Download Minimal Pairs - Introduction to Phonetics - Exercise and more Exercises Literature and Development in PDF only on Docsity! How to solve phonological problems 1) Read carefully what you have to do in the exercise - ‘determine whether segments are phonemes or allophones’ - ‘determine which segment(s) is(are) phoneme(s)’ All this implies that you have to account for the distribution and write the rule(s) allowing to derive allophone(s) from phoneme(s). 2) If you need to find out if the sounds in question are phonemes, look for minimal pairs. 3) It is always useful to organise data, if it is not yet organised (put in Column 1 all words with segment 1, and in Column 2 all words with segment 2): Example: consider [h] and [/] and determine whether they contrast, or whether they are allophones of one phoneme. a) kahon ‘box’ d) /ari ‘property’ b) hari/ ‘king’ e) ka/on ‘to fetch’ c) /umagos ‘to flow’ f) humagos ‘to paint’ You organize data: a) kahon e) ka/on f) humagos c) /umagos b) hari/ d) /ari It turns out that a) and e) form a minimal pair, as well as f) and c). The pair b-d is a near minimal pair. If there are no minimal pairs in data, carefully compare words in Column 1 with words in Column2. Then the words within each column. Example: Korean [s S z] are in complementary distribution and form one phoneme. State the distribution. satan division Seke world tSaNza business sQk colour Sek¨m taxes inza greetings sQ new SesuSil washroom inzwetSa publisher sos´l novel Sihap game paNz´k cushion su number SiktaN dining room j´NzutS ¨ N receipt sul wine Silsu mistake ¨mziktS ´m restaurant susul operation Sinpu bride phuNzok custom Here, we have three segments, therefore we regrouped the data in three columns. In the first one we gathered words with [s], in the second words with [S], and in the third words with [z]. - what types of sounds occur immediately next to the sound in question (word boundary (#), consonants, vowels)? Make a chart. #___ ___# C___ ___C V___ ___V V___V ___G s + + + S + + + z + + + Note1: since we deal with consonants, the chance of their appearance between two other consonants is too small. The same is for vowels: V___V is not a probable context. Note2: Contexts C___, etc. can combine with word boundaries: C___#, V___#, #___C, #___V. Note3: C___C overlaps with C___ and ___C; V___V overlaps with V___ and ___V. 1 docsity.com
