Lang1055 Introduction to the Study of Language University of South Australia

Assessment 4 (Ass3): Phonetics/phonology

Due 4pm, Friday 17 June 2011 (worth 15% of your final result)
Note that internal students must submit this assignment in two ways using the electronic submission program AssignIT, and by submitting a hard-copy to your lecturer in class or to the course box outside room B1-14 (Magill campus). You must submit your assignment in both ways before the deadline. If you submit in only one way, it will be considered that you have not submitted the assignment. Students enrolled in the online-only course may submit just via AssignIT. Unless you have requested an assignment before the due date, any late submissions will lose 10% of the possible assignment mark per day, and will not be accepted later than one week after the due date.

Instructions:
1. Complete the four questions of this assignment, preferably typewritten in at least 12 point font. For this assignment, youll have to use Charis SIL, or everything will probably fall apart. For details on the Charis SIL font and how to get it, have a look at the page Fonts on the course website; or else the section in the Course Information Booklet. Attach the Internal Assignment Cover Sheet to the front of your assignment. The Assessment Feedback Sheet shows the key components of the assignment that is, the areas which will be taken account of in assessing your assignment. So you might want to have a look at the Assessment Feedback Sheet, either in the Course Information Booklet, or on the website. Its likely to improve your grade, if you know before you start what Im looking for in the assignment. Submit your assignment on or before Friday 17 June 2011 by placing in the appropriate assignment pigeonhole at the School of Communication, International Studies and Languages, Magill before then. Also before then, submit an electronic version of your assignment via AssignIT.

2. 3.

4.

All students complete the same questions for Questions 1 and 2. Questions 3 and 4 are language-specific you should answer one version of Question 3 and one version of Question 4, either Chinese, English, French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese or Spanish, depending on which language you want to answer. If you are studying more than one of these languages, just select one to answer here (though obviously you can do the other if you wish!); as usual, you cannot answer the question using the data of your native language. Unfortunately, Arabic isnt an option for this assignment. While you are working out the answers to these problems, you can work on your own, or together with a few other students. However when it comes to writing up your final solution to submit, you must do this on your own. That is, every student must hand in a solution which they wrote themselves. Study Period 2, 2011 1 Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology)

Lang1055

Question 1 (all students to answer)

a) English voiced oral plosives/stops are made at three places of articulation. What are the three places, and what are the IPA symbols for each of the three voiced stops? Place 1: Place 2: Place 3: b) Voiced stop symbol: Voiced stop symbol: Voiced stop symbol:

What is the difference between the plosive (or oral stop) [b] and the nasal (or nasal stop) [m] in terms of articulation? That is, what do you do differently in your mouth between [b] and [m]? On the vowel charts for Australian and New Zealand English shown in the lecture and give below (taken from Robert Mannells page at Macquarie University, which used to be at the following, but isnt there any more http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/speech/phonetics/phonetics/ausenglish/auseng_ vowels.html), a position is given for the Australian English monophthong (pure vowel) in the word hair. There is no corresponding word hair on the New Zealand English monophthong chart (nor, on the website, for the British RP (Received Pronunciation) nor the US English monophthong charts). Given that all these varieties of English have the word hair, why do you think its not marked on these non-Australian monophthong charts?

c)

Study Period 2, 2011

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology)

Lang1055

Question 2 (all students to answer)

For this question youll need to look at an IPA chart. There is one in the lecture notes, and many others are available on the web, and in most linguistics textbooks. The exact terminology used sometimes varies slightly, but thats OK, any of the possible terms is fine. Part A What is the phonetic description of the following consonants? e.g. e.g. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. [t] [] [] [] [] [] [] [r] [] voiceless alveolar stop (or voiceless alveolar plosive; or voiceless unaspirated alveolar stop) voiceless velarized alveolar lateral approximant

Part B What is the phonetic description of the following vowels? e.g. e.g. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. [i] [] [e] [y] [] [u] [ ] high front unrounded vowel (additionally, could add tense, short) high back rounded lax vowel (additionally, could add short)

Study Period 2, 2011

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology)

