2. Let’s combine the following sounds to form English
words:
/ŋ/ /i/ /t/
/k/ /t/ /Ɛ/ /n/
Is it possible?
Why?
3. Each language has rules to combine its sounds.
These rules are language specific! What is possible in
English may not be possible in Spanish!
These rules of sound combinations are known in
phonology as
Phonotactics.
4. Phonotactics
The constraints on positions and sequences of sounds
in a language.
Some rules:
Combination of /pn/ in intial position of a word is not
permitted in English.
/ŋ/ is never word initial
/ʒ/ is never word initial, but common word medially.
5. Phonotactics
Some rules:
/h/, /j/, and /w/ are always syllable initial before
stressed vowels (house, youngster, wonderful)
/ð/ is word initial only in certain pronouns, adverbs,
demonstratives, but never in nouns, verbs, and
adjectives. Otherwise, it occurs freely word medially or
word finally.
…and some other rules…
6. Phonotactics
Phonotactics operate in larger phonological units
called:
The syllables
What is a syllable?
How do speakers determine the number of syllables in
a given utterance?
7. Defining the syllable
A phonological unit
Larger than the phoneme
Psychological features:
Almost all speakers divide words into syllables not into
sound segments.
Speakers of a language will divide the same word into
more or less the same number of syllables.
8. Defining the syllable
Production and recognition:
It’s a geniune and easily recognized unit of speech.
Easy to identify, impossible to define.
Hypothesis:
The syllable is a group of sounds produced by a single puff of
air (chest pulse).
What about the words “city” and “pots”? One or two chest
pulses?
9. Defining the syllable
• Production and recognition
– Speakers may recognize two syllables, but only one chest
pulse.
– Recognition must combine a number of features:
• Sonority (relative prominence)
• Stress
• Length
• Pitch
• Certain phonetic features (beginnings and endings of
syllables)
10. Syllabic segments
Syllabic segments:
Each syllable = one prominent segment
(vowel or sonorant*)
Vowels are almost always syllabic (vowel symbols involve
syllabicity).
Consonants are usually non-syllabic (consonant symbols
don’t involve syllabicity)
Syllabic consonants need a mark (diacritic) to indicate
syllabicity. For example: / l /
*Sonorant sounds: glides /w, j/; liquids /l, r/; and nasals /m, n, ŋ/
11. Syllabic segments
Syllabic segments:
Usually syllabic consonants are liquids or nasals.
Rarely fricatives work as syllabic consonants ([pst])
The division between syllables (syllable juncture) is
marked with a hyphen [-] or with a dot [٠]
Example: “city” syllabification = [sIt-I]
“mistake” syllabification = [mI-steik]
“mistime” syllabification = [mIs-t aIm]
Syllabic segments represented by V, non-syllabic ones
represented by C.
h
14. Syllable structure
About the coda:
When it is present, the syllable is CLOSED or checked.
When it is absent, the syllable is OPEN or unchecked.
16. Coda restrictions in English
• Closed syllables may vary from 1 to 4 consonants in word
final position:
– Examples:
• 1: Top /tap/ , lock /lak/, meet /mit/
• 2: Apt /æpt/, fix /fIks/, list /lIst/
• 3: Mumps /mʌmps/, puzzled /pʌzld/, twelfth /twƐlfƟ/
• 4: Sixths /sIksƟs/, prompts /prampts/, twelfths /twƐlfƟs/
• Open syllables: only tense vowels occur in stressed
syllables with no coda (me /mi/, saw /sͻ/, true /tru/).
17. Onset restrictions in English
• Syllables may have onsets from 1 to 3 consonants:
– Examples:
• 1: tea /ti/
• 2: try /traI/
• 3: stress /strƐs/
– Onsets of 3 consonants follow the pattern:
• 1st sound = /s/
• 2nd sound = voiceless stop /t, p, k/
• 3rd sound = /l, r, w, j/
splash, strike,
squeeze, studio*
/j/ or /u/