Chapter 4: Phonology…
…not the study of telephones!
NOTES: The slides/lecture/discussion for this chapter deviate from the order
of the book… You WILL need to read, you decide to read early, late or both…
About exercising: it keeps you healthy: physically & mentally…
Kinds of Sound Change Assimilation (become more alike)
Nasalization Voicing Flapping
Dissimilation (become less alike) Metathesis (shift sounds around) Epenthesis // Intrusion (add a sound)
Other Elision // Deletion (take a sound away) Vowel Reduction (shorten or ‘schwa’ a sound)
Sound Safari Find example words for one
subcategory of each type of sound change in the previous slide
Hand me the examples highlighting IPA for “careful” vs. “fast-casual”
speech Explanation of the change in terms of
natural classes Answer: Is the created sound always
allophonic, or sometimes phonemic
Phonemes
Formal Definition:Sounds that are heard distinctively by native speakers of a language
Dave’s Translation: Sound that make meaningful differences in a language
What word do you get…
…if you delete the first sound of:
1. 2. 3. 4.
Do sounds1, 2, 3, &/or 4
test for phonological awareness?
On Being Distinctive AKA Contrastive … AKA Phonemic Minimal pairs
You tell me: Standard spelling for each of the
above… More minimal pairs…
Allophones
Formal Definition:Sounds that are NOT heard distinctively by native speakers of a language
Dave’s Translation: Sounds that DO NOT make meaningful differences in a language
Aspiration
Hold a paper in front of your mouth Say “pot” and “poke” Then “spot” and “spoke”
Does the paper move differently?
Phonemes & Allophones
Minimal Pairs phonemic distinction
- Allophones (in English) (sit, sing) Phonetically distinct, phonologically
same Complementary distribution
Phonological Principles
Ideal vs. Realization Largely subconscious Universals exist Rule governed
Rules can be formalized Rules can be generalized Rules must be ordered…
In Simpler Words
A B / C __ D
A becomes B when it comes between C and C
We typically use features for A, B, C and D… For shorthand we may sometimes use segments instead…
Natural Classes
Sounds that share feature(s) and behave similarly in phonology Consonants
+ Stop - Stop+ Voice - Voice
Vowels+ High - High+ Back - Back
Features
The atoms of phonology Building blocks of sound Key to understanding (most)
variation Binary distinction (+/-)
You’ve either got it, or you don’t…
Syllable Book’s Definition:
A unit of linguistic structure that consists of a syllabic element and any segments that are associated with it
Dave’s Interpretation: A potentially independent group of
sounds that sticks closely together
Syllabic Recipe
σ
Onset (O) Rhyme (R)
Nucleus (N) Coda (Co)
sprint
NOTE: Only the Nucleus is required…
Sequence Constraints
Formal Definition: The set of constraints on how sequences of segments pattern
Dave’s Interpretation: Rules on which sounds can be next to each other (≈ in a syllable)
(PhonotacticConstraints)
Sequence Constraints Different languages = Different rules
English V, VC, CV, CVC, CCV, etc…≠
Spanish≠ Onset = [sk], [st], [sp]
Japanese≠ “C” as coda, except [n]
Explain Spanish or Japanese constraints in terms of natural classes…
Don’t Get Stressed Out… Primary and Secondary Stress
Separate Words = Separate Stress Whíte hóuse
Single Concept = Related Stress Whíte Hòuse
Multi-syllable words Stress varies http://oak.ucc.nau.edu/tn24/wordstress/wstresstex
t.html
Sentence Level Stress
Stress Content Words N, V, Adj, Adv
Not function words Det, Aux Vs, Conj’s, Pronouns,
Prepositions
Try It: The Plural Suffix
Orthography: -s or -es Phonetic: Sort the following phonetically:
tack, tag, torch, cough, cup, dish, dress, grave, graph, hat, house, hunch, judge, lad, lash, lathe, maze, room, tax, thing
Why? (i.e. What are the rules?)
tack tag torchcough grave dishcup lad dress
graph lathe househat room hunch
thing judge lash maze
tax