Discussion Section 5 October 7, 2011

To do list: • Go to Kyle’s website (http://courses.umass.edu/kbj/ling201/201.html) and download the Feature Chart and the Guide to Distinctive Features.

• Learn all of the features. You will need to know what features which sounds have in order to complete the phonology problems on your next assignments and on you midterm (October 17).

o Phonological rules manipulate features.

Definitions:

• Allophone: Phones created by application of a rule to another sound (a phoneme).

• Phoneme: Phones not created by application of a rule.

• Minimal pair: Two words with distinct meanings that differ by only one segment found in the same position in each form.

1.) Minimal Pairs

initial position final position a. [p] and [b] pie [paɪ] buy [baɪ] lap [læp] lab [læb] b. [t] and [d] toll [towl] dole [dowl] late [leɪt] laid [leɪd] c. [θ] and [t] through [θɹuw] true [tɹuw] with [wɪθ] wit [wɪt] d. [l] and [r] late [leɪt] rate [ɹeɪt] stall [stɑl] star [stɑɹ]

• What do you know about [p], [b], [t], [d], [θ], [l], and [r] in English?

⇒ They are all phonemes in English.

⇒ If you can find minimal pairs for two sounds, that means that there is no possible rule that could have applied to turn one sound into the other. In other words, these two sounds are both phonemes.

1 2.) Phonology Practice Problem 1: Finnish

The following words show the distribution of voiceless and voiced (non-nasal) alveolar stops in Finnish ([t], [d], [s], [z]). ([VV] represents a long vowel.) a. [kuuzi] ‘six’ b. [kadot] ‘failures’ c. [kate] ‘cover’ d. [liisa] ‘Lisa’ e. [maton] ‘of a rug’ f. [kade] ‘envious’ g. [ratas] ‘wheel’ h. [kuusi] ‘sixty’ i. [radan] ‘of a track’

Goal: Figure out whether [t] / [s] and [d] / [z] are unique phonemes, or whether one pair are allophones of the other.

First step: Are there minimal pairs involving the segments [t] and [d]?

Yes. [kuuzi] and [kuusi] [kate] and [kade]

Because there are minimal pairs, we know that /t/, /d/, /s/, and /z/ are all unique phonemes.

3.) Phonology Practice Problem 2: Italian

The following words show the distribution of nasal consonants [n] and [ŋ] in Italian.

a. [tinta] ‘dye’ g. [tiŋɡo] ‘I dye’ b. [tenda] ‘tent’ h. [tɛŋɡo] ‘I keep’ c. [dansa] ‘dance’ i. [fuŋɡo] ‘mushroom’ d. [nero] ‘back’ j. [blaŋka] ‘white’ e. [dʒɛnte] ‘people’ k. [aŋke] ‘also’ f. [sapone] ‘soap’ l. [faŋɡo] ‘mud’

2 Goal: Figure out whether [n] and [ŋ] are unique phonemes or whether one ([n] or [ŋ]) is an allophone of the other.

First step: Are there minimal pairs involving the segments [n] and [ŋ]?

Note: [tiŋɡo] and [tɛŋɡo] are not a minimal pair: the vowels [i] and [ɛ] are different.

⇒ No. This shows us that either [n] or [ŋ] is an allophone of the other sound.

Second step: What is the distribution of [n] and [ŋ] in the list of words above? Make a table with one column for [n] and one column for [ŋ]. Write down the sound that comes before [n] or [ŋ], and the sound that follows [n] or [ŋ]. Put a line to represent where [n] or [ŋ] goes. # represents the edge of a word.

[n] [ŋ] a. i___t g. i___g b. ɛ___d h. ɛ___g c. a___s i. u___g d. #___e j. a___k e. ɛ___t k. a___k f. o___e l. a___g

Third step: Decide whether [n] is an allophone of [ŋ], or vice versa.

How to do this: Look at the table and try to the simplest descriptive statement possible to describe where [n] and [ŋ] occur.

• In the problems we give you, one sound will occur in a clearly simpler environment than the other sound. [n] occurs after [i, ɛ, a, #, o] [ŋ] occurs after [i, ɛ, u, a]

[n] occurs before [t, d, s, e] [ŋ] occurs before [ɡ, k]

Statement: “In Italian, [ŋ] occurs before a velar stop and [n] occurs elsewhere.”

