Phonology

1. Phonology Introduction to Linguistics (Ling 101.02) Duke University Gareth Price

2. Phonetics vs. Phonology SOUND • physical • objects and categories • Acoustic properties • Biological bases of sounds • Phones • meaning • Relations between objects and categories • Permissible sound patterns • Meaning-marking • Inter-changeability • Phonemes

3. Which of the following could be classed as ‘words’ in English? • ftrɒmp • strɒmp • ʃtrɒmp • sɪftr • sɪʃt • strɪst • sistr • siʃtr • knixt • mistreit • sɪʃtr • wɪʃtreɪ • wɪstrei • wɪftrei • wiːʃtrei • skel • sbel • Sdeb • bisd • fəsdəd • mbeld • beld • mdelb • melbd • kzmet

4. Phonotactics and Phonotactic Constraints • In any given language, some combinations are permissible, whereas others aren’t • So, in English: • fəsdəd /sd/= permissible consonant cluster • kzmet /kzm/ = not permissible • Ftrɒmp/ftr/ = not permissible

5. Phonotactic Constraints • /sd/ – only permissible in word-medial position, not word-initial or word-final position • So: • /fəsdəd/ but not /sdeb/ or /bisd/ • /ʃtr/  ? • /wɪʃtreɪ/ but not /ʃtrɒmp/ or /sɪʃtr/ • (and, arguably, only permissible in compound words, eg. ash + tray = ashtray)

6. Consonant Clusters in Other Languages • /ftr/  permissible in word-initial position in Russian • /ʃtr/  permissible in word-initial position in German • /kn/ permissible in German and Dutch. Not permissible in word initial position in Modern English ... But was in Old and Middle English hence /knixt/  ‘knight’ •  Languages change over time •  Speech changes faster than writing • Japanese, • Mandarin and Hawaiian  don’t permit consonant clusters • So – consonants must be followed by a vowel

7. Syllables • Other types of constraints: • Syllables consist of: Onset [consonant or consonant cluster] (optional) + Rime(obligatory) NucleusCoda [[usually]vowel mono/diphthong] [consonant or consonant cluster] (obligatory) (optional)

8. Some languages only have a vocalic (vowel) nucleus e.g. Mandarin: pjaʊ, mən, zhæŋ English has consonantal nuclei or syllabic consonants, but only generally with nasal or lateral liquid consonants [ŋ], [n], [m], [l] (so sədn or bred n bə? ə or kæʃ n kæri:) and are often identifiable by the lack of audible vocalic release in the preceding stop. Mandarin is limited in the possible consonants that are allowed as coda ([ŋ] or [n] or [w]).

9. Languages can be classified then in terms of syllable structure, so: oʃi:moʃi:  V CV CVCV kætækænæ CV CVCVCV • Japanese does not permit coda and that all words must end with a CV syllable Walmatjari (Australian Aboriginal language): ngapa (‘water’)[ŋa pa] CV CV kurrupa (‘hand’) [kura pa] CV CVCV ngarpu (‘father’) [ŋarpu] CVC CV • Syllable realised as either CV or CV, but all words must end with a CV syllable.

10. Phonological Environment and Phonological Conditioning • One sound segment or two? • Chips, cheese, judge • In word initial position in English, we don’t perceive affricates as stop + fricative • However, consider: • He cheats vs. heat-sheets • What can each add? Vs. What can eat shad? • Lychee vs. light-ship • Ketchup vs. pet shop • Urchin vs hurt shin

11. Similarly, diphthongs can be tricky. • In English, we treat them as one sound segment and one syllable: • haʊ, baʊ, kaʊ • ɑɪ, hɑɪ, pɑɪ • heɪ, meɪ, leɪ, peɪ • However: in Komering (Southern Sumatra) • Mait(‘corpse’) tuot(‘knee’) and kuah(‘sauce’) • Perceived (and articulated) as two syllable words.