Questions tagged [phonology]
The study of the abstract aspect of the sounds or *phonemes* in a given language.
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Do I have to transcribe all pronunciation details if I use the [] transcription?
Let's say I transcribe the pronunciation of "relatively" in General American. Do I have to type [ˈɹɛɫɨɾɪvɫi] or can I omit some details (because perhaps I don't know all of them) and type ...
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Can alpha features be used such that the alpha coefficients can be multiplied when writing a rule using feature arrays?
I was trying to write a formal rule about how Hawaiian adapts English loanwords into Hawaiian phonemes.
Hawaiian does not have voiced stops nor does it have alveolar stop phonemes. The alveolar stop [...
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Do "Lickety-Split","Ship-shape", and "Chop-chop" have any internal logic that makes them recognisable as meaning "Quick"?
I've noticed this happens across cultures as well, notably the German "Zack-zack" and the Indian "Fatafat"
These phrases seem to have a repeating motif of some sort; reduplication ...
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Are /u/ and /i/ phonemes in English?
I wonder whether /u/ (as in situation) and /i/ (as in happy) are phonemes in English, particularly in RP and GA. Many dictionaries treat them in such way:
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/...
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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 ...
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Apophony: Latin 'imberbis'
According to RAE's dict., apophony is
Variation of the vocal tone in words of the same root due to phonetic evolution; e.g., imberbe from barba
https://dle.rae.es/apofon%C3%ADa?m=form
However, the ...
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How does r-colored schwa behave in the coda?
How does r-colored schwa in American English behave in the coda before a vowel for instance in expressions like
Her age
Murder of...
After an hour
etc? What does happen there? Is there insterted r ...
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Why הָאָרֶץ instead of הָאֶרֶץ?
In Masoretic Hebrew, certain Segolates of the form CeCeC become CāCeC in pause. For example, ʔereṣ (אֶרֶץ) becomes ʔāreṣ (אָרֶץ), keleḇ (כֶּלֶב) becomes kāleḇ (כָּלֶב), geḇer (גֶּבֶר) becomes ...
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How were labial consonants substituted in loanwords into Iroquoian?
Iroquoian languages tend to lack labial consonants such as /p b m f/; what were they substituted with in loanwords? (Specifically those languages that lack /kʷ/ since this would be an obvious ...
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Correctness criteria in linguistics
How can we determine whether a particular proposition, that is, a statement made by linguists about a language, is correct? This question applies across all levels of linguistic analysis, but my ...
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Why is adjusting one's accent less prevalent in English?
Native English speakers usually use their natural accent, and almost never switch to a more common dialect. Most English speakers probably can do a good impression of say, standard American or ...
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Why do both Hebrew and Arabic both geminate consonants after the definite article?
After the definite article, the first letter is doubled in both languages, with a daggesh in Hebrew and with a shaddah in Arabic. As this has to do with diacritics, which were added to both languages ...
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Origins of missing letter V in Veneto dialects and in Talian
I am currently studying Talian (a language that is basically Veneto plus some influence from Brasilian-Portuguese and other notheren italian dialects - but is basically Veneto) and I noticed there are ...
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What are the unique phonological features of the Tamil language compared to other South Indian languages like Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam?
Iam keen on knowing about the phonological features that sets Tamil apart from other major South Indian languages like Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. Particularly need to know the differences in ...
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looking for the right term for a linguistic change
I am studying the etymology of a post-position in Turkish. It is 'diye' in modern Turkish, a post-position that has arisen from the grammaticalization of the gerund form of the verb 'di-' (meaning '...
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Why [s] becomes [z] in his but not in hiss
I don't know if this is the right way to put the question but I'm curious why the word his is pronounced as /hɪz/ and hiss /hɪs/.
I'm confused because in many places (e.g., like this and this) I have ...
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Speakers of English in London without linking r?
(Revised question) Are there an appreciable proportion of Londoners who never use linking r in their speech? If so, to what extent is this phenomenon known or thought to be correlated with class, ...
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Why does a <w> sound before <a> modify the <a> sound?
Why does w often modify a in English? I can find lots of words e.g water, waltz, quarter, war etc. some people call, it ‘tricky w’ but why does w change the sound?
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Pronunciation of N in "envy"? The name of my personal pronunciation, an approximant?
I don't know phonology. I browsed Wikipedia pages of IPA, the approximant category list and the IPA chart of 2020, but I may be missing things.
Question 1: What's the exact pronunciation of N in the ...
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Which accents *don't* merge FIRE and HIRE? What about RITE and RIDE?
For all the talk I've heard of various splits and mergers, this is one I haven't seen mentioned anywhere. I've always them translated something like /haɪɹ/ and /faɪɹ/, but to me there is a very clear ...
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Are there any existing (indigenous) European languages with aspirated/unaspirated versions of consonants which are different phonemes?
I've been learning Ancient Greek for about a year. The consensus amongst scholars appears to be pretty unequivocally that "p", "t" and "k" sounds had aspirated and ...
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Why does Praat's pitch contour seem to not match what I'm hearing? And how do I alleviate this issue to use it in teaching pronunciation?
I teach phonology and pronunciation to ESL students.
I intend to use Praat as a tool for students to visualize pitch contour when studying word stress, focus words, and intonation in questions. Seeing ...
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A claimed physics of a mysterious letter (Arabic)
The pronunciation of the Arabic letter Dhad (ض) has sparked considerable debate, especially regarding its articulation in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Traditionally described as a fricative lateral ...
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Does the definition of a syllable as a unit of planning disambiguate syllable division in some cases?
I think ancient Greek grammarians were the first to try to systematically investigate the division of syllables, and they were trying both to prescribe rules for dividing words at the end of a written ...
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Are there linguistic maps/infographs of the typology of the manifestation of stress
On WALS, Chapters about stress:
14 Fixed Stress Locations
15 Weight-Sensitive Stress
16 Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems
17 Rhythm Types
It is much much more difficult to define ...
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