266  CHAPTER 6  Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language

Exercises
Data in languages other than English are given in phonetic transcription with-
out square brackets unless otherwise stated. The phonetic transcriptions of
English words are given within square brackets.
1. The following sets of minimal pairs show that English /p/ and /b/ con-
trast in initial, medial, and final positions.
Initial Medial Final
pit/bit rapid/rabid cap/cab
Find similar sets of minimal pairs for each pair of consonants given:
a. /k/—/g/ d. /b/—/v/ g. /s/—/ʃ/
b. /m/—/n/ e. /b/—/m/ h. /ʧ/—/ʤ/
c. /l/—/r/ f. /p/—/f/ i. /s/—/z/
2. A young patient at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, England, follow-
ing a head injury, appears to have lost the spelling-to-pronunciation and
pronunciation-to-spelling rules that most of us can use to read and write
new words or nonsense strings. He also is unable to get to the phonemic
representation of words in his lexicon. Consider the following examples
of his reading pronunciation and his writing from dictation:

Stimulus Reading Pronunciation Writing from Dictation

fame /fæmi/ FAM
café /sæfi/ KAFA
time /taɪmi/ TIM
note /noti/ or /nɔti/ NOT
praise /pra-aɪ-si/ PRAZ
treat /tri-æt/ TRET
goes /go-ɛs/ GOZ
float /flɔ-æt/ FLOT
What rules or patterns relate his reading pronunciation to the written
stimulus? What rules or patterns relate his spelling to the dictated
stimulus? For example, in reading, a corresponds to /a/ or /æ/; in
writing from dictation /e/ and /æ/ correspond to written A.
3. Read “A Case of Identity,” the third story in The Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and no fair reading summaries, synop-
ses, or anything other than the original—it’s online). Now all you have to
do is explain what complementary distribution has to do with this mystery.

4. Part One
Consider the distribution of [r] and [l] in Korean in the following words.
(Some simplifying changes have been made in these transcriptions, which
have no bearing on the problem.)
rubi ‘ruby’ mul ‘water’
kir-i ‘road (nom.)’ pal ‘arm’

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 Exercises  267

saram ‘person’ səul ‘Seoul’

irum-i ‘name (nom.)’ ilgop ‘seven’
ratio ‘radio’ ibalsa ‘barber’
a. Are [r] and [l] allophones of one or two phonemes?
b. Do they occur in any minimal pairs?
c. Are they in complementary distribution?
d. In what environments does each occur?
e. If you conclude that they are allophones of one phoneme, state the
rule that can derive the phonetic allophonic forms.

Part Two
Here are some additional data from Korean:
son ‘hand’ ʃihap ‘game’
som ‘cotton’ ʃilsu ‘mistake’
sosəl ‘novel’ ʃipsam ‘thirteen’
sɛk ‘color’ ʃinho ‘signal’
isa ‘moving’ maʃita ‘is delicious’
sal ‘flesh’ oʃip ‘fifty’
kasu ‘singer’ miʃin ‘superstition’
miso ‘grin’ kaʃi ‘thorn’
a. Are [s] and [ʃ] allophones of the same phoneme, or is each an allophone
of a separate phoneme? Give your reasons.
b. If you conclude that they are allophones of one phoneme, state the rule
that can derive the phonetic allophones.
5. Consider these data from a common German dialect ([x] is a velar
fricative; [ç] is a palatal fricative; ː indicates a long vowel).
nɪçt ‘not’ baːx ‘Bach’
reːç�n ‘rake’ laːx�n ‘to laugh’
ʃlɛçt ‘bad’ kɔxt ‘cooks’
riːç�n ‘to smell’ fɛrsuːx�n ‘to try’
hãɪmlɪç ‘sly’ hoːx ‘high’
rɛçts ‘rightward’ ʃlʊxt ‘canyon’
kriːç�n ‘to crawl’ fɛrflʊxt ‘accursed’
a. Are [x] and [ç] allophones of the same phoneme, or is each an allo-
phone of a separate phoneme? Give your reasons.
b. If you conclude that they are allophones of one phoneme, state the
rule that can derive the phonetic allophones.
6. Reconsider the two rules for the plural morpheme /z/:
a. Insert a [ə] before the plural morpheme /z/ when a regular noun
ends in a sibilant, giving [əz].
b. Change the plural morpheme /z/ to a voiceless [s] when preceded by
a voiceless sound.
Reformulate these two rules so that their order of application doesn’t
matter. (This shows that the necessity for rule ordering depends on how

