Phonology - The Zapotec Language Page

English 401 Course Packet

Phonology

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Phonological Features

The Manners and Places of Articulation that we have discussed for describing consonants are part of a system of phonetic features, the smallest units of analysis of phonological structure. That is, for each articulator, point of articulation, and manner, we can say that if it is involved (+) in the articulation of a sound or not (-). Another way to think about features: if we consider individual sounds to be the phonetic atoms of language, then features are their subatomic particles, which combine together to form these atoms. So, the sound [k], a phonetic atom, is produced by blocking the air flow in the mouth at the velum, and blocking air through the nose, and the vocal cords are kept apart and no voicing is produced. In short hand then [k] is [+stop], [+velum], [-nasal] and [-voice].

Each Manner and Place of Articulation can serve as a feature, as can voicing ([+voice], [-voice]). Vowel articulations also serve as features: hi, low, back, rounded, tense. In addition, we will need a few additional features: Obstruents ([-sonorant]): Stops, affricates and fricatives. These sounds create a

significant impediment to the airflow, such that little air (as with fricatives and affricates) or no air (in the case of oral stops) comes out during the articulation of these sounds.

Sonorants ([+sonorant]): nasals, liquids, glides, vowels. The sounds do not create a significant blockage of the airflow during the articulation of the sounds.

sibilants [+sibilant]: contain a high-frequency, [s] like sound. In English this includes

[s], [z], [S], [Z], [tS] and [dZ]. non-sibilants [-sibilant]: do not contain such a sound. All other English sounds are non-

sibilant. Consonant [-syllabic]: This is familiar from traditional usage. Consonants are sounds

that cannot stand alone as syllables, but must always have an accompanying vowel.

Vowel [+syllabic]: Vowels form the hearts of syllables. Every syllable must have one and only one vowel.

There are many more features which we will not be concerned with in this class, though you may see them referred to in a textbook. Additionally, many linguists/theoreticians disagree over exact features and are always trying to reduce features to the minimal number necessary. As a result, some of the features we will be using, like fricative are reduced to being expressed as a combination of two (or more) other features. In this class, we are not so concerned about such details and will deal mainly with the most productive and useful features in English to get an idea of their uses and importance. Features allow sounds to be grouped into natural classes. Natural classes are groups of sounds that can be characterized by one or more features such that the features

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characterize those sounds and only those sounds. For example, the sounds [b d g d v z ] form the natural class in English of voiced obstruents ([+voice, -sonorant]). All of these sounds have both these properties and no other sounds have both. (An important note: in defining natural classes, it is most helpful to just give the minimum number of features necessary to define the class. The sounds may have other features in common but if they do not actually exclude any other sounds, they are less helpful to mention. For example, the sounds above are also all [-syllabic], but this feature doesn't exclude any sounds not already excluded by the [-sonorant] features.) Natural classes are very important because linguists have observed that these groups of sound often behave alike. For example, we have seen that the natural class of long vowels in Middle English all underwent the Great Vowel Shift. Similarly, we have mentioned that the class of alveolar stops ([t, d]) shares a variant [] pronunciation. We will see many other such examples.

Not all groupings of sounds in a language will produce a natural class. The sounds [k] and [m] do not form a complete natural class in English. The only features they have in common are shared by a variety of other sounds. Compare their features given below: [k]: [velar], [stop], [-voice], [-nasal], [-sonorant], [-sibilant], [-syllabic] [m]: [bilabial], [nasal], [+voice], [+sonorant], [-sibilant], [-syllabic] The only features they have in common are [-sibilant] and [-syllabic]. However, many other sounds also share these features, such as [p t g f v h n l r] etc. Therefore, [k] and [m] do not form a natural class in English. It is possible they would in another language if they were the only two non-sibilant consonants in the language, though this is exceedingly unlikely. To find the natural class, list the features and values of each sound in the group, as I did for [k] and [m] above. The natural class will be defined by those features for which the sounds all have the same value [+/-]. As noted above those, you should then reduce the features to only the minimal number necessary to define the group.

