Co-articulations

13. 1 Articulations and the number of articulating organs

Most articulations are single i.e. have only one place of articulation that involves two articulating
organs: one passive and the

other active. We also have co-articulations.

13.2 Co-articulations

It is possible for sounds to be articulated at two different places. This is called co-

articulation. There are two types of co-articulation.

13.2.1 Co-ordinate or double co-articulation

These are two simultaneous articulations resulting in one sound segment. The two are

said to be of the same rank or degree of stricture i.e. if the first is open approximation, the

second also is e.g. in articulating /w/, there is the approximation and rounding of the lips.

So the sound is said to be bilabial (rounding of lips). At the same time, the back of the

tongue is raised towards the velum for an open approximation. So the sound is dorso-

velar. The two postures take place at the same time. Vocalic sounds have a double

articulation.

13.2.2 Secondary co-articulation

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The two simultaneous articulations are of different ranks. One articulation is primary and

the other is secondary. The articulations are used to form the adjective that names the

sound. The secondary articulation is mostly of an open approximation e.g. /t/ can have

the secondary articulation and it is said to be labialized. The sound is described

phonetically in square brackets [tw] and the secondary articulation indicated with a

diacritic. Other secondary articulations are nasalization, pharyngealization, velarization,

palatalization, rhotacical, retroflexion etc.

13.3 Homorganic sound sequences (p/b/m)

These are sounds articulated at the same place of articulation. In writing, two graphemes (letters)
are used.

13.3.1 Geminates

This refers to a sequence of two identical or almost identical consonants. The two

consonants are clearly pronounced within one and the same morpheme

E.g. [ll] in Allah – God in Arabic

[tt] in notte – night in Italian

[nn] in nnadi- name in Yoruba

13.3.2 Affricates

An affricate is a stop that is released into a homographic fricative within one and the

same morpheme. E.g. t ∫ - lamino – post alveolar stop that is released into a post alveolar

Fricative.
 38

ts – Apico alveolar stop that is released into an alveolar fricative.

13.3.3 Lateral fricatives

The stop is released into a homorganic lateral fricative e.g. t – alveolar stop /t/ released

into the lateral fricative /l/

.
 39

43

Lecture 15

Phonemes and phones

15.1 Phoneme and the phone/allophone

The historical perspective

Def: the component of language that deals with phonemes and their possible combination

There is no strict chronological description of phonological theory since each school of

phonology could be seen as a new step in a continuously progressive evolution.

The term phoneme

The term had been introduced in 1873(by the French linguist Dufriche - Desgenettes)

De Saussure used the term to refer to a common prototype in parent language, which is

reflected by different sounds in the languages derived from this parent language.

Countenery and Kruszewski (1870s and 1880s) also used the term to mean a – linguistic

unit, which underlies an alternation between sounds in etymologically related forms (both

in cognate languages and written similar languages.

Edward Sapir: contributed in a decisive way to the development of phonological theory.

His work greatly influenced

a) The American, the Bloomfield school

b) Generative phonology because of his views on

i. phoneme combination

ii. And his emphasis on the psychological pattern and on alterations and

underlying forms.
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THE PRAGUE SCHOOL

Prague School is a school of linguistics thought and analysis established in Prague in 1920s by
Vilem Mathesius. It included Rusian Linguist-Nikolay Trubetskoy and Roman Jakobson. It was
also influenced by thoughts

from the East of Europe, Moscow and America i.e., from linguists such as De Courtenery

and Scerba. Some of the ideas incorporated were

i) The phoneme as a sound

ii) The formal view of grammatical description (propounded by the Fortumator School in

Moscow).

Jakobson (the most creative and dynamic), Trubetzkoy – the Linguistic Circle of Plague

founded in 1926 by Mathesius. According to the Prague circle, the aim of phonological

theory should be

1. To set up phonological systems

2. To account for significant differences in speech sounds.

3. To find correlations e.g. contrasts such as t/ d/δ p/b

4. To formulate general laws concerning the structure of phonological

systems

5. To account for historical change in sounds.

(These were discussed and accepted by schools such as – the French Dutch School

of linguistics)

The aim of the Prague school

The main aim was to create an entirely new discipline which would be independent of

phonetics. This however, was not feasible because in description of languages it is not

possible to separate form from function i.e. describe the phonetic features of a sound in a
 45

language without presupposing phonological classification – phones, phonemes, and

allophones.

The definition of a phoneme

The Prague school phonologists first defined the phoneme as a

i) Psychological unit i.e. a sound image or sound intention.

ii) However, under the influence of de Saussures’ work, the Prague School

established – phonological opposition as the fundamental concept in defining

the phoneme.

Phonological opposition – a difference of sound which in a given language may serve to

distinguish intellectual meaning i.e. meanings which belong to the linguistic content that

is communicated – sounds marking For Example, dialect or social group etc are

eliminated

I. Note

Due to its functions in the distinctive pairs/ non-distinctive pairs the phoneme has two

definitions:

a) The smallest phonological unit, which cannot be decomposed into smaller

successive units.

b) It’s characterized as the totality of the phonologically relevant properties of a

sound unit.

In both definitions the property of distinction or opposition is important. It is this

property which gives the phoneme a positive function of recognition or identification(in

actual speech) deviating from Dufrische’s (1873) definition. Trubetzkoy since a phoneme
 46

contains only the relevant properties, a speech sound may not therefore be equaled to a

phoneme – it should be considered the realization of a phoneme.

Speech sound = phone/ allophone.

