1. Phonotactics deals with restrictions on permissible combinations of phonemes within and across words in a language. 2. Phonotactic constraints include syllable structure constraints and sound sequence constraints. 3. The sonority sequencing principle states that syllables are organized from highest sonority in the nucleus to lowest sonority in the margins, though some languages allow violations.

1. Course Instructor:
Sir Asad Habib
Presented By:
Micdad Haider
Neelam Malik
Paroo Aman Saleem
Aqsa Nazir
Iqra Gulzar
PHONOTACTIC CONSTRAINTS

2. Phonotactics
 It is a branch of phonology.
 It deals with the arrangment of speech sounds in possible sequences.
 Phonotactics is derived from Ancient Greek
Phone Tacticos
Voice having to do with arranging

3. Phonotactic Constraints
Phonotactics is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions
in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes.
Phonotactics defines permissible syllable structure, consonant
clusters and vowel sequences by means of phonotactic constraints.

4. Presence of phonotactic constraints
These phonotactic constraints can occur
 Within a word
 Across word boundries
 Both
 Syllable Structure Constraints
 Sound Sequence Constraints

5. General Syllable Structure Constraints
Syllables consist of vowels and consonants.
 Syllables can be split into an onset, nucleus and coda.
All syllables have a nucleus.
A vowel alone can make a syllable.

6. Syllable
Syllables have the following integral segmental structures
Onset
(optional)
Rhyme
(Obligatory comprises
nucleus and coda)
Nucleus
(Obligatory)
Coda
(Optional)

7. Structure of syllable

8. Permissible syllable structures
 Languages differ in permissible syllable structures.
 Below are some simplified examples.
 Hawaiian V, CV
 Japanese V, CV, CVC
 Korean V, CV, CVC, VCC, CVCC
 English
V CV CCV CCCV
VC CVC CCVC CCCVC
VCC CVCC CCVCC CCCVCC
VCCC CVCCC CCVCCC CCCVCCC

9. Phonotactic Constraints
There are 2 exceptions, where 2 stops can
occur as a cluster:
/- pt/ and /- kt/
Can you give some examples?

10. Phonotactic Constraints
There are 2 exceptions, where 2 stops can
occur as a cluster:
/- pt/ and /- kt/
Can you give some examples?
Akt, raubt, treibt, aufgeregt

11. English Phonotactic Constraints
It is possible to form rules for which representations
of phoneme classes may fill the cluster.
 Permissible onset clusters
 Permissible coda clusters

12. Consonant Cluster

13. English phonotactic Constraints
 All syllables have a nucleus
 No geminates
 No onset /ŋ/
 No /h/ in the syllable coda
 No affricates in complex onsets
 The first consonant in a complex onset must be an obstruent
 The second consonant in a complex onset must not be a voiced obstruent
 If the first consonant in a complex onset is not an /s/, the second must be a
liquid or a glide

14. Cont...
 Every subsequence contained within a sequence of consonants must obey
all the relevant phonotactic rules (the substring principle)[5]
 No glides in codas
 If there is a complex coda, the second consonant must not be /ŋ/, /ʒ/, or /ð/
 If the second consonant in a complex coda is voiced, so is the first
 Non-alveolar nasals must be homorganic with the next segment
 Two obstruents in the same coda must share voicing

15. Sonority Sequencing Principle
Segments of a syllable are universally distributed following what is called the
Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP), which states that, in any syllable, the
nucleus has maximal sonority and that sonority decreases as you move away
from the nucleus. Sonority is a measure of the amplitude of a speech sound.
The particular ranking of each speech sound by sonority, called the sonority
hierarchy, is language-specific, but, in its broad lines, hardly varies from a
language to another, which means all languages form their syllables in
approximately the same way with regards to sonority.

16. SSP Cont...
To illustrate the SSP, the voiceless alveolar fricative [s] is
lower on the sonority hierarchy than the alveolar lateral
approximant [l], so the combination /sl/ is permitted in
onsets and /ls/ is permitted in codas, but /ls/ is not allowed
in onsets and /sl/ is not allowed in codas. Hence slips /slɪps/
and pulse /pʌls/ are possible English words while *lsips
and *pusl are not.

17. SSP Violation
The SSP expresses a very strong cross-linguistic tendency,
however, it does not account for the patterns of all complex
syllable margins. It may be violated in two ways: the first
occurs when two segments in a margin have the same
sonority, which is known as a sonority plateau. Such
margins are found in a few languages, including English, as
in the words sphinx and fact.

18. SSP Violation
The second instance of violation of the SSP is when a
peripheral segment of a margin has a higher sonority than a
segment closer to the nucleus. These margins are known
as reversals and occur in some languages including English
(steal [stiːɫ], bets /bɛts/) or French (dextre /dɛkstʁ/, strict
/stʁikt/.

19. Some amazing facts about Phonotactic Constraints
Positive Phonotactic
Constraints
 Existing permitted sequences
 Sequences that might occur
Black------ exists
Blaze------exists
Blague----possible
Negative Phonotactic
Constraints
 Violation of peremitted sequences
 Sequences that can’t occur
Bnague
Bnaze
Bnack
Conform positive
constraints
violates positive
constraints

20. Negative constraints
 Usage-based model of language
makes the realization of non-
occuring sequences.
 This provides the idea of
 Grammatical and ungrammatical
 Well-formed and ill formed
 Schema for regular past tense is
Hold held held
Break Broke Broken
But following sequence can also
occur as grammatically acorrect
and well formed
Hold Holded Holded
Break Breaked Breaked
Tylor’s
assessment