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1. List the members of the following natural classes of English sounds. a ________________________________________ voiced obstruents

b ________________________________________ sibilant fricatives

c ________________________________________ front vowels

d ________________________________________ mid vowels

e ________________________________________ bilabial sonorants

f ________________________________________ voiceless obstruents

g ________________________________________ glottals

h ________________________________________ labiodental fricatives

2. Describe the following natural classes of English sounds. a ________________________________________ [p, t, k, /, tS, f, θ, s, S, h]

b ________________________________________ [m, n, N, l, r]

c ________________________________________ [b, d, g, d, v, , z, , m, n, N, l, r, w, j]

d ________________________________________ [m, n, N, l, r, w, j]

e ________________________________________ [l, r, w, j]

f ________________________________________ [uw, U, ow, ç, çj]

g ________________________________________ [b, d, g]

h ________________________________________ [t, d, s, z, n, l]

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Phonotactics Introduction Phonology is the sound system of a language, including the knowledge of which sounds are in a language, and how they pattern and can be grouped together. Phonology is also the study of these sound systems. Part of the (unconscious) knowledge of language that a speaker has is what sounds are in his or her language. A speaker of English, for example, knows that [T], [N], and [Q] are part of the sound system of English. They also know that bilabial clicks [á], voiced uvular implosives [©] and voiced bilabial trills [ı] are not sounds in their language although they may make these noises when calling a dog to them [á], gulping in fear [©] or doing their impression of a motor boat [ı]. These sounds are not combined to form words in English. Speakers also know the phonotactics of their language—the part of phonology dealing with how the sounds of their language may be combined to form words. English speakers know that [p] and [k] may be combined with [r] and [l] at the beginning of a word, such as pray, play, clay, and crayon, however, [t] can only be combined with [r] at the beginning of a word and not [l]. tray but not *tlay. Although they know that it is not the case that the sequence [tl] can never occur in English, as shown by the word Atlantic. These sounds just cannot be at beginning of syllable together. So, speakers also have a knowledge about syllables and how they are formed in their language. A syllable is a phonological unit (and does not necessarily have a meaning associated with it). Every syllable contains a nucleus, which is the part of the syllable that has the greatest acoustic energy. In English, the nucleus is usually a vowel, although it can also be a liquid or a nasal. So, for example, second syllable in little and kitten do not have a vocalic nucleus, but are in fact, produced with a syllabic [l] and syllabic [n] respectively (although we may continue to transcribe these words with a [´] in the second syllable. In saying the words, you can feel that your tongue doesn't leave the roof of your mouth between the [t] and [l] or [n] to form a vowel, but maintains contact throughout the second syllable. A nucleus may be preceded by one or more consonant speech sounds (phonemes) which form the onset of the syllable. The nucleus may also be followed by one or more consonant speech sounds (phonemes) which form the coda of the syllable. The nucleus and coda together form the rime of the syllable. It is called this because words are perceived as rhyming if they contain identical final rimes, that is, if their last syllables have identical nuclei and codas. The word Atlantic has the following hierarchical syllabic structure:

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word σ σ σ rime rime rime nucleus coda onset nucleus coda onset nucleus coda [ Q t l Q n t I k ] This hierarchy can explain why Atlantic has an allowable [tl] sequence but *tlay cannot. [tl] is not a possible onset in English, but [t] is perfect acceptable coda and [l] is a fine onset in English. When syllables containing these elements are put together, the [tl] sequence is derived. To indicate syllable boundaries in transcriptions we may use [.] between syllables, thus [Qt.lQn.tIk]. Syllables are also the domain of stress assignment in English. We can mark primary stress—the syllable in the word with the greatest stress—by placing ['] before the syllable (although after [.]). Likewise, on syllables which are stressed but not as much as the primary stress syllable, we can place ["] before them. These syllables are said to have secondary stress. Thus, marking syllables and stress we have ["Qt.'lQn.tIk]. The sequences that are allowed as onsets are not necessarily the same as what is allowed in the coda. English allows a wide variety of quite complex codas that are not possible onsets, such as [sIksTs] sixths. Psychological Reality of parts of syllables: Rhymes Pig Latin Yinglish, 'fancy-schmancy'

