Allophonic Rules.pdf

8/14/2019 Allophonic Rules.pdf

1/7

82 Engl ishVowels and phonologicalRulesTable4.4

Somepredictabrer ternat ionsmongEngr ish owers. hedark ypesnowsthe vowel hat chanqes.larl e trl ti1 e

divine divinity serenederive derivative supremereside residual redeem

lel [erjserenity insanesupremacy erplainredemption mania

e [a]insanityexpianatorymanic

laol e [a] [u] e [n]or [o]profound profundity school scholarabound abundance fool follysouth southern goose goslingin "bet"; in others t is pronouncedwith the von,el ntion of "long" varies. t is [1o4]or [lcp] in most formsand [oq] in most forms of British Enslish.

[ocr] e [o] or [o ]r erbose verbositydepose depositron3 tonlc

"bit." The pronuncia-of American EnglishThe last column shows hat there are similar resiricrions n the vowelsthat can occur before u] Bv far the majority of * ords ending in /J/ have ax--y9we]s,n my own speech he only word conraining the tensevtwel /i/ is"leash." Some speakers ave tensevowels n a feu fle\r 91 unusual wordssuchas "creche,gauche,"which rnaybe [krerJ,gooJ]. The pronunciationof"wash" varies n much the sameway as that of .' long." Both f*,oJland [wcJ]occur n American English.If we weregoing o makea completely honemic ransc.ption we wouldhave o take nto accountsomeother factsabout rouels. Thereare a numberof circumstancesn which one vowel alternates honericallr*rth another na predictableway. Table 4.4 showssomepairs of rerateduords in which thevowel changes re completely ule governed.There is a rense'owel in thestressed yllable n the stemwhen no suffjx olloris ras n rhe left column of

each pair). In eachcase his samesyllablehas a lar ronel uhen there is afollowing suffix(as n the right column of eachpairr.It is possible o statea rule that sho*s the circumsrancesn which thetense owel n a stembecomes lax'o*el * i rh a di ferent qual i ty.Accord_ingly, n a phonemic ranscr ipt ion e could *r i te borh..d i r ine" and..d iv in-ity" with the samevo*el in the seconds1 lable. The rule *,ould show that"divine" is re lated o "di . . in i t r " in the rurn. r ,u, as' .serene. ' is elated o"serenity" or "insane" to "insanitl ." But the rules or thesealternatlons revery complicated, o we will hat'e o continue to usea transcription hat isnot fully phonemic n this way.Rules for Engl ish Al lophones

A goodway of summarizingali hat r havesaidabout Englishphonologyso far is to l ist a setof rulesdescribinghe allophones. hese ules are simplydescriptions of language behavior. They are not the kind of rules that


2/7

Rules for Engt ish Al lophonesprescribewhat people ought to do. Like most phoneticians, would notpresume o setmyselfup asan arbiterof fashionand declarewhat constitutes"good" speech.To..theextent that phonetics s part of an exact scientif,cdiscipl ine' wourd rike to be abre o formalizemy descriptionof speechntermsof a setof precise tatements. ut these tatements hourdbe regardedas descriptive,not prescriptive, ules.The rulescan be statedconvenienth,n termsof the crassesf sounds owhich they apply. The crasses f :ounds can be describedn terms of thefeaturesof which they arecornposed. or example, he classof stops lp, , k,b, d, gl can be specified implv as:

[+ stop]The voiceless tops rp, , kr requirea sratement bout t*'o features. hey will

| _ voicedT[ + 'top -]This is a shorthandway of specil l ,.:-: he completeset of sounds hat are,f i rs t ,voicelessor [-voiced]. as, , . - . . . .1. .al in these.uf . , unO, "cond,stopconsonantsor , moresimpl-r .[ - . ; -p- I : . , ,e anted o speci f l ,a l lhe soundsthat are both voicedand stops, i " . i , . . : . : .g r \ \e could \ \ r . te.l- + voicedl[+r top ]

The nasalconsonants an be spec,:e: , : : : - . . : . :[+ nasal]

We do not in this casehare to:pecr- r *herher thel are roicedor vorceless,for there s no opposi t ionberueen ciceciand roiceless asalsn Engl ish.We can wr i te a rule sal ing that r r r rcele: : rops ,p, t , k7.1 re aspiratedwhen they are syl lable ni t ia l . as in *orc ls suchur. :pipp.a, iesty, k icked,,[pnrp' t , r thest i ,khrk, t ] . br sar ing: rr 'v lu' rvJL), , \ f_voicedl( I ' |+rrop |- i *aspi ratedl whensyl lableni t ia l .

