Phonology

Syllables may be broken up into onset, nucleus, and coda.

The nucleus is the vowellike part. Every syllable has a nucleus. Onsets and codas are optional:

		Rhyme
Onset	Nucleus		Coda	Note		Spelling
k	æ		n	all		Can
s	i			No coda		see
	i		t	No onset		Eat
spr	aj		t	All		Sprite
skr	æ		t∫	All		scratch
spr	i			No coda		spree
	æ		nts	No onset		ants

The nucleus and coda, as shown, are often spoken of as a unit called the rhyme. Given this picture, syllabification is not trivial. Which syllabification is correct for extreme? [e'kstrim] [ek'strim] [eks'trim] [ekst'rim] [ekstr'im] (1) and (5) can be ruled out because they assume impossible onsets and codas respectively (more on this in the discussion of phonotatics below). It turns out the choice among the others is more complicated, based on rules for syllabification discussed in Section 5.4, pp 87-89. We will not be covering these, but basically (2) is correct, because it packs the maximum allowable amount into an onset, which follows a universal principle of syllabification

Sound Clauses

Table of consonant place :

Bilabial	p b m n w
Labiodental	f v
Interdental	ð th
Alveolar	t d s z
alveopalatal	∫ zh t∫ dzh
Palatal	j
velar	k g ng w
glottal	h ?

Note : Manners are themselves divided up into two major classes: Obstruents and sonorants. The obstruents are the stops, the fricatives, and the affricates. The sonorants are the vowels, liquids, glides, and nasals. Attention: The following table only shows consonants so it does not include ALL the sonorants

Table of consonant manners

Obstruents	Stops	p b t d k g ?
	Fricatives	f v th ð s z ∫ zh
	Affricates	t∫ dzh
Sonorants	Nasals	m n ng
	Liquids	r l
	Glides	j w

Voicing: All English sonorants are voiced, except that [w] may be voiceless. Obstruents come in voiced/voiceless pairs except for [h] and [?].

Voiceless	p	t	k	f	th	∫	t∫	h	?
Voiced	b	d	g	v	ð	zh	dzh

Here are the features  :

Voice	All sonorants are voiced in English except that in some dialects there is a voiceless [w] (transcribed as an upside down [w]). All obstruents come in voiced/voiceless pairs except for [h] and [?] which are
Sonorant	All vowels, glides, liquids, and nasals are +Sonorant. All obstruents are -Sonorant.
Consonantal	All vowels are -Consonantal. However contrary to your intuitions, glides and glottals are also -Consonantal. The rest of the consonants are +Consonantal.
Syllabic	The intuition of +Syllabic is that the sound can occur as syllable nucleus. Vowels are always +Syllabic. Liquids and nasal CAN be either + or - Syllabic. When they are syllable nuclei (huddle, button) they are +Syllabic.
Continuant	The primary function of this feature is to distinguish fricatives, +Continuant, from other obstruents (stops and affricates), -Continuant. All sonorants except for nasals are -Continuant (and don't worry about nasals).

Attention: The feature +/- consonantal does not QUITE mean what you think

Classifying obstruents (in the following, to avoid clutter, we ignore affricates)

	[-sonorant]
[-voice]	[+voice]
p t k	b d g	[-continuant]
f s ∫	v z zh	[+continuant]

Some natural classes

-sonorant	-sonorant  -continuant	-sonorant  -continuant -voice
p t k b d g ? f s ∫ v z zh	p t k b d g ?	p t k
Obstruents	stops	Voiceless Stops

Another example:

-sonorant	-sonorant  +continuant	-sonorant  +continuant -voice
p t k b d g ? f s ∫ v z zh	f s ∫ v z zh	f s ∫
Obstruents	Fricatives	Voiceless Fricatives

In general the feature system is set up so as to make the specification of NATURAL sound classes easy. There are place features (which we are not studying) which make the selection of all the sounds at one place of articulation easy. For example, selecting EXACTLY the set of sounds k,ng, g could be done with the following specification (which uses the place of articulation feature Dorsal):

- Continuant

º Dorsal

Pretty easy.

