An Introduction to English Phonology
Contents
To colleagues ix
1 Sounds, spellings and symbols 1
1.1 Phonetics and phonology 1
1.2 Variation 4
1.3 The International Phonetic
Alphabet 5
Recommendations for reading 11
2 The phoneme: the same but
different 12
2.1 Variation and when to ignore
it 12
2.2 Conditioned variation in
written language 13
2.3 The phoneme 14
2.4 Some further examples 17
2.5 The reality of the phoneme 19
Exercises 21
Recommendations for reading 22
3 Describing English consonants
23
3.1 What’s inside a phonetic
symbol? 23
3.2 Consonant classification 23
3.3 The anatomy of a consonant 24
Exercises 34
Recommendations for reading 35
4 Defining distributions:
consonant allophones 36
4.1 Phonemes revisited 36
4.2 Making generalisations 36
4.3 Making statements more
precise 38
4.4 A more economical feature
system 40
4.5 Natural classes 46
4.6 A warning note on
phonological rules 47
Exercises 50
Recommendations for reading 51
5 Criteria for contrast: the
phoneme system 52
5.1 Minimal pairs and beyond 52
5.2 Phonetic similarity and
defective distributions 53
5.3 Free variation 56
5.4 Neutralisation 58
5.5 Phonology and morphology 60
5.6 Rules and constraints 62
5.7 The phoneme system 63
Exercises 65
Recommendations for reading 66
6 Describing vowels 67
6.1 Vowels versus consonants 67
6.2 The anatomy of a vowel 69
6.3 Vowel classification 74
Exercises 77
Recommendations for reading 78
7 Vowel phonemes 79
7.1 The same but different again
79
7.2 Establishing vowel contrasts
79
7.3 Vowel features and allophonic
rules 85
7.4 Phonetic similarity and
defective distribution 87
7.5 Free variation,
neutralisation and morphophonemics 88
Exercises 91
Recommendations for reading 91
8 Variation between accents 92
8.1 The importance of accent 92
8.2 Systemic differences 94
8.3 Realisational differences 99
8.4 Distributional differences
101
Exercises 102
Recommendations for reading 103
9 Syllables 104
9.1 Phonology above the segment
104
9.2 The syllable 104
9.3 Constituents of the syllable
105
vi AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH
PHONOLOGY
9.4 The grammar of syllables:
patterns of acceptability 106
9.5 Justifying the constituents
109
Exercises 115
Recommendations for reading 116
10 The word and above 117
10.1 Phonological units above the
syllable 117
10.2 Stress 118
10.3 The foot 124
10.4 Segmental phonology of the
phrase and word 128
Exercises 131
Recommendations for reading 132
Discussion of the exercises 133
References 143
Index 145
