phon. [fʌn] exercises March 3, 2008
Posted by ps in : ling201 , add a commentIn my email to both sections, I attached a text (.txt) file with a short passage you can use to practise your transcription. At the bottom of this post is the answer in IPA. Remember that you are always more than welcome to go over this (or other exercises) with me.
You can also find a PDF of the phonology problem sets I gave out in class here. For question 1, you’ll need the chart of phonological features of each sound. Pay close attention to the features of vowels (this is pertinent for #9 and #10); a [–high] vowel is not necessarily [+low]…
For questions 2, 3, 4, and 6, decide if the two phones separated by a “~” (e.g. [t] ~ [ʦ]) are phonemes or allophones. If they are phonemes, show a minimal pair (or triplet) that demonstrates this. If they are allophones, write rules to show the context in which the allophone surfaces. (Question 5 is a little different; read the instructions on the sheet.)
Answers to these problem sets will be posted shortly.
“For centuries, we have embraced the pursuit of scientific knowledge as one of the noblest and worthiest of human endeavors, one leading to the enrichment of mankind both today and for future generations,” said keynote speaker and NSF chairman Louis Farian. “However, a breakthrough discovery is challenging our long-held perceptions about our discipline—the discovery that science is really, really hard.”
“My area of expertise is the totally impossible science of particle physics,” Farian continued, “but, indeed, this newly discovered ‘Law of Difficulty’ holds true for all branches of science, from astronomy to molecular biology and everything in between.”
(from The Onion, http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38575, retrieved Mar 3, 2008)
Answer:
voiced and voiceless nasals in burmese March 3, 2008
Posted by ps in : ling201 , add a commentFor those who are curious about what voiceless nasals sound like, here is an example. (Click on the translations to hear a recording of a Burmese speaker pronouncing these words.)
First, an example of a voiced nasal is in the word [mâ] ‘lift up’.
An example of a voiceless nasal is in the word [m̥â] ‘from’.
the affricate [ʦ] vs. the sequence [ts] March 1, 2008
Posted by ps in : ling201 , add a commentAffricates are not the same thing as the sequence of their ‘constituent’ sounds. For example, the affricate [ʦ] is not simply the combination of [t] and [s]. Acoustically and articulatorily, they may be very similar (or even identical), but phonologically, they are entirely different.
When an affricate is a phoneme in a language, it is considered a single unit and not two units combined. In English, we do not have [ʦ] as a phoneme, so all instances of [ts] arise essentially through combination of the phonemes [t] and [s]. Other languages, however, may have [ʦ] as a phoneme of the language, in addition to [t] and [s].
Montana Salish (Flathead) is one such language. Thus, we have words like [ʦpɬej] “eyebrow/brow”, which feature the affricate, and words like [qetsʧ] “woman’s elder brother”, which feature the sequence of [t] and [s]. (In the latter word, this is clearly perceptible because [s] is syllabic, as is allowed by the phonotactics of Montana Salish.)