Linguistics 110 Zhang/Öztürk/Quinn

Class 9 (10/21/02)

Phonemic Analysis Continued

(1) The generalization for Papago:

“The palato-alveolar affricates occur before high vowels, and the alveolar stops
occur elsewhere.”

(2) Some points that emerge

• Parallel behavior of phonetically similar sounds.
• Appearance of allophones that occur as separate phonemes in other languages (for
example, English).

(3) Formalizing to achieve generality

• Assume underlying /t,d/: these are what you get if no rule perturbs the basic
pattern. In general: the elsewhere allophone is set up as underlying form.
• State the rule as simply as possible, leaving out whatever is not needed.
• It’s good to give rules names, for easy reference. Improvise a name if you are not
sure of standard terminology.

Alveolar Palatalization

stop  affricate  vowel

     
alveolar → palato-alveolar / ___ high 

(4) Notation
X
 
a. C = consonant b. Y = “segment having the phonetic features X, Y and Z”
Z 
V = vowel

c. / = “in the environment”

/ ___ X = “in the environment before X”
/ X ___ = “in the environment after X”

(5) Phonemic representations

• These show the underlying representation of the phoneme, which is what you
have before rules apply.

• They are traditionally written in slant brackets: / /

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 UR of [»bidÉZim] = /»bidim/ UR of [»ta˘pan] = /»ta˘pan/

(6) Illustrative derivations

‘split’ ‘vaccinate’ ‘press’ ‘turn around’
Underlying forms: /»ta˘pan/ /»tˆkid/ /»dagßp/ /»bidim/
Alveolar Palatalization: — »tSˆkid — »bidZim
Surface forms: [»ta˘pan] [»tSˆkid] [»dagßp] [»bidZim]

(7) The “why” of alveolar palatalization

• It is common for alveolars to affricate before high vowels. Examples: Japanese,
Quebec French, Cockney English.
• High vowels have a narrow air channel, and when a /t/ is released into a high
vowel, the burst is noisy (say [ti], [ta] to yourself to check). Affrication is
possibly an exaggeration of this natural effect, for the purpose of rendering the /t/
more audibly distinct from “quieter” stops like /p,k/.
• Sometimes affrication can change the point of articulation.

(8) The “why” of allophones in general

• Ease of articulation.

/aI/ Raising: /aI/ → [√I] / ___ [-voice]

Nasalization: V → [+nasal] / ___ [C, +nasal]

/s/ Palatalization: /s/ → [sÉS] / ___ S (optional)

Chris Schaefer, Russ Schuh, miss Sheila

• To make a phoneme more perceptually distinct from the other phonemes in a

particular context.

Alveolar palatalization in Papago

Pre-/w/ Affrication: /t/ → [tS] / ___ w in twin, twine, twice...

• Helping out a neighbor.

/bit/ /bid/ Underlying forms

i( — Vowel Shortening: V → [short] / ___ [-voice]
— z8 Final Devoicing: [-son] → [-voice] / ___]word
[bi(t] [bid8] Surface forms

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(9) Rule ordering
Often it is crucial to apply the rules in a particular order.

Yana (American Indian, Hokan, Upper Sacramento Valley, California):

Final Vowel Devoicing: V → [-voice] / ___ ]word
Voicing Assimilation: C → [-voice] / ___ [-voice]
/aba/ → [apa•]

The Phonetic Similarity Principle

(10) Sounds that are accidentally in complementary distribution

/h/ occurs: initially: hear [hi®], Horatio [h´»®eÉISioÉU]
after consonants: adhere [´d»hI®]
medially before stress: ahead [´»hEd], prohibit [p®oÉU»hIbˆt]

/N/ occurs: finally: sing [sIN], willing [»wIlIN]

before consonants: Bingley [»bINli], hunger [»h√Ng‘]
medially before unstressed: singer [»sIN‘], thingy [»TINi], Singapore
[»sIN´«pHç®]

(11) Ignore complementary distribution here—The Phonetic Similarity Principle

[h] and [N] are never felt by speakers to be the “same sound”.
Plausibly, this is because they are fantastically different phonetically.

Conclusion: in phonemic analysis, we should be reluctant to group phonetically-

dissimilar sounds into phonemes.

(12) What is the cut-off point?

Bruce Hayes (UCLA Linguistics Professor) and his 4-year old son Peter Hayes:

BH: “Please say [kHæ/t|] backwards.”

PH: “[tHæ/k|]”
BH: “Please say [fI…] backwards.”
PH: “[…If]. ([dæ|i kˆn wi stAp duIN DIs naÉU]?)”

A couple years later: “[lIf]”