Phonemes

2
See textbook, Ch. 2 for additional articulatory processes: dissimilation, vowel reduction, and metathesis.
ð Crucial observation: all these processes are systematic in a language: They apply to classes of sounds.
3. Suprasegmental properties
are typically independent of particular segments in a language.
Length (of segment): IPA symbol ‘:’ (= colon)
short vs. long vowels in German:
Stadt [ ] ‘city’ Staat [ ] ‘state, e.g. of Maryland’
wenn [ ] ‘whom’ wen [ ] ‘when’
bitten [ ] ‘to request’ bieten [ ] ‘to wish’
short vs. long consonants in Italian:
fato [ ] ‘fate’ fatto [ ] ‘fact’
vano [ ] ‘vain’ vanno [ ] ‘they go’
beve [ ] ‘he drinks’ bevve [ ] ‘he drank’
H
Tone: differences in pitch Chinese high tone [ma] ‘mother’ (register tone)
MLH
fall rise [ma] ‘horse’ (contour tone)
MH
mid rise [ma] ‘hemp’ (contour tone)
HL
high fall [ma] ‘scold’ (contour tone)
Notation: H (high), M (mid), L (low) on line above with association line.
Stress: relative prominence of syllables
Notation: acute accent on vowel nucleus for primary stress, e.g. [é]
grave accent for secondary stress, e.g. [è]
English desert [ ] dessert [ ]
(a) record [ ] to record [ ]
4. Not all sounds are equal in a language!
Within a language some sounds have a privileged status in that they carry the burden of encoding differences in
meaning. They are called phonemes. Others (called allophones) are phonetically close variants of existing
phonemes; their typically single distinct phonetic property is predictable from their phonetic environment.
Phonemes are contrastive sounds (represented as / /).
Test: contrastive or minimal pairs (see also near-minimal pairs)
pat, bat fat, vat sit, zit sit, sat
Are the following minimal pairs?
boat, bought sheep, Jeep
loose, lost now, no