Goals

to provide me with a baseline estimate of your experience with writing and linguistic argumentation
to practice phonemic analysis and argumentation

Instructions

Posit and justify a phonemic analysis for all of the following data sets. For each data set, you will:
- present the data (organized however you like)
- propose a phonemicization
- show how the data support your proposed phonemicization, e.g.:
  - “the segments [e] and [ɛ] are in a contrastive distribution, as indicated by the minimal pairs: …”
  - “voiceless unaspirated and aspirated stops are in complementary distribution; the complementary environments in which they occur are as follows…"
- discuss any alternatives that are compatible with the data
- argue for the phonemicization you went with
The “optional challenges” are provided in case the assignment feels too easy.
Assignment prompts are very prone to typos, so let me know via e-mail if you suspect one.
Submit your completed assignment in hardcopy at the beginning of class on September 4.
- You can format or typeset the paper however you like, as long as:
  - It’s typed, including IPA characters.
  - It’s as clear as possible. This is especially important for examples.
  - You leave margins and double space so I can add comments.
- You are free to copy-paste the data from this file.

For all of the assignments in this class, write up your solution as a short paper, including:
- sections presented in a logical order (with section headings)
- a very short introduction: something that outlines the content of the paper
  - For this assignment, something like “this paper presents a phonemic analysis for three languages […] Language X displays contextually-limited contrast, Language Y displays […] Language Z […]” is sufficient.
- a very short conclusion: repeating the introduction
Imagine the audience is someone who hasn’t seen the data and doesn’t have access to the HW assignment prompt, but knows everything that we discussed in the first week.
- This means you should present and explain the data in your writeup.

Provide a phonemic analysis of [i], [u], [i̥], and [u̥] in Mokilese, an Austronesian language spoken in Micronesia.
The circle diacritic indicates that a sound is voiceless.
Optional challenge: What, if anything, can we say about the other vowels given this data set?

Provide a phonemic analysis of [k], [k'], [t], and [tʰ] in Tojolabal, a Mayan language spoken in Mexico.
[k'] is a glottalized voiceless velar stop, and [t'] is a glottalized voiceless alveolar stop.
Optional challenge: also consider [t'], for which data is sparse.
Optional challenge: what does your analysis have to say, if anything, about [kʰ]?

Provide a phonemic analysis of [ʀ] and [r] in French, as spoken in Québec.
[ʀ] is used here to transcribe a voiced uvular fricative (not a trill).
[r] is an alveolar trill.
Optional challenge: if you wanted to further test your analysis, what data would be relevant, and how might you collect it?