Nature of Ghanaian Language EAS 204 PDF

NATURE OF GHANAIAN LANGUAGE EAS 204 PHONOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE  Objectives By the close of the lesson, students should be able to:  Discuss the difference between phonology and phonetics  Explain the concept of phonological knowledge in language learning  Explain the following c...

NATURE OF GHANAIAN LANGUAGE EAS 204 PHONOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE  Objectives By the close of the lesson, students should be able to:  Discuss the difference between phonology and phonetics  Explain the concept of phonological knowledge in language learning  Explain the following concepts:  Phoneme  Phone  Allophone  Free variation  Describe the vowel and consonant sounds in the Ghanaian languages  Briefly discuss some prosodic feature of the various Ghanaian languages  Discuss the importance of phonological awareness in Language Teaching PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY  Phonetics has to do with the study of speech sounds.  Phonology deals with the study of the patterns of speech sounds in a particular language.  While phonetics talks about the study of sounds in human language in general, phonology is more specific DEFINITION OF SOME PHONOLOGICAL CONCEPTS  Definition of Some Phonological Concepts  Phoneme: A phoneme is a meaning-distinguishing sound. In other words, a phoneme is a sound that can bring changes in the meaning of words. For example, the sounds /p/ and /b/ are phonemes because they bring the difference between the words /pra/ and /bra/.   Free Variation  Unike phonemes, free variants are sounds that do not affect the meaning of words. Free variation occurs when two or more sounds can appear in the same environment without changing the meaning of a word. For example, in Akan we can talk of Akwadaa, Akwalaa and Akwaraa. The sounds d, l, and r are free variations because they do not change the meaning of the word (child) to any other thing.   Allophone  Allophone is the different realization of a phoneme. It involves two or more alternative production of a phoneme. This is usually a result of the linguistic environment of the sound. For example, in Akan, the sound æ is an allophone of a. This usually occurs ATR assimilation. THE SPEECH ORGANS DESCRIPTION OF CONSONANT SOUNDS IN GHANAIAN LANGUAGES  Voiced and voiceless sounds: Generally, the production of sounds is initiated by the pushing of air out of the lungs through the trachea to the larynx.  In the larynx two distinct sounds are produced:  In a simplest definition, voiced sounds are those sounds that cause a vibrating effect in the vocal cords during production, whereas voiceless sounds are those that do not cause any vibrating effect in the vocal cords during production.  To test the distinction between these two sounds, you have to place your fingertips gently on top of your Adam’s apple ((i.e. the part the larynx in between your neck and your chin) while producing sound such as /f, s,/. PLACE OF ARTICULATION:  After the manipulation of sounds in the vocal cords, the tongue and other parts of the mouth further manipulate sounds.  Bilabial: As the name implies, these are sounds produced by using both (bi) lips (labia). They are sounds that are produced by putting the upper and the lower lips together.  Labiodental: Labiodentals are sounds that involve the combination of the lower lip and the upper teeth in their production. /f/ /v/  Alveolars: Alveolars are sounds that are produced by using the tip of the tongue to touch the alveolar ridge, which is the rough, bony ridge located behind the upper teeth. Examples of such sounds are as follows: /t/ /n/ /s/  Palatal Sounds Beyond the aveolar ridge is a hard part in the rough of your mouth. This part is where palatal sounds are produced. In the course of producing these sounds, the tongue touches the hard palate (simply, the palate). ʧ ʤ  Velar: : Further back in the rough of the mouth, is a soft palate which is responsible for producing velar sounds. In the production of these velar sounds, the back of the tongue is raised against the soft palate, also known as the velum. /k/ /g/ /ŋ/  Glottal Sounds: As the name implies, glottal sounds are sounds that are produced using the glottis. A typical example of glottal sound is /h/, MANNER OF ARTICULATION  Plosives/Stops; In this manner of articulation, there is always a block and sudden release of the air from from the lungs. Such sounds are usually produced with an explosive effect /p/ /t/ /b/  Nasal Sounds In the production of nasal sounds, the airstream passes through the nose as a result of the lowering of the velum at the back of the mouth. /m/ /n/. NB: Nasal sounds should not be confused with Nasalized sounds.  