MAKALAH

Phonotactic Rules of English

Dosen Pengampu

Khusnul Khatimah S.Pd M.Pd

Disusun Oleh :

MUHAMMAD IRWAN

FAKULTAS ILMU PENDIDIKAN

UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH KALIMANTAN TIMUR
2019
 DAFTAR ISI
KATA PENGANTAR ............................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
BAB IPENDAHULUAN ........................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
A. LATAR BELAKANG ....................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
B. RUMUSAN MASALAH ................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
C. TUJUAN ............................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
BAB II PEMBAHASAN ........................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
A. Phonotactic rules of English ............................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
B. sequential constraints ......................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
C. components of syllable (coda, onset, nucleus, rhyme) .................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
BAB III PENUTUP ................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
A. KESIMPULAN .................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
DAFTAR PUSTAKA ................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
 FOREWORD
(KATA PENGANTAR)

Alhamdulillah, a simple paper has been finished with a Phonology course. Certainly not
separated from the contributions of various parties. A thank you expression that is
unaccounted for to the Almighty All, ALLAH GOD who has bestowed a beautiful life,
provides an amazing opportunity for me to breathe, carry out all my activities until the
completion of this simple paper, Alhamdulillah. Without His permission all cannot be like
this.
Given that this simple paper was first made, it clearly has many shortcomings and
weaknesses. Therefore, I as the compiler of this paper expects criticism and suggestions from
various parties and apologies, for the improvement and perfection of this paper in the future.
And hopefully it will bring benefits and can increase shared knowledge. Amen.
Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh..
 INTRODUCTION

A. Problem Background
English phonology is the sound system (phonology) of the English language, or the
study of that system. Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural
languages.[1] Like many languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both
historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English
share a largely similar (though not identical) phonological system.
Our phonological knowledge is not something we can necessarily access and talk about
in detail: we often have intuitions about language without knowing where they come from, or
exactly how to express them. But the knowledge is certainly there. However, English
speakers are not consciously aware of those rules, and are highly unlikely to tell a linguist
asking about those words that the absence of *fnil reflects the unacceptability of word-initial
consonant sequences, or clusters, with [fn-] in English: the more likely answer is that snil
‘sounds all right’ (and if you’re lucky, your informant will produce similar words like sniff or
snip to back up her argument), but that *fnil ‘just sounds wrong’. It is the job of the
phonologist to express generalisations of this sort in precise terms: after all, just because
knowledge is not conscious, this does not mean it is unreal, unimportant or not worth
understanding.[2]
Problem Formulation
1. What is the phonotactic ?
2. What are phonotatcic features?
In phonology, phonotactics is the study of the ways in which phonemes are allowed to
combine in a particular language. (A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound capable of
conveying a distinct meaning.) Adjective: phonotactic.

Over time, a language may undergo phonotactic variation and change. For example, as Daniel
Schreier points out, "Old English phonotactics admitted a variety of consonantal sequences
that are no longer found in contemporary varieties" (Consonant Change in English
Worldwide, 2005).

Understanding Phonotactic Constraints

Phonotactic constraints are rules and restrictions concerning the ways in which syllables can
be created in a language. Linguist Elizabeth Zsiga observes that languages "do not allow
random sequences of sounds; rather, the sound sequences a language allows are a systematic
and predictable part of its structure."

Phonotactic constraints, says Zsiga, are "restrictions on the types of sounds that are allowed
to occur next to each other or in particular positions in the word" ("The Sounds of Language"
in An Introduction to Language and Linguistics, 2014).

According to Archibald A. Hill, the term phonotactics (from the Greek for "sound" +
"arrange") was coined in 1954 by American linguist Robert P. Stockwell, who used the term
in an unpublished lecture delivered at the Linguistic Institute in Georgetown.

Examples and Observations

 "Becoming sensitive to phonotactics is not only important for learning how sounds
occur together; it is also crucial for discovering word boundaries."
(Kyra Karmiloff and Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Pathways to Language. Harvard
University Press, 2001)

Sequential constraints in phonology

No matter what language you speak, you know about a wide variety of completely unwritten
rules that apply specifically both to your language and your particular dialect. Many of these
rules deal with grammatical structures that require you to form your sentences with certain
word orders to be meaningful, others refer to how your pronounce certain words, when to
voice a sound and when to leave it voiceless. Sequential constraints in phonology refer
specifically to the clusters of sounds that you are allowed to use when making words happen.

