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Linguistics

Notes
One possibility is to add new consonant phonemes to our list. We could invent the phonemes ļ , ŗ , ņ ,
etc. The distribution of these consonants would be rather limited, but the main problem would be
fitting them into our pattern of syllable structure. For a word like ‘button b tΛ nֽ or ‘bottle’ b tlֽZ it

would be necessary to add ņ,ļ to the first post-final set; the argument would be extended to include
the rֽin ‘Hungary’. But if these consonants now form part of a syllable-final consonant cluster, how
do we account for the fact that English speakers hear the consonants as extra syllables? The question
might be answered by saying that the new phonemes are to be classed as vowels. Another possibility
ֽ
is to set up a phoneme that we might name syllabicity, symbolised with the mark . Then the word
‘codling’ would consist of the following six phonemes: k- Z -d - l - w ,- õ , while the word ‘coddling’
ֽ
would consist of the following seven phonemes: k - Z - d and simul-taneously - w - õ . This is
superficially an attractive theory, but the proposed phoneme is nothing like the other phonemes we
have identified up to this point - putting it simply, the syllabic mark doesn’t have any sound.
Some phonologists maintain that a syllabic consonant is really a case of a vowel and a consonant that
have become combined. Let us suppose that the vowel is c . We could then say that, for example,
ri
‘Hungary’ is phonemically hΛõ cg ri while ‘hungry’ is hΛõg ; it would then be necessary to say that
the c vowel phoneme in the phonemic representation is not pronounced as a vowel, but instead
causes the following consonant to become syllabic. This is an example of the abstract view of phonology
where the way a word is represented phonologically may be significantly different from the actual
sequence of sounds heard, so that the phonetic and the phonemic levels are quite widely separated.
16.6 Clusters of s with Plosives

Words like ‘spill’, ‘still’, ‘skill’ are usually represented with the phonemes p, t, k following the s. But,
as many writers have pointed out, it would be quite reasonable to transcribe them with b, d, g instead.
For example, b, d, g are unaspirated while p, t, k in syllable-initial position are usually aspirated.
However, in sp, st, sk we find an unaspirated plosive, and there could be an argument for transcribing
them as sb, sd, sg. We do not do this, perhaps because of the spelling, but it is important to remember
that the contrasts between p and b, between t and d and between k and g are neutralised in this
context.

16.7 Schwa ( ) c

It has been suggested that there is not really a contrast between c and Λ , since c only occurs in weak
syllables and no minimal pairs can be found to show a clear contrast between c and Λ in unstressed
syllables (although there have been some ingenious attempts). This has resulted in a proposal that
the phoneme symbol c should be used for representing any occurrence of c or Λ so that ‘cup’ (which
ֽ ֽ
cc
is usually stressed) would be transcribed kpc and ‘upper’ (with stress on the initial syllable) as p .
This new c phoneme would thus have two allophones, one being c and the other Λ ; the stress mark
would indicate the Λ allophone and in weak syllables with no stress it would be more likely that
the c allophone would be pronounced.
Other phonologists have suggested that c is an allophone of several other vowels; for example, compare
ֽ ֽ
the middle two syllables in the words ‘economy’ w kn miZc and ’economic’ i+ ik+c nm kZw - it appears
that when the stress moves away from the syllable containing Z the vowel becomes c . Similarly,
ֽ
compare ‘Germanic’ d f+ mæn k w with ‘German’ ‘ d f+ c - when the stress is taken away from the
m n
¥
¥
syllable mæn , the vowel weakens to c . Many similar examples could be constructed with other
vowels; some possibilities may be suggested by the list of words given earlier to show the different
spellings that can be pronounced with c . The conclusion that could be drawn from this argument is
that c is not a phoneme of English, but is an allophone of several different vowel phonemes when

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