Ling 403/603
Introduction to Phonology
DAY 4
CESAR KOIRALA
The steps of the phonological analysis
1) Minimal pair (phoneme)
2) Before & After Chart
3) Relevant pattern (complementary distribution, allophone)
4) Generalize the environment
5) Decide the basic form (that will give the simpler rule)
6) Form the rule.
Mohawk Stops
Mohawk has six phonetic oral stops. Decide which of the following hypothesis is
correct:
A: Mohawk has six distinct oral stop phonemes /p,t,k,b,d,g/
B: Mohawk has only three distinct oral stop phonemes in its underlying
phoneme inventory.
The list of environments
[p]
[t]
[k]
[b]
[d]
[g]
The list of environments
[p]
[t]
[k]
[b]
[d]
[g]
a_l
e_#
o_s
h_e
s_#
i_s
e_w
a_a
h_e
i_e
o_a
#_e
s_u
s_a
#_a
e_e
a_a
The list of environments
[b,d,g]
[p,t,k]
i_a
#_a
o_a
#_e
e_e
a_a
h_e
s_u
s_a
e_#
s_#
a_l
o_s
i_s
i_w
Generalization, conclusion and the rule
Generalization: [b,d,g] occur before vowels while [p,t,k] elsewhere.
[p,t,k] should be taken as phonemic because it occurs in greater
variety of context.
Generalization, conclusion and the rule
Generalization: [b,d,g] occur before vowels while [p,t,k] elsewhere.
[p,t,k] should be taken as phonemic because it occurs in greater
variety of context.
Conclusion: As we could identify an environment in which one set of
sounds occur but other doesn’t, the two sets are in the complementary
distribution. Hence, hypothesis B is true. There are only 3 distinct oral
stop phonemes. The other 3 are surface variants.
Generalization, conclusion and the rule
Generalization: [b,d,g] occur before vowels while [p,t,k] elsewhere.
[p,t,k] should be taken as phonemic because it occurs in greater
variety of context.
Conclusion: As we could identify an environment in which one set of
sounds occur but other doesn’t, the two sets are in the complementary
distribution. Hence, hypothesis B is true. There are only 3 distinct oral
stop phonemes. The other 3 are surface variants.
Rule: [p,t,k] -> [b,d,g] / _V
Generalization, conclusion and the rule
Generalization: [b,d,g] occur before vowels while [p,t,k] elsewhere.
[p,t,k] should be taken as phonemic because it occurs in greater
variety of context.
Conclusion: As we could identify an environment in which one set of
sounds occur but other doesn’t, the two sets are in the complementary
distribution. Hence, hypothesis B is true. There are only 3 distinct oral
stop phonemes. The other 3 are surface variants.
Rule: [p,t,k] -> [b,d,g] / _V
Voiceless stops -> Voiced stops/ _ V
Natural classes
Rule: [p,t,k] -> [b,d,g] / _V
[+stop, -voice] -> [+voice]/ _ V
Redundant rule?
Notice:
1. The set of sounds a rule applies to is normally a set of sounds that
share a particular feature or a set of features. For e.g., the voicing rule
applied to all voiceless consonants in the language.
2. Rules often change only one or two features of the sound, rather
than making massive alterations. Here, it only changed [-voice] feature.
3. Any complete set of sounds in a given language that share the same
value for the feature or set of features is called a NATURAL CLASS.
/p/,/t/,/k/ form a natural class in Mohawk (and English) because they
constitute all the [+stop, -voice] sounds of the language.
More on Phonological Rules…
 Format of a rule:
A->B / X_Y
More on Phonological Rules…
 Format of a rule:
A->B / X_Y
 This means A is written as B when preceded by X and followed by Y. In
other terms XAY is rewritten as XBY
More on Phonological Rules…
 Format of a rule:
A->B / X_Y
 This means A is written as B when preceded by X and followed by Y. In




other terms XAY is rewritten as XBY
A is the affected segment, focus, or target of the rule.
B is the structural change that the rule requires.
X_Y is the environment or the context of the rule
XAY is the structural description.
More on Phonological Rules…
 The rule is context sensitive because A->B in the context of X and Y
A->B / X_Y
 If the rule applies in all context, it is context free and instead of writing
A -> B/ __
we just write A -> B
Some notations…
 #
word boundary
 + morpheme boundary
 C
[-syllabic] segment
 V
[+syllabic] segment
 C0 Zero or more [-syllabic] segments
 ∅ the null set
∅ ⇒ B / C____D “Insert B between C and D”
A ⇒ ∅/ C____D “Delete A between C and D”
Some examples…
 [+nas] ⇒ ∅ / [+syl] ___#
(This rule deletes nasal sounds that occur word finally when preceded by a
vowel)

+syl
⇒ [-syl] / ____ [+syl]
+high
(High vowels become glides when immediately followed by another vowel)
More on Phonological Rules…
 Format of a rule:
A->B / X_Y
e.g., [+nas] ⇒ ∅ / [+syl] ___#
 Notice that:
A, B, X, Y are distinctive feature matrices except that:
- A or B (but not both) may be the null set ∅.
- X or Y (or both) may be absent.
- A consists of only one feature matrix.
2. X and Y may contain (or consist solely of) the boundary symbols # and
+.
1.
Example
The
Identify the environments in which each sound occurs.
Example Contd… (Generalization)
Example contd… (Rules)
Example contd… (Rules)
3 part formula:
1. Name your rule
2. Give the formal rule
3. Write the rule in prose
Derivations
 After you perform a phonological analysis on a given data and provide
the rules for all the alternations seen in the data, you should ALWAYS
provide derivations of some example data to demonstrate that your
analysis is correct.
Derivations
Derivations
Choose data that can
represent all the processes
you discussed.
Derivations
Derivations
List of
rules
Derivations
Derivations
Derivations
Derivations
Derivations
Agnas Sonorants
Ganda Liquids