Ling. 2120 3.0
Fundamentals of Phonolgical Analysis Problem Set 1
Due in class Monday, February 6, 2012 Problem Set 1 can be done individually or in groups of 2. If working as a group, a single paper should be submitted with the names of both members identified on the title page.
General Presentation Guidelines
Problem sets represent formal academic work and should be presented as such. Do not include any rough work that you might do. Also, do not submit the data handout with your finished analysis. As well, in presenting your analysis, do not rewrite questions or copy out the data sets. Finally, include a title page.
DATA SET A
Phonetics Notes: [i] represents a high back unrounded vowel (= IPA kup; [w] represents a velar approximant (= IPA [ ui]).
1. piEti it is dirty 7. wadubi buzzard 2. pidi eight 8. wibu hill 3. pelu well 9. upi meat 4. bani your thing 10. warubi kingfish 5. bimina banana 11. titawali red ants 6. dab ula table 12. wadaradi Friday
Determine how many phonemes [b w] represent in the language shown above. If any two or more of these sounds are contrastive, provide evidence. If any two or more of these sounds are noncontrastive, state whether it is a case of free variation or complementary distribution. If in free variation, provide evidence. If in complementary distribution, state the different environments in which each allophone occurs and justify your choice of the underlying phoneme (in answering this question, follow the example answer formats for arguing for an analysis from the Phonemics Problems 1 handout).
Reminder: do not include any rough work (such as distributional charts, etc.) as part of your answer.