Fricatives These sounds are produced when there is a continuous friction between the articulatory organs involved in their production. Examples of fricatives are the following /f/, /s/  Affricates. Affricate combines two manner of articulations: plosives and fricative. In the production of affricates, the plosives are immediately followed by fricatives. In the table that follow immediately are examples of Affricates /tʃ/, /dʒ/  Approximants: In the production of these speech sounds, the articulators or the speech organs do not come close enough to create a turbulent airflow. /j/ DESCRIPTION OF VOWEL SOUNDS IN GHANAIAN LANGUAGE  Front Vowels: In the production of front vowels, the highest part of the tongue is usually pushed forward in a somewhat arched shape /I, e, ɪ, ɛ/  Back Vowels: Unlike front vowels, the defining feature of back vowels is that the highest point of the tongue is positioned relatively back in the mouth /u, o ɔ, ʋ/  Central Vowels: In between the two extremes is the central vowel which involves the positioning of the tongue halfway between the front and back vowel /a, æ/  High and Low Vowels:  High vowels are sounds that are produced with the tongue arched toward the roof of the mouth. A typical example of a high vowel is the sound /i/ in the word /pii/. Low vowels (such as a in da) is produced with the tongue flat and lowered to the jaw  Importance of Phonological Awareness in Language Education  Phonological awareness in language education improves the reading competence of students. This is because the more one gets to know how sounds are used in different languages, they easily demonstrate reading competence with ease.  Phonological instruction is also beneficial to novice readers. It helps in the production of new encountered words. By understanding the nature of phonemes in a language, students can predict the pronunciation of words with high accuracy MORPHOLOGY AWARENESS  Objectives of the Session By the end of this session, you will be able to:  explain the concept of morphology;  discuss the basic concepts in morphology, and  discuss the importance of morphological knowledge in language learning. WHAT IS MORPHOLOGY?  It refers to the study of words, their internal structure and the mental process n ses that are involved in word formation.  Morphological awareness has to do with the knowledge of the internal structure of words. Students with ample skills in morphology know how minimal linguistic units are joined together to derive new words DEFINITION OF SOME MORPHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS  A Morpheme:  It is a minimal linguistic unit that have meanings or grammatical functions. For instance a word like adwumaden is composed of two morphemes adwuma + den.  Morph: A morph is the concrete or physical realization of a morpheme  Allormorph: Allomorphs are the variants of the same morpheme. They are said to be the different realizations of one morpheme. 4 CLASSIFICATION OF MORPHEMES Lexical Morpheme Free Morpheme Functional Morpheme Morpheme Derivation Morpheme Bound Morpheme Inflectional Morpheme FREE MORPHEMES & BOUND MORPHEMES:  Free Morphemes are words that can stand alone as words. They are indivisible and carry meaning. Example of free morphemes are aduro, aburo, dua, saman, etc. Bound Morphemes, on the other hand, those are linguistic forms that cannot normally stand alone as independent words unless they are attached to other forms. Example of such morphemes are -eɛ (in kɔeɛ), -e (in kunadie), -ɔ (awoɔ) LEXICAL & FUNCTIONAL MORPHEMES  Lexical Morphemes as linguistic forms that carry the content of the messages we express in our conversations. They are independently meaningful. They include nouns, adjectives and verbs. Example of lexical morphemes are Awia, afuom, aduane, kɔkɔɔ, tuntum, etc.  Functional morphemes or grammatical morphemes are those morphemes that are typical functional words in a language. They include preposition, conjunctions, determiners and pronouns. Example of these morphemes are ne, no, mo, nso DERIVATIONAL AND INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES  A morpheme is said to be derivational if it changes the meaning of a word it has been attached to. For instance, pra (sweep) + eɛ = praeɛ (broom)  However, with inflectional morphemes, there is no change in the meaning of words but rather a change in grammatical function. Inflectional morphemes indicate whether a word is plural or singular, in the past or present tense. For example the inflectional morphem n- + aduane (food) = nduane (which usually undergoes assimilation to become nnuane[foods]), m- + apɔnkye (goat) = mpɔnkye (goats) MORPHOLOGICAL AWARENESS  Morphological awareness has to do with the knowledge of the internal structure of words. Students with ample skills in morphology know how minimal linguistic units are joined together to derive new words IMPORTANCE OF MORPHOLOGICAL AWARENESS  Awareness of writing system of a language: Morphological awareness makes the learner more aware of the writing system of a language. With morphological knowledge, learners can perceive the spelling of words in a language with ease.   Morphological awareness leads to reading proficiency: The relationship between morphological awareness and reading may be reciprocal or directional. In the case the relationship being reciprocal, both reading and morphological awareness can contribute to the development of one another. In directional term, morphological awareness leads to reading proficiency, but not the other way around.   Discovery of the meaning of new words: Learners are found to be able to use their morphological knowledge to uncover the meaning of newly encountered words reading. By knowing the internal structure of a new word it would be relatively easy to uncover the meanings of words.