82

EnglishVowels and phonological Rules Table 4.4

e t er nat ions So mep red icta brar am ong Engr is h v owe r s . T h e d a r kt y p e s n o w s t he v owel t hat c hanqes .

larl
divine derive reside

trl
divinity derivative residual

ti1
serene supreme redeem

lel serenity supremacy redemption [n]or [o] scholar folly gosling

[erj insane erplain mania

[ocr] r erbose depose ron3

[a]

insanity expianatory manic

e [o] or [o] verbosity deposit tonlc

laol

[a] profundity abundance southern

[u] school fool goose

profound abound south

in "bet"; in othersit is pronouncedwith the von,elin "bit." The pronunciation of "long" varies.It is [1o4]or [lcp] in most forms of American English and [oq] in most forms of British Enslish. The last column shows that there are similar resiricrionsin the vowels that can occur before u] Bv far the majority of * ords ending in have lax /J/ fn my own speechthe only word conraining the tense vtwel --y9we]s, /i/ is "leash." Some speakers have tensevowels in a feu fle\r 91 unusual words such as "creche,gauche," which rnay be [krerJ,gooJ]. The pronunciation of "wash" variesin much the sameway as that of .'long." Both f*,oJl and [wcJ] occur in American English. If we weregoing to make a completelyphonemicrransc.ption we would have to take into accountsomeother facts about rouels. Thereare a number of circumstances in which one vowel alternates phonericallr *rth another in a predictableway. Table 4.4 showssome pairs of rerateduords in which the vowel changesare completelyrule governed.There is a rense in the 'owel stressed syllablein the stem when no suffjx folloris ras in rhe left column of each pair). In each casethis same syllablehas a lar ronel uhen there is a following suffix (as in the right column of each pairr. It is possibleto state a rule that sho*s the circumsrances in which the te n sev owel in a s t em b e c o m e s a l a x ' o * e l * i rh a d i ferent qual i ty.A ccord_ i n g l y, in a phonem ict ra n s c ri p ti o n u e c o u l d * ri te b orh..di ri ne" and..di vi nity" with the same vo*el in the seconds1llable. The rule *,ould show that "d i vi ne" is r elat edt o " d i ..i n i tr" i n th e ru rn . r,u , a s' .serene.' i s rel atedto "serenity" or "insane" to "insanitl ." But the rules for these alternatlons are very complicated,so we will hat'e to continue to use a transcriptionthat is not fully phonemic in this way.

R u l e s fo r En g lish A llophones
A good way of summarizingalithat r have said about Englishphonology so far is to list a set of rules describing the allophones. Theseiules are simply descriptions of language behavior. They are not the kind of rules that

R u l e s for E ngti sh A l l ophones prescribewhat people ought to do. Like most phoneticians,I would not presumeto setmyselfup as an arbiter of fashionand declare what constitutes "good" speech.To..the extent that phonetics is part of an exact scientif,c discipline'I wourd rike to be abre to formalize my descriptionof speechin terms of a set of precisestatements. But thesestatements shourdbe regarded as descriptive,not prescriptive,rules. The rules can be statedconvenienth, in terms of the crasses of soundsto which they apply. The crasses of :ounds can be describedin terms of the featuresof which they are cornposed. For example,the classof stops lp,t, k, b, d, gl can be specified simplv as: [+ stop] The voiceless stops rp,t, kr requirea sratement about t*'o features. They will | _ voicedT [ + 'top -] This is a shorthand way of specill,.:-: ,he complete set of soundsthat are, fi rst , v oic eles s ( or [ -v o i c e d ]. a s ,,.-....1s ..a l i n th ese.uf., unO,r" cond, stop co ns onant s ( or , m o re s i mp l -r. I: .,,en a n t edto speci fl ,al the [-.;-p l sounds th a t ar e bot h v oic e da n d s to p s ,i " .i ,.. :.:.g r\ \e coul d \\r.te. l- + voicedl [ + r t op ] Th e nas alc ons ona n ts c a n b e s p e c ,:e : [+ nasal] We d o not in t his ca s eh a re to :p e c r-r * h e rh e r thel are roi ced or vorcel ess, fo r th er eis no oppo s i ti o nb e ru e e n,c i c e c i a n d ro i cel ess nasal s i n E ngl i sh. W e c an wr it e a ru l e s a l i n g th a t rrrrc e l e :: s ro ps(,p, t, k7.1 are aspi rated wh e n t hey ar e s y lla b l ei n i ti a l . a s i n * o rc l s s u c h ur.:pi pp.a,i esty, rvJL) ki cked,, rr' vl u' [p n rp ' t , r t hes t i, k hr k ,t]. b r s a ri n g : ,, ( I\ ' f _v oic edl |+ r r op |i * a s p i ra te d l w h e n s y l l a bl e i ni ti al . .,:::-.. :.:

