Study Groups aren’t always a good idea!

• Sometimes it can help to teach and learn from others

• Don’t trust an answer you don’t fully understand

  • “What’s the answer?” is dangerous, “Why is that the answer?” might save you.

• Bad answers often ‘go viral’

  • I can usually tell a study group by the patterns of weird errors

  • “Somebody who was very wrong thought they were very right!”

• The very best study group is office hours!

Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language are awesome

Will Styler - LIGN 101

Today’s Plan

• Review

• Common Phonological Processes

• Natural Classes

• Let’s work some problems!

Reviewing Phonemic Analysis

A Phoneme

• The Smallest Contrastive Unit of Sound in a language, in a contrastive distribution with other phonemes in the language

• Changing phonemes changes meanings, and is perceptible (and often confusing!) for listeners of a language

• Changing between phonemes creates…

Minimal Pairs

• Two words with different meanings which differ by a single sound, indicating that those sounds are different phonemes

• Think “boot” and “boon”, or “Niña” and “Piña”

Allophones of a Phoneme

• Different surface-level expressions of the same phoneme, which alternate depending on the environment, in a complementary distribution

• Which allophone you get is dictated by a rule

• Think about [ej] and [ej:] or the many realizations of /t/ in English

Underlying Form

• The sound which you decide is the ‘base’ form, from which rules create the other allophones

• This is a strategic decision. Choose the form that lets you write the fewest, cleanest rules.

Allomorphs

• Different versions of morphemes which are swapped predictably based on the sound environment.

• Think the many plurals of English,

Free Variation

• Where a group of sounds can replace each other, or not, and there’s no pattern, just chaos

• Don’t worry about this for LIGN 101, we won’t give you Free Variation on homeworks or exams

Sounds have relationships with one another

• They can be independent phonemes

• They can be rule-governed allophones

• They can chaotically switching free variation

Signs that two sounds represent different phonemes

• Minimal pairs

• Speakers hear them as ‘entirely distinct’

• There’s no pattern besides changes in meaning which predicts their distribution

Signs that two sounds are allophones of the same phoneme

• Changing the environment causes the sounds to alternate

• The two sounds are predictable

  • “Huh, this one always occurs in that environment!”

• Speakers hear switching between them as ‘a different way of saying’ the same thing

  • Or maybe don’t hear the difference at all

We write phonological rules to describe where allophones occur

• These rules tell us when some or all of the forms occur

These rules have formatting conventions

• ‘_’ replaces the sound which is being changed

• ‘#’ means ‘word boundaries’

  • Think of ‘cat’ as being like [#kæt#]
  • _# is at the end of a word
  • #_ is at the start of a word

Aside: Schwa is always an allophone of another vowel

• Schwa (/ə/) is a reduced form of a different vowel

  • Photograph, the, con’vict

• Wedge (/ʌ/) is a specific vowel, with its own identity

  • Not a reduced form of something else

So, now we know how alternations work!

… but why do alternations occur anyways?

Common Phonological Processes

So, now we know how to describe all these crazy rules…

• … but what do languages actually DO with them?!

Four Common Types of Phonological Processes

• Assimilation

• Dissimilation

• Insertion / Epenthesis

• Deletion / Elision

1) Assimilation

• When sounds change to become more like one another

• This is basically Peer Pressure

• 

Example: Nasal Place Assimilation

• “Come on, we’re all being dental, you should try it too!”

• “Pine thugs” -> [pajn̪ θʌgz]

• “Pine guys” -> [pajŋ gajz]

Extreme Example: Nasal Harmony

• When other phones in a word change to match the nasality of a nasal segment

• 

  • “If I’m going to be nasal, you’re all going to be nasal with me, damnit!”

  • From Epena Pedee, in Rose, S. and Walker, R. (2011). Harmony Systems. In The Handbook of Phonological Theory (eds J. Goldsmith, J. Riggle and A. C. Yu). doi:10.1002/9781444343069.ch8

• This also happens with vowels (e.g. Turkish) and elsewhere

Extreme Example: Vowel Harmony

When vowels change to match the other vowels in the word

Turkish has back-front vowel harmony

This means that vowels in a word must be either all back or all front

Turkish
Turkic - Turkey

Türkiye’-dir - ‘it is Turkey’

• kapı-dır - ‘it is the door’

• gül-dür - ‘it is the rose’

• palto-dur - ‘it is the coat’

• The vowel in the last syllable changes depending on the other vowels!

2) Dissimilation

• When sounds change to become less like one another

• 

Example: Liquid Dissimilation

• The third rural bird juror murderer demurred.

