LIN100Y1 Midterm: Linguistics Midterm Review.docx
Document Summary
Allophones: variants of phonemes, respecting factors involved in actual production what we actually end up articulating. When sequences of several sounds are pronounced in human languages, they are organized in smaller units a. ) If a syllable is a group of sounds, we would also want to know its structure & principles of organization. Speakers possess unconscious knowledge of what counts as a syllable in their language. [ n . k. sp k. t d. ] this structure impossible both structures possible c. ) 1 2 3 4. Sonorants: vowels, glides, liquids, and nasals (from most to least sonorous) Obstruents: stops, fricatives, affricates (which are not sonorant sounds) Because of their high sonority, vowels form the peak of the syllable nucleus. Less sonorous sounds appear on either side of nucleus. **note: the nuclei of syllables are usually vowels, but liquids & nasals can behave as vowels and function as nuclei of syllables (in many languages, including english )** (ambisyllabification)