The phonology is a branch of linguistics that studies and describes the sounds of a language. This system includes an inventory of sounds, their characteristics and the rules of how the interaction between them occurs.
In addition, in this field of study the phonemes that are represented by the letters are identified, which are small units that by themselves have no meaning. But, which in turn, represent phonological units that help to differentiate one sound from another.
It is essential not to confuse a phoneme with a sound, since the first is a mental image and the other is the material manifestation of the phoneme. The latter can be classified according to the anatomy and physiology of the place where they are articulated, such as the oral cavity, the nasal cavity and the vocal cords.
Broadly speaking, when speaking, the air contained in the lungs passes through the different cavities and the articulated sound will depend on the passive and active articulators. Thus, between the passive articulators are the upper teeth, the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. And among the active, or mobile, are the pharynx, soft palate, jaw, tongue, lower teeth and lips.
In general, phonology allows the study of the sounds of the language. As for orality, it is related to phonemes and sounds, and as for writing, it is related to graphemes and letters.
However, the management of these phonemes is not always carried out correctly since there may be a series of disorders such as functional dyslalia, dysglossia or dysarthria.
Phonemes
Phonemes are a set of sounds that are used to distinguish one word from another. It can be composed of several phonetically different articulations, and they can be considered the same by speakers of a certain language.
It is said that the phoneme is the minimum unit of oral language because it refers to the sounds that allow differentiating the words of a certain language. As a curiosity, in the Spanish language there are 22 phonemes and in English 40.
Phonemes are represented between two diagonal lines //. There are the vowel phonemes that are / a / / e / / i / or / / u / and the consonant phonemes represented by all the consonants of the alphabet: / b / / c / / d / / f / / g /…
At the phonic level of the language, the level of speech, phonology includes sounds, which are the units of study of phonetics.
And at the level of writing, there are spellings or letters, which are the written representation of phonemes, regulated by spelling. In Spanish there is a correspondence between phonemes and spellings, although there are also some mismatches that give rise to so-called "spelling errors".
However, there is an international phonetic alphabet, by means of which the representation of sounds in any oral language is regularized, unified and precise, and which allows the pronunciation of words to be shown graphically.
Vowel and consonant phonemes
The vowels are sounds that are produced when the air from the lungs passes through the vibrating vocal cords to fill the mouth of it. Vowels can be classified according to the height at which the tongue is located, its position and the way the lips open.
For their part, consonant sounds are those in which the air encounters an obstacle to get out of the mouth. These can be classified according to the point of articulation into bilabial, labiodental, dental interdental, alveolar, palatal and velar.
Regarding the mode of articulation, the sounds are classified as stop, fricative, affricate, lateral, vibrating, deaf and voiced. And as for the activity that the nasal cavity has in its pronunciation in nasal and oral.
The following are the articulation areas for the pronunciation of vowels, which are:
- Vowel / a /, middle location: high opening.
- Vowel / e /, anterior location: middle opening.
- Vowel / i /, anterior location: minimum opening.
- Vowel / o /, posterior location: middle opening.
- Vowel / u /, posterior location: middle opening.
In the case of the articulation areas for the pronunciation of the consonants, the following can be highlighted:
- Bilabial articulation area, contact with both lips: letter / b /, / m /, / p /.
- Labidental joint area, contact with the lower lip and upper teeth: letter / f /.
- Interdental articulation area, contact with the tongue between the teeth: letter / z /.
- Dental articulation area, contact with the tongue behind the upper teeth: letter / d /, / t /.
- Alveolar articulation area, contact with the tongue rests on the root of the upper teeth: letter / l /, / s /, / r /, / rr /, / n /.
- Palatal articulation area, contact with tongue and palate: letter
- / y /, / ch /, / ll /, / ñ /.
- Velar articulation zone, contact with the tongue and the soft palate: letter / g /, / k /, / j /.
On the other hand, regarding the position adopted by the sound-producing organs, there are:
- Occlusive type, the total and momentary closure of the air passage is adopted: letter / b /, / d /, / p /, / t /, / k /, / g /.
- Fricative type, the narrowing where the air passes brushing is adopted: letter
- / f /, / z /, / j /, / s /.
- Affricate type, an occlusion occurs and then a friction: letter
- / ch /, / ñ /.
- Lateral type, the air passes brushing the sides of the oral cavity: letter / l /, / ll /.
- Vibrating type, the air makes the tip of the tongue vibrate as it passes: letter
- / r /, / rr /.
- Nasal type, part of the air passes through the nasal cavity: letter / m /, / n /, / ñ /.
For the relationship of the vocal cords, voiced and deaf sounds have the following characteristics:
- Deaf sound, vocal cords do not vibrate: letters / j /, / f /, / ch /, / k /, / p /, / t /, / z /, / s /.
- Audible sound, vocal cords vibrate: letters / b /, / d /, / l /, / r /, / rr /, / m /, / n /, / ll /, / y /, / g /, / z /.
In this way, and in a summarized way, the features of consonantal phonemes are grouped into:
- Letter / p /, its feature is that it is bilabial, stop and deaf.
- Letter / b /, the feature is bilabial, stop and voiced.
- Letter / t /, the feature is dental, occlusive and deaf.
- Letter / d /, the feature is dental, occlusive, sonorous.
- Letter / k /, the feature is velar, stop, sound.
- Letter / g /, the feature is velar, occlusive, sonorous.
- Letter / f /, the feature is labidental, fricative, deaf.
- Letter / z /, the feature is interdental, fricative, deaf.
- Letter / s /, the feature is alveolar, fricative, deaf.
- Letter / j /, the feature is velar, fricative, deaf.
- Letter / ch /, the feature is palatal, affricate, deaf.
- Letter / r /, the feature is alveolar, vibrant and sonorous.
- Letter / rr /, the feature is alveolar, vibrant and sonorous.
- Letter / l /, its feature is alveolar, lateral and sonorous.
- Letter / ll /, the feature is palatal, lateral and voiced.
- Letter / m /, the feature is bilabial, nasal and voiced.
- Letter / n /, the feature is alveolar, nasal and voiced.
- Letter / ñ /, its feature is palatal, nasal and sonorous.
- Letter / and /, its feature is fricative, palatal and sonorous.
To finish, here are some examples of phonemes of those named above:
- Phoneme / b /, corresponds to the spelling bo v. For example: good or glass.
- Phoneme / k /, corresponds to the spelling c, qu, k. For example: sew, want or kilo.
- Phoneme / g /, corresponds to the spelling g, gu. For example: cat or guitar.
- Phoneme / s /, corresponds to the spelling c. For example: close.
References
- About lingual Links. (2004). What is phonology? Retrieved from 01.sil.org.
- Moore, A. (2002). Phonology - the study of speech sounds. Retrieved from teachit.co.uk.
- Reverso dictionary. (sf). Phoneme definition. Retrieved from dictionary.reverso.net.
- All about phonemes, phonetics and spelling (sf). Phonemes, letters and allophones. Retrieved from phonemicchart.com.
- Coxhead, P. (2006). Natural Language Processing & Applications Phones and Phonemes. Retrieved from cs.bham.ac.uk.
- Le Rosen, R. (nd). Retrieved from robinlerosen.weebly.com.
- (sf). Phonology. Retrieved from eweb.furman.edu.