Writing the best farewell speech for outgoing students

What to Say in a High School, university or College Graduation Speech

Writing the best farewell speech for outgoing students shouldn’t be seen as something scary to do. Although, it’s not always easy finding some inspiring words to write in your send-off or goodbye message for students graduating from college or high school.

If you can learn the basic skills and knowledge needed in speech writing and with proper planning, you’ll find out that it is not a difficult task for a teacher like you to do to express your good wishes and say goodbye to your students who are leaving the college. To get ideas on what to say or write, here is a short sample you can refer to.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

— Eleanor Roosevelt

What to Say in Farewell Speech — Tips

The Introduction: First recognize the presence of important person in the audience and then the graduating students. For example, it can be something like this: "Good morning respected principal, vice principal, colleagues, families and friends, students and my dear outgoing 12th class students. I am honored and pleased to welcome you all to this colorful ceremony. Today, we are all here to bid farewell to our 12th grade students who are leaving the college."

The Body: Recall old memories, i mean old memories shared together with the students, and try to put them on paper. However, remember to keep them brief and precise when putting words down. Write down some success stories that happened during their stay in the school. Also, mention how the college had better prepared them to overcome challenges that they are likely to face in the next face of their journey.

You can add humor as an important part in the speech if you wish to. Also, note some of your experiences as a teacher, relating them to the outstanding performance of the students leaving.

The Conclusion: Here, you need to summarize all your important points. It's perfectly okay to share some inspirational thoughts with the outgoing students. And wish them all the best in future endeavors.

Note: Keep it brief, precise and avoid any form of abusive words that could dull the message you are trying to convey. Look for the right words to make the send-off party colorful and that which will grab your audience attention.

Thanks

Five ways to become a billionaire (without education)

The post is a must read for anyone who is ambitious enough and wants to become rich or die trying.

1. They Understand The Power Of Many (Numbers)

The richer you are, the further you go away from your business (the more you disassociate self from the business) but the poorer you are, the more you want to identify with your business. Successful business people do not have “my business” they have “our business idea.” That’s why when you go to a place like Silver Springs Hotel (which is associated with Kibaki), chances are some employees there do not know who owns the place and have never seen him/her.

But when you go to a poor person’s business, that person is always there – worse even as the cashier, accountant, attendant, etc. The trick of business success is in numbers not in self. As long as you have a personal business called “mine”, then be sure you are headed to poverty. People die but companies don’t die.

2. They Are Serious Borrowers

Borrowing money is their cup of tea and their signature. If you have never borrowed money, you will never lend money. And can’t lend it, if you don’t have it. A bank is a broker between the poor and the rich. The only place where the two meet is in a bank.

The poor brings the money and the rich takes it. A poor person saves the money because they have more money than their thinking capacity.

So they keep the money there so they can go and think what to do with it… Rich people come to pick that money because they have many ideas than the money they have.

3. They Have High Level NETWORKS!

These people as explained in the first point believe in the power of many. As a result, they have many like-minded friends who can be of benefit to them. They have friends all over. Rich people have no age, tribal, geographical or gender boundaries. It doesn’t matter who or what you are. As long as you are of value to their ventures. Building such networks needs a lot of travelling and interacting with people. People never get rich in their hometown. Somebody who dreams of being rich, regardless of their age or status, must have;

1. A Driving license (because they will own a car – for them it is criminal to be seeing cars everyday but never own one.)

2. A passport (because you must travel widely to expand your networks and to sharpen your mindset). If you have been buying a suit in Kenya for Ksh 30, 000 and find it in China at Ksh 800, your language and ideas change.

And you must know how to swim because you are going to have fun and relax.

4. They Are Great Risk Takers!

As long as you avoid taking risks, you are headed to the grave a poor fellow. Taking risks is like walking in the dark. You know where you are going but can’t see there. Better still, you are more confident and secure when you are accompanied than when alone. The more people you are, the more secure hence the first point. Risk taking is about numbers.

