Phonology

1. Identify the natural classes of the following English sounds. Make sure that the natural class you answered excludes all the other English sounds. (15pts)

a. [p t k]
b. [v ð z ʒ]
c. [s z ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ]
d. [u ʊ o ɔ ɑ]
e. [æ ɑ]

2. Provide a minimal pair which shows that the following pairs of sounds are contrastive in English. Provide the pairs with their transcriptions. (20pts)

a. [t] and [d]
b. [s] and [z]
c. [m] and [n]
d. [i] and [u]
e. [æ] and [ɑ]

3. Match the following terms with their definitions. (10pt)

Phonotactics
Phonetics
Phonology
Phoneme
Allophone

                      Mental representation of a sound
                      Actual, physical realization of a sound
                      Study of sounds as individual physical entities
                      Study of how sounds combine to form possible and impossible combinations in a given language.
                      Study of how sounds are organized within a language and how they interact with each other

4. Sindhi Bilabial Plosives (20pts in total)
   Sindhi is an Indo-European language of the Indo-Aryan family, spoken in Pakistan and India. Examine the data from Sindhi below and answer the following questions.
   Question 1: Are there any minimal pairs? If yes, list all of them. If not, write N/A. (5pts)

Question 2: Identify the distribution types of [p], [ph], and [b]. If the distribution is contrastive, provide a relevant minimal pair. If the distributions are complementary, provide the list of environments and state the generalization. (10pts)

Question 3: Are [p], [ph], and [b] allophones of the same phoneme or separate phoneme?
(5pts)

5. Mokilese Voiceless Vowels (35pts in total)

Mokilese is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family, spoken in Micronesia. Examine the data from Mokilese below and answer the following questions. Note that a little circle under a vowel symbol indicates that the vowel is voiceless. (i.e., It has the gesture of the vowel in the mouth, but the vocal chords do not vibrate.)

Question 1: Identify the distribution type of [i] and [i̥]. If the distribution is contrastive, provide a relevant minimal pair. If the distributions are complementary, provide the list of environments, state the generalizations, and write the phonological rules. (10pts)

Question 2: Are [i] and [i̥] allophones of the same phoneme or separate phonemes?
(5pts)

Question 3: Identify the distribution type of [u] and [u̥]. If the distribution is contrastive, provide a relevant minimal pair. If the distributions are complementary, provide the list of environments, state the generalizations, and write the phonological rules. (10pts)

Question 4: Are [u] and [u̥] allophones of the same phoneme or separate phonemes?
(5pts)

Question 5: Provide the most generalized phonological rules that explain both [i, i̥] pair and [u, u̥] pair. (Hint: which natural class does the alternations target?) (5pts)