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Linguistics
Notes Voiceless vowels are often variants of voiced vowels in particular positions, e.g. Japanese high
]
vowels /i, ‚ / are usually voiceless [°i ‚ when between two voiceless consonants (especially
°
sibilants)
/h/ in English can be transcribed as a voiceless vowel.
i [ iit ] heat
° °
u [uut ] hoot
° °
α [ααt ] hot
° °
16.2 Concept of Phonemic Analysis
The concept of the phoneme was introduced earlier, and a few theoretical problems connected with
phonemic analysis have been mentioned in other units. The general assumption (as in most phonetics
books) has been that speech is composed of phonemes and that usually whenever a speech sound is
produced by a speaker it is possible to identify which phoneme that sound belongs to. While this is
often true, we must recognise that there are exceptions which make us consider some quite serious
theoretical problems. From the comparatively simple point of view of learning pronunciation, these
problems are not particularly important. However, from the point of view of learning about the
phonology of English they are too important to ignore.
There are problems of different types. In some cases, we have difficulty in deciding on the overall
phonemic system of the accent we are studying, while in others we are concerned about how a
particular sound fits into this system. A number of such problems are discussed below.
16.3 Affricates
The affricates t ∫ , d are, phonetically, composed of a plosive followed by a fricative, as explained
¥
previous in this book. It is possible to treat each of the pair t ∫ , d as a single consonant phoneme; we
¥
will call this the one-phoneme analysis of t ∫ , d . It is also possible to say that they are composed of
¥
two phonemes each - t plus ∫ , and d plus ¥ respectively - all of which are already established as
independent phonemes of English; this will be called the two-phoneme analysis of t ∫ , d . If we
¥
adopted the two-phoneme analysis, the words church and judge would be composed of five
phonemes each, like this:
t- ∫ -f+ - t - ∫ d - ¥ - Λ - d- ¥
instead of the three phonemes that result from the one-phoneme analysis:
t ∫ -f+ - t ∫ d - Λ - d ¥
¥
and there would be no separate t ∫ , d phonemes. But how can we decide which analysis is preferable?
¥
The two-phoneme analysis has one main advantage: if there are no separate t ∫ , d phonemes, then
¥
our total set of English consonants is smaller. Many phonologists have claimed that one should prefer
the analysis which is the most economical in the number of phonemes it results in. The argument
for this might be based on the claim that when we speak to someone we are using a code, and the
most efficient codes do not employ unnecessary symbols. Further, it can be claimed that a phonological
analysis is a type of scientific theory, and a scientific theory should be stated as economically as
possible. However, it is the one-phoneme analysis that is generally chosen by phonologists. Why is
this? There are several arguments: no single one of them is conclusive, but added together they are
felt to make the one-phoneme analysis seem preferable.
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