Manual for Linguistics I Linguistics I: Phonetics & Phonology 1º Year Instituto Superior de Lenguas Universidad Nacional de Asunción
Phonetics & Phonology 1º Year Facultad de Lenguas Vivas Universidad Evangélica del Paraguay
Applied Phonetics 1º Year Instituto Superior de Educación Ministerio de Educación y Cultura Susan Spezzini - Christian Cristoful Scappini 2013
“…and the whole earth was of one language and of one speech” Genesis 11:01
… …en aquel tiempo todos hablaban un mismo idioma …ɚ ...erat autem terra labii unius et sermonum eorundem ...naquele tempo toda a humanidade falava uma só língua ...Καὶ ἦν πᾶσα ἡ γῆ χεῖλος ἕν, καὶ φωνὴ μία πᾶσιν …Toute la terre avait une seule langue et les mêmes mots …온 땅의 구음이 하나이요 언어가 하나이었더라 …ora tutta la terra parlava la stessa lingua e usava le stesse parole ...nan konmansman, tout moun sou latè te pale yon sèl lang, yonn te konprann lòt …واحدة ول غة واحدا ل سان ا ك لها االر ض وك ان ت ... 那時，天下人的口音言語，都是一樣。 ...hele Menneskeheden havde eet Tungemål og samme Sprog ...und die ganze Erde hatte ein und dieselbe Sprache und ein und dieselben Wörter … Ekuqalekeni uThixo wadala amazulu nehlabathi. אחדים׃ ודברים אחת שפה כל־הארץ ויהי
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LESSON 1. INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS ...... 1
LESSON 3. WHAT IS LANGUAGE? ...... 3
HUMAN/ANIMAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS...... 3 LESSON 4. HISTORY OF LINGUISTICS...... 5 THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ORIGIN ...... 6 LESSON 5. GRAMMAR ...... 10
LESSON 6. NEUROLINGUISTICS ...... 11
LESSON 7. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY – DESCRIPTIVE PHONETICS - ORAL TRACT ...... 12
ARTICULATORS AND POINTS OF ARTICULATION ...... 12 LESSON 8. THE VOWEL SYSTEM OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ...... 16 THE SOUNDS ...... 17 THE SOUND ...... 18 THE SOUND ...... 18 THE (SCHWA)SOUND ...... 18 THESOUND (AND AMERICAN) ...... 19 THESOUND ...... 20 THESOUND (CARRET/WEDGE) ...... 20 THESOUNDS...... 20 THE SOUND ...... 21 DIPHTHONGS ...... 22 LAS VOCALES DE LA LENGUA ESPAÑOLA (FONEMAS) ...... 26 LESSON 9. THE CONSONANT SYSTEM OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE...... 27
THE CONSONANT SYSTEM OF THE SPANISH LANGUAGE ...... 31 LESSON 10. STOP CONSONANTS ...... 32
SYSTEM OF THE BILABIAL STOP CONSONANTS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ...... 32 SYSTEM OF THE ALVEOLAR STOP CONSONANTS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ...... 34 SISTEMA DE LAS OCLUSIVAS DENTALES EN LA LENGUA ESPAÑOLA ...... 36 SYSTEM OF THE VELAR STOP CONSONANTS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ...... 37 SISTEMA DE LAS OCLUSIVAS VELARES EN LA LENGUA ESPAÑOLA ...... 38 LESSON 11. FRICATIVE AND AFFRICATE SOUNDS ...... 39 SYSTEM OF THE FRICATIVE CONSONANTS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ...... 39 SISTEMA DE LAS FRICATIVAS EN LA LENGUA ESPAÑOLA ...... 41 SYSTEM OF THE AFFRICATE CONSONANTS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE...... 42 SISTEMA DE LAS AFRICADAS PALATALES EN LA LENGUA ESPAÑOLA ...... 42 LESSON 12. NASAL SOUNDS ...... 43
SISTEMA DE LAS CONSONANTES NASALES EN LA LENGUA ESPAÑOLA...... 44 LESSON 13. LIQUID SOUNDS ...... 45
SYSTEM OF THE LIQUID CONSONANTS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ...... 45 SISTEMA DE LAS CONSONANTES LATERALES Y VIBRANTES EN LA LENGUA ESPAÑOLA ...... 46 4
LESSON 14. GLIDES ...... 47
SYSTEM OF THE GLIDES (SEMI-CONSONANTS) IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ...... 47 LESSON 15. ALLOPHONIC VARIATIONS ...... 49
LESSON 16. PHONETIC PHENOMENA MOTIVATED BY SOUND COMBINATION ...... 50
LESSON 17. SUPRASEGMENTAL FEATURES (PROSODIC PROPERTIES) ...... 53
HOW TO DETERMINE WHERE STRESS LIES...... 54 LESSON 18. PHONOLOGY: ANALYSIS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ...... 58
PROBLEM # 1 HYPOTHETICAL LANGUAGE ...... 60 PROBLEM # 2. SPANISH ...... 60 PROBLEM # 3. ENGLISH ...... 60 PROBLEM # 4. UNKNOWN DIALECT...... 60 PROBLEM # 5. KALABAA ...... 61 PROBLEM # 6. KALABAA ...... 61 PROBLEM # 7. HEBREW ...... 61 PROBLEM # 8. TOJOLABAL (MEXICO) ...... 62 PROBLEM # 9. TOJOLABAL (MEXICO) ...... 62 PROBLEM # 10. PERSIAN ...... 62 PROBLEM # 11. GANDA (EAST AFRICA) ...... 63 PROBLEM # 12. KOREAN...... 63 PROBLEM # 13. KOREAN ...... 64 PROBLEM # 14. SWAHILI (EAST AFRICA) ...... 65 PROBLEM # 15. KAROK (CALIFORNIA) ...... 65 PROBLEM # 16. KAROK (CALIFORNIA) ...... 66 PROBLEM # 17. SINDHI ...... 66 PROBLEM # 18. ZULU (SOUTH AFRICA)...... 66 PROBLEM # 19. ONEIDA (NEW YORK) ...... 67 PROBLEM # 20. KERESAN (NEW MEXICO) ...... 68 PROBLEM # 21. TOTONAC (MEXICO) ...... 68 PROBLEM # 22. VENDA (SOUTH AFRICA) ...... 68 APPENDIX ...... 69
SOME DESCRIPTIVE TERMS ...... 75
TRANSCRIPTIONS ...... 76 TRANSCRIPTION EXERCISES - ENGLISH ...... 78 CONNECTED SPEECH ...... 78 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 89
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Lesson 1. Introduction to Linguistics Linguists divide the study of spoken language into two categories—phonology and grammar. Phonology is the study of sounds. Grammar is how the sounds are used to make sense.
Phonology: The smallest unit of sound that can be altered to change the meaning of a word is called a phoneme. In English, for example, the words gin, kin, pin, sin, tin, and win all have different meaning due to the fact that the initial sound, or phoneme, is different. Phonemes do not have meaning by themselves. The sounds represented by the g, k, p, s, t, and w in the words above are meaningless alone but they can change the meaning of words.
Different languages may use somewhat different sets of phonemes. For instance, Polynesian languages usually use about 15 phonemes and generally favor vowel clusters rather than consonant clusters in words. This pattern can be observed in the Polynesian words Kauai, Maui, and Samoa. In contrast, English uses 40 phonemes and often combine consonants into clusters. This can be heard in the English words schedule, months, and shrill. The San languages of southwest Africa (spoken by the Ju/'hoansi and others) use some sounds that are not found in English or most other languages elsewhere. These are click sounds that serve as consonants. The Ju/'hoansi language has four distinct kinds of clicks that are produced by sharply pulling the tongue away from different locations in the mouth.
If your language does not have some of the sounds of another language; it is usually difficult for you to hear the differences and to pronounce them correctly. For this reason, the r and l sounds in English are difficult to distinguish for native Japanese speakers. Try making these two sounds and think about the shape of your mouth and of the placement of your tongue. They are quite similar for both sounds. Native English speakers rarely have difficulty in distinguishing the r and l sounds because they have been familiar with them from early childhood. They are experts at hearing the difference. However, English speakers have difficulty with unfamiliar sounds in other languages, such as the San language clicks mentioned above and the v and b sounds in some Spanish dialects.
Learning and using the sounds of a language can be significantly complicated by the writing system. English has more than 1100 combinations of letters that are used to produce the 40 sounds of the spoken language. It becomes a problem when words share the same phoneme but spell it differently. This occurs with the "e" sound in me, tea, tree, key, country, piece, and reprise. In addition, many English words have the same letter combination but are not pronounced the same. This is the case with mint and pint, clove and love, as well as cough and bough. By comparison, the 33 sounds used in Italian are spelled with only 25 letter combinations. Italian words are spelled just as they are pronounced. Consequentially, Italians rarely have to ask each other "how do you spell your name" It is not surprising that English is a far more difficult language to learn. It is also much more difficult for people who are dyslexic. Perhaps, the most complicated writing system is used in Japan today. It combines symbol elements from several different writing systems, sometimes in the same sentence--kanji, katakana, hiragana (ひらがな), and the Latin script that is used in the written form of most European languages. Kanji is a variant of the Chinese writing system. Katakana is a derivative of Kanji that is used for words borrowed from other languages and for special purposes, such as telegrams. Hiragana originated as a cursive form of katakana. Use of the Latin script is complicated by the fact that there usually are several different ways of spelling the same word. All of these various symbol elements may be written from left to right, right to left, or top to bottom. Adding further confusion is the fact that the kanji symbols sometimes have several different meanings. Educated Japanese are expected to know about 2000 kanji character symbols. Complicating the matter is the fact that Japanese writing is rapidly changing as it adapts to the massive influx of new words and concepts from the Western World. As a result, older people in Japan, who were educated several decades ago, usually have difficulty reading popular newspapers and magazines targeted at teenagers and young adults. We will cover Grammar in lesson 5 Phonetics: the descriptive study of human languages 1. What is Phonetics? 2. What is Phonology? 3. Where are sounds produced? 4. What part of the body produces the sounds? 5. What is IPA? 2
Lesson 2. Linguistic Concepts: Fact or Fantasy?
Work in pairs. Give your opinion concerning the following statements. Reading Assignment: Read F&R Unit 1 T F 1. An effort should be made to keep a language pure. T F 2. Some languages -such as Cherokee- are primitive T F 3. There is a correct way to speak each language. T F 4. Some languages are more logical than others. T F 5. Some languages are superior and others are inferior. T F 6. Each language is a finite and unchangeable entity with only one right way. T F 7. Only written languages are real languages; anything else is just a dialect. T F 8. Latin is the basis of all languages, especially those in Europe. T F 9. All languages can be analyzed based on the same grammar, such as from Latin or from any other European language. T F 10. The language of technologically underdeveloped people is simple/crude. T F 11. We should not use words that come from other languages. T F 12. It is impossible for a verb to have gender or for a noun to have tense. T F 13. A language has no grammar unless it is written in a book. T F 14. Speakers of a standard language do not speak a dialect. T F 15. People of all languages express their thoughts in the same way. T F 16. Information about the world is organized the same way in all languages. T F 17. Translations can convey the exact meaning of the original text. 18. Some languages have special attributes for certain ways of speaking: for example - with merchants T F (English), soldiers (German), women (French), God (Spanish). T F 19. Some languages have sounds that are more difficult than others. T F 20. Language is static and inflexible; any changes will cause it to lose purity. T F 21. Certain languages cannot be used to express the concepts of modern society. T F 22. An invented word does not really belong to a language. T F 23. Intuitions shouldn't be trusted; it's only correct if you can find it in a book. T F 24. Writing represents the real language; the spoken form is only a pale and probably corrupted reflection of it. T F 25. Writing is more important than speech. T F 26. Writing is primary and speech is only a secondary reflection of language T F 27. There is an absolute "right" and absolute "wrong" in all language matters. T F 28. If something is not unquestionably "correct," then it must be unquestionably "incorrect." T F 29. An absolute standard exists for each language, and it is worldwide. T F 30. The correct usage in English is: I shall (not I will) and It's I (not It's me). T F 31. Whatever is spoken is vague, inexact or fluctuating, whereas whatever is written is fixed and permanent. T F 32. If a word isn't in the dictionary, then it doesn't belong to the language. T F 33. Native speakers understand how their language works and can explain it. T F 34. Some languages are prettier than others; some are harsher than others. T F 35. All of the above are not facts, but rather just myths and misconceptions about the nature of language. 3
Lesson 3. What is language? Many animal and even plant species communicate with each other. Humans are not unique in this capability. However, human language is unique in being a symbolic communication system that is learned instead of biologically inherited. Symbols are sounds or things which have meaning given to them by the users. Originally, the meaning is arbitrarily assigned. For instance, the English word "dog" does not in any way physically resemble the animal it stands for. All symbols have a material form but the meaning can not be discovered by mere sensory examination of their forms. They are abstractions.
Arbitrariness: Do the following words sound or look like the animal shown here: canis, chien, hund, perro? (They all are words for dog in European languages)
A word is one or more sounds that in combination have a specific meaning assigned by a language. The symbolic meaning of words can be so powerful that people are willing to risk their lives for them or take the lives of others. For instance, words such as "queer" and "nigger" have symbolic meaning that is highly charged emotionally in America today. They are much more than just a sequence of sounds to us.
A major advantage of human language being a learned symbolic communication system is that it is infinitely flexible. Meanings can be changed and new symbols created. This is evidenced by the fact that new words are invented daily and the meaning of old ones change. This allows us to respond linguistically to major environmental, historical, and social changes.
Human/animal communication systems Systems of communication are not unique to human beings. Other animal species communicate in a variety of ways. One way is by sound: a bird may communicate by a call that a territory is his and should not be encroached upon.
Another means of animal communication is by odour: an ant releases a chemical when it dies, and other ants then carry it away to the compost heap. A third means of communication is body movement, for example used by honeybees to convey the location of food sources.
Although primates use all three methods of communication: sound, odour, and body movement, sound is the method of primary interest since it is our own primary means of communication. A topic of persistent debate in linguistic anthropology is whether human communication (verbal and nonverbal) is similar to nonhuman primate communication, such as seen in apes and monkeys. Linguistics and primatologists have searched for a common thread running through the communication systems of humans and nonhuman primates. Certain scholars argue that our language capabilities are not unique and point to various aspects of non-human primate communication as evidence. Other scientists remain unconvinced. Today there continues to be a significant amount of debate concerning this area of linguistic anthropology.
Communication can be defined to include both signals and symbols. Signals are sounds or gestures that have a natural or self-evident meaning [example of someone crying (=emotion), laughing (=emotion), animal cries (=indicating fear, food, or hunt). In this regard, we can consider that most animal communication is genetically determined and includes hoots, grunts, or screams that are meant to mean only one thing and are used every time in the same situation. So, there is only one way to express one thing and it never changes. Animal communication tends to consist primarily of signals.
In contrast, human communication is dependent on both signals and symbols. Symbols are sounds or gestures that have meaning for a group of people-it is the cultural tradition that gives it meaning (e.g. green light=go; teaching a child letters. Symbols have to be learned and are not instinctive; the meanings are arbitrary.
Some of the debate regarding human versus primate communication stems from observations by scientists in the field. For example, scientists who have observed vervet monkeys in the wild consider at least three of their alarm calls to be symbolic because each of them means a different kind of predator- eagles, pythons; leopards-monkeys react 4 differently to each call. Interestingly, infant vervets often make the "eagle" warning call when they see any flying bird and learn the appropriate call as they grow up. This is similar to human infants who often first apply the word "dada" to all adult males, gradually learning to restrict it one person. It is possible, therefore, to consider such calls as symbolic.
So-if monkeys and apes appear to use symbols as least some of the time, how can we distinguish human communication? For one thing, all human languages employ a much larger set of symbols. Another and perhaps more important difference is that other primate's vocal systems tend to be closed (different calls are not often combined to produce new, meaningful utterances). In contrast, human languages are open systems (capable of sending messages that have never been sent before and the ability to combine symbols in an infinite variety of ways for an infinite variety of meanings). The following exercises are designed to help you think about the similarities and differences between humans and nonhuman primates in terms of the way we all communicate.
Animals that use vocal signals have a stock of basic sounds which vary according to species. A cow has under ten, a chicken has around twenty, and a fox over thirty. Dolphins have between twenty and thirty, and so do gorilas and chimpanzees. Most animals can use each basic sound only once. That is, the number of messages an animal can send is restricted to the number of basic sounds, or occasionally the basic sounds plus a few simple combinations.
Most animals can communicate about things in the immediate environment only. A bird utters its danger cry only when danger is present. It cannot give information about a peril which is removed in time and place.
Most animals have a very limited number of messages they can send or receive. The male of a certain species of grasshopper, for example, has a choice of six, which might be translated as follows:
1. I am happy, life is good.
2. I would like to make love
3. You are trespassing on my territory
4. She‘s mine
5. Let‘s make love
6. Oh how nice to have made love
Not only is the number of messages fixed for the grasshopper, but so are the circumstances under which each can be communicated. All animals, as far as we know, are limited in a similar way. Bees can communicated only about nectar. Dolphins, in spite of their intelligence and large number of clicks, whistles and squawks, seem to be restricted to communicating about the same things again and again. And even the clever vervet monkey, who is claimed to make thirty-six different vocal sounds, is obliged to repeat these over and over.
Questions:
1. What characteristics or properties of communication are common to all humans beings?
2. Are these characteristics found among nonhuman species as well?
3. What are the underlying causes that result in similarities or differences between systems of human and animal communication?
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Lesson 4. History of Linguistics 1. What is synchronic linguistics? Synchronic linguistics is the analysis of any language at a single point in time
2. What is diachronic linguistics? Diachronic Linguistics is the analysis of any language through time 3. How is the history of linguistics divided? The history of linguistics can be split in three main periods: Historical Linguistics: 19th century Descriptive Linguistics: early-to mid-20th century Generative Linguistics: mid-to-late 20th century 4. Talk about Historical Linguistics. Before the 19th century, language in the western world was of interest mainly to philosophers. Plato is said to have been the first person to distinguish between nouns and verbs. The birthdate of linguistics: in 1786 Sir William Jones said that Sanskrit (an old Indian Language), Greek, Latin, Celtic and Germanic all had striking structural similarities. So impressive were these likenesses that these languages must spring from one common source, he concluded. Linguists were very concerned about finding the common source of language, which they called "Proto-Indo- European". In the mid-19th century, Darwin published his famous "Origin of Species", putting forward the theory of evolution. It seemed natural to attempt to chart the evolution of language alongside the evolution of species. In the last quarter of the 19th century, a group of scholars claimed that language change is "regular" they argued that if, in any word of a given dialect, one sound changes into another, the change will also affect all other occurrences of the same sound in similar phonetic surroundings. 5. Talk about Descriptive Linguistics. In the 20th century, the emphasis shifted from language change to language description. The person responsible for this change was the Swiss scholar Ferdinand de Saussure, who is sometimes called, "The father of Modern Linguistics". Amazingly, he died without having written any major work on general linguistics. But his students collected together his lecture notes after his death and published them under the title Course in General Linguistics, which exerted a major influence on the course of linguistics. His crucial contribution was that all language items are essentially interlinked. Nobody had seriously examined the relationship of each element to all the others. His insistence that language is a carefully built structure of interwoven elements initiated the era of structural linguistics. In America, linguistics began as an offshoot of anthropology. Around the beginning of the 20th century, anthropologists were eager to record the culture of the fast-dying American-Indian tribes, and the American- Indian languages were one aspect of this. Leonard Bloomfield published "Language" which attempted to lay down rigorous procedures for the description of any language. During the "Bloomfieldian era", large numbers of linguists concentrated on writing descriptive grammars of unwritten languages. 6. Talk about Generative Linguistics. In 1957, a teacher from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Noam Chomsky, published a book called Syntactic Structures. This 120-page book started a revolution in linguistics. Chomsky is the most influential linguist of the century. He has shifted attention away from detailed descriptions of actual utterances, and started asking questions about the nature of the system which produces the output. Chomsky claimed that a grammar should be more than a description of old utterances. It should also take into account possible future utterances. This period is called generative linguistics because a grammar which consists of a set of statements or rules which specify which sequences of a language are possible, and which are impossible, is a generative grammar. Chomsky then, initiated the era of Generative Linguistics
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Theories of Language Origin The origin of language (glottogony, glossogeny) is a topic that has been written about for centuries, but the ephemeral nature of speech means that there is almost no data on which to base conclusions on the subject. We know that, at least once during human evolution, a system of verbal communication emerged from proto-linguistic or non-linguistic means of communication, but beyond that little can be said. No current human group, anywhere, speaks a "primitive" or rudimentary language. While existing languages differ in the size and subjects covered in their several lexicons, all human languages possess the grammar and syntax needed, and can invent, translate, or borrow the vocabulary needed to express the full range of their speakers' concepts.
