Phonology:
Cross-linguistic
variation
LING 200
Winter 2009
Plan for today
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Phonological typology
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Examples from Chinese and Korean
Phonological rules and foreign accents
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Examples from Spanish and English
please turn off your cell phone
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For further learning about sounds of spoken
languages: LING 450
Phonological typology
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= Different types of phonological systems
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Variation in phoneme inventories
Variation in phonological rules
Variation in consonant, vowel sequencing
restrictions
Mandarin (Chinese) vowel inventory
[y] = high front rounded vowel
[ɤ] = mid back unrounded vowel
high
front
unrnd
i
rnd
y
back
unrnd
mid
ɤ
low
ɑ
rnd
u
Mandarin vowels
front
high
back
unrnd
rnd
[l î]
[lŷ]
‘green’
‘advantage’
mid
low
[ ̂ ] = high falling tone
unrnd
rnd
[lû] ‘road’
[lɤ̂]
‘happy’
[lɑ̂]
‘spicy’
Chia-Hui Huang, Taiwanese and
Mandarin speaker
Mandarin tones
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From
http://www.ling.ohiostate.edu/publications/files/lf10/lf10_sounds.html
male and female speakers
Korean vowels
front
unrnd
central
unrnd
back
rnd
high
i
ɨ
u
mid
e
ʌ
o
low
ɑ
Korean vowels
front
unrnd
central
unrnd
high
[pi] ‘rain’
[kɨ] ‘that’
[nuku]
‘who’
mid
[ne] ‘yes,
your’
[nʌ] ‘you’
[no] ‘oar’
low
back
rnd
[nɑ] ‘I’
Sophie Ahn, from Pusan, but speaking here in Seoul (standard Korean) accent
Korean vowel length:
prescriptive only
modern
modern
historic
[nun]
‘eye’
[nun]
‘snow’
[nu:n]
[mɑl]
‘horse’
[mɑl]
‘word’
[mɑ:l]
[pɑl]
‘foot’
[pɑl]
‘blind’
[pɑ:l]
Korean glides
/w/  [ɥ] / C ___ i
 [ö̯] / C ___ e
[ɥ] = high front rounded glide
[ö̯] = mid front rounded glide
[u] : [w] :: [y] : [ɥ] :: [ö] : [ö̯]
[wi] ‘upper part; stomach’
[tɥi] ‘behind’
[weka] ‘maternal family, house’
[k’ö̯e] ‘idea, scheme; quite’
Korean consonants
C’ = “tense” or “fortis” (small glottal opening)
p p’ ph
t t’ th
k k’ kh
ts ts’ tsh
s s’
m
n
h
ŋ
l
w
j
Korean tense consonants
[pul] ‘fire’
[tɑl] ‘moon’
[p’ul] ‘horn’
[t’ɑl] ‘daughter’
[phul] ‘grass’
[thɑl] ‘face mask’
[ki] ‘flag’
[sɑl] ‘flesh, skin’
[k’i] ‘meal’
[s’ɑl] ‘raw rice’
[khi] ‘height’
/s/ = [sh]
Liquids in Korean
One liquid phoneme
/l/  [ɺ] / ___ V
(unless long)
([ɺ] = alveolar lateral or retroflex flap)
Korean liquids
[ɺ]
[l]
[uɺi] ‘we’
[mul] ‘water’
[kɑɺu] ‘powder’
[ilkop] ‘seven’
[ɺupi] ‘ruby’
[l:]
[tal:e] ‘wild garlic’
/l/  [ɺ] / ___ V (unless long)
Foreign accents and borrowed words
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Foreign accents
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learner’s phonology the culprit
especially if language learned as adult
Borrowed words
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codified foreign accent: borrowed words
pronounced according to phonology of
borrowing language
The original
shibboleth
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Judges 12:5-6
Spanish consonants
pb
td
kg
ʧ
f
s
m
n
x
ɲ
l
w
ɾ
j
Notice: no /h/
/x/ = voiceless velar fricative
Spanish rhotics
[ɾ]
[pɑɾɑ] ‘for’
[r] = /ɾɾ/
[pɑrɑ] ‘vine’
Word-initially, no contrast; [ɾ] usually  [r] there
Spanish loans into English
Spanish
[pɑðɾes]
‘Padres’
borrowed into
English
[phɑdɹez]
[tɑko]
‘taco’
[thɑko]
[burito]
‘burrito’
[bəɹiɾoʊ]
[sɑndjeɣo]
‘San Diego’
[sændiegoʊ]
[ɣ] = voiced velar fricative
Where you can go wrong
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Misapplying English phonology to Spanish
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Failing to learn Spanish phonology
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Aspiration (not in Spanish): [thɑko]
Plural suffix –[z]: [phɑdɹez]
Mid back rounded vowel not a diphthong in
Spanish: [bəɹiɾoʊ]
voiced fricative, not stop, after vowel: [pɑðɾes]
Failing to learn Spanish phonetics
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[burito] as [bəɹiɾoʊ]
No aspiration
[peso] (monetary unit of Mexico)
[beso] ‘kiss’
[tono] ‘tone’
[dono] ‘I donate’
[koðo] ‘elbow’
[goðo] ‘goth’
No mid vowel diphthongs
[rejno] ‘kingdom’ vs. [reno] ‘reindeer’
General Roca, Argentina
[xeneɾalroka]
Phonetics vs. phonology
phonetics
phonology
transcription
narrower as needed
typically broad,
streamlined
contrast
how is a particular
contrast realized?
what is contrastive?
Question
What do you think you will still remember
about the phonetics/phonology part of
this class 5 years from now?