Questions tagged [phonology]
The study of the abstract aspect of the sounds or *phonemes* in a given language.
1,035
questions
0
votes
0
answers
16
views
Languages with palatal vowel harmony
The abstract to Asymmetries in Vowel Harmony (I don't have access to the full book) says:
Palatal harmony is common in, and almost confined to, Finno-Ugric and Altaic languages.
Is there a reason ...
1
vote
0
answers
16
views
Origin of Singapore Cantonese /œː/ being realised as [jɔ]
I've recently been taking Cantonese lessons from a Hong Kong native speaker, and as a result I realised that the Cantonese speakers in my family (who are also native speakers, but from Singapore) all ...
-5
votes
0
answers
36
views
Are tones actually sounds?
Are tones actually sounds? PHOIBLE lists them as segments, but are tones actually sounds? Tones appear in merely 2% of all languages according to PHOIBLE, but just that's literally just 60 tones in ...
0
votes
1
answer
174
views
Romanian â and î: Is /ɨ/ more close /i/ than it is to /ə/?
In Romanian, there are currently two letters used for the /ɨ/ (i with bar) sound (close central unrounded vowel), namely "â" and "î" – there used to be other letters as well, in ...
0
votes
1
answer
106
views
How many dimensions do phonemes have?
I was wondering if there was a better or alternative ordering for the letters of the English alphabet, than the standard “a b c d e …”.
This led me to wonder by what parameters they would be ordered.
...
2
votes
0
answers
47
views
What is the distribution of the French uvular trill vs uvular fricative?
In French, the most common realizations of the phoneme /r/ are [ʀ] (uvular trill) and [ʁ] (voiced uvular fricative). I am able to consistently distinguish them and produce either, and I'm interested ...
1
vote
1
answer
54
views
Were يانيه and یانیه interchangeable in Ottoman Turkish?
Copy/pasting from this official pdf from the Turkish government produces يانيه. Czech Wiki uses the same spelling. English Wikipedia and Wiktionary, however, both use the spelling یانیه. Those look ...
2
votes
1
answer
93
views
Do liquid consonants ever become dental fricatives?
Is a sound change from /l/ or /r/ to a voiced dental fricative attested in any languages?
(Furthermore is there some database for searching sound changes?)
0
votes
0
answers
25
views
How can Kisserberth's idea of conspiracy is applicable in the generative explanation of word stress rules of a language X?
I am struggling to understand how can Kisserberth's concept of conspiracy is applicable in the generative explanation of word stress rules of a particular language X?
Now, if we refer to Kager's (...
-2
votes
1
answer
127
views
What's this linguistic phenomenon in English speaking?
I was enjoying the relaxing vibes that the hotel provided.
When Americans say the above sentence, do they sometimes say "vibes that" in a way that sounds like "vibesat"?
Does it ...
4
votes
0
answers
60
views
Finnish diphthongs and long vowels
From Reconsidering the Nganasan vowel system (Fejes 2021):
One argument for the vowel sequence analysis is that Nganasan long vowels and
diphthongs are twice as long as a single vowel (Helimski 1998: ...
2
votes
0
answers
61
views
Typological frequency of sound changes; the case of s > h sound change
I was wondering how can I infer the typological "frequency" of given sound changes? How can I find out how typical is a given sound change typologically? Is there a catalogue of attested ...
5
votes
1
answer
953
views
Why does PIE *ǵn̥h₁tós yield Latin nātus?
I'm an undergraduate classicist doing a PIE paper! It's absolutely fascinating, but I'm still getting there with my understanding, so apologies if my questions are a bit silly!
I have been looking at ...
2
votes
0
answers
72
views
Do "chuckle" phonemes, or even non-phonemic realizations, exist in any languages?
When you try to stop yourself from laughing and fail, you make a "chuckle" sound: a stop-like release when the air from your laughter-compressed lungs, prevented from escaping through your ...
4
votes
1
answer
123
views
What makes linguolabial consonants rare?
Even though I don't speak a language with linguolabial consonants, it seems to me that these sounds are easy to produce and also auditorily quite distinct, e.g. the difference between bilabial or ...
1
vote
0
answers
56
views
Which Indo-Aryan languages exhibit full assimiliation of voiced stops after nasal segments?
In which Indo-Aryan languages, if any, is full assimilation of voiced stops after nasal segments a characteristic feature? Particularly among Punjabi, Sindhi, Saraiki, Kashmiri, Dogri, Kangri, ...
