Questions tagged [phonology]
For questions about sound patterns of English i.e. how phonemes combine in consonant clusters, what kind of clusters are allowed in English, why some clusters occur and others don't, how a particular word evolved, word stress and syllabification etc.
73 questions
3
votes
1
answer
126
views
The difference between /ɪ/ and /ə/ on unstressed syllable
I'm so confused the difference between /ɪ/ and /ə/ on an unstressed syllable when I have to transcribe them phonemically such as: philosophy, visit, supermarket,...
I don't have that issue when /ɪ/ is ...
- 33
0
votes
1
answer
113
views
What do we call reading aloud parts of words?
What do we call speaking/reading/pronouncing a word or a part of a word of a paragraph by several people?
For example, "Doctor Paige will be here right after lunch to see her."
Suppose there ...
- 3
0
votes
1
answer
114
views
Are /x/, the glottal stop /ʔ/, the nasal vowels /æ̃/ and /ɒ̃/, the rhotic vowels /ɚ/ and /ɝ/, and /ɜː/ (marginal) phonemes?
Are /x/, the glottal stop /ʔ/, the nasal vowels /æ̃/ and /ɒ̃/, the rhotic vowels /ɚ/ and /ɝ/, and /ɜː/ (marginal) phonemes? Some of then are obviously not standard phonemes in their own right, but I ...
0
votes
1
answer
123
views
What's this linguistic, phonetic or phonologic phenomenon called?
I was enjoying the relaxing vibes that the hotel provided.
When Americans say the above sentence, do they sometimes say "vibes that" as "vibesat"?
Does it also happen in other ...
- 4,775
0
votes
1
answer
154
views
Are "knees" and "needs" homophones?
I saw an English textbook has a /dz/ phoneme, wondering whether it is simply pronounced as [z] with a silenced [d]
Are needs and knees simply homophones?
Firegun
0
votes
0
answers
47
views
Recommendation on a book about sound meets style?
I find the so-called "phonaesthetics" an interesting topic. How words sound good or not when put together, patterns of meaning in letter clusters etc.
Anyone knows of a good source material ...
- 43
1
vote
1
answer
76
views
Phonemic vs. phonetic notation: /m/ in mass vs. symphony
Dictionaries such as ldoceonline.com use a phonemic notation for the two words spelled: mass and symphony, i.e. /mæs/ vs /ˈsɪmfəni/
But this is hardly the whole story: to me (a non-native) the two ...
- 125
1
vote
2
answers
159
views
Why doesn't the 'gh' in 'flight' count as deleted?
Debt, rhetoric, style: all these words have a silent 'b','h', and 'e'. In my test paper, this is known as a result of deletion rule. But why doesn't the 'gh' in 'flight' count as deleted?
0
votes
2
answers
157
views
Which of the two different pronunciations of /z/ is correct?
When I was learning the English phonemes, I noticed that the phoneme represented by /z/ was pronounced significantly differently in the two tutorials I had purchased.
I had thought that maybe one of ...
- 103
-1
votes
2
answers
233
views
final letter "y", following a vowel, yet representing another syllable
Is there a word in English, in which the final letter "y", while following a vowel, would represent another syllable?
For example, in the words "worry", "story", "...
- 4,383
18
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Why do dictionaries write /p/ instead of /pʰ/ for 'pie' in the ipa?
Prompted by this question: The pronunciations of letter "P" in "explain, explore, explode" and in "expensive, expand"
My question is that if English has two kinds of Ps (...
- 183
1
vote
0
answers
75
views
What's the intonation pattern of "ideas"?
The utterance of the audio is "But I need your ideas. I need two heads." The intonation pattern of "heads" completely goes down because the speaker's statement is finished. However,...
- 381
1
vote
3
answers
693
views
Why there are some small letters in the IPA version?
Why in words like temperate there is a small ə in it?
/ˈtem.pᵊr.ət/
I'm looking at the version in the Cambridge English Dictionary
- 621
1
vote
1
answer
361
views
Can any native English speakers hear the flap t sound in "But I..." in the clip?
There are five segments in the clip. Are all the ts in "But I..." pronounced out the flap t sound? I personally can hear the flap t sound in the second and third segments. The first and ...
- 381
10
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Why do we write /-ɪŋ/ instead of /-iŋ/?
When pronouncing words like "thing", "sing", or any word ending in -ing, I say it and have heard it as "eeng", which would be transcribed as /iŋ/. However, every ...
- 111