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 268  CHAPTER 6  Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language

the rules are formulated, but that if we make the rules very specific to
avoid rule ordering, we may sacrifice a degree of simplicity.) How is
your reformulation somehow less simple than the one that requires rule
ordering?
7. In Southern Kongo, a Bantu language spoken in Angola, the nonpalatal
segments [t], [s], and [z] are in complementary distribution with their
palatal counterparts [ʧ], [ʃ], and [ӡ], as shown in the following words:
tobola ‘to bore a hole’ ʧina ‘to cut’
tanu ‘five’ ʧiba ‘banana’
kesoka ‘to be cut’ ŋkoʃi ‘lion’
kasu ‘emaciation’ nselele ‘termite’
kunezulu ‘heaven’ aʒimola ‘alms’
nzwetu ‘our’ lolonʒi ‘to wash house’
zevo ‘then’ zeŋga ‘to cut’
ʒima ‘to stretch’ tenisu ‘tennis’
a. State the distribution of each pair of segments.
Example: [t]—[ʧ]: [t] occurs before [o], [a], [e], and [u]; [ʧ]
occurs before [i].
[s]—[ʃ]:
[z]—[ӡ]:
b. Using considerations of simplicity, which phone should be used as the
underlying phoneme for each pair of nonpalatal and palatal segments
in Southern Kongo?
c. State in your own words the one phonological rule that will derive all
the phonetic segments from the phonemes. Do not state a separate
rule for each phoneme; a general rule can be stated that will apply to
all three phonemes you listed in (b). Try to give a formal statement of
your rule.
d. Which of the following are possible words in Southern Kongo, and
which are not?
i. tenesi  ii. loʧunuta  iii. zevoӡiӡi  iv. ʃiʃi  v. ŋkasa
vi. iӡiloӡa
8. In some dialects of English, the following words have different vowels,
as is shown by the phonetic transcriptions:
A B C
bite [bʌɪt] bide [baɪd] die [daɪ]
rice [rʌɪs] rise [raɪz] by [baɪ]
ripe [rʌɪp] bribe [braɪb] sigh [saɪ]
wife [wʌɪf] wives [waɪvz] rye [raɪ]
dike [dʌɪk] dime [dãɪm] guy [gaɪ]
nine [nãɪn]
rile [raɪl]
dire [daɪr]
writhe [raɪð]

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 Exercises  269

a. How may the classes of sounds that end the words in columns A and
B be characterized? That is, what feature specifies all the final seg-
ments in A and all the final segments in B?
b. How do the words in column C differ from those in columns A and B?
c. Are [ʌɪ] and [aɪ] in complementary distribution? Give your reasons.
d. If [ʌɪ] and [aɪ] are allophones of one phoneme, should they be derived
from /ʌɪ/ or /aɪ/? Why?
e. Give the phonetic representations of the following words as they
would be spoken in the dialect described here:
life __________ lives ___________ lie ___________
file __________ bike ___________ lice ___________
f. Formulate a rule that will relate the phonemic representations to the
phonetic representations of the words given above.
9. Pairs like top and chop, dunk and junk, so and show, and Caesar and sei-
zure reveal that /t/ and /ʧ/, /d/ and /ʤ/, /s/ and /ʃ/, and /z/ and /ӡ/
are distinct phonemes in English. Consider these same pairs of nonpala-
talized and palatalized consonants in the following data. (The palatal
forms are optional forms that often occur in casual speech.)
Nonpalatalized Palatalized
[hɪt mi] ‘hit me’ [hɪʧ ju] ‘hit you’
[lid hĩm] ‘lead him’ [liʤ ju] ‘lead you’
[pʰæs ʌs] ‘pass us’ [pʰæʃ ju] ‘pass you’
[luz ðem] ‘lose them’ [luʒ ju] ‘lose you’
Formulate the rule that specifies when /t/, /d/, /s/, and /z/ become
palatalized as [ʧ], [ʤ], [ʃ], and [ӡ]. Restate the rule using feature
notations. Does the formal statement reveal the generalizations?
10. Here are some Japanese words in broad phonetic transcription. Note that
[ʦ] is an alveolar affricate (cf. the palatal affricate [ʧ]) and should be
taken as a single symbol. It is pronounced as the initial sound in tsunami.
Japanese words (except certain loan words) never contain the phonetic
sequences *[ti] or *[tu].
tatami ‘mat’ tomodaʧi ‘friend’ uʧi ‘house’
tegami ‘letter’ totemo ‘very’ otoko ‘male’
ʧiʧi ‘father’ ʦukue ‘desk’ teʦudau ‘help’
ʃita ‘under’ ato ‘later’ maʦu ‘wait’
naʦu ‘summer’ ʦuʦumu ‘wrap’ ʧizu ‘map’
kata ‘person’ tatemono ‘building’ te ‘hand’
a. Based on these data, are [t], [ʧ], and [ʦ] in complementary distribution?
b. State the distribution—first in words, then using features—of these
phones.
c. Give a phonemic analysis of these data insofar as [t], [ʧ], and [ʦ] are
concerned. That is, identify the phonemes and the allophones.
d. Give the phonemic representation of the phonetically transcribed
Japanese words shown as follows. Assume phonemic and phonetic
representations are the same except for [t], [ʧ], and [ʦ].

