LIN 232

Basic Phonology
(4 Units)

Description
Phonological Analysis: the concept of Contrast, Free variation, and complementary
distribution. The role of Phonetic similarity in phonemic analysis. Natural versus
unnatural statements of distribution. Phonetic versus phonemic transcription. Practical
analysis will form a major aspect of the course.

Recommended Textbooks
 Phonological Theory and Analysis by Larry Hyman
 Phonemics by Kenneth Pike
 A Course in Phonology by Francis Oyebade

Outline
 Phonology: What is it?
 Premise of Practical Phonology
 Contrast, Distinction and Redundancy
 The Phoneme
 Distribution: Complementary, Parallel, Free Variation and Neutralization
 Making out the Differences:
o Complementary Distribution (CD) and Parallel
Distribution (PD)
o Free Variation and CD
o Free Variation and PD
o Free Variation and Neutralization
 Allophones
 Prime Suspects: Phonetic Similarity and Suspicious Pairs
 Naturalness
 Procedure for Phonological Analysis
 Find out the Phoneme
 Phonetic and Phonemic Transcription
 Environments
 Phonological Rules
 Phonological processes
Phonology: What is it?
Phonology is the study of the sound system of languages (Hyman 1975). It is concerned
about the way in which sounds of languages are organised into systems; how speech
sounds are structured and how sounds function in language. It is the scientific study of
the arbitrary vocal symbols used in human speech and the patterns into which these
symbols enter to produce meaningful utterances.

Our present task is to study what languages do with their sounds. In order to do this, we
will study data from many languages. And in each case, we will be concerned with:

(i) Sound inventory

(ii) The status of each sound in the system
(iii) The processes which the sounds undergo

Pike (1947:57) had it right when he said, “Phonetics gathers the raw material;
phonology cooks it.” In order to achieve the aims of phonology, we need a thorough
grasping of phonetics in which the sounds of languages are studied for description,
articulation, perception and the physical quality of speech sounds. There is therefore a
crying need for a personal revision of all that you learnt in LIN 241. It is only with
phonetics at your fingertips that you can move on to the level of phonology. This is so
because the one leads to the other. One needs know how to recognise and describe sounds
before tackling the issue of how many sounds a language has, what sounds are more
important than others in the conferment of word meaning and how the qualities of sounds
slur onto one another when they are used together in words.

While phonetics is concerned with individual sounds in isolation, phonology views each
sound as a member of a system. A sound system is a collection of language particular
sounds where each sound plays specific roles and undergoes specific processes when
uttered along side other sounds. The changes that sounds undergo when uttered along
side other sounds in words and sentences are called phonological processes.

Since sociology tries to explain human behaviour within society and phonology studies
the behaviour of sounds within a system, the claim can be made that phonology is the
sociology of sounds. Indeed, we will discover in this course that sounds behave like
human beings.

Premises for Practical Phonology

Pike (1947) discusses four premises of practical phonology:
(1) Sounds become more like neighbouring sounds: Assimilation.
(2) Sound systems have a tendency towards phonetic congruity.
(3) Sounds tend to fluctuate.
(4) Characteristic sequences of sounds exert structural pressure on the phonemic
interpretation of suspicious sounds.

Let us take this one at a time.

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(1) Assimilation

Ti ewe ba pe lara ose, a  di ose

Having served as a soap wrapper for quite some time, the leaf soon becomes soap

Sounds have a tendency to slur into one another when they are produced in a string. This
is assimilation: the process by which a sound takes on the features of sounds in its
environment. This often happens because the speaker’s brain conceptualises entire
sentences, and tries to produce each sentence by expending as little energy as possible. In
consequence, the phonetic features of adjacent sounds spread to one another. When the
features of sound A rub off on sound B, we say that sound B has assimilated the features
of sound A.

Example 1: Jeremi (Hypothetical Language)

Gloss Underlying Form Surface Articulation

buy // []
die // []
seat // []
steal // []

Two types of assimilation occur in the data above. Observe that the underlying // -
voiced alveolar nasal assimilates to the place of articulation of whatever plosive follows
it in the surface articulation. Thus // becomes [], [], [] or remains [] depending on
whether it precedes a bilabial plosive [], velar plosive [], Labial-velar [] or alveolar
plosive [] respectively. This is homorganic assimilation.

The second case of assimilation is that the word medial open front unrounded vowel //
is nasalised in the surface articulation as []. The nasalization occurs because the said
vowel precedes nasal consonants, thus the speaker lowers the velum (letting air out
through the nose) in anticipation of the production of the nasal consonant. Example (1)
thus illustrates how sounds tend to become like their neighbouring sounds.

Suffice it to state here that assimilation is the process by which a sound takes on the
features of its environment.

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(2) Pattern Congruity

Ka se bon ti nse, ko ba le ri bo ti nri 

Take a cue from the set precedence to get the right result

There is usually a pattern of sound distribution in every language. For instance, if both
the voiced and the voiceless bilabial plosives occur in a particular language, it would be
expected that both a voiced plosive and a voiceless one are represented at every other
place were a plosive occurs. If that is the case, there is pattern congruity. It will however
be unexpected to find out that only the voiceless plosive occurs in a particular place in the
same language. Rather, one would expect voiced and voiceless plosives wherever a
plosive is found. Take a look at this example of Yoruba plosives.

Voiceless ----   

Voiced    

Discussion

Example 2: English Consonant chart

Bilabial Labio- Dental Alveolar Palatal Palato- Velar Glottal Labial-

dental Alveolar velar
Nasal   
Plosive      
Affricate  
[Link]         
[Link]. 1  
[Link]. 

