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Re: Phonology: How to classify /l/ and /r/

From:Muke Tever <mktvr@...>
Date:Friday, February 21, 2003, 12:01
From: "Garth Wallace" <gwalla@...>
> >>>Because they are two different phonemes to you. There are probably > >>>sounds that sound alike to you which I find extremely different. > >> > >>Yes, well, I understand that. What I meant is that there has to be a > >>reason why the particular sounds [r] and [l] seem to be relatively > >>frequently merged into one phoneme rather than, say, [r] and [f]. Or [l] > >>and [j]. I understand that this has to do with the relationships between > >>different sounds, but I just do not understand what the relationship > >>between [r] and [l] is. > > > > > > Both are -syllabic +consonantal +approximant +sonorant +contin-artic > > +contin-acous +del-rel +vox +coronal +anterior. > > Okay, I understand syllabic, consonantal, approximant, sonorant, and > vox, but what do the others mean?
[-contin-artic] "complete closure in oral cavity" (stops, affricates, and nasals) [+contin-artic] (vowels, glides, liquids, fricatives) [-contin-acous] "complete absence of acoustic energy at all but the lowest frequencies" (stops and affricates) [+contin-acous] (vowels, glides, liquids, nasals, fricatives) [-delayed release] "complete oral closure for full duration of the segment" (non-affricated stops, including nasal stops) [+delayed release] (everything else) [+coronal] "articulated with tongue tip/blade" (dentals, alveolars, retroflexes, palato-alveolars, alveolo-palatals, and palatals) [-coronal] (other sounds) [+anterior] "articulated forward of alveolar ridge" (dentals and alveolars) [-anterior] (other coronal sounds only) So quoth this guide to features file I have sitting around.
> > But [4] is +tap, while [l] is +lateral. Not much actual difference... > > [4] is a tap and [r] is a trill, but what about [r\]?
[+distributed] "articulated with the tongue blade" (dentals, palato-alveolars, alveolo-palatals, and palatals). (the others are [-dist], articulated with the tongue tip; alveolars and retroflexes) *Muke! -- http://www.frath.net/