PHONOLOGY – THE SOUND PATTERNS OF LANGUAGE
1. Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
1. Only in medial and final position are the voiceless plosives unaspirated.
2. A voiceless consonant shortens the vowel immediately following it.
3. The difference between /p/ and /b/ is voicing.
4. Diphthongs are sounds which consist of a movement or glide from one vowel to another.
5. /j/ and /w/ have features of both vowels and consonants.
6. The /d/ in lady is fully voiced.
7. A voiceless sound is one produced with a narrow glottis.
8. When the vertical distance between the upper part of the tongue and the hard palate is small,
we create a high vowel.
9. The only difference between short vowels and long vowels is length.
10. Vowels are produced with the vocal folds wide apart.
11. When the vocal folds nearly touch each other, vibration occurs as the air goes through the
glottis.
12. aɪ, əʊ, aʊ are examples of closing diphthongs.
2. Complete the following statements. Use NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each
answer.
1. Phonetics studies the production of human speech sounds while phonology studies
______________ of sounds in different languages.
2. The production of human speech involves 3 stages: respiration in the lungs, ___________
at the larynx and articulation in the vocal tract.
3. Phonetics can be divided into 3 branches: ___________ phonetics, auditory phonetics
and acoustic phonetics.
4. Vowels differ from consonants in how they are produced and how they are
_____________ in a specific language.
5. We produce ʊ with the __________ of our tongue raised the highest.
6. ɑː is a low neutral _______________tense vowel.
7. The soft palate is lowered when a ________________ is produced.
8. There is no ______________ when a voiceless plosive is preceded by s.
9. When we produced a fricative, the air goes through a ______________, which creates a
hissing sound.
3. Make the phonemic and phonetic transcription of the following words.
speed wealth scripts
partake wall cleaned
book sofa fields
goat verse pirate
car steering twelfth
bad square spring
appeared anger briefly
toast bought computer
talk nineteen London
achieves queen question
leopard grudged kneel
graduate hanger sword
jeopardy elicit finger
4. Transcribe the following sentences phonemically and phonetically.
1. A particular problem of the boat was a leak.
2. Opening the bottle presented no difficulty.
3. There is no alternative to the Government’s proposal.
4. We ought to make a collection to cover the expenses.
5. Finally, they arrive at a harbor at the edge of the mountains.
5. Which of the following words would be treated as minimal pairs?
ban, fat, pit, bell, tape, heat, meal, more, pat, tap, pen, chain, vote, bet, far, bun, goat, heel, sane,
tale, vet
