Segmental And Suprasegmental Phonology

Question 1

What is the difference between phonetics and phonology?

Answer 1

Phonetics = how the speech sounds work. Divided into articulatory (manner and place of articulation), acoustic (physical properties of the speech sound), and auditory (how the sounds are perceivwd by our ears).

Phonology = study of organisation and function of phonemes. Describes how phonemes are organized in a language.

Question 2

How do we distinguish vowels in English phonetics and phonology according to their quantity?

Answer 2

Short and long. The lenght depends on the surrounding sounds/the co-text (context) - in front of voiceless consonants the vowels are short).

Question 3

How do we distinguish vowels according to their quality?

Answer 3

Quality = refers to the color or timbre.
horizontal and vertical position of the tongue:

horizontal: front, central, back
vertical position: close, half-close, half-open, open

Question 4

What is soothing?

Answer 4

A process in which certain diphthongs and triphthongs become monophthongs. It occurs especially in a faster speech. E.g.: Beer

Question 5

What are diphthongs and how do we classify them?

Answer 5

Diphthongs = gradual gliding movement from one vowel position to another performed within a single syllable.

We classify them into 2 groups:
closing (ending with i or u)
centering (BrE: ends in schwa, AmE: ends with “r”).

Question 6

What do triphthongs consist of?

Answer 6

A diphthong + a schwa sound

Question 7

What are cardinal vowels?

Answer 7

They present extremes of vowel qualities, don’t belong to any particular language.

Question 8

Kolik mono a diptongů má český jazyk?

Answer 8

10 mono a 3 di (au, ou, eu). Dlouhé samohlásky jsou označovány čárkou (accent), nebo kroužkem (ring).

Question 9

Is there a direct link between spelling and pronunciation in English?

Answer 9

No, it is in Czech only (in our case).

Question 10

Does Czech language have a schwa?

Answer 10

No.

Question 11

How many consonants are there in English?

Answer 11

24.

Question 12

What is the phonetic perspective (manner of pronunciation) on the production of vowels and consonants?

Answer 12

Consonants: created with complete or partial obstruction of the airstream.
Vowels: no obstruction appears.

Question 13

In what pairs do consonants usually occur?

Answer 13

Voiced and voiceless.

Voiced: vocal folds vibrate
Voiceless: no vocal folds vibrations

Question 14

How are consonants named according to the manner of pronunciation?

Answer 14

plosives (e.g. p, b, d)
fricatives (f, v, “š”,…)
affricates (tč, dž)
nasals (n, m, “n”)
lateral (l)
approximants (j, w)

Question 15

How are consonants divided according to the place of articulation?

Answer 15

Bilabial (p,b,m)

Labiodental (f,v)

dental (th, th:)

Alveolar (l, n, t) - the tip/blade of the tongue pressed against the alveolar ridge)

Postalveolar (r)

Palatoalveolar - blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (š, ž, tš, dž)

Palatal - j

Velar k, g, “n” (the back of the tongue moves backwards and touches the velum)

Glottal - h (created with the narrowing of the glottal stop, voiceless in English, voiced in Czech).

Question 16

According to what features do we distinguish the groups of consonants?

Answer 16

The manner of articulation, the place of articulation, voicing, and force of articulation.

Question 17

How do we divide consonants according to the force of articulation?

Answer 17

lenis (weak) X fortis (strong)

lenis - produced with the weaker degree of mascular efforts

fortis - much more energy is needed for their production

Question 18

What are the syllabic vowels and consonants?

Answer 18

Syllables are created by vowels, in Czech they can be created even by consonants

Question 19

Kolik souhláskových fonémů máme v čj?

Answer 19

26, ale obvykle realizujeme až 31 zvuků. Rozdělují se do stejných skupin jako anglické souhlásky.

ř - alveolar fricative trill (usually voiced)

Question 20

What is consonant assimilation?

Answer 20

Realizations of consonant phonemes are influenced by their surroundings. The position of phonemes in words can modify their phonetic realizations without a change in meaning.

Question 21

What is assimilation of the place of articulation?

Answer 21

When a sound changes its place of articulation to another place.

Question 22

What is assimilation of voice?

Answer 22

Mainly in Czech: led [let] x ledu [ledu]

Question 23

What are the parts of English suprasegmental phonology?

