Questions tagged [phonology]
The study of the abstract aspect of the sounds or *phonemes* in a given language.
964
questions
-1
votes
0
answers
40
views
What are these consonants? [closed]
I've got a picture of four voiced consonants of English, but I'm not sure whether I am right. Are they [z] [d] [b] [ʒ] respectively? Is there anyone who can help me look at it? Thank you in advance!
- 593
0
votes
1
answer
65
views
Is "str" a legit sound in Polish?
"str" is legit in generic Slavic ("*strel-", arrow), so I wonder if Polish has it, maybe in leanwords. A small dictionary computer search gave nothing. (Frankly, I just want to ...
- 111
1
vote
0
answers
30
views
How are /ɪ/ and /ʌ/ realised in the Nottingham (East Midlands) accent? [migrated]
I've got a sample of a few words pronounced by a Nottingham accent representative: https://youtu.be/2fCSeDEZeVU
My ear is far from perfect and this is why I'd like to ask for your help in this ...
- 127
2
votes
0
answers
39
views
L-epenthesis/allophony in unexplained circumstances in American English
I've been having trouble articulating this question, so I'm sorry if it's poorly worded.
I'm a teenage English speaker from Chicago. I've recently noticed a seemingly odd allophonic possibility in ...
- 301
1
vote
2
answers
81
views
How Did the Palatovelar /*ḱ/ Consonant in PIE Become a Sibilant in Satem Languages?
In Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic languages (which are conveniently all Satem languages), there is a sibilant or affricate sound in places where Centum languages usually have a velar consonant. It ...
- 11
1
vote
1
answer
60
views
A better rule for Canadian Raising
I'm a teenager from Chicago with a pretty standard contemporary Midwestern/General American accent (not distinctly Chicago). I'm interested in the phonetic phenomenon of Canadian Raising, in which ...
- 301
0
votes
2
answers
75
views
In languages that allow vowel hiatus, what rules prevent the formation of words consisting only of four or more consecutive syllabic vowels?
For those who came in late, vowel hiatus is a common term for the occurrence of consecutive vowel sounds each of which serves as the nucleus of a syllable. For example, in the word “chaotic” we see ...
- 8,589
3
votes
2
answers
84
views
How do consonant clusters originate?
I tried finding some information on this topic but there isn't a lot of information out there. The only things I could find is that it could originate from deletion of vowels between consonants. Are ...
1
vote
1
answer
119
views
Are there languages where all syllables start with a consonant and end in a vowel?
This is a relaxed version of this question Are there any languages that only allow CV syllables? asking for strictly CV-languages. Here I want to know if there are languages with the phonology CC*VV*, ...
- 28.6k
-1
votes
2
answers
177
views
What are near-minimal pairs
What are near-minimal pairs? How are they different from minimal pairs?
- 11
1
vote
0
answers
21
views
How to write a rule for total assimilation of sounds?
I am looking at this list of words; the first column is from Sanskrit, and the second is from a daughter language Prakrit.
sapta > satta
dugdha > duddha
udgāra > uggāla
tikta > titta
...
- 11
-2
votes
1
answer
57
views
Word that means "a class of words that represent the output of the same phonology"?
What word do you use to describe groups of words that represent the output of the same phonology?
For example, here are some words I found from looking at maps & name lists for different countries:...
- 111
2
votes
1
answer
78
views
Why are intervocalic coronal plosives apparently so unstable in English?
There are a plethora of words in the English language in which the phonemes /t/ and /d/ appear between two vowels, whether they be in adjacent syllables in the same word or in different words as a ...
- 301
3
votes
1
answer
115
views
Why are some consonant clusters acceptable in some languages and not others and how does this change over time?
As per the question statement: is there a resource available for quickly determining which codal (or onset) consonant clusters are attested in human language? Mark Vandam’s Word Final Coda Typology ...
- 39
4
votes
3
answers
189
views
Do other languages have correspondences like English's No-Nope and Yeah-Yep?
In the English language, as in others, there are a variety of interjection words. Among these are some comprising an open syllable, like yeah and no. Others end in stop consonants, like yep (or yup) ...
- 301
0
votes
1
answer
108
views
The relationship between Mora-timed languages, long vowels and quantitative verse, also the status of Iranian and Balto-Slavo-Germanic?
In an anthropological forum, there was once a view that because Latin, Greek, Sanskrit (also Celtic IIRC) are Mora-timed, they are divided into one subgroup. However, "syllable-timed" ...
- 135
11
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Is the rarity of dental sounds explained by babies not immediately having teeth?
