Foundations of Phonology Lecture 12

Foundations of Phonology - The Shape of Things to Come

• Course: BBN-ANG-141 Foundations of Phonology
• Lecture: 12. The shape of things to come
• Lecturer: Péter Szigetvári
• Department: English Linguistics, Eötvös Loránd University

Language Change

• Linguistic systems are constantly changing
• Change is not uniform across all speakers
• Some speakers adopt new forms, others do not
• Some words are altered by the change, others are not
• To predict change directions, examine younger speakers' speech

Standard British English

• Mid-20th century standard: Received Pronunciation (RP)
• Also known as Public School English
• RP is now seen as outdated
• Estuary English is a contemporary standard, a blend of RP and Cockney
• Proposals for standard name: GB (General British), CUBE (Current British English), SBE (Standard British English), SSBE (Standard Southern British English)

TH-fronting

• θ → f and ð → v

• Example words: think (fink), path (parf), month (mənf), through (fruw), theory (fixrij), pathetic (pəfetik), faithful (fejffəl), thirty three (Ѳəxtij frij)

• Probability increases with frequency

• θ → v after a vowel or glide: mother (məvə), bathe (bejv), without (wiváwt)

• ð → d elsewhere: then (den), cat( də kát), although (o:ldów)

• Mergers: hearth/half, Ruth/roof, thallic/phallic, thawed/ford, thin/fin, third/furred, thorn/faun, thought/fort/fought, three/free, throws/froze, clothe/clove, lather/larva, nether/never, oaths/oaves, then/den, thence/dense, there/dare, they/day, etc

Palatalization

• tj → tʃ, dj → dʒ, sj → ʃ, zj → ʒ
• Historical: before j + unstressed vowel (nature, question; procedure, soldier; pressure, confession; seizure, fusion)
• Exceptionally before stressed vowel (mature, sure)
• Extension 1: before stressed vowel (Tuesday, dune); assume, presume (s,z do not palatalize word initially)
• Extension 2: before any palatal consonant (trap, draw, question, disregard, Israel)
• Multiple steps: stupid (stʃu:pid), strong (stʃroŋ)

The Anticlockwise Vowel Shift

• Vowel symbols used: e, ɛ, æ, a, ʌ, ʊ, o, ɔ, ɑ, ɒ, etc.
• RP (Gimson), CUBE (Lindsey) vowel diagrams illustrating the shift

GOOSE- and GOAT-fronting

• GOOSE (UW) → (HW) -Examples: too (tuw), fuse (fjuwz), Hewlett (hjuwlət), hooligan (huwligən)
• Not before word-final/preconsonantal [I]: rule, school.
• GOAT (OW) → (əW) -Examples: go (gəw), goat (gəwt), Cola (kəwlə), holy (həwlij)
• Not before word-final/preconsonantal [I]: goal, pole, gold.
• Two allophones for these vowels
• GOOSE: uw before nonprevocalic I (fool) and uw elsewhere

L- "vocalization"

• L → W unless followed by a vowel (mill, felt, help, world)
• Examples: mill (miw), felt (fewt), help (hewp), world (wəwd)
• VS Millie(milij), fellow(feləw), hello(heləw), early(əxlij)
• j/w deletion: tale (tejl → tew), owl(awl → aw), world (wə:ld → wəwd)
• After stressed ǝ: null (nǝl → nów).
• After unstressed ǝ: mental (méntəl → méntu), little(lítəl → lítu), April (éjprǝl → éjpru)

GOAT- & GOOSE-fronting and L-vocalization lead to splits.

• Early vs. now: changes in pronounciation of words such as go, goal, code, cold. too, tool, rude, ruled
• GOAT and GOOSE vowels develop into two contrasting vowels (ow & ǝw, uw & uw)

GOOSE and GOAT glide fronting

• GOOSE (UW) → (HJ)
• goose (gujs), two (tuj)
• GOAT (OW) → (AJ)
• goat (gəjt), moment (məjmənt),
• Blocked by following I (vowel does not front)
• fool, goal

Changes in the Vowel Inventory

• Chart illustrating vowel changes in pronunciation from various earlier versions to modern versions. Including examples of vowel changes (i → ij etc.)

Sample Exam Questions

• Which pair is homophonous in British English?
  • Think/sink, that/fat, then/Zen, nether/never
• In which of the following pairs of words might the pronunciation of the vowel differ?
  • Cod/cog, coat/coal, fall/call, goat/boat

This quiz focuses on Lecture 12 of the Foundations of Phonology course, which covers language change and its impact on linguistic systems. It highlights the evolution of Standard British English and the phenomenon of TH-fronting. Test your understanding of these key concepts in phonology.