PHONOLOGY

DEFINITION

Phonology is the study of the patterns of sounds in a language, it is the study of the categorical organisation of speech sounds in languages: how speech sounds are organised in the mind and used to convey meaning.

Phonology can be related to many linguistic disciplines, including psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, etc. Principles of phonology can also be applied to treatments of speech pathologies and innovations in technology. In terms of speech recognition, systems can be designed to translate spoken data into text. In this way, computers process the language like our brains do. The same processes that occur in the mind of a human when producing and receiving language occur in machines. One example of machines decoding language is the popular intelligence system, Siri.

HOMOPHONES

A homophone is a word that sounds the same as another word but has a different meaning and spelling. Flower and flour arehomophones because they are pronounced the same.

This is a list of useful homophones for elementary or beginner level learners.

Click HERE if you need a dictionary.

aren’t / aunt buy / by eye / I hear / here hour / our know / no knows / nose mail / male meat / meet plain / plane right / write road / rode sail / sale sea / see son / sun steal / steel storey / story tail / tale their / there / they're

wear / where wood / would ate / eight blue / blew brake / break cell / sell cent / sent dear / deer made / maid new / knew one / won passed / past their / they're theirs / there's who's / whose flour / flower red / read ( past tense) two / too your / you’re

This is a list of useful homophones for intermediate level learners.

Click HERE if you need a dictionary

allowed / aloud band / banned bare / bear board / bored cent / scent cereal / serial desert (v) / dessert fair / fare farther / father flew / flu find / fined guessed / guest hair / hare heal / heel heard / herd higher / hire hole / whole I'll / isle / aisle knight / night knot / not mayor / mare missed / mist

nun / none pail / pale pairs / pears pause / paws peace / piece pore /pour raise / rays root / route rose / rows saw / sore sight / site sole / soul stare / stair through / threw throne / thrown wait / weight war / wore warn / worn way / weigh weakly / weekly weather / whether which / witch

Click on this link and do the exercise:

LINK 

HOMOGRAPHS

Two words are homographs if they are spelled the same way but differ in meaning and pronunciation. The verb lead (guide) and the noun lead (a kind of metal) are homographs as they have different meanings and pronunciations.

A) Bow as in arrow vs bow as in bending or taking a bow at the end of a performance

B) Desert as in dry climate vs desert as in leaving alone

C) I need to wind the alarm clock so I can fly my kite in the early morning wind.

D) Please record the program when they try to beat the worldrecord for high jump.

Read – /riːd/ (the same as “reed”) means to perceive information provided in a written form; /red/ (the same as “red”) is the past tense of the verb “to read”.

Live – to /lɪv/ (rhyming with “give”) is a verb meaning “to be alive” /əˈlaɪv/; /laɪv/(rhyming with “dive”) is an adjective meaning “being alive”.

Wind – /wɪnd/ is a movement of air; to /waɪnd/ (rhyming with “kind”) is a verb meaning “to turn, especially something around something else”. For example, a river or a way can wind/waɪnd/, or you can wind a watch.

Wound – a /wuːnd/ is an injury; /waʊnd/ (rhyming with “sound”) is the past tense of the verb “wind” (/waɪnd/, see above).

Tear – to /teə/ (rhyming with “fair”) means to rip a solid material; a/tɪə/(rhyming with “dear”) is a water drop coming from someone’s eyes.

Bow – a /bəʊ/ (rhyming with “snow”) is a medieval weapon or a device used to play the violin; to /baʊ/ (rhyming with “cow”, pronounced the same as “bough”) is a verb meaning “to bend oneself in a gesture of showing respect”.

Row – /rəʊ/ (rhyming with “low”) is a line of objects (or a verb meaning “to propel a boat in water by using oars”); a /raʊ/(rhyming with “cow”) is a noisy argument (to /raʊ/ means “to argue noisily”).

Close – to /kləʊz/ is the opposite of the verb “open”; /kləʊs/(notice the “s” at the end) is an adjective meaning “near”.

