Questions tagged [phonemes]
The discrete and distinctive units constituting the internalized inventory of sounds of a language. A sequence of phonemes is the preverbal form of a word. Phonemes may be systematically distorted upon verbalization, resulting in an allophone. Phonemes and allophones are both "phones".
235 questions
-2
votes
2
answers
178
views
Does "yeet" vs "eat" mean the glottal stop is phonemic in english?
Given three observations of mine:
English speakers put glottal stops at the beginning of words beginning with a vowel
English speakers don't put glottal stops at the beginning of words beginning with ...
- 127
4
votes
1
answer
765
views
Why is the phonemic transcription of "the" /ði/ not /ðɪj/ although it's pronounced as [ðɪj] and there are phonemes /ɪ/ and /j/ in English?
According to Wiktionary when the English word the occurs immediately before vowel sounds, it is pronounced [ðɪj] phonetically.
Because there are minimal pairs for each of those individual sounds, you ...
- 43
0
votes
2
answers
135
views
How to synthesize the "du" of "duck"?
I'm experimenting with amazon Polly I see lost of weird issues.
For example, its speaks: /dʌk/ correctly as "duck" but /dʌ/ is synthesized as "do".
I see the same with: http://ipa-...
- 101
2
votes
1
answer
228
views
Is the Alveolar Tap the Same as a Very Brief Alveolar Plosive?
Is the alveolar tap executed with the same tongue movement as in the alveolar plosive except that in the case of the alveolar tap, the tongue tip strikes and moves away from the alveolar ridge so ...
- 21
2
votes
1
answer
262
views
Does California English have an additional vowel phoneme?
I've noticed that my pronunciation of the word only differs from the General American pronunciation (I'm from coastal California). This is the pronunciation of only that I assume is General American: ...
5
votes
2
answers
877
views
Languages with [yø̯]
The Finnish language has the (presumably) extremely rare diphthong [yø̯], which is a front rounded vowel opening and falling diphthong. I know that this diphthong also exists in some other Finnic ...
- 1,356
1
vote
2
answers
200
views
Is there any reliable way to organize phonemes that aren't in the IPA?
I'm coming up with an idea for a game that simulates the evolution of languages, but to do that and make it the most realistic, I would need to put in the sounds that the IPA says are possible but we ...
- 15
6
votes
2
answers
754
views
Representation of /o/ phoneme in Cuneiform
I was reading Wikipedia's introduction into the Elamite language, where it says that it had a vowel inventory of /a/, /e/, /i/ and /u/. “What a coincidence,” I thought, “just like Akkadian!” Now, ...
- 163
-1
votes
1
answer
350
views
What this difference between phonemic and phonetic transcriptions? [duplicate]
Consider the Wikipedia article for phoneme, this is in Norwegian but one can easily translate, I will use this example for asking the question.
Fonemer er vanligvis plassert mellom skråstreker i ...
- 137
0
votes
5
answers
128
views
Do some languages use lexical stress to differentiate words with unrelated meanings?
In English, lexical stress is occasionally used to differentiate words with the same consonant and vowel phonemes and that have related meanings. (Please forgive the incomplete definitions.)
re ˈpeat ...
- 8,878
4
votes
1
answer
313
views
Why do I hear the p, t, k in Portuguese as aspirated plosives?
First, some of my linguistic background: I'm a native Cantonese Chinese speaker. I speak fluent Mandarin Chinese but with heavy Cantonese accent. I have a working-level proficiency in English, meaning ...
- 143
16
votes
6
answers
2k
views
Should orthographies represent phonemes or phones?
I am currently working with Salvadoran Nawat, an endangered language that has never had a standardized orthography due to being primarily oral. As part of the revitalization process, we need to ...
- 161
0
votes
2
answers
655
views
There are roughly 46 speech sounds in the English language, however only 26 letters. Why?
There are roughly 44-46 speech sounds in the English language. However, we just have 26 letters which denote some of those 44-46 sounds. Why is that? Why we don't represent each of those 44-46 sounds ...
- 123
-1
votes
2
answers
3k
views
What are near-minimal pairs
What are near-minimal pairs? How are they different from minimal pairs? Can Allophones occur in near-minimal pairs?
- 11
-3
votes
3
answers
169
views
Do the acute-accent-e and grave-accent-e sounds exist in English?
The two sounds 'é' and 'è' are abundant in French. The sound 'ê' is also common enough.
Suppose you're teaching the e accent aigu (é) or e accent grave to an English speaker (from any continent). You ...
- 97
3
votes
0
answers
121
views
Can you provide a cheat-sheet for turning Proto-Indo-European dictionaries from the older style into laryngeal notation?
Much of the resources I have for Proto-Indo-European itself (not etymological dictionaries for other languages) either use Laryngeal notation but are limited in scope (like Wiktionary) or are written ...
- 31
0
votes
0
answers
182
views
Are there any examples in any language of words beginning with the sound [θð]?
While I have some difficulty pronouncing a hypothetical word ending with [θð], it seems perfectly possible to have such a sound at the beginning or in the middle of a word.
Is the sound [θð] ever used ...
user40065
8
votes
1
answer
501
views
Who practiced morphophonemics?
In the modern textbooks you can easily find such claims as the following from Hayes 2009:
In the 1940s and 1950s, many phonologists worked with a theory in which (roughly) all neutralizing rules were ...
- 2,789
2
votes
2
answers
550
views
Why are English diphthongs not analysed as a vowel and a glide?
The English language has the diphthongs /eɪ aɪ ɔɪ aʊ əʊ/, analysed differently in some accents. They end in sounds that are very close to [j] and [w], yet are analysed as unsyllabic [ɪ] and [ʊ]. Since ...
user37123
0
votes
1
answer
504
views
Morphophonemic rules in phonology
I am wondering how the two phonological terms "morphonemic rules" and "morphophonemic rules" can be distinguished?
A morpheme might have different presentations (i.e. ...
- 103
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
What symbol, if any, signifies an audible nasal emission in the IPA?
I'm making a conlang and would like to include the consonant clusters /hm/ /hn/ /hɳ/ and /hŋ/ with /h/ realized as an audible nasal emission.
I don't have to worry about how these clusters would be ...
- 8,878
-2
votes
1
answer
146
views
What language does the phonetic inventory of ERA's "Ameno" most resemble?
The lyrics of the 1996 song "Ameno" by Era are said to be in pseudo-Latin:
Dori me
Interimo, adapare
Dori me
Ameno Ameno
etc. Indeed, phonotactically (and, in one word — "imperavi&...
- 99
0
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Are there languages without the /j/ sound as in English "yellow"?
There are many languages without the /w/ sound as in English world, as in French oiseau, as in Spanish fuego, and as in Mandarin wang (the last three respectively mean bird, fire, and king). Some ...
6
votes
1
answer
2k
views
What are the stress-distinguished minimal pairs in English?
I already know of two non-homograph ones: insight and billow.
Insight /ˈɪnsʌɪt/ is phonemically identical to incite /ɪn'sʌɪt/ except for where the stress falls (first syllable in insight, second ...
user31190
0
votes
0
answers
65
views
Experiment to show that phonemes are not invariant: stimuli!
The fact that phonemes are not invariant is shown in many studies. The first one, so far as I know, is that of Liberman, Delattre and Cooper (1952) in their report on the identification of synthetic, ...
- 29