5. They Have Read The BIBLE!

They understand and make use of the parable of the sower. The seed is the shilling. They put the shilling on the fertile land. They simply know where to put their money and where not to put their money. They understand the current business trends and make business decisions with this in mind. If you bought a plot five years ago at Ksh 500, 000 you are worth nothing.  Five years later,  that will be worth Sh 5 million…the only way you can realise that money is by selling it or borrowing against it… (Remember poor people don’t borrow neither can they  sell it). A rich person will invest that same money somewhere where it will be worth Ksh 200 million within the same period of time.

Conclusion 

A Poor (POOR) Person Is One Who:-

P- Passes

O- Over

O- Opportunities

R- Repeatedly.

Thank you

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Finding balance between our reason and our gut

Sound Decisions Making 

Finding balance between our reason and our gut

Source: freedigitalphotos.net

We typically make dozens of decisions a day--what to eat, what to wear, with whom to socialize, short term planning, long-term planning, small and large life decisions and the list goes on. But some decisions are harder to make than others, whether because of our mood, our motivation, the situation, or the specifics of the decision itself and its implications—we just become stuck. We feel paralyzed and keep putting off the decision, which makes us feel worse and more pressured, which makes us feel even more paralyzed.

Here are the steps to take when you are struggling to make a decision:

1. Define the decision and the steps required to make it. Example: You don’t know if you should go on a vacation because finances have been tight and you’re not sure you can find something in your budget that will be worthwhile. What you are debating is not Should I go on vacation? or Where should I go on vacation? But Will the best vacation that fits my budget be worth the expense? In other words, sitting down to define the decision will make you realize it has two distinct steps: First you have to find the best option that fits your budget and only then will you be able to decide if it will be worth the expense.

2. List the options. Remember to include non-actions as options. For example, you have to decide whether to invite someone you’re not super close with to your birthday party. There are three options: You can decide to invite them, you can decide not to invite them, and you can avoid making the decision. For those of you quick to point out that not making a decision is basically the same as not inviting the person (as they don’t get invited either way) that is true factually but not psychologically. Unmade decisions can be sources of distraction and stress and the more of them hover over us, they more we are burdening ourselves unnecessarily.

3. List the pros and cons for each of the options. Make sure to consider as many perspectives as possible. For example, when listing the pros and cons of going home for the holidays or staying put and celebrating with friends, consider your experiences of holidays past, both ones in which you went home and ones in which you did not. Consider whether you will then be obliged to visit at another time instead and whether that visit will be better or worse, consider the feelings of other family members, the feelings of your friends who will not enjoy your company, the logistics of travel or cooking, etc…

4. Come up with a decision deadline. Some decisions have time urgency. For example, deciding whether to accept a new job offer or stay in your current job, or deciding whether to join friends on an unplanned weekend trip when you had planned to catch up on schoolwork. Other decisions have more open timelines, such as deciding whether to go on a diet, clean out the attic, or join a social media platform. When dealing with non-urgent decisions, either impose an artificial deadline for making the decision or if you feel unready to do so, decide to defer the decision to a later (specific) date when you will revisit the issue (so it doesn’t hover over you as an outstanding task).

5. Visualize the different options. We often make decisions based on our gut but let’s make sure to give our gut enough information to work with. Find a quiet spot, close your eyes, and in your mind, play out each of the options before you in graphic detail (i.e., take the time to truly paint the scene—the more detail, the more real it will seem, the truer your gut read will be). For example, if you’re deciding whether to buy an expensive item of clothing you really want but cannot really afford, envision what it would be like to get the item and wear it in a specific circumstance but also envision looking at your empty bank account, having to forgo something else you might have wanted, or the stress of big credit card bills until you pay it off.

6. Put it all together. Now that your gut has a better read on what you should do, choose the option you are leaning toward most. If you suspect your decision was more emotional than rational (i.e., one made by your gut) proceed to the next step. If not—you have made your decision.

