In this post, I summarise the sound system of Czech and comment on spelling and on contrasts between Czech (a West Slavonic language) and Russian (n East Slavonic language). Consonants Table 1 lists Cech consonants. Table 1. Czech consonants LabialAlveolarPalatalVelar /GlottalNasalmnɲ PlosivepbtdcɟkgAffricate t͡s(d͡z)t͡ʃd͡ʒ FricativefvszʃʒxɦTrill rr̝ Approximant lj Comments on consonants the letters <ň ď ť > represent palatal consonants, although…… Continue reading Sounds of Czech
Tag: Allophone
Phonemes and allophones
Phonologists and phoneticians typically distinguish phonemes from allophones. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another word. For example, the English word mat is distinct from pat because mat starts with the phoneme /m/ whereas pat starts with the phoneme /p/. A phoneme is not always pronounced in the…… Continue reading Phonemes and allophones
Polish nasals
There are 2 nasal vowels in Polish: ɛ̃ (written<ę>); and ɔ̃ (written <ą>). Nasal phoneme or partly nasal diphthong? There are 2 views of the 2 nasal vowels in Polish: the nasal vowels are a single vowel phoneme (a single vocalic unit). Advocates of this view include Rothstein (1993). the nasal vowels are diphthongs having…… Continue reading Polish nasals
Sounds of Vietnamese
Vietnamese (tiếng Việt) is in the Vietic subgroup of the Austroasiatic language family. Vietnamese is spoken as a first language by around 85 million people, mainly in Vietnam, where it is the official language. It has several times as many native speakers as all other Austroasiatic languages combined. This post covers: syllable structure word structure consonants vowels reduplication…… Continue reading Sounds of Vietnamese
Dangerous questions about morphology
A recent short paper by Laurie Bauer ask 6 questions about the morphology of English. Bauer shows that each of them carries unhelpful presuppositions that are ultimately not likely lead to a sustainable theoretical position. 1 What is the plural of mouse? Grammars of English generally say that the plural form of mouse is mice.…… Continue reading Dangerous questions about morphology
Japan to change official romanisation?
Recent press reports suggest that the Japanese government is thinking of changing the officially recommended system for romanising Japanese. Romanisation is writing Japanese in roman characters (known in Japanese as rōmaji). There are 2 main romanisation systems for Japanese: Hepburn, devised by an American Missionary James Curtis Hepburn (1815-1911). Kunrei, issued by the Japanese government…… Continue reading Japan to change official romanisation?
How many sounds are there in English?
How many sounds are there in English? It all depends on what you mean by English and what you mean by sounds. In this post, I will talk about the sounds of standard southern British English, generally known as Received Pronunciation. Phonemes The only feasible way to analyse the set of sounds used in a…… Continue reading How many sounds are there in English?
Droppin’ g’s = bad speech?
At the end of July, Digby Jones, former Director-General of the CBI (Confederation of British Industry), tweeted about the pronunciation of Alex Scott, one of the BBC’s main studio presenters during the Tokyo Olympics. He complained about her “very noticeable inability to pronounce her ‘g’s at the end of a word”, such as “fencin, rowin,…… Continue reading Droppin’ g’s = bad speech?