Azu’s Notes

A phonemic analysis tries to answer the question:
What is a permissible (phonological) word in a particular language?

A ‘classical’ phonemic analysis consists of:
i. an inventory of phonemes
ii. a list of allophonic rules (including allophones of course)
iii. a statement of phonotactics (environments) — which phonemes go where
These three steps provide an answer to the first question.

A phonemic analysis will reveal if the studied phonemes / allophones of the particular language are in:
- complimentary distribution
- contrastive distribution
- free variation

complimentary distribution: phonemes are said to be in complementary distribution if they never occur in the same phonetic environment

contrastive distribution: phonemes occur in the same phonetic environment where the distinction in meaning is due to the particular phoneme (form minimal pairs)

free variation: phonemes are said to be in free variation if they do not affect the meaning of the word

The full method of phonemic analysis can be broken down as follows:

1. Do an inventory of phones (transcribed sounds)

2. Identify phonetically similar (’suspicious’) pairs

3. Compare the distributions of suspicious pairs, looking for complementary or contrasting distribution in terms of:
- neighbouring segments
- syllable and word structure
- stress
- non-neighbouring segments

4. Group complementary suspicious pairs (or triplets, etc) into phonemes

5. Do an inventory of phonemes

6. Describe allophonic variation in terms of rules

7. Describe the phonotactics of phonemes (including syllable and word structures

8. In choosing an allophone to name the phoneme after, ie its basic allophone or basic variant, choose the one with the broadest range of occurrence that allows for the simplest allophonic statement. If this is not clear, choose the one that occurs word-initially.

9. Notation for statements of allophonic variation:
(Phonemic Analysis - Flowchart)

Sample phonemic analysis

Phonology (Greek phone = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics

closely associated with phonetics.

Whereas phonetics is about the physical production and perception of sounds of speech,

phonology describes the way sounds function - within a given language or across languages.

Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages.

The phonological system of a language includes
- an inventory of sounds and their features, and
- rules which specify how sounds interact with each other.

Phonology is just one of several aspects of language. It is related to other aspects such as

phonetics, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics.

(pdf document)

In linguistics, prosody refers to intonation, rhythm and vocal stress in speech.
These suprasegmental (Prosodic) features are phonetic features that are not properties of a single segment, but a syllable or higher unit, such as stress, length, tone and intonation.

Tone

A contrastive pitch of syllables which conveys different meanings of a word.

In languages such as Mandarin, the pronunciation of two words may be the same except the pitch difference.
e.g.

[ma] pronounced with a high-level tone means “mother”, and with a high falling tone means “scold”.

In Cantonese, [ma] produced with a high-level tone means “mother” too, but with a low-mid to mid rising tone means “a horse”.

Intonation

The use of varying pitch to convey meaning.
If the same utterances are produced with different intonation, the meaning conveyed will be different
e.g.
in English, the utterance ‘It is a cat’ will be regarded as a statement when there is a fall in pitch, and the same utterance will be regarded as a question if the pitch rises.

Stress

A stressed syllable is one with relatively greater length, loudness, and/or higher pitch in which extra respiratory energy.
In languages such as English, stress may involve linguistic function and cause differences in syntactic category such as noun or verb.

Where speech sounds such as vowels and consonants function mainly to provide an indication of the identity of words and variety/dialect being spoken, suprasegmental features can indicate syntax, turn-taking in interactions, types of utterances and also attitudes and feelings.

One function of suprasegmental features is to divide speech into chunks – variously known as information units, tone units, tone groups, intonational phrases or word groups.

This may be done in various ways, but its communicative function is evident in how prosody brings different meanings in otherwise identical utterances

It is also evident in lists of lexical entities where prosody clarifies where an entity begins and ends.

e.g.
forty
eight

it is the suprasegmental features that makes it clear whether what is meant is 40 and 8 or 48.

The scope of an adjective is also clarified through prosody.

Suprasegmental features are also used to mark emphasis.

e.g

I wanted chocolate and cake
I wanted chocolate and cake
I wanted chocolate and cake
I wanted chocolate and cake

One factor which influences the perception of prosody is the difference in the pitch height of syllables within an utterance.

The syllables we have looked at so far are fairly simple ones.

We have not, for example, represented the difference between short and long vowels.

Such distinctions are represented by attaching the segments of the syllable into timing slots referred to as the skeletal tier.

In order to do this, the nucleus is branched and short vowels are represented on a single tier while long vowels (including diphthongs in English) are represented as occupying two tiers.

(pdf document)

Syllables are often described as the phonological building blocks of words.

Linguistically a syllable is defined as a unit of speech that is made up of a syllable nucleus (usually a vowel) and one or more optional phones.

The syllable has two immediate constituents:
- onset
any consonant(s) that precede the nucleus
- rhyme
the nucleus and any consonant(s) that follow it

The rhyme is further divided into:

- nucleus
the most sonorous element (usually a vowel)
- coda
any consonant(s) that follow the nucleus

(pdf document)