Study Questions on Phonetics and Phonology, EN1113 (including a table of phonetic
symbols)
1. What are the similarities and differences between the following concepts? What is the
point of knowing these concepts?
a. phonetics – phonology
Phonetics is the study of how human beings produce and receive sounds as part of language in
general, whereas phonology is the study of how sounds are used within a particular system,
such as an individual language or accent.
b. phoneme – allophone
A phoneme is a sound that is used in a particular language to distinguish meaning, for
example between two different words, whereas an allophone is a variant of a phoneme and
can’t be used to distinguish between two different words. For example, the phoneme /t/ has a
number of different allophones in English, including the flap [ɾ] after a stressed syllable in
GA and the aspirated [th] before a vowel, except after /s/. However, you can’t in English have
two words that are exactly the same except that one uses the aspirated [th] and the other the
non-aspirated [t]. They would still be perceived as being the same word.
c. dialect – accent
A dialect, such as cockney and AAVE, is a variant of a language with differences in grammar,
vocabulary, and phonology, whereas an accent, such as RP and GA, are variants that only
have phonological differences. Thus you can pronounce standard British English with or
without an RP accent.
d. RP – GA
RP and GA are the two accents of English that are commonly taught to foreigners. RP
(Received pronunciation) is a non-regional, educated accent of English English and GA is the
most common, most regionally neutral accent of American English.
e. Latin alphabet – IPA
The Latin alphabet is that which is used to write English texts. IPA (the International Phonetic
Alphabet) on the other hand is a specific script that is used to represent what people actually
say. IPA is the same for all languages and accents in the world.
f. phoneme – syllable
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound capable of distinguishing meaning, whereas a
syllable is the smallest unit of sound capable of carrying word stress.
g. voiced – voiceless
A voiced sound (all vowels and many consonants, such as /b/ or /d/) is produced with an
element of friction between the vocal cords, perceived as a vibration in the throat. Voiceless
sounds (some consonants, such as /p/ or /t/) are produced without that friction and vibration.
h. vowel – consonant
A vowel is a sound produced with relatively free flow of air through the vocal apparatus,
whereas a consonant is produced with partial or complete obstruction of the flow of air.
However, “relatively free” and “partial obstruction” can sometimes mean the same thing, with
the result that glides such as /j/ or /w/ may be either vowels or consonants.
i. monophthong – diphthong
A monophthong is a vowel sound with just one value, such as /i:/, whereas a diphthong moves
from one value to another, such as /aɪ/. Diphthongs, like affricates, still count as just one
phoneme, though.
j. rhotic – non-rhotic
A rhotic accent, such as GA, pronounces /r/ in all positions, whereas non-rhotic accents, such
as RP, only pronounce /r/ before a vowel. Thus “rod” is pronounced with /r/ in both accents,
but “door” is pronounced with /r/ in GA and without in RP.
k. manner of articulation – place of articulation
A consonant sound is described using three parameters: whether it is voiced or not, how it is
produced (manner of articulation), and where the partial or complete obstruction occurs (place
of articulation). For example, /b/ is a voiced bilabial stop. Its manner of articulation is a stop
(= complete obstruction) and its place of articulation is between the two lips (bi + labia).
l. dental – alveolar
For Swedish speakers, perhaps the most important place of articulation in English is the
alveolar ridge, since many consonant phonemes that are pronounced with the tip of the tongue
immediately behind the teeth (dental) in Swedish are pronounced with the tip of the tongue on
the alveolar ridge in English. This concerns /d/, /t/, /s/, /z/, /n/, and /l/.
m. fricative – affricate
Fricatives and affricates are two manners of articulation for English consonants. A fricative
consonant is produced by letting two parts come in close proximity to one another so that the
air stream between them causes a vibration through friction. Examples include /f/ and /s/. An
affricate – which I like to call “attack fricatives” – are consonants that begin as a stop
(complete obstruction) and then go on as a fricative. There are two examples in English: /tʃ/
and /dʒ/.
n. assimilation – elision – weak form
Assimilation and elision are, together with weak forms, the most important types of coarticulation effects. Assimilation occurs when a sound becomes more similar to an adjacent
sound, either in its voicing or its place of articulation. Thus in “ten kings”, the /n/ changes
from an alveolar consonant to a velar consonant (just like /k/) to make it easier to pronounce.
In other words, it becomes a /ŋ/. Elision, on the other hand, occurs when a phoneme is not
pronounced at all, as in the word “attempt”, which is usually pronounced /mt/, even though a
careful pronunciation would include the /p/. Both these phenomena, as well as weak forms,
occur in fluent speech to reduce the time and effort needed to pronounce words.
o. stress – intonation
Both stress and intonation have to do with the pitch and the energy with which syllables
are spoken, but stress affects individual words and intonation affects whole clauses. Thus
stress is the phenomenon involved when we distinguish between the verb proDUCE and
the noun PROduce, whereas intonation is involved is involved when we distinguish
between questions and statements.
2. What is a flap an allophone of? Who uses it and when?
The voiced alveolar flap [ɾ] is used in GA after a stressed syllable and before an
unstressed syllable, as in letter.