Restricting this further to k,g, also easy:

- Sonorant

- Continuant

º Dorsal

Some sound classes are NOT natural. For example restricting the first set to the set k, ng (excluding g) would be very hard.

- Voice             + Voice

- Sonorant          + Sonorant

- Continuant   OR   - Continuant

º Dorsal            º Dorsal

Phonotactics

All languages except sign languages use sequences of phones to make words. No languages allow sounds to combine freely. That is, there are always constraints on what phones any particular phone can precede and follow. These constraints are called phonotactic constraints. Syntactic constraints are constraints on the arrangements of words. Phonotactic constraints are constraints on the arrangements of phones. What kind of constraints are the following? The English morpheme re must always precede the stem it is attached to. It can never follow the stem. When the English morpheme ity and the English plural morpheme s occur together, ity must always precede the plural. It can never follow: profane + ity + s = profanities * profane + s + ity = profanesity The sum total of all the phonotactic constraints of a language is called its phonotactics. The sum total of all the morphotactic constraints of a language is called its morphotactics. The sum total of all the syntactic constraints of a language is called its syntax.

Zeroing on phonetics :

1. In any syllable-internal sequence of a nasal and a stop, the nasal and the stop must have the same place of articulation:

Actual	Impossible	Possible
hand	*hamd	hant
taunt	*taumt	Taund
punk	*pumk	pung

2. In any 2-consonant onset, the second consonant must be a sonorant.   

Actual	Impossible
please	*ptease
proud	*psoud
pure[pjur]	*pshure
twin	*tdin
trust	*tpust
queen	*ksean
clean	*cshean
cream	*cteam

3.    In any 3-consonant cluster in an onset, the first consonant must be [s]: splash, strong, spew [s p j u], extreme [∈ k 's t r ij m]. 

4.In any 3-consonant cluster in an onset, the second consonant must be a voiceless stop [p,t,k]: splash, strong, spew [s p j u], extreme [∈ k 's t r ij m]. Thus although we have smooth [s m u th] and museum [m j u z i uh m], we have no words beginning [s m j u...]

Phonotactic constraints are highly language-particular. Japanese has NO onset clusters. It basically has Consonant-Vowel syllables(although it allows nasals as codas). So all of the complex onsets described above are forbidden. This is very common. We call such a language a CV language.

On the other hand we have Polish:

co	[t s o]	what
kto	[k t o]	who
ptak	[p t a k]	bird
przez	[p ∫ ∈ s ]	by/through
ksiazka	[k ∫ o n ∫ k a]	book
zgniecic	[z g n j ∈ t∫ i t∫]	crush
grzmot	[g zh m ao t]	thunderbolt

Phonology Predictability

Phonology is the study of the sound patterns of a language. Phonotactics is part of phonology. Another part is the study of predictable sound changes. We now discuss predictable phonological changes In most cases phones are not predictable. The fact the d is the first sound in the English word for dog is not predictable. But sometimes the occurrence of some phones is quite predictable. The ability to master these predictable patterns is part of a native speaker's mastery of a language (and the failure to master them part of what gives non-native speakers an accent). Thus it is part of what a linguist calls the grammar of the language. More on this the grammar section below.

Insertion Epenthesis

There are times when sounds are inserted in a language in order to enforce phonotactic constraints. Consider problem 15, p. 107.

conclusion

This kind of process, in which one sound is inserted in a predictable way, is called epenthesis. Thus the inserted glides in Tamil are epenthetic glides.

For many dialects of English there are epenthetic glides as well. Consider the transcriptions of the following words:

1. boat: [b ow t]
2. bait: [b ej t]
3. hold: [h ow l d]
4. hate: [h ej t]
5. post: [p ow s t]
6. pale, pail: [p ej l]

Generalization: We seem to see no occurences of plain [o] or plain [e]. [o] and [e] are always followed by a glide.

The glide is predictable. It is part of a pattern in English.

We do not want to list it in the dictionary pronunciation for each word. We want a rule to take care of this.

Rule: Insert a [w] after [o] and a [j] after [e]

∅ -> w / o _

∅ -> j / e _

Rules & Grammar

grammar is a formal specification of what a native speaker of a language knows. Part of a job of a grammar is to capture the predictable patterns. The other part is to capture what's unpredictable.