Excuse – to /ɪkˈskjuːz/ (rhyming with “lose”) means to forgive somebody for something that they have done; an /ɪkˈskjuːs/(notice the “s” at the end) is an explanation designed to avoid negative judgement.

Lead – to /liːd/ means to guide or conduct ;/led/ (rhyming with “red”) is a chemical element with the symbol.

Graduate – a /ˈɡrædʒuət/ is a person holding an academic degree; to /ˈɡrædʒueɪt/ (rhyming with “late”) means to obtain an academic degree. Notice that although the pronunciation is different, there is no difference in stress position.

Bass – a /beɪs/ is the lowest voice in a harmony; a /bæs/ is a member of a certain species of fish.

House – a /haʊs/ (rhymes with mouse) is a building; to /haʊz/(rhyming with cows) means “to provide a place for somebody to live”.

Use – to /juːz/ means to utilize; a /juːs/ is a way in which something is used.

RHYMING PAIRS

Click here if you need a dictionary

air / bare care / fair bear / fare hair / pear share / wear turn / learn take / break ache / wake lake / steak about / shout brown / frown blue / flew could / would whale / mail walk / talk weight / mate saw / law raw / more said / head

bread / dead write / quite nose / toes fist / wrist hip / lip lung / tongue taught / bought showed / load half / laugh allowed / proud birth / earth born / warn part / heart see / key bird / word right / height home / comb flu / clue fork / walk

NOTE - The following pairs of words DO NOT rhyme:

quite / quiet

road / abroad

cough / though (=although)

done / gone

sweet / suit

days / says

ahead / afraid

say / key

could /cool

PRONUNCIATION TIPS

Remember the following:

a) In the first syllable of money, company, other, etc and in the monosyllabic words month, glove, luck, dove, etc you find the same vowel sound as in the verb run. Now watch a video about this vowel sound and the vowel sound you find in the word ran; in the video the speaker contrasts the two different vowel sounds in words such as cat – cut; cup – cap; hat – hut …

Click HERE to watch the video.

b) A very common sound in the English language is found in words such as work, world, worth, word, bird, birth, heard, learn, prefer, etc. In the following video you can see how the vowel sound in all the previous words /3:/ is

pronounced:

Click HERE to watch the video

c) The letter < t > in the words picture, future, fortune, congratulations (noun / the verb is congratulate someone on something), question, actually (= really // nowadays or currently for Spanish actualmente), furniture (uncountable noun) is pronounced like in check.

d) The letter < x > is pronounced in two different ways depending on the stressed syllable of the word. If the letter < x > is followed by a stressed vowel such as in exam the right pronunciation is/g’z/ : exam /ɪg’zæm/, example /ɪg’za:mpl/, exist / ɪg’zɪst/, exact/ ɪg’zækt/. In all the other cases, the pronunciation of < x > is /ks/ : exit /’eksɪt/, exercise /’eksəsaɪz/, explain /ɪk’spleɪn/, excellent/’eksələnt/, extreme /ɪk’stri:m/

Note that if the letters EX are stressed, they are pronounced /’eks/ but if unstressed the pronunciation is /ɪks/

There are very few words in English beginning with < x > and here we will only mention three of them: xenophobia /zenə’fəʊbɪə/, xylophone /’zaɪləfəʊn/, x-ray /’eksreɪ/.

e)  The combination of letters < sce > or < sci > at the beginning or in the middle of a word, is pronounced /s/ :

 science /’saɪəns/, scene /si:n/, fascinate /’fæsɪneɪt/,adolescent (adj. & noun)

/,ædə’lesənt/, discern /dɪ’s3:n/, discipline /’dɪsɪplɪn/

EXCEPTIONS: sceptic (noun) /’skeptɪk/, scepticism (abstract noun) /’skeptɪsɪzəm/,

sceptical (adj.) /’skeptɪkl/

f) The pronounciation of the final suffix -ATE varies depending on the grammatical category of the word: nouns and adjectives are pronounced /ɪt/ or /ət/ (intimate – adj /’ɪntɪmɪt/ or /ɪntɪmət/whereas verbs ending -ate are pronounced /eɪt/ (celebrate /’selɪbreɪt/)

1.Adjectives: delicate /’delɪkət/, accurate /’ækjərət/, illiterate / ɪ’lɪtərət/, adequate /’ædɪkwət/, considerate /kən’sɪdərət/,deliberate /dɪ’lɪberət/, desperate /despərət/, private /praɪvət/, and similarly adverbs immediately /ɪ’mi:dɪətlɪ/, approximately /ə’proksɪmətlɪ/.

