PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

Question 1

Consonants divide into

Answer 1

obstruents and sonorants

Question 2

What are obstruents?

Answer 2

Consonants that have obstruction in the airflow: fricatives, affricates, plosives

Question 3

What are sonorants?

Answer 3

Consonants that are naturally voiced and frictionless: nasals, approximants (glides/semivowels, liquids)

Question 4

Fricatives

Answer 4

Airflow through extreme narrowing:
alveolar fricatives: /s/, /z/
glottal fricative: /h/
labio-dental fricatives: /f/, /w/
dental fricatives: /ð/, /θ/
palate-alveolar fricatives: /ʃ/, /ʒ/

Question 5

Affricates

Answer 5

Closure followed by a slow release of air
palate-alveolar affricates: /tʃ/, /dʒ/

Question 6

Plosives

Answer 6

closure followed by plosion
alveolasr plosives: /t/, /d/
bilabial plosives: /p/, /b/
velar plosives: /k/, /g/

Question 7

Nasals

Answer 7

air comes through the nasal cavity
alveolar /n/
bilabial /m/
velar /ŋ/

Question 8

Approximants

Answer 8

the airflow is not obstructed, but it is not free enough to constitute a vowel: /r/
semivowels/glides: palatal /j/, labiovelar /w/
liquids: alveolar /l/

Question 9

Vowels

Answer 9

sounds produced with free airlow

Question 10

High front vowels

Answer 10

/i:/, /ɪ/

Question 11

High back vowels

Answer 11

/uː/, /ʊ/

Question 12

Mid front vowels

Answer 12

/e/

Question 13

Mid central vowels

Answer 13

/ə/, /ɜ:/

Question 14

Mid back vowels

Answer 14

/ɔ:/

Question 15

Low front vowels

Answer 15

/æ/

Question 16

Low central vowels

Answer 16

/ʌ/

Question 17

Low back vowels

Answer 17

/ɒ/, /ɑː/

Question 18

Distinction of vowels

Answer 18

based on the tounge position (front, central, back; high, mid, low), roudness, length, either tense or lax

Question 19

What is a difference between a phoneme and an allophone?

Answer 19

A phoneme is a basic unit of sound in a language, and thus, a sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. A phoneme can have slightly different variants, or allophones, in different contexts, because each sound is influenced by the sounds before and after it. A phoneme is a set of allophones or individual non-contrastive speech segments. Allophones are sounds, whilst a phoneme is a set of such sounds.

Question 20

What are examples of allophones?

Answer 20

1. voiceless plosives are aspirated before stressed vowels (ʰ)
2. schwa lowering before a pause (⬇)
3. unexploded consonant, indicated by a small raised mark [┐]: syllable- or word-final consonant unexploded when the next syllable or word begins a stop or nasal
4. nasalization- Vowels can be slightly nasalized before a nasal consonant. (◌̃)

Question 21

Differences in Polish and English vowels

Answer 21

English- 12 vowels, 8 diphthongs
Polish- 6 vowels, 2 diphthongs

Question 22

Differences in Polish and English consonants

Answer 22

Affricates- two in English, six in Polish
Plosives- /d/ and /t/ are dental in Polish
Nasals- velar ng replaced by palate-alveolar, n is dental
R- in Polish is a voiced alveolar trill, in English is a voiced alveolar approximant

Question 23

Structure of a syllable

Answer 23

onset- peak- coda (peak is a necessary element)

Question 24

What are some connected speech processes?

Answer 24

linking, assimilation, intrusion, elision

Question 25

What is linking?

Answer 25

a consonant sound at the end of one word gets attached to the first vowel sound at the beginning of the following word, eg. cleanup

Question 26

What is assimilation?

Answer 26

Assimilation happens when sounds blend together to make an entirely new sound; “don’t you” getting blended into “don-chu”

Question 27

What is intrusion?

Answer 27

Adding an extra sound between vowels: r, w, j; I agree –> I jagree, Do it –> Do wit

Question 28

What is elision?

Answer 28

If the first word finishes in a consonant sound and the next word starts with a consonant sound, the first sound disappears; Next door –> Nexdoor

Question 29

What are the main differences between the American and British pronunciation standards?

Answer 29

1. rhoticity of AmE
2. stress differences
3. thought-lot merger
4. Ash often in place of a

Question 30

How does stress placement work in English?

Answer 30

While in isolated words stress is variable and many rules govern stress placement, e.g. whether a word is a noun or a verb (contract), the weight of the syllable, which syllable is prominent is decided in speech is based on rhythm – stresses occur rhythmically, regardless of the number of words crammed between stresses.
- Function words not stressed
- Depends on syntactic category
- Compounds – one element is stressed
- The phonological structure of syllable, number of syllables in a word
- Grammatical category
- Morphological complexity

Question 31

Weak forms in pronunciation of English

Answer 31

Forms especially characteristic of function words, the way these are pronounced within a phrase/utterance. What is characteristic of them is a tendency to reduce vowels to schwa. happening naturally when producing natural speech.