Knowledge of phonology also allows a speaker to recognize a possible word of their language, even if in fact it does not exist, such as blicks, wugs, and tibbers. These possible but non-occurring words are referred to as accidental gaps in the vocabulary, because they are not excluded by any phonological rule of the language. What constitutes an allowable onset, coda or nucleus, of course, varies from language to language. Hawaiian and other Polynesian languages such as Samoan and Tahitian only allow syllables of the form CV or V. Thus, they tend to have words like ama, inoa, moe, a/e, lua, lama, kuli 'outrigger, name, to sleep, up, two, torch, knee'. CV is the most common syllable type across languages.

Other languages allow much more complex codas and onsets than English. Lakhota tends toward rather complex onsets, while restricting its codas to at most one

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(sonorant) consonant. Lakhota allows onsets not permitted in English such as in ['psi.c Ùa.la] 'flea' and [pte.'pte.c Ùe.la] 'short (pl).'

Other languages such as some of the Salish languages of the Pacific Northwest

and Berber languages of North Africa allow a wider range of nuclei including stops! Structure of Syllables: syllable(σ) 3 onset rime 3 nucleus coda Heavy syllable = the rime contains a coda and/or a heavy nucleus (usually a long vowel or perhaps a diphthong, though diphthongs may be light). A long vowel is represented by writing a [:] after it, so [i:] is a long vowel, while [i] is short. Light syllable = the rime contains only a light nucleus Different Languages allow different kinds of syllables. There may be various constraints on syllables, not only on how many consonants may be allowed in the onset or coda, but what class of sounds they may be as well. Hawaiian allows only V, CV, V:, CV: V: [a:] 'jaw' CV [ka] 'of'

[mo.ku] 'cut' CV: [hu:.na:] 'hide' Guugu Yimidhirr (an Aborignal language of Australia) allows these syllable types plus CVC and CV:C, provided the coda consonant is [+sonorant]: CV [bu.bu] 'country' CV: [wu:.ri:] 'dance' CVC [war.bi] 'axe' [wu:.gul] 'flea' [gun.dil] 'egg' CV:C [du.wa:r] 'black palm'

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English and Russian allow even more complex syllable types, containing multiple consonants in onset and coda position: English CVCC [lQst] 'last' CCVCC [graJnd] 'grind' CCCVC [straN] 'strong' CVCCCC [krps] 'corpse' CCCVCCC [strQndz] 'strands'

note that to get CCC or CCCC codas in English the word must be morphologically complex.

Russian CCVC [stol] 'table' CVCC [most] 'bridge' CCCV [gdje] 'where' CCCVC [vzvot] 'platoon' Thompson River Salish (a Native language of British Columbia, Cananda) has even more complex syllable types: CVCC [tSukw] 'finish' [wikt.ne] 'I see (it)' CVCCC [pupn/] 'find' CCCCVC [sntS/ew.ne] 'I am/was washing (it)' Fitting words into the phonotactics of a language: Hawaiian has a very small phoneme inventory with the following consonants bilabial alveolar velar glottal vls stop p k / fricatives h nasal m n liquid l glide (w) (w) plus five vowels: i u o E a

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As noted above the following syllable shapes are allowed: V, V:, CV, CV:. So, when borrowing words into the language, they must often go through vast modifications to fit the phonotactics: Consider mele kalikimaka 'Merry Christmas' Japanese has similar restrictions on syllable shapes though it allows nasal codas, so V, CV, and CVN are ok. So, we get the following kinds of borrowings: 'Christmas' kurisumasu 'girlfriend' garufurendo 'strawberry ice cream' sutoroberi aisukurimo Japanese also has more phonemes than Hawaiian (and some different ones). What can you conclude about its inventory from these examples?