Thus, a grammar consists of two basic components:

1.      Lexicon: A dictionary consisting of basic forms (words/morphemes)

2.  2.     Rules

1.      Tactical rules: Phonotactics/morphotactics/syntax

2.      Redundancy rules: Rules adding features which are completely predictable

The basic idea (due to a linguist named Leonard Bloomfield): The lexicon should not contain any information predictable by general rule. It contains no information about how to combine forms because that is predictable. Nor does it contain any information about predictable sounds or sound features.

The glide epenthesis rules for Tamil and English were redundancy rules. They added predictable features, namely glides, to words. Such features are said to be derived, because they are inferred or proven by general principles about the language.

Thus such features are NOT found in the lexicon.

English Vowel Length

Another predictable feature of English words is vowel length.

Consider Table 3.32, p. 91. It shows that English vowels are lengthened before certain sounds.

What is the pattern distinguishing Column A from Column B?

A	B
Bad [b æ: d]	Bat [b æ t]
Abe [e:j b]	Ape [e j p]
Phase [f e: j z]	Face [f e j s]
Leave [l i: j v ]	Leaf  [l i j f]
Tag [t æ: g]	Tack [t æ k]
Brogue [b r o: w g]	Broke [b r o w k]
	Tame [t e j m]
	Meal [m i j l]
	Soar [s o w r]
	Show [∫ o w]

Minimal Pairs

Vowel length is not predictable in every language

The pairs of words in these tables such as tuli and tu:li in Finnish are called minimal pairs. They are minimal in that they differ in the minimal way, one sound. The fact that two forms differ in one sound and mean different things in a language shows that the sound can make meaningful distinctions in that language. We say the sounds are distinctive.

Vowel length is distinctive in Finnish and Japanese.

 Vowel length is NOT distinctive in English. Therefore there exist NO pairs of words like [t u l i] and [t u: l i] in English, words which mean different things and differ ONLY in the length of a particular vowel.

Distinctiveness versus Predictability

 The following principle is the most important concept of the chapter

Note : Distinctiveness and predictability are mutually exclusive.

If something is phonetically predictable like English vowel length, then it cannot function to make meaningful distinctions. It appears only in the company of something else that is really making the meaningful distinction.

Notice that you canNOT have minimal pairs with English vowel length: Long vowels show up only preceding voiced obstruents. So any word with a lengthened vowel will have at least TWO differences from a word without one: the vowel length and the voicing of the final obstruent.

bat	[b æ t]
bad	[b æ: d]

But then it's the voicing that's doing the work of making a meaningful contrast. The vowel length is just a predictable consequence of the voicing distinction!

Phonemes Allophones We call the phones listed in the lexicon phonemes. We write these forms in slashes: /æ/. /æ/ is a listed in the dictionary. It is consequence of the rule we just formulated that it can sometimes be realized as [æ:]. When that happens is completely predictable. It is also a consequence of the rule that [æ] can sometimes be realized just as plain old [æ]. This is also completely predictable (/æ/ is realized as [æ] whenever /æ/ is not followed by a voiced obstruent in the same syllable). Minimal Pairs II Voiceless aspirated stops are allophones of voiceless unaspirated stops in English. Thus, aspiration is NOT distinctive in English. But there are languages in which aspiration is distinctive. Consider the data in Khmer (Cambodia) in Table 3.14, p. 69. [p ao: ng] to wish [ph ao: ng] also [t ao p] to support [th ao p] be suffocated [k a t] to cut [kh o t] to polish Note that there are a number of minimal pairs. Note that the voiceless aspirated and unaspirated stops are NOT in complementary distribution. In particular, both occur in syllable initial position, the environment that predicts aspiration in English. The words on the left are NOT possible words of English. Allophony Problems: Complementary Distribution It is a consequence of the predictability of allophones that they never occur in the same environments. If an unaspirated stop ever occurred in syllable initial position our rule would just be plain wrong. Counterexample to aspiration rule: [p I n] Similarly if a [ph] occurred after an [s]: [s ph I n] this would show that our description was wrong.