CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1       Introduction

            Phonological rules are rules that control how sounds changes during vocal communication be it spoken or written. Trask (1996) views phonological rules as “any rule which in some analysis is posited as involved in the deriving a pronunciation”.According to Hayes (2009), phonological rules are generalizations about the different ways a sound can be pronounced in different environments. From his definition, phonological rules simply describe how speakers go from the abstract representation stored in their brain to the actual sound they articulate while speaking.

            Smith (1995) on the other hand, recognized phonological rules as mappings between two different levels of sound representation which is the underlying and surface level. From Smith’s definition, phonological rules start with the underlying representation of a sound which is the phoneme that is stored in the speaker’s mind and then yield to the final surface form which is  what the speaker actually pronounces.

            In English for instance, the plural maker ‘-s’ is realized in three forms – (s) in cats, [Z] in stones, and [iz] in fishes. These forms [s, z, iz] are stored mentally as /s/ but the surface pronunciations which are derived through are different phonological processes which occur in a syllable. What really is a syllable? Though there is no acceptable definition of the syllable, some linguists have proposed certain definitions as to what syllables are.

            From Kenstowicz’s (1994) point of view, the syllable is a very important concept for understanding the phonological structure. Roach (2009) describes the syllable as occupying the centre that has little or no obstruction to airflow. Gimson (1994) simply put that the syllable is a unit of pronunciation higher than the phenomenon and yet smaller than a word or morpheme.

            From the above definitions, it can be deduced the syllable in an essential constant feature in all spoken languages. Each language has its own rules about what kinds of syllable are allowed and this is made possible by the phonotactics of that language.

            A syllable has three (3) parts; the onset, nucleus and coda. Consonants occupy the onset and coda position while vowels and syllable nasals occupy the nucleus position. Though the onset and coda can be optional, the nucleus is obligator since it is the most needed element in a syllable.

            This work aims at studying the syllable structure of Ekid language and look into what phonological rules governs them. The phonological rules will be applied to restructure the syllable in order to conform to the phonotactics of the Ekid language.

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