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Module 21: Types of Phonological processes-I

Linguistics

Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology

Types of Phonological Processes-I

Principal Investigator Prof. Pramod Pandey Centre for Linguistics, SLL&CS, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi-110067

Paper Coordinator Prof. Pramod Pandey

Module ID & Name Lings_P2_M21; Types of Phonological Processes- I

Content Writer Pramod Pandey

Email id pkspandey@yahoo.com

Phone 011-26741258, -9810979446

Objectives:

• To give a comprehensive account of the typology of phonological

processes

• To make students aware of the wide use of the processes in various fields

dealing with phonology

Contents:

Introduction

Types of phonological processes

Whole segment phonological processes

Co-occurrence Modification types of phonological processes

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Syllable-based phonological processes

Articulatory phonological processes: Strengthening and Weakening processes

Summary

21.1 Introduction

This module introduces the various types of phonological processes that are

found in world languages. These are presented with definitions and examples.

Although an attempt has been made to present the processes as

comprehensively as possible, they are by no means exhaustive. A full treatment

of the processes will take up more space than we have available in this course.

Besides, there is need to distinguish between individual phonological processes

and the classes of phonological processes. Many of the specific phonological

processes can be grouped into more than one class. Essentially then it is the

individual phonological processes that should be kept in mind.

21.2 Need for the study of phonological Processes

Why should we study phonological processes? The following are some of reasons

for the study of phonological processes:

• Each language has a unique phonological system that makes use of

phonological process that are specific to itself. The types of

processes, however, are finite. This explains the universality of the

processes and the phonological systems they give rise to.

• Many disciplines, such as psycho-neurolinguistics, historical

linguistics, language acquisition, etc. deal with phonology.

Although they differ in their approaches, the processes are

common to them. For a phonologist, it is thus necessary to know

them in order to describe them in those disciplines.

• In the study of the phonological system of a language, students are

expected to name the phonological processes that they discover in

the course of their study.

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• It is assumed that students are familiar with the types of

phonological processes that are discussed in phonological

grammars and studies.

21.3 Types of Phonological Processes

There are two main types of phonological processes- Whole Segment processes and

Modification type processes.

Whole segment processes are those processes that affect the segmental structure of

the word, by deleting, inserting or changing segments from one contrasting segment

type to another. These operate at the level of phonemes

21.4 Whole segment processes

The whole segment processes are the following:

• Insertion

• Deletion

• Syllabication

• Desyllabication

• Coalescence

• Metathesis

The whole-segment processes are discussed below.

21.4.1 Insertion

Insertion takes place when one or more segments are added to a morpheme or a

word. For example, /u/ insertion in Tamil.

[u] insertion in Tamil (Vasanthakumari 1989)

/u/ is inserted at the end of stems ending a consonant other than the palatal

approximant /j/. E.g.

(21/1)

a. /u:t/ [u:t u] ‘to blow’ /ko:r/ [ko:ru] ‘to collect’

/a:ɭ/ [a:ɭu] ‘to rule’ /ʋe:r/ [ʋe:ru] ‘root’

/tu:n/ [tu:nu] ‘pillar’ /e:ʋ/ [e:ʋu] ‘to send’

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b. /pa:l/ [pa:lu] ‘milk’ /pe:r/ [pe:ru] ‘name’

/self/ [selfu] ‘self’ /te:n/ [te:nu] ‘honey’

Stem-final vowel insertion is found in many languages, for example, Japanese and

Kannada.

Depending on where in the word a segment is inserted, we have three different

types of insertion

Insertion at the beginning of words is called Prothesis, , e.g. /i/ epenthesis in

Hindi dialects. Words beginning with a sC- cluster are pronounced with and

initial /i/ in many dialects of Hindi as well as in other languages. For example,

21/2

/sku:l/ [isku:l] ‘school’

/sma:rək/ [isma:rək] ‘memorial’

/stri:/ [istri:] ‘woman’

Insertion in the middle of words is called Epenthesis. More precisely, epenthesis

of vowels is called Anaptyxis, and epenthesis of consonants is called

Excrescence.

