Phonology

Question 1

phonetics

Answer 1

the study of the minimal units that make up language: the study of how speech sounds are produced, what their physical properties are, and how they are interpreted

Question 2

phonology

Answer 2

the study of the distribution of sounds in a language and the interactions between those different sounds

Question 3

basic aspects of phonetics

Answer 3

figuring out which sounds are possible in speech

Question 4

basic aspects of phonology

Answer 4

what is the organization of sounds in a given language; of all the sounds in a language, which are predictable and which are unpredictable in given contexts; which sounds affect the identities of words

Question 5

phonotactic constraints

Answer 5

restrictions on possible combinations of sounds

Question 6

sound substitution

Answer 6

process by which sounds that exist in a language a speaker knows are used to replace sounds that do not exist in that language when pronouncing the words of a foreign language

Question 7

noncontrastive sounds

Answer 7

when interchanging two sounds does not result in a change of meaning

Question 8

contrastive sounds

Answer 8

when replacing one sound with the other in a word can change the word’s meaning

Question 9

phoneme

Answer 9

a class of speech sounds that seem to be variants of the same sound

Question 10

allophone

Answer 10

each member of a particular phoneme class which corresponds to an actual phonetic segment produced by a speaker (i.e. the various ways that a phoneme is pronounced are called allophones)

Question 11

distribution of a phone

Answer 11

the set of phonetic environments in which a phone occurs

Question 12

contrastive distribuition

Answer 12

a case in which the two sounds occur in the same phonetic environment, and using one rather than the other changes the meaning of the word

Question 13

minimal pair

Answer 13

a pair of words whose pronunciations differ by exactly one sound and that have different meanings

Question 14

alternation

Answer 14

a difference between two (or more) phonetic forms that we might otherwise expect to be related (when we find different pronunciations of the same word that are systematically linked to particular grammatical contexts, we have an alternation)

Question 15

complementary distribution

Answer 15

a case in which the two sounds are considered to be allophones of the same phoneme (there will never be a minimal pair, i.e. they are not contrastive)

Question 16

free variation

Answer 16

allophones of the same phoneme, because they are perceived as the same and do not serve to distinguish the meanings of words

Question 17

overlapping distribution

Answer 17

sounds can occur in the same environment (sounds that are in contrastive distribution and sounds that are in free variation are both considered to have an overlapping distribution; only sounds that are in complementary distribution do not overlap)

Question 18

phonological rules

Answer 18

the mapping between phonemic and phonetic elements in accomplished using phonological rules; a speaker’s knowledge of phonological rules allows him or her to “translate” phonemes into actual speech sounds knowledge of these rules forms part of the speaker’s linguistic competence

Question 19

underlying form

Answer 19

the change from the phonemic form to the actual phonetic form of a word by means of phonological rules

Question 20

conditioning environment

Answer 20

the environment in which the rule applies (e.g. C_D)

Question 21

natural class

Answer 21

a group of sounds in a language that share one or more articulatory or auditory property, to the exclusion of all other sounds in that language

Question 22

sibilants

Answer 22

segments that have a high-pitched, hissing sound quality ([s,ʃ, tʃ, z,ʒ, dʒ])

Question 23

obstruents

Answer 23

segments produced with an obstruction of the airflow (stops, fricatives, and affricates)

Question 24

sonorants

Answer 24

segments produced with a relatively open passage for the airflow (nasals, liquids, glides, and vowels)

Question 25

types of phonological rules

Answer 25

assimilation (nasal place assimilation, palatalization, vowel harmony), dissimilation (manner dissimilation), insertion (voiceless stop insertion), deletion (/h/-deletion), metathesis (CV metathesis), strengthening (aspiration), weakening (flapping)

Question 26

assimilation

Answer 26

rules of assimilation cause a sound (or gesture) to become more like a neighboring sound (or gesture) with respect to some phonetic property (unbelievable -> [ʌmbəlivəbl̩] /n/ pronounced as a bilabial nasal when it occurs before a bilabial sound

