Linguistics 4 Final Exam (Phonology)
Letters = 26 letters in the Roman alphabet.
Graphemes = more than 26 visual symbols for representing English phonemes and
allophones, since combinations of letters can be used to represent a given phoneme or
allophone. 2 letter combinations: digraphs. 3 letter combinations: trigraphs.
Checked values = closed syllables (= a syllable with 1 or more consonants in coda position
(ex: bile)).
Free values = open syllables (= a syllable with no consonants in coda position (ex: buy)).
Mute e = when the final ‘e’ isn’t pronounced in a word (ex: made, hide).
Free value Ex Checked value Ex
<a> /eɪ/ made /æ/ mad
<e> /i:/ Pete /ɛ/ pet
<i> /aɪ/ hide /ɪ/ hid
<o> /oʊ/ note /ɒ/ not
<u> /ju:/ or /u:/ cute, /ʌ/ or /ʊ/ cut, put
rule
Standard accents are GA, RP, and SSE. Other accents: London English, Tyneside English,
Standard Scottish English (SSE), New York City English, Texan English, Australian English,
Indian English.
Rhotic accent = pronounce the /r/ sound wherever it appears in a word.
Non-rhotic accent = drop the /r/ when it is not followed by a vowel (postvocalic).
Flapping = [ɾ] = flap (ex: pronouncing “butter” as “budder”).
Systemic accent difference = the set of phonological contrasts of differ. Example: Southern
English makes a contrast between /ʊ/ and /ʌ/ (book – buck), while Northern English has /ʊ/
in each member of the pair.
Realizational accent difference = the realization of a single phoneme differs. Example: in
RP, /i:/ and /u:/ are typically realized as [i:] and [u:] respectively (geese – goose), while in
SSE, /i/ is realized as either short [i] (feet) or long [i:}+] (freeze), and /u/ is realized either as
short [ʊ] (foot) or long [ʊ:] (lose).
Phonemic split = a distinction which was once allophonic becomes phonemic.
Phonemic merger = where once a phonemic contrast was present, it came to be collapsed.
Prosodic = stress and rhythm. If a 2-syllable word in English lays the stress on the second
syllable, it’s often a loan word.
Suprasegmental = a segment is a speech sound. This means ‘above’ the segment, like
syllables and foot. ‘Below’ the segment are features.
# represents morphological boundary, . represents phonological boundary. These have
different positions.
Trisyllabic shortening = you have 3 syllables. Long vowels becoming short. Some people
think this used to be a rule in the English language (ex: serene -> serenity = e: -> ɛ).
Great Vowel Shift (GVS) = all long vowels shifted upward in the mouth.
Chain shift = you begin with the same number of vowels as you end up with, they just
change places (so you don’t loose/gain sounds). So these happened with the GVS.
Syllable = σ, a unit containing an obligatory centre part (usually a vowel).
Nucleus = middle part of the syllable, often the vowel.
, Onset = consonants before the nucleus.
Coda = consonants after the nucleus.
Rhyme = nucleus + coda.
Phoneme = each meaning-distinguishing sound (/ /). They function contrastively (/f/ - /v/).
When 2 sounds share features (/p/ - /k/), they’re members of a natural class of phonemes.
Allophone = the sounds that are actually produced in speech ([ ]) (realization of the
phoneme).
Maximal Onset Principle = consonants always prefer the onset position.
Humans speak rhythmically by putting regular beats in the speech signal. Beats (stressed
syllables) in a word are louder, have a higher pitch, and are longer than unstressed syllables.
Metrical foot = a stressed syllable followed by zero or more unstressed syllables (ex:
nuggets). The head of a metrical foot is a stressed syllable. A foot must contain one stressed
syllable. The most common foot in English is trochaic: primary stress on the penultimate
syllable for bisyllabic words and on the antepenultimate syllable for polysyllabic words.
Number of feet is the number of stressed syllables. W S is not a possible foot.
Stressed-timed = interval between stressed syllables is roughly equal & unstressed vowels
are reduced (ex: English, Dutch, German).
Syllable-timed = equal duration of syllables & hardly any vowel reduction + no schwas (ex:
French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish).
Primary stress [‘] = the strong position (stressed syllable) within a word which receives
most prominence.
Secondary stress [,] = when there’s another strong position in a word.
A weak position is an unstressed syllable.
General English stress principles:
1. The End-Based Principle: the placement of primary stresses is calculated by counting
from the end of the word (final – penultimate – antepenultimate).
2. The Rhythmic Principle: while it’s possible for English words to end with up to 4
unstressed syllables (ex: ungentlemanliness), they can’t begin with more than 1 unstressed
syllable.
3. The Derivational Principle: there’s a tendency to place the secondary stress on the
syllable which had primary stress in the deriving word (ex: characterize – characterization).
4. The Stress Clash Avoidance Principle: one should try to avoid having 2 adjacent stressed
syllables (ex: Japan – Japanese).
Functional word = syllable may have a reduced vowel.
Lexical word = has at least one full syllable.
Light syllable = the nucleus and the rhyme don’t branch,
Heavy syllable = the rhyme branches.
Word stress assignment in English:
- Monosyllabic lexical: one syllable for primary stress to fall on.
- Bisyllabic lexical: nouns are trochaic (ex: carpet), but sometimes final stress because of
borrowing (ex: shampoo). Adjectives are trochaic (ex: crazy), but sometimes final stress
because of prefixes of Latinate origin (ex: precise). Adverbs are trochaic (ex: slowly). Verbs
often have final primary stress (ex: export), again because of Latinate prefixes.