83

Th i s i s a c onv enien ti " l :, s a y i n gth a t a n y s o u n d that i s [_voi ce, * stop] w1l] [+aspirated] in aaaition to being [-voice, +stop] when -bgcome it is syllable initial. Now considerhow we might formulate a rule statingthat the obstruents -the stopsand fricatives-classifled as voiced(that is, lb,d, g, v, 6, z,3l) are not in fact voiced throughout the articulation when they occur at the end of an utteranceor beforea voiceress sound (as the lvlin..tiy to improve,,or the ldl in"add two"). This rule would be: R a .rri a l l v y o i c e dw h e n s yi l abte ( 2t [ : I : i: t o fi nat exceprw hen I * L+ oDs r r ue n tJ l o l l o w e d b y a ro i c e d s ound.

84

En g t is h V owels a n d p h o n o l o g i c a l Rules we can also write a similar rule for.stopsthat accountsfor the fact that they are often not fully voiced *t.n ,yffuUleinitial :

(2a) ff;:,ff

L+ s r op

[l::r:.rl

voiced when s_rl]abte * llltiully. initiat except when p re c e d e d

b y a v o i c e dsound,

rulescan be combined in a moreprecise account of Engrish

to all the sounds can be caled simpry i*;;;;""ff:"S::,it,iH,lli; ]ffil"li,,T co n sonantlengt his : ( 3) [ + c ons on a n ta l ]* 1 6 n U .. w h e n a t rh e end of a phrase. You can see the of .application this rule by comparin_e the consonantsin words such as "bib, did, don, nod." If you can. make a recording of these words, and then play the recording bactwaras. Next consider the rule ttrat acJounts for the der oicing of w, t, i n i t i at/p ,t,k/,as,ini1liv,t*i,",.".;ipt., f i, Il after

Some of the rules apply

we ca n write :

turn.k ru l. T iis ru t e is v e ry e a s y to state because we havesimple *uy, of oescriuin_s r uilr , Y;'i;;':l;;;., U t s s e c j a s s of sounds.

(4) [+approximant] -+ [-voiced] urt.. l-+aspiraredl r L stop _l We could also have a.rule dealing with the facr thar p, t, k/ are un_ aspiratedin words such as ,,spew, ,,.*] r*.*.,, This uould be: ( s) ) f - _ v oic ed l \J 1 -a s R i ra te d a J fte r s a t rhe begi nni ng of a syl l abl e. l+ s t op _ 1This rule might^not be necessary in a formar set of rures accounting for the pronunciation of English. nur. rir-rtuted *.here in an utterance voiceless stopsare aspirated,.so one might pr.ru*. them to be unaspirated elsewhere. But I have included rule (5) u."u"r. irr. object of listing these rules is not to account for the allophones of English in the most rigorous and economical set of rules possible,but simpry to i"ur.* otrat I hai.e said about the conso_ nants of English. Other rules would include:

: ::l

Jus uch :","d,14 a s., i';i*'.,iH:".ljj, ::!,!r!, r,f; :LTt#:.,i,:i,:; "o

(8) [+stop] --' unexploded before [+stopJ.

