819Q1 – Language Description and Analysis

Autumn term 2010

Exercise Phonetics and Phonology

(unassessed)

To be handed in week 5. Note: questions 2 and 3 count double.

1. How do the following sets of sounds differ from each other? For example:
set 1 contains bilabial sounds; set 2 contains labiodental sounds.

[e i y ø] vs.
[u o ʌ ɒ]

[i u y ʉ] vs.
[e o ø ɤ]

[i ɑ e æ] vs.
[u o ɒ y]

[y e u o] vs.
[ɪ ɛ ɔ ʊ]

[p t g b] vs.
[f s z x]

[p f z g] vs.
[m j l r]

[p f s k] vs.
[b v z g]

[l ɹ ʎ ɾ] vs.
[m n ŋ ɳ]

[l k n v] vs.
[a u o e]

[t s n l] vs.
[k g x ŋ]
2. Look at the following data from Standard German and establish whether [ç]
and [x] are allophones of one phoneme or whether they belong to two
independent phonemes /ç/ and /x/. List the contexts in which each of the two
sounds can appear and explain how you reached your decision, using
appropriate terminology.

[ʁi:çə] ‘I smell’ [ʁɛçə] ‘I avenge’

[laɪçə] ‘corpse’ [lɪçt] ‘light’
[zi:ç] ‘diseased’ [vaɪç] ‘soft’
[by:çɐ] ‘books’ [lœçɐ] ‘holes’
[høçlɪç] ‘highly’ [vœçntlɪç] ‘weekly’
[kʏçə] ‘kichen’ [mɪlç] ‘milk’
[mɑnç] ‘some’ [dʊʁç] ‘through’
[ʁɑxə] ‘revenge’ [lɔx] ‘hole’
[bu:x] ‘book’ [ho:x] ‘high’
[vɔxə] ‘week’ [lɔxɐ] ‘hole-punch’
[ʁɑʊx] ‘smoke’ [bʁɑ:x] ‘fallow’

3. Look at the pronunciation of the following English loanwords in Shona, the

main language of Zimbabwe.
(a) How many vowels does Shona have, compared to English, and how
does it adopt the different English vowels? (How are English vowels realised
in Shona?)
(b) There are many epenthetic (inserted) vowels. What do they tell us about
possible syllable structures in Shona? More precisely, what kinds of
structures are disallowed in Shona?

[bazi] ‘bus’ [koko] ‘cork’

[deti] ‘date’ [sitiretʃa] ‘stretcher’
[buku] ‘book’ [sutu] ‘suit’
[minisiketi] ‘mini skirt’ [sitopu] ‘stop’
[timu] ‘team’ [rodi] ‘road’
[hafu] ‘half’ [akita] ‘act’
[kirabu] ‘club’ [girama] ‘grammar’