Phonology -- Group One - 2011 CEI course

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Date Posted: 11:50:56 04/10/11 Sun
Author: Tati Miranda
Subject: Phonology

Gilrs, I sent you a website here and I suggested by e-mail a task about this evolution in phonology.
As you didn´t answer I´m sending the suggestion here:

Oi, meninas!
Tudo bem?

Mais uma vez estou mandando e-mail POIS NINGUÉM ME RESPONDE!

Eu mandei esse anexo sobre fonologia e pensei em um task:
A gente apresenta essas mudanças de consoantes e vogais em cada período da história da língua inglesa e eles têm que escrever um "ensaio" sobre a evolução da língua de acordo com os sons.

Vocês acham uma boa?

POR FAVOR, RESPONDAM PELO MENOS SE MINHAS IDEIAS SÃO UMA PORCARIA!

Obrigada;

Bjs

--- Em sáb, 9/4/11, Tatiana Helena Miranda escreveu:

De: Tatiana Helena Miranda
Assunto: Re: começo do nosso webquest
Para: "ludmila ameno ribeiro" , "Tânia (pós)" , "Viviane (pós)"
Data: Sábado, 9 de Abril de 2011, 16:47

Meninas,

Li o que Lud mandou e encontrei bastante coisa legal comparando as diferentes era da Língua Inglesa com relação aos fonemas.

Segue em anexo.

Vcs concordam comigo que é bastante útil fazer essa compração?

Aguardo resposta de vcs...

Bjs

O ANEXO ENVIADO FOI:
PHONOLOGY

This section of this Website provides a simplified discussion of phonology, or the study of speech-sounds. More detailed treatments are available at the sites listed under "Useful Sites" on the navigation bar to the left.
The cartoon above labels the parts of the human vocal apparatus that are relevant to the description of English phonemes, in some cases along with the corresponding adjectives. Phonemes can be thought of as instructions for articulating speech-sounds, and so a phoneme can be described in terms of the behavior of the vocal apparatus that occurs when a physiologically normal speaker articulates his or her particular representation of the phoneme.
Phonemes can be divided into consonants and vowels. In the articulation of consonants, the flow of air from the lungs through the vocal apparatus is cut off or impeded. In the articulation of vowels, the flow of air from the lungs is not impeded, but the vocal organs are used to change the shape of the oral cavity and thus make different sounds for different vowels.
PHONOLOGY: CONSONANTS

All consonants may be classified as either voiced or voiceless. In articulating a voiced consonant, the vocal cords are vibrating. (The vibration may easily be felt by gripping the larynx--the "Adam's apple"--between the fingers and the thumb while articulating the consonant.) In articulating an unvoiced consonant, the vocal cords are not vibrating.
Present-Day English has several consonant pairs that are articulated alike except that one is voiced and the other is unvoiced. Some examples are the phoneme spelled b in bat (voiced) and the phoneme spelled p in pat (unvoiced); the phoneme spelled d in dab (voiced) and the phoneme spelled t in tab (unvoiced); the phoneme spelled th in this (voiced) and the phoneme spelled th in thistle (unvoiced).
Consonants may also be classified according to the manner of articulation and the point of articulation: that is, how and where the flow of air is stopped or impeded when the consonant is articulated. Thus, we get the following systems of classification. Click on the terms for further information.
MANNER OF ARTICULATION
Stop

