KEY TO EXERCISES

Properties of Language
QUIZ (p.6)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

B D A D D A C A C B

The Sounds of Language

Task 2.3 Exercise: Identify the speech organs

1. Upper lip
2. Lower lip
3 Upper teeth
4 Alveolar ridge
5 Hard palate
6 Velum
7 Uvular
8 Lower Teeth
9 Tounge tip
10 Tongue blade
11 Tongue Front
12 Tongue Back
13 ORAL CAVITY
14 NASAL CAVİTY
15 PHARYNX
16 VOCAL CORDS
17 GLOTTIS

Task 3.6 (p.16)

1. mad-pot-bath
2. gate-catch-core
3. rose-laugh-cash
4. vision-measure
5. [b]: bilabial-stop-voiced [alveolar-stop-voiced]
QUIZ on PHONETICS (p.18)
1. a 7. d 12. [f] labiodental,
2. b 8. e [θ] interdental
3. c 9. d 13. [e] front-unrounded,
4. b 10. c [o] back-rounded
5. e 11. [f] voiceless, 14. [t] stop, [s] fricative
6. c [v] voiced 15. [g] stop, [ŋ] nasal

1
 The Sounds of Language
PRACTICE on CONSONANTS
Exercise 1.
Group 1: Alveolar Sounds: tehcnology-zebra-knowledge-wrap-xerox-super-thyme-natural-
lazagna-psyche
Group 2: Bilabial Sounds: mediocre-bribery-pillow-waste
Group 3: Labiodental Sounds: physics-verse-phoneme-follow-vulgar
Group 4: (Inter)Dental Sounds: there-theater-theme
Group 5: Velar Sounds: glutton-color-giggle
Exercise 2.
Group 1: Voiced Sounds: this-though-wonder-vulnerable-zodiac-doubt-bury-wish-lemon-misery-
gloomy-year-double-nag-june-mole-jam-blunt-rhythm
Group 2: Voiceless Sounds: torment-phone-sample-husband-tide-purpose-change-shine-fail-
claim-theme
Exercise 3:
Group 1: Stop Sounds: hub-boat-had-tag-leap-lake-mate
Group 2: Fricative Sounds: nerve-sooth-bless-active-with-tough-gaze-brush-strive-breathe-
dwarf
Group 3: Nasal Sounds: woman-wrong-column-comb-fine-ring-hymn
Exercise 4.
1. bleech, etc. 9. thumb, etc.
2. N/A 10. unleash, etc.
3. antiuqe, etc. 11. knob, etc.
4. smooth, etc. 12. murderer, etc.
5. plague, etc. 13. N/A
6. drone, etc. 14. stable, etc.
7. cease, etc. 15. garage, few words varying across
8. thrive, etc. accents

Exercise 5.
a) groom i) mail-male-whale
b) pale j) rail
c) fight-height k) rare
d) trash l) night-knight-(right, if /r/ is classified as
e) sign-shine central app, and /l/ as lateral app)
f) crane m) dong-(long if /r/ is classified as central
g) sink app, and /l/ as lateral app)
h) sail-sale-fail n) may-bay
Exercise 6.
a) pea-key e) but
b) püre f) fun-shun-Hun
c) nail g) slight
d) seat-sheet-heat h) drink