Examples of both are given below:

Anaptyxis in borrowed words in Punjabi

Borrowed words in Punjabi that have initial consonant clusters undergo /a/-

Anaptyxis, e. g.

21/3

/sku:l/ [səku:l] ‘school’

/sma:rak/ [səma:rak] ‘memorial’

/praka:sh/ [pərka:sh] ‘light’

Insertion at the end of words is called Paragoge. /u/- insertion in Tamil is an

example of paragoge.

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An example of excrescence is found in Gondi: /son + u:s/ →/sondu:s/‘tolose’.

21.4.2 Deletion or Elision

Deletion takes place when a segment is elided in a given context. For example, in

Hindi, a schwa is deleted when it is occurs in an unstressed open syllable and

flanked by syllables, of t which the preceding syllable is stressed, e.g.

21/4

/təbəla:/ [ˈtəbla:] ‘a percussion instrument’

/məŋɡəla:/ [ˈməŋɡla:] ‘(a name)’

/titəli:/ [ˈtitli:] ‘butterfly’

Depending on the position in the word where a segment is deleted, there are

three types of Deletion.

When a segment is deleted word-initially, we have aphesis oraphaeresis. This

process is commonly found in historical change. For example- amend >mend,

acute>cute, and alone>lone.

When a segment is deleted word-medially, we have syncope. Schwa deletion in

Hindi is an instance of syncope.

When a segment is deleted word-finally, we have apocope. For example, in the

present-day Hindi, the word-final schwa (kept in Sanskrit) is deleted:

21/5

/ra:ma/ [ra:m] ‘(a name)’

/kamala/ [kamal] ‘lotus’

/na:ma/ [na:m] ‘name, noun’

There are many example of apocope in British English. Two of them are Final

/ɡ/-Deletion and Medial /r/- Deletion. Thus, in words ending in /ŋɡ/, the final

/ɡ/ is elided: /sɪŋɡ/ > [sɪŋ], /brɪŋɡ/ > [brɪŋ], etc. And /r/ at the end of words is

deleted, e.g. /fa:r/ [fa:] ‘far’, /rɪvər/ [rɪvə] ‘river’, etc.

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The /r/-Deletion rule in English also takes place when /r/ is followed by a

consonant, as in bird, turning. What type of deletion is the /r/-Deletion rule in

this context?

21. 4.3 Syllabication

Syllabication is the process whereby a consonant comes to occupy the position of

the nucleus of a syllable. This typically happens when a vowel is deleted between

a sonorant consonant another consonant. The sonorant consonant then becomes

syllabic. A syllabic consonant istranscribedwithasubsript[ ] below the

consonant, as for example, in Chokri:

21/6

/məbo4/ [mbo4] ‘kiss’

/mədi4/[mdi4]>[ndi4] ‘to loose’

Englishhas/mnl /and/r/ (in American English) as syllabic consonants in

words such as button, bottom, bottle and butter, pronounced as /bɐtn/, /bɔtm/,

/bɔtll / and /bɑtr/, respectively. In second language varieties like those of Indian

English, there are no syllabic consonants. The syllabic consonants are

pronounced as non-syllabic consonants with a following vowel /ə/, as in Hindi

English /bəʈən/, /bɔ:ʈəm/, /bɔ:ʈəl/ and /bəʈər/.

21.4.4 Desyllabication

Desyllabication takes place when a vowel or a syllabic consonant becomes non-

syllabic. In many languages, that do not permit a sequence of two vowels, one of

the vowels becomes non-syllabic (andtranscibedwithasubscript[ ] or changes

to a semi-vowel, among other possible processes. Thus, in Bhili (Kulkarni 1976:

44), a stem-final /i/ changes to /j/ when followed by /a:/, e.g. kaʈhi + a/ [kaThja/

‘sticks’, /ʈopi + a/ [ʈopja] ‘caps’. In Ao, an/i/ changes to [j] after an /a/, e.g /pá +

i/ [páj/ ‘3PER-M-S-NOM’, i.e ‘he’/lá + i/ [láj] ‘3PER-F-S-NOM’ , i.e. ‘she’. Examples

of a syllabic consonant becoming non-syllabic in related words are commonly

found in English, as in [krɪpling] ‘crippling’ (< /krɪpl/ ‘cripple’), /smɐɡling/

‘smuggling’ (</smɐɡl,/ ‘smuggle’). The process applies optionally in these words

in many varieties of English, which means both the pronunciations, with syllabic

as well as non-syllabic sonorants, are found to exist.

