Syllabus: Ling.

105 ‘Sounds of Language’

Fall 2018
Mon, Wed 12:00–1:15, Bolyston 105

Professor: Kevin Ryan TF: Zachary Rothstein-Dowden

Email: kevinryan@fas.harvard.edu Email: rothsteindowden@g.harvard.edu
Office: Boylston 317 Office: Boylston 3rd floor
Office Hours: Mon 1:15–2:00, Thu 2:00–3:00, Office Hours: Thu 5:00–6:00
or by appointment Section: Friday 1:30, Sever 310

Course Description:
This course is an introduction to phonetics and phonology, the “sound” side of linguistics.
Topics to be covered include:

• articulatory phonetics (the anatomy and physiology of speech production)

• acoustic phonetics (sound per se; segmenting and decoding the speech stream)

• typology (the range of sounds found in human languages, geographic tendencies, pos-
sible systems of sounds)

• phonological rules and constraints (generalizations over classes of sounds, permissible

sequences of sounds, syllables and stress, underlying forms, rules and alternations)

Why study phonetics and phonology? For linguists, these are often considered two of
the five-or-so core subfields of the science of grammar; they’re also widely relevant to other
subdisciplines, including historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, computational linguistics, ac-
quisition, fieldwork, etc. For language specialists, they promote authentic pronunciation,

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philological depth, and explicit awareness of the often subtle and surprising differences be-
tween languages. In industry, they’re important for speech technologists, speech therapists,
language teachers, and some types of vocal performers. Finally, they contribute to the gen-
eral appreciation of human diversity, communication, writing systems, and verbal arts.

Course Objectives:

• knowledge of the range of speech sounds in human language, their features and classi-
fication, and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

• use of software to analyze aspects of acoustic data

• command of the building blocks of phonological theory, including segments, features,

syllables, stress, rules, rule ordering, phonotactics

• ability to identify phonological generalizations in data drawn from unfamiliar languages

Required Materials:

• Peter Ladefoged and Keith Johnson, A Course in Phonetics, 7th edition (available
from the COOP etc.; accompanying CD is optional)

• Bruce Hayes, Introductory Phonology, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009

• course slides and handouts

Assessment:
Assignments (5) 45% total (9% each)
Midterm Exam 25%
Final Exam 30%

Course Policies:
Each of the five assignments will be distributed at least one week before its due date.
Assignments are to be turned in at the beginning of class in hard copy. Late assignments
will be accepted up until noon one week after the deadline with a 50% penalty (which may
be waived in cases of documented illness or emergency). Assignments consist of problem sets
or short-answer questions. One or two will involve using freely available software to analyze
acoustic data. The final assignment will involve some independent research on a language
of one’s choice. Feel free to consult with your classmates in working on assignments, though
they must be written up independently in your own words.
The final exam will be cumulative, though weighted towards post-midterm material
(e.g. phonological representations and analysis). The midterm will involve a short listen-
ing component (aural identification of sounds or their properties).

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Accommodations for Students with Disabilities:
Students needing academic adjustments or accommodations because of a documented
disability must present their Faculty Letter from the Accessible Education Office (AEO)
and speak with the professor by the end of the second week of the term, September 14. Fail-
ure to do so may result in the Course Head’s inability to respond in a timely manner. All
discussions will remain confidential, although Faculty are invited to contact AEO to discuss
appropriate implementation.

Schedule (subject to revision):

LJ (Ladefoged & Johnson) entries are recommended read-by dates.

Week 1

Wed 9/5 Introduction: the transmission of speech.

Week 2

Mon 9/10 Articulatory phonetics; the IPA. (LJ chaps. 1–2)

Wed 9/12 Consonants; consonant inventories and universals. (LJ chap. 3)

Week 3

Mon 9/17 Consonants cont. Assignment 1 distributed. (LJ chap. 7)

Wed 9/19 Vowels; English consonants & vowels. (LJ chap. 4)

Week 4

Mon 9/24 Vowels continued. Assignment 1 due. (LJ chap. 9)

Wed 9/26 Acoustic phonetics; Praat. (LJ chap. 8)

Week 5

Mon 10/1 Acoustic phonetics cont.

Wed 10/3 Consonant acoustics; dispersion. Assignment 2 distributed. (LJ chap. 6)

Week 6

Mon 10/8 — No Class (Columbus Day) —

Wed 10/10 Phonation; airstream mechanisms. Assignment 2 due.

Week 7

Mon 10/15 Velaric mechanism & click typology.

Wed 10/17 Phonetics review: articulability; markedness; IPA principles.

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 Week 8

Mon 10/22 Midterm exam.

Wed 10/24 Features and phonemics. (Hayes chap. 2)

Week 9

Mon 10/29 Features and rules. Assignment 3 distributed. (Hayes chap. 4)

Wed 10/31 Rules cont.; morphology and rules. (Hayes chap. 6)

Week 10

Mon 11/5 Rule ordering; opacity. Assignment 3 due. (Hayes chap. 7 and section 8.4)
Wed 11/7 Phonotactics; syllables and rules.

Week 11

Mon 11/12 Stress rules; syllable weight. Assignment 4 distributed. (Hayes chap. 14)
Wed 11/14 Stress rules cont.

Week 12

Mon 11/19 Tone; autosegmental theory; tone rules. Assignment 5 distributed.

Assignment 4 due.
Wed 11/21 — No Class (Thanksgiving) —

Week 13

Mon 11/26 Naturalness of phonology; productivity.

Wed 11/28 Patterns of sound in verbal arts and language games. Assignment 5 due.

Week 14

Mon 12/3 Diachrony (sound change). (Hayes chap. 11)

Wed 12/5 Conclusion; final review.

Final Exam
Three-hour written exam (date TBA)