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Contrast, phonemes, common phonological processes

May 22, 2014

1) What kinds of words tend to not be stressed in connected speech?2) What are geminates?3) What are the different functions of intonation?4) What are two different kinds of tone?5) How many tones are there in Thai?6) How would you pronounce the following…?

[ɑjsidɛdpipl̩][downtstɑpbɪliv ŋ]ɪ ̃[wətdʌz ntkɪljəmejksjəstɹ ŋəɹ]ə̃ ɑ̃[ɑjvgɑɾəfil ŋwiɹnaɾ ŋk nzəs n mɔɹ] ɪ ̃ ɪ ̃ æ̃ ɛ̃ ɪ ̃

Prosody review

[sæt] ‘sat’ [s m] ‘Sam’æ̃[dæɹ] ‘dare’ [d m] ‘dam’æ̃[læf] ‘laugh’ [d ŋ] ‘dang’æ̃[mæt] ‘mat’ [m n] ‘man’æ̃[stæɹ] ‘stare’ [st n] ‘Stan’æ̃[gɹɪt] ‘grit’ [t m] ‘Tim’ɪ ̃[sɔl] ‘soul’ [stɹ ŋ] ‘strong’ɔ̃

In English, oral vowels become nasalized when they are followed by nasal stops. Whenever a vowel is NOT followed by a nasal, it remains oral.

What if I invented a new English word? How would it be pronounced by English speakers?

Nasalization in English

‘blim’ [blim] or [bl m]ɪ ̃

‘splang’ [splæŋ] or [spl ŋ]æ̃

‘gleav’ [gliv] or [gl v]ɪ ̃

There seems to exist a ‘nasalization’ rule in English, which can be stated as: When a vowel is followed by a nasal, make that vowel nasal too!

Once we know this rule, we can easily predict which vowel (nasal or oral) will occur in a particular word! We just have to examine the sounds that surround a given vowel, or its ‘phonetic environment’.

What about other sounds? Can we predict whether a rounded or un unrounded vowel will occur in a particular word in English?

Nasalization in English

[sɪp] ‘sip’ [sup] ‘soup’[sæp] ‘sap’ [sop] ‘soap’[kæt] ‘cat’ [kot] ‘coat’[wɛɹ] ‘wear’ [wɔɹ] ‘war’

unrounded rounded There’s no rule that we can formulate to predict whether a rounded or unrounded vowel will occur in a particular word! The phonetic environment for both sounds is the same or overlapping.

So some sounds seem to occur almost anywhere in a language. Two sounds could occur in the same exact environment, e.g. ‘pet’ vs. ‘put’ (both occur between [p] and [t]). Sounds that can occur in this overlapping distribution are called phonemes.

Phonemes are perceived by speakers of a language as very distinct sounds! English speakers have no trouble hearing the difference (contrast) between [ɛ] and [ʊ].

But other sounds occur in very predictable places in the language. One sound always occurs in one specific environment (e.g. before a nasal), while the other sound occurs in a different environment (e.g. anywhere BUT before a nasal). Sounds that occur in this predictable complementary distribution are called allophones.

Allophones are perceived by speakers of a language as the same sound! English speakers have a hard time hearing the difference between [ɔ] and [ ].ɔ̃

Phonemes vs. allophones

Two phonemes (sounds that are perceived as distinct) are said to contrast with each other or to be in a contrastive or phonemic relationship. Which sounds contrast and which do not contrast is language specific, e.g.:

[l] vs. [ɹ]English [lejk] ‘lake’ [ɹejk] ‘rake’Japanese [kameɹa] ‘camera’ [kamela] ‘camera’

Short vs. long vowelsEnglish [tɪk] ‘tick’ [tɪ:k] ‘tick’Norwegian [tak] ‘thanks’ [ta:k] ‘roof’

Nasal vs. non-nasal vowelsEnglish [bow] ‘bow’ [bõw] ‘bow’Polish [kɔt] ‘cat’ [kõt] ‘corner’

Contrast

Languages differ in the types sounds they use as phonemes and in the number of phonemes in their inventories, e.g.:• Rotokas (East Papuan, New Guinea): 11 phonemes• !Xóõ (Khoisan, Botswana/Namibia): 160 phonemes• English: 37 41 phonemes (depending on dialect)‐• On average: about 30 phonemes

Contrast

http://youtu.be/0grANlx7y2E

But why/how do speakers of one language pay close attention to certain differences (e.g. nasalization, roundedness) but speakers of another language don’t even notice these differences??

Languages differ in the types sounds they use as phonemes and in the number of phonemes in their inventories, e.g.:• Rotokas (East Papuan, New Guinea): 11 phonemes• !Xóõ (Khoisan, Botswana/Namibia): 160 phonemes• English: 37 41 phonemes (depending on dialect)‐• On average: about 30 phonemes

Contrast

http://youtu.be/0grANlx7y2E

inattentional (change) blindness

But why/how do speakers of one language pay close attention to certain differences (e.g. nasalization, roundedness) but speakers of another language don’t even notice these differences??