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Syllable Structure Overview Syllable: A vowel (or vowel-like) sound and any accompanying consonant sounds associated with it. Every syllable contains a vowel, diphthong or syllabic consonant. Conversely every vowel, diphthong or syllabic consonant is associated with its own syllable. Syllables are structurally composed of a rime and an onset if there is one. Nucleus: The “heart” of a syllable. It is usually a vowel or diphthong though (in English) it may be certain syllabic consonants such as [l 1], [r 1], [m1] and [n 1]. There is one syllable for every vowel (or vocalic consonant) and vice versa. Coda: The consonants that follow the nucleus within the same syllable. Rime: A sub-group composed of the nucleus and any coda consonant(s). Note that the rime may simply consist of a nucleus. Onset: The consonants which precede the nucleus. Each syllable has a nucleus and by extension a rime. Not all syllables have codas and/or onsets. English has rich inventory of possible syllable types with up to three consonants in an onset and as many as four in the coda. Example Syllable Diagrams word 'bionic' σ σ σ rime rime rime onset nucleus nucleus onset nucleus coda [ b aj : n I k ] σ 'clap' O R N C [k l Q p ]

σ 'twelfth'

R

O N C [ t w l f ]

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Syllabification Practice For each of the words below in a-f, transcribe the word on the line below the word and then provide a syllable diagram for the word.

a. doughnut

a.__________________________________

b. thrashed

b.__________________________________

c. incomplete

c.__________________________________

d. diamond

d.__________________________________

e. cryogenic

e.__________________________________

f. stylized

f.__________________________________

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g. constitutional

g.__________________________________

h. tiresome

h.__________________________________

i. fascinating

i.__________________________________

j. dissuade

j.__________________________________

k. miraculous

k.__________________________________

l. violin

l.__________________________________

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English Syllable Inventory In discussing the syllable inventory of English, we will rely on the following abbreviations: C Consonants that are found in the onset and coda V Vowels, Diphthongs and Syllabic Consonants that may be the nucleus of a syllable. The first question we are interested in, is very generally, what are the possible syllable shapes of English? How many onset consonants can be found, how many coda consonants are possible? V a, about, eye, owe CV key, toe, pie, caution CCV tree, stew, sky, askew CCCV splay, spry, squaw, astray VC egg, of, F, action CVC tip, beg, fog, kite, tame, action CCVC brick, brown, stop, mesquite CCCVC strong, scrap, squish, splash, square, strengthen VCC and, ask, axe, opt, egged, oft, ant CVCC sand, mask, pox, lapse, left, locked CCVCC brand, cleft, trunk, drink, crawled, trimmed, crashed, floored CCCVCC strand, scrunch, screamed, springs, strapped, scraps VCCC asks, ants, asked, axed, opts, ends CVCCC corpse, sixth, pants, masked, taxed, melts, bends CCVCCC plants, blends, cramps, cramped CCCVCCC strength, strands, scrunched VCCCC ?? (possibly angst) CVCCCC sixths CCVCCCC twelfths CCCVCCCC strengths As shown by this chart, English allows a maximum of three onset consonants and up to four coda consonants in a single syllable. Note that in order to get over 2 coda consonants, it is almost always necessary to use a suffix. The next thing we are interested in is are there any restrictions on the complex onsets and codas? Can any consonant of English fill in any of the above Cs in the chart? Can pSlQ Zdvg be a word of English? There are various restrictions on codas and onsets. One we have discussed, [h] can never be in a coda, [N] can never be in an onset. Here's another: if an onset has three C's, the first one must be [s], the second a voiceless stop and the third a liquid or glide. So, [spl], [skw], [str] but not *pSl. Another tendency which needs to be verified is that it