3. What is a schwa? Who uses it and when?
A schwa is a mid central vowel phoneme /ə/. It is the most common vowel phoneme in
English and is used by everybody all the time, but only in unstressed syllables, including
the weak forms of function words, for example when and is pronounced /ən/ in fluent
speech. It can be represented by a, e, i, o, or u in the Latin alphabet.
4. How is the –s ending of verbs and nouns pronounced?
The –s ending, regardless of whether it is the plural ending of nouns, the third person
singular present tense ending of verbs, or the genitive, is pronounced /s/ after a voiceless
phoneme, /z/ after a voiced phoneme, and / ɪz/ after /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, and /dʒ/.
5. What is the point of using minimal pairs?
With the help of minimal pairs we can find out which sounds are considered to be
phonemes in a particular language or accent, and which can thus be used to distinguish
between words. For example, cease and seize form a minimal pair in English, but sis and
siz would not form a minimal pair in Swedish, showing that /s/ and /z/ are different
phonemes in English but not in Swedish.
6. Which of the following are minimal pairs?
mouse
louse
browse
mice
nice
lice
mouth
A minimal pair is two words that differ in just one phoneme in the same place. Thus these
words are minimal pairs:
mice and nice and lice
mouse and mice
louse and lice
mouse and louse
mouse and mouth
But louse and mice does not make a minimal pair, since there are two phonemes that are
different, and browse does not make a minimal pair with anything. [Note that I have added
mouse here in the key]
7. What is the point of using IPA? Use the following words in your answer:
sew
sow
bough
bow
The regular spelling of English is based on a particular form of English as it was spoken six
hundred years ago and consequently has only a limited connection to how words are actually
pronounced today. Thus the same pronunciation may correspond to many different spellings
and the same spelling may correspond to many different pronunciation. For example, as
written in the Latin alphabet, sew and sow can be pronounced the same but are written
differently, whereas sow (to put seeds in the ground) and sow (female pig) are spelled the
same, but pronounced differently. Similarly, bough and bow can be pronounced the same and
bow can be pronounced in two different ways.
8. What coarticulation effects are involved when Edinburgh is pronounced /embrə/?
A careful pronunciation would be /edənbərə/, but in fluent speech the first and second schwas
are elided, then the /d/ is elided, and finally /n/ is assimilated to the following bilabial sound.
9. How does a vowel chart work?
A vowel chart represents the mouth seen with the teeth to the left and the throat to the right.
Each vowel symbol is written where the tongue is closest to the front and the “ceiling” of the
mouth.
10-11. Transcription exercises. I won’t include the key that you can find at the end of the
study questions in the exam. Instead I’ll include this list:
/i:/ /ɪ/ /ɛ/ /æ/ /ə/ /ɜ:/ /ʌ/ /ɒ/ /u:/ /ʊ/ /ɔ:/ /ɑ:/
/eɪ/ /aɪ/ /ɔɪ/ /aʊ/ /oʊ/ /ɪə/ /eə/ /ʊə/
/b/ /d/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /j/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /p/ /r/ /s/ /t/ /v/ /w/ /z/
/ŋ/ /θ/ /ð/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /tʃ/ /dʒ/ [ɾ] [th]
In other words, you’ll get the symbols but not the examples, so you’ll need to know how to
pronounce the symbols and how to use them in transcriptions. In the exam 5 points will
consist of transcriptions out of 20 points in the phonetics part and 40 in the exam as a whole.
If you want more exercises, you could try to transcribe the following words: jump, skipping,
pet, churches, corner, paw, hunts, rather, mow, thinker, these, and mean. You can check your
transcriptions in the Longman online dictionary at www.ldoceonline.com.
10. Please transcribe the following words into the regular alphabet. Which accent have
they been transcribed into?
/kæt/
cat
/lʌndən/
London
/lædər/
ladder (GA)
/hɒt/
hot (RP)
/tu:m/
tomb
/ʃoʊz/
shows
/peɪdʒ/
page
/jʌŋ/
young
/dæns/
dance (GA)
/prədʌkʃən/
production
11. Please transcribe the following words and names into IPA:
houses
/haʊzɪz/
wrong
/rɒŋ/
lambs
/læmz/
law
/lɔ:/ (RP)
woman
/wʊmən/
girl
/gɜ:l/ (RP)
choose
/tʃu:z/
sheep
/ʃi:p/
juice
/dʒu:s/
above
/əbʌv/
(RP)
/rɑ:ŋ/ (GA)
/lɑ:/ (GA)
/gɜ:rl/ (GA)
Phonetic symbols
Vowels
Consonants
ɪ
chip
d
do
ɛ
set
f
tough
æ
cap
ɡ
goat
ʌ
cut
h
whose
ɒ
pot (RP)
j
yellow
ʊ
put
k
cap
ə
potter
l
low
i:
me
m
me
ɑ:
father
n
know
ɔ:
New York
p
pot
u:
do
r
read
ɜ:
fur
s
cease
eɪ
pay
t
tease
aɪ
pie
v
veer
ɔɪ
toy
w
where
aʊ
cow
z
seize
oʊ
know
ŋ
ring
ɪə
pier (RP)
θ
think
eə
pear (RP)
ð
there
ʊə
poor (RP
ʃ
pressure
ʒ
leisure
tʃ
change
dʒ
Jim