7. Sleep on it. If you think your decision was motivated by emotion (e. g., “I kind of shouldn’t but I really want to!”) get a good night’s sleep and go over the pros and cons again the next day to make sure you’re not succumbing to impulse.

THANKS

SIX STEPS IN MAKING A SOUND DECISION

                               SIX STEPS IN MAKING A SOUND DECISION 


1. Establishing a Positive Decision-Making Environment

When a group of people gather for a specific reason, at times the discussion tends to lose focus because of each individual’s different experience of it. This occurs when the decision-making environment hasn’t been established. In order to establish a decision-making environment, it is essential that everyone involved comprehend what the issue is before preparing to come to any conclusions. This would include an agreement on the objective, keeping focus that the issue at hand is being evaluated honestly, and complying on the process to move the decision forward.
Another clear component that must be addressed are the key interpersonal considerations at the onset. For example, have all the stakeholders been included? Do the individuals involved in the decision-making process engage in respectful communication to one another? Are the participants engaging in active listening? Are they able to keep an open mind and encourage the flow of an honest discussion? After all, if only the strongest opinions are heard, or worse, the group is being controlled by a gatekeeper, there is a risk that not all the best solutions will be considered or available to reach a goal that has a fair outcome for all involved.


2. Generating Positive Solutions

Another essential component of developing an effective decision-making process is the ability to generate as many good alternative solutions as sensibly possible. If the first solution is decided on and implemented quickly for the sake of simplicity, then there’s a good chance that even greater alternatives may be overlooked.

3. Evaluating Alternatives

This stage is more often than not the most time-consuming part of the decision-making process. The negative aspect of exploring alternatives can sometimes result in a decision never be made. Therefore, in order to make this step efficient, the decision-makers must be clear about the factors they want to include in the analysis process.
To make the best decision possible, the smartest leaders consider the following three key factors as essential components in the consideration process:
⦁ Risk – most decisions involve some level of risk. However, the decision-makers must uncover and understand these risks so that they can make the best possible choice.
⦁ Consequences – no one can predict the implications of the decision with 100% accuracy. However, decisions can be made more carefully and systematically when leaders identify and evaluate possible consequences.
⦁ Feasibility – decision-makers must evaluate whether the choice is realistic as well as implementable. This is an element that is often overlooked. This means that the decision-makers have to consider certain constraints as well when making a decision. As part of this evaluation stage, leaders must ensure that the alternative they are considering is significantly better than the status quo.

4. Deciding

Making a decision can be both stressful as well as exciting. To help leaders deal with their emotions as objectively as possible, it is recommended they use a structured approach in the decision-making process. This requires looking at what is most important in making a good decision. Leaders that take the time to think ahead and determine exactly what will make the decision “right” can significantly improve their results and decision accuracy.

5. Checking the Decision

The most successful leaders remember that some components about the decision-making process are not objective. For example, some believe that in addition, their decision has to make sense on an intuitive instinctive level as well. So far the decision-making process has been based on the perspectives and experiences of the leaders involved. It is at this time the decision-makers must also evaluate whether the decision has validity and make sense. Furthermore, if the decision being contemplated is a significant one, then it’s also worth auditing to make sure that assumptions are correct and that the logical structure used to make that decision is sound.


6. Communicating and Implementing

The final stage in the decision-making process includes communicating the decision and developing a system to implement it. There are leaders who choose to force their decision on others by demanding acceptance. This is a, “because I said so approach” which can result in negative outcomes. Alternatively, leaders are in a better place to gain acceptance by offering an explanation as to how and why their decision was reached. For most decisions – particularly those that need participants to agree before implementation – the most effective strategy is to explain the decision-making process. In other words, leaders that include a plan which discloses how the decision was arrived at and offer steps to effectively implement that plan, are more likely to achieve successful outcomes. This is because people typically respond positively to a clear plan – one that reveals what to expect and what is required.
Well, that’s a wrap for this week’s posts! We will continue this discussion next week by taking a closer look at the importance of decision-making and being assertive with them in the workplace. Until then … have a great weekend everyone, and keep working on improving your organizational management skills!