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21.4.5 Coalescence

Coalescence takes place when two segments are fused to give rise to a third

segment. In a lot of languages, vowel coalescence takes place as a result of a

prohibition against the occurrence of a sequence of vowels, as one of the options

(deletion of one of the vowels or insertion of an approximant or glottal stop,

being other options). In these situations, the phenomenon is commonly known

as Vowel Sandhi, as in Sanskrit, for example, /ə +i/ > /e:/ , /a: +i/ > /e:/, /a: +i:/

> /e:/, /ə +u/ > /o:/, /a: +u/ > /o:/, /a: +u:/ > /o:/. E.g. /rəma: +i:sh/ >

/rame:sh/ ‘lord of Rama’, /məha: + utsəʋ/ /məho:tsəʋ/ ‘ a great celebration’.

In Paite, before any consonant except glottal stop /ʔ/ diphthongs /ua/ and /ia/ change to single vowels /o/ and /e/, respectively. This is an example of phonetic coalescence. 21/7 Paite vowel coalescence

Stem Derived Form /ɡua/ ‘bamboo’ /pʰel/ ‘(to) untie’ /ɡopʰel/ ‘catapult’ /vua/‘(to) beat’ /kəp/‘(to)cry’/vokəp/ ‘(to) beat to cry’ /kia/‘(to)fall’/suk/‘steep’/kesuk/ ‘(to) fall downwards’ /bia/‘(to)worship’/ta:/‘non–future’/bet a:/ ‘has worshipped’

A well-known example of the process of consonantal coalescence is found

Indonesian (Halle & Clements 1983: 125)

21/8 Indosian consonant coalscence

/məŋ-pilih/ →məmilih ‘to choose’

/məŋ-tulis/ →mənulis ‘to write’

/məŋ-kasih/ →məŋasih ‘to give’

Coalescence also takes place between tones in tonal languages. For example, in

Hausa (Leben 2009) , when a word ends in a falling tone and the following word

begins with a rising tone, although the first vowel is deleted, a new tone emerges,

as if to preserve the tones of the independent words. For example,

21/9 Hausa Contraction

taa baa ni taa ban ‘she gave (it) to me’

H H L H H L

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Whereas in the word /taa-baa-ni/, there are two tones H and L, in /taa-ban/, a

third tone, a contour tome H-L emerges.

21.4.6 Metathesis

Metathesis takes place when the order of segments changes. For example, in

Gondi (Kulkarni 1976: 45),

21/7 Gondi metathesis

/kabdur +aN/ > /kabudraN/ ‘pigeions’

/datVan +aN/ /dataVnaN/ ‘tooth cleaning sticks’

21.5 Modification Type Phonological Processes

In addition to the types of processes which add, delete, switch or give rise to new

segments, there are processes which modify segments in various ways. The

modification type processes lead to the increase of allophones in the phonemeic

system of a language. Listed below are the main modification types, according to

the following categories:

i. Co-occurrence

ii. Coarticulation

iii. Manner of Articulation

iv. Place of Articulation

v. Transitional

vi. Laryngeal types

vii. Syllable-Based

viii. Articulatory

Some of the processes described below overlap. For instance, voicing, a laryngeal

type process is also a co-occurrence process. However, whereas co-occurrence is

a class, voicing a specific type of process. A specific process can exemplify more

than one class.

21.5.1 Co-occurrence

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Co-occurrence modification processes take place on account of segments

occurring together. The main processes of co-occurrence are the following:

21.5.1.1 Assimilation

When a sound takes the features of a neighbouring sound, the process is known

as assimilation.

