Japanese EFL & English Phonological Processes

SOME ENGLISH PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES

OF INTEREST TO JAPANESE EFL TEACHERS

Phonology and Phonological Processes

Phonology is the scientific discipline which studies the phonic (speech sounds) aspect of natural languages. Phonology is a distinct field of study from that covered by phonetics which is characterized by the physiological and acoustical analysis of speech sounds. It also differs from the historical study of sounds such as was formulated by XIXth century linguists.

The Japanese have difficulty in pronouncing the English /r/, a trilled (mostly in British English) or rolled (mostly in American English) consonant, or a strong uvular "r". The former is apical, the latter uvular; the former belongs to the vibrant class of consonants, the latter to the constrictive class. Phonetically, physical analysis distinguishes between these two sounds as physical entities. Yet, both sounds are linguistically equivalent: however pronounced, the "r" is likely to be understood as an "r" sound. Thus, linguistic analysis differs markedly from physical analysis. As a result of this clear taxonomical dichotomy, phonology grew to study linguistically the phonic aspect of natural languages.

The purpose of phonology is to analyze the phonic aspect of language with a focus on the characteristics which distinguish between or among variants of sounds. For example, to, too, and two have linguistic forms (the signifieds) which have distinct significations. Such distinctions have a direct effect

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less. Simply, it possesses the pertinent traits common to /t/ and /d/. This phoneme /T/ is called the archiphoneme of the opposition between /t/ and /d/, which is neutralized in final position. The archiphoneme can be defined as "an abstract phonological unit consisting of the distinctive features common to two phonemes that differ only in that one has a distinctive feature lacking in the other. The archiphoneme is said to be realized when in a certain position an otherwise phonemic opposition is neutralized" (The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 19897). Syllable Structure The structure and arrangement of syllables vary from language to language. For example, in English a syllable can begin with /tr/ and /tw/, but not with /tl/, whereas in another language /tl/ may be unexceptionable; for example, among speakers of Tlingit, an aboriginal language of Canada and Alaska. There may also be variations among varieties of the same language. For instance, in mainstream English the initial clusters /fr/ and /sl/ occur (from and slow), but not /vr/ and /zl/. Such pronunciations as vrom and zlow are shibboleths of the West Country dialects of England. However, an unusual syllabic sequence is not necessarily difficult to say:

Category: Psychology - J