S3 Phonetics/Phonology I

Question 1

Phonetics

Answer 1

• human sound speech (physical)
• phones (greek phone = voice sound)
  -universal, not language specific
• concrete
• phones represented as [ ]

Question 2

Phonology

Answer 2

• sounds as part of a sound system (functional)
• phonemes (greek phonema = a sound)#
• language-specific
• abstract
• phonemes represented as / /

Question 3

Branches of phonetics

articulary phonetics
acoustic phonetics
auditory phonetics

Answer 3

production of sound
transmission of sound
perception and processing of sounds

Question 4

transcription
sound = not letters

Answer 4

making sound visible in writing
letters = graphemes < >

Question 5

homophones

Answer 5

same sound - different spelling: <to> <too> <two> but also just: /u:/ <who>, <moon>, <you></you></moon></who></two></too></to>

Question 6

homographs

Answer 6

same spelling - different sounds: heard /3:/, heart /a:/

Question 7

silent letters

Answer 7

knee

Question 8

missing letters

Answer 8

[j] in use, cute

Question 9

voicing

voicless
voiced

Answer 9

vibration of the vocal cords

open vocal cords, air passes
closed vocal cords, airstream sets them vibrating

Question 10

place of articulation

lips
lips+teeth
teeth
alveolar ridge
alveolar ridge + hard palate
hard palate
soft palate = velum
glottis

Answer 10

position of the articulators

bilabial, [p],[b],[m],[w], puppy, mummy
labio-dental [f],[v], fan, van
(inter-)dental [die beiden h’s], throne, the
alveolar, [t,d,s,z,n,l] dragon
palato-alveolar, [sh, gshe,tsh,dsh], shanty
palatal, [j], yuppie
velar, [k,g,ng], prong
glottal, [h], hat

Question 11

manner of articulation

obstruents:
- plosives = stops
- fricatives
- affricatives

Answer 11

airstream blockes or impended

• air is stopped (complete closure of the vocal tract) and then released, eg. [p,b]
• narrow opening: air escapes with friction, eg. [f,v]
• combination of a plosive and a fricative, eg. [tsh,dsh]

Question 12

manner of articulation

sonorants:
- nasal
- approximants
- liquids
- semi- vowels

Answer 12

airstream is continous, non-turbulent

• air escapse through the nasal cavity, eg. [m,n]
• two articulators appraoching or touching each other without audible friction
• air flows arounnd the sides of the tongue while the tip of the tongue touches the aveolar ridge, eg. [l]
• between vowels and consonants because of minimal obstruction of the vocal tract, eg. [w,j]

Question 13

classification of vowels

Answer 13

• tongue position and shape:
  –> tongue height (~mouth closure) (high/close - mid - low/open)
  –> part of the tongue which is the highest (front - central - back)
• degree of lip rounding/ lip shape (spread - neutral - round)
• duration/ quantity (short - long) or muscular tension (lax - tense)
• constancy of tongue/ lip-shape (monothong- diphthong)