Lecture #10: Phonology III

All materials shown in clas #10 already here - minor additions to come very soon

Topic: Phonology and Literacy

Example Phonology Problem

Some environments for phonological rules

Syllable-position

(e.g. English aspiration of voiceless stops in syllable-initial position only)

Preceding or following sound

(e.g. nasalization of English vowels; Hebrew /b/ --> [v] when preceded by a vowel)

Preceding and following sound

(e.g. Mokilese devoicing of high vowels (/i/ and /u/) when both preceded and followed by voiceless consonants)

Effect of stressed syllables

(e.g. English /t/ --> [d])

Conditioning by a specific feature

(e.g. English lengthening of /i/ when followed by a voiced consonant)

Phonology & Literacy

Speakers/hearers need unconscious knowledge of phonology

• phonemes & allophones
• phonological rules
• syllable structure

Readers/writers need conscious understanding of units of phonology

• letters correspond (roughly) to phoneme-sized units
• spellings are typically not phonetic
• spellings often preserve phonological or morphological information

Organization of sound units

Example 1: English syllable-initial consonant clusters

Example 2: Russian Consonant Clusters

Example 3: Nasals in English and Twi

Example 4: Japanese Loan-Words (borrowings from English)

Unconscious Phonological Knowledge

Babies younger than 6 months discriminate most speech sounds of world's languages

Older children only discriminate contrasts from their native language

English allophonic contrast [t] vs. [th]

Infants 6-8 months: discriminated

Infants 10-12 months: not discriminated

Adults: discriminated

Children know some allophonic contrasts by age 12 months

English Spelling

Letters correspond roughly to phoneme-sized units

cat

dog

consternation

Letters often preserve phonemic information, not phonetics

park

spark not sbark

 

trap not chrap

Spellings sometimes preserve morphological information

"-ed" past tense

cleaned

jumped

wanted

relate-relation

vacate-vacation

Phonological Awareness

• Kindergartners have no difficulty breaking words into syllables
• Ability to break words into phonemes typically delayed until onset of reading
• Delay in breaking up consonant clusters

play

milk

smile

• Students with reading difficulty often perform poorly on phonological awareness tests

First-Graders' Spellings

[Taken from "Beginning to Spell" by Rebecca Treiman (Wayne State University). Oxford University Press, 1993.]

Traditional error classifications

a. Letter omissions (e.g. RED for read)

b. Incorrect, but legal spellings (e.g. TAIP for tape)

Many errors reflect children's phonological knowledge

Syllabic liquids

HR

FRM

BL

GRL

BUDR

Lack of aspiration

SGIE

SDIK

SPUN

SGIN

Vowel nasalization

WET

WAT

STAPS

BAK

Failure to analyze clusters

PAY

Flapping (/t/ -> [d] rule)

WODR, BODOM

Reverse: NOBUTE

Palatalization of /tr/ sequences

CHRIE

JRAGIN

Past tense

JUMT

HLPT

CLEND

(JUPD &endash; 1/15 of the frequency of the surface forms)

Conclusion

• Speaking/hearing requires unconscious knowledge
• Unconscious knowledge is usually present at a very young age
• Learning to read and write requires conscious understanding of phonology
• Children's difficulties most often in accessing and using knowledge that they already have