Notice that in example 2 above, none of the nasals at any place of articulation has a
voiceless counterpart. This is phonetic symmetry, pattern congruity. Notice further that
there are voiced and voiceless plosives at every place of articulation. This again is pattern
congruity. Notice that these patterns of symmetry are consistent in the English inventory
of consonants. The sole exception is the voiceless glottal central fricative [], which does
not have a voiced counterpart even when the case is that all the other central fricatives do.
This exception underscores the point that pattern congruity is a usual occurrence, not an
absolute one.

Please note that phonetic symmetry is not restricted to sound inventory alone. It has many
ramifications. One such instance is vowel harmony. Note also that sounds that participate
in this kind of symmetry tend to undergo similar phonological processes.

1
The symbol  is preferred to  because it is more romanic.

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(3) Fluctuations

“Michael at Christmas, Mukaila during Sallah”

Opportunistic adaptations to favourable situations

The very first premise of practical phonemics that we considered is that sounds tend to
camouflage with their environment. For this reason, it is observed that sounds undergo
many fluctuations.

It is also often argued that it is nearly impossible to produce a sound in the exact same
way twice, because the articulators cannot act in an exact way twice. However, we do
perceive two or more utterances as the same, because we are psychologically tuned to the
sound system of the language of conversation; minor fluctuations are therefore
overlooked.

Apart from the environment and articulatory inaccuracy, other factors that cause the
fluctuation of sounds include health, psychological state and the quality of the
transmitting medium. In this course, we will be concerned with sound fluctuations that
come about as a result of the environment in which the sound occurs.

Example 3: Jeremi (Hypothetical Language)

Observe the different representations of // below:

Gloss

[] bow

[] cane

// [] broom

[] money

[] mat

// palatalised in the word for ‘bow’, labialised in ‘cane’, aspirated in ‘broom’, voiced
(between two vowels) in the word for ‘money’, and unreleased (in word final
environment) in the word for ‘mat’. There are phonetic explanations for these
fluctuations:

 The voiceless palatized alveolar plosive [] is realised in ‘bow’ because it occur
before a high front vowel []. // has assimilated the features ‘high’ and ‘front’
from the adjacent vowel to become [].

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  The voiceless labialised alveolar plosive [] is realised in ‘cane’ because it
occurs before a high back vowel []. // has assimilated the features ‘high’ and
‘back’ from the adjacent vowel.
 The voiceless aspirated alveolar plosive [] occurs word initially before a voice
vowel [] in the word for ‘broom’. This is a typical environment for aspiration,
since there is a voicing lag2 between the release of the voiceless plosive and when
voicing begins for the following vowel.
 The voiced alveolar plosive represents [] its voiceless counterpart when it occurs
between two (voiced) vowels [] and [] in the word for money. Often, voiceless
sounds become voiced when they occur intervocalically (i.e. between two
vowels). The reason for this is that it is more economical to voice all three sounds
than to voice the first, stop voicing in the second and begin voicing again for the
third.
 The voiceless alveolar plosive [] is unreleased in the word for ‘mat’. The
phonetic explanation for this is that it slurs into silence in the word final position.

Going by the details presented above, we could expect certain fluctuations in the qualities
of sounds when they occur in specific environments. A phoneme is a basic sound, which
is represented in specific environments by other sounds, which we call allophones. Since
the phonetic environment conditions the occurrence of an allophone, we say that their
occurrence is predictable in specific environments. The essence of allophones is their
predictability.

Nasalization in English
Observe the distribution of [] in the data below:

[] ‘man’ [t] ‘ant’ [] ‘sat’

[hm] ‘ham’ [g] ‘anger’ [bt] ‘bat’

[mt] ‘mat’ [nt] ‘gnat’ [kt] ‘cat’

(4) Structural Pressure

Six of one and half a dozen of the other. Where does it belong?

Pike says that characteristic sequences of sounds exert structural pressure on the
phonemic interpretation of suspicious sounds. This point is important in the analysis of
sounds whose values are not clear-cut. Such sounds include affricate, which are often
confused as a sequence of sounds because of their digraph symbols; semi-vowels and
vowels of changing quality. For instance, many languages have a C(C)V syllable

2
See LIN 241 notes

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structure. Such languages abhor vowel hiatus3 within a syllable; other languages allow it.
When it appears that vowels occur adjacent to one another in a syllable the need arises for
an analysis of the language to see if its syllable structure allows for such hiatus. If the
characteristic (i.e. usual) sound sequences of sounds in such a language do not permit the
occurrence of adjacent vowels, one of the vowels in question should be analysed as a
glide (i.e. an approximant). It is this process that linguist refer to as glide formation.
Alternatively, if the usual sound sequences show that the language permits vowel
clusters, vowel sequences are analysed exactly as they occur.

Examples 4: a) Emai: Glide Formation

a) Gloss Underlying form Surface Articulation

toe /ehi/ [ ]
elder // [ ]
shame // []
crutch // []

Notice that at every instance where two vowels occur in sequence underlyingly, one of
the vowels is realised in the surface as a glide (i.e. a semi-vowel). It is usually a high
front vowel that becomes a glide.

