Jeritt Tucker/ID#: I0867573
Linguistics 210: Professor Motohashi
Midterm Examination
5/26/2008
Q1: What are the main differences between English and Japanese consonants and
vowels in terms of articulatory phonetics? (first, explain briefly how speech sounds
are classified. Then, explain what parameters are used to classify English and
Japanese consonants and vowels.)
Articulatory phonetics is interested in explaining the structure of language
through the physiological processes that underlie speech formation. In order to
characterize how consonants and vowels differ first from one another, and second across
the languages of Japanese and English, specific reference must then be made to how the
various speech organs are structured during the production of these phones.
At the most fundamental level, consonants and vowels can be distinguished by
whether or not there is restriction in the airflow during their production. Phones that
involve restriction at some place along the sound producing system to the point that noise
is created when air moves past the restriction are said to be consonants. Consonants can
be classified then by where along the airflow the restriction is located, known as places of
articulation, as well as by how the various speech organs are configured during the
production of the sound, also known as manners of articulation.
English consonants are produced at several places of articulation, including the
lips, the vocal folds, and with the tongue touching or coming close to various areas of the
mouth; including the lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, alveolarpalatal area, palate, velum, and
glottis. Japanese consonants, however, do not share in common the same points of
articulation. Firstly, Japanese does not make use of sounds produced when the tongue is
placed between or against the teeth, or sounds produced when the lower lip is brought
against the upper teeth. Interdental sounds such as the English [Ө]—the th in the word
this—or labiodental sounds such as [f]—f in the word fire— or [v]—v in the word vat—
do not exist in the Japanese language. Also, it is sometimes suggested that Japanese
makes use of a uvular sound—those sounds produced when the tongue is near or
touching the uvula, whereas English has no such sounds. This can be found in the sound
ん as it appears at the end of the Japanese word 本 when 本 is not followed by another
sound.1
Similarly, English and Japanese do not share in common the same manners of
articulation, differing in their use of fricatives, affricatives, nasals, stops, liquids, and
glides. In terms of fricatives and affricatives, Japanese makes particular use of the
voiceless bilabial fricative ふ as in 不便, the voiceless alveolar affricative つ as in 強い,
and the voiced palatal fricative ひ as in 暇 that English does not. As for nasal phones,
English and Japanese share the nasal consonants of [m] and [n] but not the sound [ŋ] as in
the English word of wing (although certain dialects may make use of this sound in place
of the consonant [g]).2 As for stops, the lack of the English [ŋ] would suggest that [ŋ]
1
Motohashi, class handouts.
Haraguchi, Shosuke. (1999). Accent. In N. Tsujimura (Ed.), The handbook of Japanese linguistics (Chap.
1, p. 1–30). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
2
Mid-Term Examination -2stop does not exist as well. Also, most voiceless stops—[p], [t], and [k], are slightly less
aspirated in Japanese than in English. In terms of liquids, the Japanese liquid [ɺ̠] seems to
lie somewhere between the English flapped [r] and the flapped [l]. And finally, English y
and w glides can be followed by any vowel, whereas Japanese y-glides are followed only
by [a], [o], and [u] (all of which are back vowels), and Japanese w-glides can only be
followed by the vowel [a]. While it is difficult to explain the particular limitation of
vowels following y-glide in Japanese as compared to English,3 the difference in w-glides
may have to do with the differences of the production of the sound [u], as the production
of [w] corresponds closely to the articulation of the vowel [u]. In Japanese, the [u] sound
does not involve a curving of the lips, which may be why only this class of low-mid
vowels are allowed to follow a w-glide.4
Vowels, on the other hand, in both English and Japanese, involve little or no
restriction of the airflow. Thus, the production of sound during a vowel generally
involves the vibration of the vocal folds in a process called voicing.5 Vowels cannot be
distinguished from one another by reference to the point of articulation, and are instead
classified by the positioning of the tongue.
