Consonants

1
f?'n?I??? tu
Only for foxy people Readings Chpts 13,14
Roach, P (2000) References McMahon, A (2001), An
Introduction to English phonology. Ball Rahilly
(1999) Phonetics.The Science of Speech.

2

Schwa ?
Some preliminaries Contrastive versus
complementary distribution Contrastive
distribution The relation btw two speech sds in
a lg. which behave as follows replacing one of
them by the other one in a given word gives a
different meaning. Speech sds which are in contr.
distri. must be assigned to different phonemes.
For eg. if we replace f by v in fæt, we get
væt-diff meaning meeting, beating,hired,
fired - hdphone advert

3
Complementary distribution The relation btw two
linguistic forms (which are phonetically similar)
which can never occur in the same environment
may be assigned to a single phoneme sound
modified by the environment eg. allophones t, th
sit, thap dark l, clear l Clear l before a
vowel and dark l everywhere else Eg. lea eels
4

• Some proposals w.r.t. ?
• ? ? are not in contrastive distribution.
• ? is a phoneme with ? and ? as allophones. Why?
• ? only occurs in weak syllables, no minimal pairs
• 2. ? is an allophone of other vowels
• Of ?, in rel. to stress
• economy ik ?n?mi
• economic i k ?n?mik

5
Of i , also in relation to stress Germanic -
? ?mænik German ? ?m ?n
6

• Distinctive features
• Distinctive feature analysis phonemes not as
  independent indivisible units, but combinations
  of different features
• Table- refer to next slide
• teach learners particular feature or combination
  of features than absence/ presence of phonemes, v
  w (Tamil??), l r (Mandarin)

7

• Binary Features (,-) Eg.
• 2 sds have exactly the same s -s, not
  different phonemes

8

• Phonological processes
• Segmental phonological processes a.k.a. connected
  speech processes (CSPs)
• Assimilation, elision, linking, intrusive r,
  syllable juncture
• Largely, substitution, reduction, deletion
  processes
• optional
• meaning these processes do not occur for all
  speakers occur less freqly in formal situations
  in slower speed

9
What happens during rapid casual speech
(connected speech) Some exemplifications 1.
segmental weakenings (weak forms) such as
reduction of vowels to schwa ? , loss of
consonants , shortening of vowels (refer weak
forms) 2.assimilation regressive sit close,
tend to have medial kk, odd message bm- final
initial stops 3. Deletion - vowel deletion
connect knekt potato pteit ?u knpt
violates phonotactics of English
10

• 4.Elision vowels consonants elided ,
  February
• febri, veterinary ve ?nri
• 5. r intrusion- across words, /r/ appears eg.
  the idea is ðiaidi?riz law and order
  l?r?n?d? within words drawring,
  magentarish
• unusual fast speech process bcuz involves
  addition of segment no r in spelling, no
  etymological r
• Conclusion These processes have similar
  rationale, allowing speech tempo to be kept
  consistently fast,ease articulation pressures

11

• Obligatory phonological processes
• -physiologically dictated,outside the control of
  speaker, some exemplifications
• Eg. (Ball Rahilly)
• vowel nasalization in the environments of a
• nasal consonant
• aspiration of a voiceless plosive where the
  plosive occurs in stressed word-initial,syllable-i
  nitial position

12
Mcmahon, A, Eg. Suffixes Within words
(word-internal morphophonological
processes) Suffix ity is added to electric, the
final k for electric becomes s in
electricity ilektrik ilektrisiti
Hard to see why they take place, creates an
alternation btw 2 independent phonemes, not
directly motivated by the phonological context.
13
Classification of phonological processes

• Direction of influence between segments
• Progressive assimilation- XY segments aspects
  of pronunciation of X overlap with or influence
  the pronunciation of Y then the influence is
  moving forward or left-to-right
• Regressive assimilation- XY segments aspects of
  pronunciation of Y overlap with or influence X
  then the influence is moving backwards
  right-to-left
• In English, the regressive direction of
  influence is more common than progressive.
• 2. Aspects of articulation 3. Functional
  classification

14

• Tutorial activities
• Audio Units 19 20
• Written exercises, those not completed Chpters 1-
  19
• Consultation on your project