Week 6 - Examining Allophony (beyond Contrast)

Question 1

Contrast and Beyond

Why isnt BASIC PhoNEMic analysis enough?

Answer 1

analysis into INDIV. PHONEMES captures/expresses fundamental facts of WHICH PHONES CONTRAST

Basic Phonemic analysis Not /Explicity Express/

1. phonetic properties SHARED by allophones of PHONEME
2. phonetic properties SHARED by allophone and CONDITIONING ENVIRON

More than phonemes:

• Lexical idiosyncrasy in phonemic form
• allomorphy w phonologically similar forms of a morpheme

Question 2

Patterns of Allophony across phonemes

Answer 2

In Spanish:
/b/ = [b] & [β]
/d/ = [d] & [ð]
/g/ = [g] & [ɣ]

the 3 phonemes have EQUIVALENT DIFFERENCES between their Allophones and Equivalent Distributions

• /b/ –> { [β] / V_V }
  { [b] elsewhere}

so: VOICED STOP phonemes in Spanish have a VOICED FRICATIVE ALLOPHONE between Vowels/Glides and a Stop Allophone elsewhere

Question 3

Indentifying Phonetic Properties across phones in allophony

Answer 3

SPANISH: VOICED STOP phonemes in have a VOICED FRICATIVE ALLOPHONE between Vowels/Glides and a Stop Allophone elsewhere

We know this by:
FORMALLY IDENTIFYING COMMON PHONETIC PROPERTIES
- see what all ‘main’ and ‘conditional’ allophones have in common
- the what changes are in common across phonemes

allophones:
[β] [b] SHARE: bilabial
[ð] [d̪] SHARE: dental
[ɣ] [g] SHARE: velar

phonemes:
[β] [ð] [ɣ] SHARE: voiced and fricative
[b] [d̪] [g] SHARE: voiced and stop

Question 4

Allophones and their CONTEXTS

Answer 4

1 - Look for patterns in allophony (what come Before/After)

2 - Thai has 4 lateral approximant phones - mutually exclusive, allophones of same phoneme

3 - analysing data (put in table or slash dash) DONT JUST LIST - List PROPERTIES of surrounding context

4 - realise rule:
> Four allo of /l/ result of 2 effects:
a. VOICELESSNESS of lateral follows aspiration in PRECEDING STOP
b. PALATALISATION of lateral preceeds FOLLOWING FRONT HIGH VOWEL

Question 5

what does phonological theory need to be able to express?

Answer 5

1. phonetic properties shared by allo of /phoneme/
2. phonetic properties shared by allophone and conditioning /environment/
3. phonetic properties across /phonemeS/ in a language

Question 6

What is Lexical Idiosyncrasy?

Answer 6

Phonemic variations found in Just a FEW words - QUIRK - NOT SYSTEMATIC PHENOMENON

• no phonological generalisation can be made
  NOT FREE VARIATION:
  
  • with = [wɪθ] ~ [wɪð]
  • either = [i:ðə] ~ [ɑeðə]

/θ/ and /ð/ - thy and thigh (diff phonemes) so its just kooky !