ENGL 315: PHONOLOGICAL

PROCESSESProf. I. O. Daniel

WHAT IS PHONOLOGY?➤ Phonology has to do with the regulations that govern

the occurrence of sounds in particular environments➤ Phonology describes the way sounds are produced in

real terms➤ It describes elements of the behavioural patterning of

sounds beyond their phonetic description➤ It tries to account for the way sounds are produced in

relation to their places and manner of occurrence in particular languages

➤ It attempts to explain what happens to sounds in particular situations in which they are produced

WHAT DIFFERENTIATES IT FROM WHAT WE HAVE LEARNT BEFORE IN THE SEGMENTAL PHONETICS➤ Phonology goes beyond sound description➤ It goes beyond the way sounds are produced➤ It accounts for the ways sounds behave➤ It tells us about what happens to sounds in relation to

other sounds➤ Phonetics is only concerned about that particular

sound and its properties of production➤ But phonology is about sound realisation

LET US ILLUSTRATE OUR POINT HERE➤ Take the sound /k/ for example➤ phonetics will provide answer to the following

questions:➤ What articulators are involved in its production?➤ What is the manner of the release of the airstream

that produced it?➤ What is the state of the glottis in its production?➤ All such questions can easily be answered by you, I’m

sure…➤ [Students provide the answers]

➤ What will phonology then do to this same sound?➤ It will tell you that if it is followed by a nasal, it will take on

the colour of nasality as we have in / ɪk.𝛉 ŋ/➤ It becomes labialised or rather takes on a second feature of

[+round] as we have in /kᵂwɪk.li/, /kwɔ.lɪ.ti/➤ However, it is aspirated in the initial position as we have in

/kʰʌp/➤ What this means in essence is that the same sound can

behave differently, depending on the actual environment of its realisation

➤ Now contrast the production and realisation of the sounds and you would have seen the difference between phonetics and phonology

WHAT ARE PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES?➤ Phonological processes are thus the operations that affect

sounds when they are used➤ The way environments affect the sounds that we produce➤ The sort of environment is usually the sounds around the

sound we want to produce and the way our vocal organs now adjust to the sounds to produce the physical ones realised

➤ The many effects are due to the way the sounds are realised due to how their neighbours affect them

➤ In this case, we can say that sounds that we produce in words are usually affected by peer pressure while the sounds we produce in isolation may be able to stand and declare their own individuality

SOME PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN OPERATION ➤ These shall be grouped into major moulds for ease of

understanding➤ Allophonic variations ➤ Morphophonemic alternations

ALLOPHONIC VARIATIONS➤ Phones: These are the basic sound segments in the

natural language➤ Phoneme: These are sounds that have been

established as meaningful units.➤ How to determine phonemes

➤ The minimal pair test: When sound segments can replace other sounds within the same environment, they are said to be different phonemes. As such, meaningful segments are seen as different phonemes.➤ For example, the frame [__in] can produce:

➤ pin➤ bin➤ sin➤ tin➤ din➤ kin➤ shin➤ thin➤ fin➤ gin➤ chin

➤ in this way we are able to establish that all the sounds in the initial positions are different phonemes. They all have phonemic significance in that they change the meaning of the words once they are inserted in the frame [__in]

ALLOPHONIC VARIATIONS CONT’D➤ Allophones: This involves a situation where a phone has

different manifestations of the same phoneme in different environments.

➤ Unlike in the case of minimal pairs that have these occurrences indicating different phonemes and thus able to replace one another, allophonic variations have to do with the same phoneme changing its form due to environmental factors such as the sounds around it or the position it is occurring within the syllable.

➤ It is usually mutually exclusive. What this means is that where one allophonic variant can occur, the other cannot occur there. This shows that it is the same phoneme but variously realised. The example of /k/ above.

