LING 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Voicelessness, Vowel Length, Phonotactics

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Linguistics
• Course: LING 1001
• Professor: Bethany Mac Leod

Document Summary

Sounds that are in contrast signal change in meaning: pin /p n/, bin /b n/ Means that /p/ & /b/ are in contrast. Inventory of phonemes for particular language are sounds that are contrastive: those that cause difference in meaning b/w words. Sounds that vary depending on where you find them are not contrastive they are allophones of 1 phoneme: ex. [ph l] versus [sp l: [ph] & [p] are allophones of 1, phoneme: /p/ Phonological rules express relationship b/w phoneme & its allophones. To get simplest rule, choose allophone w/ widest, most complicated distribution as your underlying phoneme. Relationships b/w phonemes & allophones are language-specific. English: [p]: [p] (spin) [ph] (pin, /b/: [b] (bin, /p/ & /b/ = 2 diff phonemes. Thai: /p/: [p] -> /p :/ aunt", /ph/: [ph] -> /ph :/ cloth", /b/: [b] -> /b :/ crazy". We have to look at each language individually to know what phonemes & allophones are.