THE CHANGE WE NEED IN NIGERIA TODAY

THE CHANGE WE NEED IN NIGERIA TODAY

It’s amazing to think that this time last 3year, Nigerians were deep in the fray of politics and the opposition was chanting the change mantra. Since then, a lot has happened. Now that the (then) opposition has become the, (present) ruling party, Nigerians are beating down the doors of government asking to see where the change that they voted for is. As I, myself, reflect on where exactly that change is, I want to tell you a short story…

 “…Some time ago, back when there was rabid fuel scarcity, I did something that I am not too proud of.

Driving with a low tank of fuel, I was forced to head to a fuel station. Arriving at the fuel station, I met an incredibly long queue, of which I joined. With the queue not moving and having been there for a while, I concluded that queuing at the station indefinitely was not an option I was willing to embrace. So, I decided to leave the queue and drive up to the station. As I approached the station, lots of young men offering black-market fuel approached me. I thought about obliging the black-market trade fleetingly, but eventually decided against it. I settled on cutting my losses, going home and sending a driver to join the queue instead. But then, a well-dressed middle-aged man approached my vehicle and asked if I wanted fuel from the station.

“Yes,” I replied without hesitation…“But the queue is too long. I will just go home and send a driver to join,” I said.

I work at the station and I can let your car in to fill your tank now, now Ma… for a small amount,” Offered the man.

I understood perfectly what he was offering and, I must admit, it didn’t take me long to decide whether I was going to accept his offer or not. Yes, I was going to get the tank filled now!

I had justified the trade in my mind; you see… It had been a long, tiring day and I had fasted. And paying extra to jump the fuel queue may have been a form of injudiciousness, but it was one I felt I deserved at the time.

So, it was! I followed the man with my car and he led me into the fuel station through a separate entrance. After some motor acrobatics, I aligned my car with the fuel pump and within a few minutes, I had a full tank of fuel in my car. The whole operation took less than ten minutes.

Satisfied and smug, I drove out of the station. Feeling a little guilty and sorry for those I had bypassed on the fuel queue, I turned to look at them. That was when I made contact with a woman in the queue sat in the driver seat. She had three young children in the back seat. The kids looked like they were all under ten years old. The youngest was crying non-stop and the two elder kids seemed to be fighting. Between trying to console the younger child and trying to mediate the fight with the older children, she turned and looked at me. She had the most desperate, forlorn and tired look on her face. She was sweating and looked overwhelmed. That was when a large surge of disappointment followed by utter guilt hit me.

Thinking that I had dishonestly paid a bribe jumped the queue and shortchanged law-abiding Nigerians, while a woman in her situation had done the right thing by following the queue, despite her circumstance, made me feel so bad, guilty and disgusted with myself. It was then that I had an “A-Ha moment’ about what the change, that so many Nigerians fought to have was. What it symbolized!

 …By God’s Grace, as I sit here, in this crispy New Year, watching my fellow countrymen and women ask where exactly the change is, I am reminded of my misadventure that day in the fuel queue.

The question shouldn’t be ‘where’ the change is; it should be ‘what’ the change is. So what is the change? The answer is for every single one of us in this nation to commit ourselves to make a change for the better! As Mahatma Gandhi said, every single one of us in this country has a responsibility to be the change we wish to see in Nigeria!’

So, when we speak of Nigeria’s urgency to see ‘change,’ whom do we expect that change to come from? The expectation for change has been fixated on the government. A long ‘To-Do’ list has been placed at the foot of the President. But in reality, the wind of change that ushered in a new government in the last election wasn’t so much about voting one man into office. It was about the need of a people to see a change in the very fabric and marrow of their country. And if that is what it was, then it includes every single one of us that considers ourselves a member of the collective known as Nigeria!

