Assignment: Phonology

There are thousands of languages in the world, but only hundreds of speech sounds in those languages. When you know a language you know the sounds of that language, and you know how to combine those sounds into words. Although languages may contain different sounds, the sounds of all languages of the world together constitute a class of sounds that the human vocal tract is designed to make.

Phonology is the study of how speech sounds form patterns. Knowledge of phonology determines how we pronounce words and the parts of words we call morphemes. Often, certain morphemes are pronounced differently depending on their context, which can be explained by a variety of phonological rules.

For this assignment you will explore the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and phonological rules for English.

Part I:International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA): The study of speech sounds is called phonetics. In 1888 members of the International Phonetic Association developed a phonetic alphabet to symbolize the sounds of all languages. They utilized both ordinary letters and invented symbols. The inventors of International Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA, knew that a phonetic alphabet should include just enough symbols to represent the fundamental sounds of all languages.

For this assignment you will demonstrate and apply your knowledge of English phonetics. Use Table 6.6 in your textbook and other resources (http://ipa.typeit.org/ ) to complete this assignment successfully.

• Write the IPA phonetic symbol for the first sound in each of the 12 words listed below according to the way you pronounce it. http://ipa.typeit.org/

1.  juggle /__/                             

2  tub /__/                             

3  though /__/                             

4  eat /__/

5  pneumonia /__/                 

6  thought /__/                 

7  connect /__/                 

8  phoneme /__/                 

9  civil /__/                 

10 usually /__/     

11. mine  /__/     

12. doubt /__/                 

List 12 additional words with different English sounds, and write the IPA phonetic symbol for all sounds in each of them. These words must be different from the previous 12 words in this assignment. Use the same format as in the example:

Part II: The Rules of Phonology: Use the required textbook and other resources to describe 3 phonological rules of English. Complete the following:

1  List the English phonological rule

2  Give numerous examples

3  State how you would teach this rule to ELLs