Lang1055

Question 3 Do ONE language

Q3 Chinese
Go to the course website and in the Assessment block, click on Assignment 3: Phonetics and phonology. That takes you to a page that has electronic versions of the assignment, and then a list of language names. Click on the appropriate language name. That will take you to the point on the page that contains a set of practice words (with transcriptions), and then the set of words for this question. Note that I have carefully picked words whose pronunciation may be in conflict with their (traditional) spelling; some of the words may consist of more than one word, but ignore that for this exercise, and treat them as single words. Listen to the five words for Question 3 (Chinese). For each of the words, circle the most accurate IPA phonetic transcription. Note that the tones are indicated by lines after the transcriptions a line at the top indicates a high tone, a line at the bottom indicates a low tone, a line going up indicates a rising tone, etc. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. [s tilj ] [tsmi ] [shoti ] [fut n ] [tjtj ] [ tilj ] [tsmi ] [oti ] [fuq n ] [jiji ] [ tilj ] [tsmi ] [oti ] [fyt n ] [tjtj ]

Q3 English
Go to the course website and in the Assessment block, click on Assignment 3: Phonetics and phonology. That takes you to a page that has electronic versions of the assignment, and then a list of language names. Click on the appropriate language name. That will take you to the point on the page that contains a set of practice words (with transcriptions), and then the set of words for this question. Note that I have carefully picked words whose pronunciation may be in conflict with their (traditional) spelling; some of the words may consist of more than one word, but ignore that for this exercise, and treat them as single words. Listen to the five words for Question 3 (English). For each of the words, circle the most accurate IPA phonetic transcription: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. [kep] [knes] [kip] [knes] [kip] [kes]

[pkan] [pkan] [pkun] [sumns] [npt] [sumnz] [npt] [samns] [mpt]

Study Period 2, 2011

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology)

Lang1055

Q3 French
Go to the course website and in the Assessment block, click on Assignment 3: Phonetics and phonology. That takes you to a page that has electronic versions of the assignment, and then a list of language names. Click on the appropriate language name. That will take you to the point on the page that contains a set of practice words (with transcriptions), and then the set of words for this question. Note that I have carefully picked words whose pronunciation may be in conflict with their (traditional) spelling; some of the words may consist of more than one word, but ignore that for this exercise, and treat them as single words. Listen to the five words for Question 3 (French). For each of the words, circle the most accurate IPA phonetic transcription: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. [t zz] [ peti] [lapom] [leos] [lavej] [t rz] [ pti] [lapum] [leoz] [labej] [t eiz] [pti] [lapom] [leozz] [labaj]

Q3 German
Go to the course website and in the Assessment block, click on Assignment 3: Phonetics and phonology. That takes you to a page that has electronic versions of the assignment, and then a list of language names. Click on the appropriate language name. That will take you to the point on the page that contains a set of practice words (with transcriptions), and then the set of words for this question. Note that I have carefully picked words whose pronunciation may be in conflict with their (traditional) spelling; some of the words may consist of more than one word, but ignore that for this exercise, and treat them as single words. Listen to the six words for Question 3 (German). For each of the words, circle the most accurate IPA phonetic transcription: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. [daskni] [dasefens] [anmpana] [daslp] [dile] [estn] [dasni] [dasfens] [anumpan] [daslp] [dile] [estn] [daskni] [dasfens] [anmpana] [daslp] [dile] [estn]

Study Period 2, 2011

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology)

Lang1055

Q3 Indonesian
Go to the course website and in the Assessment block, click on Assignment 3: Phonetics and phonology. That takes you to a page that has electronic versions of the assignment, and then a list of language names. Click on the appropriate language name. That will take you to the point on the page that contains a set of practice words (with transcriptions), and then the set of words for this question. Note that I have carefully picked words whose pronunciation may be in conflict with their (traditional) spelling; some of the words may consist of more than one word, but ignore that for this exercise, and treat them as single words. Listen to the five words for Question 3 (Indonesian). For each of the words, circle the most accurate IPA phonetic transcription: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. [dan] [demokasi] [bente] [tantik] [rentana] [dnan] [dmokasi] [benten] [tanti] [rntana] [dean] [dmokrasi] [bente] [tanti] [rntana]