We live in a time when people speak about requests in terms of needs, needs in terms of rights, and rights in terms of entitlements. Government, and government alone, is thought compelled to provide the expected change. And while such an expectation maybe valid to a large extent, we have to refer to the very concept of responsibility and accountability when we speak of the mantra of change that recently took hold of and shook Nigeria.

To be responsible is to be answerable for one’s action. When one acknowledges a legitimate call to do something, one has a duty to react. Accountability rests not only on a genuine call for action, but also in the ability to heed the call. Just as the president and the government has a responsibility to us and to the nation, we each also have a responsibility to every other Nigerian and to the nation at large. Once both the government and Nigerians accepted the call for action, which we did when we voted for change, then we all have that responsibility to heed its call. What happened in the elections of 2015 was Nigeria’s call. What we did in voting for change was to heed that call. Now we have a responsibility to follow it through.

Indeed, elections of 2015 saw a nation’s call for change. Nigerians heeded and opted for that change. But our responsibility didn’t stop after the inauguration.

Responsibility doesn’t usually come from one single establishment or one union. Individuals in a family or a community bear the responsibility to care for its members, in the same way that the friends, neighbors, leaders and governments do.

Although we should all have expectations for the government to implement policies, which will make our existence as Nigerians more comfortable, we should be aware that we each have a role to play in that journey to change. Every single Nigerian has a role to play in actualizing change.

 While government has a great responsibility to attain the parameters needed for us to grow and flourish, one must be realistic and keep in mind that government isn’t ‘solely’ liable for taking care of every single one of us in our communities, neighborhoods and families. That obligation is the responsibility of every single one of us as participants in a variety of relationships and overlapping communities. One will intrinsically be indebted to fellow members by a shared principle, which unites their community and, as members of a shared community, we must rely on each other to attain common objectives. That would entail making claims upon each other as we collectively strive to satisfy the ideals our society struggles to actualize.

A government safety-net is there to make available, liberty, service and social justice, but it cannot give personal attention, on-the-ground instincts, or the flexibility sometimes required in an emergency situation. Governments’ responsibility and accountability has to be met by each of our communities and each one of us individually.

 The fact that we are aware of government policies being put in place to effect the much-needed change may work to our disadvantage if we don’t value the social contract we have with each other and our communities. Because it may lead us each to relax our own social responsibility in the misleading belief that someone else is holding the forte.

As a nation, we are persons existing in a community, not self-standing individuals. People are not islands and we deny an important feature of our humanity once we approach it as such. Each of us shares some manner of link to one another; every one of us exists in a human society. Our actions have a domino effect on Nigeria and, thus, each have central moral obligations towards our collective.

Part of the government’s role is to employ public judgment when it comes to justice. The connection between government and its citizens is one of equal standing and protection under the law. We have got to understand that the government’s responsibility is not to be the ‘sole’ harbinger of change. We each have that responsibility also.

Let us say that the government is able to achieve some of its main objectives in its change manifesto and I, as a part of this huge collective, continue to jump the fuel queue, as does the next person and the next person, then the expectation of change is incapacitated and untenable; purely because we didn’t play our part. It is like a big jigsaw puzzle and we each represent a piece of it. Any of the expectations we have towards government, as far as change goes, has got to start with us… each one of us!

If every single one of us, in our capacity as Nigerians, can make a change that will make Nigeria better, then we will see the change we so yearn for. If not, then it doesn’t matter what policies the government puts in place; there will never be change!

Having been part of an opposition movement since 2003, I am not sure whether I am truly being objective about this concept of change, now that a former opposition forms the government. I cannot say whether I am being fair to all the governments that came prior to this present administration. But, here and now, I honestly see this concept of change as being the responsibility of each and every single Nigerian.

