PRACTICE EXERCISES
PHONOLOGICAL PROBLEMS AND PHONOLOGICAL RULES
1. SOUTH EAST AMBRYM (a Malayo-Polynesian language)
In the following problem, separate the possessive morpheme from the noun stems.
Consider the resulting variation in these noun stems and account for it.
a. What phonological process is illustrated here? Argue for your solution.
b. Formulate a maximally general rule for the observed variation.
1. hil hair hilin his hair
2. va˜belly va˜en his belly
3. luh tooth luhon his tooth
4. asou wife asoun his wife
5. he hand hen his hand
2. Using feature notations, write rules for expressing the following phonological
processes.
a. A vowel becomes short when it occurs before a consonant word-finally, or before
a consonant cluster.
b. Word-final consonants are deleted after an unstressed vowel.
3.State in plain English what the following rules do.
C C
a. [-sonorant] → [ α voice] / _____ -sonorant
α voice
b. V → [+stress] / _____ Co#
c. C
[+sonorant ] → [+syllabic] / C ____ #