Q3 Italian
Go to the course website and in the Assessment block, click on Assignment 3: Phonetics and phonology. That takes you to a page that has electronic versions of the assignment, and then a list of language names. Click on the appropriate language name. That will take you to the point on the page that contains a set of practice words (with transcriptions), and then the set of words for this question. Note that I have carefully picked words whose pronunciation may be in conflict with their (traditional) spelling; some of the words may consist of more than one word, but ignore that for this exercise, and treat them as single words. Listen to the five words for Question 3 (Italian). For each of the words, circle the most accurate IPA phonetic transcription: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. [bnne] [laabbja] [ilfat t o] [blo] [lamelodia] [bne] [laabia] [ilfat o] [bllu] [lamelodia] [bni] [larabbja] [ilfat t o] [bllo] [lamelodja]

Study Period 2, 2011

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology)

Lang1055

Q3 Japanese
Go to the course website and in the Assessment block, click on Assignment 3: Phonetics and phonology. That takes you to a page that has electronic versions of the assignment, and then a list of language names. Click on the appropriate language name. That will take you to the point on the page that contains a set of practice words (with transcriptions), and then the set of words for this question. Note that I have carefully picked words whose pronunciation may be in conflict with their (traditional) spelling; some of the words may consist of more than one word, but ignore that for this exercise, and treat them as single words. Listen to the six words for Question 3 (Japanese). For each of the words, circle the most accurate IPA phonetic transcription (the pitch accent is given to the right; ignore it): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. [] [i tsai] [odin] [tsnami] [osawai] [i taate] [] [itsgai] [odin] [tsnami] [osaai] [i taate] [sh] [i tsuai] [odi] [tsunami] [osaai] [i taatte] (HL) (LHL) (HHL) (LHL) (HHLLL) (LHLL)

Q3 Spanish
Go to the course website and in the Assessment block, click on Assignment 3: Phonetics and phonology. That takes you to a page that has electronic versions of the assignment, and then a list of language names. Click on the appropriate language name. That will take you to the point on the page that contains a set of practice words (with transcriptions), and then the set of words for this question. Note that I have carefully picked words whose pronunciation may be in conflict with their (traditional) spelling; some of the words may consist of more than one word, but ignore that for this exercise, and treat them as single words. Listen to the five words for Question 3 (Spanish). For each of the words, circle the most accurate IPA phonetic transcription: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. [karro] [ubas] [t ambje] [kance] [kmbinasjons] [karo] [uvas] [t ambien] [kanse] [kmbinasjons] [caro] [uas] [t ambjen] [kanse] [kmbinasions]

Study Period 2, 2011

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology)

Lang1055

Question 4 Do ONE language

Q4 Chinese
Part A One of the phonological rules which operates in Chinese is the following:1 /k/ [t] / ___ i and ___ y [k] elsewhere (that is, before high front vowels)

What is the phonetic description of [t]? (e.g. voiced alveolar stop or high back unrounded vowel) What is the phonetic description of [k]? Part B Given the following list of Chinese words in phonological transcription, indicate whether the /k/ would be produced as [t] or as [k]: Phonological [t] or [k] transcription ku kin ki miku k ktsi Part C What is the phonetic description of [t]? What is the phonetic description of [k]? [ k ]u [ ]in [ ]i mi[ ]u [ ] [ ]tsi dog between give USA brother tangerine Phonological [t] or [k] transcription tsk kiu wnk bkn tsnk lkun ts[ ] [ ]iu wn[ ] b[ ]n tsn[ ] l[ ]un self nineteen toy biscuit respect hotel

Note that there are several different ideas about the best way to analyse Chinese phonologically. I have used one of these ideas here for the purposes of this question, it wouldnt actually matter which version I used.

