LIN200H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Contrastive Distribution, Phonetic Transcription, Canadian Raising
LIN200 September 21st 2017
-what we think of as [h] and [i] in the word he is exactly the same articulation
-same for who and how
-h is very different depending on what sound it’s next to
-so is [h] a real thing?
-voiceless i diacritic followed by i
-a word like hay would be pronounced voiceless e e
-why do native speakers of english still think h is only one sound?
-phonetics is concerned with the physical implementation of language
-phonology is more abstract: the mental organization of these sounds
-/h/ is a phoneme
-a phone is the actually physical thing that we produce
-it is possible to have something in between a phoneme, and a distinct unique phone
-so a phone could be [h] or [i sub dot] [a sub dot] etc
-the former is broad transcription and the latter is narrow transcription
-there is no such thing as THE only broad transpiration, narrow transcription
-in different contexts you need to be precise in different ways so the definition changes
-/ / denotes abstract mental categories, while the [ ] can be very narrow or broader
-so /h/= [i sub dot], [u sub dot], [a sub dot] etc
-phoneme = set of phones (called allophones of the phoneme_
-allophones are part of a set which we identify in our minds as the phoneme
-the phoneme /m/ is set containing get the phone [m], and [m] is the only allophone of
this phoneme, there’s no variation
-others, like /h/ are pronounced differently depending on context—in a predictable way
-it’s only valid to do a broad transcription in slashes
-in brackets you can do broad and narrow transcription
-/ai/ is pronounced differently for some speakers in some words
-ex. for canadians in some words like site and side
-in side it’s closer to ai
-in site it’s closer to upside down v i
-called canadian raising: the upside down v is produced higher in the mouth than
the a
-canadian raising is done when the consonant that comes after is voiceless
-ai remains if it’s at the end of a word, or before a voiced sound
-complementary distribution=no overlap in environment (can’t occur in the same place)
-environment: what comes before, what comes after==at least one of these will matter
and will decide what category you’re in
-if you can always find a way that they occur in the same position, then that’s contrastive
distribution
[b] and [m]
bat and mat
#_ae t is the full environment for both these words (# means edge of the word)
-because the b and m are in the same environment (but still mean different things) it is
contrastive distribution
-contrastive distribution: the phones can occur in the same environments
-proves that they must be different sounds
-bat and mat are a minimal pair —b and m are allophones of three separate phonemes
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
What we think of as [h] and [i] in the word (cid:1688)he(cid:1689) is exactly the same articulation. H is very different depending on what sound it"s next to. A word like hay would be pronounced voiceless e e. Phonetics is concerned with the physical implementation of language. Phonology is more abstract: the mental organization of these sounds. A phone is the actually physical thing that we produce. It is possible to have something in between a phoneme, and a distinct unique phone. So a phone could be [h] or [i sub dot] [a sub dot] etc. The former is broad transcription and the latter is narrow transcription. There is no such thing as the only broad transpiration, narrow transcription. In different contexts you need to be precise in different ways so the definition changes. / / denotes abstract mental categories, while the [ ] can be very narrow or broader.
