4/14 Phonotactics => Restrictions on the kinds of sounds and sound sequences in different parts of a word Universals and Implications => Common versus uncommon speech sounds

Syllable Structure Mandarin syllables: (C)V(C) => No consonant clusters => Final consonant limited to nasals (C) V [p ɑ ]‘eight’ (C) V /ŋ/[p ɑ ŋ]‘help’ (C) V /n/[pæn]‘class’

Tagalog CV[pa]‘yet’ (C)VC[it.log]‘egg’ Limited consonant clusters: CCV –[t ɾ abaho]‘work’ –[klase]‘class’ –[kwa ɾ to]‘room’

English V‘a’ VC‘at’ VCC‘ask’ VCCC‘asked’ => [æskt] CV‘no’ CCV‘flew’ => [flu]

CVC‘not’ CCVC‘flute’ => [flut] CCVCC‘flutes’ CCVCCC‘crafts’ => [k ɹ æfts]

CCCV‘spree’ => [sp ɹ i] CCCVC‘spleen’ CCCVCCC‘strength’ => [st ɹɛ ŋkθ] CCCVCCC‘strengths’ => [st ɹɛ ŋks]

Which are impossible English words? 1. prill 2. skrick 3. blaft 4. rmut 5. thole 6. lsig 7. tosp 8. mgla 9. dnom 10. flitch

Which are impossible English words? 1. prill 2. skrick 3. blaft 4. rmut 5. thole 6. lsig 7. tosp 8. mgla 9. dnom 10. flitch

Three consonant onset –First consonant = /s/ –Second consonant = /p, t, k/ –Third consonant = liquid or glide Two consonant onset –Stop/fricative + Liquid/glide –/s/ + stop

Borrowed Words [ŋ] and [ ʒ ] do not occur word-initially in native English vocabulary. But they do appear in borrowed words. => ‘Nguyen’, ‘Jacques’

Accent When the words of one language are pronounced with rules and phonotactics of another language Borrowing Words borrowed from a foreign language are (typically) altered to match the native language’s phonotactics

Borrowing Sound substitution: substitution of an similar sound for a foreign sound that is not in the native phonemic inventory –Ger. Bach [bax]  Eng. [bak] –Eng. this [ðɪs], thing [θ ɪŋ ]  Fr. [z i s], [s iŋ ] –Arabic Al Qaeda [al qa ɪ d a]  Eng. [æl k h aɪdǝ]

Borrowing Deletion: elimination of a sound –Greek  Eng... Ptolemy, mnemonic (but, see amnesia) Insertion: addition of a sound –Slavic  Eng. Gdansk [g ǝ dænsk], Tbilisi [t h ǝbɪlɪsi] –Eng.  Japanese beer [bi ːɾɯ ], Christmas [k ɯɾ is ɯ mas ɯ ]

Common Vowel Systems iu eo a Japanese, Hawaiian, Swahili, Spanish, Basque => Most languages have between 3 and 9 distinctive vowels.

iui eo a a Gudanji (Australia)Navajo

Vowel System Universals Most common – /a, i, u/ Front vowels tend to be unrounded. –/i, e, ɛ, æ/ Low vowels tend to be unrounded. –/æ, a, ɑ / Nonlow back vowels tend to be rounded. –/ ɔ, o, u/

Implicational Universals If a language has contrastive nasal vowels, then it has contrasitive oral vowels. French /lã/‘slow’ /la/‘weary’

If a language has contrasting long vowels, then it has contrasting short vowels. Japanese /ki ː ta/‘heard’ /kita/‘came’

Consonant Systems All languages have stops. –Most common - /p, t, k/ Most common fricative - /s/ Almost every language has at least one nasal phoneme. –Most common - /n/

Implicational Universals If a language has voiced obstruents (stops, affricates, fricatives), then it has voiceless ones. Mandarin – no voiced obstruents 1. [ko ʊ ] 狗 ‘dog’ 2. [k h o ʊ ] 口 ‘opening’ 3. [t ɑʊ ] 到 ‘arrive’ 4. [t h a ʊ ] 套 ‘set’