PROBLEMS IN PHONEMIC ANALYSIS

NUR HANNAN IMANI BT HAMARU SAYYIDAH RAIHAN BT ABD JAMIL SITI KHADIJAH BT MOHD HASSAN SYAZANA LIYANA BINTI AHMAD

Affricates
Distinctive Features
PROBLEMS IN PHONEMIC ANALYSIS

English Vowel System

Schwa ( ) Clusters of s plus plosive

Syllabic Consonants

AFFRICATES
One-phoneme analysis
tS, dS Treated as a single consonant phoneme E.g: judge = dZ + V + dZ

Two-phoneme analysis
t + S = tS , d + Z = dZ Composed of two phonemes each E.g: judge = d + Z + V + d + Z

Total set of English consonant is smaller / economical in the number of phonemes it results in.

"Syllabic consonants"
Syllabic consonants are consonants which function as syllables without a vowel sound.

http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/encap/contactsandpe ople/academic/tench/syllabic.html

 a consonant can constitute the centre (or peak) of a syllable instead of a vowel. It is clear that whereas a word like sad /sd/ has one syllable, a word like sadder / sd r / has two. There is clearly a vowel articulated in the second, albeit unstressed, syllable after the consonant / d /.

 in words like sadden and saddle, the matter is not so clear, because the consonant / d / can be followed by either the consonant / n / or /l/ without a vowel intervening.

sadden and saddle

if you imitate these pronunciations, you should notice that the blade of the tongue maintains some kind of constriction as you proceed from the / d / to the / n / or / l / there cannot possibly, therefore, have been a vowel in between!

/ n / of sadden and / l / of saddle constitute the centre of the second, unstressed, syllable. this syllabic function of theirs is marked by a small mark ( =) below the consonant symbol.

Schwa
The schwa represents a mid-central vowel in an unstressed syllable, such as the second syllable of woman and the second syllable of buses. Any vowel letter can stand for the schwa sound.

http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/esl/pr onunciation/schwa.html

 When a word ends with (consonant + l + e), the sound of the (l+e) is actually a schwa + l sound (l). The schwa is the vowel sound in many lightly pronounced unaccented syllables in words of more than one syllable. It is sometimes signified by the pronunciation "uh" or symbolized by an upside-down rotated e. A schwa sound can be represented by any vowel. In most dialects, for example, the schwa sound is found in the following words:

Schwa

Vowel

Examples about / ba t/ sofa /s f /

a
e
i

Enemy /en mi/ Incredible / nkred bl/ Oppose / p z/ Focus /f k s/ Vinyl /va n l/

o
u

THE ENGLISH VOWEL SYSTEM

Analyses To Keep Total Number Of Phonemes Small.

Treat long vowels and diphthongs as composed of two vowel phonemes.

Treat long vowels and diphthongs as composed of a vowel plus a consonant.

 Composed of a basic vowel phoneme followed by one of j, w, h (add r for rhotic accents).

 Long vowels - using short vowels twice II (I;) && (A;) oo (O;) UU (u;) @@ (E;)

 Diphthongs - a simple vowel phoneme followed by one of I, U, e  Diphthongs ej (eI) &j (aI) oj (OI)  Trip thongs a basic vowel plus one of I, U followed by @ (compose three phonemes) @w (@U) &w (aU) Ih (I@) eh (e@) Uh (U@)

 Long Vowels Ij (i;) &h (A;) oh (O;) @h(E;) Uw (u;)

 spill , still , skill s+p/t/k p/t/k aspirated in syllable initial position but not in the above, replaced by unaspirated b, d, g? sb, sd, sg Contrasts neutralised.

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES
Distinctive feature refers to a minimal contrastive unit used as a means of explaining how the sound system of language is organised. The first of these views is found in the approach of the Praque School, whereas the phoneme is seen as a bundle of phonetic distinctive feature: the English phoneme /p/, for example, can be seen as the result of the combination of the feature of bilabial, voice, plosive, etc.

 According to Victoria Fromkin and Robert Rodman in their book An Introduction to Language page :73, distinctive feature is a feature that distinguishes one phoneme from another. Further, for features indicating opposite traits, we can employ a binary system using the symbols [+] and [-] (pluses and minuses) to show whether or not the attribute is present. For example, we need set up only a single feature [voiced] for two separate labels, such as voiced and voiceless.

 Then, voiced sound can be specified as [+voiced] and voiceless ones as [-voiced]. This binary notation is ideal for all features indicating opposite qualities. This binary system also gives advantage that we can show explicitly how members of pairs such as voiced-voiceless or nasal-oral, are related to each other in a way in which other possible pairing.

The Major Class Features

1. Sonorant/Nonsonorant S. A. Schane in his book Generative Phonology states that the feature [sonorant] refers to the resonan quality of sounds. Vowels are always [+sonorant] as are nasals,liquids, and semivowels. The obstruent stops, fricatives, affricates, and glides are, of course [-sonorant]. Sonorants are sounds produced when the vocal tract cavity configurates in which spontaneous voicing is possible, while obstruents are produced with a cavity configuration that makes this kind of voicing is impossible.

 2. Vocalic/Nonvocalic When the most radical constriction does not exceed that found in the high vowels [i] and [u] and the position of the vocal cords allow the spontaneous voicing, the vocalic sounds are produced. Meanwhile, non-vocalic sounds are produced when one or both of these conditions are not satisfied. Therefore, vocalic sounds are the voiced vowels and liquids, whereas glides, nasals, obstruents as well as voiceless vowels and liquids are not vocalic.

 3. Consonantal/Nonconsonantal Consonantal sounds are produced with a radical obstruction in the midsaggital region of the vocal tract; nonconsonatal sounds are produced without such kind of construction.Further, the term consonantal refers to sounds that produced by a narrowed in the oral cavity-either total occlussion or frication. Stops, fricatives, affricates, nasals, and liquids are [+consonantal], while vowels and semivowels, withou ths degree of narrowing are [-consonantal].

 4. Syllabic/Nonsyllabic In general, vowels are [+syllabic], whereas consonants are [-syllabic]. This features are also necessary for differentating syllabic nasal and liquids ([+syllabic]). A segment is viewed as syllabic if it constitutes the nucleus or peak of syllable.

 A set of features makes explicit claims concerning the relationship of different segment types. The more feature values shared by different classes, more they have in common. Thus, classes which differ in only one feature value are more closely related than those which differ in two or three feature values.