• The simplest statement says what rule (following velar stop) gives you [ŋ]. That means that [ŋ] is most plausibly the allophone (it is created from /n/ by an application of a rule).

3 Bad statements: o “In Italian, [ŋ] occurs after vowels and [n] occurs elsewhere.” Factually incorrect.

o “In Italian, only [n] occurs at the beginning of the word.” Factually correct but doesn’t capture all the data. [n] occurs in other environments, too.

o “In Italian, [ŋ] occurs after a vowel and before a velar consonant, and [n] occurs elsewhere.” True but unnecessarily complicated. The inclusion of “after a vowel” isn’t informative because this doesn’t distinguish between [n] and [ŋ]. Both can occur after vowels.

o “In Italian, [n] occurs before an alveolar consonant or a vowel, and [ŋ] occurs elsewhere.” True, but more complicated than the best statement. Plus, both [n] and [ŋ] can occur before vowels so that part of the statement isn’t useful.

o “In Italian, [ŋ] occurs before [k] or [ɡ] and [n] occurs elsewhere.” True but we miss a generalization: [k] and [ɡ] are similar sounds (they are both “velar stops”).

Fourth step: Write a rule with features that accounts for the descriptive statement that you made above.

• First think about this: What features characterize the phoneme /n/ and the allophone [ŋ]? What feature(s) differentiate them?

/n/ : /+consonantal, +nasal, +sonorant, -labial, -back/ [ŋ] : [+nasal, +back]

/n/ is different from [ŋ] because /n/ is /-back/ and [ŋ] is [+back].

• Then think about this: What features characterize both [k] and [ɡ]?

[k], [ɡ] : [-continuant, +back]

• Then do this: Put your rule together in the following format:

When /phoneme/ {precedes, follows, comes in between} [environment], then /phoneme/  [allophone]

When /+consonantal, +nasal, +sonorant, -labial, -back/ follows [-continuant, +back],

then /+consonantal, +nasal, +sonorant, -labial, -back/  [+back]

4 4.) Phonology Practice Problem 2: Gascon

The following list show the distribution of [b] / [d] and [β] / [ð] in Gascon.

a. [bux] ‘you’ h. [aβe] ‘to have’ b. [bako] ‘cow’ i. [alaβets] ‘then, well’ c. [umbro] ‘shadow’ j. [saliβo] ‘saliva’ d. [bren] ‘endanger’ k. [noβi] ‘husband’ e. [dilus] ‘Monday’ l. [buðet] ‘gut’ f. [diŋko] ‘until’ m. [eʃaðo] ‘hoe’ g. [duso] ‘sweet’

Goal: Figure out whether [b] / [d] and [β] / [ð] are unique phonemes or whether one pair of sounds are allophones of the other.

First step: Are there minimal pairs in the list above?

No. This tells us that one pair of sounds is allophones of the other.

Second step: What is the distribution of [b] / [d] and [β] / [ð]?

[b], [d] [β], [ð] #__u a__e #__a a__e m__r i__o #__r o__i #__i u__e #__u a__o

5 Third step: Decide whether [b] / [d] are allophones of [β] / [ð], or vice versa.

Statement: “In Gascon, [β] and [ð] occur between vowels. [b] and [d] occur elsewhere.”

• The simplest statement says what rule (occurs between vowels) gives you [β] and [ð]. That means that [β] and [ð] are allophones of [b] and [d], respectively.

Fourth step: Write a rule with features that accounts for the descriptive statement that you made above.

• First think about this: What features collectively characterize the phonemes /b/ and /d/, and what features collectively characterize the allophones [β] and [ð]. the allophone [ŋ]? What feature(s) differentiate them?

/b/, /d/ : /+consonantal, +voice, -nasal, -continuant/ [β], [ð] : [+consonantal, +voice, -nasal +continuant]

/b/, /d/ are different from [β], [ð] because the former are /-continuant/ and the latter are [+continuant].

• Then think about this: What is the environment?

[vowels] : [+vocalic]

• Then do this: Put your rule together in the following format:

When /phoneme/ {precedes, follows, comes in between} [environment], then /phoneme/  [allophone]

When /+consonantal, +voice, -nasal, -continuant/ comes in between [+vocalic] and [+vocalic], then /+consonantal, +voice, -nasal, -continuant/  [+continuant]

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