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seems complex codas which don't involve suffixes prefer non-high vowels. This is just a feeling I got from making the list and needs to be confirmed. There is not time to go into the details about all of the restrictions, but we can look at the restrictions on CC onsets as a representative example and one that can illustrate the methodology. We started this in class: English has a wide range of CC onsets, [br, tr, kl, θr, fl, sf, st, sn,] just to give a few. However there are certain restrictions: If the first consonant is a stop [p, t, k, b, d, g] then the second consonant must be a liquid [l,r] or the glide [w], leaving aside the odd [yu] sequences. There is a further restriction, however. The stop and liquid/glide can't have the same place of articulation. Thus, no *tl, *dl, *pw, *bw. All other combinations are attested. Stops cannot be followed by another stop, an affricate, fricative or nasal. Non-s voiceless fricatives work much the same way. They can combine generally with [l, r, w] as long as they don't have the same place of articulation. Thus, [fr, fl, θr, θw, Sr, Sl, Sw], but no *[fw, θl]. We did note that Sl, Sw clusters are only found in borrowings such as schlep and schwinn and maybe shouldn't be considered proper parts of English phonotactics. Voiced fricatives are more restricted and generally do not occur in clusters, though again we noted some [v] exceptions as in Vladimir and vroom. The fricatives (apart from [s] and some [S]) do not occur before stops, affricates, other fricatives, or nasals. The sibilant voiceless fricatives, [s] and [S], have a wider distribution, though [S] is mostly through borrowing. [s] can combine with voiceless stops [sp, st, sk], other fricatives [sf], nasals [sm, sn], as well as [l] and [w]. A noticeable gap in s CC onsets is *sr. It seems that historical sr clusters have become Sr clusters. The alveopalatal r has pulled back the s giving us shrimp, shrink, shrine, shrew, shrapnel. [S] does appear in other CC onsets thanks to borrowings. We already mentioned examples with [l] and [w] but it can also occur with nasals such as schmuck and schnauzer. Other categories are more restricted. Affricates cannot be the first consonant in an onset cluster nor can any sonorant (nasal, liquid, glide), again setting aside the odd [yu] cases, as in music. Thus, *[tSl, dZw, ml, nr, lw, rl, wl, wr,] etc. are illegal onsets. Generally, English and other languages follow the sonority hierarchy, where sonority must increase in the consonants as you move toward the nucleus. The sonority hierarchy states that sonority increases as you move along the following list: stops/affricates – fricatives – nasals – liquids – glides – vowels. In English, only [s] can consistently violate this constraint in monomorphemic words.

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Some non-standard varieties of English have a phonological rule which can render words as follows: post [pows] mask [mQs] adopt [´dA:p] band [bQn] wasp [wA:s] gift [gIf] conduct [kA:nd´k] bold [bowl] pushed [pU S] paged [pejdZ] picked [pIk] raised [rejz] A. Can you write a rule which would capture what is going on here? Can you describe which consonant is deleted and when? B. Now consider the following words as produced in this dialect. Does the rule developed in A make the correct predictions about these words. If not, rewrite rule A in the box below in B (Hint: Think in terms of syllable structure). accept [QksEp] acceptable [QksEpt´bl] friendly [frInlij] expect [EkspEk] expectable [EkspEkt´bl] softness [sA:fnIs] C. Now consider the following words. jump [dZ √mp] think [θI Nk] pint [pajnt] pink [pI Nk] paint [pejnt] jumped [dZ √mp] What additional constraints do we need to put on rule B so we do not incorrectly predict deletion of a consonant in these words? D. Standard English (SE) has a very similar process at work, though it is more restricted. Consider the following words. In normal, rapid conversation, some of the words delete one of the consonants. Circle the consonants that are typically deleted. Can you think of additional examples? What additional condition must be met in SE to delete a consonant? first grade kindness government Christmas second place handbag guest towel waistcoat think tank shark tooth pant leg jump rope silk robe cartwheel belt loop sharp shooter

