The study of the abstract aspect of the sounds or *phonemes* in a given language.
2
votes
1answer
58 views
Phonological rule for realizations of Italian /s/
It seems that realization of Italian /s/ is not fully systematic and there are some exceptions. Is there any phonological rule for possible realizations of Italian /s/
1
vote
1answer
26 views
Dental and labiodental fricatives with different relative positions of the articulators
Are there distinct phonemes for labiodental fricatives articulated with the upper teeth touching the lower lip from the inside (like in English /f/) and ones that are articulated with the tip of the ...
4
votes
1answer
131 views
Why do I speak more accurately in English rather than my native language?
I have a diction/vocal issue from birth so I can not speak on the "right rhythm" of my tongue. My speech seems always slow and boring at my native language so that I have a huge difficult to verbally ...
0
votes
2answers
38 views
/l/ environments in English and Introductory Phonology by Bruce Hayes
Note: I am on my phone, so linguistic symbols are not intuitive to type, so I typed out phone names in prose
Hello, apologies if this is a dumb question, but I'm reading through Bruce Hayes' "...
3
votes
2answers
67 views
How does optimality theory handle opacity?
Optimality theory is a theory of phonology that drops Chomskyan replacement rules in favor of a set of ranked constraints. It can lead to much more elegant analyses in some cases.
However, I don't ...
1
vote
3answers
80 views
Looking for minimal pairs showing lenis/fortis distinction (preferably for German pronunciation)
I have read many descriptions of the lenis/fortis distinction, but they don't make any sense to me.
I have searched in vain for minimal pairs (preferably with audio/vidoe) illustrating the difference ...
2
votes
2answers
531 views
Trying to make sense of “…but voiced obstruents are not always voiced”
I came across the following phrase in a description of German pronunciation:
The basic rule is that voiceless obstruents are always voiceless, but voiced obstruents are not always voiced.
...which ...
1
vote
1answer
29 views
Difference between sounds and segments
I have always wondered whether there is a clear distinction between (speech) sounds and segments. The two words appear to be used interchangeably in some places while in others they are considered to ...
3
votes
1answer
48 views
What’s a good example a language phenomena in which f0 is NOT correlated to pitch?
It’s standard doctrine that “pitch is perceived f0”, and that f0 is phonetic and corresponds to pitch which is phonological ... no problem there. (Even if this is a simplification)
But I wonder if ...
5
votes
1answer
57 views
What are the features that distinguish a velar /k/ from an uvular /q/ in a spectrogram?
I am trying to annotate a recording of a language that has both velar k and uvular q. It’s tricky because I can’t always distinguish the two phonemes by ear.
What features may I see in a spectrogram ...
1
vote
2answers
62 views
Are there languages that ban t+S (esh) sequences but have a č phoneme?
I’m not expert in typology, but I wonder if it’s possible for a language to ban t+S sequences but have a phoneme č.
Does anyone know of an example of one such language?
1
vote
2answers
201 views
Does syntactic stress exist?
From what I know, stress can only be assigned at the level of the word (as in English) or the level of the sentence (as in French). Can any natural language assign it syntactically, e.g., "the first ...
2
votes
1answer
98 views
French - when is 'r' pronounced as /x/ and when is it pronounced /ʁ/?
I'm a Hebrew speaker, and in Modern Hebrew, there is a distinction between /ʁ ~ ɣ/ and /x/.
When I hear French, I recognize that 'r' isn't always pronounced as /ʁ/ but in many times, as /x/.
I tried ...
0
votes
2answers
82 views
Arabic /R/ - correct pronunciation in Modern Standard Arabic
Arabic has many dialects, but in general the /R/ in Modern Standard Arabic is an alveolar trill (or is it not?) - like the Spanish perro - according to Wikipedia and it is also what I have heard from ...
5
votes
3answers
150 views
Sounds that are treated as phonetically equivalent
I suspect that I will not use the right terminology here. Apologies in advance.
Is there a word for the phenomenon in which speakers of a language treat two different sounds as equivalent, even ...
6
votes
1answer
162 views
What was the function of the Lycian spelling m̃m and ñn
I am trying to understand the function of double (?) nasals in Lycian. Usually an /ñ/ is followed by /n/ and so does /m̃/ which is followed by an /m/. What was the function of this spelling in Lycian? ...
