The Copeland Ramblings/

Phonemics

Next semester we’ll be studying phonemics. Phonemics is “a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). Whereas phonetics is about the physical production and perception of the sounds of speech, phonemics describes the way sounds function within a given language or across languages.”
~ Wikipedia
For example, in english we differentiate between the ‘p’ in ‘pin’ and the ‘b’ in ‘bin’. But we see the ‘p’ in pin and the ‘p’ in ‘spin’ as the same sound though they actually are different. The former is ‘aspirated’ while the other is not. While we see those as the same letter, in the Thai language they are seen as totally seperate sounds and will completely change the meaning of a word. Listen to each of those sounds here and see if you can tell the difference:

• aspirated p as in ‘pill’ -> Listen
• unaspirated p as in ‘spin’ -> Listen

I also saw this funny video on the blog of Jeremy & Beth Everson that illustrates the importance of knowing how sounds are understood in language:

On this day..

• Parlementaire - 2007
• Peach Mania - 2005
• Another Check up - 2005