Chapter 2 Phonetic Transcription of English

Question 1

As you begin your study of phonetics…

Answer 1

it is extremely important to think about words in terms of how they sound and not in terms of how they are spelled

Question 2

C-A-T

Answer 2

/kæt/
‘king’
‘apple’
‘table’

Question 3

what printed letter has no phonetic symbol?

Answer 3

‘c’

Question 4

when a word begins with ‘c’ it may sound like…

Answer 4

/k/ or /s/
‘king’ or ‘city’

Question 5

what were the three major developmental periods?

Answer 5

Old English (300–1150 CE), Middle English (1150–1500 CE), and Modern English (since 1500 CE)

Question 6

What is the phonetic alphabet?

Answer 6

an alphabet that maintains a one-to-one relationship between a sound and an alphabet letter

Question 7

what are some examples of silent letters in words?

Answer 7

“gnome” “psychosis” “pneumonia”

Question 8

Exercise 2.1 Compose a list of 10 words that contain silent letters.

Answer 8

debt, numb, lamb, plumber, muscle, scene, wednesday, age, hate, love

Question 9

why do some words have silent letters?

Answer 9

they are often related to the origin of a word

Question 10

how many speech sounds vs graphemes does the word “through” have?

Answer 10

3 speech sounds and 7 graphemes
“th” “r” “oo”

Question 10

exercise 2.2
reed 3
frog 4
wince 4
a. lazy
b. smooth
c. cough
d. spilled
e. driven
f. oh
g. comb
h. why
i. raisin
j. thrill
k. judge
l. away

Answer 10

a. 4
b. 4
c. 3
d. 5
e. 6
f. 1
g. 3
h. 2
i. 5
j. 4
k. 3
l. 3

Question 11

why does one alphabet letter often represent more than one speech sound?

Answer 11

the roman alphabet contains fewer letters than the number of speech sounds in English

Question 12

exercise 2.3
a
i
g
f
z

Answer 12

c car city
s vision sit
a- apple Austin
i- limb light
g- growl wage
f- fate of
z- zero azure

Question 13

what are allographs?

Answer 13

different letter sequences or patterns that represent the same sound

Question 14

what are some examples of allopgraphs?

Answer 14

loop through threew fruit canoe
mail convey hate steak

Question 15

what are digraphs?

Answer 15

pair of letters that represent one sound

Question 16

what are some examples of digraphs?

Answer 16

look- oo
think- th
ear- ea

Question 17

exercise 2.4

Answer 17

_shoe Xmeasure _ocean _sufficient
_chord _liquor _biscuit Xrag
_moon _through Xthough _suit
Xwood _done _flood _rub
_ice Xwas _press _scissors

Question 18

what three units of spoken language help form the foundation for the study of phonetics?

Answer 18

morphemes
phonemes
allophones

Question 19

what is a morpheme?

Answer 19

the smallest unit of language cpable of carrying meaning
e.g “book” “chair”
it conveys meaning

Question 20

how many morphemes does the word “book” have?

Answer 20

2 “book” and -s

Question 21

what are some examples of verb ending morphemes?

Answer 21

-ed walked
-ing calling

Question 22

what are some examples of prefix morphemes?

Answer 22

pre- prepaid
re- reread

Question 23

what are some examples of suffix morphemes?

Answer 23

-tion constitution
-ive talkative

Question 24

what are free morphemes with examples?

Answer 24

morphemes that can stand alone and still carry meaning
e.g. “book” “phlegm” “music” “press”

Question 25

what are bound morphemes with examples?

Answer 25

morphemes that are bound to other words and carry no meaning when they stand alone
e.g. re- -s -ian -ure

Question 26

what will the focus be when performing phonetic transcription?

