Chapter 3: Notes on Phonology
1. Orthography
• orthography is the standard spelling system for any language; orthographic
symbols are indicated by <angled> brackets;
• orthographies of each language with a long history of literacy have specific
ways that sounds are represented, but each of these systems is
conventional; that is, there is no one way that <j> or <c> are pronounced
across all orthographies;
• thus we can’t equate letters with sounds;
• on the other hand, when linguists cite a word within a text, they always
italicize it; this means no quotation marks! (See the name of the Central
Asian country a few lines down.)
• read p. 67-68 and p. 88-89 for problems with English orthography:
o famously unreliable for indicating pronunciation of words:
Ø how many ways is <gh> pronounced in English? and <th>?
o main reasons for this unreliability is that English has never had a spelling
reform; the closest that English ever came to being reformed was when
the printing press was introduced to England by William Caxton in 1476;
after that, printers started to standardize the haphazard spellings that
had been present in English since the language was first written down.
o another reason is that when English borrows words from other
languages, the orthographies of those languages are preserved to some
extent (e.g. Afghanistan);
• These problems make the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) a necessity.
2. Some basic linguistic terms
• PHONETICS
o Describes the details of the pronunciation of a sound; e.g. in English, <p>
at the beginning of a word is typically pronounced with a small puff of air
following it: [ph].
o The superscript [h] indicates aspiration in phonetic transcription. Use
[square] brackets to identify phonetic descriptions of sounds.
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• PHONEME
o Basic unit of sound which distinguishes the meanings of words.
o Phonemes are transcribed in slanted brackets: /p/ and /b/ in English
distinguish meanings: pat vs. bat.
• PHONOLOGY
o the study of the way in which any given language organizes its sounds;
e.g., a sound like [ph] may be a separate phoneme in Language A but not
in Language B.
Ø For instance, in Korean, [pul] means ‘fire, light’ and [phul] means
‘grass’. However, if we pronounce the <p> in pat as either [ph] or [p], it
makes no difference in meaning.
Ø Conversely, Korean doesn’t distinguish between [p] and [b]; you can
pronounce ‘fire, light’ as either [pul] or [bul] and the meaning remains
the same. But in English, [p] and [b] are separate phonemes because
they do distinguish meaning: pat vs. bat.
o also describes the behavior of two sounds when they are adjacent: <s>
is pronounced like [s] in cats, but [z] in dogs.
3. IPA symbols used for English
3.1 consonants
• for the geography of the mouth, see textbook Figure 3.1 (p. 66);
• for a chart of English consonants, see textbook Table 3.1 (p. 69);
• must be described according to point and manner of articulation:
Ø /t/ voiceless alveolar stop; /d/ voiced alveolar stop;
Ø on the other hand, liquids, nasals, and glides /l, r, m, n, ŋ, w, j/ are
always voiced, so you don’t need to describe them using the feature
voice: /m/ bilabial nasal.
point → (bi)labial labio-dental dental alveolar palatal velar glottal
manner↓→ vl vd vl vd vl vd vl vd vl vd vl vd (vl)
stops p b t d k g ʔ
fricatives f v θ đ s z ʃ ʓ h
affricates ʧ ʤ
nasals m n ŋ
liquids l, r
glides ʍ w j
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o The glides aren’t really consonantal, but I’m including them here because
they occur either preceding or following vowels in the same way that
consonants do, as in wow.
o Not all English speakers have the /ʍ/ : /w/ distinction. Note how you
pronounce which and witch. If you pronounce them the same, you don’t
have this distinction. However, the orthography tells you which are
supposed to be voiceless or voiced: <wh> vs. <w>.
o The textbook correctly calls /l/ LATERAL, but it calls /r/ ‘BUNCHED’. I prefer
the term RETROFLEX because it’s more descriptive.
o The wavy line makes a very important separation between two kinds of
consonants: the phonemes above the wavy line are called OBSTRUENTS;
the phonemes below the wavy line are SONORANTS. We’ll see how this
distinction works later on.
o for those symbols that you’re not familiar with, you should memorize
words that contain those phonemes; many students at first have
problems remembering the unfamiliar ones like /θ, đ, ʃ, ʒ, ʧ, ʤ/. See the
list of words below the chart on p. 69.
