In developing a linguistic account of the sound system of a language (what we term its phonetics and phonology), we seek to identify which sounds and patterns of sounds are used by speakers of that language and to understand how those sounds and patterns are organised so as to make the meanings which constitute the content of that language. This task is complicated by the fact that there is considerable variation in the actual sounds produced by speakers of a given language - that is to say, the same word or group of words will not always be pronounced in the same manner. This variation may result, for example, from the fact that speakers come from different countries (they speak with different national accents), from the fact that they come from different regions of a country, they come from different social groupings (working class versus middle class, older generation versus younger generation etc) and so on. As well, the pronunciation of a given speaker may itself vary according to whether the person is engaged in careful speech (perhaps reading from a written text) or more casual conversation (arguing with friends in a pub.) We need, therefore, a way of identifying and listing the sounds which occur in a language which can accommodate this variation - that is to say, which can discover the system which underlies the variation. We need both to be able to observe and document the variation, while being able to factor it out when we want to discover the underlying set of relationships by which communication continues despite the variation. We need to be able to describe the differences in the pronunciation of speakers from, for example, Jamaica and the Australian outback while at the same time being able to explain why these speakers are still able to communicate, why it is still reasonable to say they speak the `same' language. (Of course, the differences may at times be such that communication does not occur. There is an oft told story of an Australian who walked into a library in Britain and asked for some books on race. He was surprised to be supplied with books on the various, long-grained, short-grained and Bismati types. Our account of the sound system likewise needs to be able to explain such breakdowns in communication.)
The sub-section of linguistic theory concerned with most precisely identifying the sounds of spoken language and with accounting for all possible variation in those sounds is termed phonetics. The sub-section concerned the underlying system by which sounds are used to make meanings and with the way various sounds relate to each other is termed phonology. (This somewhat difficult distinction between phonetics and phonology is discussed in some detail in the readings.)
In this unit we'll focus primarily on what goes into a phonetic description, turning to a phonological account in week 2.