 I don’t believe that change only comes in the form of a rescue package by government nicely wrapped in a bow. It no longer only means a list of executives with the exquisite cerebral capacity to make decisions to transform the economy. It is no longer who makes or doesn’t make the Ministerial, Ambassadorial or Executive lists. It is about each and every single one of us doing the right thing by making a change in an area that we know disadvantages the nation.

 As long as we are talking about government responsibility to deliver change, we must also examine our own personal irresponsibility, which has an effect on that change. Besides government, we also have a collective responsibility to provide a better example so that those who come after us aren’t propelled toward bad choices.

 While I am waiting to see the government finish putting into effect its policies of change, I’m determined never to jump a fuel queue or any other queue again.

When it is clear that Nigeria will never change if we sever our desire for change at the threshold of government alone; when we know that our self-destructive behavior batters the mantra of change that Nigerians chanted for one year ago, is it not time we end our own personal unprogressive conduct? The change that Nigeria desperately needs starts when I don’t pay a bribe to jump the fuel queue; the change starts with every single one of us!

The Difference Between Phonetics And Phonology

PHONETICS: is the study of human sounds in general without saying what function which sounds may have in a particular language The term ‘phonetics’ is, however, often used with reference to one language when the emphasis is on the pronunciation of this language. For instance, a book on The phonetics of Irish would be about how to pronounce Irish correctly and not necessarily about the functions which the sounds may have in the phonological system of the language.                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Phonetics was studied by the 4^th century B.C,E. But started growing in the late 19^th century due to the invention of phonograph. Studding phonetics involves not only learning theoretical material but also undergoing training in the production of speech sound, student must also learn to control of articulator variables. So it will help them develop the ability to recognize the different between the  vowel and consonants, and also become expert in using phonetic symbol, those of the international phonetic alphabet(I.P.A)

         Where symbols appear in pairs, the one on the right represents a voiced consonant, while the one on the left is unvoiced. Shaded areas denote articulations judged to be impossible.

    It is customary to divide the field of phonetics into three branches as follows.

Articulator phonetics (emission of sounds)

Acoustic phonetics (transmission of sounds)

Additive phonetics (reception of sounds)

ARTICULATORY PHONETICS

This describes how vowels and consonant are produced or “articulated” in various part of the mouth and throat. It is the study of production of speech sounds. To produce speech, air must flow from the lungs through the vocal tract, which includes the vocal folds (popularly called the vocal cords, though they are more like thick elastic bands than strings), the nose or nasal cavity, and the mouth or oral cavity (See Figure 1). The vocal folds vibrate for some sounds but not for others. Air flows through the nose for certain sounds but not others. But the main creator of speech sounds is the mouth. The production of vowels sounds and the production of consonants sounds differs from each other when it comes to articulation. 

Vowels

Vowels include the sounds we ordinarily represent as the letters <a, e, i, o, u>, as well as a number of other sounds for which the ordinary alphabet has no unique symbols. Vowels are distinguished from consonants in several ways, consonants are produced by constricting the air stream to various degrees as it flows through the oral tract. Vowels are produced with a smooth, unobstructed airflow through the oral tract. Differences in vowel quality are produced by different shapes of the oral cavity. Characteristic vowel qualities are determined by

the height of the tongue in the mouth

the part of the tongue raised (front, middle, or back)

the configuration of the lips; and

the tension of the muscles of the oral tract.

CONSONANTS

Consonants include the sounds we represent as <p, b, t, d, m, n, f, v, s, z, l, r, h> in the ordinary alphabet. All consonants are produced by entirely or almost entirely stopping the air stream coming from the lungs. When we almost entirely stop the air stream we force it through such a narrow opening that the airflow at that point is turbulent and noisy. We classify consonants according to the following characteristics: (a)whether or not the vocal folds are vibrating (voicing); (b) whether the sound is made with a fully stopped or merely constricted air stream (its manner of articulation); (c) where in the mouth the stoppage or constriction is
made (its place of articulation); (d) whether or not air is flowing through
the nasal cavity (nasality); and (e) whether or not the lips are pursed (lip-rounding).