Question 27

nasal place assimilation

Answer 27

the nasal /n/ changes its place of articulation; (English): an alveolar nasal assimilates to the place of articulation of a following consonant

Question 28

palatalization

Answer 28

a special type of assimilation in which a consonant becomes like a neighboring palatal

Question 29

vowel harmony

Answer 29

all the vowels in a word “harmonize” or agree in some property such as rounding or backness; (Finnish): a back vowel becomes front when preceded by a front vowel in the same word; [metsæ] + [-ssɑ] = [metsæssæ]

Question 30

dissimilation

Answer 30

two close or adjacent sounds become less similar with respect to some property, by means of a change in one or both sounds

Question 31

manner dissimilation

Answer 31

(Greek): a stop becomes a fricative when followed by another stop; /epta/ -> [efta] and /ktizma/ -> [xtizma]

Question 32

insertion

Answer 32

a segment not present at the phonemic level is added to the phonetic form of a word

Question 33

voiceless stop insertion

Answer 33

(English): between a nasal consonant and a voiceless fricative, a voiceless stop with the same place of articulation as the nasal is inserted; /dæns/ -> [dænts], /stɹɛŋθ/ -> [stɹɛŋkθ], /hæmstɹ̩/ -> [hæmpstɹ̩]

Question 34

deletion

Answer 34

a sound that was presented at the phonemic level is eliminated

Question 35

/h/-deletion

Answer 35

(English): /h/ may be deleted in unstressed syllables; /hi hændəd hɹ̩ hɪz hæt/ -> [hi hændəd ɹ̩ ɪz hæt]

Question 36

metathesis

Answer 36

the order of sounds is changed

Question 37

CV metathesis

Answer 37

(Leti): when three consecutive consonants occur, the first consonant trades places with the preceding vowel; /danat + kviali/ -> [dantakviali]

Question 38

strengthening (fortition)

Answer 38

sounds are made stronger (aspiration in English)

Question 39

aspiration

Answer 39

(English): voiceless stops become aspirated when they occur at the beginning of a stressed syllable; pat [pʰæt], top [tʰɑp]

Question 40

weakening (lenition)

Answer 40

sounds become weaker; the “flapping” rule of English; [ɾ] is considered to be weaker sound than [t] or [d] because it is shorter and it obstructs air less

Question 41

flapping

Answer 41

(English): an alveolar (oral) stop is realized as [ɾ] when it occurs after a stressed vowel and before an unstressed vowel

Question 42

schwa insertion

Answer 42

(English): insert [ə] between two sibilants; [fɑksəz]

Question 43

voicing assimilation

Answer 43

(English): /-z/ takes on the voicing specification of the preceding sound; /kæt-z/ -> [kæts]

Question 44

obligatory English phonological rules

Answer 44

important part of a native accent: aspiration, vowel nasalization, vowel lengthening, and liquid and glide devoicing; such a rule always applies in the speech of all speakers of a language or dialect having the rule, regardless of style or rate of speaking; the existence of obligatory rules is what causes people to have foreign accent

Question 45

optional English phonological rules

Answer 45

may or may not apply in any given utterance; optional rules are responsible for variation in speech; the use of optional rules depends in part on rate and style of speech

Question 46

implicational law

Answer 46

if a language uses a less common sound, one of its more common counterparts will also be included in that language’s inventory of contrastive sounds (i.e. the presence of the less common sound implies that the more common sound will also be used in the language); if [ã] exists, then [a] too, if [ḁ] exists, then [a] too, if [d] exists, then [t] too

Question 47

solving phonology problems

Answer 47

1. Look at the environments to find natural classes 2. Look for complementary gaps in the environments 3. State a generalization about the distribution of each of these sounds 4. Determine the identity of the phoneme and its allophones

Question 48

basic allophone

Answer 48

assumed to be the closest approximation of the mental “sound” that seekers store in memory; we name the phoneme after the basic allophone, since it is the one that can show up in a wider variety of contexts

Question 49

restricted allophone

Answer 49

the conditioning environment consists of a single natural class of sounds