File 5 How to Solve Phonology Problems Language Files pp. 127-133

Language Files pp. 127-133

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  Determining the phonemes of a language and the allophones assigned to them is not easy.
  

2) Phonemes are psychological realities; there is not physical proof that they exist!

3) Native speaker intuitions are not always accurate (they are not used to attending
to such details about their own language; they often make decisions subconsciously)

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  Therefore, linguists have developed a procedure by which they examine the data to determine the phonemes of a given language. This procedure based on two observations:
  

led vs. red = phonemes [l] and [r] change meaning

button= allophones [glottal stop] vs. [aspirated t] do not change meaning

2) Allophones of a phoneme are a set of sounds that have the same psychological function; not random

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  Solving a phonological problem in your native language can be deceivingly simple since you have native speaker intuitions about your own language. For example, on p. 128, example 1, most of us intuitively know that voiceless [r] and voiced [r] are allophones of the same phoneme, that their use does not change the meaning of the word.
  

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  When solving a phonological problem in an unknown language, things are much more difficult because you can’t rely on your intuitions. Your best bet is to use the systematic approach outlined below:
  

Make a list of each sound that you’re interested in. Under each sound write every environment where that sound is found. (Remember to use a # for the beginning or end of a word)

Step 7: Write a rule (using the appropriate symbols) that shows the process of each phoneme changing to an allophone.

*******Remember*****

phonemes always have slashes around them. Ex. /r/

allophones are represented as a phonetic transcription with bracket. Ex. [r]

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  means “is pronounced as”
  

So, a typical rule will go:

/phoneme/  [allophone] / environment

A couple of other reminders:

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  Just because you don’t find a minimal pair doesn’t mean that you can just stop your analysis and conclude that the sounds you are looking at are different phonemes. Textbooks will always give you enough data to solve the problem, but they may not always give you minimal pairs.
  
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  “Near-minimal pair” is a pair of words differing in meaning but phonetically identical except for two sounds in the same position of each word.
  
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  Always start in the most immediate environment and work your way out. It’s more likely that the sounds directly around the sound you’re evaluating will be the conditioning environment. (However, it’s not unheard of sounds in adjacent syllables to be the conditioning factor—see the Finnish example in Section 3.2.3)
  
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  Phonological processes are not usually random. Many of the phonological rules exist because of logical processes, such as assimilation or deletion. (See Section 3.2.3)