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Phonemic Analysis Notes

The document discusses several problems in phonemic analysis of the English language: 1. Whether to analyze affricates like /ʧ/ and /ʤ/ as single phonemes or two phonemes. 2. How to analyze long vowels and diphthongs - as single phonemes or combinations of phonemes. 3. How to classify syllabic consonants which are phonetically distinct from their non-syllabic counterparts. 4. Whether to analyze clusters of "s" followed by plosives /p, t, k/ as distinct phonemes or combinations of phonemes. 5. The phonemic status of the schwa sound /ə

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192 views3 pages

Phonemic Analysis Notes

The document discusses several problems in phonemic analysis of the English language: 1. Whether to analyze affricates like /ʧ/ and /ʤ/ as single phonemes or two phonemes. 2. How to analyze long vowels and diphthongs - as single phonemes or combinations of phonemes. 3. How to classify syllabic consonants which are phonetically distinct from their non-syllabic counterparts. 4. Whether to analyze clusters of "s" followed by plosives /p, t, k/ as distinct phonemes or combinations of phonemes. 5. The phonemic status of the schwa sound /ə

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syz1e
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© © All Rights Reserved
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PHONEMIC ANALYSIS

Problem in phonemic analysis

1. Affricates

- Consist of 2 phonemic analysis which are one-phoneme analysis and two-


phoneme analysis

One-phoneme analysis

- // and // are consider as single consonant phoneme (one-phoneme


analysis)
- Example: church / - : - /
judge / - - /
- The phoneme // and // are not separated.

Two phoneme analysis

- // and //, /d/ and // are considered as two consonant phonemes. (two-
phoneme analysis)
- Example: church / - : - /
judge / - - /
- The phoneme // and //, /d/ and // are separated.

Arguments that support one-phoneme analysis

Confusion always happens in writing.

In this argument, the phonetic quality of // and //, /d/ and // in // and
// are clearly different from realisations of the sound mentioned
found elsewhere.

This would support the analysis of // and // as separate phoneme.

The argument still weak

Example: different quality of // in

watch apes /w eips/ and what shapes /wt eips/

Distribution

- Proposed phoneme // and // have distribution similar to other


consonant while other combinations of plosive and fricative do not.
- // and // are found initially, medially and finally while no other
combination has such wide distribution.
- Examples: pf, dz, t
- There are several consonants in English accepted as phonemes despite
not being free to occur in all positions (r, w, j, h, , )

Combining with other consonants.

- If there were able to freely combine with other consonants to form


cluster, this would support the one-phoneme analysis.
- Initial position, they never occur in cluster.
- In final position in a symbol, + t is possible.
- Example: watch /wt/ and // + /d/ = /wed/
- Other combination: final /l/, /n/ can occur with /t/ and /d/
- Example: squelched /skwelt/ hinged /hnd/
- So, // and // do not combine freely to form clusters particularly not
initial.

2. English vowel system


- All long vowels and diphthongs are treated as composed of two vowels
phoneme.
- Long vowels can be seen as containing short vowels twice
- Examples: // = /i:/, // = /:/, // = /:/, // = /u:/, // = /:/
- Tripthongs composed a basic vowel + one of /i/, /u/ + // (that makes 3
phonemes all together)
- Another way of treating long vowels and diphthongs is by composing a
vowel + a consonant /j, w, h, r/
- Examples in diphthong: (the choice of most American phonologist)
/ej/-/e/ /j/-/a/ /j/-//
/w/-// /w/-/a/
/h/-// /eh/-/e/ /h/-//
- Examples in long vowel
/j/-/i:/ /h/-/:/ /h/-/:/ /h/-/:/ /w/-/u:/

3. Syllabic consonant
- A problem as they are phonetically different from their non-syllabic
counterparts.
- Examples: the following minimal pairs
Syllabic non-syllabic
Coddling - /kdl/ codling - /kdl
Hungary - /hgri/ hungry - /hgri/
- One way is to add /l,r,n/ as new consonant phonemes
- Distribution would be limited but how do we fit them into syllable.

4. Clusters of s with plosives


/p,t,k/ in syllable initial position are aspirated, but when preceded by s
they become unaspirated, spill, still, skill could be transcribed as /sb,
sd, sg/

5. Schwa //
- There is not really contrast between // and //
- // only found in weak syllable. It can be used to represent // or //
- Example : cup /kp/ or /kp/
- The new // phoneme would have two allophones // and //

6. Distinctive features.

p d s m Z
Continuant - - + + +
Alveolar - + + - +
Voiced - + - + +

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