LIN 3201 (2884) * Fall 2006 * Sayers

Phonemic Problems & Examples

How to do a Phonology Problem: 1. Look at your data set first any items that are transcribed nearly identically except for

the phones in question.

If you find any, do the words: Ø Have the same meanings? - You have phones in FREE VARIATION. These phones belong to the same phoneme.

Ø Have different meanings? - You have phones in MINIMAL PAIRS. These phones belong to different phonemes.

2. If you don’t have free variation or minimal pairs, you must determine whether the phones in question are found in complementary distribution or in analogous environments. This means that you must list the environments of your phones.

When you are first listing environments you should list them as specifically as possible. You may find it possible to make generalizations later, but specific environments are always the starting points.

Common notation: #____ _____# (word boundaries) (blank is where your phone occurs) i___e q_____k n___a y____o

3. If you find any of the same exact environments you have ANALOGOUS ENVIRONMENTS. These phones belong to different phonemes.

4. If you don’t instantly have the same environments, you need to look more closely at the data. If you have COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION, a pattern will emerge of one distinct environment for phone A and another for phone B. These may not always be clear, as sometimes the allophones are conditioned by a natural class of sound (nasals, palatals, front vowels, unrounded vowels, labials, implosives, etc) rather than specific sounds segments.

This is why it is important to start with specifics and generally from them.

If you find you do have distinct environments, you have COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION. The phones belong to the same phoneme.

LIN 3201 (2884) * Fall 2006 * Sayers

5. Next you must write up the distribution pattern. This is easy when you only have one allophone of a given phoneme. Remember to include the accurate bracketing as it is crucial in the definition of the unit.

If you have only one allophone, it is customary to use that same symbol as your phoneme. If you have more than one, it is customary to choose the one that occurs most frequently as your phoneme. Since phonemes are abstractions, it doesn’t really matter which one you choose, as long as you choose one of the allophones.

/ / Phoneme

[ ] Allophone 1 Conditioning Environment [ ] Allophone 2 Conditioning Environment

When listing the conditioning environments, keep in mind three things: Ø You usually list the most general allophone last. For example, if

you have three allophones, one found between after front vowels, one found after back vowels, and one found in all other combinations (word initially, word finally, after consonants, etc.), you should save the more frequent one for the end.

Ø You should try here to make conditioning environments as general as possible. In other words, if you can draw upon natural classes or types of sounds, do so here in this explanation.

Ø Make use of the “Elsewhere” designation. This is especially useful if you follow the other two suggestions above. For example, if you have three allophones, one found between after front vowels, one found after back vowels, and one found in all other combinations (word initially, word finally, after consonants, etc.), you can label that last environment as “ELSEWHERE” provided you have already accounted for the other conditioning environments.

6. Time to write up the official answer statement:

The phones ______________ are found in _____________________ and

thus belong to _________________ phoneme(s).