In English, there are four parameters for classifying a vowel based on tongue
position. These involve tongue height: either high, mid, or low; tongue position: either
front, central, or back; tenseness: either tense or lax; and roundness: either rounded or
unrounded (see table 1). Classifying Japanese vowels, however, requires the use of only
two of these parameters: tongue height and tongue position (see table 2). While it is
sometimes thought that Japanese makes use of the tense/lax or rounded/unrounded
distinction as well, as in the difference between いい “good” and い as in 胃 “stomach”,
this is actually the presence of a glottal stop: a manner of articulation rather than a
method of classifying vowels. Based upon my pronunciation of the Japanese language, a
language which is not my native tongue, it would appear that all Japanese vowels are
unrounded and tense, and these are thus unnecessary characteristics in the classifying of
Japanese vowels.
Finally, Japanese does not utilize dipthongs, or vowels that exhibit a change in
quality within a single syllable. There exists only five pure vowels in Japanese, the
sounds of あ, い, う, え, and お (classified in table 2). Because Japanese vowels
maintain a constant position of the tongue during their production, sounds such as the
English boy (syllabic nuclei is [oj] and is classified in table 1), do not exist in the
Japanese language. However, Japanese does utilize both long vowels, as in the
aforementioned いい, and superlong vowels, as in 呼応[ko-oo], which English does not.
It can thus be said that length, as a suprasegmental feature in which the articulation of
vowels and consonants is held longer relative to other consonants and vowels, is a
phenomologically-relevant distinction present in Japanese that is not present in English.
A final distinction between the general characteristics of Japanese and English in
terms of the articulation of vowels and consonants is that, whereas Japanese is a pitch3
Ibid.
Although there are differences in the articulation of glides in Japanese and English, a rule regarding which
vowels a glide can follow actually unites the two languages. For both, the same distribution of y and wglides applies to vowels: they are predictably followed by glides with the same backness and roundness.
5
O’Grady et al. 1996. Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. Harlow, UK: Copp Clark Pittman ltd.
pg. 22.
4
Mid-Term Examination -3accent language, English is a stress language. In Japanese, tone functions to indicate
word boundaries whereas in English, stress, a blanket term covering the combined effects
of pitch, loudness, and length, is used to determine word boundaries.
Q2: Explain what assimilation is, taking examples from English or Japanese. (First,
define assimilation. Then, setting up phonemic transcriptions or phonological
representations, explain how phonetic transcriptions or phonetic forms are derived
by phonological rules)
Assimilation is an articulatory process that occurs when segments, the individual
sounds of speech, become more alike one another in any of their phonetic characteristics
due to their proximity. Assimilation can happen in one of two directions. When
assimilation occurs from right to left, that is, when the preceding segment takes on a
phonetic characteristic of the following segment, the assimilation is said to be regressive.
Regressive assimilation occurs in such words as the English pan, transcribed
phonemically as /pæn/ and phonetically as [phæn], in which the speaker anticipates the
lowering of the velum for the nasal sound [n], producing the nasal vowel [æ] rather than
the oral [æ].6 Here, we see the phonetic characteristic of nasalization moving from right
to left, and can derive the general phonological rule from this phonetic transcription that
in the English language, the oral vowel [æ] becomes the nasalized [æ] when it precedes a
nasalized consonant.7 Notice here also that the aspirated [ph] does not appear in the
phonological transcription. This is perhaps indication of another underlying phonological
rule, that syllable-initial voiceless stops are aspirated if preceding a voiceless vowel. As
to whether or not this is a process of assimilation is somewhat unclear. Is an elment of
the following vowel being borrowed by the preceding consonant? It is certain that the
two, due to their proximity, are altering their phonetic characteristics. But, is the
aspiration of [p] making it more similar to the voicelessness of the vowel [æ]? This is
perhaps a point of uncertainty in the definition of assimilation, leaving it a remaining
issue.
When assimilation occurs from left to right it is known as progressive assimilation.
