110 Guest Lecture - Syllables and Phonotactics
110 Guest Lecture - Syllables and Phonotactics
110 Guest Lecture - Syllables and Phonotactics
Phonotactics
Ling 110 Guest Lecture
Jonathan Manker
October 27, 2014
Syllables, Phonotactics, and your course
project
Being able to describe the syllable structure and phonotactics of a language
may be relevant to sections 4 and 5 of your course project.
Section 4, Prosody. Syllables are often relevant for understanding systems of
stress placement and tone restrictions (Do certain types of syllables attract
stress, or disallow certain tones?)
Section 5, Phonology. Often phonological rules (which we’ll see more
examples of later in the week) are sensitive to syllable structure, for
example, a rule may apply only in syllable codas but not onsets, etc.
What is a syllable?
Syllables are something that most people seem to agree exist but are hard to
define.
If there is no easy way to define syllables then will this prove to be a useful
concept to talk about?
Phonetic Definitions of the Syllable
Now that that is clear (not really), we can start with a purely phonetic
description of the syllable: “One possible theory is that peaks of syllabicity
coincide with peaks of sonority” (pg. 214).
What are peaks of sonority? Recall the sonority hierarchy from last week’s
lecture. More sonorant sounds will be higher in amplitude.
Let’s test out our phonetic definition of syllables, that they coincide with
peaks in sonority. This will essentially mean that at the point when the
amplitude switches from decreasing to increasing, that we are at a syllable
boundary.
Amplitude can be seen in the waveform. Thus we might expect something like
this:
Syllables as seen in waveforms
What
about this
one?
Let’s consider now syllables from a phonological point of view where they are
most abstract units of organization. Do we need to include syllables in this
discussion?
Chomsky & Halle’s Sound Pattern of English (1968) didn’t define the syllable.
Words were considered to be strings of segments, and one may manage to
describe phonological patterns without them.
Syllables in Phonology
Without referring to syllables, how might we describe why we can’t say ‘knee’
as [kni] but ‘acne’ as [ækni] is fine?
This complex environment--- before a word boundary (#) or a consonant (C) is very
common cross-linguistically. But how do we capture the unity of these environments?
This can be done by referring to syllables. Both “before a C” and “before a #” are both
the coda position (final consonant) within syllables.
Thus: /bɔl/ CVC
/pɔl.kɘ/ CVC.CV
vs. /i.bɔ.lɘ/ V.CV.CV
/lʌv/ CVC
Syllable Structure
Syllables may begin with an onset (ω) which is an initial consonant. All
languages optionally allow onsets, some require them.
Syllables are usually required to have a nucleus (ν) which is usually what
grants a string of sounds syllablehood. This is most commonly a vowel or
sonorant segment.
Syllable Structure
• Thus: /e.bo.la/ not /e.bol.a/ (or /eb.ol.a/); /pol.ka/ not /po.lka/ (because
this would violate the sonority hierarchy) or /polk.a/; /di.plo.ma/ not
/dip.lo.ma/ or /dipl.om.a/
Application - Koryak
Now let’s apply our knowledge of syllables to understand an example from the
Koryak language of Siberia.
Koryak allows only V, VC, CV, and CVC syllables (no consonant clusters).
Underlying word forms may consist of strings of syllables with no vowels. But
schwa segments must be inserted to adhere to the allowable syllable types.
Application - Koryak
To break up the consonants here, schwa [ə] is inserted. So the output then
is: [təp.ŋə.lon]. MOP rules out [ət.pəŋ.lon], and Koryak’s syllable structure
rules out possibilities like [tpəŋ.lon] or [təp.ŋlon].
Again, being able to refer to syllable structure makes for a more elegant
description as to why two consonants can occur next to each other word
internally, but not at the beginning or end of a word.
Syllable Types and Phonotactics
Phonotactics deals with the rules and restrictions languages have for what
strings of segments are permissible.
Syllables with no coda are referred to as open syllables. (so V, CV, CCV, CCCV,
etc.)
Syllables with a coda are referred to as closed syllables. (so VC, CVC, VCC,
CCVC, etc.)
For processes like stress and tone, these might be sensitive to syllables of
different “weights.” Having a coda or a long vowel usually makes a syllables
heavier.
Some languages can have long consonants clusters in onsets or codas. Itel’men (Siberia):
tksxqzukitʧen ‘I wanted to eat’ ktweljknen ‘he brought it’
ktimpljx ‘bring it’ k’anjʧpx ‘teach him’
Vowels can be nuclei in all languages. Typically most vowels are allowed in
open syllables while mergers may occur in close syllables or before certain
consonants (somewhat the reverse in English).
Some languages allow other sonorants (liquids, glides, nasals) to be syllable
nuclei.
In a few languages, obstruents such as fricatives and even stops can be
syllable nuclei (or are nuclei not required in syllables?)
The division of what is allowed as a syllable nucleus typically occurs
somewhere on the syllable hierarchy.
vowels > (approximants) > liquids > nasals > voiced fricatives > voiceless
fricatives > voiced stops > voiceless stops
Rare Nucleus Segments
Some languages allow nuclei with less sonorant or more constricted nuclei
Mambila language (Nigeria, Bantoid). “Fricative vowels,” something Matt
Faytak studies
/bzɨ͡/ ‘ask’
/kɣɯ͡/ ‘cut’
True fricatives and stops may even be acceptable nuclei, yielding complex
consonant clusters
Nucleus Restrictions