Letters = 26 letters in the Roman alphabet.
Graphemes = more than 26 visual symbols for representing English phonemes and
allophones, since combinations of letters can be used to represent a given phoneme or
allophone. 2 letter combinations: digraphs. 3 letter combinations: trigraphs.
Checked values = closed syllables (= a syllable with 1 or more consonants in coda position
(ex: bile)).
Free values = open syllables (= a syllable with no consonants in coda position (ex: buy)).
Mute e = when the final ‘e’ isn’t pronounced in a word (ex: made, hide).
Free value Ex Checked value Ex
<a> /eɪ/ made /æ/ mad
<e> /i:/ Pete /ɛ/ pet
<i> /aɪ/ hide /ɪ/ hid
<o> /oʊ/ note /ɒ/ not
<u> /ju:/ or /u:/ cute, /ʌ/ or /ʊ/ cut, put
rule
Standard accents are GA, RP, and SSE. Other accents: London English, Tyneside English,
Standard Scottish English (SSE), New York City English, Texan English, Australian English,
Indian English.
Rhotic accent = pronounce the /r/ sound wherever it appears in a word.
Non-rhotic accent = drop the /r/ when it is not followed by a vowel (postvocalic).
Flapping = [ɾ] = flap (ex: pronouncing “butter” as “budder”).
Systemic accent difference = the set of phonological contrasts of differ. Example: Southern
English makes a contrast between /ʊ/ and /ʌ/ (book – buck), while Northern English has /ʊ/
in each member of the pair.
Realizational accent difference = the realization of a single phoneme differs. Example: in
RP, /i:/ and /u:/ are typically realized as [i:] and [u:] respectively (geese – goose), while in
SSE, /i/ is realized as either short [i] (feet) or long [i:}+] (freeze), and /u/ is realized either as
short [ʊ] (foot) or long [ʊ:] (lose).
Phonemic split = a distinction which was once allophonic becomes phonemic.
Phonemic merger = where once a phonemic contrast was present, it came to be collapsed.
Prosodic = stress and rhythm. If a 2-syllable word in English lays the stress on the second
syllable, it’s often a loan word.
Suprasegmental = a segment is a speech sound. This means ‘above’ the segment, like
syllables and foot. ‘Below’ the segment are features.
# represents morphological boundary, . represents phonological boundary. These have
different positions.
Trisyllabic shortening = you have 3 syllables. Long vowels becoming short. Some people
think this used to be a rule in the English language (ex: serene -> serenity = e: -> ɛ).
Great Vowel Shift (GVS) = all long vowels shifted upward in the mouth.
Chain shift = you begin with the same number of vowels as you end up with, they just
change places (so you don’t loose/gain sounds). So these happened with the GVS.
Syllable = σ, a unit containing an obligatory centre part (usually a vowel).
Nucleus = middle part of the syllable, often the vowel.
, Onset = consonants before the nucleus.
Coda = consonants after the nucleus.
Rhyme = nucleus + coda.
Phoneme = each meaning-distinguishing sound (/ /). They function contrastively (/f/ - /v/).
When 2 sounds share features (/p/ - /k/), they’re members of a natural class of phonemes.
Allophone = the sounds that are actually produced in speech ([ ]) (realization of the
phoneme).
Maximal Onset Principle = consonants always prefer the onset position.
Humans speak rhythmically by putting regular beats in the speech signal. Beats (stressed
syllables) in a word are louder, have a higher pitch, and are longer than unstressed syllables.
Metrical foot = a stressed syllable followed by zero or more unstressed syllables (ex:
nuggets). The head of a metrical foot is a stressed syllable. A foot must contain one stressed
syllable. The most common foot in English is trochaic: primary stress on the penultimate
syllable for bisyllabic words and on the antepenultimate syllable for polysyllabic words.
Number of feet is the number of stressed syllables. W S is not a possible foot.
Stressed-timed = interval between stressed syllables is roughly equal & unstressed vowels
are reduced (ex: English, Dutch, German).
Syllable-timed = equal duration of syllables & hardly any vowel reduction + no schwas (ex:
French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish).
Primary stress [‘] = the strong position (stressed syllable) within a word which receives
most prominence.
Secondary stress [,] = when there’s another strong position in a word.
A weak position is an unstressed syllable.
General English stress principles:
1. The End-Based Principle: the placement of primary stresses is calculated by counting
from the end of the word (final – penultimate – antepenultimate).
2. The Rhythmic Principle: while it’s possible for English words to end with up to 4
unstressed syllables (ex: ungentlemanliness), they can’t begin with more than 1 unstressed
syllable.
3. The Derivational Principle: there’s a tendency to place the secondary stress on the
syllable which had primary stress in the deriving word (ex: characterize – characterization).
4. The Stress Clash Avoidance Principle: one should try to avoid having 2 adjacent stressed
syllables (ex: Japan – Japanese).
Functional word = syllable may have a reduced vowel.
Lexical word = has at least one full syllable.
Light syllable = the nucleus and the rhyme don’t branch,
Heavy syllable = the rhyme branches.
Word stress assignment in English:
- Monosyllabic lexical: one syllable for primary stress to fall on.
- Bisyllabic lexical: nouns are trochaic (ex: carpet), but sometimes final stress because of
borrowing (ex: shampoo). Adjectives are trochaic (ex: crazy), but sometimes final stress
because of prefixes of Latinate origin (ex: precise). Adverbs are trochaic (ex: slowly). Verbs
often have final primary stress (ex: export), again because of Latinate prefixes.
