Phonology: Cross-linguistic

variation

LING 200

Winter 2009

Plan for today

Phonological typology Examples from Chinese and Korean

Phonological rules and foreign accents Examples from Spanish and English

For further learning about sounds of spoken languages: LING 450

please turn off your cell phone

Phonological typology

= Different types of phonological systems Variation in phoneme inventories Variation in phonological rules Variation in consonant, vowel sequencing

restrictions

Mandarin (Chinese) vowel inventory

[y] = high front rounded vowel

[ɤ] = mid back unrounded vowel

front

unrnd rnd

back

unrnd rnd

high i y u

mid ɤ

low ɑ

Mandarin vowels

[ ̂ ] = high falling tone

front back

unrnd rnd unrnd rnd

high [lî] ‘advantage’

[ly ̂] ‘green’

[lû] ‘road’

mid [lɤ̂̂] ‘happy’

low [lɑ̂] ‘spicy’

Chia-Hui Huang, Taiwanese and Mandarin speaker

Mandarin tones From

http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/publications/files/lf10/lf10_sounds.html

male and female speakers

Korean vowels

front

unrnd

central unrnd

back

rnd

high i ɨ u

mid e ʌ o

low ɑ

Korean vowels

front

unrnd

central unrnd

back

rnd

high [pi] ‘rain’ [kɨ] ‘that’ [nuku] ‘who’

mid [ne] ‘yes, your’

[nʌ] ‘you’ [no] ‘oar’

low [nɑ] ‘I’

Sophie Ahn, from Pusan, but speaking here in Seoul (standard Korean) accent

Korean vowel length: prescriptive only

modern modern historic

[nun] ‘eye’ [nun] ‘snow’ [nu:n]

[mɑl] ‘horse’ [mɑl] ‘word’ [mɑ:l]

[pɑl] ‘foot’ [pɑl] ‘blind’ [pɑ:l]

Korean glides

/w/ [ɥ] / C ___ i [ɥ] = high front rounded glide

[ö̯#] / C ___ e [ö̯#] = mid front rounded glide

[u] : [w] :: [y] : [ɥ] :: [ö̯] : [ö̯#]

[wi] ‘upper part; stomach’

[tɥi] ‘behind’

[weka] ‘maternal family, house’

[k’ö̯B e] ‘idea, scheme; quite’

Korean consonantsC’ = “tense” or “fortis” (small glottal opening)

p p’ ph t t’ th k k’ kh

ts ts’ tsh

s s’ h

m n ŋ

l

w j

Korean tense consonants

[pul] ‘fire’ [tɑl] ‘moon’

[p’ul] ‘horn’ [t’ɑl] ‘daughter’

[phul] ‘grass’ [thɑl] ‘face mask’

[ki] ‘flag’ [sɑl] ‘flesh, skin’

[k’i] ‘meal’ [s’ɑl] ‘raw rice’

[khi] ‘height’

/s/ = [sh]

Liquids in Korean

One liquid phoneme

/l/ [ɺ] / ___ V (unless long)

([ɺ] = alveolar lateral or retroflex flap)

Korean liquids

[ɺ] [l][uɺi] ‘we’ [mul] ‘water’

[kɑɺu] ‘powder’ [ilkop] ‘seven’

[ɺupi] ‘ruby’

[l:][tal:e] ‘wild garlic’

/l/ [ɺ] / ___ V (unless long)

Foreign accents and borrowed words Foreign accents

learner’s phonology the culprit especially if language learned as adult

Borrowed words codified foreign accent: borrowed words

pronounced according to phonology of borrowing language

The original shibboleth

Judges 12:5-6

Spanish consonants

p b t d k g

ʧ

f s x

m n ɲ

l

w ɾ j

Notice: no /h/

/x/ = voiceless velar fricative

Spanish rhotics

[ɾ] [pɑɾɑ] ‘for’

[r] = /ɾɾ/ [pɑrɑ] ‘vine’

Word-initially, no contrast; [ɾ] usually [r] there

Spanish loans into EnglishSpanish borrowed into

English

[pɑðɾes] ‘Padres’ [phɑdɹez]

[tɑko] ‘taco’ [thɑko]

[burito] ‘burrito’ [bəɹiɾoʊ]

[sɑndjeɣo] ‘San Diego’ [sændiegoʊ]

[ɣ] = voiced velar fricative

Where you can go wrong

Misapplying English phonology to Spanish Aspiration (not in Spanish): [thɑko] Plural suffix –[z]: [phɑdɹez] Mid back rounded vowel not a diphthong in

Spanish: [bəɹiɾoʊ] Failing to learn Spanish phonology

voiced fricative, not stop, after vowel: [pɑðɾes] Failing to learn Spanish phonetics

[burito] as [bəɹiɾoʊ]

No aspiration[peso] (monetary unit of Mexico)[beso] ‘kiss’[tono] ‘tone’[dono] ‘I donate’[koðo] ‘elbow’[goðo] ‘goth’

No mid vowel diphthongs[rejno] ‘kingdom’ vs. [reno] ‘reindeer’

General Roca, Argentina

[xeneɾalroka]

Phonetics vs. phonologyphonetics phonology

transcription narrower as needed typically broad, streamlined

contrast how is a particular contrast realized?

what is contrastive?

Question

What do you think you will still remember about the phonetics/phonology part of this class 5 years from now?