“Speech sounds cannot be
understood, delimited, classified
and explained except in the light
of the tasks which they perform
in language. ”
-- Roman Jakobson
What is Phonology?
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Today
Reminder: Quiz #2 (phonetics) open today, due
4/13 @ 11:59pm; CLUE tonight @ 6:30pm
 What is phonology?
 Contrastive vs. noncontrastive sounds
 Phonemes vs. allophones
 Complementary distribution
Readings: 3.0 - 3.2
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Phonology

The study of the organization of speech
sounds in a language:
1. How they function
2. How they are distributed
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1. Function

Contrastiveness vs. noncontrastiveness
Do the sounds function to distinguish meaning?
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Contrastiveness

Sounds are contrastive if interchanging them
can change meaning of word


English [p]/[b] = contrastive
[læp] ‘lap’ vs. [læb] ‘lab’
English [t]/[ɾ] = non-contrastive
[kɪti] ‘kitty’ vs. [kɪɾi] ‘kitty’
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Contrastiveness

Languages can differ in which sounds are
contrastive


Spanish [t]/[ɾ] = contrastive
[pɑtɑ] ‘animal leg’ vs. [pɑɾɑ] ‘for’
Hindi [p]/[ph] = contrastive
[phal] ‘blade’ vs. [pal] ‘take care of’ ([bal] ‘hair’)
(English [p]/[ph] = non-contrastive)
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Contrastiveness

Minimal pair:

Words that differ by a single sound in same
position and have different meanings
m/n: [sʌm] ‘sum’ vs. [sʌn] ‘sun’
k/g: [bʌk] ‘buck’ vs. [bʌɡ] ‘bug’
s/ʃ: [mɛsi] ‘messy’ vs. [mɛʃi] ‘meshy’
i/ɪ/ɛ: [fil] ‘feel’ vs. [fɪl] ‘fill’ vs. [fɛl] ‘fell’
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Question:

a)
b)
c)
d)
Which of the following is a minimal pair?
bear vs bare
stop vs spot
sings vs sinks
real vs feel
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Question:

a)
b)
c)
d)
Which of the following is a minimal pair?
bear vs bare
stop vs spot
sings vs sinks
real vs feel
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Contrastiveness

Sounds in minimal pairs may be contrastive in
multiple features or a single feature:




Voicing is contrastive in alveolar stops:
[bæt] ‘bat’ vs. [bæd] ‘bad’
Place is contrastive in nasals:
[sʌm] ‘sum’ vs. [sʌŋ] ‘sung’
Manner is contrastive in voiceless alveolars:
[mɛs] ‘mess’ vs. [mɛt] ‘met’
Vowel Height is contrastive in front unrounded lax V:
[pɪt] ‘pit’ vs. [pɛt] ‘pet’
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Question:

a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
Find the minimal pair in which *place* is
contrastive in voiceless fricatives.
sip vs zip
tap vs tack
shin vs thin
chip vs sip
veal vs zeal
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Question:

a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
Find the minimal pair in which *place* is
contrastive in voiceless fricatives.
sip vs zip
tap vs tack
shin vs thin
chip vs sip
veal vs zeal
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Question:

a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
Find the minimal pair in which *place* is
contrastive in voiceless fricatives.
sip vs zip
tap vs tack
shin vs thin
chip vs sip
veal vs zeal
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Summary so far…

Sounds in a minimal pair…



…are contrastive
…are unpredictable (i.e., must be learned)
…belong to different phonemes
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Phoneme vs. allophone


Phoneme:
 Abstract mental representation of set of sounds
(‘allophones’) considered by native speakers to be
‘same’ sound
/phoneme/
[allophone]
 Serve to distinguish meaning
Allophone:
 the different phonetic
realizations of a phoneme
 Allophones of same phoneme are noncontrastive
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Question:

a)
b)
c)
d)
How many different sounds are represented
by the ‘t’ in each of these American English
words: ‘top’ ‘stop’ ‘little’ ‘kitten’
1
2
3
4
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Question:

a)
b)
c)
d)
How many different sounds are represented
by the ‘t’ in each of these American English
words: ‘top’ ‘stop’ ‘little’ ‘kitten’
1
2
3
4
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Phoneme vs. allophone
top
[thɑp]
stop
[stɑp]
allophones 
[t]
kitten
[kɪʔn̩]
Hindi:
/t/ /th/
/t/
phoneme 
[th]
little
[ lɪɾl ̩]
[ɾ]
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[ʔ]
[t]
[th]
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2. Distribution

Contrastive distribution: When sounds can
occur in same phonetic environment (i.e., may
form a minimal pair)
Environment:



Initial: [su] ‘sue’ vs.
Medial: [fʌsi] ‘fussy’
Final:
[lus] ‘loose’
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[zu] ‘zoo’
[fʌzi] ‘fuzzy’
[luz] ‘lose’
#__u
ʌ__i
u__#
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2. Distribution
Note: Some contrastive sounds may not be
found in minimal pair, e.g., [ʃ] vs. [ʒ]
??[fɪʃɹ̩] ‘fisher’ vs. [fɪʒɹ̩] ‘fissure’??
[dɑɪluʃn̩] ‘dilution’ vs. [dəluʒn̩] ‘delusion’
[əluʃn̩] ‘Aleutian’ vs. [ɪluʒn̩] ‘illusion’
= Near minimal pair : differ in >1 sound, but contrastive sounds have same phonetic environment
(e.g., u__n̩)
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
Sounds in contrastive distribution…




…belong to different phonemes
…are contrastive
…occur in minimal or near minimal pairs
…are unpredictable (i.e., must be learned)
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2. Distribution

Complementary distribution: When
(phonetically similar) sounds never occur in
exact same phonetic environment, but in
mutually-exclusive (or complementary)
environments

Eng. ph/p:
[phæt] ‘pat’
[phul] ‘pool’
[phik] ‘peak’
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[spæt] ‘spat’
[spul] ‘spool’
[spik] ‘speak’
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
Sounds in complementary distribution…




…are allophones of a single phoneme
…are noncontrastive
…do not occur in minimal pairs
…are predictable (based on environment)
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Two people or one person?
Are Superman and Clark Kent ever in same environment?
=
Superman and Clark Kent are different
realizations of the same person
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The analogy



Clark Kent and Superman are allophones of
the same phoneme
They are noncontrastive.
They are in complementary distribution.
/p/
/Superman/
[Clark Kent] [Superman]
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[ph]
[p]
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Summary
Phonemes





Allophones
Contrastive
Minimal Pairs are possible
Unpredictable, contrastive
distribution
Easily perceived as different
by native speakers
Not necessarily phonetically
similar





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Noncontrastive
No minimal pairs
Predictable, complementary
distribution
Not easily perceived as
different by native
speakers
Always phonetically similar
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