3.2. Vowels
• see textbook Table 3.2
• must be described using front, central, back and high, middle, low and long,
short.
front central back length
high i u long
ɪ Ʊ short
mid e ə1 o long
ε ʌ2 ɔ short
low æ a long
aj aw ɔj diphthongs
long: i, e, æ, u, o, a
short: ɪ, Ʊ, ε, ʌ, ɔ
reduced (super short): ə (shwa, in unstressed syllables)
diphthongs: aj, aw, ɔj (always long)
• LONG/TENSE and SHORT/LAX:
o a big distinction between these notes and the textbook is that your book
calls long vowels TENSE and short vowels LAX;
1 This variant only appears in unstressed syllables.
2 This variant only appears in stressed syllables.
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o this way of labeling vowels is problematic because /æ/ and /a/ are long
but lax, whereas the rest of the long vowels are tense. In other words,
/æ/ and /a/ typically act like long vowels, so calling them lax is
misleading.
4. Minimal pairs
• textbook p. 80;
• determine phonemic status of a sound;
• are composed of two words which are identical except for one sound; the
difference between the sounds in the two words establishes that they are
separate phonemes:
o the boldfaced consonants prove to be separate phonemes because they
distinguish meaning differences among these pairs:
Ø tug vs. tuck; tug vs. dug; palette vs. ballot; sue vs. zoo are
distinguished by voicing
o remember that phonemes are distinguished by slanted brackets: /e/, /t/,
/z/, etc.
• phonetic details of individual phonemes:
o long vowels have OFFGLIDES (i.e. a glide/semivowel at the end of the
vowel):
Ø [ij], [ej], [uw], [ɔw]
Ø these glides are phonetic, not phonemic, because they don’t
distinguish meanings in words: e.g. [phejd] and [phed] both mean
‘paid’; speakers don’t recognize these two pronunciations as different
words.
o voiceless stops are aspirated in stressed syllables (mostly at the
beginning of words):
Ø [phejd] vs. [pejd]: suppressing the aspiration doesn’t change the
meaning of ‘paid’. (More about this later in §6.)
• Remember: if you want to establish that two sounds are separate
phonemes, you prove it by setting up minimal pairs.
3. Language change
• some changes currently in progress in North American English: p. 76;
• to these we can add the [ʍ] vs. [w] distinction;
• when we see difference pronunciations like these, we can infer that
language change has take place or is now in the process of taking place.
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5. Natural classes
• textbook p. 77;
• phonemes are grouped according to features they share;
• every natural class must consist of at least two phonemes; one phoneme
alone does not constitute a natural class;
• must have the complete roster of phonemes in a language in order to
present a natural class;
o these are natural classes:
Ø /p, t, k/ voiceless stops
Ø /f, θ, s, ʃ, h/ voiceless fricatives
Ø /b, d, g, v, đ, z, ʒ, ʤ/ voiced obstruents
Ø /i, u/ long high vowels
Ø /u, Ʊ, i, ɪ/ high vowels
Ø /æ, a/ low vowels
o these are not natural classes:
Ø /f, θ, s, h/: missing /ʃ/
Ø /u, Ʊ, i/: missing /ɪ/
• natural classes are important because they state generalizations about
phonological relationships of various features.
6. Allophones of phonemes
• textbook p. 77-79;
• different ways of pronouncing the same phoneme in different environments;
o use phonetic [square] brackets to indicate that they are the actual
pronunciation of variants of phonemes;
o a little noticed allophone of liquids and nasals: after a consonant at the
end of a word, /l, r, n, m/ assume a vowel-like pronunciation, which is
indicated with a little dot under the phonetic transcription: [l̩, r̩, m̩ , n̩] are
pronounced like very short, vowel-like versions of their phoneme; we’ll
see these pronunciations below with capitol, butter, batter, Latin.
• more renowned examples of allophones:
o the natural class of voiceless stops /p, t, k/ acquire aspiration when they
occur at the beginning of a word or medially in a stressed syllable:
Ø [phɛthúnjə] ‘petunia’;
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Ø [khæpəɾ̩l] ‘capitol’: note that the [p] and [t] in non-initial, non-stressed
syllables aren’t aspirated.
o /t/ has even more allophones than the other voiceless stops:
Ø ASPIRATED [th] (just mentioned);
Ø FLAP [ɾ]: intervocalically (between vowels): [bʌɾr̩] ‘butter’; [bæɾr̩]
‘batter’; [fóɾəgræf] ‘photograph’; cf. ‘capitol’ above;
Ø GLOTTAL STOP [ʔ]: before word final [n̩] or some glides: [læʔn̩ ] ‘Latin’,
[gæʔwɪk] ‘Gatwick’; cf. also button;
Ø UNRELEASED [t˺] before a pause or at end of sentence.
