Linguistics 001: Practice Problems for Phonology

Language Files 3.6 Exercises

1. Exercise 9 (Ukrainian), p. 136

2. Exercise 14 (one question)

3. Exercise 15 a, c, e, g

NOTE: Exercise 25 (Mokilese) — This practice exercise has a detailed answer in the back ofyour book. So it will not be discussed in recitation (unless you have specific questionsabout it). However, you should now try doing it, and then read the explanation to seewhat you do or do not understand.

4. Exercise 26 (Sindhi)

5. First do practice exercise 36 (Canadian French) on p. 143 of Language Files.

Then look at the additional data below (also from Canadian French), and answer the questionsthat follow the data. These data show various related words which share a basic part called astem. For example, the first set of words are all built from the stem [demɔkrat-] (in the sameway that the English translations given at right are all based on the stem democrat-.

This stem has various suffixes attached to it (just like English -ic, -ize) in the first set of words.Adding the suffixes can have the effect of changing the environment in which a phonemeappears, with the result that a rule applies in some cases but not in others. The resultingchanges are known as alternations.

Note that in some cases there is no explicit suffix, e.g. in [demɔkrat] the stem appears with nosuffix; in some other cases all the words have a stem with an affix. To help you, the boundarybetween the stem and the affix that follows is shown by a hyphen.

The standard French spellings of the words are provided in the leftmost column, but they arenot needed to solve the problem (and may in fact be more confusing than helpful, unless youhave studied French). Bear in mind that this is Canadian French, so even if you studied Frenchin school the pronunciation may be different from what you learned.

For reference, below are the phonetic values of the symbols used which are not in English.

[ y ] high front tense rounded vowel (rounded equivalent of [i])[ʏ] high front lax rounded vowel (rounded equivalent of [ɪ])[ø] mid front tense rounded vowel (rounded equivalent of [e])[œ] mid front lax rounded vowel (rounded equivalent of [ɛ])[ɥ] labial-palatal glide (rounded equivalent of [j])[ʦ] voiceless dental a(ricate, like a combination of [t] and [s][ʣ] voiced dental a(ricate, like a combination of [d] and [z][ã] nasalized low central vowel: like [a] except with both nasal and oral air*ow [ɔ̃] nasalized mid lax back round vowel: like [ɔ] except with both nasal and oral air*ow[r] In Montréal among older speakers, usually a *ap [ɾ] but sometimes a trill [r]

Data Set 1

démocrate [demɔkrat] ‘democrat’démocratique [demɔkraʦ-ɪk] ‘democratic’démocratiser [demɔkraʦ-iz-e] ‘democratize’

parachute [paraʃʏt] ‘parachute’parachutiste [paraʃyʦ-ɪst] ‘parachutist’parachuter [paraʃyt-e] ‘to parachute’parachutisme [paraʃyʦ-izm] ‘parachuting (as an activity)’parachutage [paraʃyt-aʒ] ‘(an instance of) parachuting, airdrop’

gratter [grat-e] ‘to scratch’gratte [grat] ‘scratch!’grattement [grat-mã] ‘(a) scratch’gratture [graʦ-yr] ‘scrapings’

éléphante [elefãt] ‘female elephant’éléphantesque [elefãt-ɛsk] ‘like an elephant’éléphantine [elefãʦ-ɪn] ‘having to do with elephants’éléphanteau [elefãt-o] ‘baby elephant’

direct [ʣirɛkt] ‘direct’directement [ʣirɛkt-mã] ‘directly’directeur [ʣirɛkt-œr] ‘director (male)’directif [ʣirɛkʦ-ɪf] ‘directive’ (adjective)

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directroire [dirɛkt-war] ‘group of board members’directrice [dirɛkt-rɪs] ‘director (female)’

consente [kɔs̃ãt] ‘permits, agrees to’consentant [kɔs̃ãt-ã] ‘consenting, agreeing to’consenti [kɔs̃ãʦ-i] ‘agreed to’consentir [kɔs̃ãʦ-ir] ‘to permit, to agree’consentement [kɔs̃ãt-mã] ‘consent’

Question a. Are the data in Data Set 1 consistent with your hypothesis from exercise 36? Whyor why not?

Now examine data set 2 below:

Data Set 2

méthode [metɔd] ‘method’méthodisme [metɔʣ-izm] ‘methodism’méthodique [metɔʣ-ɪk] ‘methodical’méthodologie [metɔd-ɔlɔʒi ] ‘methodology’

marchander [marʃãd-e] ‘to haggle over a price’marchandage [marʃãd-aʒ] ‘haggling’marchandeuse [marʃãd-øz] ‘female merchant’marchandait [marʃãd-ɛ] ‘was haggling’marchandise [marʃãʣ-iz] ‘merchandise’

perdre [pɛrd] ‘to lose’perdu [pɛrʣ-y] ‘lost’perdait [pɛrd-ɛ] ‘was losing’perdant [pɛrd-ã] ‘losing’

druide [drɥɪd] ‘(male) druid’druidesse [drɥid-ɛs] ‘female druid’druidisme [drɥiʣ-izm] ‘druidism, druid practices’

vide [vɪd] ‘empty’vider [vid-e] ‘to empty’vidoir [vid-war] ‘receptacle for emptied water’vidures [viʣ-yr] ‘waste products (from slaughter)’

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Questions b-d:

b. What new alternation is illustrated in the data in data set 2?

c. Reformulate your answer to Exercise 36, generalizing the rule so that it will correctlyproduce the alternations in stem-final consonants shown in this problem.

d. How does the notion ‘natural class’ of sounds help to explain the range of alternations instem-final consonants in the data?

Note: There are certain additional alternations in vowel quality (between tense and laxvowels) which, although they are correct from Canadian French, are not relevant tothis problem. You do not have to analyze them.

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