Saturday, June 11, 2016

Sound Off!: Phonetic vs. Phonological Analyses



N      V
I want you to start reading this blog post by stating the above letters out loud.  Go on, I am not going to judge you.  These are two very simple letters, but when you say them together, what do they sound like?  Say it again and listen carefully.  Do you hear it?  (See the bottom of this post for answer.)  This is a good lead in to this blog post’s primary topics: understanding the differences between phonetics and phonology.  The discussion will focus on the differences in the terms and how each provides insights into the understandings of language and culture.

Phonetics and phonology are two of the most basic levels of understanding language.  Phonetics focuses on speech sounds, or what and how people say the sounds that make up specific words in any language.  These are made up of phonemes, which are the smallest units of sound that differentiate meaning in a language.  Understanding phonetics and the phonemes of any language is the first step to understanding a language.  One must inventory the sounds of the language in order to learn how to speak it, which is why the first thing children learn is the alphabet and the sounds each letter of the alphabet make.  Each language has a set of phonemes, ranging from 15 to 65.  Linguists identify specific phonemes that exist in languages by studying minimal pairs, which are words that sound similar but differ in one letter or sound.  An example of a minimal pair is bet vs vet-the v and b are the difference in the words and are also what differentiate the words from each other (as the former means a wager whereas the latter refers to an animal doctor or former military personnel).  Understanding phonemes is important because not all languages have the same phonemes, such as the case with Bushman languages, which have click sounds that are not discernable in most other languages, or the lack of the r sound that is common in Germanic and Romance languages (e.g. English & French) but not in Japanese.

Building on phonetics is phonology, or the study of speech sounds.  Phonology allows other studies of language (e.g. lexicon, morphology, etc.), the meanings attached to specific sound constructions (such as the word play example above), as well as provides insights into socio-linguistics as social attitudes do vary regarding specific accents and intonations.  In English culture Cockney accents tend to be looked down upon, and in American culture the Valley girl dialect leads to each statement sound like a question based on the location of the intonation, leading to it being viewed negatively.  Furthermore, because phonology focuses on the placement of speech sounds into specific words it allows scholars to get insights into language and culture.  For example, words that sound similar but have different meanings are a topic that is explored within phonology.  Another specific area of study is when different language speakers come in contact with each other and influence pronunciation.  This also provides insights into cultural changes, traditions, norms, and values that may result from these cultural confrontations. 

Overall, phonetics and phonology are the basic foundations of linguistic studies as they provide insights not just into language sounds but also language meaning.  Understanding of phonemes, the smallest units of sound, is the most basic area of study within these two linguistic studies, but they ultimately lend information to the greater understanding of sociolinguistics through accents and intonation.

(N V sounds just like envy, which is a play on words of a local store that inspired this post.)  

Bibliography

Coleman, J.  No Date.  “Phonetics vs. Phonology”.  http://www.phon.ox.ac.uk/jcoleman/PHONOLOGY1.htm


Gezon, L. and C. Kottak.  2014.  Culture, Second Edition.  New York: McGraw Hill.

Haviland, W.A., H.E.L. Prins, D. Walrath, B. McBride.  2011.  Anthropology, The Human Challenge, Thirteenth Edition.  Belmont: Wadsworth.



Moore, A.  2002.  “Phonology: The Study of Speech Sounds.”  https://www.teachit.co.uk/armoore/lang/phonology.htm



No Author.  2004.  “What Is Phonology?”  SIL International.  LinguaLinks Library.  http://www-01.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsPhonology.htm

Tan, P.  No Date.  “What is Phonology?”  EL2111: Historical Variation in English.  https://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elltankw/history/phon/a.htm

 

15 comments:

Juber Baires said...

It was interesting reading about Phonetics and phonology. We know that phonetics is the description of speech in smallest sounds. People from different countries have different alphabets, but some letters are the same and some are completely different. Phonology is the term used for speech sounds used in a particular language. Around the world there are different sounds in a language, even here in United States that people speak English the sounds vary from one state to another.

Sarah Painter said...

I am totally going through this with my kids. When my daughter was younger she used to say frog but her phonetics or lack of the proper use of phonetics had her sounding like she was saying the naughty F word. When my children were younger they made a lot of phonetic mistakes and now that they are older it is quite the challenge teaching them phonology. Their and there is very commonly misused in our house.

I can definitely see how culturally these things make a difference. From one side of the US to another we sound different but are saying the same words. Its strange how phonetics are different in just that small of a range. I know it drastically differs throughout the world.

Anonymous said...

My children and I are looking into learning another language, and this bring good advise. When I think about my brief high school Spanish classes, I remember learning words and what they meant or stood for without learning the alphabet and sounds of each letter. After you pointed out learning the alphabet, it makes more sense to do so first with any language being pursued.
I'm curious how this affects or ties into, if any, learning disabilities such as dyslexia. My children and husband all have it. I think about them trying to sounds words out to read and they often start sounding out with wrong letters.
Sara Indiano

Anonymous said...

So my daughter is going through this, especially when learning two different languages at the same time. Like mentioned by Sarah Painter, my daughter would say something that sounds similar to the f word.

Caylynn Lam Yuen
Anthropology101
1stSession Summer 2016

Anonymous said...

It's weird how English works. Words that sound similar with different meanings some people get mixed up is there, their, and they'er those are possibly the most common. Question, would live be one? same spelling but two different meanings.
Aaliyah Caldwell

Dr. Christine Elisabeth Boston said...

Aaliyah, say both of the words out loud. Do they sound the same?

Zachary Dickherber said...

It is surprising that only as low as 15 words have this similarity in some languages I would guess that there would have been more in the vast vocab of languages but I guess some languages don’t cover all aspects and meanings.

Unknown said...

And this is why every one struggles with English because of the pronunciations. and the phonetics and phonology are difficult to people that already speak a first language.

Betsy Britt - Introduction to Anthropology SA-202 said...

After reading this post, it occurred to me that phonetics and phonology are probably the most important tools to a speech pathologist. Someone with bad hearing (bad enough to effect his or her speech) probably find it easier when these two concepts are used in helping his or her pronunciation.

D.Traywick said...

To say the least, I love the correlation between the title and the actual purpose of the article. That was a unique approach and attention getter that immediately highlights the use and concept of phonetics which is amazing.

Anonymous said...

After reading this post, the correlation between the title and the actual article go hand in hand. When you start off by reading the article after seeing the letters and putting them together you make a word and I found it so amusing on how English works and how phonetic and phonological analyses can go a long way in learning and understanding the English language. -Brianne Pickett

Anonymous said...

I've heard of phonetics language before but not phonology. Would you be interested in learning any of these langauges?

-Daisha Benton

Mario Lucas said...

It is important to understand how phonology works and where it comes from. It is interesting that most words sound similar to one another and could derive from different languages.

Jasmine Busby said...

The individual breakdown of phonetics and phonology are really helpful in this blog. I know if I were to try, learning a new language would be hard for me because I would get confused quick with similar sounding words.
-Jasmine Busby

Anonymous said...

It was interesting learn about phonetics And phonology. I have a better understanding when goistic studis after learning what phonology is. Phonetics focus on speech sounds and phonological are the meanings of the specific constructions. Very interesting post.

Elaine christopher