4b) Hypothetical Language C (Pike 1947:61): Affricates

Next, can you determine whether [] is an affricate or a sequence of [] and [] from
the data below?

b) Surface Articulation Gloss

[] cat
[] to run
[] sky
[] leaf
[] moon
[] ten

Notice that the predominant syllable structure is that of one consonant followed by a
vowel. A problem arises with the analysis of [] in the word for ‘ten’. We could either
analyse [] as a sequence (cluster) of two consonants, [] and [], or as a single
affricate []. Pike chose to analyse [] as an affricate because none of the other words
in the language has a cluster of consonants. The conclusion is that the usual pattern is a
CV syllable. Analysing [] as a sequence of [] and [] will be to deviate from the set
structure of syllables. Therefore, it is more logical to analyse [] as a single affricate, on

3
A cluster (sequence) of vowels.

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the premise of the usual pattern found in the language. Decisions such as this are made on
the grounds of structural pressure.

It could also happen that one has to make a decision about interpreting a phonetically
long vowel either a single unit or as two identical vowels. Pike presents the following
example.

Example 5: Hypothetical Language D (pike 1947:61): Vowel Analysis

Surface Articulation Gloss

1. [] dirt
2. [] limb
3. [] building
4. [:] sandal
or
5. [] sandal

Notice that nos. 4 and 5 above have different vowel analyses for the same word. In no. 4,
the vowel is analysed as a long one [:], in no. 5, there is a hiatus of two identical vowels
[]. The predominant pattern in language D is that words contain two vowels in a
syllable. The favoured phonetic interpretation of the vowels in the word for ‘sandal’ is
therefore [] and not [:]. This is another case where the pervading structure pressurises
us to analyse a sound in a particular way.

Two major classes of sounds exist in natural language: vowels and consonants. Vowels
are associated with syllable peaks and prominence, and little or no obstruction of airflow
during production. In tone languages, vowels are also associated with tones. Consonants
usually lack these features. Occasionally however, some consonants (especially liquids
[, ], nasals [, ,  etc.]) sometimes occur as syllable peaks. And in tone languages,
these consonants also bear tones. Consonants in this context are analysed as syllabic
consonants – some kind of a hybrid between vowels and consonants.

Examples 6: a) English, b) Yoruba: Syllabic Consonants

a) Gloss Transcription
Bottle []

Cotton []

b) Gloss Transcription
Coincidence []

Type of drum []

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In (a) the consonants [, ] function as syllable peaks. The same is observed for [, ] in
(b) plus, they bear tones.

Contrast, Distinction and Redundancy

Contrast simply is a difference in the features of sound. This can range from very little
contrast to very great contrast. When contrast is accompanied by a difference in lexical
meaning, it is called distinctive or phonemic contrast. On the other hand redundant,
allophonic or phonetic contrast does not bring about a change in lexical meaning. The
environment often conditions allophonic contrast.

Features?

Sommerstein (1977:2) defines distinctive contrast as “A difference of sound which is

utilized by a language is termed a distinctive opposition or contrast.” Consider the
example 7.

Example 7: a) Cypriot Greek (Newton 1972), b)English

a) Gloss Transcription
‘fertile’ []

‘superintendent’ [:]

The length of the consonant [] causes a difference in the meaning of the two words.
This is distinctive or phonemic contrast.

b) Gloss Transcription
‘pan’ []

‘pan’ []

The word meaning remains the same irrespective of the contrast brought about by
aspiration. This type of contrast is redundant allophonic or phonetic.

Note that a language like Hindi has distinctive contrast for [], [] and [].

Exercise: Make out the types of contrast in the following pairs of words.

[] ‘small’
[] ‘small’ ___________________________________

[] ‘length’
[] ‘fish ___________________________________

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 [] ‘hand’
[] ‘broom’ ___________________________________

[] ‘bit’
[] ‘bit’ ___________________________________

[] ‘bit’
[] ‘bid’ ___________________________________

The Phoneme: A Man of many Parts

Phonemes are sounds that contrast in identical environments. The following definitions
convey the essence of a phoneme.

“Minimal units of sound capable of distinguishing words of different

meaning.”
- Hyman (1975:7)

“One of the significant units of sound arrived at for a particular language

by the analytical procedures developed from the basic premises.”
- Pike (1947:63)

In the first definition, the word ’distinguishing’ implies that a phoneme confers specific
meaning on word. Therefore when one phoneme is substituted with another, word
meaning changes.

The word ‘significant’ in the second definition means distinctive contrast; by which it is
implied that phonemes contrast in identical or analogous environments. Consider
example 8.
Example 8: English

a) Gloss Transcription
‘pin’ //
‘bin’ //
‘tin’ //
‘kin’ //
‘sin’ //
‘shin’ //
‘chin’ //
‘win’ //

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Each of the initial consonants of the transcription (8a) is a phoneme because it
distinguishes word meaning.

b) Gloss Transcription
‘bin’ //
‘bean’ /:/

‘sin’ //
‘scene’ /:/

In example (8b) duration (length) is phonemic because it is the difference in vowel length
that distinguishes the meaning of one word from the other.

Next, we will consider the phoneme as a class of sounds.

“A class of sounds which are phonetically similar and show certain

characteristic patterns of distribution in the language or dialect under
consideration.”
- Gleason (1955:261)

“A family of sounds in a given language, consisting of an important

sound of the language together with other related sounds, which take its
place in particular sound sequences.”
- Jones (1931:74)

Phonetic similarity implies that the affected sounds are alike in their production. The
word ‘class’ or ‘family’ implies more than one sound forming a group. Membership of
such classes is borne on the fact that the sounds that make up the class are phonetically
similar, and they are found in predictable environments. We refer to the totality of the
environments that members of a class of sounds can be found as their distribution. The
‘important’ sound is the underlying sound, the phoneme, whose occurrence is not
predictable. Its allophones are the other sounds that represent it in specific environments.

