Tsujimura (2007), Ch. 3(1), page 1 of 10 Class Notes: Tsujimura (2007), Ch. 3. Phonology (1), pp. 22-50 pp. 22-23 What is !phonology!? ! An area that deals with the systematic patterning of speech sounds. One of its goals is to determine the condition under which the regularities are defined. What is a !phoneme!? ! An abstract CONTRASTIVE unit of speech sound. In other words, a !phoneme" is a group of slightly different sounds which are all perceived to have the same function by speakers of the language or dialect in question. What is an !allophone!? ! A variant of a phoneme. Allophone are NOT contrastive, and their occurrences are mostly PREDICTABLE. What is a !phonemic transcription!? ! A general transcription of PHONEMES using the notation “/ /.” What is a !phonetic transcription!? ! A detailed transcription of ALLOPHONES using the notation “[ ].” Tsujimura (2007), Ch. 3(1), page 2 of 10 pp. 23-24 1. Phonological rules in Japanese 1.1. Devoicing of high vowels What are high vowels in JPN? ! /i/ and /u/ How do you indicate devoiced vowels? ! [ i 8], [u8] Does devoicing NOT occur with vowels other than high vowels? ! It does occur with other vowels, but high vowels most frequently undergo devoicing. Does devoicing equally occur in all dialects of JPN? ! No, it is wide-spread in the Tokyo dialect, but not common in the Kansai dialect (e.g. Osaka, Kyoto). p. 25 How do you write a phonological rule, for example? A ! B / X ___ means “A changes to B when it follows X.” A ! B / ___ Y means “A changes to B when it precedes Y.” A ! B / X ___ Y means “A changes to B when it appears between X and Y.” pp. 26-27 Write the rule for high vowel devoicing. V ! V8 / C ___ C [+hi] [-vd] [-vd] # NOTE: “V”: vowel; “C”: consonant; “hi”: high; “vd”: voiced; “ / ”: when; “#”: word boundary; : alternatives What are the allophones of /i/ and /u/, respectively? ! Allophones of /i/: [i] and [i 8]; allophones of /u/: [u] and [u8]Tsujimura (2007), Ch. 3(1), page 3 of 10 p. 27 1.2. Nasal Assimilation What"s happening in the pronunciation of the underlined parts of the English words intolerable, incoherent, & impossible? ! What is !assimilation? ! A phenomenon in which adjacent sounds become phonetically similar n abstract CONTRASTIVE unit of speech sound. How can you account for the different pronunciations of /n/ in a-c? a. /sanmai/ [sammai], /sanpo/ [sampo], /sanba/ [samba] b. /sannoo/ [sanno:], /santa/ [santa], /sansatu/ [sansatsu] c. /sankai/ [sa#kai], /sangoo/ [sa#go:] p. 28 ! a. /n/ ! [m] / ___ C [bilabial] b. /n/ ! [n] / ___ C [alvelar] c. /n/ ! [#] / ___ C [velar] Can we collapse the above rules a-c? ! Yes! d. /n/ ! nasal / ___ C [! place] [! place] NOTE: [! place] under two sounds means that the place of articulation of the two sounds is identical. Rule d. is actually not sufficient. Cf. /san/ [saN], /nihon/ [nihoN], How should we write a rule to account for these? ! e. /n/ ! [N] / ___ # Combine rules d & e; i.e. write the nasal assimilation rule. /n/ ! nasal / ___ C [! place] [! place] ! [N] / ___ # Tsujimura (2007), Ch. 3(1), page 4 of 10 p. 29 Should we assume that [m] is always an allophone of /n/ in JPN? ! No, the distribution of syllable-INITIAL [m] and [n] is NOT predictable, and there are many MINIMAL PAIRS involving [m]. Cf. (17a), p. 29 NOTE: “Mimimal pairs” means pairs of words that differ in only one phonological element e.g. [matsu] !wait" vs. [natsu] !summer" [ika] !squid" vs. [ike] !pond" [tsuki] !moon" vs. [tsugi] !next" What is the status of [m], then? ! Syllable-final [m] should be regarded as allophones of /n/, but other instances of [m] reflect its phoneme status. pp. 29-30 Can the same be said of [#] in JPN? ! No, there is no phoneme /#/ in JPN; all instances of [#] are allophones. (1) Syllable-finally, [#] is an allophone of /n/ preceding a velar sound. (2) Between vowels, [#] is an allophone of /g/. p. 30 What does it meant to say [#] and [g] are in “free variation”? ! It makes no difference in meaning whether one pronounces a word one way or the other. e.g. /kage/ !shadow" can be pronounced [kage] or [ka#e]. This is represented as [kage] ~ [ka#e]. What are the allophones of /n/? ! [n] [m] [#] [N]Tsujimura (2007), Ch. 3(1), page 5 of 10 p. 30 1.3. Aleveolar Alternations pp. 30-31 Write a rule to account for the allophones of /t/ in (18), p. 30. /t/ ! [ts] / ___ [u] (=(21), p. 31) p. 32 Write a rule to account for the allophones of /t/ in (23), p. 32. /t/ ! [%] / ___ [i] (=(26), p. 32) Combine the above two rules. /t/ ! [ts] / ___ [u] ! [%] / ___ [i] Write a rule to account for the allophones of /d/. /d/ ! [dz] / ___ [u] ! ['] / ___ [i] p. 33 Write a rule to account for the allophones of /s/ in (27), p. 33. /s/ ! [&] / ___ [i] (=(29b), p. 33) pp. 33-34 Write a rule to account for the allophones of /z/ in (28), p. 33. /z/ ! ['] / ___ [i] (=(30b), p. 34) REVIEW: What are the allophones of /t/? ! [t] [ts] [%] What are the allophones of /d/? ! [d] [dz] ['] What are the allophones of /s/? ! [s] [&] What are the allophones of /z/? ! [z] ['] Tsujimura (2007), Ch. 3(1), page 6 of 10 p. 34 1.4. [h]/["]/[ç] Alternations pp. 34-35 Write rules to account for the allophones of /h/ in (31), p. 34. /h/ ! [$] / ___ [u] (=(33a), p. 35) /h/ ! [ç] / ___ [i] (=(33b), p. 35) What are the allophones of /h/? ! [h] [$] [ç] p. 35 1.5. Digression on the Phoneme Status of [ts, #, $, %, ", ç] Can any of the sounds [ts, %, &, ', $, ç] occur in environments other than the ones specified in the