Phonological rules LING 200 Spring 2006

Foreign accents and borrowed words Borrowed words –often pronounced according to phonological rules of borrowing language Foreign accents –result from application of native language phonology to target language phonology –especially if language learned as adult

Spanish loans into English Spanishin English [p  res] Padres [p h  d  ez] [t  ] taco [t h  ] [burito]burrito [b  i  o] [s  ndye  o] San Diego [s  ndiego] [r] = alveolar trill [  ] = voiced velar fricative [  ] = retroflex approximant; [  ] = alveolar tap

The original shibboleth

Writing phonological rules A common format /A/  B / C ___ D A = phoneme(s) which undergo the rule B = aspect of pronunciation changed (allophone created) / = in the context of ___ = location of phoneme in context C, D = conditioning elements of the context = ‘A becomes or adds B when preceded by C and followed by D’

Examples of phonological rules Mohawk Voicing –/p t k/  [b d g] / ___ V (V = vowel) English Aspiration –/p t k/  [p h t h k h ] / syllable [___ ( syllable [ = when syllable initial) Beware: sounds transcribed with diacritic symbols are not always the predictable allophones

More on allophones Allophones of a phoneme must be phonetically similar; e.g. [p], [p h ] as allophones of /p/ in English

English [  ], [h] [  ] = velar nasal English [  ], [h] are in complementary distribution –[h] / ___ V –[  ] / V ___ [h  d][d  ] [h  s][s  ] *[d  h]*[  d] * = unattested, ungrammatical, does not occur

English [  ], [h] Why not /h/  [  ] / ___ # or /  /  [h] / # ___ ? Phonological rules typically add or change single aspects of pronunciation Either rule would be too complex

Some types of phonological rules Assimilation: sound becomes more similar to the context –e.g. Mohawk Voicing /p t k/  [b d g] / ___ V Dissimilation Deletion Epenthesis

Dissmilation A sound becomes less similar to another sound Laryngeal contrasts in Hindi. –[  ] = voiced retroflex stop –[  ] = voiceless retroflex stop [  l] ‘branch’ [  l] ‘postpone’ [  h  l] ‘wood shop’ [    l] ‘shield’ 5 = retroflex

Dissimilation Sanskrit. [b  ] = voiced aspirated labial stop /b  ud  y  te:/[bud  y  te:] 'is awake' /b  ub  o:d   /[bubo:d   ] 'was awake' /b  o:d  syati/[b  o:tsyati] 'will be awake'

Dissimilation Grassman's Law (Sanskrit, Indo-European): Voiced aspirated stops/affricates are deaspirated before another voiced aspirated stop/affricate. C   C / ___... C 

Deletion Cree. Algonquian (BC-Ontario, Canada) /pi:simw/[pi:sim]‘sun’ cf. /pi:simwak/[pi:simwak]‘suns’ /w/  Ø / C ___ #

Epenthesis = insertion Sahaptin [  ] epenthesis Sahaptin vowel inventory frontcentralback highi i:  u u: low  :

Sahaptin consonant inventory labialalveolarpalatalvelarlabio- velar uvularlabio- uvular glottal stopsp p’t t’k k’k w k w ’q q’q w q w ’  affricatessibilantts ts’ c  c  ’ lateral t  t  ’ fricativescentralsšxxwxw ww h lateral  nasalsmn laterall glideswy

[][] = voiceless (alveolar) lateral fricative [  y  y]'rash, pimples' [  p’u  ]'teardrop' [  p  ]'leaf'

Articulation of an ejective stop 0. Vocal folds close, producing [  ] 0. Back of tongue raises to velum, producing [k]

[k] vs. [k’] [kúpi]'coffee' [k’úsi]'horse' [k  :s] 'train' [k’  sk’  s]'small' [k’] = velar ejective (stop)

[q] vs. [q’] [q  y í] 'shoe' [q’  í] ‘single layer tule mat’ [q] = voiceless uvular stop [q’] = uvular ejective uvular velar

Consonant classes obstruentsp p’t t’k k’k w k w ’q q’q w q w ’  ts ts’ c  c  ’ t  t  ’ sšxxwxw ww h  sonorantsmn l wy

Sahaptin [  ] epenthesis in clusters obstruent + obstruent –/pti:t/ [pti:t] ‘damp’ obstruent + sonorant –/tm  š/ [tm  š]‘chokecherry’ sonorant + obstruent –/mti:t/ [m  tí:t]‘humid’ sonorant + sonorant –/mli:š/ [m  lí:š]‘tongue’

Sahaptin [  ] epenthesis    / # C __ C sonorant Application of rule: /mti:t/ [  ] epenthesis  [m  tí:t]