Name:_____________________________

Linguistics for Teachers and Writers

TESC E&W Studies

Study guide for week 3:

The goals for this week are to: 1) learn how to begin the process of
isolating the phonemes of a language through minimal pairs; 2) use the
notions of contrastive and complementary distribution to establish the
Underlying Representation (UR) of words; 3) examine the ways in which
sounds can affect each other; 4) capture these processes in the form of a
phonological rule.

Readings:
Language Files: Chapter 3
Pinker: Chapter 9

Exercises from the text:
Language Files: File 3.6

Additional exercises:
1. Illustrate the English phonemic contrasts given at the left with minimal
pairs, one exhibiting the contrast in initial position and the other in final
position, if possible.
initial position final position
a. /p, b/ pie, buy rope, robe
b. /k, g/
c. /f, v/
d. /, /
e. /s, z/
f. /m, n/
g. /n, r/
h. /r, l/
i. /t, d/
j. /, /
k. /p, f/
l. /d, z/
m. /t, /
n. /d, /

o. /, t/
p. /h, w/
q. /s, /

2. Ferengi is an invented language spoken by characters on the television
show Star Trek. Examine the following small sample of words from
Ferengi and answer the questions below.
arf sit
v see
t0x give
sol go
me have
mc n want
da read
p nd write
sc/t exist
pa speak
l buy
byu profit
k0? sell
ndf open
vow strike/hit
cne act/do
cnke make
dc/n punish
dl love/like
lof need
wl eat
ckf keep (object)
nt0g maintain
zi question
ato be able
d0k get
xc spend (money)
zg be necessary
ku obstruct
0d allow
voz cause
f instinct
st0m equals
ko agree
fct trade
fk deal
gcp teach
tl friend/friendly
ka/ hand
al red
pfat person
da nk thing
6cd family
pk strong
6a r wheat
6a rgw bread
sc n alone
s happiness/happy
fcd Federation
cr Earth
:ha n Romulan
lr Klingon
hj0m Human


a. What are the vowel phones in Ferengi? What are the vowel phonemes?

b. What phonological processes do you see in Ferengi vowels? Write a
rule (first in words, then in formal notation) to describe this process.

3. What do all these words have in common?

a it tea file fifth screwed strength

4. People who live in small, closely-knit communities (like prisons or High
Schools) sometimes develop special 'insider' or 'secret' languages.
These languages help identify members of the community, and isolate
outsiders (like prison guards, teachers or parents). Verlan is this kind of
language for teenagers in France. The height of its popularity was in the
late 1980s, but it is still widely used by teens living in the suburbs of
Paris and beyond. The system behind verlan is simple, but like any
language game it has its quirks!

The following are some examples of French words along with their
translations into Verlan and English:

French IPA Verlan IPA English
a. metro [mctro] trome [tromc] subway
b. dmon [dcma] mond [mandc] demon
c. gamin [gamc] mega [mcga] kid (m.)
d. zonard [zonaL] narzo [naLzo] thug
e. fumer [fume] mefu [mefu] to smoke
f. jeter [cte] tj [tec] to throw
g. pasteur [pasto ] steurpa [sto pa] pastor

Whats the rule? So far, it looks like: move the first two sounds to the
end of the word. Now look at the following set:

h. bloquer [blokc] qublo [kcblo] to block
i. cresson [krcsa ] soncr [sankrc] watercress
j. blouson [bluza ] zomblou [zamblu] jacket
k. francais [frasez] cefrain [sezfra] French


Uh-oh, now the rule gets a little more complicated: move the first one
or two consonants (if any), first vowel and sometimes the following
consonant to the end of the word. AARGG! Whats the right
generalization?

Translate the following French words into Verlan (with IPA):
b. piston [psta ] piston
c. foulard [fulaL] scarf
d. poison [pwaza ] poison
e. savon [sava] soap
f. toison [twaza ] fleece
g. sacquer [sakc] to fire

So what on earth is going on with these examples?

French IPA Verlan IPA English
a. lourd [luL] relou [rclu] subway
b. rap [rap] pera [pcra] rap
c. black [blak] kebla [kcbla] black (Eng.)




Essential concepts:

a. allophone
b. phoneme
c. contrastive distribution
d. complementary distribution
e. free distribution
f. minimal pair
g. assimilation
h. dissimilation
i. deletion
j. insertion
k. metathesis
l. vowel harmony
m. syllable
n. onset
o. nucleus
p. coda
q. rhyme