Re: Phonology and Morphology

Matthew Haupt wrote:

> Now, morphology. Lets keep explanations, and this morphology, simple. The
> morphology should include how consonants, vowels, semi-vowels, diphthongs
> and clusters can or cannot be ordered within a word. C= p, t, k, f, th, s,
> sh, m, n, r, l. V= i, e, a, u, o (but pronounced the way I spelled them
> above). S= ... hmm, we didn't specify any semi-vowels in our phonology did
> we? Let's say that r is a consonant but ALSO a semi-vowel. S= r. As for
> diphthongs, in some morphologies, you might be limited as to which vowels
> can be put next to which others, but to keep things simple and neat, we'll
> just say any of our vowels can be paired to form a diphthong; D= V1V2
> (subscript added to show that a diphthong is not two of the same vowel).
> Now, what types of clusters do we want? I'm going to say that we are having
> only ending clusters in this morphology, but we'll make them moderately
> complex for fun: K=[L][N][F]P. The brackets mean there may or may not be one
> of the indicated phoneme, and L means liquid, N means nasal, F means
> fricative, and P means plosive. So an ending cluster will have a plosive and
> something else.
I think this is actually part of the phonology -- specifically,
"phonotactics" is the word for which combinations of phonemes are
allowed in a language. Where morphology begins is when you start
combining morphemes into words.

There's also the idea of "morphophonology", which is how sounds change
when different morphemes are combined. The English past-tense morpheme
"-ed" has different pronunciations depending on the final sound of the
verb root: /Id/ after /d/ or /t/, /d/ after vowels and voiced consonants
other than /d/, and /t/ after voiceless consonants other than /t/.

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