L103, Spring 2003: Examination 2

General instructions

Save your answers in a text file, putting two carriage returns after the answer to each question so that we have a place for annotations. Then upload the file using Annotate. You have until midnight tonight (Wednesday) to finish; the answers will be posted then, and no more submissions will be accepted. Start early.

You may use any resources you want except other people. If you have questions about what a question means, send email to Mike, but don't wait till the last minute to do this. Do not ask where you can find the answer to a question or whether your answer is right or on the right track.

Level-1 questions

Most of the questions in this section concern Inuktitut. The sybols should be familiar to you, except for those in the uvular place of articulation, which is not used at all in English. The uvular consonants are

[γ] is a voiced velar fricative.

Vowels and consonants can be both short and long in Inuktitut. Length is indicated by ":". There are only three short vowel phonemes in the language: /a, i, u/. Something else to note about Inuktitut is that voicing is not a contrastive dimension. That is, you never get a different word by changing from a voiceless to the corresponding voiced consonant or vice versa.

  1. Allophones
    1. The phoneme /u/ has an allophone [o], and the phoneme /i/ has an allophone [e]. The phonetic context for these allophones is the same. Say what this context is, making sure that there is no overlap with the default allophones [u] and [i]. Here are examples of both allophones for each of the two phonemes.
      1. [kukik] 'nail'
      2. [umiaq] 'boat'
      3. [siuti] 'ear'
      4. [uluaq] 'cheek'
      5. [inuk] 'person'
      6. [ul:u] 'nest'
      7. [iglu] 'house'
      8. [it:oq] 'old man'
      9. [eqaluk] 'fish'
      10. [igleq] 'bed'
      11. [oqsoq] 'gasoline'
      12. [eRneq] 'son'
      13. [ui] 'husband'
      14. [tupeq] 'tent'
      15. [tupeNmi] 'in tent'
      16. [putuγoq] 'big toe'
      17. [putuγuit] 'big toes'
      18. [putuγoNmit] 'from big toe'
      19. [toqop:a:] 'she kills him'
      20. [titeRaq] 'letter'
      21. [iseReyut] 'button'
      22. [anoRe] 'wind'
      23. [takuyuηa] 'I see'
      24. [takuyuγut] 'we see'
      25. [takuyoq] 'she sees'
      26. [takuyuk] 'the two of them see'
      27. [tikit:uvinioq:auvi:t] 'did you arrive a little while ago?'
      28. [peqotiγiη:in:ak:u] 'it's not mine'
      29. [taimainiaReaksaηanik] 'that he would do that'

      The allophones [o] and [e] occur before or after the uvular consonants.

    2. The phones [γ] and [g] are allophones of the same phoneme in Inuktitut. Say what the complementary distribution for these allophones is. Here are examples of the allophones.
      1. [iglu] 'house'
      2. [ag:at] 'hand'
      3. [nagliγiyaγit] 'I love you'
      4. [iγa] 'stove'
      5. [ig:a:k] 'sunglasses'
      6. [kigjaktoq] 'rough'
      7. [uvaγut] 'we'
      8. [aqeg:eq] 'ptarmigan'
      9. [nagjuk] 'antler'
      10. [sig:u] 'snout'
      11. [qaiγaiγavit] 'whenever you come'
      12. [pisuγumavuγut] 'we want to walk'
      13. [igluγuluγa] 'my terrible house'
      14. [neReγiyaqtuγuk] 'the two of us are beginning to eat'

      The allophone [g] occurs before other consonants or long. The allphone [γ] occurs elsewhere (that is, before vowels and short).

  2. Phonemes and contrastive dimensions
    1. Show that the phones [k] and [q] belong to separate phonemes in Inuktitut. Here are examples of these phones.
      1. [qayaq] 'kayak'
      2. [iseq] 'smoke'
      3. [qaya:k] 'two kayaks'
      4. [qauyiη:ik:aluaqtil:usik] 'even though the two of you didn't know about it'
      5. [panik] 'daughter'
      6. [kukik] 'nail'
      7. [uqak:auvoq] 'he speaks well'
      8. [umiaq] 'boat'
      9. [taqaq] 'vein'
      10. [ukioq] 'winter'
      11. [paaq] 'entrance'
      12. [ki:nauyaqutik:a] 'my own money'
      13. [umiak] 'two boats'
      14. [qoviasukasak:aluaqpuk] 'the two of them would have been happy'

      There is a minimal pair: [umiaq] / [umiak].