Homo sapiens clearly have an inherent capability for language that is not present in any other species known today. Whether other extinct hominid species, such as Neanderthals, possessed such a capacity is not known. The use of language is one of the most conspicuous and diagnostic traits that distinguish H. sapiens from other animals.
According to one Biblical account, the observed variety of human languages originated at the Tower of Babel with the confusion of tongues.
History One of the earliest accounts of the origin of languages is in the Hebrew Bible, in the book of Genesis (dated to the early 1st millennium BC). Genesis 2:19-20 has God giving Adam the task of assigning names to all the animals and plants he had in Eden
The key biblical narrative of the observed linguistic variety is the story that God punished human presumption in building the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). Additionally, Genesis 10:5 tells how, before Babel, the languages of the descendants of Japhet were divided naturally. This is most likely due to the narrative style of Genesis, in which an event was explained following its introduction into the narrative.
Most mythologies do not credit humans with the invention of language, but know of a language of the gods (or, language of God), predating human language. Mystical languages used to communicate with animals or spirits, such as the language of the birds are also common, and were of particular interest during the Renaissance.
History contains a number of anecdotes about people who attempted to discover the origin of language by experiment. The first such tale was told by Herodotus, who relates that Pharaoh "Psamtik" (probably Psammetichus I) caused two children to be raised by deaf-mutes; he would see what language they ended up speaking. When the children were brought before him, one of them said something that sounded to the pharaoh like bekos, the Phrygian word for bread. From this, Psamtik concluded that Phrygian was the first language. King James V of Scotland is said to have tried a similar experiment; his children were supposed to have ended up speaking Hebrew. Both Frederick II of Prussia and Akbar, a 16th century Mughal emperor of India are said to have tried a similar experiment; the children they tried these experiments with did not speak.
In 1866 the Linguistic Society of Paris banned discussion of the origin of language, deeming it to be an unanswerable problem.
Anthropological hypotheses 7
Steven Pinker, following Noam Chomsky and ultimately Immanuel Kant, believes that humans are born with a "language instinct:" a neural processing network that contains a universal grammar that has developed specifically for encoding and decoding human languages.
Derek Bickerton has suggested that the language faculty may have evolved in two major steps. The first is a protolanguage of symbolic representation, verbal or gestural signs, and the second formal syntax. Symbolic representation would allow modeling of reality and constructional learning, and, together with some communicative ability, would permit shared learning. Syntax would permit significantly improved precision and clarity in thought and communication.
The evolution of such an inherited trait in the genus Homo may be one thing that explains why anatomically modern humans expanded at the expense of other hominid species in the history of human evolution. Many mainstream theories of human evolution affirm that all current human beings are the descendants of a relatively small population of anatomically modern humans that appeared in Africa less than one million years ago. The development of an inherited gift for language, or its superior attainment over other species of Homo such as Neanderthal man, is one possible explanation for the ascendency of anatomically modern humans over other primitive human groups at the time. At least one gene, FOXP2, is claimed to be involved with the development of language. Linguistic hypotheses A fundamental problem of language origin is the Continuity Paradox: language acquisition apparently only occurs in situations involving pre-existing languages, or at the very least pidgin communication. In the 19th century, philosophers and linguists proposed a number of hypotheses to explain the origin of language, which are noteworthy for their names even if none of them have vanquished their competitors in the battles for scientific credibility. The first such names were coined by Otto Jespersen as a way of deriding the hypotheses as simplistic speculation. Once the names caught on, new hypotheses that have arisen often have been given names with a similar style. It seems unlikely that one hypothesis describes the whole process; more likely, multiple mechanisms described by multiple hypotheses, working together or one after another, contributed to the development of language. Ding-Dong This hypothesis places the origin of human language in onomatopoeia: the various imitative sounds that humans make to mimic the sounds of the world around them. For example in English, boom is the sound of thunder, oink is the sound made by a pig, and tweet is the sound made by a small bird. Of course, many languages contain their own onomatopoeic words (eg. in Basque, ai-ai, which means "ouch-ouch", refers to a knife).
There are several reasons why this hypothesis has not met with universal acceptance, as it does not adequately explain the creation of words for inanimate objects, such as rocks, much less prepositions and other grammatical particles or abstract concepts. Words marked by onomatopoeia are conspicuous and somewhat unusual in most languages. The "ding-dong" hypothesis is therefore not considered to be a complete explanation for the origin of language. Bow-wow Similar to the "ding-dong" hypothesis, this one has humans forming their first words by imitating animal sounds. Not only do all of the objections involving other sorts of onomatopoeia explanations apply here, it is worthy to note that the names of animal sounds are strongly culturally determined and differ remarkably from one culture to the next, as the article on oink sets forth. It seems difficult to accept that humans learned to speak to one another by talking to the animals. Pooh-pooh According to this hypothesis, the first words developed from sighs of pleasure, moans of pain, and other semi- involuntary cries or exclamations. These vocalisms then became the names of the phenomena that made people say them.
Most of the objections to the "ding-dong" hypothesis apply here also. Such words are found in most languages; they are conspicuous by their preverbal nature and incomplete assimilation into the lexicon. Moreover, they are culturally determined, and themselves show a great deal of arbitrariness. Ta-ta Charles Darwin lent his authority to this hypothesis. According to this, human language represents the use of oral gestures that began in imitation of hand gestures that were already in use for communication. Vilayanur S. Ramachandran's research into synesthesia and sound symbolism would seem to support this hypothesis.
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The difficulty with this hypothesis, is that it begs the question: it requires that a fairly sophisticated repertoire of gestures be in place already for humans to imitate with their mouth gestures. It assumes the existence of a language of gestures without explaining how it arose. At any rate, though sign languages do have somewhat imitative (or iconic) gestures, they also contain quite arbitrary symbols and have vastly different meanings in different human cultures. One other difficulty with this hypothesis is that hand gestures and facial expressions are useless unless they are seen. That means it must either be daylight, or firelight, and with nothing blocking one's view. For facial expressions, the communicators must also be facing each other. In addition, hand gestures are difficult if the hands are doing something else. Uh-oh According to this hypothesis, human language begins with the use of arbitrary symbols that represent warnings to other members of the human band. It is agreed that one sort of vocal cry means that lions have been spotted in the area, and another one indicates a snake. You holler one thing at your neighbour to warn them, "Don't eat that! It'll make you sick!" and something distinguishable to warn them "Don't eat that! It's mine!"
This hypothesis seems to have the potential to explain the perceived diversity of human speech; obviously the warning cries uttered here are to some measure arbitrary. It is less certain that this hypothesis could explain how more abstract features of human language developed.
Yo-he-ho According to this hypothesis, language arose in rhythmic chants and vocalisms uttered by people engaged in communal labour.
This may have more to do with the origins of poetry than with language itself. Sea chanteys, jody calls, and similar work songs all show humans engaged in communal work improvising with their language around the rhythms of their work. It is uncertain from this hypothesis how meanings came to be associated with the vocalisms uttered by the workers.
Watch the Birdie This one is associated with ethologist and linguist E. H. Sturtevant. According to this hypothesis, human language became elaborated because humans found selective advantage in being able to deceive other humans. Since exclamations and vocalisms can involuntarily reveal your true mental state, humans learned to feign them in order to deceive others for selfish advantage.
The Psychedelic Glossolalia Hypothesis This theory states that speech was inspired by psychoactive fungi. The line of reasoning is thus: A common symptom of tryptamine intoxication is glossolalia, more commonly known as ―speaking in tongues‖. As the continent of Africa began to dry, grassland savannas opened, forcing humans out of the forests and into the plains where the dung of large herbivores was ubiquitous. Species of tryptamine-bearing fungi like Psilocybe, which live on animal dung, would have been very attractive to human populations seeking a new food source. Regular ingestion of the fungi could, over a long time, have stimulated complex vocalizations that eventually led to communicative speech. Non-naturalistic hypotheses of the origin of language Some people resort to traditional narratives, myths, or legendary history in order to explain the origin of human language. Monogenesis A related question concerns the possibility of linguistic monogenesis, a hypothesis that holds that there was one single protolanguage (the "Proto-World language") from which all other languages spoken by humans descend. The linguists Joseph Greenberg and Merritt Ruhlen have advocated such a position. The reconstruction of such a protolanguage, if it exists, would be the Holy Grail of historical linguistics.
Some have gone as far as to claim that there exist etymological root words that are supposed to exist in all languages; one such claimed universal root is *âkwa, meaning "water". Nicholas Marr contended that the protolanguage had been composed of merely four roots, *sal, *ber, *yon and *rosh to which all other words may be traced.
These suggestions are viewed with extreme skepticism by mainstream linguists; they insist that phonetic laws must first be proposed that explain how these roots took their forms in the "daughter" languages, and in the absence of such 9 explanation they reject the entire hypothesis. For these linguists, there may or may not have been such an original protolanguage; the intervening centuries of linguistic change have obscured any trails needed to recover it.
Biologists do not yet agree on when or how language use first emerged among humans or their ancestors. Estimates of the time frame theoretically of its origin range from forty thousand years ago, during the supposed time of Cro- Magnon man, to about two million years ago, during the theoretical time of Homo habilis. Some authorities believe that language arose suddenly, about 40,000 years ago. This is the time period from which we first see cultural artifacts, such as cave paintings and carved figurines. The relatively sudden appearance of these artifacts lead some to speculate that the cultural leap may have been prompted by the development of language which in turn allowed greater creativity to flourish. Of course, these are just theories that cannot be scientifically proven.
Studies of the skulls of Neanderthals (approximately 60,000 years ago) indicate that they would not have been capable of the full range of vowels used by modern humans. However, as pointed out by linguist Steven Pinker, a full range of vowels is not necessary for rudimentary speech. Even relatively complicated speech would be possible so long as a sufficient number of distinguishable consonants were in use.
Fossil evidence indicates that the main areas of the brain associated with language (Broca's area and Wernicke's area) may have begun to enlarge as long ago as 1 – 1.5 million years, in Homo erectus. However the most complete fossil erectus (nicknamed Turkana Boy; supposedly about 1.5 million years old) appears to have lacked a sufficiently tuned ribcage capable of fine control of speech. The recently discovered Homo floresiensis' ancestors are assumed to have utilized some kind of seafaring device like a raft to reach the island where H. floresiensis dwelt, furthermore, it would seem probable that this process of colonization was an intentional one, and due to the complexity of such a task, it is suggested that H. floresiensis and its ancestor, mid-late H. erectus, must have possessed some form of language which, albeit primitive, would have been able to convey complex concepts. Analysis of the brain of H. floresiensis suggests intellectual capabilities which were comparable to other humans of that time, that is, also not widely divergent from primitive H. sapiens. Spontaneous emergence of grammar From Romulus and Remus forward, there have been a number of accounts of wolf children or feral children raised by wild animals or out of human contact. These accounts exist mostly in anecdote and hearsay as well; but most of them affirm that these children never learned to speak a language, or learned it imperfectly. There have also been accounts of twins who spoke an unintelligible language only their sibling understood. These cases are better documented; in the 1970s, the Kennedy twins whose given names were "Grace" and "Virginia" called each other Poto and Cabengo; it was determined that their idiosyncratic speech was a deeply altered form of English, with some influence from their grandmother's German. It appeared to be a well-formed language, with rules governing grammar and syntax. Similarly idiosyncratic speech patterns were reported from the twin writers June and Jennifer Gibbons.
Even in the absence of the unusual social lives of twins, many people have found it relatively easy and natural to construct new languages, with lexicons either derived from pre-existing languages, or wholly imagined; the author J. R. R. Tolkien and his several languages of Middle-earth is one well known creator; there are many others. Contact languages spontaneously arise when people speaking dissimilar languages must mingle with each other for sufficient periods. These contact languages, or "pidgins," give rise to "creoles" if they become mother tongues in their own right. All of these creations also bear witness to the fact that the use and acquisition of language is a human trait that can manifest itself spontaneously, without formal instruction, and under adverse circumstances.
The recent development of Nicaraguan Sign Language starting in 1979 seems to be an independent invention of language from scratch. "It's the first and only time that [linguists have] actually seen a language being created out of thin air." - however it may be connected to paralinguistic gestures used by Spanish-speaking Nicaraguans as part of their language.
Reading Assignment: read F&R chapter 2
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Lesson 5. Grammar
Grammar is divided into two categories for analysis--morphology and syntax. Morphology (F&R chapter 3) is concerned with how the sounds (that is, phonemes) are combined by language into larger units called morphemes. These latter are the smallest combination of sounds that have meaning and cannot be broken into smaller meaningful units. Words can be one or more morphemes. For example, the English word cow is one morpheme while cowboy is composed of two (cow and boy). Some morphemes have meaning but can not stand alone in standard English like cow. The prefix dis_ in the word dislike is an example of such a bound morpheme.
Morphemes in the form of words are combined into larger utterances in normal speech. These larger groupings are phrases and sentences. Syntax (F&R chapter 4) refers to the standardized set of rules that determine how words should be combined to make sense to speakers of a language. All native speakers of a language learn the basic rules of syntax as they grow up. Even before entering formal schooling, people acquire these rules from their family and friends. In school, they are taught to modify and augment them to coincide with patterns more acceptable to the society.
Different languages are unintelligible not only because the vocabulary is alien but also because the syntax rules are different. In English, word order is particularly critical to changing meaning. For example the words you, are, and there can be combined in three different ways to alter meaning:
There you are You are there Are you there? In Latin derived languages, such as Spanish, French, and Italian, the word order is not usually as important. Meaning is primarily determined by the endings of words (that is suffixes). In a very different kind of language, Mandarin Chinese, meaning is primarily changed by tone. The same word can mean radically different things depending on how it is pronounced. For instance, the word ―ma‖ can have four distinct tones:
tone: High rising Falling then rising falling
Mandarin: /mā/ má à/ linen, English: mom 媽 horse馬 scolding,to scold罵 hemp麻
Mandarin Chinese is not the only tonal language in the world. There are others in Asia and Africa.
Native speakers do not have to memorize all possible sentences that can be created. Instead, they learn the rules (that is, syntax) for creating and understanding all possible sentences. This is much easier. All languages have logical rules. Also, there frequently are exceptions to rules such as the English past tense of eat being ate rather than eated. However, such irregularities are generally few in number.
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Lesson 6. Neurolinguistics (F&R chapters 2 & 11)
The earth floats with no supporting axis. "God stretched out the northern sky and hung the earth in empty space" Job 26:7
The world is round. "...It was made by the one who sits on his throne above the round earth and beyond the sky" Isaiah 40:22;
The inner earth is made of fire. "...food grows out of the earth, but underneath the same earth, it is like fire, all is torn up and crushed" Job 28:5
The wind weights "When God gave the wind its weight..." Job 28:25 (3.500 years after In 1633 Galileo Galilei and in 1643 Torricelli)
"If I will forget thee, Jerusalem, let my right hand die-let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth" Psalm 137:5
Aphasia Aphasia is the loss or impairment of the ability to use spoken and written words. The disorder may follow damage to the dominant hemisphere of the brain, which, in right-handed persons, is almost always the left hemisphere. The two broad classifications of aphasia are Broca's and Wernicke's. In Broca's aphasia--also known as expressive, motor, nonfluent, or telegrammatic aphasia--patients understand speech reasonably well but have difficulty in retrieving words and hence in naming objects or expressing themselves. In Wernicke's aphasia--also known as receptive, sensory, fluent, or jargon aphasia--patients produce fluent but nonsensical speech, or jargon, and comprehend poorly the speech of others.
Aphasia is a loss of the capacity to symbolise, either expressively or receptively. Aphasics may present a primary deficit in the formulation of sentences, in the processing of heard sentences, or in the meanings of words. A wide variation exists in severity, from complete loss of all language function to a barely noticeable difficulty in finding words. Aphasia is often accompanied by other losses, as in reading, writing, or sign language abilities.
Some children are delayed in language development, while others develop in a deviant way. Mental retardation, profound hearing loss prior to acquiring language (typically either congenitally or as a result of a serious illness such as meningitis), neurological dysfunction due to injury during pregnancy or birth, or serious emotional problems can all be causes. Two specific causative disorders, childhood schizophrenia and autism, are still poorly understood. 12
Lesson 7. Difference between Phonetics and Phonology – Descriptive Phonetics - Oral Tract
Phonology Phonetics It is an abstract study It is a concrete study
It studies the rules of sound combination It studies how sounds are produced and perceived
It studies Phonemes It describes allophones (Phonological Segments) (phonetic realizations)
It is transcribed Phonemically It is transcribed Phonetically
Phonemes are represented by Allophones are represented by square brackets [ ] slant bar / / Allophones are the physical realization of phonemes, Phonemes constitute the mental representation of allophones are real audible sounds as they are sounds, it is the concept of a sound regarding meaning pronounced
Swapping (or confusing) phonemes alters the Swapping allophones does not alter interpretation of the interpretation of the message (it changes the meaning) message (it does not change the meaning)
PhoneMe → Mental (model located in our mind) Allophones belong to PhoneTics → Talk
Check Questions what‘s the difference between Phonetics and Phonology? What are phonemes? What are allophones? Which can we hear, allophones or phonemes? How do we represent allophones? What about phonemes?
Articulators and Points of Articulation
In addition to their normal names, many of the parts of the vocal tract have fancy names derived from Latin and Greek. The adjectives we use to describe sounds made with each part are usually based on the Latin/Greek name.
In phonetics, the terms velum, pharynx, larynx, and dorsum are used as often or more often than the simpler names.
NOTE. ―PA‖ stands for ―Point of Articulation‖ while ―A‖ stands for ―Articulator‖
Alveolar ridge (PA) A short distance behind the upper teeth is a change in the angle of the roof of the mouth. (In some people it‘s quite abrupt, in others very slight.) This is the alveolar ridge. Sounds that involve the area between the upper teeth and this ridge are called alveolars.
(Hard) palate (PA) The hard portion of the roof of the mouth. The term "palate" by itself usually refers to the hard palate. 13
Soft palate/velum (PA) Alveopalatal Hard The soft portion of the roof of the Alveolar mouth, lying behind the hard Ridge Region Palate palate. The tongue hits the velum in the sounds [ Upper velum can also move: if it lowers, it teeth Velum creates an opening that allows air Nasal Cavity to flow out through the nose; if it (Soft Palate) stays raised, the opening is Nose blocked, and no air can flow Palate Uvul a through the nose.