Affricate

Fricative

Nasal

Lateral

Retroflex

Semivowel

POINT OF ARTICULATION
Bilabial

Labiodental

Interdental

Alveolar

Alveopalatal

Velar

PHONOLOGY: VOWELS

Vowels may be classified as either rounded or unrounded, as either lax or tense, and as either long or short.
In articulating a rounded vowel, the lips are rounded. The rounded vowels of Present-Day English are
1. /u/ (the phoneme spelled oo in food);
2. /U/ (the phoneme spelled u in put);
3. /o/ (the phoneme spelled oa in boat);
4. /ô/ (the phoneme spelled au in caught).
Note that there are different degrees of rounding in these different vowels. The other vowels of Present-Day English are unrounded.
In articulating a tense vowel, the tongue and other parts of the vocal apparatus are relatively tense. With a lax vowel, on the other hand, the muscles of the vocal apparatus are relatively loose. The lax vowels in Present-Day English are
1. /I/ (the phoneme spelled i in bit);
2. // (the phoneme spelled e in bet);
3. /U/ (the phoneme spelled u in put);
4. /ô/ (the phoneme spelled au in caught).
Note that the degree of tenseness varies considerably in these different vowels. The other vowels of Present-Day English are relatively tense (also in different degrees).
The distinction between long and short vowels cannot be illustrated in Present-Day English, because vowel-length is no longer "phonemic" for speakers of English. That is, there are no "minimal pairs" of words that differ only with respect to the length of a vowel, and so speakers of PDE typically do not "hear" differences in vowel length. The distinction between long and short vowels was presumably phonemic in Old English and Middle English. Vowel length is presumably a matter of duration: that is, how long the vowel-sound is sustained in its articulation.
Apart from the above distinctions, vowels may be classified according to the how far the tongue is from the roof of the mouth during articulation, and how far back in the oral cavity the vowel is articulated.
If the lower jaw is relatively low (that is, if the mouth is relatively widely open), the tongue will be relatively far from the roof of the mouth. Vowels for which the jaw is relatively low during articulation are called, unsurprisingly, low vowels; and vowels for which the jaw is relatively high (the mouth is more nearly closed) are called high vowels. This distinction can be appreciated, for example, by gripping the chin and successively articulating "ha-ha, hee-hee, ha-ha, hee-hee." The phoneme spelled a in ha is a low vowel, and the phoneme spelled ee in hee is a high vowel. The jaw can be felt to move up and down correspondingly.
A vibration is felt in the oral cavity when a vowel is articulated. If this vibration is felt toward the front of the cavity, say in the area of the alveolar ridge, the vowel is described as a front vowel. If the vibration is felt toward the back of the cavity, say in the area of the velum, the vowel is described as a back vowel. This distinction can be appreciated by successively articulating "ho-ho, hee-hee, ho-ho, hee-hee," and paying attention to where the vibration is felt most strongly in the oral cavity. The phoneme spelled o in ho is a back vowel, and the phoneme spelled ee in hee is a front vowel.
Thus, we get the following system of classification for vowels. Click on the terms for further information.
POSITION OF JAW
High

Mid

Low

POINT OF ARTICULATION
Front

Central

Back

Diphthongs are vowel-phonemes articulated with a glide from one vowel to another. There are three diphthongs in Present-Day English.
1. /aI/ (the phoneme spelled i in bite). In articulating this phoneme, a speaker begins by articulating /a/ (the phoneme spelled a in father), and glides to /I/ (the phoneme spelled i in bit).
2. /aU/ (the phoneme spelled ou in house). In articulating this phoneme, a speaker begins by articulating /a/ (the phoneme spelled a in father), and glides to /U/ (the phoneme spelled u in put).
3. /ôI/ (the phoneme spelled oy in boy). In articulating this phoneme, a speaker begins by articulating /ô/ (the phoneme spelled au in caught), and glides to /I/ (the phoneme spelled i in bit).
OLD ENGLISH: 450-1100 C.E.
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes arrived in England in the middle of the 5th century. These Scandinavian peoples spoke a dialect that belonged to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. No written records of Germanic survive, and so the conjectural phonemes of Germanic are represented accompanied by an asterisk: for example, Germanic */b/.
Much of the Old English that undergraduate students are likely to encounter in modern editions has been normalized to the West Saxon dialect of around 1000 C.E., and that is the dialect represented in the Old English section of this site.
Old English phonemes are represented in red throughout the site. The buttons below lead to tables that allow access to the individual pages for the phonemes of Old English.
OLD ENGLISH CONSONANTS

Manner of Articulation Point of Articulation
Bilabial Labiodental Interdental Alveolar Alveopalatal Velar
Stops Voiceless
Voiced /p/
/b/
. . /t/
/d/
. /k/
/g/

Affricates Voiceless
Voiced . . . . /c /j .
Fricatives . /f/
/q/
/s/
/s /h/

Nasals /m/
. . /n/
. .
Lateral . . . /l/
. .
Retroflex . . . /r/
. .
Semivowels /w/
. . . /j/
.
OLD ENGLISH VOWELS
Vowels Diphthongs
Front Central Back [The symbol / ("schwa") stands for the mid-central vowel. The // is not phonemic in OE. Here it indicates a central glide from the first element of the diphthong.]
High /i/, /i:/