1
vote
1answer
44 views
tones in autosegmental phonology
I'm reading up on the basics of segmental phonology and can't seem to wrap my head around it. So the normal association line indicated the connection between the tonal tier on top, and the segmental ...
2
votes
0answers
57 views
Andrea Bocelli Aspiration
I have been listen to Andrea Bocelli's songs lately. A noticeable feature of his pronunciation while singing Spanish songs is that he constantly pronounces the plosives (especially at word-initial ...
1
vote
2answers
119 views
Why does Laam sometimes get pronounced as the next letter in Arabic words? [duplicate]
I'm trying to learn how to read Arabic and I noticed that sometimes the letter Laam (ل) is either silent or takes the pronunciation of the following letter, as in this text from Wikipedia:
As-...
0
votes
2answers
79 views
How to write phonological rules this words?
so my teacher asked us to make the phonological rules like this:
*pinta → winta 'arm'
answer : in rules expressing sound changes: p > w / #_ (initial [p] becomes [w])
but I still confused with ...
6
votes
1answer
115 views
Online tool for IPA pronunciation synthesis
I've already found this tool from 0n0e.com but the problem is that it pronounces the words too quickly. Is there any other phoneme synthesis online which speaks a bit slower?
3
votes
2answers
202 views
Is the choice of /eɪ/ over /æ/ in 'flaky' arbitrary?
I'm a non-native speaker who started using English about a decade ago.
The problem is sometimes when I first encounter a new word, I fail to predict its correct prononciation. So, I check the ...
3
votes
1answer
95 views
Why does saying the word “fuck” help vent frustration?
I have observed a good number of people muttering "fuckfuckfuck" under their breath when nervous. It somehow seems to vent the frustration out, and calm the person down. Why does this happen?
I found ...
10
votes
1answer
127 views
Why is [la] widely used as a substitution for singing? Is it a worldwide phenomenon?
When people sing without knowing or using the text, they often sing as lalalala...
1
vote
1answer
66 views
Why are phonemes called “mental” objects
I understand the distinction between phonemes and allophones, but why are phonemes considered as mental objects and not psychological objects? Isn’t everything mental also, in a sense, necessarily ...
4
votes
2answers
534 views
Are there any minimal pairs for German lax/tense vowels?
As we know, most German vowels have a 'tense' (or long) pronunciation and a 'lax' (or short) pronunciation.
Most of the time, which pronunciation should be used can be determined by the context that ...
1
vote
1answer
62 views
Is the voiceless alveolar affricate, [t͡s], phonetically present in General American?
I've run into a lot of sources that indicate [t͡s] is not in GA. While this might be true phonemically, I don't entire believe this to be true for the actual phonetics.
By the definition of an ...
2
votes
1answer
95 views
When does the “dark l” sound in English date back to?
There is no "dark l" sound in Proto-Germanic language and Proto-Indo-European language.
1
vote
1answer
63 views
How to differentiate [æ] and [a] in feature theory?
I'm doing an exercise where I'm trying to formulate the phonological rules for adapting English words into Japanese ones using feature theory. I came across a problem early on where En. /æ/ turns into ...
2
votes
1answer
59 views
What are the best books to study Phonology at an introductory level?
I'm looking for a good introduction to phonology book with good examples of diverse languages.
6
votes
1answer
88 views
Early Middle English diphthongs
Wikipedia has a helpful page on Middle English phonology: but there are two diphthongs in its table which I cannot identify: the close-mid diphthongs “/oi/, developing into /ui/” and “/ei/, developing ...
0
votes
1answer
76 views
What were the Proto-Bantu -ATR vowels?
It seems to be widely accepted that Proto-Niger-Congo had ten vowels, with ATR harmony: /i-ɪ e-ɛ ə-a o-ɔ u-ʊ/. Similarly, it seems widely accepted that Proto-Bantu lost three of these vowels and ...
3
votes
3answers
139 views
Distribution of Tonal and Click Languages
Tonal languages seem to be limited to southern China and southeast Asia, equatorial Africa, and equatorial South America. Click languages don't seem to exist outside southern Africa. Why do these ...
