LIGN 101 - Phonology III

# Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language are really, really awesome

### Will Styler - LIGN 101
              
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### One important note

- Signed languages have phonology too!

- Gestures modify adjacent gestures

- There are laws governing juxtapositions (or not) of gestures

- The *exact same* principles and approaches apply

- **Signed language is Language**

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### Today's Plan

- Syllables are fun

- Phonotactics

- Phonology Q/A

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# Syllables

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### Syllables seem to be pretty important in some languages

- English is among them.

- English speakers have an intuitive sense of syllables

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### Let's try

- Under

- /ʌn.dəɹ/

- Decoagulate

- /di.kow.æg.ju.lejt/

- Antipenultimate

- /æn.ti.pɛ.nʌl.tɪm.ɪt/

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### Linguists break the syllable into three parts

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### Linguists break the syllable into three parts

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### Let's look at some syllables

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### Phonological rules will often reference syllables

- English /l/ becomes [ɫ] in the coda position

- /ɛ/ is illegal in words without a coda in English

- Spanish will often re-syllabify words to turn codas into onsets

- "Van a gritar a las olas" ('They will yell at the waves')

- **So, they're good to think about!**

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### In the word 'star', the coda is...

A) /st/

B) /a/

C) /ɹ/

D) /aɹ/

E) /taɹ/

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### In the word 'star', the coda is...

A) /st/

B) /a/

C) <correct>/ɹ/</correct>

D) /aɹ/

E) /taɹ/

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### English Aspiration

- We've been ignoring this all quarter

- But there's more to /t/ than [t]

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<center>
<style type="text/css">
.tg  {border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0;}
.tg td{font-family:Arial, sans-serif;padding:10px 5px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;overflow:hidden;word-break:normal;border-color:black;}
.tg th{font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-weight:normal;padding:10px 5px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;overflow:hidden;word-break:normal;border-color:black;}
.tg .tg-xldj{border-color:inherit;text-align:left}
.tg .tg-0pky{border-color:inherit;text-align:left;vertical-align:top}
</style>
<table class="tg">
  <tr>
    <th class="tg-xldj">wʌt</th>
    <th class="tg-0pky">skɪn<br></th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-0pky">tʰaɹ</td>
    <td class="tg-0pky">spun<br></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-0pky">pʰat<br></td>
    <td class="tg-0pky">spat</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-0pky">ɹɛntʰɪŋ<br></td>
    <td class="tg-0pky">ɹɪstaɹt<br></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-0pky">kʰjubə</td>
    <td class="tg-0pky">pʰakʰɪt</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="tg-0pky">staɹ<br></td>
    <td class="tg-0pky">spɪnstə˞</td>
  </tr>
  </table>
</center>

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### /t/ is aspirated at the start of a syllable!

- ... not just in the onset!

- So are /p/ and /k/

- Those sounds share a feature!

- They're a *natural class*

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### The English [d] is the same sound as the Spanish [t]

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### Different languages have different syllable structures

- This is an important element of...

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# Phonotactics

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### Phonotactics

The study of what sounds and combinations of sounds are 'legal' in a language

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### Every language has a set of phonemes which are used

- This is called a language's **Phonemic Inventory**

- Sometimes 'phonological inventory'

- Every language has one.

- ... and you can find it [at PHOIBLE](https://phoible.org/)
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### Pirahã

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### Hawaiian

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### Mandarin

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### Urdu

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### Malayalam

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### A language's phonological inventory is important!

- It tells you which phonemes are legal to use

- It tells you what the 'options' are when there are alternations

- It will play a big role in your analysis

- It really complicates word borrowings!

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### Hawaiian has a tiny consonant inventory

- This complicates borrowing from English

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### Hawaiian

- ### English
- <img class="r-stretch" src="phonology/inventory_english.jpg">

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### Let's look at some English-to-Hawaiian Borrowings

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### Iniseka

* Insect

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### Elepani

* Elephant

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### hipa

* Sheep

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### kaioke

* Coyote

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### Kanakalu

* Kangaroo

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### Lakuna

* Raccoon

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### Nupepa

* Newspaper

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### Mokokaikala

* Motorcycle

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### Kakalina

* Gasoline

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### Kelepona

* Telephone

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### Kolokalaiwa

* Screwdriver

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### But languages also differ in terms of the combinations they allow

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### Phonotactic Constraints dictate what combinations are 'legal'

- Some sounds can't happen at the start or end of words

- Some sound combinations can't happen

- Some syllable structures are favored or prevented

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### English has some weird phonotactic constraints

* End a word with a pronounced /h/ ("Bah")

* Say the /ŋ/ in "ring" at the start of a word. ("Ngöndro")

* End a word with the vowel in "bet" or "book". ("Saké")

* English has "s", "k", "v", but say "Moskva"

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### So do other languages

- ... and these come into play when we're borrowing words

- Languages adapt words to fit their phonotactic constraints when borrowing.

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### Japanese requires all syllables to be CV

- This means that borrowing from English (which has no such constraint) is complicated

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<lang>Japanese</lang><br><ldata>Japonic - Japan</ldata>

‘Merry Christmas' - merii kurisumasu

<small>([Image and Sound Credit](http://japanese.about.com/library/blqow33.htm))</small>
 
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## Some languages allow more complexity in syllables

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### English

- 'Sixths' [sɪksθs]

- CVCCCC

- 'Strengths'  [stɹɛŋkθs]

- CCCVCCCC

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### Russian

- ‘Glance’ - Всгляд (/vzglʲat/)
    
    - CCCCVC syllable

- ‘Of Construction’ - строительств (/strʌˈʲitʲɛlʲstf/)

- CCCVCVCVCCCC

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### Czech

- Strč prst skrz krk - ‘Stick your finger down your throat’

- CCCC CCCC CCCC CCC

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### English

- 'Able' [ejbl̩]

- V CC
    
- 'Fun and games' [fʌn n̩ gejmz]

- CVC C CVCC

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### This is just scratching the surface of phonology

- <img class="r-stretch" src="img/tipoficeberg.jpg">

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Brackets vs Parens

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### What isn't clear in Phonology?

-   Phonology, phoneme, allophone, complimentary Distribution, Contrastive Distribution, Phonological rule, Natural Class, Minimal Pair, Insertion/Epenthesis, Deletion, Phonotactic Constraint, Syllable, Onset, Coda, Nucleus, Rhyme/Rime

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### LIGNering Questions?

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### LIGN 111 is where you'll go for more of this!

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### ... but in order to do well in LIGN 111, you'll need practice doing analysis

- That's what we're going to do in sections!

- ... and if you're struggling, **office hours!**

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### Next time

- We'll dive into how words work

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<huge>Thank you!</huge>