Consider the English example below:

Example 9: English

[]
[:]
// [:]
[:]

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Here, the important sound is /p/ and it is represented in particular predictable
environments by palatalised [], aspirated [], normal [] and labialised []. Can you
state these environments? Remember, we refer to the totality of environments that the
members of a class occur as the distribution of the sounds that constitute the class. The
distribution of the sounds in the class of // above is as follows:

 [] precedes a high front vowel.

 [] is word initial and voiceless, and it precedes a voiced vowel.
 [] is word medial.
 [] occurs before a round vowel.

Some scholars have also referred to the phoneme as an underlying, psychological

phenomenon. So for instance, a child thinks [] but says []:

// []

Perhaps it will help you better to consider the phoneme as a kind of ‘okele’ with several
representations like:

[Eba]
[Santana]
[Apu]
/Okele/ [Amala]
[Iyan]
[Lafu]

Which you may eat with:

[Ewedu]
[Efo]
/Obe/ [Edika Ekong]
[Egusi ]
[Okro]

Certain features could be phonemic

It is possible for some prosodic features to distinguish the meaning of words. Such is the
case with pitch in tone languages. The feature nasal can also be phonemic. This happens
when the occurrence of nasalised sounds cannot be premised on the presence of a nasal

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consonant. It such a situation, we would say that nasality is not predictable, and is
therefore phonemic. Consider the phonemic status of nasality in Yoruba:

Example 10 Yoruba (Nasal Vs Nasalized Vowels)

a.  ‘child’ e.  ‘gun’

b.  ‘finish’ f.  ‘saliva’
c. k ‘break’ g.  ‘build’
d.  ‘be stupid’ h.  ‘fall’

Class Discussion

Phonemic and Phonetic Transcription

Phonemic transcription is done using just the phonemes of a language. In phonetic
transcription the sounds are written out exactly as they are heard. You probably have
noticed by now that the phonemes in the transcriptions above have been written between
slashes, / /, while their surface or phonetic representations are contained between square
brackets, [ ]. This is standard practice. Phonemic transcription is written between two
diagonal slants. Phonetic transcription on the other hand is done between square brackets.

/ / signifies phonemic transcription.

[ ] signifies phonetic transcription.

Consider the following phonemic and phonetic transcriptions of the words in example 9
above:

Example 11: English

Phonetic Phonemic
[] //
[:] /:/
[:] /:/
[:] /:/

Phonemic transcription is simpler than phonetic transcription. It uses less complex

symbols. Often also, phonemic transcription has fewer symbols.

Phonemic and Phonetic Charts

You are familiar with the IPA consonant and vowel charts. You know that the IPA charts
are note language specific. The IPA consonants are about one hundred and it by no means
exhausts the total number of consonants possible in human speech. Yet language specific
charts have a much smaller inventory of consonants. There are for example only twenty-

13
four English consonant phonemes as indicated in page 4. That chart contains just the
symbols for English consonant phonemes, and it is called a phonemic chart. A phonemic
chart is one that has only the basic symbol for each of the phonemes of a language. A
phonetic chart has all the sounds used in a language with all the phonemes and
allophones indicated. Therefore, a phonetic chart always has more symbols than a
phonemic chart. These are the characteristics of each of the charts:

Phonemic chart
 Contains only the basic symbol for each phoneme.
 Uses symbols that are as simple and romanic as possible.
 Uses as few columns and rows as possible.

Phonetic Chart
 Contains all the sounds that are used in a language.
 Uses symbols as close as possible to the actual sound. Usually has many
diacritics.
 Uses as many columns and rows as there are phonetically distinguishable sounds.

A good phonology must assign each sound of a language to at least one phoneme and
draw up a phonemic chart from a phonetic chart.

Exercise: Make phonetic and phonemic charts of the sounds in Example 11.

Allophones
Allophones are the different representations of the phoneme at the phonetic level. They
occur in phonetically predictable environments. The implication for phonological
analysis is that whenever the environment in which a sound occurs is predictable, we
automatically know that it is an allophone. In contra distinction, phonemes do not occur
in restricted predictable environments – they have a wider distribution.

By the foregoing, [], [], [] and [] are allophones of // in example (9) above. By
their similarities we can guess that they are allophones, by their differences, we can guess
the environments in which they occur. You recall that we could predict the environments
in which each of these allophones occurred.

Facts about Allophones

 Allophones occur in phonetically predictable environments. We say that they
occur in restricted environments.
 Allophones of the same phoneme must have strong phonetic similarities, without
which they cannot substitute one another in different environments. They
represent the phoneme in different environments.
 Allophone of the same phoneme in one language can pass for separate phonemes
in another e.g. [] and [] are allophones in Russian, but separate phonemes in
English.

14
  Phonetic similarity is not enough to declare two sounds as allophones of a single
phoneme. Such a hypothesis has to be proven through the rigours of the discovery
procedure (to be discussed later).
 Allophones of the same phoneme are usually in (CD) or in free variation (FV).
We will dwell more on these subsequently.

Phonetic Similarity
Allophones of a single phoneme are usually produced in the same way; they only differ
in one or two articulatory details. Another way of stating phonetic similarity is, “if a and
b are members of one phoneme, they share one or more features.” Hockett (1942:103).

Let us now consider some similar features.

 Manner of articulation: Sounds of the same manner of articulation are usual
suspects as allophones of the same phonme. In many languages, including
Japanese, there is no phonemic contrast between voiced and voiceless plosives.
e.g. [] and [], or [] and []. In a language like Yoruba, there are nasals at
every place of articulation. Phonological investigations however show that the
labio-dental and velar nasals only occur before labio-dental and velar consonants
respectively. In other environments, the nasals present as alveolar nasal //. Since
the labio-dental and velar nasal occur in a restricted environment, they are
analysed as allophones of the alveolar nasal // in Yoruba..

