Phonetics and Phonology Course

Lesson 1 • What Is Phonetics?

Defines phonetics as the scientific study of speech sounds and their physical properties. Establishes the discipline's scope within linguistics.

Lesson 2 • Overview of Phonological Theory

Introduces phonology as the study of sound patterns and mental representations. Distinguishes phonological from phonetic description.

Lesson 3 • The Human Vocal Tract

Examines the anatomy involved in speech production, from lungs to lips. Provides the biological foundation for understanding articulation.

Lesson 1 • Consonant Clusters and Sequences

Analyses how consonants combine within syllables and across word boundaries. Prepares students for phonotactic analysis in later chapters.

Lesson 2 • Voicing in Consonants

Explains the role of vocal fold vibration in distinguishing consonant pairs. Connects voicing to phonological contrast in language.

Lesson 3 • Place of Articulation

Covers all major places where consonants are produced in the vocal tract. Builds precise articulatory vocabulary for consonant description.

Lesson 4 • The IPA Consonant Chart

Introduces the International Phonetic Alphabet chart for consonants. Students read and produce IPA symbols for all major consonant categories.

Lesson 1 • IPA Vowel Symbols and Transcription

Applies IPA vowel symbols to transcription tasks across multiple languages. Reinforces accurate symbol selection through structured practice.

Lesson 2 • Cardinal Vowels

Presents the primary and secondary cardinal vowels as reference points for description. Students use cardinal vowels to anchor transcription of any language.

Lesson 3 • Diphthongs and Triphthongs

Analyses vowels with dynamic tongue movement within a single syllable nucleus. Distinguishes closing, opening, and centering diphthongs.

Lesson 4 • The Vowel Space and Tongue Position

Introduces the vowel quadrilateral and the dimensions of tongue height and backness. Provides the geometric framework for vowel classification.

Lesson 1 • Syllable Structure

Defines the syllable and its internal constituents: onset, nucleus, and coda. Establishes syllable structure as the domain for suprasegmental analysis.

Lesson 2 • Tone Systems

Introduces lexical tone as a phonemic feature in tone languages. Analyses level tones, contour tones, and tone sandhi phenomena.

Lesson 3 • Intonation and Pitch Accent

Describes intonation as the use of pitch at the phrase and utterance level. Distinguishes intonation languages from pitch-accent and tone languages.

Lesson 4 • Stress and Prominence

Examines lexical and phrasal stress, including its acoustic correlates and linguistic functions. Connects stress placement to syllable weight and morphological structure.

Lesson 1 • Phonological Rules and Notation

Teaches formal rule notation for describing sound alternations in context. Students write rules using feature matrices and structural descriptions.

Lesson 2 • Underlying Representations

Develops criteria for choosing underlying forms that best explain surface alternations. Students justify underlying representations using economy and alternation evidence.

Lesson 3 • Morphophonological Alternations

Analyses how phonological rules interact with morphological structure. Students identify alternations triggered by affixation and compounding.

Lesson 4 • Distinctive Features

Introduces binary distinctive features as the sub-phonemic building blocks of sound systems. Students use feature matrices to define natural classes.

Lesson 1 • Lenition and Fortition

Defines weakening and strengthening processes and their phonological conditioning. Analyses spirantisation, flapping, and gemination as examples.

Lesson 2 • Reduction and Elision

Examines vowel reduction, schwa, and segment deletion in fast speech. Connects reduction patterns to prosodic structure and speech rate.

Lesson 3 • Metathesis, Epenthesis, and Deletion

Covers segment reordering, insertion, and deletion as phonological repair strategies. Students analyse these processes using both rule-based and OT frameworks.

Lesson 4 • Assimilation Processes

Describes how sounds become more similar to neighbouring sounds in connected speech. Distinguishes progressive, regressive, and reciprocal assimilation.

Lesson 1 • Markedness and Faithfulness

Defines markedness constraints that penalise complex or cross-linguistically rare structures. Defines faithfulness constraints that preserve input-output correspondence.

Lesson 2 • Stress and Tone in OT

Extends OT analysis to stress assignment and tonal phenomena. Students rank metrical and tonal constraints to derive attested patterns.

Lesson 3 • Syllable Structure in OT

Applies OT to syllabification and syllable well-formedness constraints. Demonstrates how constraint ranking produces cross-linguistic syllable typology.

Lesson 4 • Foundations of Optimality Theory

Presents the core architecture of OT: GEN, EVAL, and ranked constraints. Contrasts OT with derivational rule-based approaches.

Lesson 1 • Phonological Typology

Surveys cross-linguistic patterns in phoneme inventories, syllable structure, and prosody. Students identify typological universals and implicational hierarchies.

Lesson 2 • First and Second Language Acquisition

Examines how phonological systems are acquired in L1 and L2 contexts. Connects acquisition patterns to phonological theory and teaching practice.

Lesson 3 • Computational and Forensic Applications

Surveys applications of phonetics in speech technology and forensic speaker analysis. Connects acoustic phonetics to real-world professional contexts.

Lesson 4 • Phonological Analysis Methodology

Teaches systematic procedures for conducting a phonological analysis of an unfamiliar language. Students collect, organise, and interpret phonological data.