Phonology - 2

3 parts of phonological rule

/phoneme/

→ [allophone]

→ [allophone]

Phonological rules are efficient for

storage

you only need to store

smallest # of phonemes needed to create meaningful contrasts + some rules to automatically produce additional sounds (allophones)

[ɾ] appears

between vowels and when the preceding syllable is stressed

ex: Matty [‘mæ ɾi]

[ɾ] is an allophone of

multiple phonemes, /t/ and /d/

rule for [ɾ]

The alveolar stop ([t] and [d]) becomes the voiced alveolar flap [ɾ] when they are preceded by a stressed syllable and they are between 2 vowels

*they are realized as voiced alveolar stops [t] and [d] elsewhere

Natural class

a group of all the sound segments (of a particular language) that share one or more articulatory properties

EX: [t] and [d] form a natural class in English: alveolar stop

Reason why /t/ and /d/ change to [ɾ] between vowels in English is bc

Phonological process: Assimilation

Every phonological process is

a type of sound change

Assimilation is when

1 sound becomes more like a nearby sound in terms certain features (place or manner of articulation, or voicing)

Assimilation results in

that sounds become more similar to each other

Manner Assimilation

when the stop /t/ and /d/ are between vowels, it changes their manner of articulation to become more vowel-like

[ /t/ and /d/ are stop → flap [ɾ] ]

Voicing Assimilation

When the voiceless /t/ is between vowels, it changes its voicing to become voiced like the vowels.

[voiceless /t/→ voiced [ɾ], cuz vowel is voiced]

Place Assimilation

When in+possible → impossible, the nasal sound “n” in the prefix “in-” changes to match the place of articulation of the following consonant, which is bilabial /b]/

so /n/ → /b/ to match /p/

Dissimilation

2 similar sounds in a word become less alike to make pronunciation easier

Dissimilation EX:

‘fifth’ [f ɪ f θ s] → ‘fifth” [f ɪ f t s], the “f” sound changes to a “t” sound), making it easier to pronounce and avoiding the repetition of the “f” sound

Deletion

a sound or syllable is removed in pronunciation

Deletion EX:

• Family → Fam’ly

• Camera → Cam'ra

  • (deletion of the vowels)

Insertion

a sound is added to make the pronunciation easier

Insertion EX:

Athlete → ‘ Ath-a-lete

Metathesis

a process where 2 sounds swap places in a word

Metathesis EX:

‘ask’ is sometimes pronounced as ‘aks’ in some dialects

Daughter’s dialects and language arise from

a ‘Mother’ language

Daughter’s dialects and language arise from a ‘mother’ language when 1:

a language change occurs in one region/group but not another

EX of language change in one region

Proto-Indo-European when p → f change occur in the Germanic language group in the word foot (from pada in Sanskrit)

Protolanguage (ex: Proto-Indo-European) is

The “parent” language of a group of languages that share a common origin. Don’t have actual records, but linguists figure them out by looking at how languages in the same group are similar to each other and tracing them back to their roots.

Daughter’s dialects and language arise from a ‘mother’ language when 2:

The same language changes occur, but in different order

EX: of different order

The same 2 sounds (/ç/ /i/) changes occurred in Bradford English and Southern British English but in different order, resulting in different sounds (even tho did the same thing, just different order)

Rule Ordering

When multiple sound change occur, they happen in a specific order that affects the final pronunciation