language’s phonotactic constraints (e.g., Turkish and Arabic speakers would typically use epenthesis to break consonant clusters in English). The process is sometimes called nativization. It happens when English borrows foreign words as well. For example, the Korean automobile name Hyundai has been adapted into English in various ways, one of which is given below: Korean form English form [hjndæ] [hndeɪ] Given the Korean form and the English adaptation, state two reasons based on syllable structure conditions in English that explain why the Korean car name is pronounced that way in English. Hint 1: It does help to have done the readings. Hint 2: English has huge, but … let’s just leave it at that. (10 points) Reason 1: Reason 2: Polish: The Polish place name Szczebrzeszynie is pronounced [] in Polish. As with the Korean name, English speakers will have to ‘nativize’ this Polish name as well. First, provide (in broad phonetic transcription) a potential English pronunciation of Szczebrzeszynie, with at least three phonetic changes that an English speaker will make, so the borrowed Polish name conforms to English phonotactics. (4 points) Second, for each phonetic change you suggest, state briefly the English phonotactic rule that requires it. (6 points) Write the potential English pronunciation of the place name Szczebrzeszynie in broad phonetic transcription in this box: List the three phonetic changes here, and a reason for each change: 1.
If you concluded in part A of this exercise that the three sounds are allophones of the same phoneme, write the two formal phonological rules showing how the allophones are derived from the underlying form. Remember that we do not need to write a rule for the ‘elsewhere’ case. Part III: Know thy neighbor’s morphology Exercise #7: Meet I, a dialect of Tiwa! (20 points) Consider the following data from a native American language spoken in New Mexico, which we will call Language I, and answer the questions that follow. [temiban] “I went” [mimiay] “he was [amiban] “you went” [tewanban] “I came” [temiwe] “I am going” [tewanhi] “I will come” Now, answer the following questions A, B, and C: List the morphemes in Language I corresponding to the English translations in the following table. Note: The term “progressive” refers to the grammatical category describing an event as being ‘in progress.’ (9 points) Morpheme in Language I English translation I you he go come past tense morpheme present progressive morpheme past progressive morpheme
future morpheme How would you say the following in Language I? (6 points) English Language I He went. I will go. You were coming. Based on the data above, do you think Language I is an isolating or a synthetic language? If you think it is synthetic, is it fusional or agglutinative? (5 points) Exercise 8: Meet Z, from Mexico! (15 points) Examine the following data from a language spoken in Mexico, which we will call Language Z, then answer the questions that follow. [palu] ‘stick’ [spalube] ‘his stick’ [spalulu] ‘your stick’ [ku:ba] ‘dough’ [sku:babe] ‘his dough’ [sku:balu] ‘your dough’ [tapa] ‘four’ [stapabe] ‘his four’ [stapalu] ‘your four’ [ɡeta] ‘tortilla’ [sketabe] ‘his tortilla’ [sketalu] ‘your tortilla’ [bere] ‘chicken’ [sperebe] ‘his chicken’ [sperelu] ‘your chicken’ [doʔo] ‘rope’ [stoʔobe] ‘his rope’ [stoʔolu] ‘your rope’ List the morphemes in Language Z that correspond to the following English translations. (6 points) Possessive morpheme: Third person singular morpheme: Second person singular morpheme:
List the two allomorphs for each of the following in Language Z. (6 points) English translation of word Allomorph 1 Allomorph 2 ‘tortilla’ ‘rope’ ‘chicken’ What phonological environment triggers the alternation between the two allomorphs you listed in Part B? What co-articulation process is involved here? (3 points) Exercise #9: A bit on the challenging side, interesting! (15 points) Consider the following of singular and plural nouns from a language that we will call H, and then answer the questions that follow. Note 1: [y] represents a high, front, rounded vowel on the IPA vowel chart. Note 2: [a:] is a central-back vowel in H. Word Singular Plural “table” [stl] “worker” [munka:] [munka:ok] “man” [mbr] [mbrk] “white” [fhe:r] [fhe:rk] “this” [z] [zk] “line” [o] [ook] “shirt” [i] [ik] “head” [fy] [fyk]
“box” [doboz] [dobozok] “coat” [kba:t] [kba:tok] As you should be able to notice, the plural morpheme in Language H has two allomorphs. State each allomorph and its distribution (i.e., explain the phonological context in which each allomorph occurs). Hint: Maybe make a vowel chart for H and see if you can make sense of the data? (9 points) Given your answer to Part A of this exercise, predict the plural forms of the following singular nouns in Language H. (6 points) Word Singular Plural “(a pair) of eyeglasses” [smyvg] “drum” [dob] “flower” [vira:g] Part IV: Time to argue Exercise #10: To prescribe or to describe, that’s the exercise! (20 points) A. The following story has been (probably wrongly) attributed to Winston Churchill. After an overzealous editor attempted to rearrange one of Winston Churchill's sentences to avoid ending it in a preposition, the Prime Minister scribbled a single sentence in reply: "This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put." Churchill’s goal in his response should be clear, but the example he gave to drive his point actually fails to achieve that goal. Why? In other words, if you were the overzealous editor, how would you respond to Mr. Churchill’s note refuting Churchill’s point? (Be polite in your response, though, since the guy was an influential figure at his time.)