Vowel Alternations
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 928.
Sound Alternations
The sound variations in words, their derivatives and grammatical forms of words
are known as sound alternations.It is perfectly obvious that sound alternations are
caused by assimilation, accommodation and reduction in speech. Alternations of consonants are mainly due to contextual assimilations: the dark [ł] in spell alternates with the clear [l] in spelling. Vowel alternations are the result of the reduction in unstressed positions: combine ['kɒmbain] (n) – combine [kəm'bain] (v) where [ɒ] in the stressed syllable of the noun alternates with the neutral sound in the unstressed syllable of the verb. Some sound alternations are traced to the phonetic changes in earlier periods of the language development and are known as historical.
The following list of examples presents the most common types of historical alternations.
1. Distinction of irregular verbal forms:
[i: – e – e]: mean – meant – meant
[i – ٨– ٨]: dig – dug – dug.
[ai – çu – i]: write – wrote – written
[i – æ – ٨] : sing – sang – sung
[εə – ɔ: – ɔ:]: wear – wore – worn
[ai – i – i]: hide – hid – hidden
[i: – çu – çu]: speak – spoke – spoken
[çu – u: – çu]: know – knew – known
[i – ei – i]: give – gave – given
[e – ɒ – ɒ]: get – got –got
[i: – ɔ: – ɔ:]: teach – taught – taught
[æ – u – u]: understand – understood – understood
[ei – u – ei ]: take – took – taken
[ei – çu – çu]; wake – woke – woken
[u: – ɒ – ɒ]: shoot – shot – shot
[e – çu – çu]: tell – told – told
[i – æ – æ]: sit – sat – sat
[i – ɔ: – ɔ:]: think – thought – thought
[٨ – ei – ٨]: become – became – become
[ai – çu – i]: rise – rose – risen
[çu – u: – çu]: grow – grew – grown
[u: – çu – çu]: choose – chose – chosen
[ai – u: – çu]: fly – flew – flown
[ai – ɔ: – ɔ:]: fight – fought – fought
[ai – au – au]: find – found – found
[i: – ɔ: – i:]: see – saw – seen
[iə – ç: – ç:]: hear – heard – heard
and some other less common verbal alternations of this type.
2. Distinction of causal verbal forms:
[i – e]: sit – set
[ai – ei]: rise – raise [ɔ: – e] fall – fell
3. Distinction of singular and plural forms of nouns:
[æ – e]: man – men
[u – i:]: foot – feet
[u: – i:]: tooth – teeth
[au – ai]: mouse – mice
[u – i]: woman – women
[ai – i]: child – children
4. Distinction of parts of speech in etymologically correlated words:
[i: – e]: feast – festive
[a: – æ]: class – classify
[ɒ – e]: long – length
[ɔ: – e]: broad – breadth
[ei – æ]: nation – national
[ai – i]: wise – wisdom
[ɒ – i:]: hot – heat
This type of alternation is often strengthened not only by suffixation but also by the shifting of stress like in: part– particular, 'climate – cli'matic.
2. Consonant Alternations
1. Distinction of irregular verbal forms:
[d – t]: send – sent, lend – lent
2. Distinction of parts of speech in etymologically correlated words:
[s – z]: advice – advise,
[s – d]: defence – defend
[t – d]: intent – intend
[k – t ∫]: speak – speech
[t – s]: important – importance
3. Vowel + Consonant Alternations(often supported by suffixation and the shifting of stress)
[i – ai] + [v – f]: live – life
[a: – ei] + [θ – ð]: bath – bathe
[e – i:] + [θ – ð]: breath – breathe
[ɒ – u:] + [s – z]: loss – lose
Sound alternations are also widely spread on the synchronical level in the presentday English and are known as contextual.In connection with contextual sound alternations there arises a problem of phonemic identification of alternated sounds.The functioning of sounds in different grammatical forms and derivatives of words seems very complicated and flexible. The study of the relationship between phonemes and morphemes is called morphophonemics.The interrelation of phonology and morphology in linguistic investigations is also known as morphophonologyor morphonologywhich is actually the phonology of morphemes. Morphonology studies the way in which sounds can alternate as different realizations of one and the same morpheme. A morpheme is a minimal unit of meaning. We would all agree that such words as windy, dusty, sunny consist of two morphemes. Similarly, demonstration, alternation have two component morphemes. The meanings of wind, dust, sun as well as of demonstrate, situate are obvious. But what function do the morphemes -y and -ion perform? On the basis of the examples, it appears that the function of -y is to convert a noun into an adjective. Similarly -ion converts a verb into a noun. These morphemes
have a grammatical meaning, their main purpose is to convert one part of speech into another. Each set of data below exemplifies a sound alternation in one and the same morpheme of two different parts of speech.
malice ['mælis] – malicious [mə'li∫əs]
active ['æktiv] – activity [ək'tiviti]
abstract ['æbstrækt] – abstract [æb'strækt]
conduct ['kɒndəkt] – conduct [kən'd٨kt]
contrast ['kɒntræst] – contrast [kən'træst]
We are interested now in the sound in its weak position. Vowels are said to be in
their strong position when they are in stressed syllables and in the weak position when
they are in the unstressed ones. Consonants may well be said to be in their strong position before vowels and in the intervocalic position; they are in weak positions when they are word final or precede other consonants.
There may be different solutions to the problem of phoneme identification in weak positions of alternated words. The question arises whether the sound [ə] in the words activity and con'trast is a neutral phoneme or it is an allophone of the [æ] or [ɒ] phonemes (as in active, 'contrast) which loses some of its distinctive features in the unstressed position. The difference is quite essential as in the first case the neutral sound is identified as an independent neutral phoneme, in the second – it is a neutralized allophone of the [æ] or [ɒ] phonemes of the corresponding alternated words.
The loss of one or more distinctive features of a phoneme in the weak position is called phonemic neutralization.In English, the voicing opposition is neutralized after the initial [s]. We are well aware of the fact that the phonemes [t] and [d], for example, contrast in most environments: initially (tick – Dick), finally (bid – bit); after nasals (bend – bent), after [l] (cold – colt). But after [s], no contrast between [t], [d] is possible, nor, similarly, is there a contrast between [p], [b] and [k], [g] in this environment. The voicing contrast is neutralized after initial [s].
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