Rhoticity in Phonetics

• Tutorial session VI took place on December 2nd, 2023.
• The session was held on Monday from 16:00 to 18:00 Central Time.
• Jennifer Bergner led the tutorial.

Rhoticity

• Rhoticity refers to whether the /r/ sound is pronounced in all instances where it appears in spelling.
• In rhotic accents, every /r/ that occurs in spelling is pronounced.
  • For instance, the word is pronounced /ba:rd/.
  • The words , , and are pronounced /nɪr/, /bʌdər/, and /mɑːrməleɪd/ respectively.
• In non-rhotic accents, the /r/ is only pronounced if it precedes a vowel (prevocalic).

Rhotic Accents

• General American English (GenAm) and the most US American varieties are rhotic.
• Other examples of rhotic accents include Canadian English, Scottish English, Irish English and the West Country accent in England.

Non-Rhotic Accents

• Received Pronunciation (RP) and most English varieties are non-rhotic.
• Non-rhotic accents also include Welsh English, New Zealand English, Australian English, South African English, and some Northeastern US varieties, including New York.

GenAm vs RP Distinctions

• Rhoticity: GenAm is rhotic, while RP is non-rhotic and /fɑ:r/ would be said /fɑ:/.
• Diphthong [oʊ]: GenAm pronounces it as [oʊ], while RP pronounces it as [əʊ].
• Centering diphthongs, which end in a schwa, are pronounced [aɪ] in GenAm and [ɪə] in RP.
• Father-bother merger: GenAm pronounces it [ɑ:], father [ɑ:] ,while RP pronounces it vs bother [ɒ].
• TRAP-BATH split: GenAm uses [æ] for both, while RP pronounces trap [æ] vs bath as [ɑ:].
• Yod-dropping: After [t], [d], and [n]; GenAm uses [u:], whereas RP always uses [ju:] so /tu:b/ would be said tju:b/.

Phonetics vs Phonology

• Phonology studies the sound systems and patterns in a language, looking at abstract ideas and functions of sounds.
  • Segments are studied as phonemes, denoted as /x/.
  • Phonology is language-specific.
• Phonetics studies speech sounds, focusing on physics/acoustics and concrete, measurable units.
  • Segments are studied as phones, denoted as [x].
  • Phonetics is universal, referring to the human ability to produce, transmit, and perceive sounds.

Minimal Pairs

• Minimal pairs are words that differ by only one phoneme in the same position, changing the meaning.
• Examples of minimal pairs:
  • and
  • and
  • and

Allophones

• Allophones are variations of a phoneme.
• The voiced alveolar tap, trill, voiced velar fricative, and glottal stop are not phonemes in English because they don't distinguish meaning.
• Allophones do not alter the meaning of a word, whereas phonemes do.
• [θ] and [ð] are distinct phonemes in English because they occur in minimal pairs like and ; and .
• The segments [e] and [ɛ] are allophones of the phoneme [e].
• /l/ can be realized as [l] at the start of syllables (pre-vocalic) and [ɫ] at the end of syllables (post-vocalic).
• Allophones can appear in free variation or complementary distribution.
• Complementary distribution: allophones can't occur in the same phonetic environment
• The voiceless plosives [pʰ] (as in pill) and [p] (as in spill)
• Vowel quantity /æ/: lax as in bat or tense as in bad
• Free variation: Allophones can appear in the same phonetic environment
• Intervocalic /t/ : [t] & [d] & [ʔ] & [ɾ]
• Phones = allophones, different ways of pronouncing the phoneme /l/
  • [l] assimilation
  • [ɫ]
  • [l̥] voiceless

Phonological Processes

• Phonological processes occur over time and in spontaneous speech, facilitating articulation and simplifying consonant clusters.
• They are also known as co-articulation effects.
• A sound becomes more like another through assimilation, and in connected speech
  • becomes [ʌmpæk]
  • becomes [wʊdʒu], or becomes [ɪʒɒ]
• Dissimilation: two sounds become less alike and is rarer than the other processes, more sporadic
  • modern E purple from Latin purpurem
• A segment is deleted by deletion/elision
  • becomes [gɪmi]
  • <didn't he> becomes [dɪdni]
  • becomes [mʌsbi]
• Epenthesis: a segment is inserted into a string of segments
  • athlete becomes [æθəliːt]
• Metathesis reorders a sequence of segments.
• becomes [ma:ks]
• Vowel reduction: unstressed vowels are reduced to schwa

Phonotactic Constraints

• If a word was to be borrowed from another language, phonotactics are the rules telling us which phoneme combinations are allowed.
• could be problematic regarding onset constraints.
• The acceptable English word could be transformed by adding vowels, known as epenthesis, or by metathesis, and elision
• /sigləp/, /sigulp/or /ʃigulp/, /hʌsigləp/ are acceptable syllable structures
• Phonotactic rule: homorganic sound combinations are not possible
• Onset clusters usually consist:
  • CC stop/ fricative + liquid/ glide

Syllabification procedure

• Syllabification involves drawing a syllable tree
• Transcription: /hæt/
• /h/ is the onset, /æ/ is the nucleus, and /t/ is the coda
• Maximum Onset principle: Intervocalic consonants are maximally assigned to the onsets of syllables
• /θʌrəli/: CV.CV.CV not CVC.V.CV
• Transcribe the word broadly
• Identify the syllables
• Note down the CV-structure

Key Words

• Minimal pair/ minimal pair test
• Allophone/ allophony
• Complimentary distribution
• Free variation
• Syllable/ syllable structure
• Nucleus
• Coda
• Rhyme
• Onset
• Onset constraints
• Phonotactic rules
• Syllabification procedure
• Consonant cluster
• Consonant cluster reduction
• Phonological processes
• Assimilation
• Dissimilation
• Deletion/ elision
• Epenthesis
• Metathesis
• Vowel reduction
• Rhoticity
• Lexical sets