phonetic problem set

THE ANSWER OF

PROBLEM SET #1: PHONETIC PROBLEMS

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1.    Provide the phonetic symbol representing each of the following sounds of :

a.    High front tense unrounded vowel

b.    Mid back lax rounded vowel

c.    Low back lax unrounded vowel

d.   Mid front lax unrounded vowel

e.    Voiced labiodentals fricative

f.     Voiceless palatal affricative

g.    Voiced velar nasal

h.    Voiceless glottal fricative

i.      Voiced inter-dental fricative

j.      Voiced palatal fricative

k.    Voiced alveolar lateral liquid

2.    Provide the appropriate three-part articulatory description for the consonant sounds represented by the following:

a.       [z] :

b.      [n] :

c.       [č] :

d.      [ŋ] :

e.       [g] :

f.       [f] :

g.      [š] :

h.      [r] :

3.    Provide the four part articulatory description for the vowel sounds represented by the following symbol:

a.       [I] : high, front, lax, unrounded

b.      [o] : middle, back, lax, rounded

c.       [ɛ] : mid, front, lax, unrounded

d.      [u] : high, back, tense, rounded

e.       [æ] : low, front, lax, unrounded

f.       [ʊ] : high, back, lax, rounded

4.    Which of the following phonetic transcriptions represent actual English words? Write the real words in conventional spelling. For the non-words, explain why they are not.

[swit] :

[shut] :

[čild] :   

[stuk] :   

[trad] :

[sipd] :

[Ɵɛm] : them

[falw] :

[strʌgl] : struggle

[left] : left [lˈɛft]

5.    List members of the following natural classes of English sounds and provide at least two words for each.

a.       Alveolar continuant consonants [t, d] = /taɪ/ tie, /daɪ/ dye

b.      Voiceless labial consonants [p, b] = /paɪ/ pie, /baɪ/ buy

c.       Velar oral nasal consonants [k, g, ŋ] = /ki/ key, /gaɪ/ guy, /ræŋ/ rang

d.      High lax front vowels [I] = /bɪt/ bit

e.       Low tense front vowels [Œ] =

f.       Palatal sonorant consonants [j] = /ju/ you

g.      Voiceless sibilant consonants []

6.    Transcribe into (a) broad transcription and (b) narrow transcription :

7.    Write the following in broad phonetic transcription.

Indian grammarian who wanted to preserve what they thought to be the correct pronunciation of Sanskrit. Their motivates were religious in that it was very important to them that their holy scriptures should be pronounced in traditional way. Their accounts of the sounds pattern of Sanskrit are still highlight regarded by linguists. The Greek were responsible for the greatest phonetic invention of all time, the development of a writing system in which syllables are represented in terms of their components. The realization that each vowel and each consonant could be systematically represented by a separate symbol made it possible to write down any word that was said using a comparatively small inventory of symbols.

8.    List words in English illustrating the occurrence of vowels in syllable closed by /p/. Do not include names of foreign origin. Note that some of the vowels cannot occur in these circumstances.

i :	a :	ʌ :
ɪ :	ɔ :	aɪ :
eɪ :	oʊ :	aʊ :
ɛ :	ʊ :	ɔɪ :
æ :	u :

9.    Considering only the vowels that cannot occur in syllables closed by /p/ in 3 above, give words in English illustrating their occurrence in syllables closed by following consonant :

/b/	/n/ :	/k/
/m/	/l/ :	/g/
/f/	/s/	/ŋ/ : ring
/t/ : act	/z/	/d/

10.    Write a pair of rules that describes the allophones of /n/ in words such as ‘sin, sing, singer, finger’. Try to formulize the rules in the conventional way, using terms such as [+nasal] and

11.    Look Ukrainian words containing the sound [s], [ś], [š] and [š]. The sound [ś] and [š] are palatalized variants of [s] and [š]. Palatalization sounds like a [y] sound right after (or on) the consonant; it is very closed to the [y] sound in [byuſi], beauty. Review definition of overlapping, contrastive, and complementary distribution, distinctive and minimal pair.

No	[s]		[ś]		[š]		[š]
1	lis	Fox	liś	Sheen	liš	Lest
2	miska	Bowl			miška	Little mouse	miši	Mice
3	sapka	Little hoe			šapka	Hat
4	sila	Strength			šila	She sewed	šisť	Six
5	sum	Sadness			šum	Rustling	koši	Baskets
6	sudi	Trials	śudi	Hither
7	sosna	Pine	śomry	Seventh	šostry	sixth
8	posadu	Job position	pośadu	I will occupy

a.       What are the minimal pairs that you can find in these words?

-     /lis/, /lis/, /liš/ =

-     /miska/, /miška/,

b.      The a minimal triplet sounds :

-     /lis/, /lis/, /liš/

c.       Three of the sounds overlapping distribution (HINT: those sounds are also contrastive)

-     /lis/, /lis/, /liš/

d.      One of these sounds occurs only before a particular vowel. What is this sound and what is the vowel? Which words indicate this?

e.       Two sounds are not in contrastive distribution – they are in complimentary distribution: what are they?

f.       What can you say about the distinctiveness of the sound identified in (d)? Is it distinctive in Ukrainian or not?

Ukrainian there is not sound like /d/ so, they don’t have distinctive sound of /d/.

12.    Swahili (East Africa) vowels [o] and [ɔ] more close and more open. What is the nature of their distribution? Are they allophones of the different phonemes?

[ɔ] more open			[o] more close
1	ŋgɔma	drum	12	watoto	Children
2	bɔma	fort	13	ndoto	Dream
3	ŋɔmbe	cattle	14	mboga	Vegetable
4	bɔmba	pipe	15	ndogo	Little
5	ɔmba	pray	16	ǰogo	Rooster
6	ɔna	see	17	šoko	Axe
7	pɔńa	cure	18	okota	Pick up
8	ńɔńa	nurse	19	moǰa	One
9	ɔńja	taste	20	mtego	Trap
10	ɔŋgeza	increase	21	kͪɔndo	Sheep
11	ńɔŋga	strangle	22	karɔŋgo	Wash out

13.    The Totonac (Mexico). Evaluate the distribution of voiceless and voiced vowels. Are they allophones of the different vowels?

1	capsạ	He stacks	7	snapapạ	white
2	cillinkksạ	It resounded	8	stapụ	beans
3	kasittị	Cut it	9	šumpị	porcupine
4	kukụ	uncle	10	taaqhụ	You plunged in
5	ikakạ	peppery	11	tihašƚị	He rested
6	mikị	snow	12	tukšƚị	It broke

Note that [ą], [į] and [ů] indicates that the sounds is voiceless.