SIBILANTS

sea ship zero measure church judge

sí sjipp seró mesjúr tsörts dsöds

Problems with sibilants Icelandic has only 1 sibilant: English has 4: and two afficates:

Problems with sibilants Spelling is a poor indication of which sibilant is used VOICING of s or z is particularly badly represented –base phase loose choose –rates clothes wages NO RULE RULE! sz s z

Problems with sibilants base phase loose choose NO RULE sz s z

(often)NO RULE

base phase loose choose rates clothes wages NO RULE RULE!

plural – the dog gave two short barks possessive – the dog’s bark, the dogs’ barks 3rd person sg. – this dog barks abbreviation for is – his bark’s worse than his bite abbreviation for has – his bark’s been recorded -s, -’s, -s’, -es

cats cat’s cats’ gets barks - -s, -’s, -s’, -es dogs dog’s dog’s runs mews - fishes fish’s fishes’ masses catches judges roses Rose’s boxes Butch’s

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cats gets barks dogs runs mews fish’s masses catches roses boxes Rule ordering: The rules must apply in the following order: Is the preceding sound a sibilant? Is the preceding sound fortis? In all other cases –

Rule ordering: The rules must apply in a certain order What do we mean by this? Where are these “rules” to be found? Are they invented by linguists? Or discovered by linguists? Do normal English speakers use these rules to form –s endings? Do they know about them? Do they somehow exist in their brains?