Chapter 2 phonology.ppt

Chapter 2 Phonology 1. Speech is prior to writing, the writing system is for the use of recording speech of any language, there are still languages in today’s society with only spoken but not written form. 2. In everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount information conveyed. 3.Native speakers of any languages first acquire the speech but much later learn the writing in the course of language learning. 4. For modern linguists, they believe that spoken language reveal many true features, whereas written forms may be treated as some “revised” record of speech invented by its users. Speech sounds--- Language is primarily vocal. The primary medium of human language is sound. Linguists are not interested in all sounds, but in speech sounds----sounds that convey meaning in human communication (phonic medium). 2.1 Phonetics ----A branch of linguistics which studies the characteristics of speech sounds, especially those sounds used in speech, and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription, e.g. [p] bilabial, stop. ----A phonetician is mainly interested in the physical properties of the speech sounds. He is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world’s languages. Three branches of phonetics Speech sounds may be studied in different ways, thus by three different branches of phonetics Articulatory phonetics----from the speakers’ point of view, “how speakers produce speech sounds” Auditory phonetics----from the hearers’ point of view, “how sounds are perceived” Acoustic phonetics----from the physical way or means by which sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another. It tries to describe the physical properties of the stream of sounds which a speaker issues Most phoneticians are interested in articulatory phonetics. Speech organs: three important cavities The diagram of speech organs Lips Teeth Teeth ridge (alveolar) Hard palate Soft palate (velum) Uvula Tip o