English 615: Modern English Linguistics
summer, 2009

Vegetable Languages

Problem One: Rosebush Segment Inventory

i [high front tense]
I [high front lax]
e [mid front tense]
u [high back tense]
U [high back lax]
o [mid back tense]

1. What is unusual about the Rosebush segment inventory?

• With ohnly 9 consonants, it is extremely small.
• It lacks fricatives.
• There is no /a/ phoneme.

2. If 'Rosebush' is, in fact, the name of the language, how would speakers of this language pronounce that given their segment inventory and assuming their maximum syllable is CV?

• The only consonant in the word [rozbUS] in the consonant segment inventory is [b], so we must find phonetically similar substitutes for [r] [z] and [S]. for [r] and [z], a nearby voiced segment would be a good choice: perhaps [d]. for [S], [t] might be a good choice since it is nearby and voiceless. This would give us [dodbUt]. Now, the syllable structure is a concern: with CV syllables, consonannts and vowels must alternate in a CVCVCV pattern and the word cannot end with a consonant. To achieve this, we can either delete some consonants or insert some vowels. Which of these we do is up to us. [dodbUt] could become [dobUto]
• 3. How would your answer above change if the maximum syllable were CVC?
  this would make all the above deleting and inserting unnecessary. We could simply have [dodbUt]
• Here are two phonological rules for Rosebush. Given these rules and a maximum syllable of CVC, which of the following words are permissible and which violate the phonological constraints of Rosebush? Where a word is in violation, please correct it.

  Rule 1: .t/ and .s/ are in complementary distribution. they are allophones of the same phoneme. [t] occurs word initial and .s/ occurs Elsewhere.

  Rule 2. [dz] occurs word finally and [d] occurs elsewhere.

  1. [steb] stem
     First off, we can't begin with CC. So, we must delete a C or insert a vowel between the two consonants. With this sequence, le'ts delete the [s]. this gives us [teb]. since [t] occurs word initially, [teb] is a legal word and we can be finished. Incidentally, if we had deleted [t] instead and left [seb], the rules would have changed that [s] into a [t] anyway.
  2. [bUd] bud
     [d] and dz] are allophones of the same phoneme with [dz] occurring word finally. thus, this word must become [bUdz] to be a legal word.
  3. [dzudud] rich earth
     [dz] occurs only word finally and d elsewhere. tis word must be changed to [dududz].
  4. [gopis] leaf killing disease
     [t] and [s] are allphones of the same phoneme with [t] word initial and [s] elsewhere. Thus, this word-final [s] is fine.
  5. [zo] bright red
     there is no [z] in the Rosebush segment inventory. the closest possible segment, the one most phonetically similar is [d] which shares place or articulation and voicing with [z]. This word might be [do]. since [d] is word initial, [do] is a legal word.
  6. [bINk] big
     [bINk] is a CVCC word and thus not allowed in a CVC language. [bIN] would be fine as would [bIk] or even [bINik]
  7. [todz] toad
     the [t] is word initial and the [dz] word final. this one is fine as is.
  8. [ntIski] light breeze
     This word would be fine except that that [t] is not word initial. [t] appears as [s] if it is not word initial. thus, the legal word is [nsIski]. It's not a legal word in English, but it is in Rosebush).
  9. [zoda] cardinal
     [z] is not a segment in this language. We change it to [d] and get [doda]. [doda] is fine.
  10. [eka] squirrel
      also fine.
  11. [tUkda] goose
      also fine.
  12. [tes] family group of worms
      fine.