This is a convenient i " l : , saying hat any sound hat is [_voice, *stop]w1l]-bgcome+aspirated] in aaaition to being [-voice, +stop] when it issyllable nitial.Now considerhow we might formulatea rule stating hat the obstruents-the stopsand fricatives-classifledas voiced that s, lb,d, g, v, 6, z,3l) arenot in fact voiced hroughout he articulationwhen they occurat the end ofan utterance r beforea voiceressound(as the lvl in..t iy to improve,,or theldl in"add two"). This rule would be:(2t [ : I : i : to I * Ra.r r ia l lyoicedwhensyi labteinatexceprwhenL+oDsrruentJ lol lowedby a roicedsound.

83


3/7

84 Engt ish Vowels and phonological Ruleswe can alsowrite a similar rule for.stops hat accounts or the fact thathey are often not fully voiced*t.n ,yffuUle nit ial(2a) [ l : :r : .r l * l l l t iul ly. oiced hen _rl]abtenit iat xcept henL+srop J preceded y a voicedsound,

ff;:,ff rulescanbe combinedn a moreprecise ccount f EngrishSome of the rules apply to all thesoundsane aledimpry*;;;;""ff:"S::,it,iH,lli; ]ffil"li,,Tonsonantength s:(3) [+consonantal ] 16nU..whenat rheend of a phrase.You can see he .applicationof this rule by comparin_ehe consonants nords suchas "bib, did, don, nod." If you can. make a recordingof theseords, and then play the recording bactwaras.Next consider he rule ttrat acJounts or the deroicing of f w, t, i, Il afternit iat /p, t ,k/ ,as, in i1l iv, t* i , " , . " . ; ipt . ,turn.krul .Ti isruteisveryeasyto state ecauseehave impleuy, of oescriuin_s'i;;':l;;;., of sounds.e can wr i te: rui l r ,YUtssecjass

(4) [+approximant] -+ [-voiced] urt.. l-+aspiraredlL r stop _lWe could also have a.rule dealing with the facr thar p, t, k/ are un_spirated n words suchas ,,spew,,,.*] r*.*.,, This uould be:(s) f -_ voicedl\J) l+stop _1 1-asRiratedJf ter s at rhebeginning f a syl lable.This rule might^not be necessaryn a formar set of ruresaccountingforhe pronunciation of English. nur. rir-rtuted *.here in an utterancevoicelesstopsare aspirated,.soone might pr.ru*. them to be unaspirated lsewhere.ut I have included rule (5) u."u"r. irr. object of listing theserules is noto account or the allophonesof English in the most rigorous and economicaletof rulespossible,but simpry o i"ur.* otrat I hai.esaidabout the conso_ants of English.Other ruleswould include:: ::l f "ir"t -+ shorter efore oiceressoundsn thesame ytabre.\/) 1_vorced]+ longerwhen at the end of a syilable.words exemplifying these two rules are .,cap,, as opposed to ..cab,, andback" as opposedto "bag." '..y "ont.u-rting these*"rali. ,.-ot.n".r, undou may be able to hear the differenc., ,no.. clearly.Next we take into account the fact thr:LTt#:.,i,:i,:;us ch ,"o' i*'.,iH:".ljj,","d,14:: , r ,,f;

(8) [+stop] --' unexplodedefore[+stopJ.


4/7

lu les for Engl ish Al lophonesAs we haveseen, his is reallypart of a much more generai ule about antici_patorv coarticurationn Engrish.we shourdpe.hai, h";.;.;; our set or.ruleswith a statement f two generalprincipres:First. *,hen wo consecutivesoundshave a feature n common. rhat featurewili be retained hroughoutthe transitionbetween hem; second. rticulatorsnot in'olved in the primaryarticulationwilr take up or tend to* ard thearticurationof the olrowing tem.we maynow ist he urehatadds rollllstops eforeviruur.inarp,, k/, as in pronunciationsof ,.t ip. prt. i i .k,, u, [tr?p. pr?t, kr?k]. Becausethis rule turns one segmentnto a sequence f two se_ements,t wirr have hefollowing form:

(9) f--voicedl [-roicedl rrhen afier a vowel[+stop -" --grottairrpl Lf l ; i ."J i l iJ; jr. end raThis rule doesnot apply to all ra:.eri:s of En-slish. omepeopledo not haveany glottal stops in these circu:::r:rces. and others have glottal stopscompletely eplacingsomeor al1c: i i : ,,oicelessstops. n uny Jr*, even brthose who simply add a glotral sr,:r. ,.: ,ul. is not completelyaccuratelystated'Many peoplewi l l hare a, l . . : . - i .aD t the end of , ,cat i , in phrasessuchas "that 'sa cat" or " the cai *, , . - , , . nar." but the'rvi l l not have hisal lophoneof l t l in "The cat rs ci i : - , . . . , "1 ' . accuraie tatement r . thisrule would requiremy givin,e : i . ' r - i r ; i - ;r i i . tr -rni of r ihat is meantb1.asyl lable, ut I cannotdo this .ecaus; r: : : - - : : , . .s :L,re iLr E,\e a phonet icdef ini t ionof a syl lable.We *i l l iei_:r-- : , . , , _, : . a i ,"r i . lO.The next rule alsodoesntt al i_. , :- . , - - . " . :_: . .e. , Engl ish.Thrs s theone that states hat / t , , ma1 be cc:: . : : ; . - , , :p. : ; :c 3j a _slot tal top lnbeaten" Irbi?n] .