2.Nouns . climate /’klaɪmət/, pirate /’paɪərət/, bicarbonate/baɪ’ka:bənət/, certificate /sə’tifikət/, similarly magistrate, chocolate …

EXCEPTIONS: compound nouns with the word -mate (playmate/’pleɪmeɪt/,

similarly classmate, flatmate, workmate, roommate, soulmate…),words such as debate or estate and monosyllabic words such asfate, date, gate ...

3.Verbs:

 investigate /ɪn’vestɪgeɪt/, emigrate /’emɪgreit/, indicate/’ɪndɪkeɪt/, isolate /’aɪsəleɪt/…

4.Some words can be both an adjective and a verb, the pronunciation being different in each case:

- separate (adjective) /’sepərət/ (verb) /’sepəreɪt/

- estimate (adjective) /’estɪmət/ (verb) /’estɪmeɪt/

Now watch this video: 

g) One of the most common mistakes students of English as a foreign language often make is the mispronunciation of the adjective suffix - ABLE,

used in English as a highly productive suffix to form adjectives by addition to stems of any origin: teachable, photographable, sociable…

The only words ending in -able pronounced /eɪbl/ are the noun table and the adjectives able/unable (to be able to). In the other cases the suffix -able is pronounced /əbl/ : suitable /’su:təbl/,available /ə’veɪləbl/, capable /’keɪpəbl/, regrettable /rɪ’gretəbl/,preferable /’prefərəbl/, reliable /rɪ’laɪəbl/, acceptable /ək’septəbl/, separable /’sepərəbl/ ...

In the following two video you will find additional information about this suffix and the allomorph -ible (incredible /ɪn’kredəbl/,admissible /ad’mɪsəbl/, visible /’vɪzəbl/, permissible /pa’mɪsəbl/,flexible

 /’fleksəbl/, inedible /ɪn’edəbl/, responsible /rɪ’sponsəbl/,sensible /’sensəbl/ ...

h) In order to learn how to pronounce the final suffix - OUS /əs/ that you find

in adjectives such as disastrous /dɪ’za:strəs/, nervous /’n3:vəs/,previous /’pri:vɪəs/, glamorous /’glæmərəs/, mysterious/mɪ’stɪərɪəs/, synonymous /sɪ’nonɪməs/, tedious /’ti:dɪəs/, ;watch this video:

i) The Linking R sound in English is an extra sound that we use between two words when we are connecting these two words together. If we pronounce the two words separately, we do not use an R sound between them but if we pronounce them together, we say an R sound between the words because it makes the words easier to pronounce quickly.

The letter r in syllable final position is not pronounced, e.g. car/kɑ:/ which means that we will not find this sound /r/ at the end of words. The linking /r/ sound appears when the syllable ends with one of these vowel sounds /ɑ:/, /ɔ:/, /ɜ:/, /ə/, /eə/, /ɪə/ and /ʊə/ and the next syllable starts with a vowel sound.

It's near enough /ɪts nɪər ɪˈnʌf/

It's quite far away /ɪts kwaɪt fɑ:r əˈweɪ/

The doctor agrees /ðə dɒktər əˈgri:z/

There are three places /ðər ə ˈθri: ˈpleɪsɪz/

I can't hear anything /aɪ kɑ:n hɪər enɪθɪŋ/

The actor and playwright /ðɪ ˈæktər ən ˈpleɪraɪt/

There's a tour along the river /ðəz ə tʊər əlɒŋ ðə ˈrɪvə/

It's made of fur and leather /ɪts meɪd əv ˈfɜ:r ən ˈleðə/

The following video will help you clearly understand how native speakers use the linking /r/ sound in English.