Voicing

Sounds produced with vibrating vocal folds are said to be voiced; those produced without vocal cord vibration are voiceless. Table 1 lists the voiced and voiceless consonants of English. The letters in [ ] are the phonetic symbols for the sounds.

NASALITY

Make the sound represented by <m> in the word Pam and continue it for some seconds. As you continue it, pinch your nose and observe what happens to the sound. It should stop immediately. This shows that air was flowing through your nose as you produced this sound. Now try the same little experiment with the <n> of pan and the <ng> of pang. You should find that the air flows through the nose in these two cases also. Sounds in which air flows through the nose are called nasal sounds. The air is allowed into the nose by lowering the velum, the soft palate at the back of the mouth. English has three main nasal sounds:

Manner of articulation

By manner of articulation we mean the kind of closure or constriction used in making the sound. We classify English consonants according to three manners of articulation: stops (full stoppage of the air stream somewhere in the oral cavity between the vocal folds and the lips, as in [p], [b], [m]); fricatives (constriction of the air stream in the oral cavity producing turbulence and noise, as in [f], [v]); affricates (full stoppage of the air stream followed immediately by constriction, as in [tS], [dZ]). Table 2 summarizes the different manners of articulation.

Place of articulation

by place of articulation we mean the area in the mouth at which the consonantal closure or constriction occurs. English uses only seven places of articulation (see Figure 1) which we describe and illustrate below.

Bilabial sounds are made by bringing both lips together to stop the airstream:

Labiodental sounds are made by bringing the top teeth into contact with
the bottom lip and forcing air between the two to create the fricatives:

Interdental sounds are made by placing the tip of the tongue between
the top and bottom teeth and forcing air through. Again, these are both
fricatives:

Alveolar sounds are made by bringing the tongue and the alveolar ridge
(the bony ridge just behind the top teeth) together to create either a stop or
fricative:

(Alveo-)palatal sounds are made by bringing the blade of the tongue to,
or close to, the alveo-palatal area of the roof of the mouth to create fricatives
and affricates:

Velar sounds are created by stopping the air stream by bringing the back
of the tongue into contact with the velum:

Glottal sounds are created by either narrowing the vocal folds sufficiently to create a fricative or closing them to create a stop:

Acoustics Phonetics

This is the study of how speech sounds are transmitted: when sounds travels through the air from the speakers mouth to the hearers ear it does so in form of vibrations in the air; it is the study of physical production and transmission of speech sounds. Spectrographs are the visual representation of acoustical information. The display concentrations of physical energy in the spoken signal. These concentration, which shows up as dark bands, are called formants. Multiple formants make up each intelligible speech sound.

AUDITORY PHONETICS

This is the study of how speech is perceived: looks at the way in which the hearer’s brain decodes the sound waves back into the vowels and consonants originally intended by the speaker. It is the study of perception of speech sounds. The actual sound produced, such as a simple vowel or consonant sound is called phone.  

  

                                                   

   PHONOLOGY

The word phonology came from Ancient Greek. PHONOLOGY can also refer to the phonological system of a given language,it is also one of the fundamental system which a language is considered like syntax and it its vocabulary.

        Phonology describes the way sound function within a given language to encode meaning for many linguist.Phonology belongs to a descriptive linguistics.

Phonology is the study of sound patterns,especially different pattern of sound in different language.Phonolgy is a branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization of sound in language. Phonology deals with the way speech sounds behave in particular languages or in languages generally. This focuses on the way languages use differences between sounds in order to convey differences of meaning between words.                          Phonology also include the study of equivalent non oral languages such as ASL.

Some term to take note in phonology include:

Phone: This is the smallest unit of human sound which is recognizable but not classified. The delimiters used are square brackets: [ ]. Examples: [p], [i:], [t] all three of which are found in peat. Phones are unclassified in that nothing is said of their function in the sound system of a language.

