LING 303 / 10F

Phonology I

vw

Last class…

We finished [±lateral]

Positional constraints

*[+lateral].

*.[+lateral]

*[‒lateral].

Assimilation

As repair to *[+lateral]…[‒lateral]

Dissimilation

As repair to *[‒lateral]…[‒lateral]

Today‟s agenda

New feature: [±strident]

New concept: assibilation

Georgian

dan-uri ‘Danish’ asur-uli ‘Asyrrian’

somχ-uri ‘Armenian’ ungr-uli ‘Hungarian’

ʧerk’ez-uli ‘Cherkessian’

[±strident]

The feature [+strident] characterises phonemes that are realised with high frequency frication, that is, high pitch white noise.

[–strident] phonemes are realised at lower pitch.

Because it is defined on the basis of air turbulence, [±strident] is important only for obstruents ([–sonorant]).

Clements (2001:111): “The feature [+strident] is realized phonetically in the turbulence noise associated with obstruents.”

The most common [+strident]

phonemes are the fricatives /s, z, ʃ, ʒ/

and the affricates /ts, dz, tʃ, dʒ/, often

collectively referred to as sibilants.

Coronal stridency

Labial stridency, e.g. Ewe

éɸá „he polished‟ éfá „he was cold‟

ɛβɛ „Ewe language‟ ɛvɛ „two‟

éɸlè „he bought‟ éfle „he split off‟

èβló „mushroom‟ évló „he is evil‟

Ewe speaker

Dr. Ozouf Amedegnato

Assistant Prof in French Dept.

Teaches “Phonologie française”

regularly

FYI: LING students can count FREN

349 as a LING credit, if they like…

German

[pf] [ts] [kᵡ]

German Pfuhl Zunge Kxuː (Swiss)

cf. English pool tongue cow

Affricates

Tsuut‟ina (tsuutina.ca)

t vs. ʦ

d vs. ʣ

t‟ vs. ʦ‟

Language?

c vs. ʧ

ɟ vs. ʤ

Basque

/ipin-/ „put‟ + /-ʦen/ „imperfect‟ [ipinʦen]

/ikas-/ „learn‟ + /-ʦen/ [ikasten]

/irabaz-/ „earn‟ + /-ʦen/ [irabazten]

Basque

/ipin-/ „put‟ + /-ʦen/ „imperfect‟ [ipinʦen]

/ikas-/ „learn‟ + /-ʦen/ [ikasten]

/irabaz-/ „earn‟ + /-ʦen/ [irabazten]

LaCharité (1993:164): “When the

morphology juxtaposes two [+strident]

specifications, the rightmost is deleted,

leaving a homorganic stop”

Yucatec Maya

Disallowed root shapes:

*sVʦ *ʦVs *ʃVs *ʧVs

*sVʃ *ʦVʃ *ʃVʦ *ʧVʦ

*sVʧ *ʦVʧ *ʃVʧ *ʧVʃ

etc.

So far...

[±lateral]

[–later] [+later]

r l Spanish, etc.

t tɬ Oowekyala, etc

k kʟ Archi, etc.

[±strident]

[–strid] [+strid]

θ s English, etc.

ɸ f Purepecha, etc.

t ts Blackfoot, etc.

So far...

[±lateral]

[–later] [+later]

r l Spanish, etc.

t t ɬ Oowekyala, etc

k kʟ Archi, etc.

[±strident]

[–strid] [+strid]

θ s English, etc.

ɸ f Purepecha, etc.

t t s Blackfoot, etc.

Assimilation of [±strident]

Obvious cases of assimilation of

[±strident] are rare.

I‟ve only ever found one possible

case:

In Plains Cree “plain” /t/‟s become

[+strident] affricates [ʦ] when they

occur with a diminutive affix: -(i)s or

-(i)sis:

Plains Cree

Non-diminutives Diminutives

astotin „a/the hat‟ astsotsin-is „a little hat‟

hat hat-dim

ni-nitohte-n „I listen‟ ni-nitsohtse-s-in „I listen a little‟

1-listen-1 1-listen- dim-1

atim „dog‟ atsimo-sis „a/the little dog‟

dog dog-dim

ni-tem „my horse‟ ni-tsem-isis „my little horse‟

1-horse 1-horse-dim

Regressive assimilation of [+strident]

from the diminutive suffix?

An association line is added between

a [+strident] feature of the diminutive

suffix and any preceding /t/…

Assibilation

A process in which a stop

becomes [+strident], usually

preceding a high vowel.

Japanese

a. /tat-u/ [tatsu] ‘to stand’ + pres

/tat-i-mas-u/ [tatʃimasu] ‘to stand’ + polite + pres

b. /tat-e/ [tate] ‘to stand’ + imp

/tat-a-nai/ [tatanai] ‘to stand’ + neg

/tat-oo/ [tatoo] ‘to stand’ + cohort

/t/ is affricated to [ts] before the vowel [u], and to [tʃ]

before the vowel [i].

Loans in Japanese

Japanese Original

a. tsuːpiːsu English: ‘two piece(s)’

b. tsuːruːzu French: ‘Toulouse’ (place name)

c. kutsuːruːtsu English: ‘cutlet’

Acoustic explanation

Narrow channel which is created in the transition between a stop and a following high vowel generates an especially long turbulence, which speakers interpret as a [+strident] feature on the stop.

Turbulence length

t a

t i, u

Kim (2001)

“The generation of air turbulence in the

context of phonological assibilation is

phonologically interpreted as the

insertion of the feature [+strident] into

the feature complex characterising the

plosive in a plosive + high vocoid

sequence, with the deletion of the

previous feature [–strident], if present.”

(p. 102)

Blackfoot

a. /nit-iːtsiniki/ [nitsiːtsiniki] ‘I related (a story)’

1-relate

/nit-a-iːtsiniki/ [nitεːtsiniki] ‘I am relating (a story)’

1-dur-relate

b. /kit-iːtsiniki/ [kitsiːtsiniki] ‘you related (a story)’

2-relate

/kit-a-iːtsiniki/ [kitεːtsiniki] ‘you are relating (a story)’

2-dur-relate

…

/iːtsiniki-wa/ [iːtsinikiwa] ‘he related (a story)’

relate-3

/a-iːtsiniki-wa/ [εːtsinikiwa] ‘he is relating (a story)’

dur-relate-3

Asheninca (Campa; Arawakan)

a. /no-kant-i/ [nokantsi] ‘I said’

I-say-nf (nonfuture)

b. /no-ant-i/ [nantsi] ‘I did’

I-do-nf (nonfuture)

c. /no-misi-i/ [nomisitsi] ‘I dreamed’

I-dream-nf (nonfuture)

Canadian French (not Acadian)

a. aktsɪf ‘active’ i. tsy ‘you’

b. dzi ‘say’ j. twe ‘you’ (obj.)

c. tu ‘all’ (m.) k. deʒɑ ‘already’

d. dɔne ‘give’ l. dzʏk ‘duke’

e. admεt ‘admit’ m. dzɪsk ‘record’ (noun)

f. tɔtal ‘total’ n. dʊt ‘doubt’

g. tut ‘all’ (fem.) o. sɔrtsi ‘exit’

h. tsɪp ‘type’

“Velar softening”

critic > criticism

electric > electricity

romantic > romanticism

medic(al) > medicine

public > publicist

etc.

German