Study Period 2, 2011

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology) Part D

Lang1055

Here are some more Chinese words. They are primarily in phonological transcription, except that a phonetic transcription is used for [t] and [k]. Transcription [t] [t] [k]seu [k]n t[k]i li[k]uai seven request cough read open cool Transcription [t]in [k] [t] [t] [k]u m[t]n money approve go interest mouth mother

Given this set of words, are [t] and [k] in complementary distribution or contrastive distribution? If you think they are in contrastive distribution (that is, if the two can occur in the same places in words), give evidence of it. If you think they are in complementary distribution (that is, the two are allophones of a single phoneme), design a phonological rule like the one in Part A above to show which allophone occurs in what environment. Part E Given the combined two sets of words, are [k] and [k] in complementary distribution or contrastive distribution? If you think they are in contrastive distribution, give evidence of it. If you think they are in complementary distribution, design a phonological rule like that above to show which allophone occurs in what environment. Part F Is there anything similar about the phonological rule in Part A, and the rule or rules you developed in Parts D and/or E? Could you generalize and write a single more abstract rule?

Study Period 2, 2011

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology)

Lang1055

Q4 English
Part A One of the phonological rules which operates in English is the following:2 /n/ [n] / #s___ (that is, at the beginning of words after s) [n] elsewhere What is the phonetic description of [n ]? (e.g. voiced alveolar stop or high back unrounded vowel) What is the phonetic description of [n]? Part B Given the following list of English words in phonological transcription, indicate whether the /n/ would be produced as [n ] or as [n]: Phonological transcription snel sn netv snp nl ntl Part C What is the phonetic description of [m ]? What is the phonetic description of [m]? [n] or [n] s[ n ]el s[ ] [ ]etv s[ ]p [ ]l [ ]tl snail snigger native snip niggle natural Phonological transcription na sn nas snad nel snt [n] or [n] [ ]a s[ ] [ ]as s[ ]ad [ ]el s[ ]t now snag nice snide nail snot

Actually the rule is more complex than this. But it will do for our purposes.

Study Period 2, 2011

10

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology) Part D

Lang1055

Here are some more English words. They are primarily in phonological transcription, except that a phonetic transcription is used for [m ] and [m]. Transcription s[m ]l [m]at [m]el s[m ]at s[m ] [m]l small might mail smite smog mall Transcription [m]t s[m ]u [m]ez [m]as s[m ]al s[m ]ut much smooth maze mice smile smooch

Given this set of words, are [m ] and [m] in complementary distribution or contrastive distribution? If you think they are in contrastive distribution (that is, if the two can occur in the same places in words), give evidence of it. If you think they are in complementary distribution (that is, the two are allophones of a single phoneme), design a phonological rule like the one in Part A above to show which allophone occurs in what environment. Part E Given the combined two sets of words, are [m] and [n] in complementary distribution or contrastive distribution? If you think they are in contrastive distribution, give evidence of it. If you think they are in complementary distribution, design a phonological rule like that above to show which allophone occurs in what environment. Part F Is there anything similar about the phonological rule in Part A, and the rule or rules you developed in Parts D and/or E? Could you generalize and write a single more abstract rule?

Study Period 2, 2011

11

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology)

Lang1055

Q4 French
Part A One of the phonological rules which operates in French is the following:3 /y/ [] / ___ V (that is, before a vowel) [y] elsewhere What is the phonetic description of []? (e.g. voiced alveolar stop or high back unrounded vowel) What is the phonetic description of [y]? Part B Given the following list of French words in phonological transcription, indicate whether the /y/ would be produced as [] or as [y]: Phonological transcription yin ly syd yit byo lyi Part C What is the phonetic description of [w]? What is the phonetic description of [u]? [] or [y] []in l[ ] s[ ]d [ ]it b[ ]o l[ ]i ruin read south eight office him Phonological transcription sye ty ty y syav yls [] or [y] s[ ]e t[ ] t[ ] [ ] s[ ]av [ ]ls sweat exhausting you road smooth ulcer

The actual rule in French is slightly more complex than this it depends whether the /y/ comes after a single consonant or two consonants but this will do for our purposes.

