Help please

Question

Consider the following data from Modern Greek. The language has a five-vowel system with two front vowels, two back vowels and a low central vowel / ?/.

??l? ‘milk’
?i?t?os ‘doctor’
?e?os ‘strong’
le?o ‘I say’
?onis ‘parents’
pi?eno ‘I go’
?usto ‘taste’
si?? ‘slowly’
me??los ‘big’
?un? ‘fur’
?po?evm? ‘afternoon’
li?o ‘a little’
?ios ‘son’
m??irevo ‘cook’

Discuss the phonological distribution and the phonetic identity of the consonants [?] and [?]. Are the two sounds allophones of the same phoneme or do they belong to separate phonemes? Justify your conclusion. If you identify the sounds as allophones comment on whether there is any phonetic motivation for their distribution.

Could someone please explain to me what phonological distribution, phonetic identity and phonetic motivation is?? Any help would be great!

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

This is littered with imperatives.

Consider. Discuss. Justify.

This is the signal that it is not really your question. It's a homework assignment or an exam for a course.

It seems to me that the first person you should be asking what phonological distribution, etc., are is your teacher.
Do you even know what an allophone is? If not, have you looked it up in a book about phonology or phonetics?

If I were you I would assume that the information about the five vowels was not there just for decoration. Make a list of all occurrences of [?] and [?] and what vowel is associated with it and how. Is the occurrence of [?] or [?] after or before a certain vowel all the time? What kind of vowel? Front, back, what?

If you think about this for about 30 seconds, you'll find that the pattern is as easy as 1 - 2 - 3. Try not to make it harder than it is.

Good luck.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Hello CJ, thank you for your advice.

As you expected, it's a question from last year's first trimester mid term. My mid term is this coming Tuesday

In regards to front and back? Are you referring to the place of articulation?

I find it difficult that although it's written in Greek and has the translation in English. I don't know how to pronounce the Greek words to work out a pattern

Any advice on that?

Thanks again

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousI don't know how to pronounce the Greek words to work out a pattern Any advice on that?

That's irrelevant. You're looking for patterns, just as if the letters were different colored shapes.

Get some colored highlighters. Color all the front vowels red and all the back vowels blue. Color every occurrence of the consonant [?] green and every occurrence of [?] purple. Don't bother to pronounce any of it. Look for the color patterns that involve the consonants and vowels you're working with. Certain colors will come up next to each other. Others won't. That's "the distribution" you're being asked about.

Start there. Then you should also be able to see where the low vowel fits in as well.

In regards to front and back? Are you referring to the place of articulation?

Yes. As the original instructions say, there are front vowels and back vowels. Do you not know which vowels are the front vowels? Or which are the back vowels?

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

This question has been copy/pasted from a Linguistics Assignment for Victoria University of Wellington. If you're going to cheat, please change the wording so that when I try to research properly, this doesn't come up. Thanks.

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