\/) 1_vorced] + longer when at the end of a syilable. words exemplifying these two rules are .,cap,, as opposed to ..cab,, and "back" as opposed to "bag." these *"rali. ,.-ot.n".r, und you may be able to hear the '..y "ont.u-rting differenc., ,no.. clearly. Next we take into account the fact thr

f l"ir"t

-+ shorter before voiceress sounds in the same sytabre.

l u l e s for E ngl i sh A l l ophones As we have seen,this is really part of a much more generairule about antici_ patorv coarticurationin Engrish. we shourd pe.hai, h";.;.;; our set or. rules with a statement of two generalprincipres:First. *,hen two consecutive soundshave a feature in common. rhat feature wili be retainedthroughout the transitionbetweenthem; second. articulatorsnot in'olved in the primary articulationwilr take up or tend to* ard the articurationof the folrowingitem. we may

85

,viruur. finar /p, t, k/, as in pronunciationsof ,.tip. prt. ii.k,, u, [tr?p. pr?t, kr?k]. Because this rule turns one segment into a sequence of two se_ements, it wirr have the following form:
( 9) f - - v oic ed l

nowristrherure thatadds srollll stops before

[+stop]

-" I--grottai .rrpl .

ora Lf l;i."J iliJ;jr. end

[-ro i c edl

rrhen afi er a vow el

This rule doesnot apply to all ra:.eri:s of En-slish. Somepeopledo not have any glottal stops in these circu:::r:rces. and others have glottal stops completelyreplacingsome or al1 c: ii: ,,oiceless stops.In uny Jr*, even fbr those who simply add a glotral sr,:r. ,.: ,ul. is not completelyaccurately sta ted'M any peopl ew i l l h a re a ,l ..:. -i .a Da t th e end of ,,cati ,i n phrases su chas " t hat ' s a c at " o r " th e c a i * , ,.- , ,. n a r." b ut the' rvi l l not have thi s a l l o phoneof lt l in " T h e c a t rs c i i :- ,...," 1 ' t. accurai estatement or.thi s ru l e w ould r equir em y g i v i n ,e a :i .' r-i r;i -;r i i .tr-r ni of ri hat i s meant b1.a syl l a b le,but I c anno t d o th i s .e c a u s ; r: ::--::,..s:L,re i Lr E ,\e a phoneti c d e fi n it ionof a s y llab l e We . * i l l i e i _ :r-:: ,.,, _ ,:. a i ," ri .l O. T he nex t r ule als o d o e sn tt a l i _ ., :-. ,--." .:_ :.. e. i , E ngl i sh.Thrs i s the o n e th at s t at est hat /t,, m a 1 b e c c ::.::;.-, ,:p .:;:c 3j a stop l n _sl ottal "b e a ten" I r bi?n] . ( l0)

th e s a m etrord. W ea ls o need a ru l e d e :e ri h rn qi h e s rl l a b i c i rl .of the nasal i n .,l eaden, r k ez r ,n ], ch a sm" 1tedp, 1 u h i c h u ..u l i b e s ra te d : o b st ru e n tJ . Note that we cannot sa1'that nasars becomesy'abic wheneverthey occur at th e e n d of a wor d and a fte r a c o n s o n a n t. T h e n a s al s i n..ki l n, fi l m,' are not syllabicin most diarectsof En-slish. we can, however,statea rure describing th e syllabic it y of lllby s a y rn g s rn p l y : (12) l+lateral] * [+syllabic] when at the end of a word and after another consonant. This rule summarizes fa.ct-that lll is syrlabic not only after stops and ,the fricatives(as in "paddie, whistle" t p"Ol, rwrsll) but in "kennel, channel" "f,".,";*1, 1u, [rkenf, rtJren]1.y. ii *"'..g,ara ltl as"fr. a consonant, rule (12)

