3.
ga˘lis
‘stocking’ 10.
labahbet
‘catfish’
4.
odahsa
‘tail’ 11.
sdu˘ha
‘a little bit’
5.
wisk
‘five’ 12.
dZiks
‘fly’
6.
degeni
‘two’ 13.
desda/n8
‘stand up!’ (sg.)
7.
aplam
‘Abraham’ 14.
de˘zekw8
‘pick it up!’ (sg.)
It seems that [p t k] are in complementary distribution with [b d g], the latter occurring before
vowels, the latter elsewhere. The one apparent exception to this is [
dZiks
]; there are two ways out
of this: either [
dZ
] is treated as a single phone (an affricate), and thus is outside the scope of the
problem, or the environment for the voiced allophone has to be extended to include the position
preceding voiced fricatives/obstruents.
8. Spanish voiced obstruents
In most dialects of Spanish, the voiced stops [b d g] alternate with fricatives [
B D ƒ
] (actually, for
most speakers these are pronounced as approximants, but disregard this). Based on the following
data given in broad phonetic transcription, give a rule that states the process and the context in the
most succinct manner possible, using distinctive features. Again, assume that the data are complete
in the relevant respects.
1.
fweƒo
‘fire’ 10.
gEra
‘war’
2.
saNgRe
‘blood’ 11.
razƒaR
‘tear’
3.
aDa
‘fairy’ 12.
mando
‘command’
4.
urƒaR
‘poke around’
13.
lERDo
‘sluggish’
5.
duRo
‘tough’ 14.
aBa
‘flap’
6.
baro
‘mud’ 15.
esDRuxulo
‘antepenult’
7.
ezBelto
‘slim’ 16.
laRBa
‘larva’
8.
ambas
‘both’ 17.
elBaro
‘the mud’
9.
laƒEra
‘the war’
18.
dosƒEras
‘two wars’
The voiced stops appear as fricatives if they are preceded by a vowel, or the consonants /r/ (both
kinds – is there a difference or is this a typo?), /z/, /s/, /l/. They appear as stops after a homorganic
nasal, and word-initially. The relevant environment for them to become fricatives seems to be
whenever they follow a segment that has airflow through the oral tract; this is usually associated
with the feature [+continuant].
