Phonological features

phonologically active phonetic properties phonetic properties that must be grammatically specified thus, necessary in distinguishing words or, in describing sound alternations that accompany word formation note: citation speech, not connected speech

What phonetic properties are phonologically active? First answer refers to distinguishing words: lexical contrast The pair bill vs. pill is evidence that aspiration or voicing is phonologically active in English broad phonetic transcription, attending only to contrastive properties is a type of phonological analysis of language.

Focus only on lexical contrast is too shallow, cursory to permit an insightful analysis of language sound systems. nasal place assimilation in intolerant [n-t] illogical impossible inconsiderate [l-l] [m-p] [-k]

Alternation of the form of the prefix [n] suggests that there is a phonologically active property called place of articulation that should be referenced in a statement of the linguistic generalization.

Instead of /n/ becomes bilabial before bilabials and /n/ becomes lateral before laterals and /n/ becomes velar before velars we say /n/ takes the same place of articulation as the following consonant. this is evidence that the grammar of English should include the concept place of articulation. Note, it could have been different.

So far we have been focussed on sound patterns and features of sounds looking only at lexical contrast. Implicitly we have assumed that phonetic properties should be organized in groups like place of articulation without giving any evidence that this type of organization is actually needed in descriptions of language sound patterns. We havent justified the natural classes of speech sounds that the IPA chart assumes, except to note that phonetically certain sounds share certain properties. e.g. rounded vowels

Lip rounding is a phonetic property of some vowels. [u] [o] [y] [], etc. Is this a phonological property? How to find out look for alternations that refer to vowel rounding. Consider an example from Turkish

gloss rope hand girl face stamp stalk village end

Nom.sg. ip el kz jyz pul sap kj son

Gen.sg. ipin elin kzn jyzyn pulun sapn kjyn sonun

Nom.pl. ipler eller kzlar jyzler pullar saplar kjler sonlar

Gen. pl. iplerin ellerin kzlarn jyzlerin pullarn saplarn kjlerin sonlarn

Clements, George N. and Engin Sezer. (1982). Vowel and consonant disharmony in Turkish. In Harry van der Hulst and Norval Smith, eds., The Structure of Phonological Representations, Part II. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.

Gen.sg. suffix has a round vowel (-yn or -un) gloss rope hand girl face stamp stalk village end Nom.sg. ip el kz jyz pul sap kj son Gen.sg. ipin elin kzn jyzyn pulun sapn kjyn sonun Nom.pl. ipler eller kzlar jyzler pullar saplar kjler sonlar Gen. pl. iplerin ellerin kzlarn jyzlerin pullarn saplarn kjlerin sonlarn

Clements, George N. and Engin Sezer. (1982). Vowel and consonant disharmony in Turkish. In Harry van der Hulst and Norval Smith, eds., The Structure of Phonological Representations, Part II. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.

When the noun stem has a round vowel gloss rope hand girl face stamp stalk village end Nom.sg. ip el kz jyz pul sap kj son Gen.sg. ipin elin kzn jyzyn pulun sapn kjyn sonun Nom.pl. ipler eller kzlar jyzler pullar saplar kjler sonlar Gen. pl. iplerin ellerin kzlarn jyzlerin pullarn saplarn kjlerin sonlarn

Clements, George N. and Engin Sezer. (1982). Vowel and consonant disharmony in Turkish. In Harry van der Hulst and Norval Smith, eds., The Structure of Phonological Representations, Part II. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.

Here we discovered a phonologically active feature by observing a grammatically signicant phonetic alternation. the Genitive Singular sux could be either produced with an unrounded vowel [-in] or [-n], or it could be produced with a rounded vowel [-un] or [-yn]. The set of vowels that is associated with the rounded versions of the sux are: [y], [u], [], and [o]. These vowels constitute a natural class in Turkish the round vowels.

Phonologically active properties of vowels in Turkish - aka the vowel feature specications for Turkish

high back round

i +

i + +

y + +

u e + + +

a +

o + +

 When is the Gen.sg. sux [-in] and when is it [-n]? When is the Gen.sg. sux [-yn] and when is it [-un]? What feature is suggested by this pattern? gloss rope hand girl face stamp stalk village end Nom.sg. ip el kz jyz pul sap kj son Gen.sg. ipin elin kzn jyzyn pulun sapn kjyn sonun Nom.pl. ipler eller kzlar jyzler pullar saplar kjler sonlar Gen. pl. iplerin ellerin kzlarn jyzlerin pullarn saplarn kjlerin sonlarn

Clements, George N. and Engin Sezer. (1982). Vowel and consonant disharmony in Turkish. In Harry van der Hulst and Norval Smith, eds., The Structure of Phonological Representations, Part II. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.