• “Colonel” is pronounced /kəɹnəl/

• “Purple” comes from “purpure”

• “surprise” /səɹpɹajz/ is usually /səpɹajz/, same with “berserk” and “february”

  • This is deletion, done for dissimilation reasons

3) Insertion / Epenthesis

• When a sound pops up to prevent an awkward or undesirable combination

• Basically, showing up on a friend’s bad date

• 

Example: Allomorphs with vowels

• /dɪʃ/ + /s/ -> [dɪʃɪz]

• /ɹat/ + /d/ -> [ɹaɾɪd]

• The vowel ‘pops in’ to stop /ʃs/ and /td/ from being a thing

• Languages also LOVE to epenthesize to stop VV

4) Deletion / Elision

• When a sound is removed to stop an awkward or undesirable combination from occurring

• Basically, uninviting your friend’s ex from the party

• 

Example: Elision in English

• Fifth, /fɪfθs/ -> [fɪθs]

• Family, /fæmɪli/ -> [fæmli]

• Natural, /næt͡ʃəɹəl/ -> [næt͡ʃɹəl]

Four Common Types of Phonological Processes

• Assimilation (Peer Pressure)

• Dissimilation (Rebellion)

• Insertion / Epenthesis (Showing up on a friend’s date)

• Deletion / Elision (Uninviting and unfriending)

There are other phonological processes

• They’re all awesome

• … but those four are super common

I’m humanizing these patterns for a reason

• Before you start looking for a pattern, think about what’s changing, arising, or deleting, and what kinds of things might trigger it

If a language changes /d/ to [t] next to a voiceless C, that’s an example of…

1. Assimilation

2. Dissimilation

3. Insertion / Epenthesis

4. Deletion / Elision

If a language changes /d/ to [t] next to a voiceless C, that’s an example of…

1. Assimilation

2. Dissimilation

3. Insertion / Epenthesis

4. Deletion / Elision

What kinds of things trigger these changes?

Natural Classes

Plural Patterns in English

• [z] after /j g d ɹ n w b m ð l i aj v u ow/

• [s] after /t p k f θ/

• [ɪz] after /tʃ dʒ s ʃ z/

A few reasons why listing sounds is no good

• Lists are inefficient

• Lists treat these phenomena as unmotivated

• Lists disguise relationships among sounds

• Lists aren’t graceful

Relationships among speech sounds are real

• Phonology is not just algebra with symbols

• Your IPA chart is not just an arbitrary scattering of sounds

• Phonetic motivation for changes is often based on geography

Relationships can be described in many ways

• … but the easiest way to start thinking is in terms of…

Natural Classes!

Let’s play a game!

One of these sounds is not like the other…

/t/ /k/ /p/ /s/

• /s/ is the only fricative, all the rest are voiceless stops

/m/ /n/ /ŋ/ /b/

• /b/ is the only oral sound, all the rest are nasal sounds

/b/ /a/ /ŋ/ /i/ /s/

• /s/ is the only voiceless sound, all the rest are voiced sounds

• /n/ is the only nasal sound, all the rest are oral

/l/ /s/ /ŋ/ /j/ /i/

• /i/ is the only vowel, all the rest are consonants

• /s/ is the only voiceless sound

• /ŋ/ is the only nasal

/i/ /ɪ/ /ɛ/ /æ/ /ɔ/

• /ɔ/ is the only back vowel, all the rest are front vowels

• /ɔ/ is the only rounded vowel, all the rest are unrounded

/t/ /n/ /s/ /z/ /k/

• /k/ is the only non-alveolar sound

• /n/ is the only nasal sound, all the rest are oral

/p/ /t/ /k/ /b/

• /b/ is the only voiced stop

Natural Class

A set of speech sounds in a given language that is able to be uniquely, completely, and succinctly described in terms of the shared phonetic (“natural”) properties of its members.

Natural Class Examples

• Voiceless stops (English & Spanish): [p, t, k]

• Voiced fricatives (English): [v, ð, z, ʒ]

• Voiced fricatives (Spanish): [β, ð, ɣ]

• Front vowels (English): [iː, ɪ, eɪ, ɛ, æ]

• Front vowels (Spanish): [i, e]

Natural Classes in spoken languages are usually very IPA-like

• Common rows, columns, or regions on the IPA chart

• Anything where you can say ‘these share a feature in speech production’

• Knowing the IPA is hugely helpful in phonology!

Phonological Rules typically involve natural classes

• Natural classes can be the ‘targets’ of rules

  • [p t k] are aspirated in English

• Natural classes can ‘trigger’ rules

  • [tʃ dʒ s ʃ z] trigger the [ɪz] plural

• Very often, rules will act on groups of sounds which share features

So, as you’re writing your phonological rules…

• Keep it classy!

  • (Naturally)

Any questions?

Now, let’s try some datasets

What is the relationship between [j] and [w] here?

DO NOT LOOK AT THIS UNTIL YOU’VE WORKED THE PROBLEM

/j/ -> [w] / [rounded vowels]___

• This implies that ‘/j/ -> [j] / everywhere else’

• You don’t have to write the second part, it’s assumed

What is the relationship between [t] and [d] here?

DO NOT LOOK AT THIS UNTIL YOU’VE WORKED THE PROBLEM

/t/ -> [d] / ___[nasals]

• This implies that ‘/t/ -> [t] / everywhere else’

What’s the relationship between [d] and [j]?

DO NOT LOOK AT THIS UNTIL YOU’VE WORKED THE PROBLEM

/d/ and /j/ are different phonemes

• There’s a minimal pair!

What’s the relationship between [t] and [s] here?

DO NOT LOOK AT THIS UNTIL YOU’VE WORKED THE PROBLEM

/t/ -> [s] / V___

• This is the best answer

• [t] shows up in many more contexts than [s], so it’s underlying!

• It is incorrect to say something like ‘/t/ becomes [s] in ’less’ words’.

  • Phonology just worries about sounds

Next time

• We’ll wrap up phonology, and talk about how words work

Thank you!