PHONOLOGY

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Phonology vs phonetics

■ Phonetics: study of speech sounds

■ Phonology: study of sound systems
– How sounds pattern together

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Phonemes and allophones

■ /Phoneme/ – what a speaker perceives as

a single sound
– Language specific
– Mental representation of speech
■ [Allophone]
– Phones that realize a particular
phoneme

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Broad and narrow
transcription
■ Broad transcription captures phonemes
– Represented in /slashes/
■ Narrow transcription captures phonetic
detail
– Represented in [square brackets]
■ Level of detail somewhat varies
pad pan lab lamb
Broad: /pæd/ /pæn/ /læb/ /læm/
Narrow: [pʰæd] [pʰæ̃n] [læb] [læ̃m]
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Phonemes and allophones

One mental representation /p/

Two real world realizations [p] and [pʰ]

/p/
[p]
[pʰ]

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Complementary Distribution

Two realizations of the same underlying person

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Complementary distribution

■ Example: English voiceless stop aspiration

– Stops /p t k/ may be aspirated or
unaspirated
– Aspiration occurs in a specific
environment

– pit spit sip

– [pʰɪt] [spɪt] [sɪp]

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Minimal pairs

■ A pair of words which differ by only one

sound, this difference in sound changes
meaning
■ Ex: meet [mit] and neat [nit] are minimal
pairs
– Changing [m] to [n] changes meaning
■ [m] and [n] are in contrastive distribution
■ [m] and [n] are allophones of separate
phonemes, /m/ and /n/
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 Practice: Minimal pairs
Find minimal pairs demonstrating that the following pairs of
sounds are in fact distinct phonemes in English. Demonstrate
this in word-initial, word-internal, and word-final positions.

Initial Medial Final

kill/gill, bicker/bigger, lock/log,
/k/ and /g/
[kɪl] and [gɪl] [bɪkɹ̩ ] and [bɪgɹ̩ ] [læk] and [læg]
/m/ and
/n/
/s/ and /z/

/s/ and /ʃ/

/p/ and /b/

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Contrastive and
Complementary distribution
Contrastive Complementary
Distribution Distribution
■ Allophones of different ■ Allophones of the same
phonemes phoneme
■ NO minimal pairs
■ Minimal (or near
minimal) pairs ■ NO overlapping
environments
■ Overlapping ■ Where you have one
environments sound, you will never
have the other
■ Where you have one
sound, you can put the ■ Sounds are phonetically
related
other (this will be a
different word) 10
Contrastive and
Complementary distribution
Contrastive Complementary
Distribution Distribution
■ Consider [k] and [ɡ] ■ Consider [k] and [kʰ]
■ change the [k] in [bæk] ■ Change the [k] in [ski] to
to [ɡ] and the result is [kʰ] result is [skʰi]
[bæɡ], a different word – Sounds odd, but not
■ [k] and [ɡ] allophones on a different word
separate phonemes /k/ ■ [k] and [kʰ] are
and / ɡ / allophones of the same
phoneme /k/

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Practice

■ Consider oral and nasal vowels in english

– Vowels become nasalized before nasal
consonants
pad pan lab lamb
[pʰæd] [pʰæ̃n] [læb] [læ̃m]
■ [æ] and [æ̃] are allophones of phoneme /æ/

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Practice

■ Consider oral and nasal vowels in French

beau bon
[bo] [bõ]
■ Are these minimal pairs?
■ Are they in complementary or contrastive
distribution
■ Are they allophones of the same phoneme
or different phonemes?
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Natural classes

■ Natural class: a grouping of sounds that

share a certain feature or features
■ Used to explain phenomena that occur
across multiple sounds
■ Ex: /p t k/ for the natural class of voiceless
stops
■ /p t k/ are realized with or without
aspiration in the same contexts

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Natural classes

■ Use [+/- feature] values

■ /p t k/ = [-voice, -continuant]
■ Use the minimal number of feature to
include what you need and exclude all
others

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natural classes

■ Obstruents: fricatives, stops (plosives) and

affricates
– [-sonorant]
■ Sonorants – nasals, liquids and glides
– [+sonorant]
■ Approximants – liquids, vibrants and glides
– [+sonorant, -nasal]
■ Sibilants – hissing ‘s’- like sounds
– [+strident]
– [s z ʃ ʒ ʧ ʤ]

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Natural classes: features

What combination of features will include

all fricatives /f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h/ and
exclude all other sounds?

