (Sonorització): Pronouncing a spelling that is silent in other contexts. For example, the final ‘t’ in “vint” is pronounced in “vint-i-tres” but silent in “vint anys”.
Vocalic Contact Phenomena
- Elision: Disappearance of a vowel in contact.
- Synalepha: Formation of diphthongs with unstressed vowels i and u (e.g., “menjar i beure” [i with a semicircle below]).