Example 12: Yoruba

[]
[]
// []
[l]

 Place of Articulation: Sounds sharing the same place of articulation but differing
in manner of articulation can represent one phoneme. In Spanish for example, a
plosive (phoneme) is always represented by a fricative (allophone) in the
intervocalic environment.

Example 13: Spanish

[]
//
[]

 Secondary Articulation: The fact that a sound has a secondary articulation like
palatalization [ ], labialisation [ ], velarization [ ] etc. makes it an immediate
suspect. Even rhoticization is suspect.

15
  Vowel Features: like fronting [], length [:], nasalisation [] and all such
diacritics make such vowels suspect.

 Phonation: It may happen that sound produced with a particular state of the
glottis are found only in specific environments, in which case they will be
allophones of similar sound with different states of the glottis.

Syllable Stress: Some vowels represent other vowels in stressed syllables. In

English for instance, it is attested to that the Schwa [] represents /:/ etc. in
stressed syllables.
Example 14: English
[] noun
[:] verb
Please note that these tips on allophonic similarities and features are by no means
exhaustive. More such features will unfold as we tackle data.

Suspicious Sounds (pair and set)

When we set out to analyse a particular sound system, we must first make out which
sounds of the language are likely to be allophones of a single phoneme. We do this by
looking out for strong phonetic similarity. We refer to such sounds as suspicious sounds.
Suspicious sounds are sounds that have so much phonetic affinity as to make one suspect
that they are allophones of the same phoneme. When only two sounds are suspect, we
speak of a suspicious pair. If we suspect that more than two sounds are allophones of the
same phoneme, we call them a suspicious set
.
Exercises
a) Prime Suspects
Use the criteria of phonetic similarity to make out the suspicious pairs of sounds in the
following sets, and give phonetic reasons for your suspicion.

(a) [], [], [] (e) [], [], [], [:]

(b) [], [], [] (f) [], [], []

(c) [], [], [] (g) [], [], []

(d) [], [], [] (h) [], [], [], []

Make out suspicious sets from the following groups of sounds and give phonetic reasons
for your suspicion.

(1) [], [:], [], [] (4) [], [], [], []

16
(2) [], [], [’], [] (5) [], [], [], []

(3) [], [], [], []

b) Cross Sound Puzzle

Circle off suspicious sets or pairs of sounds in the Edoid Consonant Chart (Elugbe
1989:39) provided below.

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Labial-Velar

Lenis  
NASAL Non-lenis  
Breathy-voiced  
STOP Lenis       
Non-lenis       
FRICATIVE Lenis/br, vd   
Non-lenis      
Lenis 
LATERAL Non-lenis 
(Approximant)
Breathy-voiced 
CENTRAL Lenis  
(Approximant) Non-lenis  
NB
Fortis means strong articulation with great tension and long duration; while lenis means
weak articulation with less muscular tension and short duration; etc. (Elugbe 1989:37).

Minimal Pairs (The linguist’s Delight)

Two sequences of sounds that differ only in one segment are called a minimal pair.
Elugbe (classnotes) puts it this way:

“Often, two sounds occur in identical environments, and there are pairs of
words which would have been identical but for the difference in the two
sounds, we call the two words minimal pair.”

Another way of expressing it is to say that a minimal pair has two similar words that
differ only in one sound segment. The sounds that are different in a minimal pair occur in
analogous environments.

Note that what we refer to as a segment is the position of a sound in a sequence of sounds
and not the sound itself. In the examples below, the numbers above transcriptions
indicate the segments.

Example 15: English, Yoruba, Igbo

17
a) Gloss English transp.
1 2 3
‘sip’ [  ]
‘zip’ [  ]

b) 1 2 3
‘cave’ [ 4 ]
‘gave’ [  ]

c) 1 2 3 4 5
‘trust’ [    ]
‘thrust’ [    ]

d) Gloss Yoruba transp.

1 2
‘refuse’ [ ]
‘build’ [k ]

e) ‘honour’ []
‘row’ []

Gloss Igbo transp.

f) ‘king’ []
‘tooth’ [!]5

g) ‘pot’ []
‘to climb’ [!]

The difference between (d) and (e) above is caused by the tones that the vowels bear.
Notice that the sounds concerned are exactly the same but for the tones on the vowel [].
Thus what makes the difference between the Yoruba words for ‘refuse’ and the word for
‘build’ is that ‘refuse’ has a low tone [  ] on [] and ‘build’ has a high tone [  ] on [].
When tone confers meaning on words as we observe in Yoruba (or any tone language for
that matter) we say that pitch is distinctive, phonemic or lexically significant. By
extension any prosodic feature – stress, nasality, length, rythm etc. – that affect the
meaning of words in a language is said to be distinctive or phonemic. Observe (f) and (g)
above. Is pitch phonemic in Igbo?

4
This is a single sound, a diphthong in English.
5
! means downstep.

18
Minimal Set
Three or more sequences of sounds that differ only in one segment are called a minimal
set. Put differently, a minimal set is a set of more than two words, which would have
been identical but for the occurrence of different sounds in a particular slot.

Example 16: English, Yoruba

f) Gloss English transp.

1 2 3
‘tin’ [  ]
‘bin’ [  ]
‘kin’ [  ]
‘pin’ [  ]

g) Gloss Yoruba transp.

