Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

Borrowing

Phoneme inventories

Correlates

Common and uncommonclasses of phonemes

VowelsVowel systems

Other contrasts

Phonological typology

Armin W. Buch1

2012/11/07

1Relying heavily on material by Gerhard Jäger and David Erschler

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

Borrowing

Phoneme inventories

Correlates

Common and uncommonclasses of phonemes

VowelsVowel systems

Other contrasts

Different sound systems

I Given that we all have more or less identical articulatoryorgans, we could expect that sound systems would be verysimilar.

I The sounds are not arbitraryI Sound systems / phoneme inventories vary across

languages.I We often fail to hear contrasts absent from our native

languages.I Less trivially, the sizes of inventories vary as well.

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

Borrowing

Phoneme inventories

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Common and uncommonclasses of phonemes

VowelsVowel systems

Other contrasts

Eimas’ (1985) experiment

I Can infants distinguish phonemes?I Observe gaze direction or sucking rate, depending on ageI A loudspeaker plays /a/ sounds, occasionally an /i/I /i/ causes the child to look towards the source of the soundI Thus the child noticed the contrastI Infants are also reported to be able to distinguish contrasts

absent from the language of their parentsI Phonology has to be learned

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

Borrowing

Phoneme inventories

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Common and uncommonclasses of phonemes

VowelsVowel systems

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How do phoneme inventories develop?

I As with grammars, languages with a more ‘primitive’phoneme inventory are unheard of.

I Phonemes can be borrowed, like wordsI and lost through sound changeI Very similar sounds may develop in completely unrelated

languages

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

Borrowing

Phoneme inventories

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Common and uncommonclasses of phonemes

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Borrowing of Phonemes: Ejectives

I Most languages of the Caucasus have ejectives.I The glottal constriction in stop consonants is enhanced by

raising the larynx in the throat.I This gesture compresses the air behind the oral closure;

when it is released, a sharp, crackling sound is produced.(description from Kenstowicz 1994)

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

Borrowing

Phoneme inventories

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Common and uncommonclasses of phonemes

VowelsVowel systems

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Ejectives in Ossetic

I Ossetic is an Iranian (Indo-European language), spoken inthe Caucasus. Normally, Iranian (and other modern I-E)languages do not have ejectives.

I However, Ossetic developed a series of ejectives.I k’, p’, t’, Ù’, ţ’

I Ù’iri ‘pie’I k’aX ‘foot, leg’I t’ang ‘intestine’

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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VowelsVowel systems

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Borrowing of Phonemes: Subapical RetroflexConsonants

Figure: Articulation of retroflexes

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

Borrowing

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Subapical Retroflex Consonants

I These are present in all Dravidian languages.I Malayalam: kaïïi

I But also present in: all Indo-Arian languages, Nuristanilanguages, some Eastern Iranian languages (Pashto,Wakhi, Ishkashimi, Sanglichi, Munji, Yidga); WesternIranian Balochi (spoken in Pakistan); and in Burushaski.

I i.e. the Indian peninsula and some areas to the North-Westof it.

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Similar phonemes in non-related languages

I At some stage all Germanic languages developedinterdental fricatives T and ð. (Now preserved in English,Icelandic, and Faroese.)

I Similar sounds independently emerged in many otherlanguages of the world.

I For instance, while all other Turkic languages lack T andð, Bashkir, spoken in the East of European Russia, showsthese sounds.

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Bashkiria

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Similar phonemes in non-related languages

I It is clear that what happened in Bashkir was that z → ð(in certain positions) and s → T (in certain positions).

I Similarly, these sounds developed in many Eastern Iranianlanguages.

I Moral: Presence of similar sounds is not indicative ofgenetic relatedness.

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

Borrowing

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Common and uncommonclasses of phonemes

VowelsVowel systems

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Size of phoneme inventories

I Small consonant inventory: Hawaiian (Austronesian)I Consonants: p, k, P, h, l, m, n, wI Vowels: i,i:,e,e:,a,a:,u,u:,o,o:

I The range of inventories in Maddieson (2011) extendsfrom a low of 6 consonants [Rotokas, New Guinea] to ahigh of 122 [!Xóõ (Southern Khoisan; Botswana)]

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Counting phonemes

I Phonemes are difficult to countI Example: Should aspirated phonemes be analyzed as one

entity or a sequence ‘stop + h’?I A contrast that is non-phonemic in one language may be

phonemic in another.I English: certain stops are aspirated when word-initial or

stressed-syllable intial: copy [khOpI], but peak [phi:k]

I Eastern Armenian has series like k,kh,g (Vaux 1998)

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

Borrowing

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Common and uncommonclasses of phonemes

VowelsVowel systems

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Adyghe Consonants

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Adyghe Vowels

I Only three phonemes: a, e, @

I Phonetically: we = o; j@ = i; w@ = uI So, depending on the analysis, the system is either

extremely small, or relatively usual.

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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VowelsVowel systems

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Phoneme inventory vs. the rest of a language

I There are no known correlations between a language’sphonology and the rest of its grammar.

