17 Lesson 17: How Do Sounds Interact? (has activity)
Activity! Data Set (English) “Lots of ‘L’s
Purpose: To practice working data sets (Gen Ed outcomes!)
Instructions: Work the data set below using the steps outlined in the Guide to Determining Phonemes and Allophones. Show your work!
The data:
Note : I represents the high(close) lax front unround vowel as in ‘busy’
About the target sounds:
[l] is the voiced alveolar lateral approximant
[L] is a velarized L sound, articulated with high back tongue body position.
[ɫ̪] is the same as [ɫ], only with a dental instead of alveolar place of articulation.
[ɫl] is an L sound which starts out voiceless and ends voiced.
| file [faəL]
fool [fuL] fell [fɛL] ball [baL] all [aL] feel [ˈfiL] |
slight [sɫlaIt]
flight [fɫlaIt] cling [kɫlIŋ] plow [pɫlaʊ] discipline [dIsəpɫlən] wealth [wɛɫ̪θ] |
health [hɛɫ̪θ]
filthy [fIɫ̪θi] stealth [ˈstɛɫ̪θ]
listen [lIsən] |
lose [luz] allow [əlaʊ] aglow [əgloʊ] blend [blɛnd]
|
Use the guide to determining phonemes and allophones.
Take it step by step.
Step 1: Organize the data. I have done Step 1 for you.
Step 2: List the Environments: (see examples in the guide)
| l | L | ɫ̪ | ɫl |
Step 3: Look for patterns.
- Are there any minimal pairs? What are they?
- Are the sounds in free variation?
- Are the sounds in analogous environments (do they occur between the same sounds)?
- Are the sounds in complementary distribution?
Step 4: Answer these questions:
- What general environments do the target sounds occur in?
- Are the sounds phonemes or allophones?
- Can you tell why these sound changes occur/why these allophones show up in these environments?
Step 5: Write Rules!
If you found that the target sounds were allophones, write a rule using linguistic notation for each allophone.