1 2 3
‘husband’ [  ]
‘hoe’ [  ]
‘vehicle’ [  ]

Functions of Minimal Pairs and Sets

When faced with the task of making out whether a pair (or set) of suspicious sounds6 are
members of the same phoneme (i.e. allophones) or distinct phonemes by their own right,
the first step that linguist take is to search for minimal pairs (or sets) of sounds in which
the suspicious sounds are substituted for one another in the same segment. If indeed such
words exist in the language, the issue is immediately resolved by what we may call the
minimal pair test. How?

Test: When minimal pairs have different meanings, we conclude that the sounds that
cause the difference are separate phonemes of the language under scrutiny. On the other
hand, if the two words of a minimal pair have the same meaning, it means that the sounds
in the differing segments (slots) are allophones in free variation (FV). We will explain
what free variation means in the section of this note that discusses sound distribution.

Of course you noticed that all the minimal pairs in Example 15 have words of different
meaning. Going by our test therefore, all the sounds that cause the difference are
phonemes of the language. Now see what we mean when we say that some minimal pairs
have the same meaning.

Example 17: Yoruba

6
You have to be dealing with a suspicious pair or set in order to apply the minimal pair (or set) test.

19
 Gloss Yoruba transp.
‘news’ []
‘news’ []

If we again apply the minimal pair test to Example 15 we would conclude that [] and []
are allophones of the same phoneme in Yoruba because they do not affect the meaning of
the word ‘news’.

Near Minimal Pair

When more than one segment differ in two strings of sounds, in such a way that they look
like a minimal pair at first glance, we say they are a near minimal pair. If there are three
or more sequences in which more than two segments differ like this, we speak of a near
minimal set.

Just as well, near minimal pairs and sets could help us make out what the phonemes and
phonemic features of a language are, but they are not as expository as a minimal pair or
set.
Example 18: English, Yoruba

Gloss English transp.

1 2 3 4 5
a) ‘senate’ [    ]
‘zenith’ [    ]

b) 1 2 3
‘friend’ [ r ]
‘gift’ [  ]

Can you explain why the words in (b) above are a minimal pair despite having the same
sequence of sounds?

Of course it is because pitch is phonemic in Yoruba and the two words have different
pitches on the first and third segments. Phonemic pitch is called tone.

Homework
Discover and write out three minimal pairs, three near minimal pairs and three minimal
sets in your mother tongue.

Distribution of Sounds
We had discussed this definition of phonemes earlier:

“A class of sounds which are phonetically similar and show certain

characteristic patterns of distribution in the language or dialect under
consideration.”

20
 -Gleason (1955:261)

We said further that all the members of such a class of sounds constitute allophones of an
underlying phoneme, and that the sequences in which the phoneme occurs (i.e. the
environments) determine the phonetic realization of its allophones. In consequence,
allophones occur in predictable environments. The different environments in which
allophones of a single phoneme occur make up the distribution of the phoneme. Put
differently, distribution comprises of the totality of environments where the different
members of a phoneme occur.

Complementary Distribution (CD)

This is a language specific situation in which allophones of a single phoneme occur in
mutually exclusive environment. The pattern is such that no other member of a phoneme
is found where one member already occurs. Therefore, allophones never occur in
analogous environments. And once we discover complementary distribution in a set of
suspicious sounds, we would have confirmed that they are allophones of a single
phoneme.

Example 19: Kongo Obstruents

1. [] ‘to bore hole’ 9. [] ‘termite’

2. [] ‘to cut’ 10. [] ‘to wash’
3. [] ‘to be cut’ 11. [] ‘then’
4. [] ‘lion’ 12. [] ‘alms’
5. [] ‘to cut’ 13. [] ‘our house’
6. [] ‘to stretch’ 14. [] ‘to heaven
7. [] ‘emaciation’ 15. [] ‘five’
8. [] ‘banana’

Observe complementary distribution between the following sounds [] and [], [] and
[], [] and [].

[] [] [] [] [] []

(1) #__ OV7 (2) #__  (3) V__ OV (4) V__  (5) #__OV (6) #__
(15) #__ OV (8) #__  (7) V__ OV (10) N__  (11) #__OV (12)V__
(9) N__ OV (14) V__OV
(13) N__ w

[, , ] always precede the close front unrounded vowel [], [,,] occur elsewhere.
The former group of sounds are allophones of the latter because they occur in a restricted

7
OV represents vowels other than [].

21
environment. Remember, predictability is the essence of allophones. What do you think
is happening to alveolar obstruents in this language?

Note that situations may arise where CD is not as clear-cut as we have in the example
above.

Free Variation (FV)

Sounds are in free variation when they are used interchangeably without affecting the
meaning of words. We speak of free variation when word meaning is free from the
variation in sounds. In other words, when sound change does not affect word meaning,
there is free variation. Meaning is preserved in these situations because the variant sounds
are the same at the underlying level. In other words, in a free variation CD between
allophones is suspended.

Example 20: Igbo, Yoruba

Gloss Igbo Transp.
a) ‘water’ []
‘water’ []
b) ‘head’ []
‘head’ []
Gloss Yoruba Transp.
c) ‘back’ []
‘back’ []

You sure have noticed that the contrast between [] and [], [] and [] in Igbo, and []
and [] in Yoruba does not affect the meaning of the words concerned. This is free
variation. In many cases, FV comes about through dialectal differences.

Parallel Distribution (PD)

As often happens, phonetic similarity could make one suspect that two or more separate
phonemes are allophones of the same phoneme. What makes it obvious that they are not
is their distribution in the language. When sounds occur in similar environments, we say
that they are in parallel distribution. The discovery of parallel distribution is a proof that
the sounds involved are separate phonemes. Sounds in parallel distribution occur in
analogous (similar) environments.