Oral Cavity Uvula (Both, PA & A) upper de Mid( B The small, dangly thing at the back Bl a do ac Tip t ) r k Lip Fr on s of the soft palate. The uvula (Apex) ( um Mout h ) vibrates during the r sound in Lower Tongue many French dialects. Lip Root Pharynx The cavity between the root of the Epigl ot is tongue and the walls of the upper Lower Chin throat. t eet h Gl ot t is Tongue blade (A) Larynx The flat surface of the tongue just Vocal behind the tip. Cor ds Tongue body/dorsum (A) The main part of the tongue, lying below the hard and soft palate. The body, specifically the back part of the body (hence "dorsum", Latin for "back"), moves to make vowels and many consonants.
Tongue root The lowest part of the tongue in the throat
Epiglottis The fold of tissue below the root of the tongue. The epiglottis helps cover the larynx during swallowing, making sure (usually!) that food goes into the stomach and not the lungs. A few languages use the epiglottis in making sounds. English is "fortunately" not one of them.
Vocal folds/vocal cords Folds of tissue stretched across the airway to the lungs. They can vibrate against each other, providing much of the sound during speech.
Glottis The opening between the vocal cords. During a glottal stop, the vocal cords are held together and there is no opening between them.
Larynx The structure that holds and manipulates the vocal cords. The "Adam‘s apple" in males is the bump formed by the front part of the larynx.
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Corte Vertical de los Órganos Fonadores Los Articuladores y los Lugares (Puntos) de Articulación Al veol os Pal adar Dur o Dient es super ior es Cavidad Nasal Vel o Nar iz Pal adar (dur o) pre medio post Uvul a Cavidad Bucal Labio Medio P Pr e os Superior Lámina Dor so t Boca (Ápice) Labio Lengua Inf erior Raiz
Epigl ot is Dient es Ment ón Inf er ior es Gl ot is LaringeCuerdas TráqueaVocal es (Respiración) Bronquios (aire) Pul mones
Comprehension Questions on Lesson 1 1. What are phonemic transcriptions? ______2. What are phonetic transcriptions? ______3. What are articulators? Can you list them? ______4. What are the points (places) of articulation? Can you list them? ______5. What is ―manner of articulation‖? Can you list them? ______6. What‘s voicing? Can you list the two types? What‘s the difference? ______
Exercise
Consider the different pronunciations represented by the initial letter ―a‖ in each of the following words. A number of different actual vowel sounds are represented by this single orthographic symbol. Group together the words that have the same vowel sounds.
1. America / / 2. Asia / / 3. Africa / / 4. Australia / / 5. Antarctica / / 6. Alaska / / 7. Anger / / 8. Acorn / / 9. Approach/ / 15
10. Angel / / 11. About / /
Do the same thing for each instance of ―t‖ in the following American English words a) Nation / / b) Party / / c) Button / / d) Butter / / e) bottle / / f) got you (gotcha) / / g) tinker / / h) caught you (caughtcha) / / i) little / / j) rotten / / k) action / / l) partake / /
Voicing: indicate whether the last sound in each of the following words is voiced or voiceless. Do not be fooled by spelling; pay attention to the actual sound
1. rag 2. rack 3. realize 4. class 5. closed 6. cloth 7. clothes 8. bathe 9. bags 10. books 11. matched 12. roses 13. mouth 14. laugh 15. phonograph 16. silly 17. thorough 18. thought 19. strength 20. hang
Tinker: a person belonging to a group with no fixed home that travels from place to place, often in caravans.
Acorn: fruit of the oak tree 16
Lesson 8. The Vowel System of the English Language
Centr Central Front Back Front al Back High High Brit Brit BritE Mid Mid ɚBrit Brit AmE Low Low Brit 7 Simple Vowel Nuclei [+lax] 8 Complex Vowel Nuclei 5 Long Vowel Nuclei [-lax] "Diphthongs"
Note: the American sound for “stop”; “walk” or “got” can be written with the following American symbol
Where to practise? http://www.englishmedialab.com/pronunciation/vowelvideo.html http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=184566126017&ref=ts http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/activities/phonemic-chart http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/index.html
Examples Minimal Pair: words that differ by only one sound in one position in Lax low front vowel sound the word. The words pat and bat Lax mid central-back vowel sound (Carret) meet this criterion Lax (simple) short high front vowel sound Question: are all vowels voiced or Tense high front vowel sound voiceless?
Exercises
I. Write their names ____________________________________17
II. Provide more examples of words that contain the following sound. Underline the letter(s) that represent(s) that sound. IPA: Ideally, we would like one convention to be adopted by all phoneticians, but this has not worked out. The most widespread attempt to standardize a phonetic alphabet goes back to 1888, when the first version of the International Phonetic ɚ Alphabet (IPA) was established.
The Front Vowels
The sounds In English, we have 3 (three) “” sounds: A soft 1 sound, that occurs in words such as ft, lvng, sttng, t, s; a long //2 sound in words such as mean /, green /, leaving ; and finally, a regular – Spanish like- that occurs ONLY AT THE END OF SYLLABLES, as in: happy/; finally; community
Task: Provide the correspondent minimal pair for the following words. After you finish, compare it with your partner’s. Read them together producing the difference 1 It Sit Bit Bid bead Is Live Tim Rich
1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe54C3k-MeI
2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-NDd5XW2JQ&feature=relmfu 18
The3 sound It is slightly different to the Spanish “e”, but normally there is no problem to either identify it or produce it.
Task: Provide the correspondent minimal pair for the following words. After you finish, compare it with your partner’s. Read them together producing the difference 2 Pin Tin Chick Gin Jen Knit Bin Bit Bill
The4 sound This sound is unexistent in Spanish. Although ideally each symbol corresponds to one sound, the American version of this sound is more open and more nasal while the British one is more similar to a Spanish sound.
Task: Provide the correspondent minimal pair for the following words. After you finish, compare it with your partner’s. Read them together producing the difference 3 End Pet Ben Dead Ken Men Head "X" axe The Central Vowels
The (Schwa)5sound IPA represents unstressed sounds (any sound, it can represent an unstressed “e” sound, an unstressed “” sound or an unstressed “a” sound) by using a schwa //. Therefore, whenever we have unstressed syllables in English, we transcribe them using a schwa (take into account that many times native speakers don’t even pronounce unstressed syllables). For example, the word faster can be split into two syllables: “fast” and “er”. The stress is in the first syllable: FASTer. In order to represent unstressed syllables, we write “fastr” then.
3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceypHjIf9NY&feature=topics
4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uc-4bPsST0&feature=relmfu
5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMebBCUzWuA&feature=related; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJvK1WBKnt0&feature=related 19
Practice exercise. Split the following words into syllables. Identify the unstressed ones. Write a schwa under them fasterfast – er Mechanic Sharon aloud Jason accountant Mississippi
The stressed version of the schwa is 6. We use this sound –despite spelling-in stressed environments. Examples: birdbrd (the whole syllable is stressed); surnamesr name (the first syllable is stressed)
Practice exercise. Split the following words into syllables (whenever possible). Identify the stressed ones and write under them. Identify the unstressed ones and write a schwa under them. word actor Ferdinand survey
pervert (verb) pervert (noun) Task: add some more words to the correspondent sounds in the chart 4 5 UK ɚUS Sir About First Sofa Surname Telegraph Work The Word A
The7sound (and American) This is the British sound found in words such as stop, clock and socks. Since Americans pronounce the same words differently, the rule would be then that “whenever the British sound // occurs, the correspondent American symbol occurs too in the same environment”
Task: Provide the correspondent minimal pair for the following words. After you finish, compare it with your partner’s. Read them together producing the difference 6 7 Pet Hat Red Cap Sec Cat Get Pat Went Sack Pep Tap Deck Dock Backs Box Den Black
6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlSeYt6PN6s&feature=related 7 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t4mpgwpacA&feature=topics 20
The8sound
This sound is similar to a long Spanish sound, but less open. Take into account that it is normally followed by an sound. Remember that standard British English drop the sounds, so when looking in a dictionary in most cases you will find an optional () symbol.
Task: add some more words containing this sound to the chart 8 Car Star Father Arm Bark
The9sound (Carret/Wedge) This sound is in between the central and back category (far inside your mouth). Is not similar to any Spanish vowel. It is the stressed version of the schwa sound.
Task: Provide the correspondent minimal pair for the following words. After you finish, compare it with your partner’s. Read them together producing the difference
9 10 Hat Hut Cap Cup Bank Pup Track Puppy Stamp Buddy Cat Bugs Pat Putt Ducks Docks Fan Done
The Back Vowels
Thesounds In English, we have 3 (three) “” sounds: A soft, short sound, that occurs in words such as bk, tk, g; a long sound in words such as soup , groom , lose ; and finally, a regular – Spanish like- that NEVER OCCURS as an isolated, single vowel, as in: usual; situate; reputation
8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t4mpgwpacA&feature=topics 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t4mpgwpacA&feature=topics 21
The sound It is similar to a long Spanish sound Task: Provide the correspondent minimal pair for the following words. After you finish, compare it with your partner’s. Read them together producing the difference. For number 16, add some more words containing that back sound
11 12 13 14 15 16
But Luck Pot Pull Shot (Am) dog
Luck Buck Bock Full Lock August
Sun Stud Box Look John audio
Mud Cud Cock Could Cooed Rod author
Stud Stewed Bucks Lock Wood Wooed Blah cause
Run Ruin Buggy Boogey Rock Rook Cook Kuke Don Dune
Done Dune Huff Hoof God Soot wand
Cup coop Rough Cod Fullish Collar
III. Circle the symbol that matches the sound in the underlined letters. They are all single vowel sounds
0. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
IV. Cross out the word that does not contain the vowel sound
0. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. British English 7. 8. 22
Diphthongs
Diphthongs are two vowel sounds which run together = + = diphthong = + = diphthong Exercises I. Write the words from the box next to the correct diphthong. There are two more words for each diphthong.
Where clear stay shy Weigh know sure now Phone bear high enjoy Poor beer noise aloud
1. += how ______2. += pay ______3. += go ______4. += my ______5. += boy ______British English 6. += tour ______7. += near ______8. += hair ______
II. Transcribe the words in the sentences in phonetic script. They are all diphthongs.
1. We caught the ______to the ______of ______2. The ______in the red ______said that he ______the journey 3. I’ve ______Sally for ()____________years 4. She’s ______a red ______in her ()______5. Not many people ______these ______6. He ______to ______a big black ______
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III. Provide the correspondent minimal pair counterpart for the following words:
1 2 3 4 "E" Test Boot Bout Pool "D" Jen Coo Boot See Fell Boo Too Feel Sell Knew Fool Foal Seal Seller Hue Sue Me Rest Raced A boot Soup Green Grain Pepper Brew Shoe
5 6 7 8 Cost "a" "a" Chase John Bait Hey Fail Off Oaf Kate Bait Sale Knot Gate Tray Ale Cock Gray Day Bale Ah Jane Kate Kite Cane Jock Fail Foal Fail Race Royce Shod They Lay Paint
9 10 11 12 Pies Poise Buy Boy Bow Pint Dine Toy Coal By Find Joy Cold Cowled Tie File Foil Foal Phoned File Signed Noise Foal I‘ll Rise Rouse Roy Sew Bile Lied Soy Rose
13 14 15 Remember that… All vowel sounds are voiced British /corresponds to Americanor (Brit) (Brit) (Brit) IPA /corresponds to American or Near Pure Hair IPA /ecorresponds to American IPA /corresponds to American or Ear Tour Chair IPA /corresponds to AmericanU IPA /corresponds to Americanɚ Dear Tourist There Both IPA and sometimes correspond to American / / Beer Sure Pear IPA /corresponds to American IPA /corresponds to Americanor IPA /corresponds to American beard poor air Notice how British/American pronunciation (and therefore symbols) differ in transcriptions:
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IV. Ways of pronouncing oo The letters oo are pronounced in different ways Put the words in italics in the correct column, A, B, or C 0. Have you read the “Good Food” guide to London? 1. The best cooks use a wooden spoon to stir the sauce 2. Look! There’s a pool of blood on the carpet! 3. If I won the football pools, I’d be flooded with begging letters. 4. We foolishly booked a room at the hotel without asking the price 5. I wear a woolen sweater when it’s cool 6. He stood on a stool and climbed onto the roof
A B C Good Food ______
V. Ways of pronouncing ou The letters ou are also pronounced in many different ways. For example:
Underline the word with the different pronunciation
1. would should shoulder could 2. your sour court pour 3. accountant country count fountain 4. though ought bought thought 5. enough tough rough cough 6. anonymous mouse enourmous furious 7. trouble double doubt country 8. through group though soup 25
Choose the vowel sound that corresponds to the “prescriptive” British English
1. siege 2. sieve 3. plain 4. read (past) 5. rat 6. rock 7. sun 8. blew 9. wood 10. low 11. might 12. soy 13. bear 14. rear 15. rather 16. lard 17. journey 18. autobiography
Write the following transcriptions Television→ t l v s n Armchair→ rmch r Stranger→ str ng Teacher→ t ch
Linguistics→ l ng st cs Phonetics→ ph n t ks Phonology→ ph n l g
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Las vocales de la Lengua Española (fonemas) Triángulo Articulatorio - (Quilis, p. 40)
Lugar de Articulación
Anterior Posterior Anterior Posterior Central Central
(palatal) (velar) (palatal) (velar)
Labios estirados Labios redondos Labios redondos Cerrada Cerrada Ciudad muy Media Media hoy Sousa ley deuda
Modoarticualción de Modoarticulación de Abierta Abierta hay causa
Nucleos simples (5 fonemas) Nucleos complejos (fonema + fonema)
OBSERVACIONES:
VOCALES DIPTONGOS(Quilis, p. 41-43) ―Una vocal se manifiesta alofónicamente como semi-vocal o semi- consonante‖ La lengua se tensa. Núcleo silábico = vocal
Margen silábico prenuclear = semiconsonante
Los labios son estirados para las vocales Diptongo creciente. On-glide anteriores y centrales y redondos para las (bien [j] + V ; vocales posteriores buen [w] + V) Margen silábico postnuclear = semivocal.
Diptongo decreciente. Off-glide peine V + [i] ; aula V + [u] Todos los dialectos tienen los mismos 5
fonemas. Cualquier variación no es significante Triptongo = 3 vocales: Buey Paraguay Check Questions on lesson 2 What does the term ―nucleos complejos‖ refer to? ______What is an ―on-glide‖? ______What are glides? How many glides are there? Do we have glides in English as well? ______27
Lesson 9. The Consonant System of the English Language
Phoneme as in pet as in take as in cake as in bee as in day as in grey as in hair as in five as in violin as in soap 10 as in Shampoo as in zoo 11 as in Think as in this 12 as in Change as in judge as in rouge as in mum as in near as in English as in lake 13 As in Row As in yesterday As in where
There are alternative American symbols for the following IPA ones: Check Questions 1. How do we classify consonant sounds? ______2. How do we classify vowel sounds? ______10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUAYmTnWaCY&feature=plcp 11 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unfuGPc3iXo&feature=relmfu 12 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr2adpD6sYU&feature=relmfu 13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq_yIbrD01c&feature=relmfu 28
Exercises I Choose the consonant sound that corresponds to the “prescriptive” or “standard” British English
1. nature 2. Xerox 3. aesthetic 4. encyclopaedia 5. cashmere 6. negotiate 7. thumb 8. psyche 9. sergeant 10. plateau 11. pneumonia 12. universal 13. cultural 14. gradual 15. dogs 16. finger 17. York 18. liquid
II Transcribe these words in plain English
0. beach 1. ______6. ______ 2. ______7. ______ 3. ______8. ______ 4. ______9. ______ 5. ______
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III Fill in the chart with the words. The bolded letters are read with the same sound that the symbols represent
Consonant Sounds
Big Free Pot Thank Bob House Same They Cat Jump She Van Chew Man Sing Vision Do Music Split Which Fat No Ted Yes Vowel Sounds
About Eat I Thought Bird End It Tour Cat Hair Pole Up Choice Happy Pool Cow Here Put Day Hot Star
IV Write the following British transcription in plain English. Punctuation marks have been added to the text.
______
: ―! !!!‖ 30
______
“ :
______
“?" ______
"." ______
"?" ______
"! ! - ,
______
." ______
―" . "?" ______
: ______
"!"
______
______
()
______
______
______
______31
The Consonant System of the Spanish Language
as in Perro as in Brazo, vaso as in Tengo as in Día as in Caja as in Gato as in Fuego as in Caza, corazón (in Spain) as in Suyo as in Javier, gente as in Chocolate as in Ya, yuyo as in Menta as in Nada as in Ñandú as in lado as in Llave as in Pero, nariz as in Perro, rosa
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Lesson 10. Stop Consonants
System of the Bilabial Stop Consonants in the English Language
Phoneme environment allophones articulation Examples Aspirated $_(G) (L) [+stress] V Pot, appear, please, voiceless s.i./ CD paper, pretty bilabial stop ―exceptions‖ Silent s.i./ Psychology, Pneumonia Unreleased _# voiceless w.f./ Top, up, stop, step (FV) bilabial stop s.i./ Apple, ample, apron Voiceless s.m./ Spot, spoilt, apt, steps Elsewhere bilabial stop s.f./ Stop, top, up, uphill, step
Phoneme Environment allophones articulation Examples Unreleased _# voiced bilabial w.f./ club, tab, Bob (FV) stop s.i./ bit, boy, abrupt, break, blue, bubble, cabbage Voiced bilabial Elsewhere s.m./ clubs, clubbed, tabs stop club, clubhouse, tab, s.f./ Bob, cab.
PHONOLOGICAL RULES Preceded by, preceding:
[+aspirated]/$_(G)(L) [+stress]V Sometimes we confuse these /p/→ [-released]/__# words. In the example, $V_ (L)# we [p]/elsewhere can say that the sound (_) is preceded by a vowel. We can also say that this same sound is [-released]/_# /b/→ preceding an optional liquid sound [b]/elsewhere at the end of a word
Exercise. Provide the phonetic transcription of the following words: Reading Assignment: look for the following concepts in the glossary from ―An Introduction to Language‖: Aspiration, Unreleased sounds 33
Sistema de las oclusivas labiales en la lengua española
Fonema contexto alófonos articulación Ejemplos (Quilis, p. 47) Oclusiva labial Padre, capa, completo, $_ DC sorda pino ≠m.s. Sprite = [] Nada ø Apto, Pepsi, Pulp, séptimo, f.s. VL cualquier septiembre, aptitud, optica C consonante
Fonema contexto alófonos articulación Ejemplos (Quilis, p. 47) 1. #(i.e.)_ Oclusiva Buenas, Buen día, ¡Vayan! 2. [+nasal]C_ CD bilabial sonora Invitar, un barco, un burro Fricativa velar _w V. VL Buen día sonora Nada ø Club, absoluto, absorción, f.s. VL Cualquier absorto C consonante Fricativa Cualquier otro labiodental contexto fónico que i.s: Vaca, blusa, lobo, vaso sonora todavía no fue m.s: obstáculo; abstracto Fricativa mencionado bilabial sonora (mamoreí)
Reglas Fonológicas Observación: Según Quilis (pp. 50-51), /p/→ [p]/$_ existe neutralización de los fonemas Ø oclusivos en posición postnuclear /b/ C /_$ /d/ /g/ /#(i.e.)_ Describe como hábito y énfasis del [b] / [+nasal]C_ hablante y normas regionales, hasta la Ø /b/→ i.s; m.s. desaparición. C OJO: Comentario prescriptivo: [][v] /Mamoreí "Debe evitarse la omisión..."