Study Period 2, 2011

12

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology) Part D

Lang1055

Here are some more French words. They are primarily in phonological transcription, except that a phonetic transcription is used for [w] and [u]. Transcription b[w]a t[u] l[w]a b[u]l f[u]l l[w]i drink all law ball crowd Louis Transcription [w]i f[w] [u]blije t[u]p t[w]a k[u]l yes whip forget troop three colour

Given this set of words, are [w] and [u] in complementary distribution or contrastive distribution? If you think they are in contrastive distribution (that is, if the two can occur in the same places in words), give evidence of it. If you think they are in complementary distribution (that is, the two are allophones of a single phoneme), design a phonological rule like the one in Part A above to show which allophone occurs in what environment. Part E Given the combined two sets of words, are [y] and [u] in complementary distribution or contrastive distribution? If you think they are in contrastive distribution, give evidence of it. If you think they are in complementary distribution, design a phonological rule like that above to show which allophone occurs in what environment. Part F Is there anything similar about the phonological rule in Part A, and the rule or rules you developed in Parts D and/or E? Could you generalize and write a single more abstract rule?

Study Period 2, 2011

13

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology)

Lang1055

Q4 German
Part A One of the phonological rules which operates in German is the following:4 /t/ [t] / ___ and s ___ (i.e. after and after s) [t] elsewhere What is the phonetic description of [t]? (e.g. voiced alveolar stop or high back unrounded vowel) What is the phonetic description of [t]? Part B Given the following list of German words in phonological transcription, indicate whether the /t/ would be produced as [t] or as [t]: Phonological [t] or [t] transcription tap tan tam atm bttn Part C What is the phonetic description of [p]? What is the phonetic description of [p]? [t]ap [ ]an [ ]am a[ ]m
pole fir trunk breath

Phonological [t] or [t] transcription batant stetk eta stax tim ba[ ]an[ ] help s[ ]e[ ]k e[ ]a s[ ]ax [ ]im
aesthetics storey Austria team

b[ ][ ]n confirm

The actual rule in German is slightly more complex than this, but this will do for our purposes.

Study Period 2, 2011

14

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology) Part D

Lang1055

Here are some more German words. They are primarily in phonological transcription, except that a phonetic transcription is used for [p] and [p]. Transcription as[p]kt o[p]a [p]ak [p]ital ba[p]il a[p]etit aspect grandad pile hospital example appetite Transcription [p]an ta[p]et [p]ax vs[p] s[p]so b[p]akn breakdown wallpaper language wasp espresso load

Given this set of words, are [p] and [p] in complementary distribution or contrastive distribution? If you think they are in contrastive distribution (that is, if the two can occur in the same places in words), give evidence of it. If you think they are in complementary distribution (that is, the two are allophones of a single phoneme), design a phonological rule like the one in Part A above to show which allophone occurs in what environment. Part E Given the combined two sets of words, are [t] and [p] in complementary distribution or contrastive distribution? If you think they are in contrastive distribution, give evidence of it. If you think they are in complementary distribution, design a phonological rule like that above to show which allophone occurs in what environment. Part F Is there anything similar about the phonological rule in Part A, and the rule or rules you developed in Parts D and/or E? Could you generalize and write a single more abstract rule?

Study Period 2, 2011

15

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology)

Lang1055

Q4 Italian
Part A One of the phonological rules which operates in Italian is the following:5 /a/ [a] / ___ CV (That is, you only get [a] in stressed syllables, and then only if it is directly followed by a single consonant and then a vowel. In other words, you dont get [a] if the syllable is unstressed; you dont get [a] if there is no consonant after it; you dont get [a] if there are two consonants after it; and you dont get [a] if the consonant after it is at the end of the word.) [a] elsewhere (NB: For Italian phonology, // and // count as single consonants; long consonants count as two consonants.) What is the phonetic description of [a]? (e.g. voiced alveolar stop or high back unrounded vowel) What is the phonetic description of [a]? Part B Given the following list of Italian words in phonological transcription, indicate whether the /a/ would be produced as [a] or as [a]: Phonological transcription kane davvero alto anke kza andae mano Part C What is the phonetic description of [i]? What is the phonetic description of [i]?
5

[a] or [a] k[a]ne d[ ]vvero [ ]lto [ ]nke kz[ ] dog really tall also thing

Phonological transcription gatto fae sale kadde pasta bavo mamma

[a] or [a] g[ ]tto f[ ]e s[ ]le k[ ]dde p[ ]st[ ] b[ ]vo cat do salt she fell dough good

[ ]nd[ ]e go m[ ]no hand

m[ ]mm[ ] mother

The actual rule in Italian is slightly more complex, but this will do for our purposes.

