Phonology Resit Exam 1 Answers

Phonology resit exam answers about: Trubetzkoy’s phonological oppositions, distinctive features, vowel deletion, vowel harmony, consonant Insertion, Syrian Arabic, coronal sounds and phonological rules.

Exercise 1

Complementary distribution: The occurrence of sounds in a language that they are never occurs in the same phonetic environment. Sounds that are in complementary distribution are allophones of the same phoneme. consider the sounds [p] and [pʰ] in these examples :

spat [spæt]
spool [spul]
pool [pʰul]
peek [pʰik]

You see that the sound [ph] only occurs word-initially but never after [s] unlike [p].

Equipollent oppositions: is formed by a contrastive pair or group of members which are differentiated by different positive features.
e.g. the phonemes /t/ and /k/ form an equipollent opposition in which the voiceless consonant /k/ is velar while the voiceless consonant /t/ is alveolar.

Exercise 2

	/ṛ/	/ṣ/	/l/	/i/	/ö/	/ œ/	/py/	/ ʔ /
Consonantal	+	+	+	-	-	-	+	-
Syllabic	+	+	-	+	+	+	-	-
Sonorant	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	-
Continuant	+	+	+				-	-
Del R							-
Nasal	+	+	-					-
Lateral	-		+					-
Anterior	+	+	+				+	-
Coronal	+	+	+				-	-
Back	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Round		-	-	-	+	+	-	-
High	-	-	+	+	-	-	+	-
Low	-	-	-	-	-	+	-	-
Tense	-	+	-	+	+	-	+	-

Exercise 3

If we consider the data (A), to form the perfective form of the verb we add a siffix -ia at the end of this verb as in :

olo             oloia
aŋa             a ŋia
usu             usuia

However, by following the same process the results for the data (B) should be like:

taui             tauiia
naumati      naumatiia

But, it is not the case in this data. We have :

taui             tauia
naumati      naumatia

So, an /i/ sound is deleted. The one of the verb root which undergoes this change or the one of the suffix. To solve this, let’s take other examples from this language :

tafe             tafea
taʔe             taʔea

We conclude then that the /i/ of the suffix which is deleted. Accordingly, by observing carefully the data (A) and (B), we notice that in all these examples, the suffix -ia is preceded by the vowel sounds /u/, /o/, /a/, /e/ and /i/. These sounds could be classified in two categories back (/u/, /a/, /o/) and front (/i/, /e/) vowels.
As a conclusion, the /i/ of the suffix is deleted only when it is preceded by a front vowel sound.

Exercise 4

A- Vowel harmony, a high vowel of a suffix agrees in backness with the stem vowel.

 
B- Consonant Insertion to break up a vowel cluster.

Exercice 5

In Syrian Arabic, to form the definite form of nouns we add the prefix /l/ at the initial of the words like in data (A). However, in data (B) we notice that the initial consonant is doubled as in :

Saff              S-Saff
taxt               t-taxt

The reason underlying this phonological change consists on the consonant following the prefix. In fact, when the prefix precedes a noncoronal consonant it remains unchanged; whereas, it precedes a coronal consonant it assimilates to this coronal consonant.