Assignment 3

CO315 Word Structure and Vocabulary

1A149112-2
Jiyeon Lee
Problem 1

Phonetic transcription with IPA

A. 1. clock 2. magical

3. tongue 4. fried 5. thinner

B. 1. 2.

3.

3. [dls]

C. 1. [br]

2. [d]

4. [lv]

D. 1. [giko]

2. [toh] 3. [sak]

4. 5.
5. [wald]

4. [seko]

5. [tiba]

Problem 2
(a) Describe // and // in terms of place, manner, and voicing.
Firstly, the places of articulation of are both interdental using teeth. In terms o
f manner of articulation, // and // are fricatives made by forming a nearly complete
stoppage of the airstream. The way of voicing of // and // is different in that // is v
oiceless and // is voiced.
(b) In Cockney English, // became /f/ and // became /v/, so speakers of that dialect
say /fk/ where standard American English speakers would say /k/, and /vt/
where American English speakers would say /t/. Describe this change in
terms of manner, place, and voicing.
At first, the manner of articulation of //, /f/, //, /v/ is the same. Those are a
ll fricatives. Since //, /f/ are voiceless and //, /v/ are voiced, Cockney English al
so remain the same in terms of voicing. However, in terms of the place, there is
a shift on the place of articulation from interdental like //, // to labio-dental like
/f/, /v/ on both cases.
(c) In many other dialects of English, including Newfoundland English, Jamaican
English, and Irish English, // and // become /t/ and /d/, so that speakers of these
dialects say /tk/ rather than /k/, and /dt/ rather than /t/. Describe this
change in terms of manner, place, and voicing.
In the case of dialects of English, the place of articulation and the manner of
articulation changes from Standard English. // and // are interdental in terms

of place and fricatives in terms of manner. And changed /t/ and /d/ in dialects
of English are alveolar and stops in terms of place and manner. However, the
ir voicing remains the same since // and /t/ are both voiceless and // and /d/
are both voiced.
(d) Finally, many second language learners (including some Japanese learners of
English), replace // with /s/ and // with /z/, saying /sk/ for /k/ and /zt/ for
/t/. Describe this replacement in terms of manner, place, and voicing.
Just like the case of Cockney English and dialects of English, there is no cha
nge in voicing in the case of second language learners English as well. // an
d /s/ are both voiceless and // and /z/ are both voiced. In terms of place of art
iculation, there is a replacement interdental like // and // with alveolar /s/ an
d /z/. And the manner of articulation remains the same since all of them are i
n the same group fricatives.

Problem 3. Explaining phonetic changes in loan words

(1). Ice -
The English word Ice is pronounced as [as] in Standard English, while native
Japanese speakers pronounce this noun as [ais].
The first notable change is that Japanese doesnt have a diphthong [a] in their vowel
system while there is a vowel diphthong [a] in English. Japanese only has five vowel
symbols [a], [i], [], [e], [o]. Therefore, the separation of vowel [a] occurs so that it is
divided into two individual vowels, low-central [a] and high-front [i].
Another difference is made on the consonant [s]. With the syllable making rule, [s]
itself cant be a syllable because it doesnt have any vowel attached. Therefore, in the English
word [as], [s] takes a role of coda sticking to a nucleus [a] so that they form one syllable. On
the other hand, as illustrated above, there are two individual vowels [a] and [i] in the Japanese
[ais]. English consonant [s] can be replaced to [s] in Japanese. This part is very confusing
because the majority of the Hiragana syllabary one of the writing systems used for Japanese
consists of the combination of a consonant and a vowel (5). Considering this, it can be
noticed that there usually comes vowel after every consonant in Japanese syllabary formation
system. And the closest pronunciation, which can replace [s] at the end of the word, is [s] in

Japanese and Japanese pronounce it as a voiceless vowel so that it can be marked with a
small circle under []. Thus, Japanese [ais] contains three syllables [a], [i], and [s]. These
three syllables make a different sound from the original English Ice.

(2) Photo -
The English word Photo is pronounced as [foto] in Standard English, while
native Japanese speakers pronounce this noun as [hoto].
At first, a diphthong [o] in [fo] and [to] doesnt exist in Japanese. Instead of [o],
Japanese has a mid-back rounded vowel [o]; therefore, all [o] becomes [o] in Japanese
pronunciation.
Next, we can see the [f] becomes [h] in Japanese pronunciation. The reason of this
replacement is that there is no labio-dental consonant such as [v] and [f] in Japanese. Due to
the absence of labio-dental sound, Japanese made the glottal [h] the alternative of fricative [f].
In my opinion, their replacement is linguistically quite scientific because [f] and [h] has some
similarities in that they are both fricatives and voiceless in terms of manner of articulation
and voicing respectively.
Lastly, the noticeable change is an appearance of geminate consonants. Japanese used
geminate consonants [to] although there is no double [t] in original word [foto]. According
to the thesis Consonant Gemination in Japanese Loanword Phonology, the researchers
argue that the first segmental condition concerns the voice/voiceless distinction in the
consonant to be geminated. In loanwords, voiceless obstruents can be geminated, whereas
voiced ones are seldom geminated (960). According to this theory, geminate phenomenon
comes from manner of articulation and voicing of [t]. Based on the thesis, we can say that the
germination of [hoto] occurs because the consonant [t] is stop which is obstruent and
voiceless sound.

<Reference>
p.5. Tsujimoto, Natsuko. 1996. An introduction to Japanese Linguistics. Oxford
p.960. Haruo, Kubozono. Gemination in Japanese Loanword Phonology. Kobe University