Phonology: Cross-linguistic variation

1. Phonology: Cross-linguistic variation LING 200 Winter 2009

2. Plan for today • Phonological typology • Examples from Chinese and Korean • Phonological rules and foreign accents • Examples from Spanish and English • For further learning about sounds of spoken languages: LING 450 please turn off your cell phone

3. Phonological typology • = Different types of phonological systems • Variation in phoneme inventories • Variation in phonological rules • Variation in consonant, vowel sequencing restrictions

4. Mandarin (Chinese) vowel inventory [y] = high front rounded vowel [ɤ] = mid back unrounded vowel

5. Mandarin vowels Chia-Hui Huang, Taiwanese and Mandarin speaker [ ̂] = high falling tone

6. Mandarin tones • From http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/publications/files/lf10/lf10_sounds.html male and female speakers

7. Korean vowels

8. Korean vowels Sophie Ahn, from Pusan, but speaking here in Seoul (standard Korean) accent

9. Korean vowel length: prescriptive only

10. Korean glides /w/  [ɥ] / C ___ i [ɥ] = high front rounded glide  [ö̯] / C ___ e [ö̯] = mid front rounded glide [u] : [w] :: [y] : [ɥ] :: [ö] : [ö̯] [wi] ‘upper part; stomach’ [tɥi] ‘behind’ [weka] ‘maternal family, house’ [k’ö̯e] ‘idea, scheme; quite’

11. Korean consonants C’ = “tense” or “fortis” (small glottal opening) p p’ ph t t’ th k k’ kh ts ts’ tsh s s’ h m n ŋ l w j

12. Korean tense consonants [pul] ‘fire’ [tɑl] ‘moon’ [p’ul] ‘horn’ [t’ɑl] ‘daughter’ [phul] ‘grass’ [thɑl] ‘face mask’ [ki] ‘flag’ [sɑl] ‘flesh, skin’ [k’i] ‘meal’ [s’ɑl] ‘raw rice’ [khi] ‘height’ /s/ = [sh]

13. Liquids in Korean One liquid phoneme /l/  [ɺ] / ___ V (unless long) ([ɺ] = alveolar lateral or retroflex flap)

14. Korean liquids [ɺ] [l] [uɺi] ‘we’ [mul] ‘water’ [kɑɺu] ‘powder’ [ilkop] ‘seven’ [ɺupi] ‘ruby’ [l:] [tal:e] ‘wild garlic’ /l/  [ɺ] / ___ V (unless long)

15. Foreign accents and borrowed words • Foreign accents • learner’s phonology the culprit • especially if language learned as adult • Borrowed words • codified foreign accent: borrowed words pronounced according to phonology of borrowing language

16. The original shibboleth • Judges 12:5-6

17. Spanish consonants p b t d k g ʧ f s x m n ɲ l w ɾj Notice: no /h/ /x/ = voiceless velar fricative

18. Spanish rhotics [ɾ] [pɑɾɑ] ‘for’ [r] = /ɾɾ/ [pɑrɑ] ‘vine’ Word-initially, no contrast; [ɾ] usually  [r] there

19. Spanish loans into English [ɣ] = voiced velar fricative

20. Where you can go wrong • Misapplying English phonology to Spanish • Aspiration (not in Spanish): [thɑko] • Plural suffix –[z]: [phɑdɹez] • Mid back rounded vowel not a diphthong in Spanish: [bəɹiɾoʊ] • Failing to learn Spanish phonology • voiced fricative, not stop, after vowel: [pɑðɾes] • Failing to learn Spanish phonetics • [burito] as [bəɹiɾoʊ]

21. No aspiration [peso] (monetary unit of Mexico) [beso] ‘kiss’ [tono] ‘tone’ [dono] ‘I donate’ [koðo] ‘elbow’ [goðo] ‘goth’ No mid vowel diphthongs [rejno] ‘kingdom’ vs. [reno] ‘reindeer’

22. General Roca, Argentina [xeneɾalroka]

23. Phonetics vs. phonology

24. Question What do you think you will still remember about the phonetics/phonology part of this class 5 years from now?