Lecture V
Phonological processes:
lenitions and fortitions.
November, 21st, 2007
Lecture V
Phonological processes:
lenitions and fortitions.
November, 21st, 2007
The nature of phonological
processes
•
Processes reflect conflicting phonetic restrictions (e.g.
an obstruent intervocalically cannot be both voiced and
voiceless) they fall into contradictory sets, i.e. lenitions
and fortitions.
•
Lenitions – context-sensitive processes that apply in
weak positions and in casual speech . They are speaker-
friendly processes that minimise articulatory difficulties
of speech.
•
Fortitions – context-free processes but expected to
apply in strong positions and more formal styles. Their
teleology (i.e. Ultimate purpose) is to maximise the
perceptual characteristics of speech segments.
Fortitions enhance perceptibility and as such are
listener-friendly
Widely attested lenitions
•
Assimilation of place, manner and
voice
•
Consonant and vowel deletion
•
Spirantisation (approximantisation)
•
Hiatus avoidance strategies:
epenthesis, glide formation,
deletion, coalescense
Assimilation of place
•
Assimilation: regressive and progressive
•
The alveolars/dentals tend to assimilate to the place of
articulation of the following segment (regressive assimilation).
•
The propensity of // for place assimilation can be accounted for
by the fact that a nasal can be produced in most places of
articulation.
•
Examples: / / → / /
/ / → / /
/ / → / /
// → //
// → //
•
Yod coalescense: / / → //, / / → //,
/ / → //, / / → //
•
Non-assimilating languages
Assimilation of voice
•
Voice assimilation can be of two kinds, namely
voicing where [-voice] → [+voice] and
devoicing that is a change [+voice] → [- voice]
•
The plural -s, 3rd person singular –s and the
possessive s undergo the former process,e.g.
bags //, lives //, Bob’s //, while the
latter is mainly applied across word
boundaries, e.g.
•
I like that black dog / /
•
Differences between Polish and English: no
regressive voicing in English
Assimilation of voice
I like that black dog performed by a
native speaker of American
English.
Assimilation of manner
•
The interdental // tends to be realised in
various ways depending on the
phonological context in which it finds itself.
•
// can be realised as:
•
A nasal sound, e.g. / /
•
A plosive, e.g. / /
•
An approximant, e.g. / /
•
A tap, e.g. // (only in American
English)
Vowel deletion
•
Established cases of vowel deletion:
- initially: state, scholar
- medially: evening, chimney, Gloucester
- finally: time, name, hands <handes>, eaten
•
Present Day English: affected vowels /, /
•
C + // + // + WV e.g. factory, territory
•
C + // + // e.g. family, bachelor,specialist
•
C + // + // or // e.g. parade, police, terrific
•
F + // + S e.g. phonetics, thermometre,
suppose
Consonant deletion
•
Established cases of consonant deletion:
- initially: hlaford, write, know, gnat,
- medially: listen, listen, castle, but often
- finally: lamb, thumb, hymn,
•
Present Day English:
•
further simplification of consonant clusters:
wristwatch, handbag, mostly, windmill, etc.
•
The loss of // after //: always, already,
although
Spirantisation (Approximantisation)
•
Approximantisation – a phonetically
conditioned process whereby
intervocalic voiced plosives are
realised phonetically as
approximants.
•
The process is the likelier the lowest
the adjacent vowels, i.e. /_/ > /_/ >
/_/
zabawnego > dobowego > kibicować
Hiatus avoidance
•
Hiatus – seqeunce of two vowels separated by a syllable
boundary, e.g. going //, the apple //, drawing
//
•
The use of a given linking (epenthetic) consonant is
determined by the articulatory characteristics of the first
vowel.
•
Glide formation:
- in English two or three // can be realised as //
- in Spanish teatro // puerta //
-
in Polish sytuacje //
•
Deletion: hiatus former by two identical vowels realised as
one, e.g. nożyczki i igły // or alkohol //
•
Coalescence – an intermediate vowel quality results from
the coalescence of two constituents of a hiatus
Bibliography
•
O’Grady, William – Dobrovolsky, Michael – Katamba, Francis. (1996).
Contemporary linguistics. London: Pearson Education Limited.
•
Hyman, Larry. 1975. Phonology: theory and analysis. New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston Inc.
•
Sobkowiak, Włodzimierz. 2001. English phonetics for Poles. Poznań:
Wydawnictwa Poznańskie.
•
Roach, Peter. 2000. English phonetics and phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
•
Cruttenden, Alan. 1994. Gimson’s pronunciation of English. London: Arnold.
•
Gurevich, Naomi. 2004. Lenition and contrast. New York: Routledge.
•
Jaworski, Sylwester. 2006. “Phonetically conditioned processes: spirantisation
in Polish and English.” Świat Słowian w języku i kulturze 2006: vol. 5, 105-
111. Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego.
•
Jaworski, Sylwester. 2007. “Phonetically conditioned processes: vowel
weakening in Polish and Spanish.” To appear in Świat Słowian w języku i
kulturze 2007
•
Jaworski, Sylwester. 2007. “On the phonetic instability of the English
interdentals.” To appear in Doctrina Multiplex
.