Notice that [v] is just an allophone of /b/, not a separate phoneme in Spanish. Exercise Provide the allophonic realization of the following phonemic transcriptions Check Tasks Describe the articulation of /p/ & /b/ in both languages Choose 5 lexical items from the ―ejemplos‖ column and transcribe them phonemically Rule notation: write in plain Spanish the above rules 34
System of the Alveolar Stop Consonants in the English Language
Phoneme environment allophones articulation Examples Aspirated $_(G) (L) [+stress] V s.i./ two, ten, 18, intend, attack, voiceless alveolar top, tree, between, pterodactyl CD stop Unreleased _# w.f./ pot, cat, ant, first, write, voiceless alveolar kissed, asked, can‘t, don‘t (FV) stop [+stress]V_[-stress]V (intervocalic) Voiced alveolar V_V/ Betty, writer, later, latter, D alternative flap eighty, thirty, forty CD (US) symbol _[+high][+back]V Voiceless palatal Nature, mature, situation CD affricate Generally spelled "_tion" or ―_tian‖ Voiceless palatal Caption, nation, situation, fricative deletion, motion, Martian CD [+stress]V_[+syllabic]C _[+nasal]C Voiceless glottal s.f./ bottle, button, mountain, stop Latin, glottal, important (FV) [+nasal]C_(G)[-stress]V Twenty, Quentin, Pontiac, for silent (FV) ø granted s.i./ ashtray, actor, acting Voiceless alveolar s.m./ stop, streets, cats, ants, Elsewhere stop fists s.f./ cat, ant, anthill, asked.
Phoneme Environment allophones articulation Examples _# Unreleased voiced alveolar w.f./ mad, add, ride, loved (FV) stop
[+stress]V_[-stress]V Voiced alveolar V_V/ paddy, rider, ladder, CD (US) Dalternative flap bedding, student symbol _[+high][+back]V Voiced palatal Education, procedure, gradual, CD affricate graduation s.i./ den, do, folder, address Voiced alveolar s.m./ adds, worlds Elsewhere stop s.f./ add, madhouse, loved.
PHONOLOGICAL RULES
[+aspirated]/$_(G)(L) [+stress]V [-released]/_# [-released]/__# [+flap] /[+stress]V_[-stress]V [+flap]/[+stress]V_[-stress]V; _[+nasal]C [+palatal]/_([+palatal]G)[+high][+back]V [+palatal][+affricate]/_([+palatal]G)[+high][+back]V /d/→ [d]/elsewhere /t/→ [+palatal][+fricative]/_n [+glottal]/[+stress]V_[+syllabic]C [ø]/[+nasal]_(G)V [t]/elsewhere
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Exercise Phonological Rule: Past Tense Marker
Remember the rules for the pronunciation of _ed at the end of a word. This applies to regular past verbs or past participle particles. 1. If the verb ends in or (some variations include sibilant sounds), the past form is pronounced [ 2. If the verb ends in voiceless sounds, the past form is pronounced 3. If the verb ends in voiced sounds, the past form is pronounced
Put the verbs in the box in the correct column Wanted – worked – ragged – visited – opened – closed – changed – blessed – counted – registered – clipped – stopped – talked – gathered – sounded – patted – aspirated – unreleased – palatalized – conditioned – determined - considered
ɚ
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Sistema de las oclusivas dentales en la lengua española
Fonema contexto alófonos articulación Ejemplos (Quilis, p. 48) 1. $_ DC Oclusiva Tarta, todo, tres, este, tapa, pata 2. []_ dental sorda Alto, cuanto, entre, salto []_ DC ≠m.s. Stroessner = ø Nada f.s. VL cualquier Fútbol C consonante
Fonema contexto alófonos articulación Ejemplos (Quilis, p. 47) 1. #(i.e.)_ DC Doctor ¡dame! Oclusiva 2. []_ caldo, cuando, bandos, el dolor, dental sonora []_ DC un duelo ≠m.s. Nada ø red, usted, verdad, pared, f.s. FV Cualquier adverbio, libertad C consonante Cualquier otro Fricativa contexto fónico que interdental dedo, unos dedos, madre, todavía no fue sonora cuaderno, la diosa mencionado (mamoreí)
Reglas Fonológicas {/$_ {[+alveolar][+nasal]C_ /t/→ [+lateral]C_ {Ø /_$ {C
/{#(i.e.)_ {[+alveolar][+nasal]C_ [+lateral]C_ /d/→ {Ø {C /_$ {/Mamoreí
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System of the Velar Stop Consonants in the English Language
Phoneme environment allophones articulation Examples Aspirated Kin, cat, chemistry, $_(G) (L) [+stress] V CD voiceless velar s.i./ class, mechanic, stop critic, queen, Kate Unreleased _# Critic, ask, unique, voiceless velar w.f./ (FV) sink, stack, critique stop s.i./ Acorn, alchemy s.m./ Scan, skate, school, Voiceless velar Elsewhere act, asked stop s.f./ Exceed, stack, sink, unique, ask, critique
Phoneme Environment allophones articulation Examples Unreleased _# voiced velar w.f./ Big, rag, Pittsburgh (FV) stop Gate, go, ago, grow, s.i./ longer, bigger
Voiced velar Dogs, example Elsewhere s.m./ stop Big, bigness, dog,
doghouse, s.f./ Pittsburgh
PHONOLOGICAL RULES
[+aspirated]/$_(G)(L) [+stress]V /k/→ [-released]/__# [k]/elsewhere Following, followed by: Sometimes we confuse these words. In the example, $V_ (L)# [-released]/_# we can say that the sound (_) is following a vowel. We can also /g/→ [g]/elsewhere say that this same sound is followed by an optional liquid
sound at the end of a word
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Sistema de las oclusivas velares en la lengua española
Fonema contexto alófonos articulación Ejemplos (Quilis. P. 49-50) Oclusiva velar Casa, aquí, cuero, kiosco, i.s. sorda que, queso, cuna, clase
≠m.s. Sca-ppi-ni → Nada (nulo) cualquier C: Víctor, actuar, acción, acto, f.s. V.L. taxi, éxito, examen, actitud, C octubre o Vocal:
Fonema contexto alófonos articulación Ejemplos (Quilis. P. 49-50) Gloria ¡gracias!, sangre, un 1. #(i.e.)_ oclusiva velar ganso, Congo, venga, 2. [+nasal]C_ CD sonora lingüística La galería, de gala, paga, Fricativa velar i.s. una gata, llegar, la guerra sonora (≠m.s.) Antes de [w] ≈ Agua, guante, Paraguay
Nada (nulo) Cualquier C: Digno, dogma, taxi, éxito, f.s. V.L. C examen o Vocal:
Reglas Fonológicas {[g] / #(i.e.) {[k]/ $_ {/ _w /k/→ /g/→ {/ {/ _$ {C/ _$ {C { [] / cualquier otro contexto fónico (mamoreí)
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Lesson 11. Fricative and Affricate Sounds
System of the Fricative Consonants in the English Language
Phoneme Environment allophones articulation Examples s.i./ Fan, Phil, affect, coffee, Syllable initial Voiceless free, fly Syllable medial labiodental s.m./ Life‘s, laughs, laughed Syllable final fricative s.f./ Off, wife, tough, knife Syllable initial Voiced s.i./ Van, very, gravity, advance Syllable medial labiodental s.m./ Lives, lived, leaves Syllable final fricative s.f./ Of, live, leave, love
s.i./ Thank, thin, 3, Matthew, Syllable initial Voiceless ether Syllable medial interdental s.m./ Baths, Beth‘s Syllable final fricative s.f./ Bath, Beth, month, mouth, with s.i./ They, mother, this, Syllable initial Voiced weather, either Syllable medial interdental s.m./ Bathes, bathed, breaths Syllable final fricative s.f./ Bathe, breath, with
s.i./ Same, spoon, street, skip, answer, city, receive, scissors, descent, Syllable initial Voiceless s.m./ psychology Syllable medial alveolar s.f./ First, ask, passed, priced Syllable final fricative Bus, price, pass, firsts, cats, asks, its, Pat‘s car; Pat‘s gone s.i./ Zoo, music, design, scissors, example, Xerox, Syllable initial Voiced Susan, razor, lazy Syllable medial alveolar s.m./ Buzzed, prized, fused Syllable final fricative s.f./ Jazz, maize, prizes, clubs, dogs, lives, is, was, worlds, Pam‘s, she‘s gone
PHONOLOGICAL RULES:
/f/→ [f]/all possible environments
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Phonological Rule: Pluralization in English
Remember the rules for the pronunciation of _s at the end of a word. This applies to the third person singular in the Present Simple and to plural nouns. 4. If the word ends in sibilant sounds, the final _s is pronounced [ 5. If the word ends in voiceless sounds, the final _s is pronounced [ 6. If the word ends in voiced sounds or any vowel –all vowels are voiced- sound, the final _s is pronounced
Put the words in the box in the correct column Cheques - girls - places - boys - lives - hours - earns - products - loves - minutes - closes - graduates - lessons - wants - messages - hates - cooks - sandwiches - things
Homophones In each sentence there are two words in phonetic script. They have the same pronunciation but diffeent meanings and spellings. Write the words. 0. The king was thrown off the throne 1. She ______the ring ______the window 2. The soldiers ()______khaki uniforms when they went to ()______3. I must ()______you that ties must be ()______at the Ritz 4. I ______up six red balloons and ten ______ones for the party 5. We ()______that Sue and Jim had bought a ()______car 6. The book I ______on the train had a ______cover 7. We ______our horses along the narrow ______
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Phoneme Environment allophones articulation Examples Voiceless House, who, whole, anthill, Syllable initial glottal s.i./ doghouse fricative (F&R: vd. glottal glide)
[h] doesn‘t occur in -hour, honour, etc Some varieties of English (such as Cockney in London) do not have the /h/ phoneme
She, shoe, sure, sugar, s.i./ mission, nation, ashame, Syllable initial Voiceless education, extension, Syllable medial palatal alternative glacial Syllable final fricative s.m./ American symbol Washed, pushed, fished s.f./ Wash, pushcart, fishnet (≠w.i.)/measure, vision, Syllable initial Voiced s.i./ azure, pleasure, casual, (≠ w.i.) palatal alternative lesion Syllable final fricative s.f./ American symbol rouge, garage Sistema de las fricativas en la lengua española
Fonema Contexto alófonos articulación Ejemplos (Quilis, p. 56-59) i.s. Fricativa labiodental Fuego, fácil, desfile, fruta, fuerte, V.L sorda frío, afán (≠m.s.) Nada (nulo) f.s. Aftosa, nafta, oftalmologo O fricativa alveolar En fútbol: ―off side‖ V.L aspirada Saber, azul, cine, rosa, hacer, casa, solo, xenofobia i.s. Fricativa alveolar sorda (≠m.s.) Es, estas, cruz, fuiste, vamos, Fricativa sorda aspirada f.s. todos los años nosotros siempre (laríngea o faríngea) somos los mismos V.L. Nada (nulo) Felix, texto, explicar
Gente, Genaro, justo, México, enojar, gitano, caja i.s. Fricativa velar sorda (≠m.s.) f.s. Nada (nulo) Reloj OJO: →[ ] V.L. C Cualquier consonante 42
i.s. Fricativa palatal sonora (V.L. el alófono es determinado Yo, ayer, yeso, ese yeso, un por el dialecto Fricativa palatal sorda hierro, la hiedra, hielo, hierro geográfico, y a veces también Africada palatal sorda por el nivel (≠m.s.) (≠f.s.) Semiconsonante palatal socioeconómico sonora (fricativa sin y la edad). fricción)
System of the Affricate Consonants in the English Language
Aspirated voiceless s.i./ Choke, chew, cello, mature, $_[+stress] alternative palatal situation, church American symbol affricate s.i./ Nature, feature, righteous Syllable initial Voiceless s.m./ Watched, matched Syllable medial palatal alternative s.f./ Catch, much, rich, arch, teach Syllable final affricate American symbol s.i./ Jump, gym, legion, midget, residual, education, judge, Syllable initial Voiced George Syllable medial palatal alternative s.m./ Judged, George‘d gone Syllable final affricate American symbol s.f./ Huge, large, message, knowledge
PHONOLOGICAL RULES
//→ {[]/all possible environments
Sistema de las africadas palatales en la lengua española Fonema Contexto alófonos articulación Ejemplos (Quilis, p. 56-59)
Africada palatal Chico, coche, muchacho, sorda i.s. Chile (≠m.s.) (≠f.s.) Fricativa palatal Chile sorda
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Lesson 12. Nasal Sounds
Phoneme Environment allophones articulation Examples Mitt, man, woman, Emmy, s.i./ admit Syllable initial Voiced Smoke, comes, armed, Syllable medial bilabial s.m./ camp Syllable final nasal s.f./ Am, Tim, lumber, comb, bomb, I‘m Syllabic voiced _# s.f./ Bottom bilabial nasal
No, know, inner, nick, s.i./ Gnostic, pneumonia, Syllable initial Voiced mnemonic Syllable medial alveolar Snow, runs, fanned Syllable final nasal s.m./ Kin, run, on, inform, unbend, s.f./ under, canyon Syllabic voiced Button, mountain, often, _# s.f./ alveolar curtain, cushion nasal
s.m./ Sings, sink, sinks, think Syllable medial Voiced velar s.f./ Sing, rang, finger, English, Syllable final nasal kingdom, young, Inca Syllabic _# (colloquial voiced velar s.f./ Walking, asking, stopping speech) nasal
PHONOLOGICAL RULES
C [+nasal]→ {[+syllabic]/[+stress]V C_#
Exercise. Transcribe the following phonetically. Provide the nasal diacritic where required by the rule.
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Sistema de las consonantes nasales en la lengua española
Fonema Contexto Alófonos Articulación Ejemplos (Quilis, pp. 52-53) Nasal Madre, comida, mío, cama, i.s. bilabial mesa, lama sonora Nasal i.s. alveolar No, mano, lana sonora Nasal i.s. palatal Ñandú, niña, uña, mañana, laña sonora
Nasal Hombre, campo, un vaso, un Antes de C bilabial bilabial barco, un mes, un pie, un poco, sonora pan molido Nasal Enfermos, un fuego, infeliz, pan Antes de C labiodental labiodental fresco, un farol sonora Nasal dental Andar, contar, antes, pan dulce, Antes de C dental N sonora un día, un tren, un diente Nasal Enriquecer, Enrique, un rico, un Antes de C alveolar alveolar loro, un segundo, pan seco sonora Angel, encanto, un gato, un Nasal velar Antes de C velar kiosco, pan caliente, sin ganas, sonora granja, nunca
PHONOLOGICAL RULES
{[]/_C[+bilabial] //→ {[]/$_ {[]/_C[+labiodental] //→ {[]/$_ /N/→ {[]/_C[+dental] //→ {[]/$_ {[]/_C[+alveolar] {[]/_C[+velar] Exercise. Provide the phonetic transcription for the following. Make sure you provide the nasal diacritic when required Archifonema: Existen posiciones en las que se neutraliza la función N distintiva de dos fonemas, por ejemplo, la oposición entre las nasales, N donde se puede realizar una nasal bilabial, dental o alveolar en función del énfasis con que se pronuncie. Sólo son neutralizables las N denominadas oposiciones bilaterales: aquéllas que tienen un conjunto N NN de rasgos comunes única en el sistema. Con el archifonema se representan aquellos rasgos que son comunes a los fonemas que se neutralizan. En la posición de neutralización uno de los miembros de la oposición se convierte en representante del archifonema 45
Lesson 13. Liquid Sounds
System of the Liquid Consonants in the English Language
alloph Phoneme Environment articulation Examples ones Vd velarised retroflexed s.m./ Falls, called, world, worlds V(L)_(C) (C)$ alveolar lateral (―Dark L‖) s.f./ All, elbow, real, fell, folder Syllabic vd alveolar Purple, turtle, travel, cycle, kettle, [-stress]V_# s.f./ lateral Apple, single s.i./ Let, pillow, really, syllable, million, Vd alveolar lateral $[+voice]C_V melody, alone (―Clear L‖) s.m./ Black, glass, Vladimir
alloph Phoneme Environment articulation Examples ones V_(C)(C)$ (Boston & New s.m./ York, park, harp, card, first Silent York ―r-less‖ s.f./ Car, far, Martha, are, careful varieties Syllabic vd alveolar Water, butter, mother, ladder, [-stress]V_# s.f./ retroflex teacher, singer s.i./ Red, every, real, Paris, arrive, marry [+stress]C_# Voiced alveolar retroflex s.m./ Break, dry, grow, York, park, harp, card, first s.f./ Car, far, Martha, are, careful
PHONOLOGICAL RULES
{/V_(C)(C)$ → {/[-stress]V_# {/elsewhere
{/V_(C)(C)$ → {/[stress]V_# {/elsewhere
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Sistema de las consonantes laterales y vibrantes en la lengua española
Fonema Contexto alófonos Articulación Ejemplos (Quilis, pp. 62-66) Antes de C Lateral dental sonora Caldo, cultura, alto, toldo, el día, el toro dentales i.s. Los, lado, sílaba, pala, plato, hablar, m.s. Lateral alveolar sonora flan, clase, gloria, alba, mal, bolsa, el f.s. aire
Llover, ella, llave, calle. Ojo: comienza a ser intercambiada con i.s. Lateral palatal sonora alófonos de , especialmente entre niños y adolescentes de clase media/alta de Asunción
$_ (≠ i.p.) Pero, era, caro, cero, para Vibrante simple alveolar m.s. Bruno, dragón, gracias, premio, fruta, sonora (prenuclear) tren, crema
1. $_ 1. Río, roca, cerro, perro, Vibrante múltiple 2. [+nasal]C_ 2. Enrejar, Enrique, alveolar sonora 3. [+lateral]C_ 3. Alrededor, el río Vibrante simple alveolar _$ VL. Arte, arduo, puerta, ver sonora Vibrante múltiple Arte, arduo, puerta, ver R alveolar sonora _#./f.e. Ver, hablar. Fenómeno relativamente Vibrante continua sin nuevo entre la juventud de Asunción, fricción quizás por influencia del inglés
Reglas fonológicas3 {[]/_C[+dental] / /→ {_$ {[]/mamoreí /R/→{ /-# / /→ {[ ]/$_ {
{[ ]/$_ //→ {[ ]/$_ //→ 47
Lesson 14. Glides
System of the Glides (semi-consonants) in the English Language
Phoneme Environment allophones articulation Examples Vd unrounded s.i./ Yes, you, use, union, million, $ (C)(C)_V palatal glide university, canyon (semi- s.m./ View, music, feud, screw, consonant) beautiful
s.i./ Vd rounded Witch, Wendy, were, wail, with,
velar glide which, when, where $(C)(C)_V (semi- s.m./ consonant) Swim, twig, queen, liquid, squid
PHONOLOGICAL RULES
→ {/$(C)(C)_V
→ {/$(C)(C)_V
Do the transcription practice. Do both transcriptions Union Queen Canyon liquid 48
Sistema de las semi-consonantes (semi-vocales) en la lengua española
Fonema Contexto alófonos Articulación Ejemplos (Quilis, pp. 41-43)
i.s. #_V Hielo, hierro (Quilis, p. 59) diptongo Semiconsonante palatal creciente sonora (labios estirados) m.s. Quien, viaje, Julio, prieto, vidrio, Biblia, (C)(C)_V caliente f.s. V_ Semi-vocal palatal sonora diptongo Aire, ley, hoy, hay, muy (labios estirados) decreciente
i.s. _V diptongo Hueso, agua, creciente Semiconsonante velar sonora (labios redondos) Dualidad, tuareg, Paraguay, trueno, m.s. suerte, cuidado (C)(C)_V f.s.V_ diptongo Semivocal velar sonora Aumento, causa, trauma, sauna, deuda, (Labios redondos) ciudad decreciente
REGLAS FONOLÓGICAS
//→ {[]/V_ (off-glide) Quilis, p. 41 (nota 33) {[]/_V (on-glide) En la lengua española, no existen los fonemas /j/ y /w/. Las semiconsonantes [j] y [w] son {[]/V_ (off-glide) /u/→ alófonos de las vocales /i/ y /u/, {[]/_V (on-glide) respectivamente
{[+nasal]/[+nasal]C_[+nasal]C V→ {[-nasal]/en los otros contextos /$(C)(C)_V(C)(C)$ /$(C)(C)_V(C)(C)$
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Lesson 15. Allophonic Variations
1. Vowel reduction (schwa) in unstressed syllables: In English unstressed syllables, simple vowel nuclei reduce to schwas (mid central articulatory position and highly lax). This is a phonetic feature Write an example: ______
2. Nasalization before nasal consonants: In English, vowels and diphthongs become slightly nasalised before nasal consonants, but not as much as in Spanish. Nasalization is a phonetic feature in both English and Spanish. It is is phonemic in Guarani and French. Write an example: ______In Spanish, vowels are nasalised between two nasal consonants (, or ). Example: Write another example: ______
3. Velarization Nasal consonants become velar before velar sounds in both English and Spanish. This is both, a phonemic and a phonetic feature Write an example: ______
4. Spirantization In Spanish, /b/, /d/, & /g/ become fricative mostly in intervocalic position. This is a phonetic feature Write an example: ______
5. Dentalization In Spanish, consonants with the combination nt, nd; lt, ld get dentalization. This is a phonetic feature. Write an example: ______
6. Aspiration In English, stop consonants and / become aspirated in syllable initial position before an optional glide, an optional liquid and a stressed vowel. This is a phonetic feature Write an example: ______
7. Unreleasing Stop consonants become unreleased at the end of the word in Free Variation in English. This is a phonetic feature Write an example: ______
8. Bilabial assimilation In Spanish, voiced alveolar nasal consonants become bilabial before bilabial stops Write an example: ______
9. Palatalization In English, alveolar stop consonants become palatal before high back vowels. This is both, a phonemic and a phonetic feature. Write an example: ______
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Lesson 16. Phonetic Phenomena Motivated by Sound Combination Modifications of Sounds in Contact
Alterations produced by phonological rules 1) Change in the value of a feature (example: voicing in the suffix /s/ in English) 2) Manifestation of a new feature (example: aspiration in English, in word initial position 3) Segment loss (Example: final consonant in French /petit/[peti]) 4) Manifestation of a new segment (example: initial /e/ in Spanish) 5) New segment order (example: Latin parábola > Spanish palabra) 6) Segment duplication
Assimilation (contact assimilation and distance assimilation) Assimilation is when one sound is influenced and changed by a neighbouring sound. Generally speaking, there are three types of assimilation that can be identified; assimilation of place, manner or voice.