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Vowel Lengthening and Aspiration in English 1. In certain environments, vowels do become lengthened in English. Consider the following words and determine under what conditions (in which environments) vowels become lengthened in Modern English. bad [bQ:d] bat [bQt] tame [tejm] Abe [e:jb] ape [ejp] meal [mijl] phase [fe:jz] face [fejs] soar [sçr] leave [li:jv] leaf [lijf] show [Sow] tag [tQ:g] tack [tQk] pan [pQn] brogue [bro:wg] broke [browk] ring [rI N] badge [bQ:dZ] batch [bQtS] sea [sij] wreathe [ri:jD] wreath [rijθ] coal [kowl] age [e:jdZ] 'H' [ejtS] bone [bown] 2. Certain sounds in English become aspirated (are pronounced with a slight puff of air) in certain environments. Consider the words below and determine which natural class of sounds are aspirated and in which environment. pan [pH Qn] span [spQn] pain [pHejn] Spain [spejn] poke [pHowk] spoke [spowk] tone [tHown] stone [stown] kin [kH In] skin [skIn] perspire [pHrspajr] splat [splQt] tomato [tH ´mejRow] upset [√psEt] canoe [kH ´nuw] slap [slQp] upon [´pH A:n] slot [slA:t] attack [´tH Qk] block [blA:k] tequila [tH ´kHijl´]

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Phonology Overview Phoneme: A group of (phonetically-distinct) speech sounds identified by a native speaker as the same sound; a mental entity (or category) related to various allophones by phonological rules; an abstract mental representation of a speech sound of a langauge. Allophone: Phonetic realization of a phoneme. Allophones of the same phoneme are non-distinctive—they do not lead to meaning contrasts—and are identified as being the same sound. An example of a phoneme with several allophones (which we have already discussed):

/t/ [t] plain (unaspirated) /t/ as in [sta:p] ‘stop’

[th] aspirated /t/ as in [tha:p] ‘top’

[/] glottal /t/ as in [kI /n] ‘kitten’

[R] flap /t/ as in [bQ Rr] ‘batter’

Recall that these allophones of /t/ are the result of phonological rules acting upon classes of sounds and are not just isolated variants of /t/:

• Voiceless stops are aspirated at the beginning of a word (before a stressed vowel),

giving not only /t/ [th], but also /p/ [ph] and /k/ /kh/ (more on the aspiration environment later).

• Alveolar stops become /R/ between a stressed and stressless syllable (more or less). So, in addition to /t/ [R], /d/ [R], as well.

Since native speakers are (unconsciously) aware of the patterns in the language, and the rules to generate allophones, they do not need to memorize all of the variant pronunciations of a sound, but simply know the rules and where and how to apply them to the phonemes. This saves mental resources. Instead of having two forms of the word bat memorized /bQt/ in isolation and /bQ R-/ with certain suffixes (-er, for example), the speaker can have one form, /bQt/, and know when to convert /t/ to [R]. Minimal Pair: Two words that differ only by a single sound in the same position and have different meanings but are otherwise identical. Kit /kIt/ and kid /kId/ are minimal pairs for /t/ and /d/. They are contrastive. That is, they lead to meaning differences and are thus phonemes. No minimal pairs exist between [t] and [R] in English. There aren't any contrastive pairs like the following in English: [Q R´m] 'atom' and [Qt´m] 'give to drink.' If these sounds

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are interchanged they cannot lead to a meaning difference but are still perceived as the same word. They are not contrastive and do not lead to meaning differences. They are in complementary distribution and are allophones of the same phoneme /t/. Contrastive Feature: A feature (place, manner, voicing, etc.) that can be used to distinguish one phoneme from another. Voicing is a contrastive feature for English obstruents: lacy [lejsij] vs. [lejzij] lazy. It is not contrastive for sonorants (nasals, approximants, glides, vowels) in English. Complementary Distribution: The occurrence of sounds in a language such that they are never found in the same phonetic environment. Sounds that are in complementary distribution are likely to be allophones of the same phoneme, particularly if they share several features. For example, [th] and [t] are in complementary distribution, and since they share many features, being identical except for aspiration, we consider them allophones of the same phoneme /t/. A note/helpful hint about phonemes and allophones: Different phonemes may sometimes have the same allophone, as we have already seen with /t/ and /d/.

