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Distinctive Features

asked 2016-12-27 08:48:01 -0400

help1 gravatar image

updated 2017-01-12 11:34:11 -0400

ksteimel gravatar image

If I need to write a phonological rule using distinctive features, but the rule is that X changes to Y in x environment, if there are multiple environments, how would I write these in distinctive features? would I need to write the most common environment? (bilabial plosive) or both environments eg (bilabial plosives and fricatives)?

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answered 2017-01-12 11:42:11 -0400

ksteimel gravatar image

You would want to find a set of features that describes both environments but not all other environments. For example with bilabial plosives and fricatives you could capture them by saying [+labial -son] if there's no affricates (I think this is accurate but I don't have a feature chart in front of me). If there are affricates in the inventory of the language then you'd want to change the features to exclude affricates if they don't trigger the change from X to Y.

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Asked: 2016-12-27 08:48:01 -0400

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Last updated: Jan 12 '17