MINIMAL PAIRS
CHAPTER 7
PHONOLOGY:
THE SOUND PATTERNS OF
LANGUAGE
(255-312)
 CONTRASTIVE DISTRIBUTION: Pronounce the
following minimal pairs: “bit,” “beat,” “bet,” “bat,”
“bite,” “bought,” “but,” and “bout”
 In these words, the vowel sounds are in exactly the
same phonetic environment, preceded by a /b/ and
followed by a /t/.
PowerPoint by Don L. F. Nilsen
to accompany
An Introduction to Language (8e, 2007)
by Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman
and Nina Hyams
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 Since only the vowel is changing, then the changing
of the vowel must be making the difference in
distinguishing these different words.
 (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 264)
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COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION
 Now consider these minimal pairs in English: “then-
den,” “lather-ladder,” and “breathe-breed.” In
English /ð/ and /d/ are in contrastive distribution.
 (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 264-266)
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 In Spanish, these two sounds never
occur in the same phonetic
environment, never allow there to be
contrasting minimal pairs, and never
make a real difference.
 In Spanish, therefore, the difference
between /ð/ and /d/ is said to be
“phonetic,” but not “phonemic.”
 But in Spanish, /ð/ and /d/ are in complementary
distribution. /ð/ always occurs between vowels and
/d/ never occurs between vowels.
 Notice that in Spanish these two
 In the Spanish word “duda” for example, the first
sounds are spelled with the same
letter of the alphabet, <d>.
<d> is pronounced /d/ and the second is
pronounced /ð/.
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NATURAL CLASSES OF SOUNDS:
NASALS
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ASPIRATION:
 /m/ /n/ and /η/ are in a natural class called
nasals. Natural classes are important so that
linguists can make generalizations, like “In
English, vowels become nasal in the
environment of nasal consonants.
 (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 271)
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 /p/ /t/ and /k/ form the natural class of voicless stops.
In English, voiceless stops are aspirated if they are
followed by a stressed vowel and not preceded by /s/.
 This makes sense because aspiration is a puff of air.
This puff would occur after a stop. It would occur into
a stressed syllable. If the consonant were voiced or if
some of the air had leaked out because of a preceding
/s/, the aspiration would be less pronounced.
 (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 230, 249, 268-270, 278)
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VOICING
PALATALIZATION
 When Verbs add -ed to become past tense this
 When a word that ends with a /t/ is followed by a
ending becomes voiced if the preceding sound is
voiced as in “planned” or voiceless if the preceding
sound is voiceless as in “jumped.”
–ual, -ial, or -ion ending, the palatal vowel <y->
changes the /t/ sound into a /č/ sound.
 addict  addiction
 Since /t/ is not voiced and vowels are voiced, a /t/
 act  actual or action
between vowels often becomes voiced so that
“latter” and “writer” are pronounced like “ladder”
and “rider.”
 part  partial
 (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 229-230, 232, 249, 267, 269-270, 283)
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 predict  prediction
 (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 227-229, 235-236, 249, 296-299)
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CONSONANT ASSIMILATION
FOR EASE AND SPEED
STOPS BECOMES CONTINUANTS
 Because /k/ is a stop, and vowels are continuants, an affix
 VERB 3rd sing pres ind: sings, hits
beginning with a vowel often changes /k/ to /s/.
 VERB past: buzzed, jumped
 critic  criticize or criticism
 VERB past part: popped, killed
 fanatic  fanaticism
 NOUN plurals: cats, dogs
 romantic  romanticism
 NOUN possessives: Mike's, Fred's
 ADJ substantive: its, ours
 This ability of the <c> to have two different pronunciations
allows us to spell these words the same way even though they
are pronounced diffently. The benefit of this is that it helps us
to see that these words are in the same word-family even
though the <c> part is pronounced differently.