1
vote
0
answers
101
views
Did Cretan Greek have [s] as an allophone of /ts/ after a nasal?
Wikipedia cites Hinge (2001) as reporting the claim that Cretan Greek had [s] as an allophone of /ts/ after a nasal. I’m not a German speaker so I can’t verify this.
The relevant section from the ...
2
votes
3
answers
793
views
Spurious Fs' spawning
As advised, I am posting a separate question, but I still think it is a better fit for linguistics (because of phonetics and phonology); feel free to migrate to latin SE.
Famagusta is supposed to be a ...
2
votes
0
answers
82
views
What precisely is the distinction between Finnish /p k/ and /b g/?
In Finnish /p k/ are formally voiceless, but in casual speech they can become fully voiced (Suomi et al), yet they are never mistaken for /b g/. What exactly is the distinction?
2
votes
1
answer
182
views
Does California English have an additional vowel phoneme?
I've noticed that my pronunciation of the word only differs from the General American pronunciation (I'm from coastal California). This is the pronunciation of only that I assume is General American: ...
4
votes
0
answers
80
views
Why does Danish have more short-long vowel pairs than Swedish?
In Danish, the pair /ø/ and /ø:/ are distinguished from the pair /œ/ and /œ:/. In Swedish, the phonemes /ø:/ and /œ/ are treated as a short-long pair.
In Danish, the pair /ɔ/ and /ɔ:/ are ...
2
votes
1
answer
71
views
What is the rule in Turkish called where /e/ becomes [æ] when preceding a syllable final nasal or liquid consonant?
Examples of these are words like
"sen" [sæn] vs [se̞n] (you)
"sel" [sæl] vs [se̞l] (flood)
where the latter realizations sound less natural to the average Istanbul Turkish speaker.
...
5
votes
2
answers
842
views
Languages with [yø̯]
The Finnish language has the (presumably) extremely rare diphthong [yø̯], which is a front rounded vowel opening and falling diphthong. I know that this diphthong also exists in some other Finnic ...
1
vote
1
answer
90
views
When the short /i/ sound in English is lenthened very much (in singing, for example), will its quality change so it resembles long /i:/?
In singing, when a singer lengthens a word that contains short /i/, will it cause any confusion (between that short /i/ and the long /i:/) for the native English speaker's ear?
When I listened to this ...
2
votes
3
answers
297
views
Is DŽ actually ĎŽ?
I am from the Czech Republic, and one thing that has always bothered me is that a lot of English (and other) loanwords were written in Czech with "dž" in place of the English J, e.g. "...
6
votes
1
answer
103
views
Why do nouns typically have their main stress on the penultimate while verbs on the ultimate (according to theories other than that of Hayes)?
I'm working on English stress acquisition by non-native speakers for my Master's Thesis. According to the theories of Hayes (1981) and, subsequently, Halle & Vergnaud (1987), extrametricality (i.e....
2
votes
2
answers
200
views
Phonetic/acoustic difference between /ˈæb.sə.luːt/ and /ˈæp.sə.luːt/
My understanding is that "b" in "absolute" can be pronounced either as /b/ or /p/. In both cases, the plosive is usually not released (or has an inaudible release). Clipping occurs ...
0
votes
0
answers
20
views
Investigating the role of Functional Load in Speech Recognition
I am currently delving into the application of Stokes and Surendran’s Functional Load (FL) in the context of Dutch CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) words. Stokes and Surendran (2005) propose FL as a ...
2
votes
1
answer
163
views
Pronunciation of ‘hₐ’ in PIE
I have tried to find the sound hₐ-, for example "hₐeust(e)ro" engl. 'east', or hₐel, 'burn' , but also example hₐner, 'man' pronunciation, but I can't find it anywhere on the internet, ...
-1
votes
1
answer
129
views
About similarity of sounds in Swedish and Danish
In all sources I have found the symbol /ð/ is used for Danish 'd', indicating something between the English /ð/ and /l/ with the tongue moved a bit back, touching the teeth a bit.
So, actually, I am ...
1
vote
0
answers
40
views
What is the difference between double articulations and secondary articulators?
I need to know the examples that makes secondary articulators and double articulations different.
1
vote
1
answer
123
views
How many beats is a syllable?
I’ve read some sources that say a syllable is “one beat” but I don’t understand that. Wouldn’t it depend on the tempo of the pulse. I.e, if a tempo is 60bpm can’t you fit different numbers of ...
