Unit 3
Phonology 2: Sound Patterns and Phonological Environments

Overview

Unit 2 introduced the topic of phonetics; it looked at how sounds are produced and at how linguists describe the production of speech sounds in any language. Now that you understand the principles of language classification, it is time to identify and categorize the patterns formed by sounds in speech. Unit 3 discusses phonemics—the function and pattern of meaningful speech sounds within a particular language—and examines the variety found in human speech. Language is not merely a linear sequence of sounds. Rather, sounds are combined into units and these units have an influence on each other. It may be useful to think of units of sounds as a context or as an environment. The study of sound patterns and units is called phonology.

Objectives

After completing this unit, you should be able to

1. define the following terms
   • phoneme
   • phonemic
   • distinctive features
   • phone
   • allophones
   • complementary distribution
   • free variation
   • natural classes
   • assimilation
   • feature addition
   • segment deletion
   • metathesis
2. distinguish between phonetics and phonemics.
3. differentiate between phones, phonemes, and allophones.
4. describe how the minimal pair test is used in identifying phonemes.
5. differentiate between free variation and complementary distribution.
6. solve linguistic problems using the following analytical techniques:
   • distinctive features;
   • the minimal pair test;
   • complementary distribution; and
   • syllables.
7. compare the structuralist approach to phonemics and the transformational-generative approach to rules in speech production.