Example 21:Venda (South Africa)

1. [] at your place 7. [] he
2. [] tooth 8. [] childhood
3. [] master 9. [] there
4. [] buffalo 10. [] five
5. [] baboon 11. [] see!
6. [] four 12. [] now

22
 [] []

(1) __ (7) __

(2) __ (8) __
(3) __ (9) __
(4) #__ (10) __
(5) __ (11) __
(6) __ (12) __

[] and [] are in parallel distribution because both of them occur in the intervocalic
position, and the same types of vowels both precede and follow them in sequence. In fact
each of the sounds occur in non-predictable environments.

Note here that the solitary occurrence of [] in the word initial position does not negate
the argument for parallel distribution because of the repeated occurrence of both sounds
in the same inter vocalic environment.

Phonemic Overlapping
A situation could arise where one sound functions as an allophone of two (or more)
different phonemes. This is called phonemic overlapping.

Example 22: Danish (Jakobson Fant and Halle 1956:5)

Phonemic Phonetic Gloss
1. // [] ‘roof’
2. // [] ‘day’
3. // [] ‘hat’
4. // [] ‘hate’
Danish consonants are weakened in the word final position such that // becomes [] in
the word final environment, // becomes [] in the same environment. In consequence,
both // and // are phonetically realised as []. Note that even though both share the
allophone [], it occurs in different environments for each phoneme. The situation in
which one sound represents two or more phonemes in different environments is called
partial overlapping (or overlapping without neutralization).

Neutralization

23
Neutralization occurs when a single sound represents two or phonemes in a particular
environment. In other words the phonetic contrast is suspended in a particular
environment. Another way of expressing neutralization is to say that complete
overlapping has occurred.

“The intersection or overlapping of phonemes will be called partial if a given sound X

occurring under one set of phonetic conditions is assigned to phoneme A, while the same
X under a different set of conditions is assigned to phoneme B [as in example 19 above];
it will be called complete if successive occurrences of X under the same conditions are
assigned sometimes to A, sometimes to B.”

Both overlapping and neutralization will be discussed in detail in LIN331. But not that it
could happen that parallel distribution is not clear-cut between two phonemes, say // and
//, because // for instance could have different allophones in one or more environments
where // is found as [].

Discovery Procedure
1. Gather accurate data. You can ensure accuracy by having more than one
informant and by getting transcriptions with other phoneticians.
2. Put the sounds on a phonetics chart, vowels separate from consonants. All the
sounds observed must be represented on the charts. Often, you would need extra
rows for specific forms like lenis, fortis, some secondary articulations etc.
3. Make out suspicious sounds based on strong phonetic similarities.
4. Look for minimal pairs or sets of sounds in which the suspicious sounds make the
difference. If all the words in the minimal pair or set have different meanings,
then the sounds under suspicion are separate phonemes. On the other hand, if the
words in the set or pair have the same meaning, the sounds under suspicion may
be allophones of the same phoneme in free variation.
5. Make out the environment where suspicious sounds (for which no minimal pairs
or sets have been found) occur.
6. Look for complementary distribution (CD). If this is found, then the sounds so
distributed are allophones of the same phoneme.
7. Having found CD, determine which one of the allophones is the phoneme. It helps
to look out for wide or restricted distribution.
8. Observe what phonological processes are involved in the transformation from
phoneme to allophones in specific environments.
9. Write out rules for these phonological processes.
10. Make a phonemic transcription of your data by replacing allophones with the
phoneme symbols (all within two slant lines).
11. Look for parallel distribution (PD) of suspicious sounds for which neither
minimal pairs nor CD have been found. If PD is found, the sounds are separate
phonemes since they occur in analogous or contrastive environments.
12. Present a phonemic chart each for the consonants and vowels of the language.

Phonological Processes

24
Sound changes that come about when sounds are produced in sequence are called
phonological processes. The processes are assimilatory when sounds become like their
environments, and non-assimilatory when the changes are not motivated by the
environment. The most natural type of sound change is lenition or weakening. The
reverse, fortition or strengthening, is unnatural and rare. Both lenition and fortition may
be assimilatory or non-assimilatory. Going by the criteria of phonological plausibility,
some sound changes are more likely to occur in utterance than others. We refer to
phonologically plausible sound changes as natural processes, while those that are not so
readily plausible are called unnatural processes.

Assimilation is partial when only certain features of a sound are carried over to another
sound. It is total when a sound becomes exactly like the one whose feature it has copied.

Hypothetical Example

a)  
The word final [] has assimilated the nasal feature of the preceding []. This is
partial assimilation.

b)  
The word final [] has assimilated all the features of the preceding [] – nasal,
place, manner etc. This is total assimilation.

Assimilation could also be regressive or progressive.

Regressive or Anticipatory Assimilation

This is the situation where features are borrowed from one sound onto a preceding one.
The feature borrowed therefore regresses – goes back - to the borrowing segment. It is
also called anticipatory assimilation because the preceding sound takes on the features in
anticipation of the next sound.

Yoruba
[]
[]
// []
[l]

// regressively assimilates to the place of articulation of the following consonant

because the speaker anticipates the articulation of the following sound.

Progressive or Perseverative Assimilation

This is the situation where features are borrowed from a preceding sound onto one that
follows it. The feature borrowed therefore progresses – moves forward onto - to the

25
borrowing segment. It is also called perseverative assimilation because the feature
endures and is carried onto the following segment even after the preceding segment has
been produced. Our earlier example already illustrates this.

