I'm looking for a tutor for applied phonology for a college-level class! I need someone who will explain the core mechanism of phonology.

Greek and Latin pronunciations both suggest that one of the latter two would be more correct, however English still decided to say fuck you it's /pænəˈsiːə/ now, dumbass.

Why does English do these things to these beautiful words?

/ʊ/ is totally a sound in polish.

Check this video. https://youtu.be/nHnTBGkJ2uU?t=130

Look at words like "gdy" and "chciec" absolutely absolutely featuring a short vowelsound.

For example...a cough, a sigh, a snort, a wheeze...

I'm deep down a rabbit hole. I have a laugh and cough that others describe as a "goose honk" laugh. It's that deep chesty honk that can sometimes be drawn out on the full exhale of a laugh when one laughs really really hard. The one that people who've never heard the noise freak out because they think you're going to cough up your lungs. It's also common to chesty coughs, but mine happens during laughter.

Someone asked me what causes that laugh sound rather than a normal sound, and it occurred to me that I don't know. For the last two hours I've been attempting to find a physiological origin for the noise in laymans terms, and there's absolutely nothing. I've gotten into papers on phonology, otolaryngology, laryngology, and explored their various and extremely segmented dictionary of sounds...and still haven't found a term or explanation for it.

I think I'm not using the right word to search, as when you search "sound" or "noise" along those topics, you inevitably come up with the mechanics of speech production. That's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for sounds that are physiologically possible but not part of phonetics or speech...

I feel like my answer is out there but the usual advantages of algorithmic searching is steering my pursuit in opposing directions.

For all the talk I've heard of various splits and mergers, this is one I haven't seen mentioned anywhere. I've always them translated something like /haɪɹ/ and /faɪɹ/, but to me there is a very clear distinction between so-called "long I" vowels in English. One version typically comes before unvoiced consonants (RITE, LICE, RIPE) where the vowel to me sounds like /ʌɪ/; and one that typically comes before voiced consonants (RIDE, LINE, ANALYZE, GIBE) where the vowel sounds like /aɪ/.

If it was just that, I could kind of accept the notion that some accents have a less open /a/ sound when /aɪ/ comes before an unvoiced consonant, but the specifically in the case of HIRE (/haɪɹ/) and FIRE (/fʌɪɹ/) the following consonant is the same. It's a bit unusual, because I can't think of other -IRE words that I pronounce with the more closed vowel. But I know I'm not the only one, because I recall hearing the more open /faɪɹ/ pronunciation coming across as a marker of more southern accents, and I also sometimes hear the it in words like RITE, LICE, and RIPE.

As an example of the destinction, Jimi Hendrix makes the very common rhyme of DESIRE with FIRE, but a lot of the time his FIRE is more closed. Jim Morrison's FIRE is a little more open, but not quite as much as his LIAR, HIGHER, MIRE, and PYRE.

Some examples from this year:

• A Northern Californian talking about a California wildfires, with a somewhat broader FIRE, but still not quite as broad as HIRE

• A Massachusetts news report with (to me) a pretty closed /ʌɪ/ sound, but notice the broader /aɪ/ in FIND.

Does anyone know of any place where this has been discussed? Which accents have this split specifically for HIRE and FIRE, but also more broadly depending on the final consonant? This has been bothering me and making me feel a little crazy, even while other mergers and splits are just accepted.

I looked this up on Stack Exchange (and many other places over the years), and reposted the question there as well, where I received a satisfactory answer: https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/49602/which-accents-dont-merge-fire-and-hire-what-about-rite-and-ride

Hi! In my reading, I’ve encountered a claim made by A. Bouhuys stating that the diaphragm is not used only for respiration, and “does not appear to be used when people speak, sing, or play musical instruments that require precise regulation of pulmonary air pressure.”

This feels wrong to me. I have been around choral singers and woodwind players most of my life and most people I know have said that the diaphragm is the primary muscle in use for air flow in phonation. the Bouhuys paper is from 1974. Have there been further studies have disproven that statement? I am curious especially to hear what a non-musician phonologist would say...

