Week_12___13__SoL_15

Week 12 & 13: SoL 15.1 & 15.2 - Prosodic Structure: Moras and Syllables

Key Concepts

  • Mora: A unit of syllable weight that quantifies the timing or length of a syllable.

    • Types of Moras:

      • Light: Short syllables (1 mora)

      • Heavy: Long syllables (2 moras)

    • Importance: Used in languages where syllable length affects stress, rhythm, or meaning (e.g., Japanese, Yowlumne).

    • Constituents:

      • Short vowels → 1 mora

      • Long vowels → 2 moras

      • Coda consonants may contribute a mora, depending on the language.

  • Syllable: The structural unit in speech that organizes sounds around a peak of sonority.

    • Characteristics:

      • Each syllable has one peak sonority.

      • Example: In the word "GIVING", there are two syllables: gi-ving.

    • Phonological Structure: Can be described as CV structure, CVC, etc.

      • Constituents:

        • Onset: Initial sound in a syllable.

        • Nucleus: The peak vowel sound.

        • Coda: Final consonant sound (e.g., in "PIN", P = onset, I = nucleus, N = coda).

Does Phonology Need Syllables?

  • Yes, syllables are essential for:

    • Speaker Intuition: Native speakers intuitively count syllables in words (e.g., "language" has 2 syllables).

    • Phonological Generalizations: Allophonic variations occur in syllable-based domains.

Syllables and Sonority

  • Sonority: Refers to the relative openness of the vocal tract, correlating with loudness. Sounds are ranked on a sonority scale:

    • Most sonorous sounds include:

      • Low vowels: ɒ, ɑ, a, ɶ

      • Mid vowels: ɛ, ɜ, ə

      • High vowels and glides: i, y, etc.

      • Rhotics: ɹ, ɻ, etc.

      • Laterals: l, ɭ, etc.

      • Nasals: n, m, etc.

      • Fricatives: s, f, etc.

      • Plosives: p, d, etc.

    • Sonority Sequencing Principle: Sonority rises to a peak (nucleus) and then falls (toward coda). Example: "print" [prɪnt].

Syllable Structure Constraints

Constraint 1: Onsets and Codas

  • Preferred Syllable Type: CV (consonant-vowel) is universal and unmarked.

    • Examples:

      • Onsets are preferred; e.g., Hawaiian has CV syllables.

      • Codas: Optional in some languages (e.g., German allows codas, Hawaiian does not).

  • Rhyme: Every syllable must include a rhyme, which may consist of a nucleus and a coda or just the nucleus.

  • Complexity:

    • Complex onsets and codas are marked (example: "Christ" [kɹaɪst]).

Constraint 2: Moras and Syllable Weight

  • Mora: Quantifies syllable weight. Weight Rule explains how languages treat moras:

    • In Yowlumne, a syllable can have:

      • Long vowel (2 moras) OR a short vowel + coda (2 moras), but not both.

    • Thai: All words must be bimoraic.

Prosodic Hierarchy

Phonological Word

  • Definition: A phonological word groups syllables and moras into a unit for phonological rules.

  • Phonological vs. Syntactic Word: Phonological processes can treat compound words differently than separate syntactic units.

  • Hierarchy:

    • Utterance (U)

    • Intonational phrase (I)

    • Phonological Phrase (ɸ)

    • Phonological Word (ω)

    • Foot (F)

    • Syllable (σ)

Phonological Phrase

  • Groups phonological words into larger domains for processes (e.g., vowel harmony, voicing assimilation).

  • Rules: Processes operate within phrases but not across boundaries.

    • Examples: Igbo and Korean show vowel and voicing assimilation within phrases, respectively.

Summary

  • Rewrite these summaries in your own words for understanding!