Diacritics

Question 1

What sounds can be nasalised?

Answer 1

Any sound other than nasals

Question 2

What is the nasalisation diacritic?

Question 3

Why does nasalisation occur?

Answer 3

The velum lowers in anticipation of a nasal sound
/or/
gradual raising of the velum following a nasal sound

Question 4

When does nasalisation occur?

Answer 4

Vowels before or after nasals
e.g. nod [nɒ̃d] and can [kæ̃n]

e.g. kiln [kɪln ] l is nasalised

Question 5

What sounds can be devoiced?

Answer 5

Only voiced sounds

Question 6

What is the devoicing diacritic?

Answer 6

small o bellow sound, can be above if the spot is filled

Question 7

When does devoicing occur?

Answer 7

Voiced obstruents preceded/followed by pause/voiceless sound e.g. bed [b̥ed̥]

Nasals after ‘s’ e.g. snow [sn̥ə̃ʊ]

‘l’ ‘w’ ‘j’ SI consonant clusters following ‘p’ ‘t’ ‘k’ (& to some extent after ‘s’) e.g. play [pleɪ] ‘l’ is devoiced

‘ɹ’ devoiced in SI consonant clusters after ‘p’ ‘t’ ‘k’ e.g. pray [pɹeɪ]) ‘ɹ’ is devoiced

Syllabic consonants (‘m’ ‘n’ ‘l’) after voiceless sounds e.g. bottle [ˈbɒtl] ‘l’ is devoiced

Question 8

What sounds have aspiration?

Answer 8

Obstruent sounds
Standardly only voiceless plosives ( ‘p’, ‘t’, ‘k’ )

Question 9

What is the fully aspirated diacritic?

Answer 9

h

Question 10

What is the partially aspirated diacritic?

Answer 10

(h)

Question 11

What is the unaspirated diacritic?

Answer 11

=

Question 12

When are sounds fully aspirated?

Answer 12

Stressed SI position e.g <care> [keə], 'K' is fully aspirated shown by a superscript h</care>

Question 13

When are sounds partially aspirated?

Answer 13

Unstressed SI position e.g <potato> [pə'teɪtəʊ], 'p' is partially aspirated shown by superscript (h), 't' should be fully aspirated and 2nd 't' would be partially aspirated (h)
Sometimes partially aspirated in WF position e.g <soot> [sʊt] t would be partially aspirated(h)</soot></potato>

Question 14

When are sounds unaspirated?

Answer 14

Following ‘s’ e.g spot [spɒt], ‘p’ is unaspirated shown by a superscript = and ‘t’ would be partially aspirated (h)

Question 15

When does a sound have no audible release?

Answer 15

It occurs when one plosive is the first member of a two-plosive combination e.g. ‘d’ in <headboard></headboard>

One option for word-final voiceless plosives e.g. <sack> [sæk˺]</sack>

Question 16

What is the no audible release diacritic?

Answer 16

[ ˺ ]
‘Upper-right corner’ (sometimes called a ‘left-angle’) to the upper right of the sound, e.g. [t˺]

Question 17

What sounds can have nasal release?

Answer 17

Only plosives

Question 18

What is the nasal release diacritic?

Answer 18

superscript n to the right of sound

Question 19

When does nasal release occur?

Answer 19

plosive followed by homorganic (same place of articulation) nasal consonant e.g. ‘t’ or ‘d’ followed by ‘n’
or ‘p’ or ‘b’ followed by ‘m’

e.g. button [ˈbʌtn] ‘t’ has nasal release
catnap [ˈkætnæp] ‘t’ has nasal release

glottal reinforcement or replacement often occurs alongside voiceless ones (‘p’ ‘t’) in these cases.

Question 20

What sounds can have lateral release?

Answer 20

Only plosives

Question 21

What is the lateral release diacritic?

Answer 21

superscript l to the right of sound

Question 22

When does lateral release occur?

Answer 22

plosive releases at one or both side margins, with midline retaining contact; e.g. bottle [ˈbɒtl] ‘t’ is laterally released

Note that on a syllabic ‘l’ there will be devoicing too if the preceding plosive
l̊ is voiceless
e.g. bottle [ˈbɒ̥tl], ‘b’ and ‘l’ devoiced, ‘t’ is laterally released.

