Phonology: Sonority Hierarchy 1.1

Sonority: Syllables are built around peaks of sonority, or the nucleus, which in most languages contains a vowel or some type of syllabic segment. It can sometimes be helpful to think of sonority as the "singability" of a phoneme or segment. The sonority value of a phoneme is in direct correlation to the obstruction of airflow. The less obstruction, the more sonorous the phoneme. Sonority Hierarchy shows the spectrum of sonority beginning with the most sonorous phonemes and moving right-ward to the least sonorous. Low V > High V > Glide > Liquid > Nasal > Voiced Fric. > Voiceless Fric. > Voiced Stop > Voiceless Stop The Sonority Sequencing Principle This principle states that sonority within a syllable structure must rise towards the nucleus, and decrease away from it, such that the peak of sonority is always found in the nucleus. In this exercise, you will be presented with two phonemes separated by an arrow. When the left-most segment is higher on the sonority scale than the right-most, we say that sonority is falling or decreasing, e.g., [pand] ‘pond’. When the left-most segment is lower on the sonority scale than the right-most, we say that sonority is rising or increasing, e.g., [fekr] ‘mind’ in Farsi. Sometimes segments do not rise or fall in sonority such as [kt] as in [ækt] ‘act’. This complex coda is referred to as ‘plateaued’. In the pairs of segments below, state whether sonority is rising, falling, or plateaued, moving in the direction of the arrow (left to right).