Ling 390 Intro to Linguistics Winter 2005 Class 1 Monday, January 3, 2005

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Phonology
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• Chapter 3
• Chapter 3 Phonology
• Chapter 3 Exercises 4, 5, 7
• Problem Set 2

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Phonology
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Phonology

• The component of the grammar that determines the
  selection of speech sounds and that governs both
  the sound patterns and the systematic phonetic
  variation found in language.

• Segments (phones, sounds) - what we learned from
  phonetics
• Features - parts of phones
• Syllables - putting phones together in a larger
  structure

3
Phonology
3
Phonology

• Looking for meaningful contrast between sounds
• (distinctive sounds, sounds in opposition)

• Minimal Pairs - 2 forms with distinct meanings
  that differ by only 1 segment found in the same
  position in each form (p.59)
• Like 2 words that rhyme (minimal pairs test for
  consonants)
• sip and zip show a meaningful difference between
  the segments s and z

4
Phonology
4
Phonology

• Environment - the phonetic context in which a
  sound occurs
• Near minimal pairs - like minimal pairs but
  environments arent entirely identical
• Near minimal pairs used if minimal pairs cant
  be found

• Minimal Pair
• sip and zip show a meaningful difference between
  the segments
• s and z

• Near Minimal Pair
• author and either show a meaningful difference
  between the segments

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Phonology
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Phonology

• Minimal pairs used to find phonemes
• Phonemes - segments that contrast with each
  other in a particular language belong to separate
  phonemes (p. 60)
• Cant always find MP for all phonemes in all
  environments
• only occur in certain
  environments in English

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Phonology
6
Phonology

• English phonemes are shown on pages 60-61
• Note that there is no glottal stop or flap on
  the consonant chart - why?
• What is considered a phoneme is language
  specific
• If we say in English do Len we can change
  length of vowels and consonants and its doesnt
  change the meanings of the words - Finnish no
• Length in Finnish contrastive for both cons and
  vowels

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Phonology
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Phonology

• Systematic variation - predictable changes in
  segments in certain environments
• Not all ls are the same - who was surprised?

Only voiceless l occurs after voiceless stop,
so it is predictable. No voiced l occurs in
this environment.
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Phonology
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Phonology

• When 2 or more sounds never occur in the same
  environment then they are in complimentary
  distribution

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Phonology
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• When 2 or more sounds never occur in the same
  environment then they are in complimentary
  distribution

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Phonology
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• Allophones - When two or more segments are
  phonetically distinct but phonologically the same
  (predictable variation).

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Phonology
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Phonology

• Phonetic representation - shows all allophones
  and all information about segments that is
  phonetically produced
• Phonemic representation - only shows phoneme

Phonemic representation
/p/
Phonetic representation
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Phonology
12
Phonology

• English one phoneme /p/ and allophones include
  p and ph

Phonemic representation
/p/
p ph
Phonetic representation

• Thai 2 phonemes /p/ and /ph/

Phonemic representation
/p/ /ph/
p ph
Phonetic representation
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Phonology
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• Searching for generalizations about systematic
  variation of sounds

In English, liquids and glides have voiceless
allophones after voiceless stops, and voiced
allophones elsewhere.
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Phonology
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Phonology

• Canadian Raising

/aj/ /aw/
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Phonology
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• Complementray Distribution - remember that the
  phoneme /p/ has 3 allophones

Environments
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Phonology
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Phonology Review

• The component of the grammar that determines the
  selection of speech sounds and that governs both
  the sound patterns and the systematic phonetic
  variation found in language.
• Phoneme - the idea of the sound and
  organizational unit for all its allophones - in
  yo head
• Allophones - the phonetic realizations of the
  phoneme in certain phonetic environments - out
  yo mouth

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Phonology
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Phonology Review

• Minimal Pairs - 2 forms with distinct meanings
  that differ by only 1 segment found in the same
  position in each form (p.59)
• Minimal pairs used to find phonemes
• Phonemes - segments that contrast with each
  other in a particular language belong to separate
  phonemes (p. 60)
• When 2 or more sounds never occur in the same
  environment then they are in complimentary
  distribution

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Phonology
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Distinctive Features

• Features - smaller than the segment (subsegment)
• Characteristics of segments - voicing, place,
  manner, etc.
• Natural classes - group of sounds that share
  feature(s) in common
• Sound is characterized by a feature matrix
• Purpose of features is to represent sounds as a
  set of phonetic properties, to capture natural
  classes, and to show nature of allophonic
  variation (not just random)

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Phonology
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• Obstruents - some sort of obstruction
  (fricatives, stops and affricates)
• Sonorants - singable - liquids, glides, nasals
  and vowel

