suprasegmental phonemes

Suprasegmental Phonemes

Is a phoneme which can’t  be segmented or separated because it may change the meaning. It equips the segmental phonemes.

v  PITCH ( TONES )

ž  Pitch is differences may result in differences of meaning at the word level.

Tone language : Thai & Chinese

-          In Chinese if you say ‘t u’ high level pitch “Pig”. If you say ‘u’ falling and rising pitch “Lord”. The beginner Wrongly say “I prise the pig” but means “I prise the lord.

-          In Thai language

e.g : naa [        ] low tone : a nick name

        naa [……]mid tone : rice paddy

        naa [       ]high tone : young maternal uncle or aunt

        naa […....]falling tone : face

        naa [……]rising tone : thick

these contrastive phonemic tones can be symbolized thus :

low tone : L                mid tone : M       high tone : H

fallinf tone : HL         rising tone : LH

v  STRESS

ž  Is the emphasis placed on the sound or syllable spoken most forcefully in a word or phrase. Stress concerned with content word {noun, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs}.

ž  Level of stress

1. Primary stress: The characteristic of stressed syllable that results from pitch movement or tone and gives the strongest type of stress. E.g: around

2. Secondary stress: It is weaker than primary stress but stronger than unstressed syllable. E.g: photographic

3. Unstressed : The weakest characteristic of stressed syllable{conjunction, preposition, auxiliary verb, pronoun, demonstrative and article etc} . E.g: poetic

ž  Minimal pairs like the following show that stress is phonemic in English.

Phonemic
Transcription	Noun	Verb
/insense/	‘incense	In’cense
/pəmitl	‘permit	Per’mit
/insʌlt]	‘insult	In’sult
/ridʒekt/	‘reject	Re’ject

ž  Word of one syllable do have stress, as in evident when we say the following words in a list with other words : Apple, Pear, Orange, Peach, Cherry, Grape.

v  INTONATION

ž  Is the sound pattern of phrases and sentences produced by pitch variation in the voice.

ž  identify the following intonations

·         Rising Intonation means the pitch of the voice increases over time [↗].This intonation or tone conveys an impression that something more is following. E.g :  | She is a singer | rising

·         Falling Intonation means that the pitch decreases with time [↘]. The falling tone gives an impression of finality. No more sentence to be said.E.g :  |She is a singer | falling

·         Dipping Intonation falls and then rises [↘↗].This tone shows limited agreement, response with reservation, uncertainty, or doubt E.g: |I am not sure|

·         Peaking Intonation rises and then falls [↗↘]. This tone is used to convey strong feelings of approval, disapproval or surprise. E.g : |What is the hell? |

ž  English language is said to be called Intonation Language.

v  JUNCTURE

ž  Is a pause (a brief stop ) between syllables in word such as ‘fri’cative,’dic-tionary,promo-tion.

Note : between fri and cative there is a juncture.

ž  The juncture could also be found between words in sentences, such as :

e.g : The hunter | shot the tiger

ž  Type of  Juncture :

1.      INTERNAL JUNCTURE  is identifies a type of juncture that occurs within a phrase.

2.      TERMINAL JUNCTURE Is the term terminal juncture is refers to a juncture that occurs AT THE END OF SENTENCES AND PHRASES. This is also called EXTERNAL JUNCTURE.

Jum’at, December 7^th 2012