/t/ /d/

[t] [th] [/] [R] [R] [d] Thus, bat /bQt/ and bad /bQd/ are a minimal pair showing /t/ and /d/ to be phonemes, contrasting word finally. However, when –er suffixes are added to these words, the alveolar stops are typically flapped giving: /bQt/ + /-r/ [bQ Rr] and /bQd/ + /-r/ [bQ Rr]. Free Variation: Refers to two (or more) sounds that occur in overlapping environments but cause no distinction in the meaning of their respective words. This indicates that they are allophones of the same phoneme. For example, unreleased voiceless stops and aspirated voiceless stops are in free variation in final positions in English: leap: [lijp] and [lijph]. Another example of free variation: In Macuiltianguis Zapotec [b], [v] and [β] (a voiced bilabial fricative) are all in free variation in word initial positions: ‘what?’ [bíní] [víní] [Bíní] ‘person’ [benne/] [venne/] [Benne/]

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Why do we care about these phonetic variants? Why look at allophones?

• Different languages have different contrastive sounds and different contrastive features.

For example, Ancient Greek contrasted voiceless unaspirated stops, voiceless aspirated stops and voiced stops, as attested in the following minimal and near- minimal pairs: kólos ‘hornless’ kár ‘lock of hair’ khEn ‘goose’ khólos ‘gall, bile’ gár ‘for’ conj. gEn ‘earth’ accusative

• It is where accents come from. Speakers attempt to apply the phonological rules of their native language to a non-native language. For example, English speakers tend to aspirate voiceless consonants in other languages (like Spanish) that do not have this rule. This also attests to the psychological reality of these rules.

• As mentioned previously, this co-articulation of sounds and the variations of

sounds depending on their position, must be adequately modeled if things like speech recognition are to be successful.

Allophonic variation is driven by two very general, competing principles: to increase the ease of articulation to increase the ease of perception Common Phonological Processes assimilation Sounds become alike in one or more features. This is the most common process and we have seen many examples of this. For instance, the change of past tense –ed to [-t] after voiceless consonants is an example. The past tense morpheme becomes voiceless like the preceding consonant sounds. dissimilation Sounds become dissimilar with respect to one or more features. Ancient Greek /pHé-pHeu-ga/ [pépHeuga] 'have fled' /tHí-tHe:-mi/ [títHe:mi] 'have placed' /kHé-kHe:-na/ [kékHe:na] 'have gaped' /e-tHé-tHe:n/ [etétHe:n] 'was placed' /e-tHu-tHe:n/ [etútHe:n] 'was sacrificed' /ekHe-kHeiria:/ [ekekHeipía:] 'truce' /tHé-tHam-mai/ [tétHammai] 'have buried'

/tHrépHo:/ [trépHo:] 'nourish' /tHrépH-so:/ [tHrépso:] 'will nourish' /tHé-tHram-mai/ [tétHrammai] 'have nourished'/kHe-kHeua/ [kekHeua] 'poured' /hekH-o:/ [ekHo:] 'have' /hekH-so:/ [hekso:] 'will have'

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epenthesis A sound is inserted into the phonetic output. Lakhota /gnu'gnus Ùka/ [g´nug´'nus Ùka] 'grasshopper' /mni/ [m´'ni] 'water' /o'wagle/ [o'wag´le] 'table' /o'blaya/ [ob´'laya] 'valley' deletion A sound is deleted from the phonetic output Elision in Ancient Greek /tóte egó:n/ [tót egó:n] /allà áge/ [all áge] /édo:ka ennéa/ [édo:k ennéa] /ékHoimi án/ [ékHoim án] /génoito án/ [génoit án] /apò hou Ù/ [apH houÙ] metathesis Two sounds are switched with respect to their ordering. Macuiltianguis Zapotec /r-cani/ 'thinks' /r-cani=na/ [rcainna] 'he thinks' /bi-jeni/ 'heard' /bi-jeni=na/ [bijeinna] 'he heard' /r-sa/ani/ 'be mad at' /r-sa/ani=na/ [rsa/ainna] 'he is mad at' /ru-lluani/ 'show' /ru-lluani=ja// [rulluainja/] 'I am showing' /be-ni/ 'make, do' /be-ni=na/ [beinna] 'he made' /ri-gani/ 'dig' /ri-gani=na/ [rigainna] 'he is digging'

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Phonology - The Zapotec Language Page

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