Guidelines

• In this presentation, you will:
  • present a set of data that supports claims about the phoneme inventory of a language and that demonstrates an allophonic alternation;
  • present your own rule-based analysis of the allophonic alternation.
• You must provide printed handouts or slides for your presentation (6 copies).
• You will have 12–15 minutes for your presentation followed by up to 5 minutes for discussion.
• For your presentation, you should not collaborate with other students in the class.
• Each of you will develop a data set for a different language.
• You must present on a language you haven’t previously worked on.¹
• Please email by noon on Friday, September 27 to let me know which language you propose to present on.

Data sources

• Sources of language data include:
  • descriptive grammars
  • descriptive journal articles
  • consultation with native speakers of the languages
  • introspection on a language for which you have native command
• Whichever source(s) you use should be cited at the appropriate point (e.g. “Johnson 2008”) with the full reference list provided at the end of your handout.
  • If you consult a native speaker or use introspection, you must explain how you collected the data.
• Note: Wikipedia is not an adequate source. You must use vetted scholarly sources.

Topics

• Your presentation should cover the following topics.
• Language background
  • the name of the language you are describing
  • the family to which it belongs
  • where it is spoken
  • the approximate number of speakers
• Inventory
  • An inventory of the phonemes of the language.
    • Present the vowel and consonant inventories separately.
    • Arrange phonemes in columns according to place of articulation and in rows according to manner of articulation.
    • Use IPA symbols to represent the phonemes. This may require translating the symbols used in your source into the IPA.
  • Support your proposed phoneme inventory with minimal pairs or near-minimal pairs, and include glosses.
    • At a minimum, give (near-)minimal pairs for neighboring segments.
    • For example, if the language has /k, g, x, ɣ/, give minimal pairs for /k/ ~ /g/, /k/ ~ /x/, and /g/ ~ / ɣ/.
    • If you can’t find a (near-)minimal pair for a given opposition, discuss why you nevertheless posit a contrast.
    • Be sure to include minimal pairs for both consonants and vowels.
    • If tones are phonemic, include supporting evidence for that as well.
• Allophonic alternation
  • Describe at least one allophonic alternation in the language under study.
  • Give example words showing the alternations, and, as appropriate, where the alternations do not occur.
  • Discuss the contexts in which the different alternants are found and choose one as basic, justifying your decision.
  • Where relevant draw on evaluative criteria such as simplicity and phonetic naturalness.
  • Formulate a rule (or rules) to characterize the alternation using features and rule ordering as appropriate. Provide derivations to illustrate the workings of your account.