Assimilation of place can be demonstrated by ―ratbag‖ or ―oatmeal‖ where the sound is replaced by a sound. This is because the alveolar plosive is simplified into the sound which is closer to the bilabial plosive .
Assimilation of manner refers to when two different manners of articulation influence each other to form a different type of manner of articulation. Examples of this are the pronunciation of ―Indian‖ as or the pronunciation of ―soldier‖ . This is because the alveolar combines with the palatal to form an affricate.
Assimilation of voice is illustrated by the pronunciation of ―have to‖ with an sound rather than the as the voiced fricative is followed by a voiceless consonant.
The reason for assimilation is because the tongue cannot always move quickly enough to get from one position to another in order to articulate the next sound, or because the mouth is to busy anticipating the following sound. In either case, it approximates the sound before moving on to the next segment of sound. This approximation is assimilation.
Regressive Assimilation In anticipation (the first sound assimilates the second one) For example, the Spanish nasal consonant in final position /N/ > [um beso] This is a case of assimilation to the position (place) of articulation /N/ > [+bilabial] / _[+bilabial]
Palatalization In English: education /d/ → // /t/ → [] In Portuguese: Curitiba [, fútbol /t/→ []
Labialization When a is followed by a or a , it usually changes into a /p/ sound. that person that boy light blue When a is followed by a or a , it usually changes into a sound. good boy good practice
Palatalization 51
and are often assimilated in natural speech to the and sounds rather than for tune instead of for dew affects any or that comes before it. for this shoe for those shoes
Progressive Assimilation The second sound assimilates the first one In English, the suffix /s/ for plurals and possessives: cat[s] dog[z] This is a voice assimilation case (voiced or voiceless) /s/ > [+voiced] / [+voiced]_
. Harmony (distance assimilation at a morphological and lexical level) Nasal harmony (Guarani) Regressive Progressive
Vocal harmony (Guarani) →
. Metaphony (distance assimilation at a phonetic level) = inflection Modification of a vowel‘s pitch by influence of a neighbour vowel Latin feci → Spanish hice ([e] in feci changed into [i] by influence of the [i] in feci
Dissimilation (Distance dissimilation and contact dissimilation) The difference between two sounds is highlighted. A sound changes one or two articulatory features to be more different from the other sound. It occurs when an assimilative tendency threatens with eliminating a phonological distinction. It breaks the continuity of articulatory movement between two phones.
. Differentiation (all phonetic change that creates difference between two adjacent sounds) In English: a pear →an apple In Guarani: ipochy →ijao ipochy eterei→ikane‘õ eterei May be in Spanish: las aguas frías→ el agua fría
. Dissimilation (all phonetic change that creates difference between two distant sounds) Latin arbor → Spanish árbol
Metathesis (distance metathesis and contact metathesis) . Inversion (movement between two adjacent sounds) Permiso →premiso Latin sibilare→Spanish silbar Latin spatula→ Spanish espalda
. Reciprocal Metathesis (movement between two distant sounds) Latin integrare→Spanish entregar Latin periculu→Spanish peligro Latin miraculum→Spanish milagro English miracle
. Metathesis (movement of a single sound) Gabriel→Grabiel reloj→regló
. Elision 52
Elision refers to when a sound or syllable is lost or omitted. It particularly affects: consonant clusters; weakly stressed syllables that are not especially missed; and words that end in an alveolar consonant and that are Vo sabé que el marte le immediately followed by a word beginning with a robaron su regló a Ña Grabiela consonant. The sounds that are elided are those sounds mientrahs que ella se jue a that are so weakly articulated that they no longer have comprar para su abuja any auditory significance.
Some elided syllables are represented in standard punctuation, for example, ―I'm‖ should be ―I am‖. In standard speech, the missing vowel is understood and so meaning does not suffer from this contraction. Elision is one of the reasons for the great mismatches found in English between a word's spelling and its pronunciation. ―Wednesday‖, for example, was originally a contraction of ―Odin's day‖ while today, Odin is barely discernable as the is no longer pronounced.
Elision is most commonly used in, but is not exclusive to, connected speech. The faster the speech, the more likely that sounds and syllables will be elided. ExamplesOne cause of elision is the loss of a weak vowel after the voiceless stops , and . is an example of the schwa being elided after /p/.
Another cause of elision is when a weak vowel is elided before the syllabic consonants or .demonstrates the loss of the schwa before the /n/.
Complex clusters are often elided in order to simplify the saying of the sound is elided into the much simpler: is often elided when it comes before a consonant.
Contracted forms of words are caused by elision.instead of
Some elisions are just by convention or to speed up or simplify the way we speak. rather than
Note: When a vowel is elided, it is usually a weak vowel, typically the schwa. When a consonant is elided, it is usually because it's in an environment with other consonants.
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Lesson 17. Suprasegmental Features (Prosodic Properties) Length + Stress + Juncture + Tone → Intonation
Prosodic Features: They characterize determined chunks of the speech. They do not always match with a phoneme.
1. Length Length seems to play a role in stress. Generally, if one syllable has a longer length than the others in the word then it is deemed to be the one carrying stress. Length is one of the more important determiners of stress. Correlation of Quantity = distinction between short and long Short, semishort, hypershort syllables, → long, semilong, hyperlong syllables Actual physical time used in sound articulation and syllables vs. perceived psychological time Absolute duration of sounds vs. relative duration of sounds (elocution time).
A. Phonemically between morphemes Vowels in German: Stadt /stat/ city → Staat // estate Consonants in Italian (and Arabic) /nono/ ninth → /nono/ grandfather
B. Phonetically between morphemes Vowels in English: bit // → [] pedacito bid // → apostar (remate) V→[+long]/_[+voiced] beat /bit/→[bigolpear bead /bid/→[bicuentas
C. Other Functions: Length can show emphasis and other qualitative aspects chosen by the speaker. It varies a lot from language to language. In English, length is an important feature to signal stressed syllables.
2. Intensity - Stress: Impulse Energy Intensity is the stress (or voice strength) that is given to a specific syllable. It is the stress highlight in comparison to other syllables pronounced by the same person.
Articulatory Energy: the stressed syllable is more prominent than the unstressed one. Stressed syllables get more voice intensity. (NOTE: this intensity is relative). The intensity is like the rhythm of a tune, like the beat of a drum that marks the rhythm of a song. The sounds are strong or weak, according to their more or less wave width (it refers to acoustics.)
Every language has its own intensity system. (which is the rhythm of the intonation) Degrees of Intensity 2 degrees in Spanish: strong or ―tónico‖ // vs weak or ―átono‖ / / 3 degrees in English: strong //, medium /, y weak (o zero) / / How many degrees of intensity are there in Guarani?
Preferred word stress location (word stress) Spanish: last syllable (when it finishes in v, n or s); and penultimate syllable (when it finishes in another consonant) English: normally in the first syllable for two-syllable words, but this is not systematic Guarani: in the last syllable
Importance of intensity in short phrases (Phrase stress) The intensity of a given word gives the word specific meaning Un soldado simple ≠ un simple soldado (it changes the intensity and the order) The white house ≠ the White House (the order in not changeable, only (de color blanco) (del presidente) the intensity is)
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Distribution of intensity in sentences or phonic group (sentence stress) Spanish: 4 or 5 unstressed syllables and then a stressed one – similar to a machine gun (staccato) English: alternated without a systematic regularity among strong, medium and weak (nothing). Behaviour of unstressed syllables Spanish: length and vowel quality is kept (it does not decrease) English: Syllable length decreases significantly (a part of its length yields) The vowel (simple nuclei) becomes schwa and may disappear Syllabicity can be assumed by a resonant consonant.
Phonetic Feature of Intensity (Stress) in morphemes (Minimal Pairs) In Spanish: /'papa/→/pa'pa/ /'este/→/es'te/ /'hablo/→/a'blo/ In English: /'torment/→/tor'ment/ 'conduct→con'duct 'address→a'ddress In Guarani: /'pora/→/po'ra/ /'ipe/→/i'pe/
Function of stress in Spanish (Quilis, p. 70-72): Contrastive Function (sintagmatic axis) Highlights a superior linguistic unit over the phoneme (for example, syllable, word.) Distinguishes between linguistic units of the same level: contrast between stressed and unstressed units Distinctive Function (paradigmatic axis) Distinguishes two units of different meaning (ánimo, anímo, animó) Finishing Function Other unstressed units group around the central unit near the tonic syllable.
Emphatic accent (or insistence) (Quilis, p. 75) ¿Quién estaba aquí? ÉL estaba aquí ¿Dónde estaba? Él estaba AQUÍ ¿Está aquí todavía? Él ESTABA aquí
How to determine where stress lies. English is not a language that follows precise rules for the placement of stress. In French, the last syllable is usually the stressed one; in Polish, it is usually the penultimate one; and in Czech, it is generally the first syllable that is stressed. Unfortunately, English has a very complex set of procedures that determine stress. It should be noted that nearly all English speakers agree on where stress should be placed in individual words so our system of stress does have some method to its madness.
One syllable words Obviously, these present no problems because, when pronounced in isolation, they receive the primary stress. (There is no other syllable competing with it.)
Two syllable words The choice is still quite simple; either the first or the second syllable will be stressed. It is usually the case with verbs that, if the second syllable of the verb contains a long vowel or diphthong, or if it ends with more than one consonant, then the second syllable is stressed. If the final syllable contains a short vowel and one or no final consonant, then usually, the first syllable will be stressed. Two syllable adjectives are stressed in the same manner. Nouns generally use a different rule. If the second syllable contains a short vowel, then the stress usually comes on the first syllable - otherwise it will be on the second syllable.
Three syllable and more words Determining stress becomes very complicated from this point on. The rules start to become quite arbitrary with more exceptions than can easily be explained away. One general hint to remember is that weak syllables never carry stress. Therefore, any syllable with a schwa in it will never be the stressed syllable. 55
Despite the large amount of research done on the subject of stress, it is still one area of which we have little understanding.
3. Juncture (final inflexions, final stitches) It is the phenomenon that characterizes the final part of a phonic group, of a melodic unit, represented by vertical bars turned into arrows according to the tone‘s rising or decreasing.
Phonic Group = less contrast Platero es pequeño, peludo, suave. ||Platero es pequeño | peludo | suave|| It is also the part of speech between two pauses. (Quilis p. 76), from a word to a sentence. Between intermediate pauses that can be logical, expressive or breathing (it does not always have to do with spelling).
Intonation Group (Intensity group, intensive group) = more contrast: Platero es pequeño, peludo, suave ||Platero es pequeño↓peludo↓suave↓ Cristóbal Colón descubrió América ||Cristóbal Colón↑descubrió América↓ ―En español el sintagma nominal que funciona como sujeto suele formar un grupo de entonación‖ (Quilis p.77) Grupo de entonación (Quilis p. 76) = ―porción de discurso comprendida entre dos pausas, entre pausa e inflexión del fundamental, entre inflexión del fundamental y pausa, o entre dos inflexiones del fundamental, que configura una unidad sintáctica más o menos larga o compleja (sintagma, cláusula, oración).” [―Fundamental = primer armónico en la descripción acústica.‖ Quilis, p. 35] Between finishing pauses, ―encuadración entre inflexiones finales.‖ [―Pausa= cese, omisión de voz cuando estamos hablando (silencio o ausencia de voz)‖] [―Oposición= con pausa vs. sin pausa‖]
There are three junctures (or tonemes) in English and Spanish: (Gili Gaya refers to 5 tonemes that were described by Tomás Navarro)
Falling movement of the fundamental (cadence o semicadence) The voice falls (but keeping the same tone). (Instant suppression of intensity) It is represented by a downward vertical arrow ↓ The intensity decreases and then stops
Rising movement of the fundamental (anticadence o semianticadence) The voice rises (but keeping the same tone) It is represented by an upward vertical arrow ↑ The intensity increases and then stops
Immutable movement of the fundamental (pause) The voice is kept at the same level Because there is no modulation, it is represented by an arrowless vertical bar | The intensity is kept until the end
However, when comparing languages, there are many differences in the distribution of these junctures.
4. Tone (Tonal register, melodic tone, musical height) Modulated tone→simple and complex modulated in relationship to high and low tones. Tone description based on the articulation: ―La frecuencia vibratoria de las cuerdas vocales está determinada por su longitud y por su tensión. La longitud varía de un individuo a otro. Cuando las cuerdas vocales son más largas, el registro de voz es más grave (como en los hombres). Cuando las cuerdas vocales son más cortas, el registro de voz es más agudo (como en las mujeres). Dentro del registro individual de voz, las cuerdas vocales se tienden o se distienden para cada sonido a causa de las contracciones y relajaciones de los músculos insertos en los cartílagos laríngeos. A mayor tensión corresponden notas más agudas.‖ (Gili Gaya, pp. 52-55) Tone description based on acoustics: “Las vibraciones rápidas o lentas de la molécula (en el movimiento de vaivén) tienen período más corto o más largo, respectivamente. El número de vibraciones por segundo es la frecuencia del movimiento ondulatorio, y 56
de ella depende el tono del sonido. A mayor número de vibraciones por segundo corresponde un sonido más agudo; si el número es menor, el sonido será más grave. Hay sonidos tensos y relajados. Función contrastiva de la frecuencia fundamental en el nivel de la palabra acústicamente” (Quilis, p. 35) [“Frecuencia fundamental: el tiempo que dura un período del fundamenta (primer armónico).”]
Tonal Languages. Languages with registers: examples of tonal languages: Chinese, Vietnamese (with 6 tones!), they posses phonemic contrastive tones in morphemes (tone is a phoneme).
Examples of phonemic tones: FALLING( The tone goes down to a lower height →lower) RISING ( The tone goes up to a higher height →less low) HORIZONTAL (levelled – lack of melody) FALLING AND RISING RISING AND FALLING Example: Chinese 媽媽罵馬 Tones in Spanish & English: function in the sentence.
Tone – Height rank that we give to our voice to express what we feel or think. Tone variations express our emotions and attitudes, even without describing them using words. Your tone of voice can convey a message that does not match with the words you are using. With different tones of voice, we communicate emotions such as good or bad mood, compassion, conformism, fear, anger, offence, sarcasm, disapproval, wrath, indignation, over enthusiasm, pride, etc. We pay more attention to the tone of voice than to the words that we hear to judge or interpret la real intention of a person‘s message.
Spanish has three tone levels (1-bajo, 2-medio, 3-alto) Normal speech is based on a combination of tone levels 1 and 2. In Spanish, tone 3 is used to express enthusiasm and lots of excitement. (excessive use of tone 3 can communicate anger or wrath)
English has 4 tone levels (1-very low, 2-semi-low, 3-semi-high, 4-very high) Normal speech is based on a combination of tone levels 2 and 3 In English, tone 4 is used to show enthusiasm and lots of excitement (Excessive use of tone 1 shows disapproval, lack of interest or a servant-master relationship)
Tones in English are much more marked than in Spanish. You can see and compare them next.
Spanish English
5. Intonation: The messages that we convey to one another depends just as much on how we say something as on what it is that we actually say. Most of the information on this site deals with the mechanics of articulating sounds. However, it is possible to use the same words to convey a huge variety of meanings, moods or intentions. The way we do this is by using intonation. In the study of intonation, pitch, loudness and length are the most important factors. They work together to give certain syllables prominence over the others. The concepts of intonation are very closely related to those in stress, the difference being that stress is concerned with individual words, whereas intonation extends over a 57
phrase or utterance
Intonation: ―función de la frecuencia fundamental en el nivel de la oración‖ (Quilis). ―Los patrones de entonación se manifiestan a través de tonos ascendentes y descendentes. La entonación es la función lingüísticamente significativa, socialmente representativa e individualmente expresiva de la frecuencia del fundamental en el nivel de la oración.‖ (Quilis, p. 76-77) Three functions of intonation (Quilis): nivel lingüístico, sociolingüístico y expresivo. Intonation field: the area between the highest and lowest linguistic sounds. The voice movements in the language are much more restricted than in music.
Intonation patterns between individuals and speech communities: The expressive habits of each language influence in that their ordinary field of intonation be more or less wide. (Italian over two octavesmodulation singing effect, Spanish over one octave).
Each person has their own normal voice tone, the key that within their individual register is produced with more ease. Around this key (or tone), rising and falling movements perform in the speech of that person.
Eliminating individual differences, people from specific regions or countries express themselves using a medium, higher or lower normal tone. Spanish has a lower tone than French or Italian Castilla – The Spanish‘s lowest Andalucía – predominates a higher tone Asunción versus Guairá? Intonation has dialectal and idiomatic shades. Frequently, it is said that the inhabitants of a specific region ―sing‖ when they speak. Actually, we all sing, but only by contrast do we realise of the peculiar ―song‖ of our speech community. Melodic inflections tell where people are from.
