Linguistics Stack Exchange
Linguistics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [phonology]

The study of the abstract aspect of the sounds or phonemes in a given language.

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Is there a biological reason to vowel shift?

Trying to explain vowel shift in French I wrote on FL&U that "Vowel sounds are more prone to evolution than consonants. I suppose it is because phonatory organs are not as easily controlled when sounding vowels than when sounding consonants". Could…
None
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Are there languages featuring "reversed affricates" as phonological segments?

This question is inspired by the comments to my answer on this question. Are there reversed affricates, i.e., fricatives ending in a homorganic stop, attested in any language of the world? What is the usual term for such kind of a sound?
Sir Cornflakes
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Is there a certain rule for dividing syllable in a word?

I am new in linguistics and I am an ESL student. When I check dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster, Random House Webster, Webster’s New world college, American Heritage, Cambridge dictionary etc and listen to the pronunciation, there are different…
IEatMy Pizza
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How do non-English speakers perceive English /b d g/?

Based on some reading that I've done, the English "voiced" stops /b d g/ aren't actually voiced word-initially. For instance, /bæt/ is realized as [pæt] or [b̥æt], rather than [bæt]. The distinction between /p t k/ and /b d g/ in these word-initial…
Jackson Wilson
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Are mutually counterbleeding and mutually feeding phonological rules possible? Why not?

Since consonants tend to be lost next to other consonants, could all of the consonants of a consonant cluster disappear since each consonant is next to a consonant? (This would be a mutual counterbleeding interaction, assuming the progressive part…
Greg Lee
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Is the dark L truly velar?

The dark L is considered by the IPA to be a velar consonant, meaning it is "articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate" (Wikipedia). However, it is far from that: it is pronounced with the back of the tongue…
gil_mo
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Vowels tend to be open in closed syllables and closed in open syllables

Is this a phenomenon in many languages? If so, what is its reason? For example, in French: /ø/: bleu, feu, jeu, peu, queue, etc. /œ/: neuf, peur, auteur, vainqueur, etc. /e/: -ai (first person future), -é (past participle) /ɛ/: -ais (first person…
Kenny Lau
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Why is it possible to identify a language without hearing the words?

I have noticed that often while walking in the street in a foreign country, I will be able to recognize that someone nearby is speaking a language I'm familiar with without actually being able to make out the words. This effect is most pronounced…
Whelp
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Finnish diphthongs and long vowels

From Reconsidering the Nganasan vowel system (Fejes 2021): One argument for the vowel sequence analysis is that Nganasan long vowels and diphthongs are twice as long as a single vowel (Helimski 1998: 485). This must sound strange for a Uralist,…
Someone211
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Are there any slavic or romance languages/dialects with allophonic aspirated consonants?

I know a lot of slavic and romance languages don't aspirate their consonants at all, but are there any languages from these two subgroups of languages that do use aspiration as a feature of consonants?
LinguisticsFanatic
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Why is a voiced, voiceless unaspirated, and aspirated distinction so rare cross-linguistically?

Why is that a lot of languages have the distinction between voiceless-voiced consonant but not a lot of languages have three-way distinction between voiced, voiceless unaspirated, and aspirated consonants?
LinguisticsFanatic
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What acoustic similarities are there between phonetically similar consonants?

I really want to know what exactly the similarity between consonants depends on. For me, the core might be the place of articulation, manner of articulation and voiced vs. voiceless. For example, b/p/t/d are all stop consonants, and they will sound…
Yuewei Cao
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Can languages have both the alveolar approximant and the alveolar tap?

I'm trying to find a natural instance of both the alveolar approximant and the alveolar tap existing in a natural language's phonology. Could this naturally happen or do languages converge to one of them and the other dies? I also don't quite know…
user2738698
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Forced Aligner doesn’t work on denoised sound file

I’m using p2fa to do aligning for a sound file. Because the speaker has some heavy breath that was misinterpreted as words, I used praat to denoise it, and it sounds pretty good. However, p2fa almost cannot detect any sound in the denoised file.…
user24369
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Is the choice of /eɪ/ over /æ/ in 'flaky' arbitrary?

I'm a non-native speaker who started using English about a decade ago. The problem is sometimes when I first encounter a new word, I fail to predict its correct prononciation. So, I check the dictionary to avoid learning it the wrong way. I like to…
EasternRiver
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