phonetics

Question 1

phonetic symbol

Answer 1

symbol representing a speech sound

Question 2

segment

Answer 2

the individual speech sounds that make up syllables

Question 3

examples of suprasegmentals

Answer 3

stress and tone

Question 4

3 categories of writing systems

Answer 4

alphabetic systems
syllabaries
logographic systems

Question 5

logographic writing system

Answer 5

a writing system, such as that for Chinese, where the symbols used represent whole words, rather than the sounds or syllables that make up the word

Question 6

3 types of non-pulmonic sounds

Answer 6

ejectives, implosives, and clicks

Question 7

glottis

Answer 7

space between the vocal folds

Question 8

airstream mechanism that forms the basis of all normal speech

Answer 8

egressive pulmonic airstream mechanism

Question 9

Minimal pair

Answer 9

A pair of words that differ in only one phoneme (e.g. Sin/win)

Question 10

Coronal consonants

Answer 10

Consonants articulated with front part of tongue -> so includes stuff like dental and alveolar consonants

Question 11

Prosody

Answer 11

the patterns of stress and intonation in a language.

Question 12

coda

Answer 12

a syllable constituent consisting of any consonant sounds following the syllable nucleus

Question 13

elision

Answer 13

the omission of a sound (eg droppng ts)

Question 14

For what consonants do we nasalise the preceding sound?

Answer 14

The velar consonants

Question 15

What does the phonological system of a language include

Answer 15

an inventory of sounds and their features, and. rules which specify how sounds interact with each other.

Question 16

Phonetics vs phonology

Answer 16

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds in their physical aspects
Phonology considers the cognitive aspects

Question 17

Morphology

Answer 17

Study of the formation of words

Question 18

Pragmatics

Answer 18

Study of language use

Question 19

Difference between voices and voiceless sound

Answer 19

Voiceless air through open vocal folds

Voiced air through vibrating vocal folds

Question 20

High (close) vowel

Answer 20

Low fundamental frequency

Question 21

Low (open)

Answer 21

High fundamental frequency

Question 22

IPA symbol for the y sound in ‘you’

Answer 22

j

Question 23

Voice onset time

Answer 23

length of time that passes between the release of a stop consonant and the onset of voicing

Question 24

Alternation

Answer 24

Situation where a word or word-part turns up in different phonological forms in different environments

Question 25

Contrast

Answer 25

Where a phonetic difference is capable of signalling a difference between words in a particular language (eg in French there is a contrast between oral and nasalised vowels —> ‘mot’ and ‘mon’)

Question 26

Aim of phonological theory

Answer 26

Describe and analyse:

• the sound systems of language
• the rules for combining sounds in a language
• general patterns for the pronunciation of words within a language

Question 27

Natural segment class

Answer 27

A set of sounds with features in common

Question 28

Why is it useful to be able to characterise natural segment classes

Answer 28

In categorising them we can understand the patterning of segments in language, because all members of a natural class have the same effect on sounds that occur in their environment

Question 29

Why do words like map pack and cat get suffixed /-s/ whilst computer and paper and mug get suffixed /-z/?

Answer 29

The voiceless plosives in map pack and cat are characterised by devouring a following fricative (so the fricative z is devoiced to s for maps packs and cats)

Question 30

All distinctive features are binary?

Answer 30

Originally this was the model but now theory proposes that some features, particularly those of place of articulation, may be unary; for example the features dorsal, labial and coronal don’t necessarily have to be mutually exclusive

Question 31

Vowels distinctive features

Answer 31

Segments which are [+syllabic, - consonantal, + Sonorant]

Question 32

what stuff gets aspirated (put little H in transcription)

Answer 32

only p, t and k get aspirated and this is at the beginning of a stressed syllable

Question 33

what happens to t when before an unstressed vowel (as in ‘city’ or before a voiceless consonant

Answer 33

flaps intervocalically

Question 34

what happens to t in word-final position

Answer 34

unreleased or glottalized