Phonological versus phonetic disorders: Some suggested modifications to the current use of the distinction

ABSTRACT The distinction between phonetics and phonology as traditionally defined within linguistics is not suitable for direct application to speech pathology. It is argued that its adaptation for the purpose of distinguishing phonetic disorders and phonological disorders has led to anomalies, and, in particular, that loss of phonological contrasts does not necessarily imply that a disorder is (partly) phonological in nature. What is described as a “speaker oriented” description of the distinction is offered, together with a proposal for a three way distinction—into phonological, phonetic and articulatory disorders—to replace the present binary one. It is further suggested that the speech characteristics of some disorders might best be explained as resulting from avoidance strategies undertaken at the phonological level in order to circumvent lower level constraints.