PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

PHONEME AND ALLOPHONE

SOLUTION
Exercise 1. a)
1 /daza/ is not possible because [z] is an allophone of /d/ in
intervocalic position so the correct phonemic transcription
would be /dada/.
2

[dama] is not possible because in this phonetic transcription

requires the nasalisation on the first vowel [

ma]

3 [bada] should be [baza] because [z] is the allophone of /d/

when it occurs intervocalically.
4

bi/ should be /mabi/ because nasalised vowels are

allophones but also /a/ would not be nasalised here because
only vowels preceding nasals are nasalised.

5 /sai/ should be /sasi/ because the [] is an allophone of /s/

and therefore not required in the phonemic transcription.
6 [asa] [] does not occur in this environment because it is
an allophone that only precedes [i].
Exercise 1. b)
/b/ and /m/ are contrastive units in this language ie different
phonemes, but [s] does not contrast with [] as they are
allophones of the same phoneme.
Exercise 2.
1. The two shortest words are /i/ and /a/.
2. The longest word has the structure `CCVCCVCCV

3. Examples of two syllable words

V`V
/ia/
[i'a]
V`V
/ai/
[a' i]
V`CV
/ipa/
[i'pa]
CV`V
/pia/
[fi'a]
V`CCV
/ipni/
[i'pni]
`CCVV
/pnai/
['pnai]
CV`CV
/pani/
[fa'ni]
`CCVCV
/pnani/
['pnani]
CV`CCV
/nipna/
[ni'pna]
`CCVCCV
/pnipna/
['pnifma]
iii. You could use the fact that there are no minimal pairs and
that these sounds only occur in complementary distribution.
You could ask a speaker of the language to write down a word
that contains a /f/ and if the writing system of the language is
based on phonemic principles they would probably use a p for
such sounds.
You could demonstrate that speakers of this language have
difficulty differentiating between the two sounds in minimal pairs
e.g. cheap/chief.
Exercise 3.
/meli kalikimaka/
i. There are no consonant clusters in this language so vowels
will be inserted between adjacent consonants. As syllables
always end in vowels there will be no word that ends in a
consonant so again a vowel will be inserted.
Vowels and consonants that are not present in the language will
be substituted with those that are most similar eg /r/ -> /l/, /s/ ->
/k/ from the phonemic inventory of the language.
ii. Hawaiian /p/ is used for English /p, b, f/

iii. Consonant clusters are either simplified to a single

consonant eg story -> /kole/ or a vowel is inserted between the
two elements.
iv. /pal/ = /fl/, /ao/ = / {O/, /a/ = schwa
v. / fo:ls/ -> /polaki/, /fli:t/ -> /paliki
Exercise 4.
/s/ occurs after [- voice] except sibilants and affricates

/z/ occurs after [+voice] except sibilants and affricates

/z/ occurs after sibilants and affricates

Exercise 5.

/lr/ occurs when the stem contains a [+back] vowel

/ler/ occurs when the stem contains a [-back] vowel