4 Segmental phonology
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Colleen M. Fitzgerald
Abstract
This chapter explores some of the special characteristics of sounds (or segments) in North American languages. There are numerous ways in which the sounds of North American languages are special; for example, certain types of consonants that are common crosslinguistically do not occur in some languages in North America, e. g. nasals, bilabials, while there are other sounds that are relatively rare in languages of the world but that are more widespread in North American languages, e. g. ejectives, creaky voiced sonorants. These consonants combine in many languages to form potentially elaborate syllables. Because North American languages are known for their complexity in word structure, there are also many alternations in the realization of segments that depend on position in a word and neighboring sounds. Language revitalization efforts benefit from a better understanding of these special characteristics. Indigenous communities often focus on learners sounding “right”, achieving an accent that closely approximates fluent first language speech and minimizes “accentedness” (Munro and Derwing 2015, Bird and Kell 2017). An essential part of that is understanding the distinctiveness of the pronunciation of ancestral languages. Those distinctive aspects of sound systems are the focus of this chapter.
Abstract
This chapter explores some of the special characteristics of sounds (or segments) in North American languages. There are numerous ways in which the sounds of North American languages are special; for example, certain types of consonants that are common crosslinguistically do not occur in some languages in North America, e. g. nasals, bilabials, while there are other sounds that are relatively rare in languages of the world but that are more widespread in North American languages, e. g. ejectives, creaky voiced sonorants. These consonants combine in many languages to form potentially elaborate syllables. Because North American languages are known for their complexity in word structure, there are also many alternations in the realization of segments that depend on position in a word and neighboring sounds. Language revitalization efforts benefit from a better understanding of these special characteristics. Indigenous communities often focus on learners sounding “right”, achieving an accent that closely approximates fluent first language speech and minimizes “accentedness” (Munro and Derwing 2015, Bird and Kell 2017). An essential part of that is understanding the distinctiveness of the pronunciation of ancestral languages. Those distinctive aspects of sound systems are the focus of this chapter.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Table of contents VII
- List of North American families, languages, and dialects XIII
- Maps XLI
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I Sounds and sound structure
- 1 Acoustic phonetics 1
- 2 Articulatory phonetics 39
- 3 Tone 63
- 4 Segmental phonology 89
- 5 Prosodic morphology 109
- 6 Word prosody 135
- 7 Prosody beyond the word 155
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II Words
- 8 What is a word? 183
- 9 Word classes 205
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III Sentences
- 10 Syntax within the clause 247
- 11 Negatives 267
- 12 Questions and requests in North American languages 283
- 13 Information structure 305
- 14 Clause-combining: Relative clauses 323
- 15 Clause combining: Syntax of subordination and complementation 345
- 16 Switch-reference and event cohesion 363
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IV Discourse
- 17 Verbal art 385
- 18 Conversation structure 421
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V Meaning
- 19 Lexicalization and lexical meaning 453
- 20 Lexicography 479
- 21 Evidentiality 497
- 22 Pluractionality and distributivity 511
- 23 Mass and count nouns 527
- 24 Sense of place: Space, landscape, and orientation 547
- 25 A sense of time and world 577
- 26 Pragmatics 599
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VI Languages over space and time
- 27 Languages as dynamic systems: How grammar can emerge 619
- 28 Language contact and linguistic areas 647
- 29 Language classification 669
- 30 Archival-based sociolinguistic variation 689
- 31 Community-based sociolinguistic variation 701
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Table of contents VII
- List of North American families, languages, and dialects XIII
- Maps XLI
-
I Sounds and sound structure
- 1 Acoustic phonetics 1
- 2 Articulatory phonetics 39
- 3 Tone 63
- 4 Segmental phonology 89
- 5 Prosodic morphology 109
- 6 Word prosody 135
- 7 Prosody beyond the word 155
-
II Words
- 8 What is a word? 183
- 9 Word classes 205
-
III Sentences
- 10 Syntax within the clause 247
- 11 Negatives 267
- 12 Questions and requests in North American languages 283
- 13 Information structure 305
- 14 Clause-combining: Relative clauses 323
- 15 Clause combining: Syntax of subordination and complementation 345
- 16 Switch-reference and event cohesion 363
-
IV Discourse
- 17 Verbal art 385
- 18 Conversation structure 421
-
V Meaning
- 19 Lexicalization and lexical meaning 453
- 20 Lexicography 479
- 21 Evidentiality 497
- 22 Pluractionality and distributivity 511
- 23 Mass and count nouns 527
- 24 Sense of place: Space, landscape, and orientation 547
- 25 A sense of time and world 577
- 26 Pragmatics 599
-
VI Languages over space and time
- 27 Languages as dynamic systems: How grammar can emerge 619
- 28 Language contact and linguistic areas 647
- 29 Language classification 669
- 30 Archival-based sociolinguistic variation 689
- 31 Community-based sociolinguistic variation 701
