Phonological rules LING 200 Spring 2006 Foreign accents

Phonological rules LING 200 Spring 2006

Foreign accents and borrowed words • Borrowed words – often pronounced according to phonological rules of borrowing language • Foreign accents – result from application of native language phonology to target language phonology – especially if language learned as adult

Spanish loans into English in English Spanish [p. A res] Padres [ph. Ad ez] [t. Ako] taco [th. Ako] [burito] burrito [b i o] [s. Andye o] San Diego [s ndiego] [r] = alveolar trill [ ] = voiced velar fricative [ ] = retroflex approximant; [ ] = alveolar tap

The original shibboleth

Writing phonological rules • A common format /A/ B / C ___ D A B = phoneme(s) which undergo the rule = aspect of pronunciation changed (allophone created) / = in the context of ___ = location of phoneme in context C, D = conditioning elements of the context • = ‘A becomes or adds B when preceded by C and followed by D’

Examples of phonological rules • Mohawk Voicing – /p t k/ [b d g] / ___ V (V = vowel) • English Aspiration – /p t k/ [ph th kh] / syllable[___ (syllable[ = when syllable initial) • Beware: sounds transcribed with diacritic symbols are not always the predictable allophones

More on allophones • Allophones of a phoneme must be phonetically similar; e. g. [p], [ph] as allophones of /p/ in English

English [N], [h] • [N] = velar nasal • English [N], [h] are in complementary distribution – [h] / ___ V – [N] / V ___ [h. Id] [d. IN] [h. Is] [s. IN] *[d. Ih] *[NId] * = unattested, ungrammatical, does not occur

English [N], [h] • Why not /h/ [N] / ___ # or /N/ [h] / # ___ ? • Phonological rules typically add or change single aspects of pronunciation • Either rule would be too complex

Some types of phonological rules • Assimilation: sound becomes more similar to the context – e. g. Mohawk Voicing /p t k/ [b d g] / ___ V • Dissimilation • Deletion • Epenthesis

Dissmilation • A sound becomes less similar to another sound • Laryngeal contrasts in Hindi. – [ ] = voiced retroflex stop – [ ] = voiceless retroflex stop • • [ Al] ‘branch’ [ Al] ‘postpone’ [ h. Al] ‘wood shop’ [ Al] ‘shield’ 5 = retroflex

Dissimilation • Sanskrit. [b ] = voiced aspirated labial stop /b ud y. Ate: / [bud y. Ate: ] 'is awake' /b ub o: d A/ [bubo: d A] 'was awake' /b o: d syati/ [b o: tsyati] 'will be awake'

Dissimilation Grassman's Law (Sanskrit, Indo-European): • Voiced aspirated stops/affricates are deaspirated before another voiced aspirated stop/affricate. • C C / ___. . . C

Deletion • Cree. Algonquian (BC-Ontario, Canada) /pi: simw/ [pi: sim] cf. /pi: simwak/ [pi: simwak] • /w/ Ø / C ___ # ‘sun’ ‘suns’

Epenthesis • = insertion • Sahaptin [ ] epenthesis • Sahaptin vowel inventory high low front central back i i: u u: A A:

Sahaptin consonant inventory stops affricates fricatives nasals labial alveolar palatal velar labiovelar uvular labiouvular glottal p p’ t t’ k k’ kw kw’ q q’ qw qw’ x xw X Xw h sibilant ts ts’ lateral t t ’ central s lateral m lateral glides c c ’ š n l w y

[ ] = voiceless (alveolar) lateral fricative [ A y Ay] [ p’u ] [ Ap ] 'rash, pimples' 'teardrop' 'leaf'

Articulation of an ejective stop 0. Vocal folds close, producing [ ] 0. Back of tongue raises to velum, producing [k]

[k] vs. [k’] = velar ejective (stop) [kúpi] [k’úsi] 'coffee' 'horse' [k. A: s] [k’A sk’As] 'train' 'small'

[q] vs. [q’] [q] = voiceless uvular stop [q’] = uvular ejective [q. Aylí] 'shoe' [q’ Xlí] ‘single layer tule mat’ velar uvular

Consonant classes obstruents p p’ t t’ ts ts’ k k’ kw kw’ q q’ qw qw’ x X Xw h c c ’ t t ’ s š sonorants m n l w y xw

Sahaptin [ ] epenthesis in clusters • obstruent + obstruent – /pti: t/ [pti: t] ‘damp’ • obstruent + sonorant – /tm š/ [tm š] ‘chokecherry’ • sonorant + obstruent – /mti: t/ [m tí: t] ‘humid’ • sonorant + sonorant – /mli: š/ [m lí: š] ‘tongue’

Sahaptin [ ] epenthesis • / # C __ sonorant Application of rule: [ ] epenthesis C /mti: t/ [m tí: t]