In English, consider if you are given the sounds /b/ /l/ /ɪ/1 and /k/. These four sounds can be
arranged in a variety of ways that can form words that sound English: /blɪk/, /klɪb/, /bɪlk/, and
/kɪlb/. Of these, only "bilk" is a real word, but they all sound like they are real, and, since
we're dealing with word-formation from phonetics point of view, this is all we care about.
Your mental phonetic constraint is what tells your brain that /kbɪl/ and /lbɪk/ just aren't words
that could possibly exist in English. English phonology tells our brains that words cannot
start with /kb/ or /lb/ sounds. Specifically, your brain knows that a word that starts with a stop
consonant cannot be followed by another stop consonant (/kbɪl/), and if a word starts with a
/l/ or /r/ sound, the next sound must be a vowel, not a stop (/lbɪl/).

In English, you are limited to three-sound consonant clusters at the beginning of words or
syllables:

First Sound Second Sound Third Sound

----------- ------------ -----------
s p l
t r
k w
j

Cluster Example Word Transcription

------- ------------ -------------
spl Split /splɪt/
spr Spring /spriŋ/
spw *
spy Spew /spju/
stl *
str Strength /strɛŋkθ/
stw *
sty *
skl Sclaff /sklæf/
skr Screed /skrid/
skw Square /skwɛr/
sky Skua /'skjuə/

* An exception to these rules, these clusters are not permissible in English initial formations.

Imagine you're given the /kspl/ sound cluster. It is obviously not a permissible cluster to
begin a word with, but can exist inside of words just fine, as in "explicit" /ɛksplɪsɪt/. In
multisyllabic words, larger clusters are permissible because of syllable boundaries: /ɛk $ splɪ
$ sɪt/. Note that the /kspl/ is broken by syllables into a syllable-final /k/ followed by a
syllable-initial /spl/ as in our chart above. In the same way that syllable boundaries make
"explicit" a permissible /kspl/ cluster, we know that "condstluct" /kandstləkt/ is not a
permissible word in English, because it either has an /stl/ or /tl/ syllable-initial sound cluster.

Advertising in English often makes use of these sequential constraints to create new words in
English that do not have meaning. Consider Bic, Xerox, and Spam, which were not in the
lexicon when they were initially introduced, but because they follow the restraints placed on
English words, they sound like real English words. This is also why we're likely never to
have a company come out named Zhpleet /ʒplit/ because it breaks our cluster rules. For more
information on this concept, see lexical gap.
1
. The /ɪ/ sound is the vowel sound of "ship" and "lift." See International Phonetic Alphabet
for more information on IPA transcription.
Syllables and their parts

Words can be cut up into units called syllables. Humans seem to need syllables as a way of
segmenting the stream of speech and giving it a rhythm of strong and weak beats, as we hear
in music. Syllables don't serve any meaning-signalling function in language; they exist only
to make speech easier for the brain to process. A word contains at least one syllable.

Most speakers of English have no trouble dividing a word up into its component syllables.
Sometimes how a particular word is divided might vary from one individual to another, but a
division is always easy and always possible. Here are some words divided into their
component syllables (a period is used to mark the end of a syllable):

tomato = to.ma.to
window = win.dow
supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: su.per.ca.li.fra.gi.lis.ti.cex.pi.a.li.do.cious (some people
might put some of the periods in different places in this word).

Syllables have internal structure: they can be divided into parts. The parts are onset and
rhyme; within the rhyme we find the nucleus and coda. Not all syllables have all parts; the
smallest possible syllable contains a nucleus only. A syllable may or may not have an onset
and a coda.

Onset: the beginning sounds of the syllable; the ones preceding the nucleus. These are always
consonants in English. The nucleus is a vowel in most cases, although the consonants [ r ], [ l
], [ m ], [ n ], and the velar nasal (the 'ng' sound) can also be the nucleus of a syllable. In the
following words, the onset is in bold; the rest underlined.

read
flop
strap

If a word contains more than one syllable, each syllable will have the usual syllable parts:

win.dow
to.ma.to
pre.pos.te.rous
fun.da.men.tal

Rhyme (or rime): the rest of the syllable, after the onset (the underlined portions of the words
above). The rhyme can also be divided up:

Rhyme = nucleus + coda

The nucleus, as the term suggests, is the core or essential part of a syllable. A nucleus must
be present in order for a syllable to be present. Syllable nuclei are most often highly 'sonorant'
or resonant sounds, that can be relatively loud and carry a clear pitch level. In English and
most other languages, most syllable nuclei are vowels. In English, in certain cases, the liquids
[ l r ] and nasals [ m n ] and the velar nasal usually spelled 'ng' can also be syllable nuclei.
The syllable structure analysis of the words 'read', 'flop', 'strap' and 'window' are as follows
(IPA symbols are used to show the sounds in the word/syllable):

read = one syllable

Onset = [ r ]
Rhyme = [ id ] (within the rhyme:)
Nucleus = [ i ]
Coda = [ d ]

flop = one syllable

Onset = [ f l ]
Rhyme = [ a p ]
Nucleus = [ a ]
Coda = [ p ]

window = 2 syllables

First syllable: [wIn]