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 270  CHAPTER 6  Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language

tatami ʦukue ʦuʦumu

tomodaʧi teʦudau ʧizu
uʧi ʃita kata
tegami ato koto
totemo maʦu tatemono
otoko deguʧi te
ʧiʧi naʦu ʦuri
11. The following words are Paku, a language created by V. Fromkin and
spoken by the Pakuni in the cult classic Land of the Lost, originally an
NBC television series and recently a major motion picture. The acute ac-
cent indicates a stressed vowel.
a. ótu ‘evil’ (N) h. mpósa ‘hairless’
b. túsa ‘evil’ (Adj) i. ã́ mpo ‘hairless one’
c. etógo ‘cactus’ (sg) j. ãmpṍni ‘hairless ones’
d. etogni ‘cactus’ (pl) k. ã́ mi ‘mother’
e. páku ‘Paku’ (sg) l. ãmĩ n ́ i ‘mothers’
f. pakṹni ‘Paku’ (pl) m. áda ‘father’
g. épo ‘hair’ n. adã́ ni ‘fathers’
i. Is stress predictable? If so, what is the rule?
ii. Is nasalization a distinctive feature for vowels? Give the reasons
for your answer.
iii. How are plurals formed in Paku?
12. Consider the following English verbs. Those in column A have stress on
the penultimate (next-to-last) syllable, whereas the verbs in column B
and C have their last syllables stressed.
A B C
astónish collápse amáze
éxit exíst impróve
imágine resént surpríse
cáncel revólt combíne
elícit adópt belíeve
práctice insíst atóne
a. Transcribe the words under columns A, B, and C phonemically. (Use a
schwa for the unstressed vowels even if they can be derived from dif-
ferent phonemic vowels. This should make it easier for you.)
Examples: astonish /əstanɪʃ/, collapse /kəlæps/, amaze /əmez/
b. Consider the phonemic structure of the stressed syllables in these
verbs. What is the difference between the final syllables of the verbs
in columns A and B? Formulate a rule that predicts where stress oc-
curs in the verbs in columns A and B.
c. In the verbs in column C, stress also occurs on the final syllable.
What must you add to the rule to account for this fact? (Hint: For the
forms in columns A and B, the final consonants had to be considered;
for the forms in column C, consider the vowels.)

