Some Terms
ØThe citation form of a word is how it is pronounced in
isolation; e.g. the [DÃ].
ØThe strong form of a word is how it is pronounced
when stressed; e.g. the [Diù]/[DI]/[DÃ].
ØThe weak form of a word is how it is pronounced when
unstressed; e.g the [D«].
From Ladefoged, P. (2001) CIP, p. 92.
Some Terms
When one sound is changed into another sound because of
the influence of an adjacent sound this is referred to as
assimilation.
ù Anticipatory: a sound changes because of the properties of a
following sound.
e.g.
wealth [wEl5T]
hand [hQ)nd]
ù Perseverative: a sound changes because of the properties of a
preceding sound.
e.g. it’s [Its] from “it is”, *[Itz]
Suprasegmentals: Syllables
What is a syllable?
Something you can count...
A unit of speech that has a vowel in it...
Something we can divide words into...
Um…Hm…
Evidence for the Syllable
Writing systems: Cherokee and Chinese use a syllabary.
Acquisition: children can count syllables (but not
phonemes).
Language games: many language games manipulate
parts of the syllable.
Geta: insert [IdIg] into each
syllable: /lIdIgQNgwIdIgIdZ gIdIgeIm/
Op: insert [Ap] into each
syllable: /lApQNgwApIdZ gApeIm/
Evidence for the Syllable
Poetry: many forms of poetry require a fixed number of
syllables.
§ Iambic Pentameter:
Pentameter 10 syllables per line.
E.g. Shakespeare’s 18th Sonnet: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s
day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
§ Trochaic tetrameter:
tetrameter 8 syllables per line.
E.g. Longfellow’s Hiawatha: On the Mountains of the Prairie, On the
great Red Pipe-stone Quarry...
Evidence for the Syllable
Phonological Phenomena: patterns of distribution and/or
alternation of sounds that cannot be accounted for without
the syllable.
§English Aspiration:
Aspiration aspiration of word-medial voiceless stops
problematic without syllable.
§English velarized-l: lack of commonality in description of
conditioning environment without syllable.
The Composition of Syllables
Syllables are composed of vowels and consonants in a
particular order.
Ø Some syllables contain only vowels.
“eye” [aI]
“a” [Ã]
“owe” [oU]
Ø Some syllables contain only a syllabic consonant.
“and” [n`]
“of” [f`]
“blossom” [bl•sm`]
All syllables must have at least one of these.
How Many?
No difference in opinion:
s catastrophe, happiness
Difference in opinion (dialectal):
s family, lightening, New Orleans
Difference in opinion (idiolectal):
s communism, real, hire, mirror, heavier
Accounting for Judgments
Sonority: loudness of a sound relative to another sound
with the same length, stress, and pitch.
Peaks of a syllable correspond to peaks of sonority .
§ In words with clear sonority peaks, there is no disagreement
about number of syllables.
§ In words with “fuzzy” sonority peaks (e.g. syllabic
consonants), there is disagreement.
From Ladefoged, P. (2001) CIP, p. 228.
Accounting for Judgments
Problems with Sonority:
ð“spa”: one syllable, two sonority peaks
ð“frightening”: same number of sonority peaks, but variable
pronunciation.
ð“ hidden names” vs. “hid names”: same number of sonority
peaks, but three vs. two syllables.
Accounting for Judgments
Alternatives:
ðProminence - combination of sonority, stress, length and pitch.
ðChest pulses - each syllable initiated by a chest pulse.
ðAbstract unit of organization - phonological.
Stress
Another suprasegmental property of utterances.
A stressed syllable is produced with more muscular
energy, which can result in:
ðan increase in pitch (and/or laryngeal activity)
ðan increase in loudness.
ðan increase in length.
From Ladefoged, P. (2001) CIP, p. 79.
Functions of Stress (in English)
Contrastive:
Contrastive special emphasis is given to a word in order to
contrast it with another.
ð e.g., Joey and Mike should go.
Syntactic Opposition:
Opposition different stress is given to noun~
verb pairs:
ð e.g., ímport (N) ~ impórt (V)
or to compounds~phrases:
ð e.g., hót dog (C) ~ hót dóg (P)
Stress Shift
Sometimes main stress in a word will shift when that
word is suffixed.
ò
díplomat
ò
diplómacy
ò
diplomátic
ò
phótograph
ò
photógraphy
ò
photográphic
ò
mónotone
ò
monótony
ò
monotónic
Degrees of Stress?
Some words seem to have more than one degree of stress.
Is this true?
Not according to Ladefoged, who says other factors account for
“apparent” levels of stress:
ŒA tonic stress (a peak in intonation)
e.g., ánticipátion
•Full vowels
e.g., múltiply ['mUlt«plaI] (vs. multiple)
Intonation
The pattern of pitch changes that occur in a word or
sentence; a separate and separable quality from stress.
Try:
Mom
You paid for a cake.
Length
As we’ve already seen, individual segments can vary in
length.
ØVowels can be longer.
Scottish English: week [wik]
weak [wiùk]
ØConsonants can be longer (referred to as geminates).
Italian:
nonno [n•nno]
‘grandfather’
nono [n•no]
‘ninth’
Pitch
Pitch of the voice is determined by:
ŒTension of the vocal folds
ðif tense, pitch rises
•Amount of air flow
ðif increased, pitch rises
ŽPosition of the vocal folds
Functions of Pitch
ØIndicates whether speaker is male or female, young or
old.
ØIndicates emotional state of speaker; similar
inflections across languages for similar states.
ØIndicates syntactic boundaries; falling pitch = end of
non-interrogative sentence, rising pitch = more to come
or question.
Tone
Pitch variations that change the meaning of a word
are called tones.
For example, Chinese [ma] with:
ðhigh, level pitch = ‘mother’
ðhigh, rising pitch = ‘hemp’
ðlow, falling pitch = ‘horse’
ðhigh, falling pitch = ‘scold’
Listen
Tone Languages
As you’ve already seen, tone languages vary in the number of tones
allow.
ŒLanguage with two possible tones, low and high
Shona (a Bantu language):
LHH
[ku$tSeÛraÛ ]
‘to draw water’
LLL
[ku$tSe$ra$ ]
‘to dig’
•Language with three possible tones, low~mid~high
Yoruba (a Nigerian language):
HH
[oÛwaÛ]
‘he comes’
HM
[oÛwa]
‘he looked for’
LLL
[oÛwa$ ]
‘he existed’
Grammatical Uses of Tone
ØTonal changes affect lexical meaning.
ØTonal changes have a grammatical meaning. For
example, in Igbo (a Nigerian Language) possession is
indicated by a high tone.
LL
[a$gƒba$] ‘jaw’
[e$Nwe$] ‘monkey’
LH LL
[a$gƒbaÛ e$Nwe$] ‘jaw of monkey’
Types of Tones
ŒLevel tones - speaker aims at single target pitch (as with
previous examples).
•Contour tones - speaker aims at characteristic pitch
movement (from one tone to another).
Assimilation occurs between tones as well as with
segments. Changes in tone because of the influence of
one tone over another are called tone sandhi.
Pitch Accent
Languages for which forms of words are distinguished
by pitch changes and not by tone per se.
Swedish:
[and]
[ande]
‘duck’
‘ghost’
[anden]
[anden]
‘the duck’
‘the ghost’
H
LL