| + s t op

[-voiced I ,,\henit occurs before elr-rr:_ | +alveolar | -. t,itLap' L s'' | a nasal in

|

(ll) tlllsitl + l+srilabicr:*:..i:ine endor a wordandafter [+

86

En glis h V owels a n d P h o n o l o g i c a l R u l e s rlould be inralidated in most forms of American English by words such as "snarl" [sno.ri].In classifiing sounds for the purpose of these rules. \\e *il1 ha\e to regard /:, not as a true consonantbut as some kind of semrro$.eI. Like the other central approximants, rve mi_eht classifyit as [+vowel. - s1'llabicl. On the other hand, 1t is like /1/ in most forms of American English in that it, too, can be syllabic rvhen it occurs at the end of a word and after a consonant,as in "sabre, razot, hammer, tailor" Iserb1, lrerzr,hem;, tterh]. If we introduce a new term, Iiquid, which is used simplr' as a cover term for the consonantsfl, tf , we may describe thesedialecrsb1'a rule: (l2a) [+liquid] --+[+syllabic] when at the end of a word and afrer a c o n s o n a n t.

The next rule also appiies more to American English than to British Engiish. It accounts for the ltl in "fatty, data" Iferi. idere]. It must also apply to ltl after a stressed vowel and before unstressedsyllablescontaining nonnasal syllabic consonants,as in "metal, little." Accordingly it may be worded: [-v3ice, I ( 13) l+ alv eo l a rl -l | | lf s t oP r a stressed vowel and an [+uoi.edl -l when between u n s tre s sed syl i abl e. l + ta p J

This rule does not apply to ltl before syliabic [n] as in "mutton" [rme?4] because the /t/ there has become a glottal stop, in accordancewith rule (10). In addition, there is a great deal of variation among speakers.Some people have [r] after lax vowels in words such as "ljtter, better" but not after tense vowels as in "writer, later." Some have [r] in "motto" but not in "veto." Try to formulate rule (13) in a way that describes your own speech. The rule accountingfor the dental consonantsin "sixth, eighth, tenth, wealth" (srkgO, er!0, tegO,wel0l is as follows: (i4) [+alveolar] '-+ [+dental] before [+dental].

In a more rapid style of speechsome of these dental consonants tend to be omitted altogether. Say these words first slowly and then more rapidly, and seewhat you do yourself. We also need a rule to describethe increasingly more front articulation of /k/ in "cap, kept, kit, key" [kap, kept, krt, ki] and of /g/ in "gap, get, give, geese"[gep, get, grv, gis]. You should be able to feel the more front position of your tongue contact in the latter words of theseseries. The rule is: (15) [+velar] + more front before more front vowels. The rule that describes the difference in the quality of /l/ in "life" [larf] and "flIe" [farl], or "clap" fkircp] and "talc" [teelk]is: (16) f+lateral] + velarized when after a vowel and before another consonantor the end of a word.

R u l e s for E ngl i sh A l l ophones

87

witirJut any consonant at the end. Accord_ ingly we may add a rule: (17) [+vowel] __+ longer in open syllables. Note that this rule is part of the general tendency in English to equalize the lengths of sylabres that differ ir ,h. ;;;.nts they contain. This same tend_ ency is also reflected by the fact that ,i. ru" vowels, which are shorter than the corresponding tense vowels, cannot o( the corresponding unstressed syilabrerl co-pu.. words such as ..cite,, and "citation." you wilr find that irt.,or."iiurl in the stressed sylrablein the first word is ronger than the samer-o*er in trr" ,."orro word wheie rt occurs in an unstressedsyllable. We wili therefore have a rule: (18) [+vowel] __+ longer in stressed sl,llables. Another kind of rength variation is eremplified by sets of words such as "speed, speedy,speedily.l' Here the toG io the stressed syllable _sers pro_ gressively shorter as a resurtof adding ertra srltabtesin the samervord. The reasonsfor this phenomenon u'ilr be deait *ith in the nert chapter. other rules can be usedto specill som. aori.iparorr.coarticulations that affect vowers.The most obvious is ihat ro*,ers tend to become nasalized beforenasalconsonants. In a word such as .-ban-.rhesoft palateoften lowers for the nasal considerably before ,h;;;;;. tip rises,o ,nui. trre artrcuratory contact' As a result much of the ro*el is"nasalized. Nasari ,utinnis strownby the diacritic [-] over a symbor. This is th. ,u,,. diacriticas is used to denote velarization.when describin-e r.elarizatron-it is pracedin the middle of the symbol, but for nasarization ii ;r ptu..J ubove the symbol. In a narrow rran_ might