Examples from Spanish (Llorach, p. 205.) 1. Cadencia y Semicadencia (inflexiones descendentes) Generalmente, la afirmación y la terminación de lo expresado 2. Anticadencia y Semianticadencia (inflexiones ascendentes) Generalmente, la no conclusión de lo expresado y la interrogación 3. Suspensión (tono mantenido a la misma altura) Simplemente indica una interrupción
Examples from English (Meis & Jones, p. 283): 1. Rising-falling intonation Affirmative sentences (affirmative & imperative sentences, lists, conditional sentences, "if/then") Question forms Question tags (you can go, can't you?) Wh_ questions (what, where, when, who, etc) 2. Falling-rising intonation Polite questions, open-ended questions (this or that) Final “interrogative” questions that actually request for information 3. Rising intonation Wh_ questions to clarify previously known information Yes/no questions.
6. The rhythm of intonation Preference for specific stress types is characteristic of each language Tendency to the alternative of relative stress, starting with the main stress Unconscious zigzag in the relative syllabic trend – it organizes itself with a specific rhythmic tendency
Spanish _ the rhythm is based on syllables: syllable-based rhythm All syllables have approximately the same duration Rhythm is marked by counting the syllables (ex. Songs and poems) 58
English – it is based on strong stress (stressed syllables): Stress-based rhythm From stressed syllable to stressed syllable they have approximately the same duration Rhythm is marked by counting the stressed syllables (the strong intensities) (ex. Songs and poems)
7. INTERESTING OBSERVATION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (Fromkin & Rodman, p. 333): 60% out of the 20.000 frequently used words are loan words from other languages. 30% out of the 500 most common words are loan words. The frequency of words of English origin of daily use is 80%. English also has several morphosyntactic structures that were borrowed from other languages: Comparative/superlative English origin: pretty - prettier - prettiest Borrowed structure: beautiful - more beautiful - most beautiful Pluralization with the suffix /s/ came from French Only the irregular plural forms in Modern English came from Old English.
Pitch is an auditory sensation that places sounds on a scale from high to low. Every syllable has pitch, however, any syllable that is articulated with a noticably different pitch will be deemed to carry stress. This can go either way: if all the syllables are said in a low pitch except one, then that higher pitch syllable will be deemed to carry the stress of the word. Pitch also plays a central role in intonation 59
Lesson 18. Phonology: Analysis of Foreign Languages
The contrast of phonemes in minimal word pairs has also been referred to as contrast in identical environments. pat / bat show contrast in identical environments Contrast in identical environments is the difference between two phonetically similar segments that occur in two separate words and have identical adjacent sounds. If neither segment has been modified or affected by its environment, the segments are separate phonemes. Example (English) The segments and contrast in identical environments in the following minimal pair: The implication is that and are separate phonemes. Example (Cashinahua, Peru/Brazil) The segments and contrast in identical environments in the following minimal pair: 'swollen hand' 'black, dark' The implication is that and are separate phonemes.
Near minimal pairs (subminimal pairs) occur in analogous environments and are subminimal pairs in analogous environments in the words vision / fishin' = Contrast in analogous environments is the difference between two phonetically similar segments that occur in two separate words and have similar adjacent sounds. If neither segment has been modified or affected by its environment, the segments are separate phonemes. Example (Kaiwa, Brazil) The segments [p] and [b] contrast in analogous environments in the following words: [opa] 'it is finished' [aba] 'place' The implication is that /p/ and /b/ are separate phonemes. Q:I am currently taking a language acquisition course and do not understand the purpose nor the difference between
complementary distribution and free variation. Are they both in reference to only allophones?? What is the difference and why is it important?? A: COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION refers to the situation where, of two linguistic elements (most often segments, but they may be other types of elements), neither is ever found in environments where the other is found. We usually only talk about this (in phonology) with respect to 2 allophones of a particular phoneme, but there are other cases. So, for example, an unaspirated [p] and the aspirated [ph] are in complementary distribution before a stressed vowel: in absolute word-initial position, we find only [ph]; if it occurs after an /s/, though, only the unaspirated variant is encountered. So we get 'pin' [phn] but 'spin' [spn]. In many varieties of English, however, the situation is different at the end of the word. Here, the [p] and the [ph] are in FREE VARIATION. That is, words like 'sip' can be pronounced *either* [sp], with no aspiration, or [sp], with aspiration. So both terms refer to the existence of 2 or more variants in similar environments, but in C.D. they are mutually
exclusive with respect to the environments, while in F.V. both may occur at different moments in the identical environment. Note that in my example, we find both phenomena with the same pair of segments; however, we do not find the same pair of segments showing both phenomena in the *same* environment. Note that not only aspirated [ph] but also [th] and [kh] are in complementary distribution with unaspirated [p]. They are of course not considered allophones of [p] (but rather of [t] and [k], respectively), because they are not *phonetically similar* to it, but they *are* in fact in C. D. with respect to [p].
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Problem # 1 Hypothetical language Pick out the minimal and sub-minimal word pairs that indicate contrast between phonemes. You will have to isolate suspicious pairs first. 1 Gun 9 Go 2 Car 10 Free 3 Joke 11 Cow 4 Smear 12 Milk 5 Juice 13 Mother 6 Sick 14 Orange 7 Anger 15 Talk 8 Fall 16 Bison
Problem # 2. Spanish In Spanish, and , and , and are allophones of , , and, respectively. That is, they are suspicious pairs which have been shown to be in complementary distribution. Based on the data presented below, what is the CD of the allophones?
1 To sharpen 9 To seize 2 Foreigner 10 Bandit 3 Fat 11 λ Squirrel 4 To pay 12 Tree 5 Shop 13 Rough 6 Tiger 14 To look for 7 Flooring 15 To owe 8 Tobacco 16 Finger, toe
Based on your analysis above, predict the phonetic form of the following items, written phonemically as: 'double', and /'nonsense.' Remember that a "phonemic rewrite" uses only one of the allophones of the phoneme to represent the whole phonemic class.
Problem # 3. English Suppose a speaker of English fluctuates between the pronunciation of either as and . Would you consider this to be a fluctuation between phonemes or allophones? Why?
Problem # 4. Unknown Dialect. For each suspicious pair of phones in this dialect, state if the phones are two distinct phonemes or if they are allophones of the same phoneme by identifying either a minimal pair in identical environments; subminimal pairs in analogous environments or complementary distribution in mutually exclusive environments. You need to justify and explain each answer: & & &
1 Man 5 Frog 9 Petal 2 Stem 6 Leaf 10 Woman 3 Polen 7 Seed 11 House 4 Flower 8 Bunch 12 River
Note: there is a case of assimilation. Identify it and explain how it works 61
Problem # 5. Kalabaa For each suspicious pair of phones in the KALABAA dialect, state if the phones are two distinct phonemes or if they are allophones of the same phoneme by identifying either a minimal pair in identical environments; subminimal pairs in analogous environments or complementary distribution in mutually exclusive environments. You need to justify and explain each answer: & & & Concerning the three pairs of phones, examine the 15 statements of the linguistic corpus.
1 Hammer 6 Basket 11 Bread 2 Pumkin 7 Smoke 12 Valley 3 Ear 8 Wet 13 Cousin 4 Mother 9 Coffee 14 Coat 5 Some 10 Horse 15 Thunder
Note: Identify and explain the general rule about the phonemic characteristic of oclusives in this language. This rule should also be represented using a notational phonological rule.
Problem # 6. Kalabaa & & V&V(duration of , , )
1 To spend 6 Knowledge 11 To shine 2 Nearby 7 Trial 12 Woman 3 Lip 8 Egg 13 To rain Acknowled 4 To pray 9 14 Spilt ge 5 To soften 10 pebbles 15 Nothing
Note: in order to analyse vowels you need to compare: & & &
Problem # 7. Hebrew Consider these phonetic forms of Hebrew words. Are [] and [] allophones of one phoneme? Can you formulate a rule to explain their distribution? Does the same rule, or lack of a rule, apply to [] and []? If not, why not? (NOTE: [] represents a glottal stop, and [] represents a pharyngeal fricative.)
"lamented" "stroked" "limited" "book" "broke" (masc.) "washed" "broke" (fem.) "cow" "delayed" "handkerchief" "created" "the Alps" 62
Problem # 8. Tojolabal (Mexico)
At the time of first European contact, probably close to 1,000 American Indian languages were spoken in North, Central, and South America. Although the number of languages in daily use has steadily declined because of persecution and pressures on the Indians to adopt English, Spanish, and other originally European languages, well over 700 different American Indian or, as they are sometimes called, Amerindian or Native American languages are spoken today. Tojolabal is a language that belongs to the large Mayan family from Central America
[t] [th] 1 pig 5 kind of plant 2 a patch 6 Chicken 3 kind of plant 7 Long 4 upside down 8 Seed
Problem # 9. Tojolabal (Mexico)
[] simple [] glottalised 1 my beard 7 chop it down 2 our feet 8 Flea 3 hanging 9 sugar cane 4 white 10 Warm 5 he is carrying 11 to dress 6 he stirred it 12 Reed 13 my grass
Problem # 10. Persian
voiced trill voiced flap voiceless trill 1 Army 9 Starched 17 Starch 2 Persian 10 *brother 18 Last 3 A little bit 11 Go! 19 Pomegranate 4 Road 12 Pale 20 Better 5 Right 13 Hairbrush 21 Four 6 Paint 14 Why? 22 What kind? 7 Beard 15 You have 23 *however 8 Day 16 pastry 24 Lion are in complementary distribution and form one phoneme. State the distribution. Forms marked * contain both allophones. 63
Problem # 11. Ganda (East Africa) The Ganda are a Bantu-speaking people who constitute the largest population group in Uganda, numbering about 3 million in 1995. In their traditional kingdom of Buganda, the patrilineal Ganda developed a civil administration that was more centralized and elaborately hierarchical than that of any other Bantu kingdom in the region around Lake Victoria and, perhaps, in much of precolonial Africa. When the Europeans arrived, Buganda was the largest and most powerful of the region's great states, including Ankole, Bunyoro, Busoga, Nyamwezi, Ruanda, Rundi, and others.
The heart of Buganda was the capital of the kabaka, or king, at Kampala. A British protectorate established in 1894 was accepted by Buganda's leading chiefs in exchange for freehold rights over most of Buganda's fertile land for themselves. This led to a series of struggles between landlords and Ganda peasants. Religion meshed with politics in often-violent factional struggles that pitted groups of Christian Ganda against one another and against Muslims. After a power struggle between Buganda and the government of independent Uganda, the kabaka was exiled in 1966; Uganda's four kingdoms were abolished in 1967. In 1993 the government restored the Buganda monarchy, although the kabaka was not allowed to hold political office.
[] 1 ú To be full of 11 éfíímbí A whistle 2 úá To dish up 12 édyálí *Beam 3 úgúá To buy 13 éíá Name 4 úgúá To open 14 étúndíó Shop 5 é To bring 15 éé Only 6 útábál To attack 16 dyí Gospel 7 á Mad man 17 í *To eat with 8 ém Lame person 18 Ólúgéó *Story 9 áálwáná Fought 19 ókúmíá To swallow 10 túl We tighten 20 píípíí Pepper are in complementary distribution and form one phoneme. State the distribution. Forms marked * contain both allophones. /'/marks high pitch./ /marks low pitch. /dy/ is an alveopalatal stop.
/ /{
Problem # 12. Korean. A member of the Ural-Altaic family of languages, Korean was brought down into the peninsula by early invaders who first entered the region during the diffusion of the Altaic peoples in early times. Each of the three kingdoms (18 - 935) of Silla, Koguryo, and Paekche appears to have had a different variety of Old Korean, but the sources for these earliest stages of the language are too fragmentary to make clear whether Old Korean was one language with three dialects or three different, but probably related, languages.
Middle Korean was apparently the final stage in the historical development of the variety of Old Korean used in the Silla kingdom, especially as that language had survived into the period of Unified Silla, from the 7th to the 10th century. Not until late Middle Korean are there extensive records, written in an indigenous phonetic script of great precision and efficiency, called hangul (gkSrnF), the development of which about 1443-44 remains one of the major achievements of Korean civilization. Today the north employs hangul exclusively. In the south, the use of borrowed Chinese characters to supplement hangul is discouraged but continues to be tolerated. 64
are in complementary distribution and form one phoneme. State the distribution. / is a high back unrounded vowel.
1 rkF That'll go 12 tlFrhk Fruit 2 그늘 Shade 13 xmF창 Window 3 물 Water 14 얼마나 How long 4 qkF Leg 15 이름 ˈ Name 5 팔 Arm 16 길 ˈ Road 6 서울 Seoul 17 rmfjA Then 7 ekemF All of them 18 Rjflfh To the street 8 일곱 ˈ Seven 19 사람 Person 9 이발사 ˈ Barber 20 우리 We 10 오늘 밤 Tonight 21 여름 Summer 11 불쾌 ˈ Discomfort
Problem # 13. Korean are in complementary distribution and form one phoneme. State the distribution. Items marked with * contain two allophones
1 사단 Division 10 손 19 신호 ˈ Signal 2 색 Colour 11 tyS 20 clgkqq Game 3 새 New 12 dntm Upper 21 식당 ˈ Dining room 4 소설 Novel 13 인사 Greetings 22 신부 ˈ bride 5 수 Number 14 영수증 Receipt 23 mDtlrcoA Restaurant 6 tnF Wine 15 세면실 *washroom 24 vnDthr Custom 7 수술 operation 16 십 삼세 *Thirteen 25 qqkDtor Cushion 8 세계 World 17 clFtn *mistake 26 ckDtk Business 9 세금 Taxes 18 맛있는 Delicious 27 dlSt Publisher
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Problem # 14. Swahili (East Africa)
The Swahili are not an ethnic unit but the coastal dwellers of a number of East African countries. They speak dialects of the Swahili tongue, structurally a Bantu language but with many borrowings from Arabic. The name Swahili, derived from an Arabic word meaning "coast," can be applied to nearly half a million East Africans whose culture, trading economy, and language developed with the spread of Islam after Arab traders arrived among them about A.D. 500. The language is a lingua franca across East Africa to Zambia and the Congo and in places as distant as south Arabia, the Persian Gulf, and even the coast of Pakistan
are in complementary distribution and form one phoneme. State the distribution. Forms marked * contain both allophones
[] more open [o] more close 1 Drum 12 Children 2 Fort 13 Dream 3 Cattle 14 Vegetable 4 Pipe 15 Little 5 Pray 16 Rooster 6 See 17 Axe 7 Cure 18 Pick up 8 Nurse 19 One 9 Taste 20 Trap 10 Increase 21 *sheep 22 11 strangle *wash-out
/ /{ Problem # 15. Karok (California)
Karok belongs to the large language group of the native American from the North of Mexico. The Pacific rim of northwestern North America and the plateau drained by the Columbia and Fraser rivers formed a uniquely hospitable niche for its native American inhabitants because of salmon-spawning streams throughout, draining into the north Pacific. From north to south important groups were the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl, Nootka, Salish, Hupa, Yurok, and Karok. Most languages spoken in the Northwest Coast culture area are of Athabascan, Penutian, or Mosan linguistic stock
[C:] long consonants [C] short consonants 1 ú Bile 6 á Mosquito 2 í Doe 7 á On the ground 3 á Puppy 8 á Middle 4 ú Nose 9 ú Deer 5 á Wet 10 á Cave
The difference between long and short consonants is not phonemic. State the distribution. 66
Problem # 16. Karok (California)
1 Arm 5 Rat 2 Mama 6 Two 3 Bread 7 Wet 4 Mosquito 8 Shovel Are allophones of one phoneme? State your evidence.
Problem # 17. Sindhi The following data are from Sindhi, an Indo-European language spoken in India and Pakistan. Examine the phones [], [] and []. Determine if the three are allophones of separate phonemes or allophones of the same phoneme. What is your evidence? Is the relationship among the sounds the same as in English? Why or why not?
1. [ ] Leaf 8. [ ] bottom 2. [ ] Opportunity 9. [ ] sour 3. [ ] Suspicious 10. [ ] run 4. [ ] Dull 11. [ ] forest 5. [ ] Door 12. [ ] be safe 6. snake hood 13. judge
Problem # 18. Zulu (South Africa) The Zulu are an African people belonging to the southern segment of the Nguni peoples who settled in southern Africa centuries before the arrival of Europeans (see Africa, history of). Speakers of Zulu, a Bantu language, they numbered more than 9.5 million in 1997. Zululand, the traditional home of the Zulu, was formally incorporated into Natal province in 1897. Under apartheid, part of Zululand became the Zulu homeland of KwaZulu. KwaZulu was reincorporated into Natal province (now KwaZulu/Natal) in 1994.
The Zulu formerly consisted of numerous tribes, each under the political leadership of an independent chief. Historically, Zulu refers only to the clan of Shaka, who subjugated scores of tribes to create the powerful Zulu nation during the early 19th century. By the end of the century, however, the Zulu had lost much of their land and wealth during prolonged warfare with European settlers.
The traditional Zulu economy was based on cattle raising and grain farming. Polygynous (multiple-wife) marriage is practiced and involves elaborate patrilineal ties and alliances between lineages. Traditional Zulu religion was centered on ancestor worship and belief in a creator god. Healing practices based on magic were highly developed.
Today the Zulu work primarily as wage laborers in South African cities or on white-owned farms. Violence between urbanized Zulus supporting the African National Congress (ANC) and more traditional rural Zulu backers of the Inkatha Freedom party (IFP) in South Africa's black townships claimed an estimated 16,000 lives between 1986 and 1996. Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini, who assumed the throne in 1971, moved toward reconciliation with the ANC after South Africa's April 1994 all-race elections. In September he openly broke with Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, the leader of Inkatha. Violence between the ANC and the IFP in KwaZulu- Natal subsequently declined as Buthelezi shifted his tactics and sought to achieve a degree of autonomy for the province through constitutional means, an effort encouraged by South African president Nelson Mandela. 67
[] more open [o] more close 1 See 13 Grasshopper 2 Bind 14 Guardian 3 Despoil 15 Box 4 Jealousy 16 Fat 5 Car 17 Doll 6 Small of back 18 This 7 Frog 19 Stove 8 Head ring 20 Jersey cow 9 Pot 21 One who roasts 10 Picture 22 And the tree 11 Son 23 You acted like a man 12 Strange man 24 Story-teller
are in complementary distribution and form one phoneme. State the distribution. are clicks. is a voiced bilabial implosive stop
Problem # 19. Oneida (New York) The Iroquoian-speaking Oneida tribe from earliest times inhabited a region of central New York State north of Binghamton, eastward to Raquette Lake, and southward to the Oneonta vicinity. West of the Oneida lived the Onondaga, and east of them the Mohawk. They were members of the original Five Nations Iroquois League and were represented on the League's Grand Council by nine sachems. Maize, beans, and squash, their staple crops, were tended by the women, who also gathered wild plant foods. The business of men included trading, clearing fields for gardens, hunting, and warfare. Oneida villages were composed of bark-covered longhouses that sheltered families related through the female line. The matrilineal principle also served as a basis for their social and political institutions.
Greatly influenced by the Protestant missionary Samuel Kirkland, the Oneida alone among the Five Nations Iroquois sided with the colonists during the American Revolution. Despite their faithful support, they eventually lost their homelands and were removed to a reservation in what was then the Wisconsin Territory. Today small communities of Oneida live near Oneida and Red Hook, N.Y., as well as on reserves in Wisconsin (1991 est. pop., 4,923) and the province of Ontario, Canada (1988 pop., 4,546).