How do we know that two sounds contrast in a particular language? In other words, how can we tell if a certain phonetic difference between sounds is also a phonological (contrastive) difference in this particular language?

We can ask a native speaker. But a native speaker may not always be available…

Philologists often use a diagnostic of minimal pairs: a pair of words that have different meanings but differ only with respect to one single segment, e.g.:

‘pet’ vs. ‘bet’‘Sybil’ vs. ‘civil’‘main’ vs. ‘maim’

• Since alternating between [p] and [b] in English can make a difference in meaning, [p] and [b] must be separate phonemes and perceived as distinct.• We can even find minimal triplets, quadruples, and so on! e.g. ‘pet’ vs. ‘bet’ vs. ‘set’

Contrast

[pul] ‘fire’[tʰal] ‘mask’[tʰek] ‘chin’[kal] ‘going’[pʰul] ‘grass’

[pi] ‘rain’[pʰi] ‘blood’[tal] ‘moon’[tek] ‘virtue’[kʰal] ‘knife’

Minimal pairs?

Analyzing contrastKorean has both aspirated (accompanied by a small puff of air [ʰ]) and non-aspirated stops. Based on the data below, can you tell if aspiration is contrastive/phonemic in Korean?

[pul], [pʰul] [pi], [pʰi] [tek], [tʰek][tal], [tʰal] [kal], [kʰal]

In Korean, aspiration is contrastive. [p] contrasts with [pʰ], [t] with [tʰ], [k] with [kʰ]. These sounds occur in overlapping distribution and so they must be distinct phonemes. We can also infer that they are all perceived as distinct sounds by Koreans.

Analyzing contrastEnglish also has both aspirated and non-aspirated voiceless stops. Based on the data below, can you tell if aspiration is contrastive/phonemic in English?

[pʰɔɹt] ‘port’[pʰejn] ‘pain’[tʰejk] ‘take’[tʰæn] ‘tan’[kʰul] ‘cool’

[spɔɹ] ‘sport’[spejn] ‘Spain’[stejk] ‘steak’[stæn] ‘Stan’[skul] ‘school’

Minimal pairs?

This is an example of broad phonetic transcription—I’m omitting certain details (e.g. vowel nasalization) because they are not relevant to aspiration. Including such details would make the data harder to read. When all possible detail is included, we are dealing with narrow transcription.

NONE!

Aspirated voiceless stops occur only at the beginning of a word (syllable), while non-aspirated stops occur only in the middle (or at the end of) a word (syllable). Thus, each pair ([p] and [pʰ], [t] and [tʰ], [k] and [kʰ]) occurs in complementary distribution. They are therefore allophones and each pair is perceived as the same sound by English speakers.

/ /

[ph] [p]allophones

phoneme

at the beginning of a stressed syllable elsewhereconditioning

environment:

pAnalyzing contrast

English

when it’s raining

when it’s not raining (sunny, windy, humid…)

Analyzing contrast

allophones

phoneme

conditioning environment:

“Shoe”

/p/ /ph/

[p] [ph]

Analyzing contrast

allophones

phonemeKorean

In Korean, aspirated and unaspirated voiceless stops:• are in overlapping/contrastive distribution• represent separate, distinct phonemes• don’t depend on phonetic environments

In English, aspirated and unaspirated voiceless stops:• are in complementary distribution• are allophones of the same phoneme• canNOT occur in identical environments• depend on the phonetic environment

Analyzing contrast

The word allophone comes from Greek allos ‘other, different.’ Allophones are different phonetic variations of the same underlying phoneme—they exist because phonemes are often pronounced slightly differently depending on other sounds in the word. The situation in which a speech sound is influenced by, and becomes more like, a preceding or following speech sound is called coarticulation.

Analyzing contrast

An important part of phonological analysis is figuring out which sounds are phonemes and which are allophones in a given language.• The existence of minimal pairs is strong

evidence that two sounds are distinct phonemes.• Complementary distribution requires a bit

more thinking (we need a rule!).

In order to figure out if two sounds are phonemes or allophones, it helps to be aware of common phonological processes (or “rules”) that occur in languages, such as…

Phonological processes

assimilation: a sound becomes more like another sound nearby, often by ‘borowing’ one or more features of another sound. Assimilation is a broad class of phonological processes that involves nasalization, voicing, etc.

nasalization: a non-nasal sound borrows the nasal feature from a neighboring sounds, e.g. when English vowels become nasalized before nasal stops.

English [sæm] [sæ̃m]

voicing: a sound becomes voiceless next to voiceless segments (Russian, Japanese). It is especially common for consonants to become voiced between two vowels.

