Phonemes
- Distribution of Phonemes
- most have a wide ranging distribution (t)
- some languages have phonemes w/ limited or defective distributions
- h: only at beginning of syllables
- ŋ: only at end of syllables
- specific notation: the phoneme is pronounced as the allophone in the environment
- Conditioning Environments: causes allophony
- Positional: different allophones can occur depending on where it is in the word (ex: f) [initial, medial, final]
- Adjacent Segments / Assimilation: sounds frequently assimilate to neighboring sounds (ex: nasalization)
- Stress: both vowels and consonants can have different allophones in stressed v unstressed syllables
- Some Phonological Processes
- Voicing Assimilation: voiceless speech sounds get voiced when they neighbor other voiced sounds
- Devoicing: voiced segments become devoiced at the very end of words as the vibration of vocal folds stops prematurely. b, d, g ➝ p, t, k
- Place Assimilation: vowels and consonants take on the place of articulation of a neighboring sound
- Palatalization: a shift to a more palatal place of articulation
- A Brief Overview of Theory
- mental representations of the sound shape of words are stored as phonemes in the Lexicon
- allophones activate the same specific area of the brain as phonemes
- phonological rules: formal statements of what occurred in speech
- nasalization, place assimilation, aspiration
- How to do a phoneme analysis
- Question the phonetics of sounds involved. Should be phonetically similar
- Analyze the sound’s distribution and where each sound occurs
- by position: initial, medial, and final
- by adjacent segments
- Determine the phonological relationship
- Contrast: minimal and subminimal pairs
- Complementary: non-overlapping environments