The commonest English vowel has no separate letter to represent it in the English alphabet. The vowel is called ‘schwa’ and is found as, for example, the first vowel in about. Schwa is a mid central unrounded vowel: mid means that the highest part of the tongue is neither high (where it is for /i/…… Continue reading Schwa, the vowel with no letter of its own
Tag: Phoneme
Sounds of Czech
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
Why did two Spanish sibilants end up as /θ/ and /x/?
I’ve often wondered why standard European Spanish (Castilian) pronounces the letters written<c> and <j> as /θ/ and /x/. Penny (2002) and Alkire and Rosen (2010) explain that this comes from the history of sibilants in Spanish. Old Spanish sibilants In the 15th century, Old Spanish had 7 sibilants (table 1). Table 1. Old Spanish sibilants…… Continue reading Why did two Spanish sibilants end up as /θ/ and /x/?
Language sketch: Albanian
In this post, I give some background information about Albanian and summarise its sound system and writing system. I will discuss morphology, syntax and vocabulary in a future post. For other posts on Albanian, please see https://languagemiscellany.com/tag/albanian/ Albanian language Albanian is a separate branch of the Indo-European family, but split off much later than most…… Continue reading Language sketch: Albanian
Lateral consonants
Lateral consonants are consonants produced with the tongue blocking (or nearly blocking) the airflow in the centre of the mouth but allowing air to flow around the side(s) of the tongue. English has one lateral phoneme: /l/, written as <l> or <L>. Definition Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996) define laterals as sounds ‘in which the tongue…… Continue reading Lateral consonants
Some similarities between Russian and German
I was 15 when I started learning Russian at school, after 4 years of learning German. Although there are many differences between German and Russian, my confidence grew early from discovering some similarities between those 2 languages. I discuss some of the similarities briefly below. 1. Cases Both languages have retained complex systems of case…… Continue reading Some similarities between Russian and German
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
The many vowels of German and English
Browsing chapter 2 of the World Atlas of Linguistic Structures (WALS, Maddieson, 2013), I came across a statement that surprised me. In the sample of 564 languages surveyed in that chapter, only 3 languages contrasts as many as 13 different vowels. What surprised me was that 2 of those languages were German (14 vowels) and…… Continue reading The many vowels of German and English
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