Diskussion: Lesson 2 Phonology exercise

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2022-10-28T07:28:25+02:00

In this exercise, we will exemplify a typological survey of a sample of languages. The publication we use for this is a useful source also for your further investigations in the languages of your interest.

Use the appendices of the following book as a source:

Maddieson, Ian. 1984. Patterns of Sounds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

As with all our literature, you can find it online through the University library.

Find out what the consonant inventory of the following three African languages are, and answer the questions.

Somali

Wolof

!Xu

Questions:

1. what is the genetic affiliation of the language according to the book and where is it spoken?

2. how many consonant phonemes does the language have?

3. how many of these consonants are velar (not velarized)?

4. for each language, find a consonant which is not that common in the languages included in the book. Use the abbreviated description (in the left column of the chart) to find the full articulatory defenition in the segment index starting on page 205. Write this articulatory defenition in your answer.

It is also a good idea to try to find out how the sound is pronounced. Use the following sites:

http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm

http://phonetics.ucla.edu/index/language.html

NB the appendices start on p.174. Following language lists and references, there is first a segment index, with all the articulatory defenitions of the languages represented. Following this, from p.263, you find the consonant and vowel inventories of the languages included. The appendices are introduced with text explanations, you might need to read those!

It might be a bit tricky to find everything! Help each other and/or ask me by using the general discussion forum or the chat.