questions for topic 3

(try answer the questions, then move the pointer below the question to see the answer)

1. Why do p and b “count” as different consonants in English, when they do not in Arabic?
   because English has minimal pairs that differ in these two consonants (like pig/big), while Arabic does not
2. How can we be so sure that clear [l] and dark [ɫ] never contrast in English?
   the two sounds are in complementary distribution: clear l occurs only before a vowel, dark ɫ cannot occur before a vowel
3. What is overlapping distribution?
   distributions that share common environments (like _ig is an environment where both /p/ and /b/ occur in English) are overlapping; two sounds in overlapping distribution contrast
4. What is a phoneme?
   a sound that contrasts with other sound, a sound that different from another sound in a linguistically significant way in a given language
5. What are allophones of a phoneme?
   sounds that do not contrast with each other, sounds that are in complementary distribution, where one occurs the other one does not, contextual/​predictable variants of a phoneme
6. What is free variation?
   two sound are in free variation when they are interchangeable without causing any meaning difference, some speakers of English pronounce red as [ɹɛd], others as [ɻɛd] or [ɾɛd]: the sounds [ɹ], [ɻ], and [ɾ] are in free variation
7. Does the word bring end in ɡ in English?
   in some varieties (eg in Manchester) it does ([bɹɪŋɡ]), but in most other varieties of English it does not ([bɹɪŋ])
8. What places of articulation does “coronal” comprise?
   dental, alveolar, postalveolar, and palatal; alternatively everything that is not labial or velar and further back
9. What class do plosives, affricates, and fricatives form?
   consonants of these three manners of articulation are all obstruents
10. Why is it unnecessary in the phonology of English to distinguish between bilabials, labiodentals, and labiovelars?
    because the labial stops ([p b m]) are all bilabial, the labial fricatives ([f v]) are both labiodental, and the labial glide is labiovelar, so the precise place of articulation is predictable from the manner of articulation, furthermore, consonants of these places of articulation pattern together
11. Why is it possible to list the two affricates of English among the plosives?
    because they are palatal and there are no (other) palatal plosives
12. Which place of articulation is the least “popular” in English?
    dental, there are only two fricatives in this group
13. Which place of articulation is most likely to disappear from English?
    dental, th-fronting is making the two dental fricatives labiodental, leaving English without any dental consonants
14. Why is it problematic to merge the liquids ([l] and [r]) and the glides ([w] and [j]) in one set, “approximants”?
    because in this way there are either two palatal approximants ([r] and [j]) or two alveolar approximants ([l] and [r])

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