/y/, /y:/

/u/, /u:/
/æ'/, /æ:'/
/e'/, /e:'/

Mid /e/, /e:/
/o:/,/o/
/i/i:
Low /æ/,/æ:/
/a/, /a:/
[The diphthongs /i/, /i:/ existed early in OE, but by the 10th century had fallen together with /i/, /i:/.
BREAKING OF VOWELS
Early in Old English (before written records), certain vowels in certain phonetic environments were "broken" into diphthongs.
Certain front vowels followed by certain velar consonants developed a "glide," as the tongue moved from articulating the vowels at the front of the mouth to articulating the consonants at the back of the mouth. The result was the production of a diphthong in the place of the "pure" vowel.
OE vowels followed by the OE velar consonants /h/, /l/, /r/, and /w/ broke according to the following rules.
/æ/, /æ:/ > /æ/, /æ:
/e/ > /e
/i/, /i:/ > /i/, /i:/ > /e/, /e:/

PALATAL DIPHTHONGIZATION OF VOWELS
In Old English, certain front vowels preceded by alveopalatal consonants developed a glide, becoming diphthongs. This phenomenon affects only vowels in stressed syllables, and only those vowels preceded by /j/, /c Palatal diphthongization produced the following results.
/e/ > /i
/e:/ > /i:
/æ/ > /æ
/æ:/ > /æ:

By the 9th century, however, the /i/ and /i:/ resulting from palatal diphthongization had begun to fall together with /i/ and /i:/, respectively, and the diphthongs /i/ and /i:/ were lost by the 10th century. (Consequently, these diphthongs are not included in the catalog of OE phonemes presented here.)

UMLAUT OF VOWELS
Umlaut of vowels, which occurred probably in the 6th century, is also called front mutation or i/j mutation. An /i/ or /j/ in an unstressed syllable caused certain stressed vowels in the preceding syllable to be fronted or raised. The vowels affected were the Old English low vowels and diphthongs. The changes resulting from umlaut may be summarized as follows.
/æ/ > /e/
/a/ + nasal > /e/
/a:/ > /æ:/
/o/, /o:/ > /e/, /e:/
/u/, /u:/ > /y/, /y:/
/æ/, /æ/ > /ie/, /i:e/
/eo/, / e:o/ > /ie/, /i:e/
/io/, /i:o/ > /ie/, /i:e/

By an earlier change in Germanic, Germanic */e/ in this environment had already raised to Germanic */i/, which became OE /i/. By the 9th century, the OE diphthongs /ie/ and /i:e/ had begun to fall together with /i/ and /i:/, respectively, and the diphthongs were lost by the 10th century.
It is important to note that in many OE words containing vowels affected by umlaut, the /i/ or /j/ in the following unstressed syllable has been lost, so that the cause of the umlaut is not apparent unless one knows the origin of the word in Germanic.
Umlaut accounts for some apparent "irregularities" in PDE. For example, some OE nouns originally had /i/ in the plural endings but not in the singular, giving rise to "irregular" plurals such as feet, teeth, geese--where the root vowel /o:/ has mutated to /e:/ in the plural and has gone on to become PDE /i/ by the Great Vowel Shift.
MIDDLE ENGLISH: 1100-1500 C.E.
The Middle English represented in this site is the London English of around 1400 C.E. That dialect is "Chaucer's English," the English of The Canterbury Tales and the dialect that evolved into the standard English of the Early Modern period.
The phonemes of Middle English are represented in blue throughout the site. The buttons below lead to tables that allow access to the pages for the individual phonemes of Middle English.
MIDDLE ENGLISH CONSONANTS

Manner of Articulation Point of Articulation
Bilabial Labiodental Interdental Alveolar Alveopalatal Velar
Stops Voiceless
Voiced /p/
/b/
. . /t/
/d/
. /k/
/g/

Affricates Voiceless
Voiced . . . . /c /j .
Fricatives Voiceless
Voiced . /f/
/v/
/q/
/ð/
/s/
/z/
/s /h/

Nasals /m/
. . /n/
. .