Dental consonants, which involve the corona of the tongue contacting the teeth (typically the upper teeth) are known to be rare throughout the world’s languages. More specifically, phonemic ...
- 301
-1
votes
1
answer
183
views
Is there a difference between /tʲ/ (palatalized t) and /kʲ/ (palatalized k)? [closed]
I've noticed that what some languages refer to as "soft k" and others as "soft t" seems to be the same sound. Is it so?
I was able to find a wiki page discussing the "soft g&...
- 203
3
votes
1
answer
114
views
Relationship of spoken and written language and truth of sentences
I am not entirely sure if this is the appropriate site and whether these are the appropriate tags for this topic, so if that is not the case, please feel free to let me know.
I never thought twice ...
- 31
6
votes
2
answers
574
views
What's the difference between primary and secondary stresses?
I've heard that secondary stress is more weaker than primary stress but aside from that is there any noticeable difference the two kinds of stresses?
0
votes
1
answer
57
views
Energy to convey an amount of information in different languages
I am fluent in Assamese, Hindi and English, having learned all three of these since I was about 1 year old. I can speak Bengali with a little bit of effort.
I have developed this feeling that it takes ...
8
votes
3
answers
768
views
In Classical/Biblical Hebrew, why is CHAF not considered a guttural?
According to "A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew" by Jacob Weingreen, page 19, the four gutturals are ALEF (א), HEI (ה), CHET (ח), and AYIN (ע). And gutturals make a difference as to ...
- 183
4
votes
0
answers
89
views
What's the geographic distribution of the father/bra split in American English?
In most American English dialects with the father/bother merger, the bother vowel (originally /ɔ/) unrounds, lowers, and merges into the father vowel (originally /ɑ/), with the end result being /ɑ/, ...
- 171
3
votes
2
answers
856
views
How can the final /r/ in 'razor' and 'hammer' be syllabic?
I just learned liquid /l,r/ become syllabic when at the end of a word and immediately after a consonant. When I look at examples such as paddle and whistle, I can understand /l/ in those words becomes ...
- 31
1
vote
1
answer
62
views
is there an example where the consonant affects the vowel in English?
This generalization: In assimilation involving consonant–vowel pairs, the
consonant may affect the vowel or the vowel may affect
the consonant.
what is an example of this in our English lexicon?
- 9
-1
votes
2
answers
50
views
Do syllabic liquids imply a syllable nasal in English?
The generalization states that: The occurrence of syllabic liquids in a language almost
always implies that of syllabic nasals. Is this true for English? let me know your thoughts. examples would be ...
- 9
2
votes
1
answer
38
views
How do you write the phonological rule for if something occurs before a stressed syllable?
I have the notion that /t/ and /th/ (aspirated [t]) are complementary allophones. How would I write the rule that an aspirated t occurs at the beginning of a word and the beginning of a stressed ...
- 35
1
vote
1
answer
117
views
What's the rule dictating when to use aspirated and unaspirated [t] in English? [closed]
I have a degree assignment and I need to explain the rule that says when to use an aspirated [t] and when to use an unaspirated [t] since they are in complementary distribution in British English. ...
- 35
5
votes
1
answer
152
views
What's the phonological explanation of Turkish speakers pronouncing "r" as "sh" at the end of the word?
I'm a native Turkish speaker and I recently started noticing people around me pronounce "r" as "sh", sometimes [ʒ], when it's at the end of a word. So it's like,
Hayır -> Hayış
...
- 53
0
votes
1
answer
78
views
Do People and/or Robots Speak on Pitch and in Harmony with themselves?
I'm not sure if I should post this to Linguistics or Music Theory, but here goes:
My ear is not good enough to tell via observation whether people speak in musical scales, which would seem likely for ...
1
vote
1
answer
108
views
Phonology for Loanwords
What is the reason for loanwords to preserve the original pronunciation, but not to be assimilate into the new language?
For example, the German loanword from English Handy (mobile phone), it is ...
- 47
3
votes
2
answers
314
views
Why do “reiß” and “reis” not have the same phonemes although they are pronounced the same?
Reiß and reis are two words that have the same pronunciation in standard German. So why is it that the final phoneme in each word is different? In reiß it is /s/, and in reis it is /z/.
Is there some ...
- 139
3
votes
0
answers
63
views
Can you provide a cheat-sheet for turning Proto-Indo-European dictionaries from the older style into laryngeal notation?
Much of the resources I have for Proto-Indo-European itself (not etymological dictionaries for other languages) either use Laryngeal notation but are limited in scope (like Wiktionary) or are written ...
- 31
1
vote
1
answer
63
views
Is the Turkish /n/ dental apical or dental laminal?