Figure 21-1: The assimilated negro

http://theassimilatednegro.blogspot.in/2009/03/love-that-german-egineering-

in.html

Assimilation is one of the major modification type processes. It subsumes

various processes that are classified on different parameters.

Two main parameters of classification are the following:

a. Phonetic features:

b. Direction of change

Assimilation types according to phonetic features

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The classification of assimilation processes according to phonetic features is

mainly in terms of the number of features it involves. Accordingly, it is grouped

as a single feature (e.g. voice), or partial (e.g the place) or total (i.e. all features of

a segment) assimilation. Examples of these are given below.

Sanskrit voicing as single feature assimilation

In Sanskrit, voiceless obstruents are voiced before voiced segments. E.g.

21/10

sət + bʱa:w→sədbʱa:w ‘good will’

wa:k + i:ʃ →wa:ɡi:ʃ ‘god of speech’

s1t + a:ʧa:r →səda:ʧa:r ‘truthful behaviour’

Hindi nasal assimilation as partial assimilation:

In Hindi, nasals assimilate to the following obstruent in place, as can be seen in

2/11: 21/11

ʧəmpa (a flower)’ ʧinta: ‘worry’ ɡʱəɳʈa: ‘hour

ʧəɲʧəl ‘naughty’ ʃəŋka: ‘doubt’ kʰəmbʱa: ‘pillar’

ɡəɲʤa: ‘bald- M-S’ ɡənda: ‘dirty-M-S’ ʈʰəɳɖa: ‘cold-M-S’

ɡəŋɡa: ‘(name of a river)’

In Hindi, a nasal has the same place of articulation as the following stop. The

nasal place assimilation in Hindi is a case of partial assimilation, as it involves

more than one place feature for the segments that are labial, dental, retroflex,

palatal and velar. The process changes a nasal to one of the following places-

labial, dental, retroflex, palatal and velar, before obstruents that are labial,

dental, retroflex, palatal and velar. In the case of Sanskrit, any voiceless

obstruent changes to voice. The process needs to mention that all obstruents

become voiced.

Partial and Total assimilation in English negative prefix

The nasal consonant /n/ in the English negative prefix shows both partial and

total assimilation:

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21/12

a. /in + possible/ impossible /in + balance/ imbalance

b. /in + regular/ irregular /in + legal/ ‘illegal’

The total assimilated consonant is finally a single consonant’ [irregular], [ili:ɡəl].

Assimilation types according to direction of assimilation

These are of two types mainly: Progressive and Regressive assimilation. If the

direction of assimilation is rightward, that is, the following sound acquires the

features of the preceding sound, the process is progressive assimilation, as in

Tulu (Bhat 1967). In Tulu, when a dental voiced stop or a dental lateral follows a

retroflex consonant, it becomes retroflex, e.g.

21/13

uɳ + de [uɳɖe] ‘I ate’ uɳ +la [uɳɭa:] ‘eat!’

kuɭ + la [kuɭɭa] ‘sit!’ paɖ ɨ + la [paɖɭa] ‘put!’

If the direction of assimilation is leftward, that is, the preceding sound acquires

the features of the following sound, the process is regressive or anticipatory

assimilation. For example, nasal assimilation in Hindi is regressive, as it takes the

place of the following stop consonant.

Vowel Harmony

A well-known type of assimilation is Vowel Harmony. It involves assimilation of

features between vowels at a distance. Various languages such as Bangla, Telugu

from India and Korean, Mongolian and Turkish, among others, have vowel

harmony. Examples of vowel harmony are abundantly found in Arabic dialects.

In Yemeni variety of Arabic, for example, verbs are classified as either a- type or

i- type, as shown below in 3rd person singular forms:

21/14

a- type ‘to write i- type ‘to drink’

a. katabat ʃiribit

b. katabah ʃiribih

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The data are taken from

http://individual.utoronto.ca/pmonahan/papers/Monahan_2009_EALL.pdf

As we can see, all the vowels in the a-type verbs are ‘a’ vowel, and all the vowels

in i-type verbs are ‘i’ vowel.