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 Exercises  271

13. Following are listed the phonetic transcriptions of ten “words.” Some
are English words, some are not words now but are possible words or
nonsense words, and others are not possible because they violate English
sequential constraints.
Write the English words in regular spelling. Mark the other words as
possible or not possible. For each word you mark as “not possible,” state
your reason.
Word Possible Not Possible Reason
Example:
[θrot] throat
[slig] X
[lsig] X No English word can begin
with a liquid followed by
an obstruent.
Word Possible Not Possible Reason
a. [pʰril]
b. [skriʧ]
c. [kʰno]
d. [maɪ]
e. [gnostɪk]
f. [jũnəkʰɔrn]
g. [fruit]
h. [blaft]
i. [ŋar]
j. [æpəpʰlɛksi]
14. Consider these phonetic forms of Hebrew words:
[v]—[b] [f]—[p]
bika ‘lamented’ litef ‘stroked’
mugbal ‘limited’ sefer ‘book’
ʃavar ‘broke’ (masc.) sataf ‘washed’
ʃavra ‘broke’ (fem.) para ‘cow’
ʔikev ‘delayed’ mitpaxat ‘handkerchief’
bara ‘created’ haʔalpim ‘the Alps’
Assume that these words and their phonetic sequences are representative
of what may occur in Hebrew. In your answers, consider classes of
sounds rather than individual sounds.
a. Are [b] and [v] allophones of one phoneme? Are they in comple-
mentary distribution? In what phonetic environments do they
occur? Can you formulate a phonological rule stating their
distribution?
b. Does the same rule, or lack of a rule, that describes the distribution
of [b] and [v] apply to [p] and [f]? If not, why not?
c. Here is a word with one phone missing. A blank appears in place of
the missing sound: hid ik.

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 272  CHAPTER 6  Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language

Check the one correct statement.

i. [b] but not [v] could occur in the empty slot.
ii. [v] but not [b] could occur in the empty slot.
iii. Either [b] or [v] could occur in the empty slot.
iv. Neither [b] nor [v] could occur in the empty slot.
d. Which of the following statements is correct about the incomplete
word ana?
i. [f] but not [p] could occur in the empty slot.
ii. [p] but not [f] could occur in the empty slot.
iii. Either [p] or [f] could fill the blank.
iv. Neither [p] nor [f] could fill the blank.
e. Now consider the following possible words (in phonetic transcription):
laval surva labal palar falu razif
If these words actually occurred in Hebrew, would they:
i. Force you to revise the conclusions about the distribution of labial
stops and fricatives you reached on the basis of the first group of
words given above?
ii. Support your original conclusions?
iii. Neither support nor disprove your original conclusions?
15. Consider these data from the African language Maninka.
bugo ‘hit’ bugoli ‘hitting’
dila ‘repair’ dilali ‘repairing’
don ‘come in’ donni ‘coming in’
dumu ‘eat’ dumuni ‘eating’
gwen ‘chase’ gwenni ‘chasing’
a. What are the two forms of the morpheme meaning -ing?
b. Can you predict which phonetic form will occur? If so, state the
rule.
c. What are the “-ing” forms for the following verbs?
da ‘lie down’
men ‘hear’
famu ‘understand’
d. What does the rule that you formulated predict for the “-ing” form of
sunogo ‘sleep’?
e. If your rule predicts sunogoli, modify it to predict sunogoni without
affecting the other occurrences of -li. Conversely, if your rule predicts
sunogoni, modify it to predict sunogoli without affecting the other oc-
currences of -ni.
16. Consider the following phonetic data from the Bantu language Luganda.
(The data have been somewhat altered to make the problem easier.) In
each line except the last, the same root occurs in both columns A and B,

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 Exercises  273

but it has one prefix in column A, meaning ‘a’ or ‘an,’ and another prefix
in column B, meaning ‘little.’