 

Here the nasal feature perseveres onto the word final []; it progresses onto it.

Lenition Vs fortition
Lenition or weakening occurs when a sound proceeds from a strong to a weak
articulation. A simple definition is that a sound is weakened when it becomes more
sonorant or more voiced. Weakening could take place anywhere, but it is quite
prevalent in the word medial environment. The following table summarises the
consonantal changes that pass for weakening and the names of such phonological
processes.

Lenition Table
Change Process
1, Geminate to simplex Degemination
2.. Stop to Affricate Affrication
3. Stop to Fricative Spirantization
4. Stop to Approximant Glide formation8
5. Stop to Liquids Liquidation
6. Oral stop to Glottal stop Glottalization
7. Non-nasal to Nasal Nasalization
8. Voiceless to Voice Voicing

Two types of liquidation have been identified in language:

(ii) A sound changes to []. This is called Rhotacism.
(iii) A sound changes to []. This is called landacism.

As an end result, lenition can lead on to a total deletion of the sound.

Note: Fortition or strengthening is the exact opposite of weakening. However, glide

formation is considered fortition when it involves a vowel becoming an approximant.

Let’s now take a look at some processes.

Nasalization
A nasal feature is picked up fron an adjacent nasal segment.

8
Usually, glide formation involves a vowel changing to become an approximant.

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Ghotuo
// [] ‘snake’
// [] ‘water’
// [] ‘drink’
// [u] ‘medicine’

Nasal Homorganic Assimilation

A nasal sound assimilates to the place of articulation of the consonant following it. The
name homorganic stems from the fact that the two adjacent sounds are produced with the
same organs (or articulators).

For example, // []/ ___ [, ]

// []/ ___ [k, ]
and so on.
English

[] in [ ] ‘comfort’

// [] in [] ‘combine’

[] in [:] ‘concord’

Voicing (Intervocalic Voicing)

A voiceless sound becomes voiced between two vowels.

English: Singular Plural

// /]
// []

A sound that has undergone voicing could be further weakened to a fricative. It could
even be deleted eventually. E.g.

// [] [] 

Palatalisation
This involves the superimposition of the palatal place of articulation on a non-palatal
sound9. The environment for this process is usually the presence of an adjacent
(following) high front vowel like [, ,  or ].
E.g.

9
See LIN241 notes for palatisation and other types of secondary assimilatory processes..

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 [] [] [] [] []

Note that palatalisation occurs in varying degrees. It could sometimes lead to assibilation
- when a sound changes to become a strident fricative i.e. a sibilant - or it could lead to a
complete change of the place of articulation, as in examples from Ghotuo.

// [] ‘pepper’

// [] ‘good’
/+/ [] ‘their spear’

Syllable Structure Processes

These are non-assimilatory processes that come about when sounds are made to conform
to the fixed structure of syllables in specific languages. They include insertion, deletion
vowel reduction and compensatory lengthening.

Insertion
A whole segment is inserted into a sequence of sound. It is called prothesis when the
insertion is made in the word initial position, epenthesis when the insertion is into a word
medial position, and paragoge when a sound is inserted word finally.

English loan words into Yoruba

Gloss English Yoruba

‘table’ [] []
‘bread’ [] []

Notice that a vowel is inserted between consonant clusters (i.e. Epenthesis). There is also
the insertion of a vowel in the word final position (i.e. Paragoge).

English loan word into Emai

Gloss English Emai

‘slippers’ [] []

Aside from epenthesis and paragoge, we observe that a vowel is inserted in the word
initial position (i.e. Prothesis).

Deletion
A complete loss of segment is referred to as deletion. Both consonants and vowels may
be deleted. The term elision is preferred for the loss of vowel. Aphaeresis is the name
given to the loss of a word initial sound. Loss of sound in the word medial position is
called syncope, while the deletion of a sound word finally is apocope.

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Aphaeresis in English words

Gloss Formerly Now

‘knot’ [] []
‘knee’ [:] [:]

Syncope in English words

Gloss Formerly Now

‘Wednesday’ [e] []
‘chocolate’ [] []

Observe syncope of [] and [] in the word ‘Wednesday’, and [] in ‘chocolate’.

Apocope in French words

Gloss Formerly Now

‘bed’ [] []
‘big’ [] []

Word final consonants have been deleted in these French words.

Vowel Reduction
This is common in stress-timed languages like English. It involved the reduction
(shortening) of a vowel in unstressed syllables.

English
Gloss Transcription
‘relative’ []
‘relate’ []

[] in ‘relative’ is reduced to [] in ‘relate, while [] in ‘relate’ is reduced to schwa []
in ‘relative’ in unstressed syllables.

Methathesis
Sounds swap positions like castling in a game of chess.

Gloss Nupe Gwari

‘stone’ [] []

The sounds of the two syllables of Nupe have undergone methathesis in Gwari.

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Please read up vowel harmony and other phonological processes from Oyebade
(1998).

Phonological Rules
Sounds undergo changes within words and sentences. In other words, it is expected that a
sound acquire a different quality when it is produced in association with other sounds
(phonological level) from its quality when produced in isolation (Phonetic level). That is
what is named phonological process.

There is always a logical explanation for every sound change. Such explanations are
conveyed through phonological rules. Phonological rules are lucid attempts at
rationalizing the dynamics of sound change. Certain phonological conventions are
employed in writing phonological rules.

Phonological rules can:

a. Change sounds (Substitute)
b. Insert sounds
c. Delete sounds
d. Coalesce sounds
e. Permute sounds

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