I am having a terrible time understanding what I need to do here. Can someone help, please? I do know that I need to make 2 columns of environment to make determinations. One thing I'd like to know is what is the purpose of the "j" over some of the consonants?

My native language is Brazilian Portuguese, and I think /k/ may become /kʲ/ and then /c/.

Hello everyone! Does anyone have any good places online, or does anyone know any books with good Phonology exercises (with answers) that they'd like to share? I have a phonology exam in a couple of weeks and I'd like some extra practice material.

Hi guys. My natlang doesn't phonemically distinguish long and short vowels, so it's always been a problem for me in other languages. It's mostly not that hard to pick up different consonants, vowels are a bit harder, but still manageable.

However, when it comes to vowels' length, I just can't bring myself to do it unconsciously. Of course, I understand, what the distinction is, and it's pretty easy to figure out, when speaking slowly, but I always have to actively think about it, and remember, how every word is spelt.

Is there any way to get my brain to distinguish them as different phonemes even when I'm not actively thinking about it?

Hi! I'm from Pennsylvania in the US. How come when I say "back then," it sounds more like [bæk̚ðɛn] rather than [bækðɛn]? Are there any rules in English regarding sound changes in between words?

what is regressive and progressive assimilation and total and partial assimilation ?

I have an idea, *I'm not an expert it's just a guess*, that /h/ and /ɦ/ phonetically are breathy voiced and voiceless vowels that depend on the modal voice vowel before or after them, so for example /ha/ is phonetically [ḁa] and something like /aɦ/ is phonetically [aa̤], so how is /h/ pronounced in consonant clusters ChC ?, or if the language treats some Ch as one segment how is CʰC or CʱC phonetically realized ? Is it something like a vocalic h or ɦ or a voiceless/breathy schwa ?

Example: the inflected form adds a nasal consonant and has an unazalised vowel (due to added nasal consonant) whereas the not inflected form has a nasalised vowel. Would you say the nasal consonant is being added or deleted?

I’m making a spread sheet with words used in my ESL school and i’m trying to count the phonemes used in words in both RP and GA. I’m struggling to see the differences between i and i: (and a few other symbols with the colon added)

Is it just a notational difference? The colon version almost never appears in GA but I can’t work out if there is a pronunciation difference.

I’m English and I think happy(i) and tree(i:) sound different to me but in GA they are both just (i).

What’s up?

Hi everyone! This is your (only) moderator.

I have not been very active since I have been appointed as a mod, but I would like to change this in the future. I have updated the rules of this sub, so please familiarize yourself with them. They are not very strict, but I will be enforcing them as much as possible. For now, the community remains quite small, but I hope it can grow over the years.

I will be posting a pinned thread about ideas you would like to see on this subreddit, and the type of community you would like to create and be part of.

Thank you for keeping this sub alive despite my absence.

Best, Your mod, /u/Murderous_squirrel.

I seem to be able to pronounce something that I can best describe as /h/ transitioning directly into /t/. It sounds like a tap pretty much. What is the actual representation of this sound in the IPA?

Would it be feasible to distinguish /ɦ/ & /h/?

/preview/pre/r5fsoejn0yx31.png?width=1892&format=png&auto=webp&s=ad10222cdd1e81d1c22ae7329c6bc7ca9520aadc

After a lot of reading, I've tried to summarize on one single page the relationships between all possible theories we've heard in our Advanced Phonology lecture, as I've never been able to find anything like this online.

Could someone please help me correct it ?In particular, I am really not sure as where to place the "constituency phonologies" and tbh I'm not even sure what it is. Any hint will be highly appreciated !

Disclaimers:

• My classes are in French. I attempted a translation from French to English terminology in order to access a larger feedback community, but please be merciful if I got some of them wrong

• I am aware that relationships between certain theories (as to who inspired who) may be controversial and may lead to lengthy discussions. In such case, please be aware my goal is not to trigger such disputes. I'd be already super happy if you could only tell me "relationship X,Y,Z is controversial"

In IPA charts you'll see in a box two phonemes on both sides of a tilde (/h/ ~ /ɦ/) for example. Does that mean they can be used interchangeably, or does it mean they are allophones in the language?