 (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 230, 232, 240, 249)
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CONSONANT DISSIMILATION:
FOR CLARITY
 PREFIX: (NOTE: im- assimilates as follows): illegal,
immature, impotent, indelicate, irreligious
 (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 274-278, 298)

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MORE CONSONANT
ASSIMILATIONS
 VERB 3rd person singular present inddicative: buzzes
 MODAL PLUS "HAVE" ASSIMILATION:
coulda, mighta, shoulda, woulda
 VERB past tense: heated
 MODAL PLUS "TO" ASSIMILATION: gonna,
 VERB past participle: spotted
hafta, hasta, supposta, useta
 NOUN plural: horses
 NOUN possessive: Max’s
 CONTRACTIONS: *ain’t, can’t, couldn’t, won’t,
 NOUN: belfry
wouldn’t, shan’t, shouldn’t, *mayn’t, (mightn’t,
mustn’t)
 ADJ: ignoble
 (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 276-277, 298)
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 (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 274-278, 298)
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VOWEL REDUCTION AND
ASSIMILATION
DISSIMILATION AGAIN
 “-al” is a suffix that changes a Noun into an
Adjective, but when the Noun ends in /l/,
dissimilation occurs:
laboratory, secretary
 “anecdotal”
but “angular”
but “perpendicular”
 “spiritual”
but “similar”
 “venal”
but “velar”
 (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 276-277, 298)
 “penal”
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 LONG AND SHORT GRADES: do-done, go-
gone, nation-national, obscene-obscenity,
punitive-punish, sign-signature, soup-supper
 (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 249)
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vowel reduction and word stress
When a suffix changes a word
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analysis-analytic
phone-phonetic
compete-competition
solid-solidity
maintain-maintenance Talmud-Talmudic
from one Part of Speech to
another, this suffix affects which
syllables are stressed, and which
are unstressed and can change to
different vowel grades like schwa
or short grade:
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 BRITISH VOWEL REDUCTION: aluminum,
medicine-medicinal
telegraph-telegraphy
(Fromkin Rodman
Hyams 282)
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HISTORIC PHONOLOGY
REFLECTED IN SPELLINGS
!MORE HISTORIC
PHONOLOGY REFLECTED IN
SPELLINGS
 TRACES: ic-ich-I, knight, hostel-hôtel-
 GERMANIC UMLAUT: child, goose,
man, mouse, woman (cf. book-beech)
hotel, scribere-écrire-scribe
 DOUBLETS: chief-chef, dish-discus,
hotel-hostel, ship-skiff, shirt-skirt
 GRIMM'S LAW: courage-hearty, cornhorn, decade-ten, dozen-twelve, denttooth, pedestal-footnote, padre-father,
plate-flat, pyre-fire
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 LATIN RHOTOCISM: genus-generic;
opus-opera
 ENGLISH: schwa and silent e
 ACRONYMS AS WORDS: AID, AIDS,
BIRP, CREEP, GASP, MANURE,
MASH, NOW, NUT, SAG, VISTA, ZIP
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!!FOREIGN INFLUENCES ON
PHONOLOGY & SPELLING
!!!FINAL THOUGHTS FROM OGDEN NASH







 BORROWINGS: chaise longue, cole slaw,
frankfurter, hamburger, lingerie, rouge,
schnitzel, wiener
 BILINGUAL COGNATES: actual,
embarazada, grocería, libraria, molestar,
principio, (cf. blanket [white], porpoise [pig
fish], puny [puis né], walrus [whale horse])
 INDO-EUROPEAN ABLAUT: sing-sang-song
 MODAL PAST-SUBJUNCTIVE: can-could,
may-might, shall-should, will-would
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The one-l lama,
He’s a priest.
The two-l llama,
He’s a beast.
And I will bet
A silk pajama
There isn’t any Three-l lllama.
 (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 290)
 In response to this poem one wit remarked, “A three-
alarmer (three-l lllama) is a really big fire.”
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References:
Clark, Virginia P., Paul A. Eschholz, and Alfred F. Rosa, ed.
Language: Readings in Language and Culture, Sixth Edition.
Boston, MA: Bedford, St. Martins, 1998.
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams. “Phonology:
The Sound Patterns of Language.” An Introduction to
Language, 8th Edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth,
2007, 255-312.
Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen. Encyclopedia of 20th
Century American Humor. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000.
Nilsen, Don L. F., and Alleen Pace Nilsen. Pronunciation
Contrasts in English. New York, NY: Regents Publishing Co.,
1973; reissued by Waveland Press in 2002.
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