Introduction To Phonetics

Question 1

What’s a heterophone & give 1 example of one.

Answer 1

Words that have the same spelling but different meanings:

Tear/Tear - cry, and break paper
Polish/Polish - from Poland, clean metal
Wound/Wound - injury/to wind something up (past tense).

Question 2

What’s a homophone & give 1 example of one.

Answer 2

Words that have different meanings but are spelt (very) lightly differently - like 1 letter or so.

Meat/Meet - harvested from livestock to eat/the initial interaction with someone.
Piece/Peace - to have mutual feelings of calmness, a part of something that’s divided up.

Read/Reed - a plant/ the action of interpreting a book.

Question 3

Give an example of a letter a plosive would be? And what is their effect?

Answer 3

Examples of letters: B,P,D,T (most commonly P)

• Create a verbal reflection of events that have a harsh feel. War/gunshot/car crash - aggressive tone employed.
• Abrupt/sharp/shocking effects.

Question 4

Give an example of a letter a fricative would be? And what is their effect?

Answer 4

Examples of letters: F, TH, V, S, Z

• Creates an airy effect, can be sharp in instances (voiced fricatives appear very much intentional - “knives/loaves”.

Question 5

There are two types of fricative, what are they and what’s the effect?

Answer 5

Voiced & Voiceless:

Voiceless fricative: softer, less pronouned - creates an airy effect.

Voiced fricative: intentional, harsh, creates an aggressive, sudden halting effect.