1. Linguistics week 9
Phonology 2

3. The IPA vowel chart
This is a stylized representation of the inside of the mouth
It shows
the cardinal vowels
marked by black dots
and the approximate position of vowels common in many languages
The next slide shows the position of English vowels on the same kind of chart

4. Aspiration in Mandarin is phonemic
pʰ and p are two different phones; two different sounds
but in Mandarin they are different phonemes
/pʰa/ (ㄆㄚ) and /pa/ (ㄅㄚ) represent different meanings
in English pʰ and p do not help to distinguish meaning
There are no minimal pairs like pʰa and pa
Slant brackets are used for phonemic transcriptions //
Square brackets are used for phonetic transcriptions []
This is an important point
We will return to it later

5. So what is a phoneme?
A phoneme is a member of the set of sounds of a particular language
A phoneme can be spoken in different ways, depending on
the other sounds near it, in the utterance (context)
the local accent or dialect
the person speaking
These different realizations (different ways) are the allophones of the phoneme
A phoneme can be distinguished from every other phoneme
You do this by checking that a minimal pair exists

6. Economy of effort: allophonic differences within one syllable
The vowels in ㄢ and ㄤ are different (front and back) because the speaker is preparing for the following consonant
The consonants /k/ in kit and cat differ slightly because the speaker is preparing for the following vowel. Tongue position for the first is further forward
Why do these allophonic differences exist?
In language, as in life, people are lazy!
It is logical that tongue movement should be minimized
As long as people can understand what we are saying!

7. Economy of effort: assimilation
Another syllable or word influences pronunciation, in rapid speech
How do you pronounce 根本?
This is an example of progressive assimilation
What about 多少錢
This is an example of elision

8. Assimilation in English and French
Usually it’s regressive
A phoneme is changed to accommodate (match) the next phoneme.
Voicing
Newspaper, of course, have to
News has /z/; newspaper has [s] to accommodate the following /p/
French avec /avek/ in avec vous /aveg vu/ “with you”

9. Assimilation of place of articulation
/tem/ in ten minutes
/iƷ/ in is she?
For more examples
Read about assimilation at