Question 23

What sounds can be advanced?

Answer 23

sounds further forward than the ‘norm’ or ‘default’ articulation

Any sound can be advanced

Question 24

What is the advancement diacritic?

Answer 24

Advancement [ ̟]
+ sign beneath the sound, e.g. [k̟]

Question 25

When does advancement occur?

Answer 25

typical where velar sounds are found before front vowels and [j]
e.g. kiss [kh̟ ɪs]

(compare /k/ in thank us vs thank you).

Question 26

What sounds can be dentalised?

Answer 26

involving the upper teeth when they are usually not

usually limited to sounds near dental place of articulation which are not dental as standard (e.g. alveolar, bilabial)

note that a dentalised [m] would be transcribed as [ɱ] instead of a dentalised diacritic

Question 27

What is the dentalisation diacritic?

Answer 27

Dentalisation [ ̪]
bridge sign beneath the sound, e.g. [t]̪

Question 28

When does dentalisation occur?

Answer 28

often alveolar consonants are dentalised, commonly before dental fricatives e.g. bad thought ‘d’ is dentalised

Dentalised bilabials can occur typically before labiodental sounds, e.g. obvious ‘b’ is dentalised

Use ‘dentalised where appropriate over ‘advanced’.

Question 29

What sounds can be retracted?

Answer 29

sounds further back than the ‘norm’ or ‘default’ articulation

Any sound can be retracted

Question 30

What is the retraction diacritic?

Answer 30

Retraction [ _ ]
– beneath the sound, e.g. [k̠]

Question 31

When does retraction occur?

Answer 31

typical in velar sounds found before back vowels ( ‘ɔ’ ‘ɒ’ ‘u’ ‘ɑ’)
e.g. cool [kh̠ul] ‘h’ is retracted

Also typical with alveolars before postalveolar or palatoalveolar sounds (‘ɹ’ ‘ʃ’ ‘ʒ’ ‘tʃ’ ‘dʒ’)
e.g. dry [d̠ɹaɪ]
/tʃ/ and /dʒ/ usually [tʃ̠ ] and [d̠ʒ].

Can also impact /s/ in /sCC/ clusters but listen carefully.

(so no advancement or retraction before central vowels or most consonants).

Question 31

What is the raising diacritic?

Answer 31

‘Up tack’ beneath sound (so the sound sits on the pointy bit of the tack), [ɹ]̝

Question 32

When does raising occur?

Answer 32

‘ɹ’ in onset clusters following /t d/
e.g. <drain> [d̠ɹeɪñ ] 'ɹ' is raised</drain>

– note the likely retraction of the preceding plosive, ‘d’ is retracted

Also devoiced if after /t/
e.g. <train> [tɹeɪn ] 't' is retracted, 'ɹ' is raised, 'ɹ' is also devoiced.</train>

Question 33

What are the length diacritics?

Answer 33

[ ] no length mark
[‘one down triangle’] ‘half-long’
[ ː ] ‘long’
[ ̆ ] ‘shortened’ or ‘extra-short’
[ ːː ] one approach to indicating very long segments

Question 34

What is the glottal reinforcement diacritic?

Answer 34

[ ʔ ]
Superscript glottal stop to upper left of sound

Question 35

When does glottal reinforcement occur?

Answer 35

Supporting coda /p t k tʃ/
* Usually found with coda-position voiceless stops o Regularly found before another C

Before pauses, /h/ or Vs both glottalised & non-glottalised forms are found

Supporting intervocalic /tʃ, t/
* <nature> [ˈnẽɪʔtʃ̠ ə] vs [ˈnẽɪtʃ̠ ə] hʔɣhɣ
* <petrol> [ˈp ɛ̝ tɹ̠ ə̝ l ] vs [ˈp ɛt̝ ɹ̠ ə̝ l ] 3. Hiatus-blocking
* at syllable boundaries involving vowels, e.g. <cooperate>, <geometry>, <bioanalyst>
* in place of intrusive /ɹ/, e.g. drama and music 4. Emphasis
* especially where initial accented vowels have a degree of emphasis, e.g. I haven’t seen anybody</bioanalyst></geometry></cooperate></petrol></nature>