CHAPTER I

BACKGROUND

This paper is arranged to introductory on English phonology of the sort taught in the first
year of The English Language. The students on such courses can struggle with phonetics and
phonology, it is sometimes difficult to see past the new symbols and terminology and the
apparent assumption that we can immediately become consciously aware of movements of the
vocal organs which we have been making almost automatically for the last eighteen or more
years. This paper attempts to show us why we need to know about phonetics and phonology, if
we are interested in language and our knowledge of it, as well as introducing the main units and
concepts we require to describe speech sounds accurately.
Phonology is concerned with how sounds function in relation to each other in a language.
In other words, phonetics is about sounds of language, phonology about sound systems of
language. Phonetics is concerned with how sounds are produced, transmitted and perceived (we
will only look at the production of sounds). Phonetics is a descriptive tool necessary to the study
of the phonological aspects of a language.
On this paper, we will present the definition of phonology and the difference between
phonetics and phonology. Also, we will discussed about phonemes and allophones. We will
present kinds of phonemes and kind of allophones.
Our hope is that the study of phonology gives us insight into how the human mind works.
and the study of the phonetics of a foreign language will give us a much better ability both to
hear and to correct mistakes that we make, and also to teach pronunciation of the foreign
language (in this case, English) to others.

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 CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

A. PHONEME
Phonemes are the distinctive sounds of a languagethe sounds that a native speaker of
the language considers to be separate sounds. Phoneme is the contrastive sound unit in a
language, it is contrastive because it distinguishes meanings when exchanged for other
phonemes in language. It is also called smallest unit of the sound.
Each one of these meaning-distinguishing sounds in a language is description as a
phoneme. When we considered the basis of alphabetic writing, we were actually working
with the concept of the phoneme as the single sound type which came to be represented
by a single symbol. It is in this sense that the phoneme /t/ is described as a sound type of
which all the different spoken versions of [t] are tokens. Note that slash marks are
conventionally used to indicate a phoneme, /t/, an abstract segment, as opposed to the
square brackets, [t], used for each phonetic, or physically produced, segment.
An essential property of a phoneme is that it functions contrastively. We know that
there are two phonemes /f/ and /v/ in English because they are the only basis contrast in
meaning between the forms fat and vat. This contrastive property is the basic
operational test determining the phonemes which exist in a language. Changing from one
phoneme to another changes the meaning of a word. Sometimes it makes a word
meaningless.
There are two kinds of Phoneme. They are Segmental and Supra-segmental.
Segmental is phonology that deals with the analysis of speech into phonemes which
correspond fairly well to phonetic segments of the analyzed speech. Consist of consonant
and vowel. The Segmental Sounds of English consist of:
a. The English Consonant
b. The English Consonant Described
c. Consonant Clusters
d. The English Vowel
e. The English Vowel Described
f. Length in English Consonants and Vowels

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 The second is Supra-segmental. Supra Segmental is a vocal effect that extends over
more than one sound segment in an utterance, such as pitch, stress, or juncture, pattern.
Supra-segmental consists of:
a. Stress
b. Intonation
c. Pause
d. Juncture
e. Rhythm
A phoneme is an abstract concept. Its related to the way our minds perceive and
categorize soundsnot so much to the physical sounds themselves. Every language has its
own set of phonemes. No two languages have exactly the same system. Two sounds that
are separate phonemes in one language might be heard as the same sound in another
languagein that language, theyre just different allophones of the same phoneme. When
we learn a new language, we have to learn a new set of phonemes. We cant just keep
using the phonemes of our own language.

B. ALLOPHONE
Allophones are these phonetic variants that technically, in English to realize single
phoneme. For examples: [t], [th], and [d] are similar sound. They are similar because they
are all alveolar stops. The only difference between them is that [t] is voiceless and not
aspirated, [th] is voiceless and aspirated, and [d] is voiced. We say that [th] and [t] are
allophones of the same phoneme (namely, /t/). Of all the consonant variations in North
American English, these are the ones that are most important things to know about:
Allophones of voiceless stops: /p/, /t/, and /k/
Flaps and glottal stops as allophones of /t/
Dark /l/ and light /l/
a. Allophones of voiceless stops
In English, there are three voiceless stops: /p/, /t/, /k/. These are pronounced slightly
differently, depending on where they are in a word and what sounds are around them.
These three phonemes have allophones that follow the same pattern. Allophones of
voiceless stops happened:

