UNIT 2- Phonetics and Phonology

Question 1

Field of study, a discipline that studies speech sounds as physical objects. How
these sounds are made, the number of speech sounds a language has, how they travel through air,
how they are perceived and how they can be measured.

Answer 1

Phonetics

Question 2

It’s the component of grammar that studies how languages organize sounds into
different patterns or meaningful systems. It also studies how languages constrain sequences of
sounds, what type of alternations the sounds undergo and how sounds are organized into larger units
such as syllables, words and phrases.

Answer 2

Phonology

Question 3

They are part of the mouth and shape the breath produced by the lungs to form
definite sounds

Answer 3

Articulators

Question 4

an individual speech sound

Answer 4

Phoneme

Question 5

both articulators are brought together to cut the airflow off. /p,t,k/. /m/

Answer 5

Stop/ Plosive

Question 6

articulators are brought together but not closed completely, so the air is
forced between them /s, z, f, v/

Answer 6

Fricatives

Question 7

they combine a sequence of stop and a fricative in a single sound / ʧ / and
/ ʤ /

Answer 7

Affricates

Question 8

the active articulator moves to narrow the vocal tract but not so much
that a fricative is produced. /j/ and /w/ (semivowels)

Answer 8

Approximants

Question 9

the L sound is called _________________ because the air flows over the sides of the tongue

Answer 9

lateral

Question 10

the R- sounds are called ________________.

Answer 10

rhotics

Question 11

It has to do with the organs involved in sound production. The location
in the vocal tract where the air is constricted/restricted. (bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar,
postalveolar, palatal, velar, glottal)

Answer 11

Place of articulation

Question 12

Name of the group:

Stops/plosives, fricatives, and affricates: they make noise when obstructing the airflow.

Answer 12

Obstruents

Question 13

Name of the group:

Nasal stops, approximants and vowel sounds: they make audible sounds by letting the air resonate, with no obstruction

Answer 13

Sonorants

Question 14

[Suprasegmental aspects of speech]

How long it takes to articulate a given segment

Answer 14

length

Question 15

[Suprasegmental aspects of speech]

The linguistic pitch to convey meaning at the level of words.

Answer 15

Tone

Question 16

[Suprasegmental aspects of speech]

the use of pitch to convey meaning at sentence or discourse level.

Answer 16

Intonation

Question 17

[Suprasegmental aspects of speech]

A prominence relation between syllables and sometimes moves around to
accommodate an alternating pattern.

Answer 17

Stress

Question 18

It is a variant of the same phoneme which depends on a
particular linguistic environment

Answer 18

allophones

Question 19

A pair of words that only differ in only one sound in the same position within a word; their distribution is unpredictable and
contrastive.

Answer 19

Minimal pairs

Question 20

Rules imposed by the language as regards how sounds can be combined or patterned together.

Answer 20

Phonotactic constraints

Question 21

[Types of Phonological Phenomena]

2 sounds that are different become more alike. It can be local or long-distance (from other segments)

Answer 21

Assimilation

Question 22

[Types of Phonological Phenomena]

two sounds that are similar become different. e.g: Diphthong

Answer 22

Dissimilation

Question 23

[Types of Phonological Phenomena]

When vowels are used to break up the strings of consonants.

Answer 23

Insertion

Question 24

[Types of Phonological Phenomena]

In a sequence of consonants, Instead of adding a vowel, we elide a consonant

Answer 24

Deletion

Question 25

[Types of Phonological Phenomena]

Sounds become stronger.

eg: fricative becomes a stop

Answer 25

Fortition

Question 26

[Types of Phonological Phenomena]

Switching the order of sounds

Answer 26

Metathesis

Question 27

[Types of Phonological Phenomena]

Copying parts of the word to convey a pejorative or diminutive sense:

eg: teeny-tiny

Answer 27

Reduplication