There are numerous examples of this occurring in the Japanese language. For instance,
the Japanese verb 読んだ, which is phonemically transcribed as /yomta/, can be
phonetically written as [yonda]; where the た sound changes to だ after the nasal ん.
Here, the alveolar-stop [ta] becomes voiced when it is preceded by the nasal consonant
[n]. Thus, the phonetic transcription of [yonda] can be derived from the general
phonological rule that in Japanese [ta] becomes the voiced [da] when it follows voiced
obstruents or nasals.
We can also notice from this example that [m] appears as [n] in the phonetic
transcription. This is indication that other phonetic characteristics, aside from nasality
and voice, can be assimilated between segments as well. In the word 三枚 /sanmai/
[sammai], the ordinarily pronounced /san/, meaning three, becomes [sam]. This is an
instance of place assimilation: a nasal consonant is taking on the same place of
6
Motohashi, class handouts.
We can also see here an aspiration of p which does not appear in the phonemic transcription. However, it
is debatable whether the process of syllable-initial voiceless stops becoming aspirated is a process of
assimilation, and an examination of the regressive nasal assimilation is enough for our purposes here.
7
Mid-Term Examination -4articulation as the stop that follows it, in this case moving from an alveolar to a labial
point of articulation. Again, a general phonological rule can be seen in the phonetic
transcription of 三枚 as [sammai] rather than [sanmai]: in the Japanese language,
regressive place assimilation occurs when nasal consonants are followed by stop
consonants.
While voice assimilation was seen in the phonetic transcription of 読んだ, from
[ta] to [da], examples of devoicing being passed between segments exist as well. For
example, in the Japanese word 比較 /hikakuteki/ [hikakuteki], the ordinarily voiced [i]
becomes voiceless between two voiceless consonants. Whether or not this is progressive
or regressive assimilation is difficult to determine, as the [i] is taking on the qualities of
the consonant both preceding and following it. However, the general phonological
pattern underlying this voiceless assimilation appears to be that in Japanese, the vocal
folds are not set in motion during an ordinarily voiced vowel if that vowel is between
unvoiced consonants.
While other phonetic traits can be passed between segments, we have seen the
two fundamental axes on which assimilation must be defined: both in terms of its
direction (progressive versus regressive) and in terms of the trait being assimilated (voice,
place, nasality, etc.).
Q3: What is the syllable structure of English? How does it differ from that of
Japanese? (What constitutes a syllable in English? What are the phonotactic
constraints in English? How do Japanese syllables differ from English ones in terms
of their constituents and phonetic constraints?)
While segments were pertinent to the discussion of assimilation, they themselves
can be combined to produce larger units for analysis, called syllables. A syllable is a unit
of linguistic structure that consists of a nucleus, its only necessary member, and the
segments associated with it. Along with the nucleus is the coda, which consists of those
elements immediately following the nucleus still within the same syllable. Taken
together, the nucleus and the coda are referred to as the rhyme. The final element of a
syllable is the onset, termed such because it precedes the rhyme of the same syllable.
This syllable structure applies to any language. It allows us to give general patterns
describing such rules as aspiration (English voiceless stops are aspirated if they appear
syllable-initially), that would not otherwise be explainable at the segmental, feature, or
word levels.
However, there are certain constraints within any language that limit how
sequences of segments pattern during the formation of syllables. These form a part of a
native speaker`s innate knowledge about how syllables pattern in their language, and are
collectively referred to as phonotactics. In English, what constitutes an onset, nucleus,
and coda are clearly defined. The nucleus is typically sonorant, thus usually a vowel
sound, and can be a pure vowel as in cat or a dipthong as in boat. Nuclei also include
English liquids (l and r), however, as well as the nasals (n and m). Onsets begin with up
to three consonants. If the onset is a three-consonant cluster, the first segment is always s,
the second is of the class of voiceless stops (either p, t, or k), and the final is either a
liquid or glide (l, r, w, or j). The English coda is typically up to three segments, in which
case it follows the reverse pattern as the onset (it must begin with a liquid or glide,
Mid-Term Examination -5followed by a voiceless stop, and finally the segment s).8 However, there are cases in
English where the coda is four segments, as in the word prompts (The syllable structure
of the English word sclerosis is diagrammed in figure A).