[ lenis voiceless [s] fortis voiceless 1 Sit down 15 Let him count 2 Next day 16 White men 3 Boy 17 He's been playing 4 He's finished it 18 One pine tree 5 He drops it here 19 A different one 6 The worst food 20 You buy 7 The same 21 You ate corn 8 You ate it [ lenis voiced [] fortis voiceless alveopalatal 9 Long words 22 You write 10 I'm taking it along 23 Let you break 11 Let him drag it 12 He dropped it They would suddenly separate They changed it 24 13 again again 14 She saw you
are in complementary distribution and form one phoneme. State the distribution 68
Problem # 20. Keresan (New Mexico) Acoma, a pueblo founded about A.D. 1100, is possibly the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the United States. It is located 135 km (84 mi) west of Albuquerque, N.Mex. Perched atop a sandstone mesa that rises 109 m (357 ft) above the valley floor, it stands at an elevation of 2,130 m (about 7,000 ft). Since a long time, a Pueblo Indian people who speak a Western Keresan language have lived at Acoma in three- storied homes made of flat stones plastered with adobe and supported with wooden beams. are in complementary distribution and form one phoneme. State the distribution. It will be necessary to describe four environments, two for each allophone. Forms marked * contain both allophones
[] non - retroflexed [retroflexed with trill 1 It is dangerous 13 Moccasin 2 Vulture 14 Parrot 3 *bison 15 And it was 4 *be not afraid 16 Serpent 5 Pipe 17 Witch doctor 6 Face 18 Sand 7 Knife 19 *seat 8 His head 20 Mist 9 Fox 21 Fished 10 Water bottle 22 He buried it 11 Shoulder 23 *I'll not be afraid 12 arrow 24 Cloth Problem # 21. Totonac (Mexico) The Mesoamerican culture area occupies present-day Guatemala, Belize, part of Honduras, and central Mexico southeast to the Yucatan Peninsula.
1 He stacks 7 White 2 It resounded 8 Beans 3 Cut it 9 Porcupine 4 Uncle 10 You plunged in 5 Peppery 11 He rested 6 snow 12 It broke
Voiceless vowels are in complementary distribution with voiced vowels [i a u] and form three phonemes /i a u/. State the distribution
Problem # 22. Venda (South Africa) The diverse groups that became known as the Venda, a Bantu-speaking people, moved southward into northeastern South Africa in the early 1700s and came under control of what was then Transvaal in 1898. Are allophones of one phoneme? State your evidence. / is a strongly labialized fricative in contrast with /z/
1 At your place 7 He 2 Tooth 8 childhood 3 Master 9 There 4 Buffalo 10 Five 5 Baboon 11 See! 6 Four 12 now
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Appendix English Rule Notation Definitions of symbols used in formulas for describing phonological rules
/ / parallel bars symbolise a phoneme. Example: “water”
[ ] square brackets symbolise an allophone. Example: ɚ
This phoneme becomes manifested as... This phoneme represents the following allophones... This phoneme becomes represented as...
...these allophones in the phonological environment or other options (context) where... variants, alternatives
$_ at the beginning of a syllable; syllable initial position (s.i.) _$ at the end of a syllable, syllable final position (s.f.)
#_ at the beginning of a word; word initial position (w.i.) _# at the end of a word, word final position (w.f.)
[+...] has certain phonetic feature/trait. Ex. [+rounded][+voiced][+front] [-...] absence of phonetic feature/trait. Ex. [-rounded] [-voiced] [-front]
C = any consonant; V = any vowel _V= preceding a vowel V_= following a vowel
V_V = intervocalic position, between two vowels = nothing (null), zero, disappears, no sound (phone) is produced
Other Cover Symbols: L=liquid, G=glide CD = complementary distribution FV= free variation ( ) = optional, elective, possibility (not obligatory) s.i. = at the beginning of a syllable (prenuclear, preceding peak of syllable) s.m.= in the middle of a syllable (prenuclear, nuclear = peak of syllable, postnuclear) s.f.= at the end of a syllable (postnuclear, following peak of syllable) w.i.= at the beginning of a word u.i.=at the beginning of an utterance w.f.= at the end of a word u.f.= at the end of an utterance
Rule Notation The phoneme /p/ manifests itself as the following allophones which Example (English) are all voiceless, bilabial, stops:
[+aspirated] /$_[+stress]V /p/ assumes the trait of aspiration and is represented by an /p/→ [-released] /_# aspirated allophone at the beginning of a syllable, that is [-aspirated] /elsewhere following a syllable boundary (s.i.), when preceeding a stressed vowel; /p/ converts to an unreleased allophone [p] in the environment at the end of a word, that is when preceeding a word boundary (s.f.); and /p/ loses its aspiration and becomes an unaspirated allophone [p] in the environment elsewhere (or rather in all other environments not already mentioned).
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Spanish Rule Notation Definición de los Símbolos usados en fórmulas para describir las reglas fonológicas
/ / las barras oblícuas simbolizan un fonema
[ ] los corchetes simbolizan un alófono (o fono)
Este fonema: Se manifiesta como... Se convierte en...
...estos alófonos en el ambiente fonológico donde... u otras opciones en el contexto fónico donde.... variantes, alternativas
$_ al inicio de una sílaba _$ al final de una sílaba
#_ al inicio de una palabra _# al final de una palabra
[+...] posee cierto rasgo fonético. Ej. [+redondo][+sonora] [-...] no posee cierto rasgo fonético. Ej. [-redondo] [-sonora]
C = cualquier consonante; V = cualquier vocal; _V= antes de una vocal; V_= después de una vocal
V_V = entre dos vocales, posición intervocálica
= nada (nulo), cero, desaparición, ningún fono
Otros símbolos globales: L= líquidas; CD= distribución complementaria VL= variación libre ( )= optativo, opcional, electivo i.S = al inicio de la sílaba (prenuclear) m.s.= en el medio de la sílaba (prenuclear, nuclear, postnuclear) f.s.= al final de la sílaba (postnuclear) i.p.= al inicio de la palabra i.e.= al inicio del enunciado f.p.= al final de la palabra f.e.= al final del enunciado
Regla Fonológica Ejemplo (Español)
El fonema /p/ se manifiesta como al inicio de una [p] /#_ palabra; nada o cualquier consonante al final de una palabra /p/→ /-# C 71
Phonetics: Allophones/Phones (Sounds)
Articulators: bottom lip and tongue (tip, blade, centre, back and root) Points/Places of Articulation
CONSONANTS OF THE Labio Inter Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal ENGLISH LANGUAGE dental dental
Voiceless voiced voiceless voiced voiceless voiced voiceless voiced voiceless voiced voiceless voiced voiceless voiced
Aspirated Stops (plosives) N Unaspirated Complete closure and the air O rushes out as soon as the N closure is opened Unreleased (Noncontinuants.)
R Fricatives (Spirants) Non-Sibilants M E Almost complete closure but the air passes through a slit A S or a groove producing noise Sibilants N O due to friction. Continuant N N Aspirated E A Affricates R A combination of a stop N followed by a fricative. Both T articulations are in the same place: homorganic. Unaspirated O S Noncontinuants F Nasals A The air stream is obstructed in the oral cavity. Instead of touching the R R back wall of the throat, the uvula hangs down towards the pharynx T E and air passes through nasal cavity. Noncontinuant. Syllabic. I S
C O N Laterals The tongue touches the roof of the U A moth and the sides of the tongue L are lowered. The air passes N around one or both sides of the A T tongue. Continuant. Syllabic S T Flaps (Tap) I Tongue touches the alveolar [+ but not long enough to stop O S the air flow. Continuant N O Retroflex N The tongue raises towards the alveolar region but O instead of touching , it curls R backwards towards the A palate. Continuant N Glides. Semi-Consonants Tongue moves rapidly in a gliding Rounded T fashion. Thses sounds are like lips vowels but "act" like consonants. S] They create a slight obstruction and cannot carry the peak of a Unrounded syllable. Continuants and sonorants, but consonantal lips 72
Fonética de la Lengua Española: Alófonos
Articuladores: labio inferior y lengua: ápice, dorso (pre & post) y raíz
Lugares de Articulación (zonas de articular)
Las Consonantes de Bilabial Labiodental Interdental Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glotal la Lengua Española
Sorda sonora sorda sonora sorda sonora sorda sonora sorda sonora sorda sonora sorda sonora sorda Sonora
N O Oclusivas (ni aspiradas, ni R prenasalizadas) E S No-Sibilantes M O Fricativas (España) A N N A Sibilantes E N R Africadas T (una oclusiva y una A E fricativa en el mismo D S lugar: homorgánica) E Nasales A (En vez de tocar la R pared, el velo baja T hacia la faringe.) I R Laterales C E (aproximantes) U S V L O I simple A N B Múltiple R C A A Fricativa I N N Ó T T Contínua E sin fricción N E S S Labios redondos Semivocales Semiconsonantes (aproximantes) Labios estirados
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Phonemics: Phonemes (Phonology)
Points/Places of Articulation (areas/zones) CONSONANTS OF Labio Inter THE ENGLISH Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal dental dental LANGUAGE Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd
M N Stops A O (plosives) N N N R Fricatives E E R (Spirants) S O O N F A N T Affricates A S R
T Nasals R I E C S U O Laterals L N Flaps A A N T Retroflex T I S O rounded Glides lips N Semi-Consonants unrounded lips
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Fonología de la Lengua Española: Los Fonemas
Lugares de Articulación Las Consonantes de Labio Inter Bilabial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glotal la Lengua Española dental dental
Sorda sonora sorda sonora sorda sonora sorda sonora sorda sonora sorda sonora sorda sonora sorda sonora
N o Oclusivas
M r a española e n s Fricativas e o r n a a n d t Africadas e e s A r Nasales t R (archifonema) i e c s Laterales u o (aproximantes) l n Simple a t Múltiple c a Archifone I n R
Vibrantes ma ó t n e Semivocales
s Semiconsonant es
(aproximantes)
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Some descriptive terms Contrast Relationship of sintagmatic nature There is a difference between two phonological adjacent units Fruta ≠ rfuta Plaza ≠ lpaza
Defective Distribution Lack of /r/ in initial position (it is not neutralization)
Dephonologization Two phonemes stop opposing themselves in all environments ll→y (malla→maya) The opposition has disappeared: two phonemes dephonologize in one phoneme. 2 phonemes >> 1 phoneme
Distribution Several manifestations or variations (allophones) of the same phoneme (variant unit). a) Combinatory or contextual variants Complementary distribution (C.D.) b) Free Variants (F.V.) – stylistic or facultative. Realizations of a phoneme appear in the same environment More of less conscious choice of the speaker Equivalent or free distribution
Neutralization The phonological opposition stops being pertinent in certain positions of the utterance. Opposition /r/→ /rr/ pero→perro Neutralization /R/ coRtaR It becomes an Archiphoneme (capital letters between slant bars): Group of distinctive features common to both phonemes in the neutralized opposition /r/ + /rr/ = /R/
Phonological Opposition Relationship of paradigmatic nature There is a difference between two or more distinctive units Minimal pairs are created: pero → perro
Some Phonetic Phenomena Related to Phones
ARTICULATORY ENERGY (muscular effort): strong vs. weak Lenition process. Weakening process
VOICING (vocal cords): voiced vs. voiceless Sonorization process. Deafening process
VOWEL ATTACK Soft Hard > glottal occlusion Aspiration 76
Transcriptions Kinds of transcriptions There is no such thing as the transcription of a word. Strictly speaking, you can only transcribe how, for example, Kevin Russell uttered that word cat at 12:58:03 p.m. on January 15, 1997. You can transcribe that utterance as exactly as possible, within the limits of your hearing and the conventions provided by the IPA.
If you want to go beyond that, to try to describe how Kevin Russell pronounces the word in general, or further still to how English speakers pronounce it in general, then you have to start making abstractions -- you have to decide which details to include and which details to ignore. It's common to distinguish between two kinds of transcription, based on how many details the transcribers decide to ignore:
Narrow transcription: captures as many aspects of a specific pronunciation as possible and ignores as few details as possible. Using the diacritics provided in the IPA, it is possible to make very subtle distinctions between sounds.
Broad transcription (or phonemic transcription): ignores as many details as possible, capturing only enough aspects of a pronunciation to show how that word differs from other words in the language.
Suggestions/tricks for improving transcriptions Here are a few suggestions which some people have found helpful for getting more accurate broad transcriptions of English.
Pretend you're someone who can't spell (e.g., an advertising executive). How would you misspell this word if you wanted to deliberately misspell it? For example, you might misspell knight as night or nite -- which gives you some clues about which sounds are really there are which aren't.
Compare the word to other words whose transcriptions you're more certain of. If two words are homonyms, their transcriptions should be identical. If two words rhyme, their transcriptions should end the same way.
Decide how many sounds the word has and what the sounds sound like before you worry about which symbols to use for the sounds.
We read left to right -- there's no law you have to write that way. Don't feel you have to get the symbol for one sound perfect before you move to the next. If you know the first consonant and the last consonant but aren't sure of the vowel in the middle, get the consonants down on paper and worry about the vowel later.
When you're unsure of an individual sound, consider other words where that sound occurs. For example, if you're not sure what symbol to use for a vowel, what word would you get if you put that vowel between h_d or b_t?
Read your transcription back out loud. Make sure it says what you think it says.
When you read your transcription back out loud, pretend you're a very stupid computer who can't do anything more than play little sound clips one after the other. If the only thing that sounds strange about your reading is the pauses ([d ---- g]), then your transcription is probably right. If it sounds like the computer is trying to say a different word or a nonsense word ([d -- o -- g]), you'd better try again.
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Pay attention to what you're doing with your body. Often phoneticians who are trying to transcribe an unfamiliar sound will imitate the sound as closely as they can and then choose the symbol more on the basis of what they're doing with their vocal tract during the imitation than on what it sounds like. If it doesn't feel like an [n], if your tongue body is touching your soft palate rather than your tongue tip touching just behind your teeth, then it's not an [n].
Practise. Practise. Practise. Do the exercises in the manual. Get more textbooks. Do their exercises too. Do the exercises on the web page: http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/linguistics/russell/138/practice/pract1.htm http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/linguistics/russell/138/notes.htm Transcribe words in your head while waiting for the bus. Write your grocery lists in IPA. Write your diary in IPA. Read stories in IPA whenever you have insomnia.
Some common mistakes Square brackets Always use square brackets around your transcriptions in order to distinguish them from ordinary text.
Silent letters There's no such thing as an unpronounced symbol in a phonetic transcription.
[c] The IPA symbol [c] represents the sound you make with your tongue body hitting your hard palate. English doesn't use this sound. If you're ever tempted to use [c] in transcribing the speech of a normal English speaker, you're almost certainly wrong. ng, nk The sound usually spelled ng has the symbol []. You should not add a [g] unless there is actually a [g] pronounced -- does it sound more like singer or like finger? Clusters spelled nk (and often nc) also usually have this sound: [k].
J Remember: y is and j is [].
The A's Be careful not to confuse [] with [], [], [a] or [], switching one for the other can change the meaning of a word:
Capital letters Don't use capital letters where English spelling conventions do. The waiter Bill and the bill he brings you are pronounced identically and must have the same transcription. In IPA, smaller versions of the capital letters are often used for completely different sounds. Calling someone [BIl] is generally considered rude.
Unstressed vowels If an unstressed syllable has a neutral vowel, don't transcribe it with a full vowel because it's spelled that way; use a schwa instead.
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Transcription Exercises - English
1 Peas Peace Prize Price Ice Eyes 2 Rasie Race Lose Loose Choose Chose 3 Coast Code Root Rude Mate Made 4 Sight Sighed Throw Through Though Thought 5 Do Due Dew Do you? Frees Freeze 6 East Eased Bath Bathe Month Months 7 Close (adj.) Close (v.) Clothes Closes Clothes Cloth 8 Cents Sense Prints Hiccoughs Breath breathe breadth 9 As Jazz Gap Prince Rich Ridge 10 Jam Gem Box Guess Knot Myth 11 His Hiss Should Dumb Bomb Lamb 12 Witch Which Should Shock Thank Cup 13 Debt Doubt Wring Jug This These 14 Zinc Machine Passion Ocean Explosion Education 15 Seizure Leisure Casual Residual Delicious Situation 16 Intrusion Enthusiasm Manage Garage Issue Virtue 17 Language Genious Extinguish Visual Motto Paddy 18 Address (v.) Address (n.) Conduct (v.) Conduct (n) Present (v) Present (n)
Connected Speech Notice how the consonant sounds are linked to the vowel sounds that follow: He musthaveeatenallofAnn'soranges. She can'thaveaskedAl'saunt
I. Mark the linked words in these sentences 1. She must have eaten the cheese 2. You can't have seen him 3. He can't have arrived early 4. He might have gone out for a cup of coffee 5. She might have been angry 6. They can't have been in love 7. They might have written it down 8. He must have been to Africa
II. Say the sentences in phonetic script aloud. Notice the linked words 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
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Transcription of English Sentences 1. That ad is odd 22. Who's coming, please? 2. The cop had an interesting cap 23. Do you like it? 3. It's too hot for a hat 24. How much does it cost? 4. Take a stock out of the stack 25. Can't he understand that? 5. She sang a real old song 26. Would you like vegetables for lunch? 6. Almost all countries don't have enough oil 27. Please take a look at Luke 7. Roy would've eaten it raw 28. That fool is never full 8. Did he say jaw or joy? 29. Should a horse be shoed? 9. It's supposed to fall on the foil 30. Did you pull him into the pool? 10. She's gonna be leaving at seven 31. She stood and stewed in the kitchen 11. There'll probably be no class tonight 32. He just caught the cat 12. Holly's not feeling well today 33. The duck swam up to the dock 13. I'm just sick of it 34. The cat slept on the cot 14. I don't think she'll make it 35. Get out of here now! 15. They left for Washington at five 36. I need a break! 16. She's going to the dance tomorrow 37. What do you want? 17. He jumped into the pool with his boots on 38. Well, stop it this instant! 18. We hope it doesn't take so long 39. I said, come here. I meant right now 19. What's it all about? 40. Give me five pounds. Got any grapefruit 20. Why does it affect them so much? 21. When did you go?
