Phonemic Analysis

phonology

the study of speech sounds and sound patterns

the set of sounds that occur in a given language

the permissible arrangements of these sounds in words

the process of adding, deleting, or changing sounds

mentally

there are some sounds in our language that we are _____ aware of, but in physical reality, these sounds are produced using different physical gestures (movement of our articulators) which make these very different

for example, in the speaker’s mind, these sounds are all members of the same category /t/, but in physical reality they are all different (could be aspirated, non-aspirated, a glottal stop, or a tap)

phonemes

sounds in the mind are called these, and are always enclosed in slashes / /

phones

physically produced sounds are called these, and are always inclosed in square brackets [ ]

what physically comes out of our mouth

underlying/phonemic representation

/hæt/ in our mind (mental representation)

surface/phonetic representation

[hæʔ] what comes out of our mouth

phonemes

the first stet in analyzing a language’s phonology is to determine its basic sounds which are called

minimal pairs or before and after chart if minimal pairs are not present

how do we determine where a sound is phonemic in a given language or not?

minimal pairs

words that differ in only one sound

pin vs tin, bat vs bit, had vs hat

phonemes

_____ serves to distinguish words from each other

contrastive distribution

phonemically distinct sounds are said to be in contrast

these are just ways of saying that two sounds are members of separate phonemes (contrastive in our minds)

they are members of separate phonemes and are stored separately

if there are minimal pairs present in a set of sounds from a language0, what does that tell us about the sounds?

not in contrastive distribution

if there are no minimal pairs in a set of sounds, are the sounds in contrastive distribution or not?

make a before and after chart and check for other patterns

what do you do after you determine there are no minimal pairs present in a distribution?

yes, near-minimal pairs exist

is it possible for sounds to be in contrastive distribution if we can’t find any minimal pairs?

near-minimal pairs

consist of two words that are almost identical but differ by more than one sound

like team vs dean

helps with sounds that are not commonly found in a language

cannot

for contrastive sounds, we can or cannot predict which environments they appear in?

can

for non-contrastive sounds, can we or can we not predict which environments they appear in

complementary distribution

when sounds are not contrastive, meaning you can predict the environment that it is in, these sounds are said to be in what?

complementary distribution

two (or more) sounds are said to be in this if one sound never occurs in the environment in which the other occurs

if two sounds occur in different environments

allophones of the same phoneme

if two sounds are in complementary distribution, they are what?

allophones

are phones that are associated with the same phoneme

example: /t/ is the phoneme but [t], [ɾ], [ʔ], and [tʰ] are these

true

true or false: the same set of sounds can be in different distributions in different languages

steps of phonemic analysis

1. look for minimal pairs (→ contrastive distribution, phonemes)

2. if no minimal pairs, make before and after chart

3. look for relevant pattern and generalize the environment (→ complementary distribution, allophones)

4. decide on the basic sound (based on which appears in more varied environments and creates a simpler rule)

   1. form the rule, both in prose (words) and formally (with symbols)

forming hypotheses

this is how we figure out which sound is the basic sound (the phoneme)

we can form specific hypotheses about the level of representation that a phone is at: phonetic or phonemic?

when looking for patterns in the environment

compare before environments to before environments and after environments to after environments for the phones you’re investigating

if you don’t find any clear patterns in either case, consider both the before and after environments simultaneously (rules often change a segment between vowels)

surface variants

the set of phones which occur in the simplest, most predictable environment, we take as these

these will count as just phonetic (aka allophones)

underlying phonemes

the set of phones occurring in a mixed, less (or non-) predictable environment, we take as these

***these will count as the basic phones

basic phone

ones that are unpredictable and have no pattern

one that is stored in the mind

allophones

one that are predictable and follow a clear pattern

sounds that aren’t stored in the mind since they come out in certain situations (like a /t/ comes out as a [ɾ] in “butter”)

true

true or false: in some languages there are fine distinctions that are not present in english, like dental vs alveolar sounds

they make a meaning difference

before interdental fricatives

in english, the distribution between dental and alveolar stops is predictable

same

another piece of evidence for the psychological reality of the phoneme is the fact that people hear related allophones as the ____ sound

ex: nasal vs oral sounds, if switched in english, there isn’t much of a difference, but in french, it would change the meaning of a word

learning a new language

first language phonemes and allophonic relations can transfer over when?

like english speakers will apply the phonological rules of english when learning french

the criterion of phonetic similarity

the allophones of a single phoneme generally resemble one another to a certain degree