Phonological Analysis (16 points)

1. Consider the sounds [i] and [] (a high central unrounded tense vowel) in the following data taken from certain Northeastern Common Turkic language.

[bit] 'mark' kim]'who'

[il]'peace'[sl] 'year'

[t]'shoot'[xatn] 'woman'

[k] 'wring'[ts]'paw'

[sil]'saliva' [kir]'nibble'

On the basis of this data, answer the following:

a. What is their distribution -- contrastive or complementary?

b. Are they allophones of one phoneme or allophones of separate phonemes?

c. If you think they are contrastive, what is the evidence (i.e., minimal pairs/set) that shows this? (And you are done -- you can stop here. Only if not contrastive, continue to 'd'.)

d. If the sounds are not contrastive, complete the chart below to show the environments in which the phones occur.

[]

[]

Then answer:

e. Which allophone is the basic phoneme?

f. Write a rule that describes the environment in which each allophone occurs.

For example, "The phoneme ___ is expressed as ___ when ... (describe the condition) and as ___ elsewhere."

2. Consider the sounds [s] and [t] in the data set taken from a certain Polynesian language.

[tauhi]

'to take care'

[sino]

'body'

[sisi]

'garland'

[totonu]

'correct'

[motu]

'island'

[pasi]

'to clap'

[mosimosi]

'to drizzle'

[fata]

'shelf'

[motomoto]

'unripe'

[movete]

'to come apart'

[fesi]

'to break'

[misi]

'to dream'

On the basis of this data, answer the following:

a. What is their distribution -- contrastive or complementary?

b. Are they allophones of one phoneme or allophones of separate phonemes?

c. If you think they are contrastive, what is the evidence (i.e., minimal pairs/set) that shows this? (And you are done -- you can stop here. Only if not contrastive, continue to 'd'.)

d. If the sounds are not contrastive, complete the chart below to show the environments in which the phones occur.

[]

[]

Then answer:

e. Which allophone is the basic phoneme?

f. Write a rule that describes the environment in which each allophone occurs.

For example, "The phoneme ___ is expressed as ___ when ... (describe the condition) and as ___ elsewhere."