Phonology Assignment 2

Due Date: 5/22/2019 Phonology Assignment: HW #2 File 3.1 1.According to the phonotactic constraints on English syllable structure given in Section 3.1.1, is [bljust] a possible word in English? Why or why not? Does this match your own intuition? This would not be possible in English syllable structure. Consonant clusters can occur at the beginning of words in English, but [blj] would not be possible. The only initial possible consonant clusters are [s], followed by a [t], [p], or [k], and a [l], [j], or [w]. This doesn’t match my intuition. While the [bl] is fine, the medial [j] is not natural. File 3.3 13. List the members of the following natural classes of English sounds. a.alveolar obstruents The alveolar obstruents are [s], [z], [t], and [d]. b.voiced labial consonants The voiced labial consonants are [b], [v], [m], and [w]. c.velar oral stops The velar oral stops are [k] and [g]. d.interdental fricatives The interdental fricatives of English are [θ] and [ð]. e.high tense vowels The high tense vowels are [i] and [u]. f.low vowels The low vowels are [æ], [a], and [ɑ]. g.palatal sonorants The only palatal sonorant is [j]. h.voiced sibilants The voiced sibilants are [z], [ʒ], and [dʒ]. 14. Describe the following natural classes of English sounds. a. [ɹ, l] are the liquids in the sonorant approximants of English. b. [f, θ, s, ʃ, h] are the voiceless fricatives of English. c. [w, j, w] are the glides in the sonorant approximants of English. d. [i, u] are the high tense vowels of English. e. [p, b] are the bilabial obstruents of English. f. [n, ɹ, l] are sonorants of English. File 3.5 23. Sindhi Initial Medial [p] [pənʊ] ‘leaf’ [perʊ] ‘foot’ [putʰi]’back’ [ɖəpʊ] ‘fear’ [pʰ] [pʰəɳu] ‘hood of snake’ [pʰərʊ] ‘arrow head’ [b] [barʊ] ‘weight’ [bənʊ] ‘forest’ Lateral [abʊ] ‘water’ In Sindhi, [p], [pʰ], and [b] are different phonemes. [p] and [b] are in contrastive distribution, like English, but [p] and [pʰ] are as well, which is not the case for English. The evidence is shown in the minimal triplet [pənʊ] 'leaf', [phənu] 'hood of snake', and [bənu] 'forest'. They all have different meanings, which means a different phoneme. 24. Italian [n] Initial Medial [neɾo] ‘black’ [tinta] ‘dye’ Lateral [tɛnda] ‘tent’ [dantsa] ‘dance’ [ʤɛnte] ‘people’ [sapone] ‘soap’ [ŋ] [tiŋɡo] ‘I dye’ [tɛŋɡo] ‘I keep’ [fuŋɡo] ‘mushroom’ [bjaŋka] ‘white’ [faŋɡo] ‘mud’ [aŋke] ‘also’ The [n] and [ŋ] in Standard Italian are complimentary. The basic allophone, [n] shows up much more frequently than [ŋ]. Only [n] appears in an initial setting. 1. [fuŋɡo] and [faŋɡo] are minimal pairs, as well as [tɛŋɡo] and [tiŋɡo]. This indicates that [u] and [a] are different phonemes in italian, as well as [ɛ] and [i]. Rule: [n] → [ŋ] / #____velar approximant → [n]/ elsewhere [n] is an alveolar nasal, but [ŋ] is a velar nasal. A velar nasal is in the same area as a velar stop such as [k] and [g]. 26. Russian [ ɑ] [a] Initial Medial Lateral [ɑljt] ‘viola’ [tɑk] ‘so’ [mɑtj] ‘mother’ [pjɑtkə] ‘heel’ [vɑʃ] ‘your (plural)’ [trᴧvɑ] ‘grass’ [pjatj] ‘five’ [zjatj] ‘son-in-law’ [djadjə] ‘uncle’ [mjatj] ‘to crumple’ [ɑ] and [a] are allophones of the same phoneme, with [ɑ] being the basic phoneme. [ɑ] is present in multiple places in a word, while [a] is present in only 1. Rule: /ɑ/ → [a] / ___j →[ɑ]/elsewhere 28. Korean Initial Medial [s] [sal] ‘flesh’ [so] ‘cow’ [susek] ‘search’ [sanmun] ‘prose’ [kasəl] ‘hypothesis’ [kasu] ‘singer’ [miso] ‘smile’ [tapsa] ‘exploration’ [ʃ] [ʃi] ‘poem’ [ʃinmun] ‘newspaper [ʃilsu] ‘mistake’ [miʃin] ‘superstition’ [tʰaksaŋʃiɡe] ‘table clock’ [oʃip] ‘fifty’ [paŋʃik] ‘method [kanʃik] ‘snack’ [kaʃi] ‘thorn’ Lateral [s] and [ʃ] are allophones of the same phoneme, and have complementary distribution. The basic allophone is [s], since [ʃ] occurs only before an i, seen in words like [kaʃi] and [oʃip]. Rule: /s/ →[ʃ]/ #_i →[s]/ elsewhere 35. Farsi Initial Medial [r] Lateral [ahar] ‘starch’ [behtær] ‘better’ [hærntowr] ‘however’ [ʧar] ‘four’ [ʧeʤ ur] ‘what kind’ [ʃir] ‘lion’ [r] [ris] ‘beard’ [ruz] ‘day’ [rah] ‘road’ [ɾ] [farsi] ‘Persian’ [ærteʃ] ‘army’ [qædri] ‘a little bit’ [ahaɾi] ‘starched’ [bæɾadær] ‘brother’ [ʧeɾa] ‘why’ [daɾid] ‘you have’ [biɾæŋɡ] ‘pale’ [beɾid]‘go’ The basic phoneme is [r] because it has medial as well as initial settings. This is complementary distribution as well. [r] is [r] when it is placed at the end of the word. [r] is [ɾ] in a medial position in between two vowels. Finally, [r] is [r] in any other place. Rule: /r/ → [r]/___# → [ɾ]/ V__V, → [r]/elsewhere