THE RULES OF

PHONOLOGY
GROUP 3
Members of group:
Adindha (2201411022)
Puspa Dewi A. K. (2201411023)
Lisa Ika Lestary (2201411024)
Retno Tri Handayani (2201411026)
Rizki Iftiani (2201411028)
Kasanah (2201411035)
 THE RULES OF
PHONOLOGY
Phonological rules are part of a speaker’s
knowledge of the language. The phonemic
representations are minimally specified because some
features or feature values are predictable. For
example, in English all nasal consonants are voiced, so
we don’t need to specify voicing in the phonemic feature
matrix for nasals. Similarly, we don’t need to specify the
feature round for non–low back vowels.
ASSIMILATION RULES
 Vowel Nasalization in English: a rule that makes neighboring
segments more similar by copying or spreading a phonetic
property from one segment to the other.
 Assimilation is when a sound becomes more like a neighboring
sound with respect to some phonetic property
 VOWEL NASALIZATION RULE
 Vowels are nasalized before a nasal consonant within the same
syllable.
This rule specifies the class of sounds affected by the rule:
 Vowels
It states what phonetic change will occur by applying the rule:
 Change phonemic oral vowels to phonetic nasal vowels.
And it specifies the context or phonological environment.
Before a nasal consonant within the same syllable.
We can use similar notations to state the nasalization rule as:
 V → [+nasal] / __ [+nasal] $
Let’s look at the rule piece by piece.
 V → [+nasal] / __ [+nasal] $
Vowels become nasalized in the before nasal within the same
syllable
 environment segments syllable
 ENGLISH NASALS
Place assimilation in nasals
 I can ask [ɑɪ kæn æsk]
 I can see [ɑɪ kæn si]
 I can bake [ɑɪ kæm beɪk]
 I can play [ɑɪ kæm pleɪ]
 I can go [ɑɪ kæŋ goʊ]
 I can come [ɑɪ kæŋ kʌm]
The nasal has the same place of articulation as the stop following it
 /n/ → [m] / __C[labial]
 /n/ → [ŋ] / __ C[velar]
 /n/ → [n] / elsewhere
DISSIMILATION
 Dissimilation is a rule where two close or adjacent sounds
become less alike with respect to some property
Example:
[fθ] and [sθ] → [ft] and [st] Fricatives → stop?

 fifth and sixth come to be pronounced as if they were spelled fift

and sikst
FEATURE-CHANGING RULES
The assimilation and dissimilation rules we have seen
may all be thought of as feature-changing rules. Some
feature-changing rules are neither assimilation nor
dissimilation rules. The rule in English that aspirates voiceless
stops at the beginning of a syllable simply adds a
nondistinctive feature. Generally, aspiration occurs only if the
following vowel is stressed. The /p/ in pit and repeat is an
aspirated [pʰ], but the /p/ in inspect or compass is an
unaspirated [p]. A voiceless, noncontinuant has [+aspirated]
added to its feature matrix at the beginning of a syllable
containing a stressed vowel with an optional intervening
consonant. Aspiration is not specified in any phonemic
feature matrices of English.
FEATURE-CHANGING RULES
Remember that /p/ and /b/ (and all such symbols) are simply cover
symbols that do not reveal the phonemic distinctions. In phonemic
and phonetic feature matrices, these differences are made explicit,
as shown in the following phonemic matrices:
p b
Consonantal + +
Continuant – –
Labial + +
Voiced – + ← distinctive difference
The nondistinctive feature “aspiration” is not included in these
phonemic representations because aspiration is predictable.
SEGMENT INSERTION AND DELETION
RULES
Phonological rules may add or delete entire
segments. The process of inserting a consonant or
vowel is called epenthesis. The examples of
epenthesis:
 Insert a [ə] before the plural morpheme /z/ when a
regular noun ends in a sibilant, giving [əz].
 Insert a [ə] before the past-tense morpheme when a
regular verb ends in a non-nasal alveolar stop, giving
[əd].
SEGMENT INSERTION AND DELETION
RULES
We often delete the unstressed vowels that are shown in
bold type in words like the following:

 mystery general memory funeral vigorous Barbara

These words in casual speech sound as if they were

written:
 mystry genral memry funral vigrous Barbra
CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING
EXAMPLES:
A B

sign [sãɪn] signature [sɪgnətʃər]

design [dəzãɪn] n]
paradigm [pʰærədãɪm] Paradigmatic
[pʰærədɪgmæɾək]
MOVEMENT (METATHESIS) RULES