Answer 23

word and sentence stress, rhythm, intonation, assimilation,…

Question 24

Why is stress important?

Answer 24

it makes our speech more inntelligible and we risk not being understood by our listeners if we misplace it.

Question 25

What is the difference between stressed and unstressed syllables?

Answer 25

Stressed: more prominent, a bit louder, stand out, vowels are not in their reduced form

Question 26

What are the levels of stress?

Answer 26

Primary, secondary (,), unstressed

Primary: all the qualities (pitch, loudness, length, full vowel quality)

Secondary: length, full vowel quality (cannot be a schwa)

Unstressed: vowel reduction

Question 27

What is the placement of stress in English and in Czech?

Answer 27

In Czech, we have fixed placement of stress (1st syllable)

In English, we have free placement. The placement depends on:
morphological structure of the words
the number of syllables and their phonological structure
the origin of words
context (stress shift in connected speech)

Question 28

According to what do we distribute sentence stress?

Answer 28

Stressed and unstressed words, stress is distributed according to the relative importance of words

Question 29

What are stress-timed languages, and syllable-timed rhythm?

Answer 29

stress-timed: English, arabic,…(stress tends to occur at relatively regular intervals regardless of the syllables in between)

syllable-timed: Czech, Italian, French,…(the interval between stresses varies according to the number of unstressed syllables)

Question 30

What is rhythm in suprasegmental phonology?

Answer 30

It is the regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. The main unit of rhythm = foot -> stretch from one syllable to the next one.

Question 31

What is intonation in English?

Answer 31

It is the melody of speech.
The way we use it indicates our attitudes, emotions, signals the difference between statements and questions, and helps to focus the attention on the gist of the message (rheme).
The range of pitch (=the auditory sensation received from voiced sounds) can vary - the greater the difference, the greater the emotions (beware of emphasis).

English has greater variety of intonation than Czech.

Question 32

What is tone?

Answer 32

Tone is the overall behavior of pitch that can carry different meanings. The tone can be static or kinetic.

Static: flat, levelled.
Kinetic: simple (falling or rising), complex (fall-rise, rise-fall).

Question 33

What are the functions of intonation?

Answer 33

Accentual, grammatical, discourse function, and attitudinal.

Accentual = new info is highlighted

Grammatical = to identify grammar structures in speech and to remove ambiguity.

Discourse= the use of intonation to draw the listener’s attention to the most important part of the message.

Attitudinal function of intonation: use of intonation to express various emotions and attitudes.

Question 34

What are tone units and chunking?

Answer 34

Speech is divided into chunks (meaningful tone units) and each unit carries one piece of info and corresponds to the syntactic boundary. Placement of tone units boundaries: we have to make pauses as we need to breathe. Tone units are marked by pauses, changes in pitch, and by lengthening of the final syllable.

Question 35

Jak užíváme intonaci v českém jazyce?

Answer 35

Odlišení různých typů vět (types of sentences).

Question 36

What is the spelling correspondence in Czech and in English?

Answer 36

In Czech: 1-to-1 correspondence (homographic)

English: heterographic (lacks the 1-to-1 correspondence) - e.g. schwa is connected with many graphemes.

Question 37

What is assimilation and how does it function in Czech and in English?

Answer 37

Assimilation (“becoming similar”) is the general process where adjacent sounds with differing properties become more similar in terms of voicing, place of articulation, or manner of articulation.

Czech = progressive assimilation (it happens when the preceding sound influences the following sound because the preceding one is too dominant - IT DEPENDS ON WHAT COMES AFTER)

English = regressive assimilation (it happens when the following sound in a word influences the preceding sound - IT DEPENDS ON WHAT COMES BEFORE).

Question 38

What is assimilation in general?

Answer 38

Assimilation is one of the aspects of connected speech in English. Generally, it is about how sounds modify each other when meeting at the border of words, but also within words. Phonemes influence each other. Assimilation is often present in rapid colloquial speech. It affects mainly consonants which can due to assimilation change the place of articulation, manner of articulation, and their voicing.

Assimilation of place: /dat ket/ -> /dak ket/
Assimilation of manner:

regressive - /gud nait/ -> /gun nait/
progressive - /in the/ -> /in n/