2017م - 1444هـ
Phonology: The Sound

Patterns of Language





Introduction to Linguistic Theory

Adam Szczegielniak

Phonology: The Sound

Patterns of Language



Phonology: The Sound Patterns of

Language

• There are only a dozen or so features needed to

describe every speech sound in every human language

– All the languages in the world sound so different because the

way the languages use speech sounds to form patterns differs

from language to language

• The study of how speech sounds form patterns is

phonology

• Phonology tells us what sounds are in a language, how

they do and can combine into words, and explains why

certain phonetic features are important to identifying a

word



The

Pronuncia-on

of

Morphemes:

Plurals

• Some-mes

certain

morphemes

are

pronounced

differently

depending

on

their

context

• For

example,

the

English

plural

morpheme

has

three

different

pronuncia-ons

depending

on

what

noun

you

a@ach

it

to:

– It

gets

pronounced

as

a

[z]

for

words

like

cab,

bag,

and

bar

– It

gets

pronounced

as

[s]

for

words

like

cap,

back,

and

faith

– It

gets

pronounced

as

[əz]

for

words

like

bus,

garage,

and

match