Phonological rules may also reorder sequences of

phonemes, in which case they are called metathesis
rules. For some speakers of English, the word ask is
pronounced [æks], but the word asking is pronounced
[æskĩŋ]. In this case a metathesis rule reorders the /s/
and /k/ in certain contexts. In Old English the verb was
aksian, with the /k/ preceding the /s/. A historical
metathesis rule switched these two
consonants, producing ask in most dialects of English.
MOVEMENT (METATHESIS) RULES

Children’s speech shows many cases of metathesis

(which are corrected as the child approaches the adult
grammar): aminal nəl] for animal and pusketti
[pʰəskɛti] for spaghetti are common children’s
pronunciations. Dog lovers have metathesized the
Shetland sheepdog into a sheltie, and at least two
presidents of the United States have applied a
metathesis rule to the word nuclear, which many
Americans pronounce [njukliər], but is pronounced
[nukjələr] by those leading statesmen.
 FROM ONE TO MANY AND FROM MANY
TO ONE
Phonological rules that relate phonemic to phonetic
representations have several functions, among which the
following are:
FUNCTION EXAMPLE
1. Change feature values Nasal consonant assimilation rules in
Akan and English.
1. Add new features Aspiration in English
1. Delete segments g-deletion before nasals in English.
1. Add segments Schwa insertion in English plural and
past tense.
1. Reorder segments Metathesis rule relating [æsk] and
[æks]
FROM ONE TO MANY AND FROM MANY
TO ONE
The relationship between the phonemes and phones of a language is
complex and varied. Rarely is a single phoneme realized as one and
only one phone. Considering the vowels in the following pairs of
words:
A B
/i/ Compete [i] Competition [Ə]
/I/ Medicinal [I] Medicine [Ə]
/e/ Maintain [e] Maintenance [Ə]
/Ɛ/ Telegraph [Ɛ] Telegraphy [Ə]
/æ/ Analysis [æ] Analytic [Ə]
/a/ Solid [a] Solidity [Ə]
/o/ Phone [o] Phonetic [Ə]
/ᴜ/ Talmudic [ᴜ] Talmud [Ə]
 THE FUNCTION OF PHONOLOGICAL
RULES
The function of the phonological rules in a grammar is to provide
the phonetic information necessary for the pronunciation of
utterances. We may illustrate this point in the following way:
 THE FUNCTION OF PHONOLOGICAL
RULES
The input to the P-rules is the phonemic representation. The P-
rules apply to the the phonemic strings and produce as output the
phonetic representation. The application of rules in this way is called
derivation.
For example, the word tempest is phonemically /tɛmpɛst/ (as
shown by the pronunciation of tempestuous [ mpʰɛstʃuəs]) but
phonetically [ mpəst]. Three rules apply to it: the aspiration
rule, the vowel nasalization rule, and the schwa rule. We can derive
the phonetic form from the phonemic representation as follows:
 SLIPS OF THE TONGUE: EVIDENCE
FOR PHONOLOGICAL RULES
Slips of the tongue, or speech errors, in which we deviate in
some way from the intended utterance, show phonological rules
in action. We all make speech errors, and they tell us interesting
things about language and its use. Consider the following speech
errors:
Intended Utterance Actual Utterance
 gone to seed god to seen
[gãn tə sid] [gad tə sĩn]
 stick in the mud smuck in the tid
[stɪk ĩn ðə mʌd] [smʌk ĩn ðə tʰɪd]
 speech production preach seduction
[spitʃ n] [pʰritʃ n]