[nour al3mr]

الفصـــل السـآبع Chapter 7: Phonemic Analysis

In this chapter, it's important for you to know

1/ the definition of different terms & how to differentiate between them

minimal pair / minimal set / abstract level/ concrete level / phoneme/ allophones/ contrastive distribution / complementary distribution / free variation

if you need the definitions of any one of them or all please tell me = )

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2/ in phonology we have two levels which allow to sounds change
the first one is Underlying level"form" = Phonemic level
the other is Surface level"form"= Phonetic level
IN THE MIDDLE WE HAVE SOME RULES HAPPENED TO LINK BETWEEN THESE LEVELS

AND YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT "RULES " IS THE CORE OF PHONOLOGY

these rules help us to realize any change happened
one of these rules which mentioned in this chapter is the Nasalisation process

this word "fan"a

in phonemic underlying level it describes as /fæn/a

take a look to the components of the word it consists from 2 consonants and 1 vowel/æ/a
this vowel preceded by the consonants and followed by another Nasal consonants
because this nasal sound the vowel will be nasal
So, we can describe and form the rule of nasalisation as
the vowel æ becomes nasal in the environment of being followed by a nasal stop

WE KNOW THAT ALL VOWELS ARE ORAL NoT NASAL

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Some symbols you should know them when you form rules
arrow means become
/ means in the environment of
__ represent the position of the item (sound)affected by the rule

see the symbols in your book p:102

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3/ in your book page 105
you have two processes and their rules
these rules are described the Voicing & Devoicing processes

you have 5 rules explain the condition of when the voicing process appears

1/ word initial
2/ word final
3/ before a consonants
4/ between 2 vowels
5/ followed by voiced consonants

and you only have one rules about Devoicing process

When it is preceded and followed by voiceless sounds

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4/ the last important point that you have in this chapter is talking about Process naturalness
(Page 107)a

this process is about assimilation
Assimilation is one of the important process which we will talk about it in chapter 8 with more expansion and detail

[motr]so next time I will explain Chapter 8[/motr]

Study well & Good Luck =)