A B
ẽnato ‘a canoe’ akaːto ‘little canoe’
ẽnapo ‘a house’ akaːpo ‘little house’
ẽnobi ‘an animal’ akaobi ‘little animal’
ẽmpipi ‘a kidney’ akapipi ‘little kidney’
ẽŋkoːsa ‘a feather’ akakoːsa ‘little feather’
ẽmːãːmːo ‘a peg’ akabãːmːo ‘little peg’
ẽŋːõːmːe ‘a horn’ akagõːmːe ‘little horn’
ẽnːĩmiro ‘a garden’ akadĩmiro ‘little garden’
ẽnugẽni ‘a stranger’ akatabi ‘little branch’
Base your answers to the following questions on only these forms. Assume
that all the words in the language follow the regularities shown here. (Hint:
You may write long segments such as /mː/ (ː means long) as /mm/ to help
you visualize more clearly the phonological processes taking place.)
a. Are nasal vowels in Luganda phonemic? Are they predictable?
b. Is the phonemic representation of the morpheme meaning ‘garden,’
/dimiro/?
c. What is the phonemic representation of the morpheme meaning ‘canoe’?
d. Are [p] and [b] allophones of one phoneme?
e. If /am/ represents a bound prefix morpheme in Luganda, can you
conclude that [ãmdãno] is a possible phonetic form for a word in this
language starting with this prefix?
f. Is there a homorganic nasal rule in Luganda?
g. If the phonetic representation of the word meaning ‘little boy’ is
[akapoːbe], give the phonemic and phonetic representations for ‘a boy.’
Phonemic ______________________ Phonetic ______________________
h. Which of the following forms is the phonemic representation for the
prefix meaning ‘a’ or ‘an’?
i. /en/  ii. /ẽn/  iii. /ẽm/  iv. /em/  v. /eː/
i. What is the phonetic representation of the word meaning ‘a branch’?
j. What is the phonemic representation of the word meaning ‘little
stranger’?
k. State the three phonological rules revealed by the Luganda data.
17. Here are some Japanese verb forms given in broad phonetic transcrip-
tion. They represent two styles (informal and formal) of present-tense
verbs. Morphemes are separated by +.

Gloss Informal Formal

call yob + u yob + imasu
write kak + u kak + imasu

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 274  CHAPTER 6  Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language

Gloss Informal Formal

eat tabe + ru tabe + masu
see mi + ru mi + masu
leave de + ru de + masu
go out dekake + ru dekake + masu
die ʃin + u ʃin + imasu
close ʃime + ru ʃime + masu
swindle katar + u katar + imasu
wear ki + ru ki + masu
read yom + u yom + imasu
lend kas + u kaʃ + imasu
wait mats + u maʧ + imasu
press os + u oʃ + imasu
apply ate + ru ate + masu
drop otos + u otoʃ + imasu
have mots + u moʧ + imasu
win kats + u kaʧ + imasu
steal a lover netor + u netor + imasu
a. List each of the Japanese verb roots in its phonemic representation.
b. Formulate the rule that accounts for the different phonetic forms of
these verb roots.
c. There is more than one allomorph for the suffix designating for-
mality and more than one for the suffix designating informality.
List the allomorphs of each. Formulate the rule or rules for their
distribution.
18. Consider these data from the Native American language Ojibwa.1
(The data have been somewhat altered for the sake of simplicity; /c/
is a palatal stop.)

anokːiː ‘she works’ nitanokːiː ‘I work’

aːkːosi ‘she is sick’ nitaːkːosi ‘I am sick’
ayeːkːosi ‘she is tired’ kiʃayeːkːosi ‘you are tired’
ineːntam ‘she thinks’ kiʃineːntam ‘you think’
maːcaː ‘she leaves’ nimaːcaː ‘I leave’
takoʃːin ‘she arrives’ nitakoʃːin ‘I arrive’
pakiso ‘she swims’ kipakiso ‘you swim’
wiːsini ‘she eats’ kiwiːsini ‘you eat’
a. What forms do the morphemes meaning ‘I’ and ‘you’ take; that is,
what are the allomorphs?
b. Are the allomorphs for ‘I’ in complementary distribution? How about
for ‘you’?
c. Assuming that we want one phonemic form to underlie each allomorph,
what should it be?

1From Baker, C. L. & John McCarthy, The Logical Problem of Language Acquisition, ­Table:
Example of Ojibwa Allomorphy. © 1981 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, by permis-
sion of The MIT Press.

