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October 7, 2011
To do list:
• Go to Kyle’s website (http://courses.umass.edu/kbj/ling201/201.html) and download the
Feature Chart and the Guide to Distinctive Features.
• Learn all of the features. You will need to know what features which sounds have in
order to complete the phonology problems on your next assignments and on you
midterm (October 17).
Definitions:
• Minimal pair: Two words with distinct meanings that differ by only one segment found
in the same position in each form.
a. [p] and [b] pie [paɪ] buy [baɪ] lap [læp] lab [læb]
b. [t] and [d] toll [towl] dole [dowl] late [leɪt] laid [leɪd]
c. [θ] and [t] through [θɹuw] true [tɹuw] with [wɪθ] wit [wɪt]
d. [l] and [r] late [leɪt] rate [ɹeɪt] stall [stɑl] star [stɑɹ]
• What do you know about [p], [b], [t], [d], [θ], [l], and [r] in English?
⇒ If you can find minimal pairs for two sounds, that means that there is no possible rule
that could have applied to turn one sound into the other. In other words, these two
sounds are both phonemes.
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2.) Phonology Practice Problem 1: Finnish
The following words show the distribution of voiceless and voiced (non-nasal) alveolar stops in
Finnish ([t], [d], [s], [z]).
([VV] represents a long vowel.)
a. [kuuzi] ‘six’
b. [kadot] ‘failures’
c. [kate] ‘cover’
d. [liisa] ‘Lisa’
e. [maton] ‘of a rug’
f. [kade] ‘envious’
g. [ratas] ‘wheel’
h. [kuusi] ‘sixty’
i. [radan] ‘of a track’
Goal: Figure out whether [t] / [s] and [d] / [z] are unique phonemes, or whether one pair
are allophones of the other.
First step: Are there minimal pairs involving the segments [t] and [d]?
Because there are minimal pairs, we know that /t/, /d/, /s/, and /z/ are all unique phonemes.
The following words show the distribution of nasal consonants [n] and [ŋ] in Italian.
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Goal: Figure out whether [n] and [ŋ] are unique phonemes or whether one ([n] or [ŋ]) is an
allophone of the other.
First step: Are there minimal pairs involving the segments [n] and [ŋ]?
Note: [tiŋɡo] and [tɛŋɡo] are not a minimal pair: the vowels [i] and [ɛ] are different.
⇒ No. This shows us that either [n] or [ŋ] is an allophone of the other sound.
Second step: What is the distribution of [n] and [ŋ] in the list of words above? Make a table
with one column for [n] and one column for [ŋ]. Write down the sound that comes before [n] or
[ŋ], and the sound that follows [n] or [ŋ]. Put a line to represent where [n] or [ŋ] goes. #
represents the edge of a word.
[n] [ŋ]
a. i___t g. i___g
b. ɛ___d h. ɛ___g
c. a___s i. u___g
d. #___e j. a___k
e. ɛ___t k. a___k
f. o___e l. a___g
How to do this: Look at the table and try to the simplest descriptive statement possible to
describe where [n] and [ŋ] occur.
• In the problems we give you, one sound will occur in a clearly simpler environment than the
other sound.
[n] occurs after [i, ɛ, a, #, o] [ŋ] occurs after [i, ɛ, u, a]
Statement: “In Italian, [ŋ] occurs before a velar stop and [n] occurs elsewhere.”
• The simplest statement says what rule (following velar stop) gives you [ŋ]. That means that [ŋ]
is most plausibly the allophone (it is created from /n/ by an application of a rule).
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Bad statements:
o “In Italian, [ŋ] occurs after vowels and [n] occurs elsewhere.” Factually incorrect.
o “In Italian, only [n] occurs at the beginning of the word.” Factually correct but
doesn’t capture all the data. [n] occurs in other environments, too.
o “In Italian, [ŋ] occurs after a vowel and before a velar consonant, and [n] occurs
elsewhere.” True but unnecessarily complicated. The inclusion of “after a vowel”
isn’t informative because this doesn’t distinguish between [n] and [ŋ]. Both can
occur after vowels.
o “In Italian, [n] occurs before an alveolar consonant or a vowel, and [ŋ] occurs
elsewhere.” True, but more complicated than the best statement. Plus, both [n]
and [ŋ] can occur before vowels so that part of the statement isn’t useful.
o “In Italian, [ŋ] occurs before [k] or [ɡ] and [n] occurs elsewhere.” True but we
miss a generalization: [k] and [ɡ] are similar sounds (they are both “velar stops”).
Fourth step: Write a rule with features that accounts for the descriptive statement that you
made above.
• First think about this: What features characterize the phoneme /n/ and the allophone [ŋ]?
What feature(s) differentiate them?
/n/ is different from [ŋ] because /n/ is /-back/ and [ŋ] is [+back].
• Then think about this: What features characterize both [k] and [ɡ]?
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4.) Phonology Practice Problem 2: Gascon
The following list show the distribution of [b] / [d] and [β] / [ð] in Gascon.
Goal: Figure out whether [b] / [d] and [β] / [ð] are unique phonemes or whether one pair of
sounds are allophones of the other.
No. This tells us that one pair of sounds is allophones of the other.
Second step: What is the distribution of [b] / [d] and [β] / [ð]?
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Third step: Decide whether [b] / [d] are allophones of [β] / [ð], or vice versa.
Statement: “In Gascon, [β] and [ð] occur between vowels. [b] and [d] occur elsewhere.”
• The simplest statement says what rule (occurs between vowels) gives you [β] and [ð]. That
means that [β] and [ð] are allophones of [b] and [d], respectively.
Fourth step: Write a rule with features that accounts for the descriptive statement that you
made above.
• First think about this: What features collectively characterize the phonemes /b/ and /d/, and
what features collectively characterize the allophones [β] and [ð]. the allophone [ŋ]? What
feature(s) differentiate them?
/b/, /d/ are different from [β], [ð] because the former are /-continuant/ and the latter are
[+continuant].
[vowels] : [+vocalic]
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