In Japanese, however, the particular phonotactic constraints are much different.
Japanese syllables typically consist of a vowel preceded by no more than one consonant,
making most syllables open and leaving the coda a rarer feature in Japanese syllables.
The onset of a Japanese syllable is typically limited a single consonant, with clusters not
appearing at all. There are cases in which a syllable consists of a single syllabic-nuclei,
as the [o] in お電話 (o-den-wa). The nucleus in Japanese is restricted singularly to the
number of pure vowels; nasals and liquids cannot form syllabic nuclei in Japanese. Also,
because dipthongs do not exist in Japanese, syllabic nuclei are always pure. The coda is
also limited either to ん as in 本 (hon), a glottal stop as in 作家(sakka), or another vowel
as おばあちゃん (obaachan). Notice that these are always single, pure, typically
sonorant elements which is very different from the harsher-sounding coda clusters found
in such English words as angst (Japanese and English syllable structures are compared in
Figure A).
We can see the differences between these two sets of phonotactic constraints quite
clearly when we examine the process of English loan-words appearing in Japanese.
Because Japanese syllables have a single vowel that can be preceded by no more than one
consonant, consonant clusters of English words must be broken up and vowels inserted to
form separate syllables. For example, the English word club is divided into the Japanese
クラブ, with the cl consonant cluster being divided up and the vowel [a] inserted. Thus,
in general, the phonotactic constraints intuitively known by native speakers of Japanese
tend to be more restrictive; limiting the complexity of allowable syllables.
8
Ibid.
Mid-Term Examination -6Tables and Diagrams
Table 1 (classifying English vowels):
Vowel
ij
I
ej
æ
з:
ə
ʌ
aj
aw
uw
ʊ
ow
oj
a
Tongue Height
Front
Front
Front
Front
Front
Central
Central
Central
Central
Back
Back
Back
Back
Back
Tongue
Position
High
High
Mid
Low
Mid
Mid
Mid
Low
Low
High
High
Mid
Mid
Low
Tenseness
Tense
Lax
Tense
Lax
Lax
Lax
Lax
Tense
Tense
Tense
Lax
Tense
Tense
Tense
Roundness
Unrounded
Unrounded
Unrounded
Unrounded
Unrounded
Unrounded
Unrounded
Unrounded
Unrounded
Rounded
Rounded
Rounded
Rounded
Unrounded
Table 2 (classifying Japanese vowels)
Vowel
あ
い
う
え
お
Tongue Height
Low
High
High
Mid
Mid
Tongue Position
Central
Front
Back
Front
Back
Figure A (Comparing the syllable structure of the English Word Sclerosis and the Japanese クラブ)
σ
/
\
O
R
|
/\
| N C
/|\ |
Scl e
σ
/\
OR
| | \
| NC
| |
r o
σ
/\
OR
| | \
| NC
| | |
s i s
σ
/\
OR
| /\
| NC
| |
ku
σ
σ
/ \
/\
OR
OR
| | \
| | \
| NC | NC
| |
| |
r a
b u
*σ(syllable marker), O(Onset), R(Rhyme), N(Nucleus), and C(Coda)
*In diagramming the syllables in any language, the nucleus is always constructed first as it is the
syllable`s only obligatory member. Next is the onset, whose length is the longest sequence of
consonants possible that does not violate the phonotactic constraints of the language. And finally,
any remaining consonants after syllabic nuclei form the Coda.
*Note the relative rarity of Japanese codas, a result of the single consonant single vowel system of the
Japanese language. Also notice that the lack of consonant clusters, making the general phonotactic
constraints of English more restrictive than that of English.