According to Wikipedia the Turkish /n/ is dental, but it doesn't specify whether it's produced by the tip or the blade of the tongue.
- 113
0
votes
2
answers
104
views
Geminate consonants by total assimilation in English
Please can someone provide an example of a geminate consonant formed by total assimilation in English?
The closest I can find is from this article written by presumably Professor Ian MacKenzie:
In [...
- 941
7
votes
4
answers
4k
views
Is "illegal" an example of nasal place assimilation in English?
I've read that English has a nasal place assimilation phonological rule,
n → m / _p,b,m
etc.
I was shown an example "illegal", apparently nasal place assimilation of the prefix "in-&...
- 941
6
votes
2
answers
391
views
is schwa a phoneme in English?
or is it simply an unstressed allophone of unstressed lax vowels? I'm curious because I've heard some people claim that [ə] is not a phoneme and it is just a reduced allophone of all the unstressed ...
1
vote
1
answer
77
views
How Does Gibberish Differ between Languages?
Gibberish spoken by English-speakers, despite being intended to sound unruly, clearly has rules. I'm not a linguist, and can't find a great deal of research into this, but here's a paper linking the &...
- 131
0
votes
0
answers
31
views
Why not consider diphthongs as two phonological parts? [duplicate]
Why are diphthongs traditionally (if not always) analysed as single units in phonology?
If some distribution can be described:
x → ç / eɪ_, aɪ_
e.g. the dorsal fricative is palatalised following ...
- 941
0
votes
2
answers
124
views
Are there any dialects of English which ⟨i⟩ in unstress syllable will be realized as [ɪ]?
The pronunciation of "dilute" should be /daɪˈlut/, but according to Wikipedia, another acceptable pronunciation of this word is /dɪˈlut/. So I summarize this rule as "/aɪ/ is realized ...
0
votes
2
answers
60
views
Can an onset of a syllable be CV?
Hypothetically speaking, can a CVVC sequence be segmented into a CV onset, a V nucleus and a C coda?
Or is it the case that the VV will always be the nucleus?
- 11
0
votes
2
answers
124
views
Is it useful to render French /i y u/ and /j ɥ w/ as allophones?
Because /i y u/ behave so differently to the other French vowels /ɛ ɑ œ ɔ/, which all have tense and nasal variants, while also being symmetrical to the semivowels /j ɥ w/, it is attractive to render ...
- 75
1
vote
2
answers
69
views
Is there a name for a sound that is a combination of multiple tones under one breath?
William Smalley was the one that was credited for creating the Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA) to be used in the Mong/Hmong language. He used the D marker to distinguish the tone shift from M to V ...
- 31
33
votes
10
answers
7k
views
Is pronouncing loanwords according to their "native" pronunciation stigmatised across most cultures and languages?
This old CollegeHumor sketch highlights an interesting phenomenon: it's often frowned upon or disapproved of, at least in the US and England, to pronounce a loanword according to the phonetics of the ...
- 1,260
5
votes
3
answers
487
views
Unaspirated plosives vs their voiced counterparts
I am having some trouble distinguishing ''aspiration'' from ''voice'' for plosives.
Now I know ''aspiration'' and ''voice'' sound like completely different concepts but let's take /p/ for example. /p(...
- 105
1
vote
1
answer
114
views
Pronunciation of English R
I'm a native speaker and I notice I pronounce R as [ɹʋ] non finally, a spontaneous ɹ and ʋ. At the end of words though I use the regular ɹ. Is this normal and does anyone else do this?
- 11
2
votes
1
answer
188
views
Does -z / -ces in Spanish plurals reflect sound change in the past?
Spanish nouns ending with -z become -ces in plural forms. (e.g. lapiz-lapices, vez-veces, etc.) While -zes and -ces sound same in Modern Spanish, they represented different sounds between 15-16th ...
- 321
0
votes
2
answers
325
views
How is F0 determined?
I was reading Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology (Authors and page numbers will be added when I get my iPad back). And I am learning the concept of 'F0' for the first time.
So according to this ...
- 105
2
votes
1
answer
94
views
Is a gesture a movement of a single articulator or of all articulators of a segment?
In researching the term '(articulatory) gesture', it seems to me that the meaning is something like 'movement of a single articulator for a single segment'. Ergo, e.g. a sound with secondary ...
- 263
-4
votes
2
answers
90
views
Is Influence of Substratum's phonology biological? [closed]
As a follow up to a recent question (1) where it is argued that the effect of substrate on the second language is most remarkable in phonology:
Do you know if this has biological reasons in production ...
- 1,435