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Phonology
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Major class features
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Phonology
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• Major class features
• ? consonantal - major obstruction in vocal
  tract
• obstruents, liquids, nasals (not h and ?) (not
  glides)
• ? syllabic - sounds that can act as syllables
• vowels, and syllabic consonants (not glides)
• ? sonorant - singable sounds
• vowels, glides, liquids and nasals (even if
  voiceless)

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Phonology
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• Manner features
• ? continuant sounds with free or nearly free
  airflow through oral cavity
• fricatives, liquids, glides and vowels (not
  stops (nasals included))
• ? delayed release ? DR the release of a
  stop is slowed to create a fricative
• affricates only
• ? nasal sounds produced with a lowered velum
  (through nasal passage)
• nasal stops and nasalized vowels
• ? lateral sounds produced air flowing over
  sides of tongue
• only varieties of l are lateral

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Phonology
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• Laryngeal features
• ? voice vocal folds vibrating or not
• ? spread glottis ? SG aspirated sounds are
  SG
• ? constricted glottis ? CG sounds made
  with a closed glottis are CG
• In English, only is CG

?
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Phonology
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• Place o articulation features
• Different from other features only certain
  features apply to the 3 places
• LABIAL sounds made with at least one lip
• CORONAL sounds made with tongue tip or blade
  raised (front of tongue)
• DORSAL sounds made involving body of tongue

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Phonology
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• Place o articulation features
• LABIAL
• ? round sounds produced by protruding the
  lips
• round is w round is p, b, f, v

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Phonology
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Phonology
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• Place o articulation features
• DORSAL (for vowels and some consonants)
• ? high tongue body raised higher than a
  central position
• DORSAL consonants (velars and palatals) and high
  vowels
• ? low tongue body lowered lower than a
  central position
• low vowels are low others are low not
  for consonants in English
• ? back produced with tongue body behind
  palatal region back
• velar consonants and back vowels are back
  palatals and front vowels not
• ? tense tense vowels are tense lax
  vowels are tense
• ? reduced if the vowel is reduced, it is
  reduced (always for )

?
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Phonology
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Consonants (C)
high
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Phonology
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Vowels (V)
LABIAL
round
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Phonology
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Consonants (C)
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Phonology
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Vowels (V)
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Phonology
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Phonology

• Underlying representation (UR) - the
  unpredictable phonological information
  represented in a phonemic representation (green
  folders)
• Surface representations (PR) - the phonetic
  representations (manila folders)
• We use rules (formalized phonological processes)
  to derive the PR from the UR

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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
Liquid devoicing

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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology

• Canadian Raising

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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
?
Onset (O)
Rhyme (R)
Nucleus (N)
Coda (C)
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
?
?
R
R
N
N
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Phonology
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Phonology
?
?
R
R
N
N
O
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Phonology
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Practice
Transcription Practice
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Phonology
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Practice
Phonology

• Minimal Pairs Practice

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Phonology
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Practice
Phonology

• For each of the following pairs of English
  consonant phonemes, find a minimal pair

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Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
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Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
Phonetic Environments ___ C before a
consonants C ___ V between a consonant and a
vowel V ___ V between two vowels V ___
word-final after a vowel C ___ word-final
after a consonant
Phonetic Environments ___ word initial ___
word final s ___ after s
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Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
before a, o, e, o, word initially, etc
elsewhere
all before u
all before i
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Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
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Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
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Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
Answer They are different phonemes. Why? Minimal
pairs a/e, c/f and near minimal pair b/d
58
Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
59
Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
Are they separate phonemes? No then organize
your data!
60
Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
What is the distribution?
This is complementary distribution allophones
of the same phoneme! Which is the phoneme?
61
Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice - Features
State the feature that distinguishes each pair of
sounds (what feature(s) differ between these two
sounds?)
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Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice - Features
In the following sets, all the sounds except one
belong to the same natural class. One of these
things is not like the others which one is it?
State the feature that the remaining sounds share.
voice or -continuant
sonorant or -nasal
-nasal
-delayed release
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Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
64
Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
What is the distribution?
This is complementary distribution allophones
of the same phoneme! Which is the phoneme?
65
Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
66
Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
Convert this statement into a rule Voiced oral
stops become voiceless at the beginning of words.
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Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
Convert this rule into a statement
68
Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
Convert this rule into a statement
Voiced fricatives become voiceless between vowels
(intervocalically)
69
Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
Convert this rule into a statement
Voiceless fricatives become aspirated word
initially
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Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
71
Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
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Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
73
Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
Consider the following English data.
What are the two rules observed in these data?
Liquid devoicing Liquids become voiceless after
a voiceless stop at the beginning of a
syllable. Schwa deletion Schwa is deleted in an
open syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
74
Phonology
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Practice
Phonology Practice
What can we say about nasalized vowels from the
data? Nasalized vowels occur before nasals
(allophones of oral vowels)
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Phonology
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Practice
Phonology
76
Phonology
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Practice
Phonology