Week 5: Phonology and Phonetics

Question 1

What are the co-articulation effects in French?

Answer 1

• Liaison
• Resyllabification
• Elision

Question 2

What is liason (French)?

Answer 2

• Written word-final consonants other than c, r, f and l are left latent or mute (they are unpronounced)
• Liaison is the pronunciation of a latent word-final consonant immediately before a following vowel sound or a non-aspirated h
• Basically the whole not pronouncing a consonant at the end of the word unless it’s followed by a vowel idk

Question 3

More liaison shite for French idk I cba

Question 4

When (in French) does liaison not occur? Give examples (week 5 video 1)

Answer 4

• Between a non-pronominal noun phrase and the verb
• Between two complements of a ditransitive verb
• Between two complete clauses
• Usually after all singular nouns, although in fixed expressions, singular nouns can allow liaison

Question 5

What are the co-articulation effects in German?

Answer 5

• Devoicing

- Allophones

Question 6

When does devoicing take place in German? Give an example word for each

Answer 6

• A voiced consonant in word-final position becomes voiceless
• With consonant clusters (a sequence of more than one consonant)
• In compound words, at the internal word boundary

Question 7

What are the German allophones?

Answer 7

• [r] - alveolar trill (Southern dialects)
• [ʀ] - uvular trill
• [ʁ] - voiced uvular fricative
  The first three are all allophones that occur either as syllable initial or mid-syllable and occur in free variation
• [ɐ] in syllable-final position
• [ç] - voiceless palatal fricative in ‘ich’
• [x] - voiceless velar fricative in ‘Nacht’

Question 8

What are the co-articulation effects in Italian?

Answer 8

• Consonant doubling (gemination)
• Syntactic doubling
• Assimilation

Question 9

What is syntactic doubling/syntactic gemination? What does it consist of?

Answer 9

• A phenomenon that occurs across word boundaries in Italian, Finnish, and some West Romance languages.
• It consists of the lengthening of the initial consonant in certain contexts

Question 10

In standard Italian, when does syntactic doubling occur?

Answer 10

• After all stressed (strong) monosyllables and many unstressed (weak) monosyllables
• Andiamo a casa is an exception (the k sound is doubled)
• All polysyllables that are stressed on the final vowel

Question 11

What monosyllables in Italian do not cause doubling?

Answer 11

• Articles, clitic pronouns and various particles

Question 12

In terms of assimilation, what is notable about the pronunciation of the Italian phonemes /m/ and /n/? Explain (2) and give an example word for each

Answer 12

• They do not contrast before bilabial stops /p,b/, and labiodental fricatives /f,v/
• When they are followed by bilabial stops, they are pronounced [m]: - imparo [im’pa:ro] - in borsa [im’borsa]
• When they are followed by labiodental fricatives they are pronounced [ɱ] - invece [iɱ’ve:tʃe] - infatti [iɱ’fat:i]

Question 13

What is assimilation?

Answer 13

When two sound segments occur in sequence and some aspect of one segment is taken or “copied” by the other

Question 14

What is another allophone of the phoneme /n/ in Italian? Give an example word

Answer 14

• the velar nasal [ŋ] in front of a velar consonant

- banca [‘baŋka]

Question 15

What are the co-articulation effects in Spanish? (5)

Answer 15

• Pronunciation of b,d,g
• The Spanish r
• The allophones [s] and [z]
• Assimilation
• Nasalization

Question 16

What happens to the phonemes /b/, /d/ and /g/ in Spanish when they occur after a nasal consonant (/m/ or /n/) or a pause? What about in other phonological contexts? Give an example

Answer 16

• They are pronounced as plosive sounds
• In any other phonological context, they are pronounced with the fricatives [β], [ð and [ɣ] respectively
• e.g candado [kan’daðo] - the first /d/ sound is preceded by a nasal /n/ (hence being pronounced as the allophone /d/ and the second /d/ is intervocalic (hence pronounced as the allophone [ð])

Question 17

What two allophones does the phoneme /r/ have in Spanish? When do they respectively occur? Give an example word for each

Answer 17

• The trill [r]:
  
  • in word-initial position: rosa [‘rosa]
  • when the consonant is doubled: corro [‘koro]
  • after /n/, /s/, /l/: sonrisa [son’risa]
• The tap [ɾ]:
  
  • after a plosive or fricative consonant but not /s/: frio [fɾio]

Question 18

When are the alveolar trill [r] and the alveolar tap [ɾ] in phonemic contrast in Spanish? What does this mean? Give an example

Answer 18

• When they occur word-internally between vowels
• This means that they are phonemes in Spanish
• carro [‘karo] vs caro [‘kaɾo]

Question 19

In Spanish are the sounds /s/ and /z/ distinctive? What are they allophones of? When do they respectively occur?

Answer 19

• No, they are non-distinctive
• they are allophones of the phoneme /s/
• /s/ -> [z] before a voiced consonant: desde [‘dezde]
• /s/ - [s] elsewhere: saco [‘sako]

Question 20

In terms of assimilation, what is notable about the three nasal phonemes /m/, /n/, and /ɲ/ in Spanish? (2)

Answer 20

• They maintain their contrast when in syllable-initial position: eg. cama, cana and caña are all different words
• In syllable-final position, this three-way contrast is lost as nasals assimilate to the place of articulation of the following consonant, even across word boundary - thus /n/ is realized as [m] before labial consonants and as [ŋ] before velar ones: un perro [um’pero] and tengo [teŋgo]

Question 21

When does nasalization occur in Spanish? Give an example

Answer 21

• Phonetic nasalization occurs for vowels that appear between nasal consonants of when preceding a syllable-final nasal (like in English)
• cinco [ˈθĩŋko]