VOICE CORRELATION AS A VARIABLE

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 393.

THE INFLUENCE OF RHOTACISM IN PHONOLOGICAL OPPOSITIONS

Rhotacism - expressive usage of the sound /r/
Rhotic accents are - GA, Scottish, Irish
1) the absence of phonological opposition existing in RP
2) the modification of phonological oppositions existing in RP
3) the appearance of new phonological oppositions as compared with RP
RP - 'girl' - 'goal'
Welsh /?:/ > /o:/
/эu/ >/o:/ >/go:l/ - /gol/
RP - 'bird' - 'board'
Scottish /?/ > /o:/ > bird - bord
RP - 'bird' - 'word' one dimentional position
/b/ occlusive, true consonant
/w/ consrtuctive, semi-vowel

We have to separate one sound from another every time we try to classificate all the sounds.
E.g . to specify the difference between /t/ and /d/ in the words 'to' and 'do' we may select the feature of voicing. /t/ is voiceless and /d/ is voiced, /p - b/ /k - g/
A correlation is a rise of a single feature to separate more than one pair of sounds. So we may say that the pairs /b/ and /p/, /k/ and /g/, /t/ and /d/ are differenciated by the voice correlation.
The voice and voiceless distinction between words is rather unreliable. As voicity can be full and partial and even totally lacking.
E.g.: in the words 'table' 'tidy' 'ago' /b/ /d/ /g/ are fully voiced bcos they are surrounded by vowels and voiced sounds. But before or after a pause voicing doesn't go right through. Before a pause as in 'side' /d/ has no voicing . after a pause as in 'Ben'/b/ may have no voicing at all.