Phoneme: The smallest unit of language which distinguishes meaning – the organizational unit of phonology – is termed a phoneme. The brackets used are slashes: / /. Examples from English are: /k/, /u:/, /l/, as seen in the word cool /ku:l/. Both consonants and vowels are phonemes, for instance /i:/, /ai/, /u:/, /au/ are phonemes in English and can be seen in beat, bite, boot, bout respectively. The distribution of phonemes in English is fairly regular (see consonant and vowel charts below), the consonants tend to come in pairs of voiced and voiceless members and the vowels in sets of long and short vowels.

The phoneme is an abstract term (a speech sound as it exists in the mind of the speaker) and it is specific to a particular language. e.g in English the /p/ sound is phoneme because it is the smallest unit of sounds of bill,till or drill making the word pill. The vowel sound of pill is also a phoneme because its distinctness in sound makes pill, which means one thing, sound different from pal, which means another. Minimal pairs are pairs of words that have one phonological element that is different.

Examples of minimal pairs

lit – light	read – red	sing – sang
bed – bad	saw – sought	boot – boat
soot – suit	but – boot	why – way
know – now	wreath – wreathe	leak – lick
look – luck	sock zx- suck	vest – vast
cod – card	dug – dog	thirst – first
fair – fear	pay – bay	read – lead
need – mead	zoo – sue	near - ne'er
catch – cash	azure – assure	jet – chet
leige – lease	whistle – thistle	beige – bays
fur – fear	care – chur	noon – nun

 A phoneme may have several allophones, related sounds that are distinct but do not change the meaning of a word when they are interchanged. The sounds corresponding to the letter "t" in the English words 'tea' and 'trip' are not in fact quite the same. The position of the tongue is slightly different, which causes a difference in sound detectable by an instrument.

Overlapping distribution: when we find phonetic environments (the sounds before and after)where both phones occur.[p] and [b] in ‘’pat’’ and ‘’bat’.  

Complementary distribution: when we find no overlapping phonetics environments. They are allophones of the same phoneme.[pʱ] and [p] in ‘’pin’’ and ‘’spin’’.

PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY 

Phonetics and phonology are related in language. Phonetics is the study of sound in speech, Phonology is the study of sound patterns to create meaning. Phonetics focuses on how speech is physical created and received, including the study of human vocal and auditory tract, acoustics, and neurology. Phonology relies on phonetic information for its practice, but focused on the non verbal communication creating it meaning on how such patterens are interpreted.

The Difference Between Phonetics And Phonology

Phonetics is about the physical aspect of sounds, it studies the production and the perception of sounds, called phones. Phonetics has some subcategories, but if not specified, we usually mean "articulatory phonetics": that is, "the study of the production of speech sounds by the articulatory and vocal tract by the speaker". Phonetic transcriptions are done using the square brackets, [ ]

         

Phonology is about the abstract aspect of sounds and it studies the phonemes (phonemic transcriptions adopt the slash / /). Phonology is about establishing what the phonemes are in a given language, i.e. those sounds that can bring a difference in meaning between two words. A phoneme is a phonic segment with a meaning value, for example in minimal pairs:

My advisor, Dennis Preston, used to tell students that the ear hears phonetics, but the brain hears phonology. That is, your ear is capable of processing whatever linguistic sounds are given to it (assuming someone with normal hearing), but your language experience causes your brain to filter out only those sound patterns that are important to your language(s)

Generally, phonetics is the study of fine grained details of those sounds, while phonology has traditionally dealt with analysis of greater abstractions. For understandable reasons, the line between the two disciplines is blurring, particularly as our modeling capabilities become more sophisticated. Still, the distinction is useful.

    BY                                                                                              

ADEGBITE.A.SHALLOM,

            AND 

ODETOLA FARUK