Answer 26

individual speech sounds or phonemes

Question 27

exercise 2.5 think of another word that shares the same morpheme
create creation
deduce
protect
potent
scrutiny
labor
great
honest
decent
late
magnet

Answer 27

deduce-s
protect-ed
im-potent
scrutin-ies
labor-s
great’ly
dis-honest
decent-ly
late-ly
magnet-ize

Question 28

exercise 2.5 indicate the number of morphemes
cucumber 1
reading 2
reworked 3

Answer 28

caution 1
warmly 2
prorated 3

running 2
finger 1
clarinetist 2

lived 2
talker 2
sharply 2
relistened 3
kangaroo 1
swarming 2

Question 29

what is a phoneme?

Answer 29

individual speech sound that is capable of differentiating morphemes and therefore is capable of distinguishing meaning
i.e. a morpheme like “look” is composed of a string of individual phonemes

Question 30

what will a change in a single phoneme change?

Answer 30

always will change the identity and maning of the morpheme
e.g “look” /l/ to /b/ “book”

Question 31

what are minimal pairs or minimal contrasts?

Answer 31

words that vary by only one phoneme (speech sound)
i.e. “look”/”book” “cat”/”cab” vary only by 1 phoneme
“hear”/”beer”

Question 32

exercise 2.6
initial phoneme change
1. tame
2. late
3. call
4. could
5. boil

Answer 32

1. tamelame
2. laterate
3. callball
4. couldwould
5. boilcoil

Question 33

exercise 2.6
final phoneme change
6. heart
7. tone
8. web  
9. cheap 
10. rub

Answer 33

6. hearthard
7. tonetoad
8. web  wet
9. cheap  cheat
10. rubrug

Question 34

exercise 2.6 Place an “X” next to the word pairs that are examples of minimal pairs.
1.kale, mail
2.blog, blot
3.smart, smarts
4.rinse, sins
5.bird, burned
6.find, fanned
7.daughter, slaughter
8.twitch, switch
9.rings, brings
10.limes, rhymes

Answer 34

1
2
6
8
10

Question 35

when are the IPA symbols consistent?

Answer 35

always even from language to language

Question 36

what are pulmonic consonants?

Answer 36

produced with the need for airflow from the lungs

Question 37

what are diacritics?

Answer 37

indicate an alternate way of producing a certain sound

Question 38

what are suprasegmentals?

Answer 38

used to indicate the stress, intonation pattern, and tempo of any particular utterance in a langauge

Question 39

exercise 2.7 Examine the vowel symbols in Table 2.1. Which vowel symbol would be used to transcribe each vowel in the following words?
breast i
lend
man
flick
should
rude
week

Answer 39

lend ɛ
man æ
flick ɪ
should ʊ
rude u
week i

Question 40

exercise 2.8
dog ɡ
rich tʃ
1. ram
2. laugh
3. wish
4. sung
5. bath
6. leave

Answer 40

1. ram m
2. laugh f
3. wish ʃ
4. sungŋ
5. bath θ
6. leave v

Question 41

exercise 2.9
1. shoe
2. them
3. chew
4. guilt
5. wood
6. rough
7. mocked
8. wing
9. exaggerate
10. biscuit
11. vision
12. labor

Answer 41

1. shoe ʃ
2. them ð
3. chew tʃ
4. guilt ɪ
5. wood ʊ
6. rough f
7. mocked t
8. wing ŋ
9. exaggerate ԁʒ
10. biscuit k
11. vision ʒ
12. labor ɚ

Question 42

what are the 2 ways that phoneme can be defined?

Answer 42

1. speech sound that can distinguish one morpheme from another
2. a family of sounds

Question 43

what are allophones?

Answer 43

members of a phoneme family are actually variant pronounciations of a particular phoneme

Question 44

what are two variants of /l/?

Answer 44

“little” first /l/ is light and the second /l/ is dark
if switched the word “little” can still be recognized so they are not indiivdual phonemes

Question 45

what determines the way certain allophones must be produced?

Answer 45

constraints of the other sounds in a word osea phonetic context
i.e. “kid” the /k/ is produced close to the front of the mouth because the next vowel is a “front vowel”