ENG 322 Phonetics and Phonology

This is an introductory course to the study of speech sounds. It explores the fields of phonetics and phonology. It starts with a look at the human vocal tract and its work mechanism. Students then learn to describe and classify speech sounds based on their place and manner of articulation and voicing. After that students are trained on transcribing words and sentences using IPA. Students are then introduced to phoneme theory. They explore the relationship between phonemes and allophones as well as types of distribution. The course looks at distinctive features and trains students to use them to describe speech sounds and to group them into natural classes. Students are also introduced to the form and operation of phonological rules. Operations such as assimilation, deletion, and insertion are looked at as prime examples of phonological rules. Students are trained to solve basic phonological problems.