Introduction to Russian phonology and word structure Ch. 2: Introduction to phonetics

Q&A Why is it that phones are not symbols?

Q&A Why is it that phones are not symbols? –Because they do not in themselves bear meaning

Q&A Why would *могл be better than мог?

Q&A Why would *могл be better than мог? –Because it would show us the past tense marker –л.

Q&A Why would *могл be better than мог? –Because it would show us the past tense marker –л. Why is the –л actually missing?

Q&A Why would *могл be better than мог? –Because it would show us the past tense marker –л. Why is the –л actually missing? –Because of constraints on pronunciation of consonant clusters in Russian

Q&A Why would *вотка be better than водка?

Q&A Why would *вотка be better than водка? –Because *вотка would yield a phonetic spelling.

Q&A Why would *вотка be better than водка? –Because *вотка would yield a phonetic spelling. What is the advantage of the spelling of водка?

Q&A Why would *вотка be better than водка? –Because *вотка would yield a phonetic spelling. What is the advantage of the spelling of водка? –The spelling of водка preserves the shape of the morpheme

Q&A Why do we have to remember that spoken language is primary?

Q&A Why do we have to remember that spoken language is primary? –In order to avoid “paper phonetics” and artifacts of the written language

Q&A What kind of an alphabet do we need for phonetic representation?

Q&A What kind of an alphabet do we need for phonetic representation? –One with a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and symbols –Note that the IPA has been revised significantly since Hamilton’s book came out. There is a link to the current IPA chart on our website.

Discussion P. 9 “…as long as we have enough detail to distinguish between words which are different, the rest is arbitrary.” –In other words, the level of detail is arbitrarily chosen. The minimum level of detail is differences which distinguish words, and this is phonemics. Phonetics goes beyond phonemics, but how far is up to the investigator and the power of their machines.

Q&A On pp , many of the examples involve more than one word – what is going on here?

Q&A On pp , many of the examples involve more than one word – what is going on here? –Hamilton is citing examples of phonetic words – what is a phonetic word?

Q&A On pp , many of the examples involve more than one word – what is going on here? –Hamilton is citing examples of phonetic words – what is a phonetic word? –A phonetic word contains all the stressless elements that are prosodically dependent on the stress of a single word – what are these stressless elements?

Q&A On pp , many of the examples involve more than one word – what is going on here? –Hamilton is citing examples of phonetic words – what is a phonetic word? –A phonetic word contains all the stressless elements that are prosodically dependent on the stress of a single word – what are these stressless elements? –Prepositions and conjunctions that precede words, and particles that follow them like же, бы, мол, де

Discussion Notice that all consonants are NOT created equal! Discuss the status of: –Soft velars –The voiced velar fricative –The hard and soft voiceless labio-dental fricative –The voiced palatal and alveolar affricates –The soft palatal fricatives

Discussion Notice that all consonants are NOT created equal! Discuss the status of: –Soft velars (only before front vowels in native Russian words) –The voiced velar fricative (only at word boundary, foreign and OCS words) –The hard and soft voiceless labio-dental fricative (only a devoiced variant of v or in foreign words) –The voiced palatal and alveolar affricates (only as voiced variants of the devoiced ones) –The soft palatal fricatives (are only long and differ as to Moscow vs. Petersburg pronunciation)

Notes Phonetic transcription uses square brackets! Book’s question 4: The stationary parts actually do move when the jaw moves 5: Articulatory vs. acoustic phonetics. This distinction is crucial! There are scholars who insist that only acoustic phonetics play a role in language change. This book uses articulatory features. What would be the terms for acoustic features?

Notes 6: A Czech radio show once asked young people to choose the most beautiful words in Czech. The winners were: maminka, vlast, and mír. What do you think the criteria were? Beware also of voiceless vowels, glides, nasals, and laterals – all of these make the distinction between vowel and consonant less crisp…