Transcription Exercises - Spanish 1. Las aguas frías siguen creciendo y han cubierto toda la 22. ¿me podés llevar a la facultad? zona baja 23. me estás metiendo en un gran lío 2. Por eso falté tanto a clase 24. el viaje en ómnibus es muy cansador 3. Él es un sinvergüenza 25. yo creí que eso era recién mañana 4. El avión salió a las tres 26. salió un rato a la calle 5. Nos fuimos a despedirle al aeropuerto 27. eso no tiene nada que ver 6. Muchos no vinieron por la lluvia 28. ¿vas a estar en tu casa esta noche? 7. Salí de acá rápido 29. dame un fósforo por favor 8. Cuando tengas tiempo, pasá por casa 30. ¿viste lo que pasó? 9. Esta noche juega la selección contra Brasil 31. salí de aquí, rápidamente 10. No es que no quiera, pero no puedo 32. ¿se fueron Uds. para visitar a Alicia e Inés? 11. Mira un poco ese caballo 33. el Chaco y la Represa Itaipú proveerán un 12. ¿para qué te vas a ir? gran futuro para los paraguayos 13. acompañame al centro, por favor 34. ¿cómo es que llegaste a elegir esta carrera de 14. ahora estoy estudiando inglés? 15. ¿de dónde saliste con ese chisme? 35. cuando podés, pasá para salir con nosotros 16. le dije luego que no venga 36. ¿vas a estar estudiando todo el día mañana? 17. ¿por qué no me dijiste antes? 37. piensan viajar por Argentina y Chile 18. ayer estuve enferma, por eso no vine 38. Asunción es la capital del Paraguay 19. está lloviendo torrencialmente en todo el Chaco 39. Francia salió campeón en el mundial 20. ¿a qué hora va a llegar el avión? 40. Todavía no sabemos nada nuevo sobre los 21. Ella está muy influenciada por ese ambiente otros 80
ORAL TRACTS/FACIAL DIAGRAMS
Labio Inter Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal dental dental
Stops
Fricatives
Affricates
Nasals
Laterals
Retroflex
Glides
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Helpful Hints Journals You can submit late journal until October 15th. After that, I will not be getting them anymore Homework You need to submit homework on the day assigned. I do not admit such things as ―turning in late homework‖ Mini Research Project The following criteria will be taken into account for your mini research project presentation: Evaluation criteria for the oral presentation of the Mini-Research Project SECTION I: INTRODUCTION (Suggested Time: 1 to 2 minutes) 1. What is the topic (language, sound, context)? ______2. Why did you select this topic? Why was this topic sufficiently interesting or significant to be studied? ______3. What is the potential usefulness of researching this topic? ______4. For which research questions are you trying to find an answer? ______SECTION II: METHODOLOGY (suggested Time: 2 to 3 minutes) 5. Where? Describe the location, environment and place ______6. Who? Describe the subjects of this study: age, sex, grade at school, socio-economic level, rural/urban, etc. ______7. How? Explain the steps which you followed in carrying out this study. Explain how you gathered your data and how you went about analysing the data ______SECTION III: RESULTS (Suggested Time: 6 to 8 minutes) 8. Play one or more parts of the tape recording ______9. Have a poster with the phonemic/phonetic transcriptions and distribute a one-page handout to the class. ______10. Identify the allophonic variations related to the topic which were observed in these transcriptions. ______11. Explain the factors (phonological and sociological) which you think may have influenced these allophonic manifestations ______
SECTION IV: CONCLUSION (suggested Time: 1 to 2 minutes) 12. Briefly explain the most significant aspect of your results ______13. What answers did you find to your research question? ______14. How can this information help you in teaching English to Spanish-speaking students? ______
OTHER ASPECTS 15. Were there visual aids to accompany the presentation? ______16. Did the presentation take between 10 and 15 minutes? ______17. Was the presentation explained (and not read)? ______18. Did the presentation follow the above order? ______19. Was the presentation well organised and prepared? ______20. Did the presenters demonstrate an application of phonological concepts? Did they describe rather than prescribe? ______
Vowel sounds A vowel is a sound made by the vocal cords. Vowels are always voiced sounds. When we make vowels, the vocal cords are always vibrating; if they were not vibrating, we would not hear anything because no noise is made in the mouth. Remember to put your hand on your throat; you should always be able to feel the vibration when you make a vowel.
Remember that forthe tongue is high and to the front, forthe tongue is not so high and not so near the front, but it is still high and to the front of the mouth 82
Front Vowels: meet Mighty mitt met mat
Central Vowels: Brit Am away Early lock lock heart
Back Vowels: blue situation should short blood
Diphthongs are made up of two vowels pronounced one after the other, in the same syllable. When you say the two vowel sounds of the diphthong they must be said very closely together and with a smooth movement between them. This movement is called a ‗glide‘.
Interesting Facts! Uvular R In linguistics, uvular R (also guttural R, throaty R or French R) refers to pronunciation of the phoneme R as a uvular consonant. These consonants are usually found as a uvular trill (IPA /ʀ/), a voiced uvular fricative (IPA /ʁ/), or a voiceless uvular fricative (IPA ). Speakers of some languages regard alveolar and uvular to be alternative pronunciations of the same phoneme. This is remarkable in light of how different these sounds are in terms of their articulation.
French The French language is perhaps the most well-known example of a uvular R language, to the extent that this pronunciation is widely stereotyped. In the standard dialect of Paris, it is pronounced as a trill (IPA /ʀ/), while in most of the rest of France it is pronounced as a voiced (IPA /ʁ/) or voiceless (IPA /χ/) uvular fricative. However, in much of southern France /r/ remains non-uvular, possibly under Provencal influence.
The nearby Breton language in Bretagne, which is not a Romance language but is heavily influenced by French, retains an alveolar R.
Portuguese Portuguese has three distinct pronunciations for "r". One of these is uvular, the other two being voiced alveolar tap and alveolar trill. All three sounds are widely used. The uvular R occurs when a word starts with "r", like "rato" (mouse; IPA /ʁatu/). It is also applied in the middle of a word, written has "rr", such as, "carro" (car; IPA /kɑʁu/).
Arabic While most dialects of Arabic retain the Classical pronunciation of rā as an alveolar trill (IPA /r/) or flap in some cases (IPA /ɾ/), several dialects convert it to a uvular trill (IPA /ʀ/). These include: Mosul dialect, in Iraq; The Christian dialect in Baghdad; The Jewish dialect in Algiers
Hebrew In Hebrew, the classical pronunciation of the consonant ― ‖ (rê) was an alveolar flap (IPA /ɾ/), and was grammatically treated as an ungeminable phoneme of the language. In most dialects of Hebrew among the Jewish Diaspora, it remained a flap or a trill (IPA /r/). However, the Ashkenazi dialects as preserved among Jews in northern Europe carried a uvular R, either as a trill (IPA /ʀ/) or fricative (IPA /ʁ/). This was because their native dialects of Yiddish were spoken that way, and their liturgical Hebrew carried the same pronunciation.
Israeli Hebrew 83
Many Jewish immigrants to Israel spoke Arabic in their countries of origin, and pronounced Hebrew R as an alveolar trill identical to Arabic rā. Under pressure to integrate, many of them compensated by pronouncing their Hebrew R as Arabic ġayn, which is itself usually pronounced as a voiced uvular fricative.
Phonetics Phonetics is the study of human speech sounds. Phonetics is divided into three branches: Articulatory phonetics The study of how speech sounds are produced by the human vocal apparatus. Acoustic phonetics The study of the sound waves made by the human vocal organs for communication. Auditory phonetics The study of how speech sounds are perceived by the ear, auditory nerve, and brain.
Allophone An allophone is a phonetic variant of a phoneme in a particular language. Here are some examples of allophones in English: . [p] and [p] are allophones of the phoneme /p/. . [t] and [t] are allophones of the phoneme /t/. Here are some examples of allophones in Spanish: [b] and [b] are allophones of the phoneme /b/. [d] and [] are allophones of the phoneme /d/.
Phoneme A phoneme is the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language. Phonologists have differing views of the phoneme. Following are the two major views considered here: In the American structuralist tradition, a phoneme is defined according to its allophones and environments. In the generative tradition, a phoneme is defined as a set of distinctive features.
Example (Minimal pair: English) Here is an example of the phonemes and occurring in a minimal pair. rip lip The phones and contrast in identical environments and are considered to be separate phonemes. The phonemes and serve to distinguish the word rip from the word lip.
A(n allo)phone is… A phoneme is… One of many possible sounds in the languages of A contrastive unit in the sound system of a the world. particular language. The smallest identifiable unit found in a stream of A minimal unit that serves to distinguish between speech. meanings of words. Pronounced in a defined way. Pronounced in one or more ways, depending on the number of allophones. Represented between brackets by convention. Represented between slashes by convention. Example: , , Example: , ,
Minimal Pair A minimal pair is two words that differ in only one sound. Here is an example of a minimal pair in English: Sounds which differ: /p/ and /b/ [lp] 'lap' [lb] 'lab' 84
Here is an example of a minimal pair in Cashinahua: Sounds which differ: /t/ and /d/ [taka] 'liver' [daka] 'to rest' Transcriptions Transcription is the representation of the source script of a language in the target script in a manner that reflects the pronunciation of the original, often ignoring graphemic (character-to-character) correspondence. This can be a phonetic transcription, which uses a phonetic alphabet such as IPA to represent the actual speech sounds of the source language (including allophones), or a phonemic transcription, which uses scientific or conventional orthography to represents the phonemes of the source language (ignoring allophones), such as in the romanization of Arabic or Japanese.
Using our example of Bin Ladin, in Arabic this is actually pronounced [bin ladin], and the transcription Bin Ladin reflects this rather accurately, whereas such variants as Bin Laden and Ben Laden do not. As is well known, Arabic is normally written without vowel signs and thus there is no direct way to know the vowels associated with each consonant. With the vowel signs, Bin Ladin is written as follows:
You should notice several diacritics above and below some letters which indicate vowels. For example, under the letter dal ( ) there is a diagonal line that indicates that the consonant + vowel combination is pronounced [di]. As can be seen, phonemic transcription, which represents the phonemes of the source language, is extremely difficult to achieve in Arabic because the vowel information is missing in normal unvoweled Arabic
Difference between phonetics and phonology Phonetics simply describes the Articulatory and acoustic properties of phones (speech sounds). Phonology studies how sounds interact as a system in a particular language. Stated another way, phonetics studies which sounds are present in a language; phonology studies how these sounds combine and how they change in combination, as well as which sounds can contrast to produce differences in meaning (phonology describes the phones as allophones of phonemes).
Redundant and contrastive features Every language consists of speech sounds called phones. These different sounds do not all have the same status in the system of English phonology. The occurrence of certain phonetic features is entirely predictable, as is the case in English with voicing in sonorants, nasality of vowels, or length in vowels. Features whose presence is entirely predictable based on the phonetic environment are called redundant phonetic features: give example of the three English p's. Contrasts involving a redundant feature cannot be used to signal a change in meaning. Adding or removing a redundant, predictable feature results merely in a mispronunciation, not in a new meaning: cf. interchanging the different p's of English. In a broad phonetic transcription, redundant features can be ignored, and only the elements of pronunciation that are important for distinguishing meaning listed.
The occurrence of other sounds and features in a particular language is not predictable based on phonetic context. In English, for example, voicing in obstruents is never predictable: pat/bat/ tip/dip/ girl/curl; the contrast between fricatives and stops is also not predictable: send/tend. Or the difference between central and lateral in liquids: red/led; ball/bar. Such features are called distinctive, or contrastive, phonetic features, Phonetic features whose presence or absence can alter meaning are called phonemic features. The presence of a phonemic feature is not predictable according to phonetic context. Adding or subtracting a phonemic feature normally results in a change of meaning as well as in a change in pronunciation.
Complementary and contrastive distribution Phonetic features that are redundant in one language can be phonemic in the other. The two phones and are present in English and Korean but play an entirely different phonological role in each language. They are phonemically different in English, always signalling a difference in meaning: list/wrist war/wall. In Korean, is word initial and is syllable final: "rupi" = ruby; "mul" = water. The two sounds never contrast to produce a difference in meaning. In English the two sounds are in contrastive distribution; in Korean they are in complementary distribution. Similarly, features that are redundant in English may be phonemic in another language: aspiration in English and 85
h h h Mandarin Chinese: k a:n (to see) vs. ka:n (trunk, stem); t a (pagoda) vs. ta (beat, strike); p ng (a sound) vs. png (soldiers, army).
Phonemic analysis How does a linguist determine which phonetic features in a given language are phonemic and which are not?
First, a phonetic inventory of speech sounds must be carried out. One needs to determine which speech sounds are present in a particular language in the first place. A linguist studying English for the first time, for instance, will soon discover that English has aspirated p, unaspirated p and non-released p, but no glottalized p, implosive p, or pharygealized p. The first stage of phonological analysis simply involves an exhaustive phonetic analysis.
Second, having determined which speech sounds occur in a particular language, the linguist must determine whether or not the phonetic difference between these sounds is redundant or phonemic. Phonology is concerned with determining which speech sounds contrast with one another to produce differences in meaning and which speech sounds are in complementary distribution and never produce meaningful contrasts. To find which sounds are redundant and which are phonemic, linguists usually try to find a pair of words with different meanings that differ formally by only a single sound. A pair of words which are distinguished by a difference in only one sound is called a minimal pair: pit/sit cat/cought; law/raw. In the case of a minimal pair, the two contrasting sounds are obviously capable of distinguishing meaning, so the difference between them is phonemic. The linguist will find that some speech sounds in a given language help form many minimal pairs, others only a few. The number of minimal pairs involving a particular sound is called the functional yield of that sound. There are 429 minimal pairs involving English sound [d] and only 32 involving []. Some sounds contrast directly with one another in only a few minimal pairs: ether/either, thigh/thy, dilution/delusion, Confucian/ confusion.
A third phase of phonological analysis is to try to remove from consideration all redundant phonetic features and focus only on the distinctive, phonemic features. The most widely employed means of accomplishing this is to group together all the sounds that actually occur in a language into contrastive sets called phonemes. For example, sounds which are in complementary distribution, such as the English sounds p, ph, non-released p, are treated as a single phonological unit, or phoneme, their redundant phonetic differences ignored. The actual phones that act as positional variants of one and the same phoneme are called allophones of that phoneme; thus, the three English p's are allophones of a single phoneme. The phoneme is an abstract unit. We don't hear or pronounce the phonemes of a language; we hear and pronounce their allophones.
The question then arises as to how to symbolise such an abstraction as the phoneme that is manifested as the three English p's. Since there are two ways of looking at the sound system of language: one phonetic and the other phonemic, there are also two types of transcriptions. The one we have been using up till now is a narrow transcription intended to portray as much phonetic information as possible. This type is called phonetic transcription and is enclosed in square brackets. The same IPA symbols can be used in phonetic transcription to transcribe any language of the world. Thus the phonetic symbol represents the same sound in English and Korean.
The other type of transcription is called phonemic transcription and is enclosed in slanted brackets. Phonemic transcription ignores any redundant phonetic detail in a language and only portrays the distinctive and meaningful phonetic differences. Phonemic transcription represents phonemes, not the sounds as they are actually spoken.
Choosing phonemic symbols What symbol is chosen from among the phonetic symbols for the individual allophones is up to the linguist performing the phonological analysis and depends on several factors. Some phonemes have the same or nearly the same pronunciation in every phonetic environment, as is true of English [s], [m]. In such cases, the symbol for the phone can also be used as the symbol for the phoneme. If there is only one surface manifestation of a phoneme, then the phonetic symbol for that sound becomes the phonemic symbol, as well. If a phoneme is composed of several phonetically distinct allophones, however, then any of the following may be done:
a.) diacritics are removed from allophone symbols, simplifying the sound. b.) the phonetic symbol for one of the allophones may be co-opted to stand for all the allophones (caret instead of schwa, or instead of ) c.) the most common letter of the alphabet is chosen (t/) 86
d.) some compromise letter is chosen, perhaps not even a symbol from the phonetic alphabet (capital R for l/r in Korean). Although now we have this symbol to represent the l/r sound in Korean.
Obviously, the process of choosing a phonemic symbol is somewhat arbitrary and up to whatever linguist is performing the analysis. Phonemic symbols are a type of phonetic shorthand that with specific value for one and only a single language; they are not universal like the symbols of the phonetic alphabet.
Thus, the value of symbols used in phonemic transcription is idiosyncratic and differs from language to language. Phonemic transcription depends upon the interrelationship of sounds in each particular language, whereas phonetic transcription depends simply on the pronunciation of each individual sound regardless of its function in the sound system of the given language. A phonetic symbol stands for one and the same sound regardless of language, but a phonemic symbol often stands for any one of several actual sounds. For example, the phonetic symbol stands for the same sound in the phonetic transcription of English and Korean. A phonemic symbol such as usually stands for quite different collections of sounds in different languages.
English, for example, has a phoneme that could be represented as with two different separate surface manifestation: velarized or non-velarized l; In phonetic transcription these two l-sounds would be written each with their own separate symbol. In phonemic transcription they would both be written with the same symbol .
In Korean the phonemic symbol would represent the allophones and . Remember that phonetic transcription, enclosed in square brackets, attempts to express as much phonetic detail as possible, redundant or otherwise; phonemic transcription does not mark redundant features, but rather is intended to represent only those phonetic details of a given language that are distinctive. Phonemic transcription, therefore, uses phonetic symbols in a way unique to each particular language. The phonemic symbols chosen in your handout are essentially the same sounds used in phonetic transcription minus the diacritical marks.
SYLLABLES, VOWELS, AND SYLLABIC CONSONANTS One of the definitions of the vowel specifies that it is the "nucleus of the syllable." That means that a vowel is the one essential element of the syllable. In other words, however many consonants a syllable may have (from zero to n) it will have one, and only one, vowel. Some syllables have only one vowel (diphtong) sound: OWE [] Some have the structure CV: PAY [] Some have the structure CCVC: CLOSE [] etc.
Listen to the second syllable, however, in a word like DAYTON or CERTAIN. Each has two syllables, but in normal (moderate or fast speech) pronunciation, the exact nature of the vowel in the second syllable is unclear--it doesn't actually seem to exist. Both syllables sound like *[tn]. But we just said that the vowel is the nucleus of every syllable; so a vowel has to be present in some form.
One solution is to allow for certain consonants to function as "syllabic consonants." A syllabic consonant is a consonant which functions like a vowel in that it can be the nucleus of a syllable. One way of understanding this is to imagine that a vowel has been reduced past the point of being a "schwa" to where it has no independent identity at all. It has been blended with or swallowed up by the consonant after it. This is true of the second syllable in DAYTON.
It is possible to articulate the word slowly and actually say [], where the is released into the [] which is followed by the [n]. But in normal pronunciation, there is no "space" between the [t] and the [n]. We show this when we make the [n] a syllabic consonant, represented as [n]. The very small line under the phonetic symbol represents the vowel which is a part of the syllabic consonant. Here are the four syllabic consonants, with a few examples of their use:
syllabic as in MADAME [ or COLUMN [ syllabic as in CERTAIN [ or LEMON [ syllabic as in LITTLE [ or CAVALRY [ 87
syllabic as in EAGER [ or PERNICIOUS [
Remember that there are only these four syllabic consonants, and that each represents a reduced vowel followed by the consonant. Because this is true, an alternative representation of each would be schwa plus the consonant. In other words:
is the same as [m] is the same as [n] is the same as [l], and is the same as [ ]
Suprasegmental features (Length [duration], tone, intonation, pitch, juncture, stress)
Word Stress Mark the word stress to highlight the difference in meaning from the following lexical items. Example: Pervert (noun) → → my neighbour is a pervert Pervert (verb) → → don't pervert the idea
Record (n) → → I bought a new record Record (v) → → He recorded more than 150 cds
Subject (n) → → let's change the subject Subject (v) → → he'll subject us to criticism
Produce (n) → → It says on the bottle 'produce of France' Produce (v) → → America has produced more cars than ever this year
desert (n) → → Somalia is mostly desert desert (v) → → He deserted his wife and went abroad
process (n) → → We're in the process of selling our house process (v) → → The priests processed slowly through the Cathedral
STRESS In English, stress affects the way we pronounce words, and therefore must be taken into account in any phonetic transcription system. The main effect (for our purposes) will be on vowels, an effect known as "vowel reduction." Words of one syllable, as far as we are concerned, will all have primary stress. (In real speech there is a broad class of exceptions, but we will ignore the exceptions for now.) So each one-syllable word will be transcribed simply as pronounced. For example, CAST [ SINCE [
In words of two or more syllables, however, we will have only one syllable with primary stress, and one (or more) unstressed syllables. Other syllables may have some stress, but not as much as the primary-stressed syllable; this is called secondary stress. Syllables with primary or secondary stress will all contain full vowels, as in the words above. But vowels in an unstressed syllable may undergo "vowel reduction." The result is the reduced vowel, for 88 which we use the phonetic symbol "schwa" []. For example,
AGÁIN [ MÁGNIFY [ TÚNDRA [] SUPPÓSE [
Notice that in the first syllable of "tundra" we use the "caret" [] to symbolise the full vowel in mid central lax position, while the similar-sounding but shorter "schwa" [] is used in the second syllable to symbolise the reduced vowel. Not all unstressed vowels are necessarily reduced. In words like "ÓNLY" [] and in most compound words ("mixup") an unstressed vowel is still full. But MOST OF THE TIME, THE UNSTRESSED VOWEL WILL REDUCE TO SCHWA. When I give you words of two or more syllables to transcribe, I will indicate stress.
Practice Transcribe the following words. Make sure you give them normal pronunciation:
AMÚSE COMMÁND PÁLACE FACÁDE PÚNISH CÓTTAGE 89
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