• [-sonorant] includes only stops,

fricatives and affricates
• [+continuant] excludes stops and
affricates
• The natural class fricatives is defined
as [-sonorant, +continuant]
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Practice
Use the features chart to define the natural
class for the following groups of sound using
+/- features
■ /g p t d k b/
[-continuant, -sonorant, -strident]
■ /i e ɛ æ ʌ a ɪ ə/
[-round]
■ /p b m/
[+labial, -continuant]

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Rules

■ Rules capture the environments in which different

allophones occur
■ Rules can be written in prose:
– A becomes B in the environment of C and D
■ Or shorthand:
■ A B /C__D

Simplified example from Spanish data Set:

■ /d/ becomes [ð] between vowels (inter-vocalically) and
[d] elsewhere
/d/  [ð] / V_V
[d] / elsewhere
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Shorthand

■ # word boundary
■ # – word boundary
■ σ – syllable boundary
■ V – vowel
■ C – consonant

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Khmer

The following data is form the Austronesian

language Khmer. Examine the distribution of [pʰ],
[tʰ], [kʰ] and [p], [t], [k]. Are they allophones of the
same or different phonemes?
[tarm] ‘to wish
[pʰak] ‘be suffocated’
[kem] ‘to cut’
[tʰarm] ‘also’
[pak] ‘to support’
[kʰem] ‘to polish
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Khmer

■ Are there minimal pairs?

– Yes

[tarm] ‘to wish

[pʰak] ‘be suffocated’
[kem] ‘to cut’
[tʰarm] ‘also’
[pak] ‘to support’
[kʰem] ‘to polish

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Khmer

■ Are there minimal pairs?

– Yes

[tarm] ‘to wish

[pʰak] ‘be suffocated’
[kem] ‘to cut’
[tʰarm] ‘also’
[pak] ‘to support’
[kʰem] ‘to polish

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Khmer

■ Presence of minimal pairs indicates

contrastive distributionof the following:
– [t] and [tʰ]
– [p] and [pʰ]
– [k] and [kʰ]
■ Indicates separate phonemes:
– /t/ and /tʰ/
– /p/ and /pʰ/
– /k/ and /kʰ/
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Hebrew

Step 3: If no minimal pairs, list the environments

■ [bika] ‘lamented’
■ [mugbal] ‘limited’
■ [ʃavar] ‘broke’
■ [ʔikev] ‘delayed’
■ [bara] ‘created’
Write out the sound that immediately precedes and follows
the phones in question.
Use ___ to represent the sounds in question (preceding
___following
Oraganize in columns, one per sound being investigated
Hebrew

Step 3: If no minimal pairs, list the environments

■ [bika] ‘lamented’
■ [mugbal] ‘limited’
■ [ʃavar] ‘broke’
■ [ʔikev] ‘delayed’
■ [bara] ‘created’
[v] [b]

a_a #_i
e_# g_a
#_a
Doe the envrionments overlap?
No – This means complementary distribtion
Hebrew

Step 4: make a generalization about where the

sounds occur
■ Which environment is more interesting? Before
or after?
■ Where does [b]
– After consonants and word boundaries
■ Where does [v] occur?
– After vowels
Hebrew

Step 5: determine the underlying form

■ The underlying form is typically the sound with they
wider distribution
– Wider distribution = occurs in more
environments
■ Does [b] or [v] have wider distribution?
[v]
/?/
[b]
Hebrew

Step 5: determine the underlying form

■ The underlying form is typically the sound with they
wider distribution
– Wider distribution = occurs in more
environments
■ Does [b] or [v] have wider distribution?
[v]
/b/
[b]
Hebrew

Step 6: Write the rule

■ Specify the environment in which each
allophone is realized

– /b/ becomes [v] after vowels (and [b]

elsewhere)
– /b/  [v] / V__
( [b] elsewhere)
Practice: Korean
Using the steps, consider the distribution of [s]
and [ʃ]:

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Practice: Korean
Using the steps, consider the distribution of [s]
and [ʃ]:

/s/  [ʃ] / __[i]

[+strident, -voice]  [-anterior]/ ____[+high,
+front]
/s/ become [ʃ] before high front vowel [i]

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Phonological Processes

■ Elision/deletion/subtraction
– family /fæmɪli/  [fæmli]
■ Epenthesis: insertion/addition
– strength /stɹɛŋθ/  [stɹɛŋkθ]
■ Assimilation: one or more features spread to a
neighboring sound
– /stɹɛŋθ/  [stɹɛn̪θ]
■ Metathesis: switching
– asked /æskt/  [ækst]
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