Study Period 2, 2011

16

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology) Part D

Lang1055

Here are some more Italian words. They are primarily in phonological transcription, except that a phonetic transcription is used for [i] and [i]. Transcription v[i]tto kk[i] f[i]lo food eyes string Transcription p[i]sta v[i]no ven[i]e vent[i] f[i]nto kamm[i]no runway wine come twenty fake I walk

s[i]mpat[i]ko nice am[i][i] [i]a d[i][i]tto friends rage straight

Given this set of words, are [i] and [i] in complementary distribution or contrastive distribution? If you think they are in contrastive distribution (that is, if the two can occur in the same places in words), give evidence of it. If you think they are in complementary distribution (that is, the two are allophones of a single phoneme), design a phonological rule like the one in Part A above to show which allophone occurs in what environment. Part E Given the combined two sets of words, are [a] and [i] in complementary distribution or contrastive distribution? If you think they are in contrastive distribution, give evidence of it. If you think they are in complementary distribution, design a phonological rule like that above to show which allophone occurs in what environment. Part F Is there anything similar about the phonological rule in Part A, and the rule or rules you developed in Parts D and/or E? Could you generalize and write a single more abstract rule?

Study Period 2, 2011

17

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology)

Lang1055

Q4 Indonesian
Part A One of the phonological rules which operates in Indonesian is the following:6 /a/ [] / Cnasal ___ (i.e. after a nasal consonant, e.g. [m], [n] and []) [a] elsewhere What is the phonetic description of []? (e.g. voiced alveolar stop or high back unrounded vowel) What is the phonetic description of [a]? Part B Given the following list of Indonesian words in phonological transcription, indicate whether the /a/ would be produced as [] or as [a]: Phonological transcription umah bka pua anak aik sama alan Part C What is the phonetic description of []? What is the phonetic description of [i]? [] or [a] um[]h house Phonological transcription ada kanto makan kakak nama ani [] or [a] [ ]d[ ] k[ ]nto there is office

bk[ ] work pu[ ] [ ]n[ ]k [ ]ik s[ ]m[ ] [ ]l[ ]n have child infatuated equal road

m[ ]k[ ]n eat k[ ]k[ ]k n[ ]m[ ] [ ]ni sibling name warp

The actual rule in Indonesian is more complex, but this will do for our purposes.

Study Period 2, 2011

18

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology) Part D

Lang1055

Here are some more Indonesian words. They are primarily in phonological transcription, except that a phonetic transcription is used for [] and [i]. Transcription m[]mba har[i] lb[i]h b[]s p[i]ntu [i]n[] b[i]u pulpit day more cruel door this blue Transcription lak[i] pon[]s [i]bu bn[]h a[]n bn[i] kam[] man verdict mother seed wind hate we (exclusive)

Given this set of words, are [] and [i] in complementary distribution or contrastive distribution? If you think they are in contrastive distribution (that is, if the two can occur in the same places in words), give evidence of it. If you think they are in complementary distribution (that is, the two are allophones of a single phoneme), design a phonological rule like the one in Part A above to show which allophone occurs in what environment. Part E Given the combined two sets of words, are [a] and [i] in complementary distribution or contrastive distribution? If you think they are in contrastive distribution, give evidence of it. If you think they are in complementary distribution, design a phonological rule like that above to show which allophone occurs in what environment. Part F Is there anything similar about the phonological rule in Part A, and the rule or rules you developed in Parts D and/or E? Could you generalize and write a single more abstract rule?