consonants thanin sylrables closed by voicere-ss l;uou words such as..sea, s1d, s.qaj,_ o..iigt, rro",""r;";u;;; "o,'our" r;;;-vJu.riu rr.u. thatthe vowel is longer still in the syllable

vo we rsrh u s we, iff;T ilii J:l:illT "l idif;ff i"'#,',T, ri, l*i;

There are als

a' sv'aires are the ,un . r.ng-h."rTil.TT,,ff:i*jr,'i1o# , Not *",

;::il?i";"'an"

be transcrib.o tila't. we could*;i;; ,h. required

circumstances. It is almost as if they became diphthongswith an unrounded form of [o] as the last erement. tn u nu.-r'iranscription we could transcribe this element so thar "peel, pail, put" *outj be pheol, [phiol, phreolj. Note that I omitted the usuai ,."ond.r.n'.n, oilr,l diphthong [er] in order to show that in thesecircumstances the vowel moved from a mid front to a mid_central rather than to a high front qualitv

;:,T,',,"":'[i"f ,iT.'?:""iT##*"":'#**iruffi

(19) [+vowel] + [+nasalj before [*nasal]. Finally we must,note the alrophones produced when vowers occur in syllablesclosed by lU..Compar. y;".;;;;unciarion of ltl in..heed,, and "heel," of lerl in ..paid,, ..pui;,lio ..pad,, urj f"f in and ..pal.,, In each

88

English Vowels and Phonological Rules Back vowels, as in "haul, pull, pool," are usuallv bss affectcd @l dul final [] because they already have a tongue poeition similar to ther ,cf ffi *hwBut there is often a great difference in quality in the rosels in "hole." As we have seen, many people, myself included- hare a fai{ frm vowel as the fi.rst element in the diphthong [oo]. This vornel beconro smsiderably retracted before lll at the end of the syllable. You can oberre fu change by comparing words such as "holy," where there is no final t{L md "wholely," where the first syllable is closed by p]. The exact form of the rule for specifying vowel allophones beforr ffi will vary from speaker to speaker. But, so that we can include a ruh in ouiw set summarizing some of the main allophones of English, we ma)' sa! : + f r ont I --+ (20) [ L , 1 [+retracted] before syllablefinal 11.. L + vowelj Some speakershave a similar rule that applies to vowels before r . a-i im "hear, there," which might be [hi"r, 6e"r]. Note again how /1, r mar m together in rules, as they did in rule (12a). These rules arc far from a complete set specifying the behavior of vowels in English. I have already mentioned the fact that it is possible to write rules describing the alternations in "divine, divinity" and all similar pairs and the vowel reduction in "explain, explanation" and all similar pair* It is also possible to write rules that account for there being no oppositior between tense and lax vowels before any of the consonants /r, J, 4/. But all these rules would get us beyond the limits of an introductory textbookAgain let me emphasize thal these rules roughly sp.ecifyonly some of the major aspectsof the pronunciation of English. They do not state everything about English consonants and vowels that is rule governed, nor are they completely accurately formulated. There are problems, for example, in saying exactly what is meant by a word or a syllable, and it is possibleto find both exceptions to these rules and additional generalizationsthat can be made.