Revision for mid-term: Phonology

Week 1
1. Provide the terms. Write no more than two words

1. The study of the distribution and patterning of speech sounds in a language and of the tacit rules
governing pronunciation.
2. A system for transcribing the precise sounds of human speech into writing
3. A movable organ, as the tongue, lips, or uvula, the action of which is involved in the production of speech
sounds.
4. A tube-shaped organ in the neck involved in breathing, sound production, and protecting the trachea
against food aspiration. It’s located between the pharynx and the trachea
5. Two small bands of elastic tissue lying opposite each other across the air passage in the larynx.
6. The roof of the mouth that separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity
7. The soft palate that can be raised so that it makes a firm contact with the back wall of the pharynx is also
called ….
8. The sounds in the production of which the soft palate is lowered, blocking off the oral cavity so that the
airstream can only get out through the nose
9. A speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract
10. The smallest unit in the sound system of a language

Week 2: consonant and vowel

2. Provide the terms. Write no more than two words

Place of articulation:
Palatal Velar Alveolar Labiodental Palato-alveolar
Dental Glottal Bilabial
1. Complete closure of the lips.
2. Lower lip is very close to the upper front teeth.
3. Placing the tip of the tongue between the upper and lower teeth.
4. Tongue tip or blade are very close to alveolar ridge or can touch it.
5. Tip, blade and front of the tongue are very close to or touching the back of the alveolar ridge and
teeth at either side.
6. Raising the front of the tongue till it's quite close to the hard palate.
7. Raising the back of the tongue till it touches the soft palate.
8. The air is forced though an almost closed glottis.

Manner of articulation:
Affricates Approximants Fricates Stops/plosives

1. It involves an explosion of escaping air. It can be: nasal stop or oral stop.
2. Two articulators are close enough together for audible friction caused by turbulent airflow to be
heard.
1 Week 2: consonant and vowel | ULIS By Pham Thi Thanh Thuy B
 3. A stop followed by a fricative.
4. The air is close but no close enough for a turbulent air-stream to be produced.

3. Fill the columns and rows with the appropriate consonants

Place of articulation
Bilabial Labio- Dental Alveolar Palato- Palatal Velar Glottal
dental alveolar
Voiced
Plosive
Voiceless
Voiced
Affricative
Voiceless
Manner of Articulation

Voiced
Fricate
Voiceless
Voiced
Nasal
Voiced
Lateral
Voiced
Approximant
4. Transcribe the following words phonemically then describe the sounds represented by the
highlighted letters.

Example: Chemistry: /kemistri/: voiceless velar stop

1. psyche
2. measure
3. descent
4. toughen
5. ledge
6. with
7. who
8. chorus
9. chase
10. one

5.Fill in the graph with the appropirate vowels

2 Week 2: consonant and vowel | ULIS By Pham Thi Thanh Thuy B

6. Describe the following vowels

7. Transcribe the bold phonemes then describe them.

3 Week 2: consonant and vowel | ULIS By Pham Thi Thanh Thuy B

 Example: Chemistry: /e/: short mid front unrounded monothong
1. plan
2. feud
3. war
4. throw
5. weigh
6. young
7. proud
8. build

Week 3 and 4

8. Find a minimal pair for each of the following pairs of sounds.

/f/ and/ v/
/t/ and /d/
/s/ and/ z/
/k/ and /g/
/i/ and /i:/

9. True or False. Correct the false information.

1. Voiced consonants are those produced when the vocal cords are not vibrating
2. Vowels depend mainly on the variations in the position of the tongue
3. /i/ is a short high back unrounded monothong
4. Allophone is the smallest segment of sound
5. Minimal pairs are pairs of words which differ by only one phoneme
6. Broad transcription is the one that contains a lot of information about the exact quality of
the sounds
7. A syllable is a unit which consists of consonant(s) before and after a nucleus which is
optional.
8. A syllable can coincide with a word
9. The consonant that stands before the nucleus is called the coda and the one after it is called
an onset
10. No word ends with more than 3 consonants
11. Ambisyllabicity is the case when it is difficult to assign a mid-positioned consonant to the pre
or post syllable.

4 Week 3 and 4 | ULIS By Pham Thi Thanh Thuy B

12. Sentence stress, an extra force exerted on a particular syllable or a particular word in spoken
language, is fixed
13. There are three factors making a stressed syllable prominent: loudness, length, pitch
14. It is usually impossible to predict which syllable will be the tonic syllable in a tone group
15. Stress can help distinguish a word from a phrase

5 Week 3 and 4 | ULIS By Pham Thi Thanh Thuy B