Study Period 2, 2011

19

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology)

Lang1055

Q4 Japanese
Part A One of the phonological rules which operates in Japanese is the following:7 /i/ [i ] / Cvoiceless ___ Cvoiceless (i.e. between voiceless consonants) [i] elsewhere

What is the phonetic description of [i ]? (e.g. voiced alveolar stop or high back unrounded vowel) What is the phonetic description of [i]? Part B Given the following list of Japanese words in phonological transcription (pitch accent is not marked), indicate whether the /i/ would be produced as [i ] or as [i]: Phonological [i ] or [i] transcription kik midori tikai hikari sasimi Part C What is the phonetic description of [ ]? What is the phonetic description of []? k[i ]k m[ ]dor[ ] t[ ]ka[ ] h[ ]kar[ ] sas[ ]m[ ] listen green near light a day Phonological [i ] or [i] transcription kimo kita siba ziko sikk k[ ]mo k[ ]ta s[ ]ba z[ ]ko s[ ]kk liver north firewood accident performance

The actual rule in Japanese is slightly more complex since word-final /i/ also may be [i ], and the pitch accent interacts with this rule but this will do for our purposes.

Study Period 2, 2011

20

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology) Part D

Lang1055

Here are some more Japanese words. They are primarily in phonological transcription, except that a phonetic transcription is used for [ ] and []. (Pitch accent is not marked.) Transcription k[ ]sa k[]mo s[ ]ki k[ ]s[]ri h[]j[] grass spider opening medicine winter Transcription t[ ]k[]r[] s[ ]ppai s[ ]s[]m[] make sour advance

h[ ]k[]m[] public service sjok[]zi meal

Given this set of words, are [ ] and [] in complementary distribution or contrastive distribution? If you think they are in contrastive distribution (that is, if the two can occur in the same places in words), give evidence of it. If you think they are in complementary distribution (that is, the two are allophones of a single phoneme), design a phonological rule like the one in Part A above to show which allophone occurs in what environment. Part E Given the combined two sets of words, are [i] and [] in complementary distribution or contrastive distribution? If you think they are in contrastive distribution, give evidence of it. If you think they are in complementary distribution, design a phonological rule like that above to show which allophone occurs in what environment. Part F Is there anything similar about the phonological rule in Part A, and the rule or rules you developed in Parts D and/or E? Could you generalize and write a single more abstract rule?

Study Period 2, 2011

21

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology)

Lang1055

Q4 Spanish
Part A One of the phonological rules which operates in Spanish is the following:8 /b/ [] / V ___ V (i.e. between vowels) [b] elsewhere What is the phonetic description of []? (e.g. voiced alveolar stop or high back unrounded vowel) What is the phonetic description of [b]? Part B Given the following list of Spanish words in (Latin American) phonological transcription, indicate whether the /b/ would be produced as [] or as [b]: Phonological [] or [b] transcription baso xabali lababo bi uba baka Part C What is the phonetic description of []? What is the phonetic description of [d]? [b]aso xa[ ]ali arm wild boar Phonological [] or [b] transcription sombeo bao abol kabesa xabon baso som[ ]eo hat [ ]ao a[ ]ol ka[ ]esa xa[ ]on [ ]aso bathroom tree head soap glass

la[ ]a[ ]o washbasin [ ]i u[ ]a [ ]aka I saw grape cow

The actual rule in Spanish is slightly more complex than this, but this will do for our purposes.

Study Period 2, 2011

22

Tim Curnow

Assignment 3 (phonetics and phonology) Part D

Lang1055

Here are some more Spanish words. They are primarily in phonological transcription, except that a phonetic transcription is used for [] and [d]. Transcription [d]jente sali[]a [d]eeo o[d]o espal[d]a xu[]ia tooth exit right fat back bean Transcription an[d]a ka[]a mo[]a [d]i to[]o walk each fashion I gave all

Given this set of words, are [] and [d] in complementary distribution or contrastive distribution? If you think they are in contrastive distribution (that is, if the two can occur in the same places in words), give evidence of it. If you think they are in complementary distribution (that is, the two are allophones of a single phoneme), design a phonological rule like the one in Part A above to show which allophone occurs in what environment. Part E Given the combined two sets of words, are [b] and [d] in complementary distribution or contrastive distribution? If you think they are in contrastive distribution, give evidence of it. If you think they are in complementary distribution, design a phonological rule like that above to show which allophone occurs in what environment. Part F Is there anything similar about the phonological rule in Part A, and the rule or rules you developed in Parts D and/or E? Could you generalize and write a single more abstract rule?

Study Period 2, 2011

23

Tim Curnow