Handout 4 Natural classes and distinctive features Consonants Bila bialLabio dentalDentalAlveo larAlveo palatalRetro flexPalatalVelarUvularPha ryngealPlosivepbt5d5td c kgqTrillsr Nasalmn NFricative BfvTDszSZ C x X Lateralfricative LApproxi mant jLateral ap proximantl Other consonant classes Affricates tS dZ pf bv ts dz Labiovelars w kp gb Placeless aspirated continuant h Glottal stop Implosives Ejectives p t k Clicks Dental k Alveolar k Lateral k Rounded vowels FrontCentralBackHigh y Y u UMid O o Low Unrounded vowels FrontCentralBackHigh i I Mid e E FLow Q a A Diacritics Voiceless for sonorants m8 88 l8 Aspirated pH tH kH Syllabic for consonants n l Breathy voiced z d m Creaky voiced z0 d0 m0 Nasalized e a o Palatalized tJ dJ pJ mJ Long I e t Classes of sounds Phonological patterns generally involve sets of sounds not just a single sound Among the classes we ve encountered Voiceless plosives Plosives Alveolar stops High vowels High front vowels Natural classes These are phonetically de ned sets they are the set of all sounds in a language that share a certain phonetic property But phonologists beginning with Jakobson and Trubetskoy in the 1930 s observed that not all phonetically de ned classes actually play a role in phonological patterns The sets of sounds that occur in phonologi cal patterns are called natural classes Unnatural classes Here are some phonetically de ned classes that never play a role in phonological patterns The sounds articulated on the upper teeth labiodentals and dentals The sounds articulated in front of the hard palate bilabials labiodentals dentals alveolars and alveopalatals The vowels articulated in front of the velum the front and central vowels Distinctive features Roman Jakobson proposed that there is one universal set of distinctive features for all languages which de ne classes of sounds relevant to phonology All contrasts must be stated in terms of these features All restrictions on distribution must be stated in terms of these features The sources of the distinctive features Chomsky N and Halle M 1968 The Sound Pattern of English Harper and Row New York Halle M and K Stevens 1971 A note on laryngeal features Quarterly Progress Report 101 Research Laboratory of Electronics MIT 198 212 Jakobson R Fant G and Halle M 1952 Preliminaries to Speech Analysis MIT Press Cambridge Keating P 1988 A Survey of Phonological Features Indiana University Linguistics Club Bloomington McCarthy J 1988 Feature geometry and dependency A review Phonetica 43 84 108 The major class features The major class features are consonantal sonorant syllabic They de ne major classes of sounds such as consonant and vowel sonorant and obstruent The major class features consonantal A sound is cons if it is produced with signi cant obstruction of the oral vocal tract otherwise it is cons cons Obstruents nasal stops liquids r s cons Vowels semivowels i e glides like and l s j and w The major class features sonorant A sound is son if it is produced with a vocal tract suf ciently open that with modal voiced air ow there is no turbulence otherwise it is son son Vowels semivowels approximants nasal stops trills son Obstruents oral stops fricatives The major class features syllabic A sound is syll if it is the most prominent sound in its syllable otherwise it is syll syll Vowels syllabic consonants syll Semivowels nonsyllabic consonants V syll C syll The major class features cons syll son Syllabic sonorantconsonants e g n Nonsyllabic sonorantconsonants e g n Syllabic obstruents e g s t Nonsyllabicobstruents e g s t The major class features cons syll son Vowels e g i a u Semivowels e g j w Physically impossible Physically impossible Place features labial A sound is lab if it is articulated with the lips otherwise it is lab lab Bilabials labiodentals rounded vowels labiovelars labialized consonants lab All other sounds Place features coronal A sound is cor if it is articulated with the tongue blade or front of the tongue otherwise it is cor cor Dentals alveolars alveopalatals retro exes palatals front vowels palatalized consonants cor All other sounds Place features anterior A sound is ant if it is cor and it is produced on or in front of the alveolar ridge otherwise it is ant ant Dentals alveolars ant All other sounds Place features distributed A sound is dist if it is cor and it is produced with the whole tongue blade otherwise it is dist dist Alveolars alveopalatals dist All other sounds Place features back A sound is back if it is articulated behind the hard palate otherwise it is back back Velars uvulars pharyngeals back vowels central vowels labiovelars velarized consonants pharuyngealized consonants back All other sounds Place features lab cor back Labiovelars Roundedback vowels Labiocoronals Roundedfront vowels Clicks velarized laterals Height features high A sound is high if it is produced with the tongue body raised from neutral mid central position otherwise it is high high High vowels high semivowels velars palatals velarized consonants palatalized consonants high All other sounds Height features low A sound is low if it is produced with the tongue body lowered from neutral mid central position otherwise it is low low Low vowels pharyngeals pharyngealized consonants low All other sounds Height features in vowels high low High vowels Mid vowels Low vowels Physicallyimpossible Place of articulation in consonants cor dist ant back lab Bilabial labiodental Dental Alveolar Alveopala tal palatal Retro ex Place of articulation in consonants cor back lab high low Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Laryngeal features voice A sound is voice if it is produced with vocal fold vibration otherwise it is voice voice All voiced sounds voice All voiceless sounds Laryngeal features spread glottis A sound is spread if it is produced with the vocal folds spread far enough apart that there is uninterrupted air ow otherwise it is spread spread Aspirated sounds breathy voiced sounds spread Voiceless unaspirated sounds modal voiced sounds creaky voiced sounds Laryngeal features constricted glottis A sound is constr if it is produced with the vocal folds closer than in modal voicing otherwise it is constr Glottal stop creaky voiced sounds constr ejectives constr All other sounds Voiced sounds voice spread constr Plain voiced Breathy voiced Creaky voiced Physicallyimpossible Voiceless sounds voice spread constr Voicelessunaspirated Voiceless aspirated Glottal stop Ejective Physicallyimpossible Manner features