{"id":1199,"date":"2021-02-18T14:00:12","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T14:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/chapter\/describing-sounds\/"},"modified":"2023-02-03T00:01:48","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T00:01:48","slug":"describing-sounds","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/chapter\/describing-sounds\/","title":{"raw":"2.1 Describing Sounds","rendered":"2.1 Describing Sounds"},"content":{"raw":"The sounds we produce can be described in terms of their physical properties and in terms of how they are articulated. The acoustic details of speech sounds are studied as [pb_glossary id=\"417\"]phonetics[\/pb_glossary]. The description of sounds in terms of how they are produced is known as [pb_glossary id=\"416\"]phonology[\/pb_glossary]. Think about how to produce the \u2018t\u2019 at the beginning of the word \u2018tin.\u2019 If you are native speaker of English, you will produce a small burst of air as you produce the \u2018t\u2019. This is not the case when you produce the \u2018t\u2019 in the word \u2018sit.\u2019 The \u2018t\u2019 in \u2018tin\u2019 is [pb_glossary id=\"418\"]aspirated[\/pb_glossary] and the \u2018t\u2019 in \u2018sit\u2019 is [pb_glossary id=\"419\"]unaspirated[\/pb_glossary]. Even if you produce the \u2018t\u2019 without aspiration, it may sound odd but doesn\u2019t change the meaning of the word in English. We will call these different sounds [pb_glossary id=\"420\"]phones[\/pb_glossary]. However, in some languages (such as Hindi), aspiration does change meaning. Therefore, in Hindi there is a distinction between unaspirated [b] in [b\u0251\u02d0lu\u02d0] \u2018sand\u2019 and aspirated [b\u02b0] in [b\u02b0\u0251\u02d0lu\u02d0] \u2018bear\u2019. As English doesn\u2019t differentiate between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, Mowgli\u2019s bear buddy in Rudyard Kipling\u2019s \u2018The Jungle Book\u2019 is simply called Baloo<\/em>. Similarly, the \u2018gh\u2019 in Bagheera<\/em> is an aspirated [\u0261\u02b0] sound which is not pronounced as such in English. When we write out a phone in linguistics, we place them between two square brackets (as seen above).\r\n\r\nThe smallest sound unit in a language is known as a [pb_glossary id=\"421\"]phoneme[\/pb_glossary]. In English, the aspirated and unaspirated \u2018t\u2019 sounds are both considered one phoneme as they are not distinguished by speakers of that language. When such sounds occur without being differentiated by speakers of a languages, they are known as [pb_glossary id=\"423\"]allophones[\/pb_glossary]. However, in Hindi the aspirated and unaspirated \u2018t\u2019 sounds are separate phonemes. When we write out phonemes in linguistics, we place them between two forward slashes. So, a phonemic description of the word \u2018pin\u2019 would look like \/p\u026an\/, while a phonetic description would look like [p\u02b0\u026an].\r\n\r\nIn order to discover all the phonemes in a language, we often employ [pb_glossary id=\"424\"]minimal pairs[\/pb_glossary]. Two words that differ from each other in just one phoneme are know as minimal pairs. Consider \u2018kit\u2019 and \u2018kid\u2019. Substituting \u2018t\u2019 for \u2018d\u2019 changes the meaning of the word, but changing [k\u026at] with [k\u026ath] would not. Therefore, \/t\/ and \/d\/ are phonemes in English and [t] and [th] are phones.","rendered":"

The sounds we produce can be described in terms of their physical properties and in terms of how they are articulated. The acoustic details of speech sounds are studied as phonetics<\/a>. The description of sounds in terms of how they are produced is known as phonology<\/a>. Think about how to produce the \u2018t\u2019 at the beginning of the word \u2018tin.\u2019 If you are native speaker of English, you will produce a small burst of air as you produce the \u2018t\u2019. This is not the case when you produce the \u2018t\u2019 in the word \u2018sit.\u2019 The \u2018t\u2019 in \u2018tin\u2019 is aspirated<\/a> and the \u2018t\u2019 in \u2018sit\u2019 is unaspirated<\/a>. Even if you produce the \u2018t\u2019 without aspiration, it may sound odd but doesn\u2019t change the meaning of the word in English. We will call these different sounds phones<\/a>. However, in some languages (such as Hindi), aspiration does change meaning. Therefore, in Hindi there is a distinction between unaspirated [b] in [b\u0251\u02d0lu\u02d0] \u2018sand\u2019 and aspirated [b\u02b0] in [b\u02b0\u0251\u02d0lu\u02d0] \u2018bear\u2019. As English doesn\u2019t differentiate between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, Mowgli\u2019s bear buddy in Rudyard Kipling\u2019s \u2018The Jungle Book\u2019 is simply called Baloo<\/em>. Similarly, the \u2018gh\u2019 in Bagheera<\/em> is an aspirated [\u0261\u02b0] sound which is not pronounced as such in English. When we write out a phone in linguistics, we place them between two square brackets (as seen above).<\/p>\n

The smallest sound unit in a language is known as a phoneme<\/a>. In English, the aspirated and unaspirated \u2018t\u2019 sounds are both considered one phoneme as they are not distinguished by speakers of that language. When such sounds occur without being differentiated by speakers of a languages, they are known as allophones<\/a>. However, in Hindi the aspirated and unaspirated \u2018t\u2019 sounds are separate phonemes. When we write out phonemes in linguistics, we place them between two forward slashes. So, a phonemic description of the word \u2018pin\u2019 would look like \/p\u026an\/, while a phonetic description would look like [p\u02b0\u026an].<\/p>\n

In order to discover all the phonemes in a language, we often employ minimal pairs<\/a>. Two words that differ from each other in just one phoneme are know as minimal pairs. Consider \u2018kit\u2019 and \u2018kid\u2019. Substituting \u2018t\u2019 for \u2018d\u2019 changes the meaning of the word, but changing [k\u026at] with [k\u026ath] would not. Therefore, \/t\/ and \/d\/ are phonemes in English and [t] and [th] are phones.<\/p>\n

definition<\/span>