Phonology

Question 1

What is Phonetics

Answer 1

Phonetics: studies the production, perception, and properties of all speech sounds.
* Basic unit: phone (any sound in a human language).
* Concrete Realisation
* Phones are indicated in square brackets [ ].

Question 2

What is Phonology

Answer 2

Phonology: studies the system of sound categories in a particular language.
* Basic unit: phoneme (smallest meaning distinguishing unit in a language)
* A phoneme is a class/category of a sound type
* Phonemes are mental abstractions and cannot be heard or pronounced.
* Phonemes are indicated in slashes //

Question 3

What are the 3 basic Organgs of speech?

Answer 3

Head: articulatory system

Throat: phonatory system (trachea)

Chest: respiratory system

Question 4

What are active articulators and passive one

Answer 4

Active:
* lips and tongue

Passive:
* Teeth, alveolar ridge, hard and soft palate

Question 5

What are the 3 Criterion of Consonants

Answer 5

1. Voice
2. Place (where the airstream is blocked, e.g. bilabial)
3. Manner (how the airstream is blocked, e.g. fricatives)

Question 6

What is the difference between Vowels and Consonants

Answer 6

1. obstruction 2. manner 3. airflow 4. sonority 5. voicing

Question 7

What are the 4 criterion of a Vowel

Answer 7

1. Height of the tongue (= vertical tongue position), high low
2. Part of the tongue (= horizontal tongue position), front back
3. Lip rounding
4. Vowel length: short (lax) vs. long (tense)

Question 8

What is Assimilation

process of sound change

Answer 8

One sound influences another sound, so that the sounds become more alike, or identical (we don’t pronounce everything)
* e. g. white pepper /waɪt pepǝ/ pronounced as [waɪp pepǝ]
* hot potato” as [ˈhɒppəteɪtoʊ].
* Assimilation only occurs in connected speech!

Question 9

What is Elision

process of sound change

Answer 9

deletion of sounds
- e.g. christmas /krɪstməs/ krɪsməs]

Question 10

What is Liasion

Answer 10

linking /r/: you have and r and you connect it
* as in pairing /peərɪŋ/ or far away [fɑːrəweɪ]

intrusive /r/: you don’t have and r, but it sounds like you do
* as in law and order [lɔː r ənd ɔːdə]

Question 11

Why is enlglish pronounciation differnt from it’s spelling?

Answer 11

1. different accents
2. processes in connected speech
3. social factors ( age or gender)
4. etymology of words

Question 12

What is the Maximum Onset Principle

Answer 12

Consonant at the start of the syllable

Question 13

What are complementary and constrative distribuitions?

Answer 13

Complementary: they dont share a minimmal pair and dont have a common sound environment (Allophones)

Contratives: Do share atleast one common sound environment and have a minimal pair (phonemes)