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 Exercises  275

d. State a rule that derives the phonetic forms of the allomorphs. Make
it as general as possible; that is, refer to a broad natural class in the
environment of the rule. You may state the rule formally, in words, or
partially in words with some formal abbreviations.
e. Is the rule a morphophonemic rule? That is, does it (most likely)
­apply to specific morphemes but not in general? What evidence do
you see in the data to suggest your answer?
19. Consider these data from the Burmese language, spoken in Myanmar.
The small ring under the nasal consonants indicates a voiceless nasal.
Tones have been omitted, as they play no role in this problem.
ma ‘health’ n̥eɪ ‘unhurried’
na ‘pain’ m̥ i ‘flame’
mjiʔ ‘river’ m̥ on ‘flour’
nwe ‘to flex’ m̥ a ‘order’
nwa ‘cow’ n̥weɪ ‘heat’ (verb)
mi ‘flame’ n̥ a ‘nostril’
Are [m] and [m̥ ], and [n] and [n̥], allophones or phonemic? Present
evidence to support your conclusion.
What do the words mi and m̥ i, both meaning ‘flame’ show? Do they
contradict your conclusion? (Hint: Think of the two American English
pronunciations of ‘economics,’ namely [ɛkənamɪks] and [ikənamɪks],
which are the same word although [ɛ] and [i] are different phonemes.
This phenomenon is sometimes called free variation.
20. Here are some short sentences in a made-up language called Wakanti.
(Long consonants are written as doubled letters to make the analysis
easier.)
aba ‘I eat’ amma ‘I don’t eat’
ideɪ ‘You sleep’ inneɪ ‘You don’t sleep’
aguʊ ‘I go’ aŋŋuʊ ‘I don’t go’
upi ‘We come’ umpi ‘We don’t come’
atu ‘I walk’ antu ‘I don’t walk’
ika ‘You see’ iŋka ‘You don’t see’
ijama ‘You found out’ injama ‘You didn’t find out’
aweli ‘I climbed up’ amweli ‘I didn’t climb up’
ioa ‘You fell’ inoa ‘You didn’t fall’
aie ‘I hunt’ anie ‘I don’t hunt’
ulamaba ‘We put on top’ unlamaba ‘We don’t put on top’
a. What is the phonemic form of the negative morpheme based on these
data?
b. What are its allomorphs?
c. State a rule that derives the phonetic forms of the allomorphs from
the underlying, phonemic form.
d. Another phonological rule applies to these data. State explicitly what
the rule does and to what natural class of consonants it applies.
e. Give the phonemic forms for all the negative sentences.
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 276  CHAPTER 6  Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language

21. Here are some data from French:

Phonetic Gloss
pəti tablo ‘small picture’
no tablo ‘our pictures’
pəti livr ‘small book’
no livr ‘our books’
pəti navɛ ‘small turnip’
no navɛ ‘our turnips’
pətit ami ‘small friend’
noz ami ‘our friends’
pətit wazo ‘small bird’
noz wazo ‘our birds’
a. What are the two forms for the words ‘small’ and ‘our’?
b. What are the phonetic environments that determine the occurrence
of each form?
c. Can you express the environments by referring to word boundaries
and using exactly one phonetic feature, which will refer to a certain
natural class? (Hint: A more detailed phonetic transcription would
show the word boundaries (#), e.g., [#no##livr#].)
d. What are the basic or phonemic forms?
e. State a rule in words that derives the nonbasic forms from the basic
ones.
f. Challenge exercise: State the rule formally, using Ø to represent
‘null’ and # to represent a word boundary.
22. Consider these pairs of semantically related phonetic forms and glosses in
a commonly known language (the + indicates a morpheme boundary):
Phonetic Gloss Phonetic Gloss
[bãm] explosive device
[bãmb + ard] to attack with explosive
devices
[kʰrʌ̃ m] a morsel or bit [kʰrʌ̃ mb + əl] to break into bits
[aɪæ̃m] a metrical foot [aɪæ̃mb + ɪc] consisting of metrical
feet
[θʌ̃ m] an opposable digit [θʌ̃ mb + əlĩnə] a tiny woman of fairy
tales
[rãm] a rhombus [rãmb + ɔɪd] having a shape similar
to a rhombus
[tũm] a mausoleum [tũmb + ǝl] like a mausoleum
a. What are the two allomorphs of the root morpheme in each line of
data?
b. What is the phonemic form of the underlying root morpheme?
(Hint: Consider pairs such as atom/atomic and form/formal before
you decide.)
c. State a rule that derives the allomorphs.
d. Spell these words using the English alphabet.

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 Exercises  277

23. Consider these data from Hebrew. (Note: ʦ is an alveolar affricate and is
a single [+sibilant] sound). The word lehit is a reflexive pronoun.)

