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