21.5.1.2 Dissimilation

Dissimilation takes place when a sound is modified so that it differs from a

neighbouring sound in some property.

In Chokri, a labial nasal [m] is realized as a labiodental [ɱ] before /u/, a rounded

(labial) vowel. In Greek, a voiceless velar stop becomes a fricative before another

stop. E.g. /epta/ [efta] ‘seven’, /ktizma/ [xtizma] ‘building’. (See

http://udel.edu/~koirala/phonology/day5.pdf).

In Paite (Moi 2015), when a verb stem ends in a coronal and a velarnasal/n,ŋ/

thederivedverbstemisdevoicedtoavoicelesscoronalplosive/t/beforea

nominaliser/na/:

Paite nasal dissimilation

21/15

Stem Derived Forms a) /ŋe:n/ ‘(to) ask/request’ /na:/ ‘nominalizer’ /ŋetna:/ ‘application’ b) /tsıŋ/ ‘kind’ /na:/ ‘nominalizer‘ /tsıtna:/ ‘kindness’ c) /doŋ / ‘(to) question’ /na:/ ‘nominalizer’ /dotna:/ ‘questioning’

Dissimilation in the above case is of the feature nasal. A nasal changes to a

plosive before a nasal.

Well-known cases of dissimilation are found in tonal languages. It has been

observed, that generally, identical tones are not permitted in tonal languages.

This principle has been given the name of Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP). In

some languages, if there are identical tones, they become dissimilar, as in Tianjin

(Yip 2009)

Tianjin tone dissimilation

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LH.LH → H.LH /xiLH/ →[xiH.lianLH] ‘wash one’s face’

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HL.HL → L.HL /jingHL/ →[jingL.zhongHL] ‘net weight’ L.L → LH.L /feiL/ →[feiLH.jiL] ‘airplane’

21.5.2 Coarticulation

As discussed in Module 9, Coarticulation is one of the most interesting

phenomena in phonetics and phonology. Phonetically, coarticulation is “the

overlapping of adjacent articulations” (Ladefoged 1993: 55). Coarticulation is

also unplanned compared to Co-occurrence phenomena such as assimilation.

One of the intriguing and interesting issues in the study of coarticulation is how

given identical contexts, language varieties choose different ways of realizing

coarticulatory effects. We looked at the process of nasalization in Standard

English and in second language varieties of English, such as the varieties of

Indian English in the examples in 9/1.

Secondary articulation

Secondary articulations are the best known examples of the processes of

coarticulation. Secondary articulation takes place when sounds are modified to

add another articulatory feature to the main or primary articulator features.

These are in the main Labialization (the addition of lip rounding), Palatalization

(raising the front of the tongue), Velarization (raising the back of the tongue) and

Pharyngealization (the raising of the root of the tongue or the epiglottis). These

are discussed in detail in Module 9. We will not dwell on them further here. You

are advised to go back to module 9 to refresh your understanding of these

modification types.

Co-articulatory processes also include processes that involve change in the

place of articulation in the vocal tract, as described below.

Retraction. Retraction takes place when a sound is articulated with the tongue

moving inward in the vocal tract. For example, in Assamese, alveolar consonants

are retracted to and retroflexed before /r/: /sɑ:tro/ [sɑ:ʈro] ‘student’, /mitro/

[miʈro] ‘friend. In Malto, the alveolar trill /r/ is retracted to a uvular trill [ʀ]

before uvular plosives /q ɢ/: /orɢu/ [oʀɢu] ‘nail. In Kodagu, /a/ is retracted to

[ɑ] when preceded by velar and glottal consonants: /akka/ [ɐkkɑ] ‘then’, /maha/

[mɐhɑ] ‘big, famous’. (Note that [ɐ]< /a/ occurs non-finally.)

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Advancement. Advancement Retraction takes place when a sound is articulated

with the tongue moving outward in the vocal tract. For example, in Gondi, a

voiceless retroflex plosive changes to a voiceless alveolar plosive before front

vowels: /ka:nɖi:r/ [ka:ndi:r] ‘boys’.