Nonsibilant–Initial Verbs Sibilant–Initial Verbs

kabel ‘to accept’ ʦadek ‘to justify’
lehit-kabel ‘to be accepted’ lehiʦ-tadek ‘to apologize’
(not *lehit-ʦadek)
pater ‘to fire’ shamesh ‘to use for’
lehit-pater ‘to resign’ lehish-tamesh ‘to use’
(not *lehit-shamesh)
bayesh ‘to shame’ sader ‘to arrange’
lehit-bayesh ‘to be ashamed’ lehis-tader ‘to arrange
(not *lehit-sader) oneself’
a. Describe the phonological change taking place in the second column
of Hebrew data.
b. Describe in words as specifically as possible a phonological rule that
accounts for the change. Make sure your rule doesn’t affect the data
in the first column of Hebrew.
24. Here are some Japanese data, many of them from exercise 10, in a fine
enough phonetic transcription to show voiceless vowels (the ones with
the little rings under them).
Word Gloss Word Gloss Word Gloss
tatami mat tomodaʧi friend uʧi house
tegami letter totemo very otoko male
su̥kiyaki sukiyaki ki ̥seʦu a season busata silence
ʧi ʧ ̥ i father ʦu̥kue desk tetsudau help
ʃi ̥ta under ki ̥ta north maʦu wait
deguʧi exit ʦuri fishing ki ̥seʦu existing
naʦu summer ʦu̥ʦumu wrap ʧizu map
kata person fu̥ton futon fugi discuss
maʦu̥ʃi ̥ta (a proper eʦu̥ko (a girl’s fu̥kuan a plan
name) name)
a. Which vowels may occur voiceless?
b. Are they in complementary distribution with their voiced counter-
parts? If so, state the distribution.
c. Are the voiced/voiceless pairs allophones of the same phonemes?
d. State in words, or write in formal notation if you can, the rule for
determining the allophones of those vowels that have voiceless
allophones.
25. With regard to English plural and past-tense rules, we observed that
the two parts of the rules must be carried out in the proper order. If
we reverse the order, we would get *[bʌsəs] instead of [bʌsəz] for the
plural of bus (as illustrated in the text), and *[stetət] instead of [stetəd]
for the past tense of state. Although constraints A and B (given below)
are the motivation for the plural and past-tense rules, both the correct

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 278  CHAPTER 6  Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language

and incorrect plural and past-tense forms are consistent with those con-
straints. What additional constraint is needed to prevent [bʌsəs] and
[stetət] from being generated?
(A) Obstruent sequences may not differ with respect to their voice fea-
tures at the end of a word.
(B)  Sequences of obstruents that differ at most with respect to voicing
are not permitted within English words.
26. There is a rule of word-final obstruent devoicing in German (e.g., German
/bund/ is pronounced [bũnt]). This rule is actually a manifestation of
the constraint:
Voiced obstruents are not permitted at the end of a word.
Given that this constraint is universal, explain why English band /bænd/
is nevertheless pronounced [bӕ̃ nd], not [bӕ̃ nt], in terms of Optimality
Theory (OT).
27. For many English speakers, word-final /z/ is devoiced when the /z/
represents a separate morpheme. These speakers pronounce plurals such
as dogs, days, and dishes as [dɔgs], [des], and [dɪʃəs] instead of [dɔgz],
[dez], and [dɪʃəz]. Furthermore, they pronounce possessives such as
Dan’s, Jay’s, and Liz’s as [dӕ̃ ns], [ʤes], and [lɪzəs] instead of [dӕ̃ nz],
[ʤez], and [lɪzez]. Finally, they pronounce third-person singular verb
forms such as reads, goes, and fusses as [rids], [gos], and [fʌsəs] instead
of [ridz], [goz], and [fʌsəz].
(However, words such as daze and Franz are still pronounced [dez]
and [frænz], because the /z/ is not a separate morpheme. Interestingly,
in this dialect Franz and Fran’s are not homophones, nor are daze and
day’s.) How might OT explain this phenomenon?
28. In German the third-person singular suffix is -t. Following are three Ger-
man verb stems (underlying forms) and the third-person forms of these
verbs:
Stem Third person
/loːb/ [loːpt] he praises
/zag/ [zakt] he says
/raɪz/ [raɪst] he travels
The final consonant of the verb stem undergoes devoicing in the
third-person form, even though it is not at the end of the word. What
constraint is operating to devoice the final stem consonant? How is this
similar to or different from the constraint that operates in the English
plural and past tense?

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