English Syllable and Morpheme Boundaries

English syllable and morpheme boundaries are sometimes identical. The word friendly has two syllables and two morphemes. They are the word friend and the suffix -ly. However, in many cases, syllable and morpheme boundaries are different. Let us illustrate with examples.

Here are the morpheme boundaries of ten words:

coldest cold+est

nicely nice+ly

disagree dis+agree

unusual un+usual

soften soft+en

immature im+mature

acted act+ed

looked look+ed

given give+en

windy wind+y

Now we can examine the syllable boundaries:

coldest col.dest

nicely ni.cely

disagree di.sa.gree

unusual u.nu.su.al

soften so.ften

immature i.mma.ture

acted ac.ted

looked looked

given gi.ven

windy win.dy

From the examples it is clear that syllable and morpheme boundaries are often different. In many cases the number of syllables and morphemes also varies. The word looked has two morphemes but one syllable, and disagree has two morphemes but three syllables. Also, the final consonant of many morphemes is in the onset of the following syllable as is the case with windy. The result is that many syllable and morpheme boundaries are distinct from one another..

Words for Family in Hungarian

Hungarian makes distinctions in words of family that many languages do not. The Hungarian language has separate words for older brother, younger brother, older sister and younger sister. Other languages that make the distinction are Japanese and Korean.

The Hungarian word for brother is testvér. However, the language is even more specific and has words for older brother and younger brother. The word for older brother is báty and the word for younger brother is öcs.

In Hungarian the word for sister can also be  testvér. However, Hungarian is even more specific and has distinct words for older sister and younger sister. The word for older sister is nővér and younger sister is húg. 

The Hungarian language has separate words for older brother, younger brother, older sister and younger sister. In Hungarian it is natural to specify whether the brother and sister are older or younger. For example, Hungarians say sentences such as  I have an older brother and younger sister rather than I have a brother and sister.

Italian Plurals

Italian plurals have only two endings. They are -e and -i. Unlike in English and other Romance languages such as French, Portuguese and Spanish, the plural does not end in -s. Let us look at examples of plurals in Italian.

The word libro means book and the word for books is libri.  The same patterns occur with biscotto/biscotti (biscuit/biscuits) and gatto/gatti (cat.cats). However, with the words casa/case (house/houses), birra/birre (beer/beers) and tazza/tazze (cup/cups), the plural ending is -e.

In certain cases, the noun does not change. Examples include bar/bar (bar/bars), film/film (film/films) and città/città (city/cities). Nouns do not change if they end in a consonant or in a stressed vowel.

Italian plurals can end in -e and in -i. In certain cases, the noun is the same in both the singular and plural. Another Romance language that primarily forms plurals with -e and -i is Rumanian. Italian masculine nouns form the plural with -i and feminine nouns form the plural with -e.

New Zealand Stressed Schwa

The English schwa is very common in unstressed syllables. It occurs in the first and third syllables of the word banana. However, the English of New Zealand is distinct because the schwa also occurs in stressed syllables.

The following words are pronounced with the schwa in New Zealand English:

big

fish

hill

pillow

printer

six

skin

trick

swim

window

In other dialects of English, the words have the high front unrounded lax vowel. The same vowel exists in New Zealand English, but not in the words of the list. It exists in words such as friend and when. The schwa is used more extensively in New Zealand English than in other dialects. 

Hungarian Diminutives

The Hungarian language has many diminutives. Many diminutives are formed with the suffix variants -ka-/ke, but the word to which they are attached is sometimes modified. The suffix variant -ka is attached to words that end with back vowels, and the variant -ke is attached to words that end with front vowels. Let us look at a few examples.

The word cica means kitten. The diminutive is cicuska and means little kitten. The word egér means mouse, and the diminutive egérke means little mouse. However, to say little bird, the variant -ka is used because madár is bird and madárka is little bird.

The word for village is falu and small village is falucska. Notice the same pattern in the words szellő and szellőcske, words which mean breeze and small breeze. Since falu is a word with only back vowels, the variant is -cska, and since szellő has only front vowels, the variant is -cske.

With mese/mesécske, the final vowel is lengthened before the suffix. The words mean fairy tale and little fairy tale. Many Hungarian diminutives have the suffix variant -cska and -cske. Let us analyze a few more.

The word for wave is hullám and little wave is hullámocska. A similar pattern occurs with nyúl and nyulacska, words that mean rabbit and little rabbit. Notice that the vowel of nyúl shortens with suffixation.

In the next three examples, we can observe different linking vowels. The word for circle is kör and little circle is köröcske. The front rounded vowel of the root is present in the suffix variant. In the pair csepp/cseppecke, the linking vowel is the front unrounded vowel of the root. The two words mean drop and droplet. Finally, the word virág means flower and virágocska means little flower.

Diminutives are common in Hungarian. The examples illustrate the principle of vowel harmony. One set of suffix variants is for words that end in a back vowel, and the other is for words that end in a front vowel.

Modified Swedish Compounds

Swedish has many compound words. This is also the case in English and several other languages. Swedish compounds such as blåbär (blueberry) consist of the words blue blå (blue) and bär (berry). They are not modified. However, many Swedish compound words are. Here is a list of ten modified Swedish compound nouns:

bönegrupp (prayer group)

fiskekort (fishing licence)

gatubro (street bridge)

kvinnoarbete (women's work)

kyrkklocka (church bell)

nattetid (night time)

pennvässare (pencil sharpener)

skolbarn (school child)

stjärntecken (zodiac sign)

veckoslut (weekend)

Let us examine the individual words of each compound:

bönegrupp = bön (prayer) + grupp (group)

fiskekort = fisk (fish) + kort (card)

gatubro = gata (street) + bro (bridge)

kvinnoarbete = kvinna (woman) + arbete (work)

kyrkklocka = kyrka (church) + klocka (bell)

nattetid = natt (night) + tid (time)

pennvässare = penna (pencil) + vässare (sharpener)

skolbarn = skola (school) + barn (child)

stjärntecken = stjärna (star) + tecken (sign)

veckoslut = vecka (week) + slut (end)

Swedish compounds can be modified in different ways. Sometimes the letter e is added between the two words of the compound as in fiskekort. The final a can be changed to u as in gatubro, and the final a can also be dropped as in the word skolbarn. It is clear from the list of Swedish compound words that they can be modified in different ways.

Quality of Low Central and Back Vowels in German and Dutch

German and Dutch are both languages of the West Germanic language family. They share many similarities in vocabulary and grammar. However, their phonology is quite different. This can be observed in the quality of the low central and back vowels.

Both languages have short and long vowels. In Dutch the word raam (window) has a long vowel and appel (apple) has a short vowel. Likewise, the German word Sahne (cream) has a long vowel and Nacht (night) has a short vowel. However, the vowels of the words are different in the two languages.

The vowel in the word raam is a low central vowel, and in the word appel it is low back. The quality of the two vowels is different because the long vowel is low central and the short vowel is low back. They differ in backness. However, this is not the same in German.

The word Sahne has a long low central vowel, and the word Nacht has a short low central vowel. In both words the vowel quality is the same. The difference in the two vowels is quantitative. The only difference is in the duration of the two vowels.

The phonology of German and Dutch is not identical. The two languages both have short and long vowels, but the low central/low back vowels are different. In Dutch the short and long vowels differ in vowel quality, but in German they differ in vowel quantity. The difference in the vowels of German is thus quantitative, but in Dutch it is qualitative.