85

( 0)Weachasm"1t1

[ -voiced I| +alveolar - . t - e l r - r r :_| | L s' '| +stop Ilso needa rule de:er ihrnqedp, rkezr,n],uhich u..ul i

, i tLap',\henit occursbeforea nasal nthe same rord.ihe sr l labicir l .of the nasal n . , leaden,be srated:( l l ) t l l ls i t l + l+sri labicr:*:.. i : ine endora wordandafter +obs uenJ.Note that we cannotsa1' hat nasars ecomesy'abic whenever hey occur atthe end of a word and aftera consonant. he nasalsn. .k i ln, f i lm, 'are notsyllabic n most diarects f En-slish. e can,however,statea ruredescribingthe syl labici ty f l l lby sayrng rnply:

(12) l+lateral] * [+syllabic] when at the end of a word and afteranotherconsonant.This rule summarizes,the fa.ct- hat lll is syrlabic not only after stops andfricatives as n "paddie, whistle" t p"Ol, rwrsll)but "fr. "f,".,";*1, 1u, n"kennel,channel" [rkenf,rtJren]1.y.i i *" ' ..g,ara ltl as a consonant, ule (12)


5/7

86 English Vowels and Phonological Rulesrlould be inralidated in most forms of American English by words suchas "snarl" [sno.ri]. n classif i ing sounds for the purpose of these rules.\\e *il1 ha\e to regard :, not asa true consonantbut as somekind of semr-ro$.eI.Like the other centralapproximants, vemi_eht lassify t as [+vowel.- s1'l labicl.On the other hand, 1t is like /1/ n most forms of AmericanEnglish nthat it, too, can be syllabic rvhen t occurs at the end of a word and after aconsonant,as in "sabre, razot, hammer, ailor" Iserb1, rerzr,hem;, tterh].If we introduce a new term, Iiquid, which is used simplr' as a cover term forthe consonants l, tf , we may describe hesedialecrs 1'a rule:

(l2a) [+liquid] --+ +syllabic] when at the end of a word and afrer aconsonant.The next rule also appiies more to American English than to BritishEngiish. It accounts for the ltl in "fatty, data" Iferi. idere]. It must alsoapply to ltl after a stressed owel and before unstressed yllablescontainingnonnasalsyllabic consonants, s in "metal, l i t t le." Accordingly it may beworded:

[-v3ice, I [+uoi.edl when between stressedoweland an(13) l+alveolar l - l - l| | l+tap J unstressedyl iable.l fstoP rThis rule does not apply to ltl before syliabic [n] as in "mutton" [rme?4]because he /t/ there has become a glottal stop, in accordancewith rule (10).In addition, there is a greatdeal of variation among speakers.Some peoplehave [r] after lax vowels in words such as "ljtter, better" but not after tensevowels as in "writer, later." Some have [r] in "motto" but not in "veto."Try to formulate rule (13) n a way that describes our own speech.The rule accounting or the dental consonantsn "sixth, eighth, tenth,wealth" (srkgO, r 0, egO,wel0l s as follows:

(i4) [+alveolar] '-+[+dental] before +dental].In a more rapid style of speechsome of these dental consonants end to beomitted altogether.Say thesewords first slowly and then more rapidly, andseewhat you do yourself.We also need a rule to describe he increasinglymore front articulationof /k/ in "cap, kept,kit, key" [kap, kept,krt, ki] and of /g/ in "gap, get,give,geese"[gep, get, grv, gis].You should be able o fee l he more front posi tionof your tongue contact n the latter words of theseseries. he rule is:

(15) [+velar] + more front before more front vowels.The rule that describeshe differencen the quality of / l/ in "l ife" [larf]and "flIe" [farl], or "clap" fkircp] and "talc" [teelk] s:(16) f+lateral] + velarizedwhen after a vowel and before anotherconsonantor the end of a word.