2
votes
2answers
58 views
Deducing a rule out of set of examples
Consider the following Spanish words, written in IPA (with their English translation):
And the same question for middle position and final position
My answer is:
Initial position: Looking at the ...
8
votes
2answers
144 views
Are there languages featuring “reversed affricates” as phonological segments?
This question is inspired by the comments to my answer on this question.
Are there reversed affricates, i.e., fricatives ending in a homorganic stop, attested in any language of the world? What is ...
5
votes
1answer
154 views
What is this phonetic alphabet called?
There is a feature in the macOS speech synthesizer (which takes written text and reads it aloud) for developers which lets you instead enter text and outputs the phonemes that it would read aloud in ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
Why do Americans and Canadians pronounce “t” with flap [ɾ] in unstressed syllables in English?
Most Americans and Canadians pronounce "t" with flap [ɾ] in unstressed syllables. Why?
5
votes
1answer
129 views
Why does so many languages have both an alveolar “light L” [l] and a velarized “dark L” [ɫ] allophone?
Various dialects in all three of English, Portuguese, and Dutch have accents that contain velarized L allophones, which are sometimes known as “dark L’s”, at the syllable coda.
Why is this?
There ...
0
votes
0answers
32 views
(How) Can one create a language in a classroom setting?
My wife questioned me if there's a subject that I cannot teach effectively (per my standards of making the students salivate for more). I mentioned my weakness at teaching languages, English for ...
1
vote
1answer
51 views
Explanation of Element Theory? [closed]
Can anyone please provide a simple explanation of element theory for someone who knows nothing about it? If you could help me answer the following:
What is element theory? What are elements?
How ...
6
votes
2answers
146 views
Do languages generally tend to avoid palindromic syllables?
E.g. /knank stjajts smoms/ even they do follow the Sonority Sequencing Principle
2
votes
0answers
46 views
Do we have an Intonation “etymology”?
Recently I was thinking about a language I'm currently learning and its similarities with my own native language. While I assume grammar to change considerably depending on language it came to mind ...
0
votes
2answers
104 views
there is no relation between phonetic sounds and letters. explain? [closed]
So I got this question in my midterm exam and it was out of nowhere. All what I could think about that time is that letters are written and sounds are spoken, the letters are made from a vowel and a ...
3
votes
3answers
161 views
How do people deal with loanwords with highly alien phonemes?
I've been thinking about how a people who speak a language without rhotics would perceive a rhotic sound. Obviously of course, this would depend on exactly which rhotic we're talking about. I thought ...
1
vote
2answers
146 views
How do ideophones and onomatopoeia work in English?
I was reading about ideophones on Wikipedia, and the way it was described seemed like it was describing onomatopoeia. Apparently the claim is that onomatopoeia is a sub-class of ideophone. In the main ...
1
vote
1answer
91 views
Is the “r” in “universe” syllabic?
Good morning,
Is the "r" is the word "Universe" syllabic?
I learned how to identify the syllabic letters, but still find it hard to do so.
3
votes
2answers
117 views
Can two phonemic symbols represent the same sound?
Can you please clarify whether the phonemic symbols /ɪ/ and /i/ can be used interchangeably to represent the sound at the end of such words as coffee, taxi, happy, easy, ready?
7
votes
1answer
71 views
Catalan assimilation of 's' /s/ → [ʃ] after palatal consonants 'ny' /ɲ/ and 'll' /ʎ/
Question
I've noticed a phenomenon in (Central) Catalan speech that I had seen no mention of when studying the language. In words with a final -nys or -lls, the s is assimilated and becomes palatal [...
1
vote
3answers
69 views
Why are ㅔ and ㅐ referred to as diphthongs?
Why are ㅔ and ㅐ referred to as diphthongs in some Korean teaching materials even though the equivalent sounds (/e/, /ɛ/) do not constitute a change from one sound to another?
I understand the ...
0
votes
1answer
24 views
What are LPC coefficients?
In John Coleman's (2003) paper "Discovering the acoustic correlates of contrast", he mentions using "15 autoregressive filter coefficients (a1 - a15)" as an acoustic variable in measuring the ...
