Flashcards
Phonology and sound changes
Cards in this deck (12)
- 1Describe the nature of sound change1. Sounds of languages change in a regular manner
2. Sound changes affect coherent classes of sounds (Grimm's law)
3. Sound changes occur in specific environments - 2What are some common sound changes1. Deletion
2. Epenthesis
3. Assimilation
4. Lentition - 3Describe deletionSomething is lost
- Initial: [k] > 0 /#_n (knee)
-Medial: t>0 / _en (soften)
- Final: b > 0 /m_# (lamb) - 4Describe epenthsisWhen a segment is added
can be initial, middle, or final
final e.g. 0>t /s_# (amongst) only in certain environments - 5Describe assimilationA sound becomes more like its environment. Can change in
- place
- manner
- voicing
- Neighbouring vowels
- Palatalisation - 6Describe lentitionA group of common changes - softening/weakening
especially when consonants become more sonorous - 7What is contrast- The most fundamental component of a sound pattern. They are speech sounds that differentiate words.
The best tool for determining contrast is minimal pairs or sets, and then subminimal sets - 8When can a pair of phones be non-contrastive?If they are in variation - when phones can be swapped for each other and not change the meaning, or complementary distribution - when they have no common environment.
In these instances speakers regard them as the same sound - 9What are phonemes and allophonesPhonemes group together a family of phones, and allophones are the phones grouped into a phoneme
Only non contrastive sets of phones can be allophones
Contrastive sets belong to different phonemes - 10What are subminimal pairs?A pair of words in which at least the local environment is the same for both phones, or when then phones are in the same syllable position
- 11describe when phones are in variationin some environments phones can be swapped for each other and it does not change the meaning of the word, speakers often think of them as the same sound
e.g. button /?/ vs /t/ - 12describe phones in complementary distributionThe phones have no environment in common
e.g. /n/ /n/
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- Flashcards on Phonology and sound changes, created by Soph B on 31/10/2018.
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- Soph B
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