Week 3

Question 1

What is phonology concerned with?

Answer 1

Phonology is concerned with the abstract or mental aspect of the sounds in a language rather than with the actual physical articulation of speech sounds.

This makes phonology part of the linguistic level in the speech chain (see PP3 s2).

Question 2

What is phonetics concerned with?

Answer 2

The physical aspects of speech sounds; how speech sounds function in a language.

Question 3

What is remarkable about [k] and [g]? And what are these sounds called? What is an example?

Answer 3

That in French, Spanish, German and English they have the potential to create meaning contrasts; replacing one sound with the other can produce a different word.

Sounds which have this potential are phonemes; sounds that are contrastive in a language.

French coût [ku] ‘cost’
French goût [gu] ‘taste’

Question 4

Contrastive sounds

Answer 4

Phonemes; sounds which have the potential to make a different word by replacing just one sound.

Question 5

Minimal pairs

Answer 5

Word pairs that differ in just one sound.

Finding minimal pairs is a good way to test whether a sound functions as a phoneme.

Question 6

How do you test if a sound functions as a phoneme?

Answer 6

Find minimal pairs.

Question 7

How are phonemes represented?

Answer 7

Slant brackets //.

Question 8

Loan phonemes (and how would Dutch native speakers pronounce them)?

Answer 8

Dutch has words like goal, tango, baguette. These are all non-native words (loanwords). Some speakers pronounce such words with a voiced velar stop, which may give rise to marginal minimal pairs.

Dutch [kol] ‘cabbage’
English/Dutch [gol] ‘goal’

Others replace the sound with a native phoneme, /k x/.

Question 9

Loanwords

Answer 9

Goal, baguette.

Question 10

Some observations in English speech sounds

Answer 10

1. The most frequent sound is schwa.
2. Alveolar consonants are very frequent.
3. Voiceless stops are more frequent than their voiced counterparts.
4. /g/ had a (much) lower frequency than the other stops.
5. Consonant inventories show a high degree of symmetry.

Question 11

Which sounds are frequent in English?

Answer 11

Alveolar consonants, voiceless stops, schwa.

Question 12

Allophones

Answer 12

Not all sounds that occur are necessarily phonemes. For example, while [g] is not a native phoneme in Dutch, it’s sometimes found in native Dutch (compound) words.

zakdoek [zagdum]

However, the voicing of [g] is determined by the context; the following stop is voiced. This means we’re not dealing with the phoneme /g/ but rather a voiced allophone of /k/.

Question 13

What is a complication in setting up the phoneme system of a language?

Answer 13

Not all sounds that occur are necessarily phonemes.

Question 14

[ʀ]

Answer 14

Voiced uvular thrill

Question 15

[ʁ] (French)

Answer 15

Voiced uvular fricative:
1. Word-initial
2. Between vowels
3. After a voiced consonant

Question 16

[ʁ°] (French)

Answer 16

Voiceless uvular fricative:
1. After a voiceless consonant

French trois /tʁwa/ ‘three’

Question 17

[ ̝ʁ] (French)

Answer 17

Voiceless uvular approximant:
1. Word-final
2. Before a consonant

French mère [mɛʁ] ‘mother’

Question 18

French has three distinct realisations of ‘r’, what are they? And what do we call this?

Answer 18

1. Voiced uvular fricative
2. Voiceless uvular fricative
3. Voiced uvular approximant

Allophones variations

These three sounds differ in their distribution; they occur in different positions in the word.

Their distribution is not arbitrary but systematic; which of the three sounds occurs depends on the phonetic context.

The distribution of the sounds is mutually exclusive; where we find one type of sound, we never find the others.

Question 19

Allophones variation

Answer 19

When a language has multiple distinct realisations of the same sound, like the ‘r’ in French.

1. Voiced uvular fricative
2. Voiceless uvular fricative
3. Voiced uvular approximant

Question 20

Allophones variations; distribution

Answer 20

The three ‘r’ sounds differ in their distribution; they occur in different positions in the word.

Question 21

Allophones variation; systematic

Answer 21

Their distribution is not arbitrary but systematic; which of the three sounds occurs depends on the phonetic context.

Question 22

Allophonic variation; mutually exclusive

Answer 22

The distribution of the sounds is mutually exclusive; where we find one type of sound, we never find the others.

Question 23

Complementary distribution vs. parallel distribution

Answer 23

Complementary: sounds whose distribution is mutually exclusive.

Parallel: /k/ and /g/ in French, Spanish, German and English, whose distribution overlaps; both sounds can occur in exactly the same position.

If sounds are in parallel distribution, then the phonetic distinction is contrastive and the sounds function as phonemes.

Question 24

Voicing alternations in Dutch

Answer 24

Slabben [slabə]
Slab [slap]

These singular-plural pairs show an alternation: the voiced stops and fricatives in the plural forms are voiceless in the corresponding singular forms.

Question 25

Does Dutch allow voiced stops and fricatives in the final position of words?

Answer 25

No!

[slab] ‘slab’
[ʋɔlv] ‘wolf’

Question 26

Neutralisation in final position (Dutch)

Answer 26

Voiced and voiceless stops and fricatives are in parallel distribution in the initial position of words:

pas [pas] ‘pass’ vs.
bas [bas] ‘bass’

Question 27

Final devoicing can be applied to…

Answer 27

Stops and fricatives (obstruents).

Question 28

Which sounds do not undergo final devoicing?

Answer 28

Nasals and liquids (sonorants).

Question 29

Natural class (in final devoicing)

Answer 29

Obstruents function as a natural class in Final Devoicing; all members of the class pattern together.

Question 30

What do syllables consist of?

Answer 30

Onset (the consonants before the vowel) and a rhyme (the vowel plus any following consonant). The rhyme consists of a nuclues and a coda.

/bɛd/

Onset: /b:
Rhyme:
1. Nucleus: /ɛ/
2. Coda: /d/