7
votes
2
answers
433
views
Looking for examples of natural languages with affricates but no corresponding fricatives/plosives
I was thinking about how Spanish has a /t̠ʃ/ but (in most dialects) no /ʃ/, and how many native Spanish speakers have trouble producing the sound ʃ by itself. I don't see why this couldn't apply to ...
7
votes
2
answers
365
views
Why is binarity emphasized so much in linguistics?
I'm an aspiring linguistics student, not a professional, so my thinking may be misguided or elementary.
In my personal research about linguistics, I have discovered many important theories and ...
-1
votes
1
answer
115
views
Why are some phonemic sounds not included in their language’s phonemic inventory?
Sorry for the weird wording and the beginner question,
I’m trying to ask why, as an example in Finnish, do we not put the long vowels in the vowel chart while Māori’s long vowels are represented in ...
5
votes
1
answer
600
views
Why is vowel length not considered phonemic in Turkish?
Excuse me if this is a very novice question, but there are pairs in Turkish like "yağma" /ja:ma/ (plunder) and "yama" /jama/ (patch), or "olan" /olan/ (one that's there) ...
1
vote
1
answer
137
views
what does +cont mean in phonological rules
One of the solutions in my practice questions for a phonological rule was listed as:
C[+cont, α place] -> [+plosive] / N [α place] ___
to represent a situation where voiced consonants are realised ...
2
votes
2
answers
270
views
Phonemes vs. Distinctive Feature Theories
I'm a high school student who will be going to college to study linguistics next fall. I'm already knowledgeable about some areas, but I'm currently trying to expand my knowledge in phonology. I have ...
2
votes
3
answers
210
views
Is there any sound change that can result in /ɞ/?
I am making a conlang where one of the distinctive sounds is /ɞ/. It is a rare vowel sound, and I searched Index Diachronica but couldn't find a sound change that results in it. The sound also does ...
1
vote
2
answers
111
views
How to analyze nasal vowels next to nasal consonants
Let's say a language uses two vowels /A/ and /B/ which differ only by one relevant phonological feature [+/- X] such that /A/ is [- X] and /B/ is [+ X]. Now let's say there's a consonant phoneme /C/ ...
-2
votes
1
answer
88
views
Phonological rules
If I were to write a rule dictating that /l/ becomes [r] before a front vowel would it be:
/l/ -> [r] / [V, +front],
/l/ -> [r] / [+front]
or
/l/ -> [r] / V [+nasal]
1
vote
1
answer
193
views
Determining the number of phonemes from set of phones
For this exercise, I'm to determine the number of phonemes from a set of phones and then write their allophonic rules for each phoneme
phones: [b], [ɣ], [β], [l], [t], [d], [g]
However, I think I'm ...
-1
votes
2
answers
204
views
Half-letters in American English
I'm an American spending some time in Japan, and notice that even though most people know some English words, they have a hard time understanding and pronouncing a word like "left" because ...
1
vote
1
answer
147
views
Closeness between written words and spoken words over different languages
In my understanding, the different languages exist in spoken form and (mostly) in written forms (what about sign languages?).
Some languages have developed a close relationship between the written ...
0
votes
1
answer
68
views
Implicational Universals in Optimality Theory
I think I am understanding something incorrectly in Optimality Theory but I can't figure out how. So, constraints are universal but rankings are language-specific. So, I read an analysis where they ...
1
vote
1
answer
51
views
Which part of the Oracc data is to be used for pronunciation of Akkadian words?
I shared this Oracc RINAP JSON example in my last post, but now I'm focusing on how to automatically generate an IPA version of each Akkadian "word", from some sort of input word/text.
It ...
1
vote
0
answers
74
views
Why are mid-open/open vowels considered [- tense]?
I found the following chart (which was taken from Donegan (1976)) on a book and something reminded me of a simple question I always had, but I never came across a definitive answer: why are some open ...
6
votes
1
answer
704
views
What does a tilde between angle brackets mean?
I was reading the Wikipedia page for vietnamese phonology and in the vowel chart, it says "/iə̯/ ⟨ia~iê⟩ /ɨə̯/ ⟨ưa~ươ⟩ /uə̯/ ⟨ua~uô⟩. What do the tildes mean?
2
votes
1
answer
117
views
How can I get fast measuring of jitter and shimmer?
I want to be able to see fast computations of jitter and shimmer. Best would be on the fly but an online/software quick tool would be also good.
0
votes
1
answer
52
views
Corpus Linguistics Major [closed]
I want to use corpus in my MA research, but I have a large problem; how can I analyze the data? Do I use software corpora or corpus such as BNC? I know it is according to my research question, but ...