Ø DENTAL [t̪]: across a word boundary before another /t/ or /θ/: at truck
stops; at the…;
Ø [t] as the second member of consonant clusters: print, cleft;
Ø this means that /t/ has six allophones: [th, ɾ, ʔ, t˺, t̪, t] and that [t] is
actually the least common variant.
o /l/ has three allophones:
Ø ‘dark l’3 is pronounced in the back of the mouth near the velum
(hence dark, because you can’t see back there): bell [bɛɬ]. The
symbol [ɬ] is called a BARRED L; the allophone itself is called VELAR L;
Ø ‘bright l’ is the ALVEOLAR pronunciation [l] at the beginnings of
syllables;
Ø /l/ (and /r/) are pronounced voiceless [̥l] (and [r̥ ]) when they follow
voiceless consonants: play [ph̥lej], tree [tr̥ ij].
Ø syllabic: as in capital [khæpəɾl̩ ], bottle [batl]̩ , etc.
• You have probably never noticed all or some of these phonetic details. This
fact alone shows that phonemes are psychologically real: speakers think
that are producing a [t] when they are actually using an allophone.
7. Some common phonological rules
• textbook p. 80-82;
• Assimilation: one sound becomes more like one next to it:
o nasal assimilation rule with in- ‘not’ prefix (p. 81);
o nasalization: run [rũn];
o palatalization: keep [kyip];
o there are several types of assimilation:
3 Note that I’m using shudder quotes here to indicate that this isn’t a technical term.
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Ø place of articulation: in- ‘not’ + possible > impossible; palatalization
Ø manner of articulation: assimilation of voice is very common: dog + s
> [dagz]; walk + ed > [wakt]
Ø total assimilation: in- ‘not’ + legal > illegal; in + regular > irregular
• Deletion (p. 81):
o consonants tend to be deleted when consonant cluster is too
complicated to pronounce: fifths [fɪfs];
o vowels are often deleted after stressed syllables: láb(o)ratory or British
labórat(o)ry; choc(o)late, ev(e)ry, Barb(a)ra, Dor(o)thy.
• Epenthesis (insertion): a vowel or a consonant is inserted into a word (p. 82)
Ø athlete ath[ə]lete
Ø Hiberno-English film [fɪləm]
Ø Clem[p]son, Sum[p]ter
• Metathesis: two segments change places: A B > B A (p. 82)
o happens fairly often in history of English with a vowel and sonorant: wort
> root; OE beorht > CE bright; OE ϸurh, CE through; OE hros > horse;
OE acsian (inf.) > to ask; OE irnan (inf.) > CE to run;
o in progress now: pre and per are becoming confused: prerogative >
perrogative (now a common pronunciation); performance > preformance;
prefer > perfer; pervert > prevert
8. Syllable structure and phonotactic constraints
• syllable: onset + nucleus + coda;
• most languages have strict rules about what the onset or the coda can
consist of;
• however, all syllables (in any language) must, at the very least, have a
nucleus (a vowel or vowel-like sonorant);
o English allows fairly elaborate onsets: # = word boundary
Ø #str, #spr, #spl, but not *#stl
o Greek allows for onsets which are disallowed in English, so when
pneumonia, psychology, pterodactyl, etc. were borrowed, those onsets
were simplified.
Perception of sound: skip p. 83-85.
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9. English orthography and related issued
• English orthography reflects the history of the language: elements of Old,
Middle, Renaissance English periods;
• when it borrows words, often uses original spelling from the foreign
language;
• has never had a spelling reform, although a great deal of standardization
has taken place since William Caxton introduced the printing press to
England in 1476.
• Old English (OE):
o generally uses the Latin alphabet because England was Christianized
from Rome (the first time via Ireland; the second time directly from
Rome); Latin uses <c> for /k/;
o OE uses <c> most frequently, but also uses <k>; this <k> is an influence
from continental Germanic languages whose speakers were first
Christianized from Greek traditions; Greek uses <k> for /k/;
o imported two old Germanic characters to represent /θ/ = <ϸ> (thorn); its
voiced version is /ð/ (eth);
o uses a phonemic system, which means that they wrote the phoneme
rather than precise phonetic details:
Ø /g/ <g> was pronounced in different ways depending on the
environment: before front vowels they were the glide [j], but [g, ɣ] in
other positions;
Ø <þ,s, f> were always voiceless at the beginnings or ends of words,
but were pronounced [đ, z, v] intervocalically (i.e. between vowels).
• When we can predict where a certain pronunciation will be appear, we call
this COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION:
Ø the allophones of phonemes which we saw in §6 are all examples of
complementary distribution. Note that this term has the <e> spelling –
not <complimentary> spelling – and means that if you add all the
distributed allophones together, you get a completed distribution of a
phoneme.