2
i) same-shame
Exercise 7.
a) rung f) deed-dear-deal
b) catch g) rim
c) grab h) pat
d) ban i) gag
e) kiss j) liar
PRACTICE on VOWELS
Exercise 1.
High Vowels: juice-good-blue-threw-would-room-stood-two-hook-shook
Mid Vowels: won-jump-lunch-flood-ton-come
Low Vowels: song-all-lodge-dawn-bald (Yule groups them in Mid group)
hot-cop-god-want (definitely in the Low group)
Exercise 2.
Front Vowels: piece-age-she-slept-said--busy-went-pass-build
Central Vowels: month-art-blood-from-gun-arm-country
Back Vowels: bought-grew-fruit-long-slow-cough-gone-though-took
Exercise 3.
Tense Vowels: ease-hot-take-shade-cooed-ape-he*-wonder*-known-wander-glaze
Lax Vowels: man-wish-stood-messed-wolf-gas-bat-brook-live
*may turn into a lax vowel in casual speech
Exercise 4.
a) rub—rob f) tool—tall—toll
b) tin—ten g) scene-sane
c) pet—pat h) coat—caught
d) row—raw i) wrist—rest
e) read—raid j) ring—ran
Exercise 5.
a) feed food Backness-Rounding
b) pit put Backness-Rounding
c) wait what Backness (Height accent dependent)
d) care core Backness-Rounding-Tenseness
e) cap cop Backness-Tenseness
f) hell hall Backness-Height (not for Yule)-Rounding-Tenseness
g) bat but Height-(Tenseness Accent dependent)
h) pale pole Backness-Rounding
i) tree true Backness-Rounding
j) kick cook Backness-Rounding

3
 The Sound Patterns of Language

Task 1. Phonetics vs Phonology (p.25)

Phonetics deals with:

speech sounds in isolation
all speech sounds humans can produce
sounds in terms of speech organs
not necessarily with sounds of a particular language

Phonology deals with:

sounds in combination
variations in speech
sounds in a particular language
the organization of sounds
principles that determine sound patterns
sounds that may change the meaning of a word
beneath the ‘surface’ sound
abstract representation of sounds
the native speaker’s knowledge of sounds

Task 2.1 Question 1 (p.26)

[b---t] [k----t] [----æt] [p-----n]

bit [bıt] cat [kæt] bat [bæt] pan [pæn]
but [b˄t] cut [k˄t] cat [kæt] pun [p˄n]
beat [bit] caught [kɔt] sat [sæt] pin [pın]
boat [bɔt] that [ðæt] pen [pɛn]
bet [bɛt] pat [pæt]
bat [bæt] fat [fæt]
boot [but] vat [væt]
Question 2 (p.26): It shows that /i,
ı, ɛ æ ˄, ɔ u/ are different phonemes because they change the meaning of words when they
are used between [b---t]. Likewise, some of these vowels may be used between [k---t] and [p---n].
Consonants [p, b, k, f, v, s, ð] are also sounds that change the meaning of the word when they are
used in [---æt]. Note that the occurrence of these sounds is not predictable in that we cannot explain
why there is no word such as *zat [zæ t].

Task 5 (p.28)
Phones:
• are physical sounds that can be recorded and examined.
• a phonetic unit
• universal sounds
Phonemes:
• are individual sounds as concepts.
• language-specific sounds
• are abstract mental entities.
• are contrastive: This means that they make meaning distinctions in minimal pairs or minimal
sets.
• are not predictable.
• are in overlapping distribution.
Allophones:
• are variations or sub-members of the same phoneme.
• do not make meaning distinctions.
• are not found in minimal pairs or minimal sets.
• are predictable: They appear in the environment of other certain sounds.
• are in complementary distribution.

4
Task 6.1. a (p.29) Answer The answer can be given as follows:

Task 6.1. b (p.29) Answer:

From the examples given above, we can make the following generalization: [ŗ] occurs after voiceless
consonants, as in words tree, fry, and crab. The other allophone [r] occurs after vowels, as in words
rough, arise. Note that they are in complementary distribution.

QUIZ 1 (p.29)
1. D 3. C 5. D 7. A 9. C
2. C 4. A 6. B 8. A 10. E
QUIZ 2 (p.31)
1. B 4. A 7. D 10. A
2. A 5. B 8. E 11. D
3. E 6. C 9. B

MINIMAL PAIRS
1. NO 33. YES
2. YES 34. YES
3. YES
4. YES
5. NO
6. NO
7. YES
8. YES
9. NO
10. YES
11. YES
12. YES
13. NO
14. YES
15. YES
16. NO
17. YES
18. NO
19. YES
20. NO
21. NO
22. YES
23. YES
24. NO
25. NO
26. YES
27. YES
28. NO
29. NO
30. YES
31. YES
32. YES

5
 Words & Word Formation Processes
QUIZ (p.33)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

D D A A B C B B D E

PRACTICE (p.34)