    2. Show that vowel length is a contrastive dimension in Inuktitut. Here are examples with both short and long vowels.
      1. [takuva:η:a] 'I see him'
      2. [inu:k] 'two people'
      3. [aki] 'price'
      4. [po:q] 'container'
      5. [a:sivaq] 'spider'
      6. [ata:ni] 'under'
      7. [ki:va:] 'she bites him'
      8. [inuk] 'person'
      9. [sa:la] 'loser'
      10. [i:yaγaq] 'pill'
      11. [a:ηaya:qtoq] 'she is drunk'
      12. [takuvaη:a] 'I see you'
      13. [piuseq] 'behavior'

    There are two minimal pairs: [inu:k] / [inuk] and [takuva:η:a] / [takuvaη:a]

  3. Assimilation
    1. When the Inuktitut phoneme /k/ precedes /m/ or /n/, it is pronounced [η]. When the Inuktitut phoneme /q/ precedes /m/ or /n/, it is pronounced [N]. Here are some examples.
      • [inuk] 'person', [-mit] 'from', [inuηmit] 'from person', [-nit] 'from (plural)', [inuηnit] 'from people'
      • [qemmeq] 'dog', [qemmeNmit] 'from dog', [qemmeNnit] 'from dogs'
      Explain how these changes are assimilation; the process is the same for the two phonemes.

      The consonant is taking on the nasality of the following consonant (and becoming voiced in the process).

    2. As you learned in section 4.7, speech undergoes more assimilation when it's casual. One possibility (in my accent anyway) is a change in /n/. Look at how it's pronounced in the following.
      1. when we go [wεmwigo]
      2. one-way street [w^mwestrit]
      3. you can wait here [y@k@mwethIr]
      The careful pronunciation of /n/ in these cases would be [n]. How is its pronunciation as [m] an example of assimilation?

      The /n/ is taking on the labial character of the following consonant, /w/.

Level-2 questions

  1. (1 point)
    For each of the following sets of English phonemes, say what phonetic features (dimension values) they share. Include enough shared features to distinguish each set from other phonemes in the language.
    1. /I,U/

      high, lax (or short)

    2. /i, I, e, ε, æ/

      front

    3. /∂, θ/

      dental, fricative

    4. /t, p, k/

      voiceless, stop

  2. (1 point)
    Write the following words or phrases (all as pronounced in Mike's General American accent) in ordinary English spelling. Strong stress is marked with /'/ and weaker stress is marked with /,/ before the stressed syllable. (You have to spell the words right to get credit.)
    1. /kw@'bεk/

      Quebec

    2. /ji'αgr@fi/

      geography

    3. /'mayl@j/

      mileage

    4. /'s^∂@rn/

      southern

    5. /'awthaws/

      outhouse

    6. /∂@'bU∫@d,mIn@'stre∫@n/

      the Bush administration

    7. /r@'3im,cenj/

      regime change

  3. (1/2 point)
    Based on the Inuktitut data in the level-1 problems above, do you think that consonant length is a contrastive dimension in Inuktitut? Justify your answer.

    Yes, consonant length does seem to be contrastive because short and long versions of the same consonant appear in overlapping distributions. The best examples we have are for [k]. In [ki:nauyaqutik:a], the long [k] occurs between [i] and [a]. In [uqak:auvoq], long [k] occurs between [a] and [a]. In [peqotiγiη:in:ak:u], long [k] occurs between [a] and [u]. So the long version of this phone can occur after [i] and [a] and before [u] and [a]. For the short version, we have [takuyuk], [qoviasukasak:aluaqpuk], [aki]. From these words, it is at least clear that [k] and [k:] can both occur after [a] and before [u] and [a]. The overlapping distribution of [k] and [k:] is an indication that consonant length is contrastive. For [l], we also have [uluaq] and [ul:u]; in one the short consonant is preceded and followed by [u]; in the other the language is preceded and followed by the same vowels. This is a strong indication that consonant length is contrastive.

  4. (1 point)
    Based on what you now know about the phonology of Inuktitut, give (a) one example of a type of mistake that an Inuktitut-speaking learner of English might make and (b) one example of a type of mistake that an English-speaking learner of Inuktitut might make. Be as specific as possible.

    (a) An Inuktitut-speaking learner of English would likely have difficulty with the distinction between voiceless and voiced consonants since voicing is not contrastive in Inuktitut. So the learner might have trouble hearing and/or producing the distinction between minimal pairs like pit/bit, bet/bed, and class/glass. (b) An English-speaking learner of English would likely have difficulty with the distinction between velar and uvular consonants because English makes no such distinction. For example, the learner might have trouble hearing and/or producing the distinction between /umiaq/ and /umiak/.

  5. (1/2 point)
    What English words result from starting with the given word and making only the changes indicated?
    1. patter: voice the first consonant and raise the first vowel from low to mid

      better

    2. tongue: make the first consonant a fricative and make the second consonant alveolar

      sun / son