Centralization. Centralization takes place when a sound is articulated with the

tongue moving towards the centre in the vocal tract. For example, in Oriya, the

non-low vowels /i u e o/ are centralized [ıueo] before retroflex stops: /piʈ/

[pıʈ] ‘to beat’, /uʈʰ/[uʈʰ] ‘to get up’, /beɭɔ/[beɭɔ] ‘a fruit’, /oʈo/[oʈo] ‘camel’.

Another major type of co-articulatory processes are those that involve a change

in the manner of articulation of a sound. The prominent once are described

below.

Affrication. When a plosive or a fricative changes to an affricate, the process is

called affrication. For example, in Lepcha, /s/ is affricated and aspirated [ʧʰ],

following an alveolar nasal /n/ or plosive /t/: ...

Approximantization. When a non-approximant consonant changes to an

approximant, the process is called approximantization. For example, in Limbu,

/b/ is optionally approximantized to [w] between two vowels or after the nasal

consonant /n/: /nuba/ [nuba] or [nuwa] ‘new’, /budʱəba:r/ [budʱəba:r] or

[budʱəwa:r] ‘Wednesday.’

Flapping. When the tip and the blade of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge or

the hard palate and returns without creating an obstruction in the oral passage.

Retroflex flapping is a common process in Indic languages. E. g. Hindi: /ɡʱo:ɖa:/

à [ɡʱo:ɽa:] ‘horse’.

Occlusion. Occlusion takes place when a consonant other than a plosive changes

to a plosive. For example, in Malayalam: /r/ à[tt]; /r/ à [d]: [a:ra] < /a:ri/

'cooled-intr', but [a:tti] < /a:rri/ 'cooled-tr'; [a:ra] 'river', but [a:ttil] < /a:rril/ 'in

the river’.

Prenasalization. When a consonant has a nasal onset for a non-nasal consonant,

it is said to be pre-nasalized. For example, in the Metwang variety of Rawang

(Morse 1988), voiceless and voiced bilabial, alveolar and velar plosives /b d ɡ/

freely vary with the prenasalized voiced counterparts [mb, nd, nɡ] as well as the

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voiceless plosive counterparts [p t k]. Thus /b/ may realized as [p], [b] or [mb]:

/ba/ ‘cloth’ [ba], [pa] or [mba].

Nasal release. When a non-nasal consonant is released nasally, the consonant is

said to have nasal release. For example, in Mundari, the voiced bilabial dental

plosives /b d/ have nasal release [bm dn] when they occur in the coda position in

a monosyllable. In that position, they are also pre-glottalized: [ˀbm, ˀdn]: /ub/

[uʔbm], but /udub/ [uduʔb], /rid/ ‘to grind’ [riʔdn], but /birid/ ‘to stand up’ [biriʔd]

Spirantization. Spirantization takes place when a plosive or an affricate change

to a fricative. For example, in Tamil ,the voiceless velar plosive /k/ is realized as

the voicelss velar fricative /x/: /pakal/ [pɐxəl] ‘day’, /makan/ [mɐxən] ‘son’.

Tapping. When the tongue makes a single and quick contact with the alveolar

ridge, there is tapping. In the Indo-Diu variety of Portuguese (Cardoso 2005), the

trill /r/ is realized as tap [ɾ] in a non-initial position in the word: /naris/ [naˈɾis]

‘nose’, /mora/ [ˈmoɾa] ‘backberry’, /komer/ [koˈmeɾ] ‘to eat’, but /russo/ [ˈrusso]

‘Russia’.

Trilling. When the tip of the tongue or the uvula makes several quick contacts

with the alveolar ridge or the velum respectively, we have trilling. E.g. In Tamil,

the voiceless alveolar lateral /l/ is produced as a trill [r] when it precedes a stop

in the following morpheme: /kal + kaɳʈu/ [karkaɳʈu] ‘rock candy’, /na:l + ka:li/

[na:rka:li] ‘chair’.