Onset = [ w ]
Rhyme = [ I n ]
Nucleus = [ I ]
Coda = [ n ]

Second syllable: [ d o ]
Onset = [ d ]
Rhyme = [ o ]
Nucleus = [ o ]
(This syllable has no coda)

Linguists often use tree diagrams to illustrate syllable structure. 'Flop', for example, would
look like this (the word appears in IPA symbols, not English spelling). 's' = 'syllable'; 'O' =
'onset'; 'R' = 'rhyme'; 'N' = 'nucleus'; 'C' = 'coda'. (The tree may not come out well-aligned on
your screen, because your computer may show this page in a different font). The syllable
node at the top of the tree branches into Onset and Rhyme; the Onset node branches because
it contains two consonants, [ f ] and [ l ]. The Rhyme node branches because this syllable has
both a nucleus and a coda.

s
/ \
O R
/\ / \
| | NC
| | | |
[f l a p]

Liquids and nasals as syllable nuclei

The English liquids [ r l ] and the nasals [ m n ] can be the nuclei of syllables under certain
conditions. [ r ] can be a nucleus as easily as a vowel, in any position: the words 'bird', 'word',
'her', 'fur', the first syllable of 'perceive' and 'surname' and the final syllables of 'mother',
'actor' (in casual pronunciation) all have [ r ] as the nucleus; in other words, there is no vowel
in the pronunciation of these syllables, even though they have one in the spelling.

[ l ] and the nasals [ m n ] become syllable nuclei when they follow an alveolar consonant in
the last syllable of a word. This happens in the relaxed or casual rather than very formal
articulation of the word. Compare casual vs. formal pronunciations of 'button', 'bottle',
'bottom'.

When one of these sounds is a syllable nucleus, this is shown in transcription by putting a
very short vertical line under the IPA symbol
[ r l m n ].
' ' ' '

(If the vertical lines don't line up under the symbols on your screen, it is due to webpage
transfer complications.)

A word with a syllabic [ r ] as nucleus is 'bird':

These rules use terms that most people don’t know, so let’s try to explain them.

First, there are three parts to a syllable: an onset, a nucleus, and a coda. The nucleus and coda
are collectively referred to as the rhyme. An important thing to note is that only the nucleus is
required; a syllable does not necessarily have to have an onset or a coda.

Let’s take a simple one-syllable word to explain what each of the three parts is. The word
“bag” has all three parts—an onset, a nucleus, and a coda.

 The onset is the beginning consonant of the syllable. That would be the /b/ sound.
 The nucleus is the vowel sound of the syllable. That would be the /æ/ (short a) sound.
It can also be a sole consonant sound, such as the /m/ in the word “rhythm.”
 The coda is the end consonant of the syllable. That would be the /g/ sound.

If both the onset and the coda are omitted, then you have a vowel-only syllable—for instance,
the word “a.”

There are also complex onsets and codas, though the former are typically restricted to two or
three sounds. The word “twelfths” is an example of this; see if you can find each part of the
syllable.

Now, we can start going through the rules.

All syllables have a nucleus

Like I stated before, this means that each syllable must have a vowel sound or be a consonant
sound.

No geminates
A geminate is basically a lengthened consonant; English makes no distinction in consonant
lengths, but other languages, such as Latin, do.

No onset /ŋ/

The /ŋ/ sound is the sound found at the end of words such as “song”; it is usually represented
with the letters “ng.” This rule means that that sound cannot be at the onset, or beginning, of
a syllable.

This is also why my last name, Ngai, is so hard to pronounce for English-speakers.

No /h/ in syllable coda

You can’t have the /h/ sound at the end of a syllable. Put simply, don’t exhale at the end of
syllables.

Now, we have to explain the different types of consonant sounds.

 Plosive consonant
o Generated by an “explosion” of air, when the pressure is built and suddenly
expelled.
o Unvoiced sounds: /p/, /t/, /k/
o Voiced sounds: /b/, /d/, /g/
 Fricative consonant
o Generated by forcing air through a narrow channel.
o Unvoiced sounds: /f/, /θ/ (such as in think), /s/, /ʃ/ (such as in share)
o Voiced sounds: /v/, /ð/ (such as in this), /z/, /ʒ/ (such as in vision)
 Nasal consonant
o Generated through a partial flow of air through the nose.
o Voiced sounds: /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ (such as in song)
 Approximant consonant
o Similar to vowel sounds.
o Voiced sounds: /w/, /r/, /j/, /l/
 Glottal consonant
o Generated in the throat.
o Unvoiced sound: /h/
 Affricate consonant
o A combination of a plosive followed by a fricative.
o Unvoiced sound: /tʃ/ (such as in chair)
o Voiced sound: /dʒ/ (such as in judge)

Plosives, fricatives, and affricates are collectively referred to as obstruents. Conversely,

nasals and approximants fall under the category of sonorants.