10. OE phonology
10.1 Some OE phonological rules
• INTERVOCALIC VOICING: one OE phonological process which still has an effect
on Contemporary English (CE) is intervocalic voicing of fricatives (mentioned
at the end of §9): see exercise 3.3 #2 on p. 95:
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o fricative phonemes were voiceless, but phonetically they were voiced
intervocalically; however, spelling was irregular enough so that <ð> was
often used when the fricative is voiceless; see exercise on p. 95 for
examples of this.
o through the Middle English (ME) period, these fricatives remained in
intervocalic position; final vowels were lost only at end of ME. This set up
oppositions of voiceless and voiced fricatives in positions that had
previously been intervocalic. The old intervocalic position appeared
mainly with verbs and noun plurals. Even though the intervocalic position
has been lost, the voicing remains and systematically distinguishes noun
roots from verbs. In a number of cases the voicing of the noun plurals
has been lost.
NOUN SG. NOUN PL. VERB
breath breaths* breathe
wreath wreaths* wreathe
half halves halve
staff staves (staffs*) stave
calf calves calves
dwarf dwarves, dwarfs* dwarf
leaf leaves/leafs*
house houses house
* previously voiced, but has become unvoiced on ANALOGY to singular forms.
• ANALOGY restores regularity to paradigms which have been made irregular
by normal phonological processes: leafs, dwarfs, breaths, wreaths.
• PALATALIZATION: /k/ > [ʧ] /___ i, e
o church in Contemporary Eng. (CE) developed from OE cirice ‘church’
through this kind of palatalization(cf. Northern English kirk); this same
process produced CE cheese, choose, child, chip, etc.
• GLIDING: /g/ > [j]/ before/after front vowels
o yesterday, yard (cf. garden from Norse), yellow, lady (< OE hlafdige)
• ASSIMILATION:
o past tense marker –ed (p. 96, ex. 3.4.3)
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10.2 Phonotactic constraints
• OE HAD DIFFERENT PHONOTACTIC CONSTRAINTS THAN DOES CE:
o #hl: see examples on p. 95: loaf, lord, lady
o #hr: OE hrinc > CE ring
• compare the orthography of these to other word-initial consonant clusters:
o knee, know, knight, etc.
o difference: #h+ r/l is lost by late OE; didn’t survive in orthography
whereas #kn- clusters survive through ME: retained in orthography
o OE allowed /sw/ clusters, but in ME the /w/ is dropped before an /o/:
sword, so (< swa:); swollen has /w/ restored on analogy to present tense
swell.
11. Vowel Shift
• takes place in LME – EModE; responsible for non-relationship of vowels’
pronunciation to orthography
• original distribution of vowels:
/i:/ bite /u:/ bout
/e:/ beet /o:/ boot
/ɛ:/ beat /ɔ:/ boat, oak, home,
bat, plan
• have no evidence from manuscripts as to which changes started first
(remember that the spelling was phonemic, not phonetic);
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• high vowels probably went first; then mid-vowels; then low vowels:
ME front vowels 18th c•. CE CE word CE pronunciation
/i:/ • • /aj/ bite [bajt]
/e:/ /i:/ beet [bi:t]
/ɛ:/ /e:/ /i:/ beat [bi:t]
ME back vowels
/u:/ /aw/ bout [bawt]
/o:/ /u:/ boot [bu:t]
/a:/
/ɛ:/ /e:/ bate [be:t]
/ɔ:/ /o:/ boat [bo:t]
10.4 Renaissance re-spellings
• Eng. words borrowed from French during Middle English period; respelled
during the Renaissance once their connection to Latin words was
recognized (p. 87):
o debt, doubt, indict – pronunciation not changed;
o perfect, falcon, adventure – pronunciation changed;
o hour, honor – pronunciation not changed;
o history, hysterical – pronunciation changed
o restoration of word-initial <h> has caused confusion when using the
indefinite article (a/an) with words like history and hysterical;
o some Renaissance-era spelling distortions:
Ø island (< late OE ealand < early OE igland; based upon incorrect
assumption that this word was borrowed from Latin insula ‘island’ (cf.
French isle;
Ø ghost: Caxton based the <gh> spelling upon Dutch writing
conventions at the time; OE gast;
Ø colonel: Lat. columna ‘column’ (the officer who led a column of
soldiers; later means head of a regiment); 16th c. coronel < Fren.
dialect coronel (cf. Span. coronel); Fren. later restored the <l> and
Eng. copied this spelling.