Lateral . . . /l/
. .
Retroflex . . . /r/
. .
Semivowels /w/
. . . /j/
.
MIDDLE ENGLISH VOWELS
Vowels Diphthongs
Front Central Back
High /i/
/I/
/U/
/u/
/au/

/æi/

Mid /e/
/'/
/o/
/eu/

/iu/

Low /e/, /e:/

/a/, /a:/
/ô/, /ô:/

/ôi/

/ôu/
/Ui/

EARLY MODERN ENGLISH: 1500-1800 C.E.
The Early Modern English represented in this site is London English of around 1600 C.E. This dialect is sometimes called "Standard London English," and is the English written (and presumably spoken) by Shakespeare.
The phonemes of Early Modern English are represented in violet throughout this site. The buttons below lead to tables that allow access to the pages for the individual phonemes of Early Modern English.
EARLY MODERN ENGLISH CONSONANTS

Manner of Articulation Point of Articulation
Bilabial Labiodental Interdental Alveolar Alveopalatal Velar
Stops Voiceless
Voiced /p/
/b/
. . /t/
/d/
. /k/
/g/

Affricates Voiceless
Voiced . . . . /c /j .
Fricatives Voiceless
Voiced . /f/
/v/
/q/
/ð/
/s/
/z/
/s /z /h/

Nasals /m/
. . /n/
. /h/

Lateral . . . /l/
. .
Retroflex . . . /r/
. .
Semivowels /w/
. . . /j/
.
EARLY MODERN ENGLISH VOWELS
Vowels Diphthongs
Front Central Back
/'i/

High /i/
/I/

/U/
/u/

/'u/
/ôi/

Mid /e/

/e/
/'/
/o/
/ô/

Low /æ/
/a/

PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH: 1800 C.E.-PRESENT
For the most part, the dialect of Present-Day English represented in this site is the dialect called "General American." This is the dialect of American English that is not associated with any particular region or social group. Probably, few actual speakers speak this dialect with perfect consistency.
The phonemes of Present-Day English are represented in black throughout this site. The buttons below lead to tables that allow access to the individual pages for the phonemes of Present-Day English.
PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH CONSONANTS

Manner of Articulation Point of Articulation
Bilabial Labiodental Interdental Alveolar Alveopalatal Velar
Stops Voiceless
Voiced /p/
/b/
. . /t/
/d/
. /k/
/g/

Affricates Voiceless
Voiced . . . . /c /j .
Fricatives Voiceless
Voiced . /f/
/v/
/q/
/ð/
/s/
/z/
/s /z /h/

Nasals /m/
. . /n/
. /h/

Lateral . . . /l/
. .
Retroflex . . . /r/
. .
Semivowels /w/
. . . /j/
.
PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH VOWELS
Vowels Diphthongs
Front Central Back /aI/

High /i/
/I/
/U/
/u/
/aU/
/ôI/

Mid /e/
/e/
/'/
/ô/
/o/

Low /æ/
/a/

History of the English Language

History of the English Language
http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/hel/hel.html
Links (with comments) to resources for the history of English, including access to the archives of the History of the English Language (HEL) discussion list.
The English Language, ed. A. G. Rigg
http://utl1.library.utoronto.ca/www/utel/language/rigg/RIGG_ALL.HTML
"This book is the result of several years teaching the history of the English language, formerly in Oxford and more recently in Stanford. I have often found that students, having worked only from general histories, have lacked a firsthand acquaintance with the evidence on which the histories are based. My aim has been to provide texts that illustrate the general developments of English (particularly in the form of parallel versions of the same original), in the hope that students will be enabled to support their general observations with a full knowledge of the linguistic facts."
English and Its History
http://www.bluerider.com/english/index.htm
Pronunciation and grammar guides for Old and Middle English, plus recommended readings. Includes a comparison of the nativity passage from Luke in Old English, Middle English, and Present-Day English.
Luminarium
http://www.luminarium.org
A comprehensive site for online literary texts in English: Medieval, Renaissance, and 17th-Century literature.
The Great Vowel Shift
http://www.furman.edu/~mmenzer/gvs
A thorough treatment of the Great Vowel Shift, perhaps the most important series of sound-changes in English since its beginning. Animations and sound-files.

Taken from: http://eweb.furman.edu/~wrogers/phonemes/

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Replies:

Re: Phonology -- Tati Miranda, 11:54:09 04/10/11 Sun
- Re: Phonology -- Ludmila, 14:47:26 04/10/11 Sun