Phonology From The Ground Up - University of North Dakota
Phonology From The Ground Up - University of North Dakota
Phonology From The Ground Up - University of North Dakota
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Phoneme<br />
<strong>The</strong>!distinctive!features!are!aligned!into!simultaneous!bundles!called!<br />
phonemes;!phonemes!are!concatenated!into!sequences;!the!<br />
elementary!pattern!underlying!any!grouping!<strong>of</strong>!phonemes!is!the!<br />
syllable. 27 !<br />
Draft!8/3/11!(not!for!citation);!©!Stephen!A.!Marlett;!provisional!title:!<strong>Phonology</strong>(from(the(<strong>Ground</strong>(<strong>Up</strong>((Part(1).!<br />
! 22!<br />
C.6.! ! A!notion!basic!to!the!idea!<strong>of</strong>!written!language,!either!explicitly!or!<br />
implicitly,!has!been!that!<strong>of</strong>!the!PHONEME.!In!its!simplest!terms,!the!phonemes!<br />
<strong>of</strong>!a!language!are!the!sound\based!entities!<strong>of</strong>!which!morphemes!are!<br />
composed.!This!is!an!oversimplification,!but!it!is!a!useful!one.!<br />
C.7.! ! We!can!relate!this!topic!to!the!contrast!between!phonetics!and!<br />
phonology!mentioned!in!B.2\B.3!above.!While!the!actual!sounds!<strong>of</strong>!<br />
languages!(the!PHONES)!are!discussed!in!phonetics,!some!abstractions!based!<br />
on!these!(the!phonemes)!are!discussed!in!phonology!(and!these!are!<br />
formally!related!to!the!phones).!!<br />
C.8.! ! Think!<strong>of</strong>!the!phonemes!<strong>of</strong>!a!language!as!the!building!blocks!<strong>of</strong>!the!words.!<br />
In!themselves!they!have!no!meaning!(what!does!a!“p”!mean?),!but!all!<strong>of</strong>!the!<br />
words!in!the!language!can!be!made!from!them.!It!is!supposed!that!on!<br />
average!a!language!has!thirty\some!phonemes!—!twenty\some!consonants!<br />
and!a!handful!<strong>of</strong>!vowels.!<br />
In!this!regard,!see!Maddieson!(2008a,!2008b)!in!the!World(Atlas(<strong>of</strong>(<br />
Language(Structures.!Note!the!range!in!the!number!<strong>of</strong>!vowel!phonemes!in!<br />
the!database:!minimum!<strong>of</strong>!two,!maximum!<strong>of</strong>!fourteen;!and!the!range!<strong>of</strong>!<br />
consonant!phonemes:!minimum!<strong>of</strong>!six,!maximum!<strong>of</strong>!122.!!<br />
C.9.! ! An!analogy!that!might!be!helpful:!think!<strong>of</strong>!the!phonemes!as!the!chessmen!<br />
in!the!game!<strong>of</strong>!phonology.!We!will!want!to!know!about!how!they!move,!how!<br />
they!are!used,!etc.,!but!first!we!simply!want!to!know!what!the!pieces!are.!<br />
One!might!think!<strong>of</strong>!phonemes!as!the!sounds!that!are!in!the!speaker’s!<br />
head,!and!phones!as!the!sounds!that!come!out!<strong>of</strong>!the!speaker’s!mouth.!<br />
C.10.!! ! It!is!common!to!see!reference!to!“the!phonemes!<strong>of</strong>!language!X.”!<strong>The</strong>!list!<strong>of</strong>!<br />
these!phonemes!may!include!something!like!the!following:!<br />
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<br />
27!Jakobson!&!Halle!(1956,!20).!
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