Phoneme and variant

A phoneme may be realized as different speech sounds. These sounds are the variants of

the phoneme. There are two types

i) Combinatory variants- variants that are predictable in terms of stress, pitch, juncture,

the vowel in the preceding or the following syllable, the preceding or following

consonant etc. e.g. /n/ can be n. nasalization of vowels before nasals /r/- [ŗ],[r]

ii) Facultative variants: predictable in terms of position in a word i.e. word initial, medial

and final e.g. the voiceless stops in English ai/I – in either, s/z – analyze, recognize.

Three rules are used in determining in which case different sounds are variants of the

same phoneme or are distinct phonemes.

i) If two sounds in the same environment may be interchanged without a change in the

meaning of a word, then the sounds are facultative variants of the same phoneme

variants. E.g. tⁿ in /tin/ or t

ii) If the two sounds cannot be interchanged without altering the meaning (or making the

word unrecognizable) then they are realization of two different phonemes e.g. t in /tin/. /p/ pin

iii) If two articulatory and acoustically related sounds never occur in the same

environment they are combinatory allophones variants of the same phoneme (phonetic

similarity) e.g. the [n] [ņ] both are nasal, stops, alveolar but [ņ] is dentalised because of

its occurrence before a dental sounds e.g. in teeth length /ð/ or /θ/ i.e. the sounds should

have common properties which distinguish them from all other sounds in the language.
 47

Distinctive oppositions

Opposition: this is a central concept in Prague phonology. Oppositions are classified

(Trubetzkoy) according to three different aspects (of the phonemes phonetic qualities)

1. A phoneme’s relation to the entire system (i.e. to other members of the system) gives

two classifications

i) Dimensions of opposition

a) Bilateral oppositions. This refers to a pair of sounds that share a set of features which no other
sound shares fully.

b) Multilateral (multidimensional) opposition – they have more than two member a n d s h a r e

c o m m o n f e a t u r e s . e.g. /p, b,f,v/ are both labio and obstruents.

ii) Isolated and proportional oppositions

a) Isolated opposition: is one i n whi ch the feat ures disti ngui s hing t he phonem es do
not pl a y a rol e in disti ngui shing other pai rs of phone m es. . E.g. r/l

trill and lateral.

b) Proportional holds between other pairs of phonemes when the features which distinguish them
also play a role in distinguishing other pairs of phonemes. e.g. p/b t/d k/g

2. The classification corresponding to the relation between phonemes that are members of

an opposition. 3 types

a) Privative

b) Gradual

c) Equipollent oppositions

a) Privative: one member is characterized by the presence of a property which the other

members lacks e.g. voicing, nasalization, rounding. If a member has the quality it is said

to be

marked unmarked if doesn’t have the quality.

 48

e.g. /u/ vs. /‫כ‬/

/t/ vs. /d/

b) Gradual opposition: there is the appearance of different degrees of the same

quality (e.g. vowels) e.g. u – o /u uo/ i.e. lip rounding quality

c) Equipollent oppositions- The members are seen as logically equivalent to each other.

3. The classification according to the phoneme’s constant validity or suspendability.

In both definitions, the property of distinction or opposition is important. It is this

property that gives the phoneme a positive function of – recognition or identification.

15.3. Phone

a) The smallest phonological unit, which cannot be decomposed into smaller successive

units.

Or

b) Phonetically: the smallest phonological unit that is characterized as the totality of the

phonologically relevant properties of a sound unit.

15.3 Allophone

A phoneme may be realized as different speech sounds. These sounds are variants/

allophones of the phoneme. There are two types of allophones, namely:-

i) Combinatory variants

The variants that are predictable in terms of stress, pitch, juncture, the vowel in the

preceding or the following consonant etc. i.e. phoneme in combinations e.g. the
 49

shortening of a long vowel because it is followed by a consonant: e.g. sea [i:] seen[i]or

the vowel in the stressed syllable being shorter than the one in the unstressed syllable.

ii) Facultative variants

These are predictable in terms of position in word i.e. word – initial, medial, final e.g. the

aspiration of the voiceless stops in English in word initial position. Can be – allophones –

free variants e.g. ai/i – in either, s/z in analyze.

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Lecture 16

Distinctive oppositions

16.1 Opposition

Opposition is a central concept in phonology. Oppositions between phonemes are

classified according to three different aspects of the phoneme’s phonetic qualities.

16.1 A phoneme’s relation to the entire phonetic system

This is the phoneme’s opposition to other members of the phoneme system. It can be in

terms of

16.3 The distinctive validity of the phoneme

Constant and suspendable oppositions

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16.3.1 Constant: both members occur in the same environment without restrictions e.g.

open/ close vowels e.g. /i/ /æ/

/kit/ /kæt/

16.3.1 Suspendable

In some positions, no opposition exists between two members = neutralization. It can be

i) context – determined : depends on surrounding phonemes in German Danish

/p/ /b/ in word final position e.g. neutralization of [t voice] in consonants

before fricatives or stops in Russian.

ii) Structure – determined in which the neutralization depends on position in

word or syllable or on accent. E.g. the opposition between voiced and

unvoiced consonants in word final position – German and Russian. Or in

German - the long and short vowels in final word position.

The concept of neutralization covers minimal contrasts – it is only possible where there is

a bilateral opposition between members e.g. s/z, p/b, t/d, i/l:

The sound realized represents an archiphoneme. This can be

a) Realized as a sound which is phonetically identified to one of the members of the

opposition e.g. boud/ bout in German [t] or [d] could be realized.

b) Realized as sound intermediate between the two members. Often transcribed by

use of a capital letter /t/, /d/ - [T]