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 a) When /p/, /t/, and /k/ come at the beginning of a word or the beginning of a
stressed syllable, they are aspirated. That is, they are pronounced with a puff of
air. We represent these sounds by adding a small h to the phonemic symbol:
[ph] pan, price, potto, appear
[th] top, tble, togther, attend
[kh] can, kttle, compter, accuse
b) When /p/, /t/, or /k/ have /s/ before them at the beginning of a word, they are not
aspirated. There is no puff of air. To represent these sounds, we dont add
anything to their phonemic symbols.
[p] span, spcial, spring
[t] stop, stple, string
[k] scan, sctter, screen
c) When /p/, /t/, or /k/ comes at the end of a word, it is often unreleased. We start to
say the sound by blocking off the air flow in our mouth, but we dont release the
air. We add a small circle to the phonemic symbol to represent these sounds.
[p] stop, hope, develop
[t] coat, state, basket
[k] back, cake, stomach
b. The flap as an allophone of /t/
The first extra allophone is the sound that we usually hear in NAE in the middle of
the words water, city, or bottle. This is a voiced sound. The tongue taps the alveolar ridge
very quickly, so that it sounds like a quick /d/. This is called an alveolar flap or tap, and it
is represented by this symbol: [ ]. The following sentence has four flaps:
The witer brught us some wter and btter. Sometimes words with /t/ sound just like
words with /d/: ltter / ldder wrting/rding mtal/medal
If someone pronounce these words with a non-flap /t /, its OK. She/he can still be
understood. /t/ is pronounced as a flap when two things happen:
1. /t/ comes between vowels or a vowel followed by /r/.
2. The syllable before it is stressed, and the syllable after it is unstressed.
/t/ is a flap:
- frty

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 - tom
- mtter
- stted
/t/ is not a flap:
- fourten
- atmic
- mster
- statstic
Its not absolutely necessary for learners to pronounce the flap [ ] allophones of /t/,
but they need to understand it when they hear it. And in normal NAE speech, they will
hear it often.
c. Light /l/ and dark /l/
The phoneme /l/ is said to have two allophones: light or alveolar /l/ [ l ] and dark,
or velarized /l/ [ ] . This is what most books say about light and dark /l/:
Light /l/ is pronounced with the tip of the tongue on the alveolar ridge and the
back of the tongue down. Its used at the beginning of words and before front
vowels. Examples: lip leap late timely
Dark /l/ is pronounced with the back of the tongue up, near the velum. The tip of
the tongue can be on the alveolar ridge, or it might be lower. Dark /l/ is used at the
end of a word and before back vowels. Examples: pull fault hollow holes
However, many Americans dont make a clear distinction between dark and light /l/.
They may pronounce an /l/ thats similar to a dark /l/ in all positions. The difference
between light and dark /l/ is much greater in British English than in American English,
especially in some dialects, where final /l/ turns into /o/ or /u/. Because the difference
between light /l/ and dark /l/ does not result in pronunciation, thats hard to understand,
its best not to be too concerned about the distinction between the two kinds of /l/.

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 CHAPTER III

CONCLUSION

Phonology is essentially the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds
in a language. Phonology investigates the organization of speech sounds in a particular
language.
Phonemes are the distinctive sounds of a language. For example, we know that there
are two phonemes /f/ and /v/ in English because they are the only basis contrast in
meaning between the forms fat and vat. Changing from one phoneme to another
changes the meaning of a word. Sometimes it makes a word meaningless.
Allophones are these phonetic variants that technically, in English to realize single
phoneme. For examples: [t], [th], and [d] are similar sound. We say that [th] and [t] are
allophones of the same phoneme (namely, /t/). Of all the consonant variations in North
American English, there are most important things to know about:
Allophones of voiceless stops: /p/, /t/, and /k/
Flaps and glottal stops as allophones of /t/
Dark /l/ and light /l/
Allophones of voiceless stops happened when /p/, /t/, and /k/ come at the
beginning of a word or the beginning of a stressed syllable, they are aspirate. When /p/,
/t/, or /k/ has /s/ before them at the beginning of a word, they are not aspirated. When /p/,
/t/, or /k/ comes at the end of a word, it is often unreleased. The alveolar flap in NAE
language is when the tongue taps the alveolar ridge very quickly, so that it sounds like a
quick /d/. The last, about the Dark /l/ and light /l/, Light /l/ is pronounced with the tip of
the tongue on the alveolar ridge and the back of the tongue down and Dark /l/ is
pronounced with the back of the tongue up, near the velum.