Let’s continue with the rules.

No affricates in complex onsets

You can’t put affricates, typically “ch” and “j,” into a complex onset, so they will always be
by themselves in a syllable’s onset.
The first consonant in a complex onset must be an obstruent

The first part of a complex onset must always be formed through the obstruction of air,
whether it is a plosive, fricative, or affricate. This rule applies in words such as “pragmatic”
or “three.”

The second consonant in a complex onset must not be a voiced obstruent

You can’t have the sounds /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /ð/, /z/, /ʒ/, or /dʒ/ as the second consonant of a
complex onset in a syllable.

Congratulations, you’re halfway through the rules and through this answer…

Next, we have to define what liquids and glides are.

Liquids in English, put simply, are the sounds made by l and r, such as in “lean” or “red.”
They have the greatest freedom of placement in a word or syllable.

A glide—typically known as a semivowel—is a vowel sound that is being used in place of a

consonant sound. It is considered a subclass of approximants, but this is not fully agreed-
upon by everyone. They include the letters w and y, such as in “we” and “yes.”

We can continue again.

If the first consonant in a complex onset is not an /s/, the second must be a liquid or a
glide

This rule is fairly self-explanatory when you know the definitions of the terms used. This rule
can be observed in words such as “grand” or “plate,” and the exception with /s/ can be
observed in the word “spider” (an /s/ followed by a plosive).

Every subsequence contained within a sequence of consonants must obey all the
relevant phonotactic rules (the substring principle)

I… honestly don’t know. I’m a high-schooler; give me a break.

No glides in codas

The w and y sounds can’t go at the end, or coda, of a syllable.

If there is a complex coda, the second consonant must not be /ŋ/, /ʒ/, or /ð/

Again, this should be fairly self-explanatory at this point.

If the second consonant in a complex coda is voiced, so is the first

The voiced consonants are generated using the vocal chords. If the first consonant in a
complex onset is unvoiced, then the second consonant can be either voiced or unvoiced.
Otherwise, it must be voiced.
We’re almost there. We just have to quickly discuss what “place of articulation” means.
Consonants are generated by obstructing airflow to various degrees and in different places.
There are 18 different defined places of articulation, but let’s not go through all of them. The
only thing I want to touch on is that an alveolar sound is generated by obstructing airflow
right behind the top teeth, such as with the /n/ sound.

Homorganic means that two sounds are generated by obstructing airflow at the same place.
For example, /m/ and /p/ would be homorganic, because they both obstruct airflow at the lips,
even though one is nasal and the other is plosive.

Let’s finish this, shall we?

Non-alveolar nasals must be homorganic with the next segment

In English, the non-alveolar nasals are /m/ and /ŋ/, so they must be homorganic with the next
part.

Two obstruents in the same coda must share voicing

Two obstruents at the coda of a syllable must either both be voiced (voicing) or both be
voiceless (devoicing).

Like I said, it takes a lot of explaining just to get people to understand what each of these
rules mean. However, the truth is that we all know these rules intuitively, even if we can’t
enumerate them specifically. That’s how language works, and anything that doesn’t follow
these rules sounds distinctively non-English
 Conclusion

In conclusion, this study showed that phonotactic constraints did not interfere with L2
processing by native Japanese speakers and provided evidence that L2 speakers use the
segmentation strategy that is used by native speakers of the target language. Further
investigation is needed to determine how native Japanese speakers segment a syllable in a
nonword and to determine whether there is a difference between groups with different levels
of English proficiency. Results of such studies may help to reveal the mechanism of L2
speech processing.
 REFERENCES
April McMahon. An Intriduction to English Phonology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,
2002.
D. Robert Ladd. International Phonology Second Edition. United States of America: Cambridge
University Press. 2008.
David Crystal, How Language Works. Overlook Press. 2005.
David Crystal, The Cambridge Encylopedia of the English Language, 2nd edition. Cambridge
University Press.2003.
Geoffrey S. Nathan, Phonology: A Cognitive Grammar Introduction. John Benjamins. 2008.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_suprasegmental_phonology Tuesday, 11th March, 2013.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/574738/suprasegmental Tuesday, 11th March, 2013.
http://www.sabah.edu.my/smkbft2/phonology.html Tuesday, 11th March, 2013
http://www-01.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsPhonology.htm Tuesday,
11th March, 2013.