EXAMPLES OF ALLOPHONIC VARIATION OF THE PHONEME /L/➤ These exemplify the possible occurrences of the phoneme /l/

in different environments➤ life - basic➤ million - palatalised in it occurs inter-vocalically between two

vowel /i/➤ milk, fill - velarisation before velars and takes on the

colouration of dark l in the final position in words➤ play, slow - devoiced when it occurs after voiceless sound ➤ middle, little - becomes syllabic when it follows homorganic

sounds (i.e. sounds produced in the same place of articulation, alveolar)

➤ There are diacritics used to symbolise these different phonological operations

PHONOLOGICAL OPERATIONS➤ Nasalisation - when there is the nasal colouration due to the

nasal sound following or anticipated as we have in the vowels in [man], [pant]

➤ Labialisation - when there is lip rounding or the involvement of the lips in addition to the primary articulators involved in the production of the sound, usually due to the immediately succeeding sound to the phoneme e.g. quack, queen

➤ Velarisation - when a sound produced in another point in the vocal tract takes on the secondary articulatory form of the velar sound due to the nearness or anticipation of the velar sound following. E.g. the velarised /l/ before the velar stops as we have in /milk/

➤ Devoicing - a normally voiced sound loses its [+voiced] status due to its following a voiceless consonant. E.g. [play, slippers, trial, pure, etc]

PHONOLOGICAL OPERATIONS CONT’D➤ Assimilation — a consonant starts sounding like another within the word. The

can become assimilated as in the word: handbag, hiccough. The sound /d/ has become lost in the first instance while the last sound in the second word has become a bilabial sound /p/.

➤ The opposite of assimilation is dissimilation. Find out how this process operates

➤ Assibilation — it has to do with a sound change, with a sound becoming a sibilant. For example, the second /t/ becoming /∫/ in attention /ǝten∫n/

➤ Reduplication — when sounds, syllables, or even words are repeated. Sometimes, it may actually be performing communicative function such as intensification. Examples in English include: hanky-panky, zig-zag, walkie-talkie, etc. In some African English, you have now-now, so-so, etc.

➤ Weak syllable deletion — the syllable with a weak vowel, especially, the schwa /ǝ/ sound, may get deleted. This is common with the syllable and in the middle of two stressed syllables as we have in bread n butter. The syllable /ǝ/ has been totally replaced by the nasal /n/.

➤

MORPHOPHONEMIC ALTERNATIONS➤ This occurs when morphological operations are affected

by the phonology of the language ➤ Morphological operations are subject to phonological

conditionings➤ Example: ➤ English plural morpheme /z/ base form realised as ➤ /s/ when it occurs after voiceless sounds like in shapes,

looks, ➤ /z/ after voiced sounds as in boys, girls, ➤ /iz/ after alveolar and palate-alveolar fricatives and

palato-aveolar affricates as in buses, kisses, bushes, rouges, churches, judges,

MORPHOPHONEMIC ALTERNATIONS CONT’D➤ The past tense morpheme /d/ base form realised as

➤ /t/ after voiceless sounds as in slapped, pushed, liked, danced➤ /d/ after voiced sounds as in crowned, called, loved, scattered➤ /id/ when it occurs after the sounds /t/ and /d/ as in shouted,

sounded, branded, slighted, painted, ➤ Other alternations include the genitive or possessive formations.

wife’s and wives’ differentiated by the final sound to indicate the form of the genitive case

➤ The determiner ‘a’ affected by the initial sound in the word it precedes. If a consonant, it is realised as /ei/ but if a vowel, it is realised as /æn/ or its weak form

➤ The third person singular realisation follows the order of the plural morpheme realisation in English. E.g. likes, loves, kisses, pushes, accepts,

EXCEPTIONS ➤ Zero morpheme realisations of the plural and past tense

morpheme or the internal structure modifications of the morphemes may not necessarily be as a result of phonological conditioning but probably due to etymological and diachronic reasons

➤ Plural: ➤ Internal modification: oxen, children, ➤ Zero morpheme realisation: salmon, fish

➤ Past tense: ➤ Zero morpheme realisation: cut, hit, burst➤ Internal structure modification: ate, gave, came ➤ Total change: went

ALLOPHONIC VARIATIONS EXEMPLIFIED➤ /t/ [tap, stop, try, late, little]➤ /p/ [pat, pure,apt, stop] ➤ /a/ [apt, tan]➤ /i/ [flit, fin]