Polish [prɔɕit͡ɕ] ‘to request’ [prɔʑba] ‘a request’English [skwɪdz] ‘squids’ [pɪgz] ‘pigs’

Phonological processes

devoicing: a sound becomes voiceless (‘loses’ its voiciding) to become more like another voiceless sound nearby. Devoiced sounds can be represented using the diacritic [ ̥].

Japanese [kɯtsɯ] [kɯ̥tsɯ̥] ‘shoe’

place of articulation assimilation: a sound changes its place of articulation (e.g. an alveolar becomes a bilabial) because of the nearby sounds.

English [ɪmpɑsəbəl] [ɪntændʒəbəl] [iŋglɔɹiəs]Japanese [ɕimpai] ‘worry’

manner of articulation assimilation: a sound changes its manner of articulation to become more like another sound, e.g. in Spanish stops often become fricatives before vowels (Spanish) and in English stops become affricates before palatals.

Spanish [beβer] ‘to drink’English [dɪdjʊhiɹ] [dɪd͡ʒʊhiɹ] [wɑtdjəwɑnt] [wɑt͡ʃəwɑnt]

Phonological processes

affrication

Assimilation can be either partial or total. Total assimilation means that a sound becomes EXACTLY like another sound nearby; partial assimilation means that a sound ‘borrows’ just one or a couple of features of another sound.

Phonological processes

Early Old Eng. Later Old Eng.[slæpde] > [slæpte] ‘slept’

partial assimilation

Latin Italian[ɔktɔ] > [ɔttɔ] ‘eight’

total assimilation

Phonological processesdissimilation: a sound becomes less like another sound nearby, usually by ‘losing’ some feature that the two sounds had in common.

Latin English[viləl] > [viləɹ] ‘velar’

Spanish ‘y tu’ vs. ‘e incluso’

deletion (ellipsis): a sound gets deleted, e.g. in quick speech.English [fɪfθs] [fɪfs]Spanish [grasjas] [grasja] ‘thank you’

haplology: deletion of not a single sound but of an entire syllable. English [pɹɑbəbli] [pɹɑbli] Old English Modern English

‘Anglaland’ > ‘England’‘humblely’ > ‘humbly’

Phonological processesinsertion (epenthesis): a sound is inserted in between two other segments.

English [hæmstəɹ] [hæmpstəɹ]Japanese [stɑɹbʌks] [suta:bakkusu]Polish [ɔrginalnɨ] [ɔrɨginalnɨ] ‘original’ (Polish)

aspiration: a sound becomes aspirated (gets a little puff of air), e.g. voiceless stops aspirate syllable initially in English.‐

metathesis: two (or more) sounds switch their position within a word.English [spəgɛɾi] [pəsgɛɾi] (children acquiring the language)English [ɪntɹədjus] [ɪntəɹdjus]English [æsk] [æks]Polish [durʃlak] [druʃlak] ‘strainer’

reduplication: a longer segment (e.g. a syllable) is repeated, often to convey emphasis, plurality or repeated motion.

Chinese: xiǎoxiǎo ‘very small’ (‘xiǎo’ = small)Japanese: hitobito ‘people, persons’ (‘hito’ = person)Afrikaans: krap-krap-krap ‘scratch vigorously’ (‘krap’ = scratch)French: dodo ‘sleep’ (‘dormer’ = sleep)Swahili: pigapiga ‘strike repeatedly’ (‘piga’ = strike)

English: razzle dazzlebling blingnight nightboobooitty bitty

Phonological processes

English [ɹɛnt] [ɹɛ̃nt]

Polish ‘coffee’ (dim.) [kavka] [kafka]

English [pɪktjəɹ] [pɪkt͡ʃəɹ]

English [downt bi sɪli] [dowm bi sɪli]

English [gɛt ɑwt] [gɛɾɑwt]

English [klɑwn] [kl̥ɑwn]

English [dɛsəməl] [dɛsməl]

Spanish, Farsi [spɔrt] [ɛspɔrt]

English [fɪfθs] [fɪfts]

nasalization

devoicing

affrication

deletion + PoA assim. (partial)

flapping

devoicing

deletion

insertion

dissimiliation

Practice!What phonological process is illustrated by each example?

Phonological analysisWhen analyzing a data set and figuring out if some sounds are phonemes or allophones, it is helpful to follow these steps:

1) Look for minimal pairs. Are there any minimal pairs in the data set or not? If there are minimal pairs, the sounds are phonemes.

2) Examine the phonetic environments in which each sound occurs. Do the environments overlap or not? If they overlap, the sounds are phonemes.

3) If the environments do not overlap, is there anything in the environments that seems to be a pattern? Does one sound always occur in a very specific environment? If there seems to be a pattern, formulate a rule that predicts the sounds’ distribution. If you can formulate a rule, the sounds are allophones of the same phoneme.

Practice!

With a partner complete exercises on the exercise sheet.