6/7

Rules for Engl ish Al lophonesThere are alsvo es h we,"l di ;ff i"'#,',T,ff;T liiJ:l:illTi,*i;onsonantshan n sylrableslosed yvoicere-ss""r;";u;;; l;uou "o,'our"ords uch s..sea,1d, s.qaj,_..iigt, rro", ;;;-vJu.riu rr.u. hat heowel is longer still in the syllablewitirJut any consonantat the end.Accord_ngly we may add a rule:

(17) [+vowel] __+longer n opensyllables.Note that this rule is part of the general tendency n English to equalize heengths of sylabres that differ ir ,h. ;;;.nts they contain. This same end_ncy is also reflectedby the fact that ,i. ru" vowels, which are shorter thanhe correspondingtensevowels, cannot o(, Not ' sv'airesreheun r.ng-h."rTil.TT,,ff:i*jr,'i1o#*",he corresponding unstressedsyilabrerl co-pu.. words such as ..cite,,andcitation." you wilr find that irt.,or."i iurl in the stressed ylrable n theirst word is ronger han the same -o*er in trr" ,."orro word wheie rt occurs nn unstressed yllable.We wili therefore have a rule:(18) [+vowel] __+longer n stressed l,l lables.Another kind of rengthvariation is eremplified by setsof words such asspeed, speedy,speedily.l' Here the toG io the stressedsyllable _sers ro_ressively horteras a resurtof addingertra srltabtesn the same vord.Theeasons or this phenomenonu'i lr be deait *ith in the nert chapter.other rulescan be used o specil l som. aori.iparorr.coarticulationsthatffect vowers.The most obvious is ihat ro*,ers tend to becomenasalizedeforenasalconsonants.n a word suchas .-ban-.rhesoft palateoften owersor the nasalconsiderablybefore h;;;;;. tip rises o ,nui. trreartrcuratoryontact'As a resultmuch of the ro*el is"nasalized. asariutinnis strownbyhe diacritic [-] over a symbor.This is th. ,u,,. diacriticas s used o denoteelarization.when describin-e.elarizatron-itis praced n the middle of theymbol, but for nasarization i ;r ptu..J ubove the symbol. In a narrow rran_;::il?i";"'an" mightbe transcrib.otila't. we could*;i;; ,h. required

(19) [+vowel] + [+nasalj before[*nasal].Finally we must,note the alrophones roduced when vowersoccur inyllablesclosedby lU..Compar. y;".;;;;unciarion of ltl in..heed,,andheel," of lerl in ..paid,,urj ..pui;,l io f"f in ..pad,,and ..pal.,,In each;:,T,',,"":'[i"fiT.'?:""iT##*"":'#**iruffcircumstances.It is almostas f they becamediphthongswith an unroundedorm of [o] as the last erement. n u nu.-r'iranscription we could transcribehis element so thar "peel, pail, put" *outj be [phiol, pheol, phreolj. Notehat I omitted the usuai ,."ond.r.n'.n, oilr,l diphthong [er] n order to showhat in thesecircumstanceshe vowel moved from a mid front to a mid_centralather than to a high front qualitv

87


7/7

88 English Vowels and Phonological RulesBack vowels, as in "haul, pull, pool," are usuallv bss affectcd @l dulfinal [] because they already have a tongue poeition similar to ther ,cf ffiBut there is often a great difference n quality in the rosels in *hw-

"hole." As we have seen,many people, myself included- hare a fai{ frmvowel as the fi.rst element in the diphthong [oo]. This vornel beconro sm-siderably retracted before lll at the end of the syllable. You can oberre fuchange by comparing words such as "holy," where there is no final t{L md"wholely," where the first syllable is closed by p] .The exact form of the rule for specifying vowel allophones beforr ffiwill vary from speaker o speaker.But, so that we can include a ruh in ouiwset summarizing some of the main allophonesof English, we ma)' sa :

[+front I(20) L , 1 -+[+retracted] before syllable inal 11..L + voweljSome speakers ave a similar rule that applies o vowels before r . a-i m"hear, there," which might be [hi"r, 6e"r]. Note again how /1, r mar mtogether in rules, as they did in rule (12a).These rules arc far from a complete set specifying the behavior of

vowels in English. I have already mentioned the fact that it is possible towrite rules describing the alternations in "divine, divinity" and all similarpairs and the vowel reduction in "explain, explanation" and all similar pair*It is also possible o write rules that account for there being no oppositiorbetween enseand lax vowels before any of the consonants r, J, 4/. But al lthese ules would get us beyond the limits of an introductory textbook-Again let me emphasize hal theserules roughly sp.ecifyonly some ofthe major aspectsof the pronunciation of English. They do not stateevery-thing about English consonants and vowels that is rule governed, nor arethey completely accurately formulated. There are problems, for example, nsaying exactlywhat is meant by a word or a syllable,and it is possible o findboth exceptions to these rules and additional generalizations hat can bemade.

Allophonic Rules.pdf

Documents

Transcript of Allophonic Rules.pdf