I “Over the last 250 or so years it has not been establishedthat phonology co-varies with morphology and syntax.But then, it has not been established either that it doesnot.” Plank (1998)

I Nevertheless, there has been recently discovered anunexpected correlation between the population size andphonetic inventory. (Hay & Bauer 2007)

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Figure: Phonological complexity vs. geographically location(Atkinson)

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Figure: Modelling of the ‘genetic’ origin of language byphonological complexity (Atkinson)

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Figure: Consonant inventory size (WALS)I Small (blue) (90 languages)I Moderately small (light blue) (121 languages)I Average (white) (182 languages)I Moderately large (pink) (116 languages)I Large (red) (54 languages)

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Figure: Vowel inventory size (WALS)

I Small (2-4) blue (93 languages)I Average (5-6) white (288 languages)I Large (7-14) red (183 languages)

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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VowelsVowel systems

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Maddieson (2011)

“[T]he occurrence of a large consonant inventorywith a small number of vowel distinctions is not partof a general pattern in languages but reflects ageographically restricted tendency that can be foundin a few areas (primarily in southern Africa, theCaucasus and the American north-west).”

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Common and uncommonclasses of phonemes

VowelsVowel systems

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Hay & Bauer (2007)

I Observed a positive correlation between how manyphonemes a language has and how many speakers it has.This correlation exists both within the vowel inventoryand within the consonant inventory.

“This is not an artifact of language family. We donot know what the underlying causes of thiscorrelation are. But it is certainly intriguing, and wehope that this report will generate some discussion ofthe possible causes of such a relationship.”

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Figure: Vowels vs. population

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Figure: Consonants vs. population

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Phoneme inventory vs. morpheme length

I There is an inverse relationship between the number ofphonemes in a language and the average length of itsmorphemes.

I Milewski (1973) calculated that with smallish systems oflittle more than about a dozen phonemes, as in Aranda orHawaiian, the mean length of morphemes is as long asfour phonemes, while with unusually large systems of45-75 phonemes, as in certain North American or NorthCaucasian languages, morphemes are shorter than 1.5phonemes on average.

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

Borrowing

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Common and uncommonclasses of phonemes

VowelsVowel systems

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Common phonemes

I Some classes of phonemes are fairly commonI Bilabials are present virtually everywhereI Ditto for fricativesI Ditto for nasalsI Although there are a number of languages which can be

analyzed as having no nasal consonants, extremely few ofthe world’s languages fail to make use of nasality either asa part of their consonant system or as part of their vowelsystem

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Clicks

I Very frequent in Khoisan languages, South Africa (!Xóõ,!Xu, Nama . . . )

I With lower frequency, they occur in a number of Bantulanguages of South Africa: Zulu, Xhosa, and some others

I In East Africa: Sandawe and Hadza, language isolates (?)of Tanzania

I Dahalo, a Cushitic language of Kenya (only about 40words, Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996)

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Common and uncommonclasses of phonemes

VowelsVowel systems

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Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Common and uncommonclasses of phonemes

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Mechanism for making clicks

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Types of Clicks

I Bilabial ò

I Dental |

I Alveolar !

I Palatal }

I Lateral {

I Relatively few languages use all types of clicks

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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!Xóõ click places of articulation

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Nama

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Xhosa

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PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Labial-velar plosives

I Similarity to clicks: they also involve two closuresI one at the back of the mouth and one at the lipsI Difference: the force for the explosive release comes from

the lungs as in simple plosivesI IPA: /

>kp/ (voiceless), /

>gb/ (voiced)

I Occurrence: West and Central Africa (several families);eastern end of New Guinea

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PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Vowel systems

I Crothers (1978) studied 209 languages (balanced forlanguage family and geographical area), Schwartz et al.(1997) did more

I all following examples are from CrothersI only “basic vowels” (see the problem of establishing

phonemes)

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PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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3-vowel systems

u

a

i

I the minimum in Crothers’ sample, but see Ladefoged andMaddieson (1996, 286ff.)

I 27 languages: Yupik, Quechua, Tagalog, Australianlanguages

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PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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4-vowel systems

u

a

E

i

I Fill in the frontI 13 languages: Navajo,

Mazatec, Malagasay

u

a

1i

I Fill in the topI 9 languages: Kwakiutl,

Margi, Squamish

Armin Buch

PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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5-vowel systems

I 5-vowel systems are the most common type worldwide.They are also bifurcated

O

u

a

E

i

I Add /O/ to balance /E/

I 55 languages: Latin,Spanish, Japanese,Swahili, Russian

E

u

a

1i

I Add /E/ if lackingI 5 languages: Nez

Perce, Maranungku

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PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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6-vowel systems1

O

u

a

E

i

@O

u

a

E

i

I 29 languages: Chuckchi, Delaware, Malayalam, Polish

u

o

OE

e

i

I 7 languages: Lithuanian, Persian

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PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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7-vowel systems

Uu

O

a

E

e

i

I 11 languages: Italian,Bengali, Catalan

@

1 u

o

a

e

i

I 14 languages:Albanian, Mongolian,Amharic

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8-vowel systems

I rare: TurkishI Note that the vowels’ positions are language-specific here

[Zimmer & Orgun (1999:155)]

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PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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9-vowel systems

@

1 u

o

O

a

E

e

i

I 7 languages: Lao

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More than 9 vowels

I French [Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)]I Without nasal vowels

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PhonologicallytypologyIntroduction

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Other contrasts

I Front rounded vowels are rare, but sometimes alreadyenter as the 6th vowel

I Apparently, all languages have oral vowelsI Out of 244, 64 also have (phonemic) nasal vowels (WALS)I lengthI creaky voice, breathy voiceI tone