Chapter 5
1. Initial sound.
a. judge [ʤ]
f. thought [θ]
b. Thomas [tʰ]
g. contact [kʰ]
c. though [ð]
h. phone [f]
d. easy [i]
i. civic [s]
e. pneumonia [n]
j. usual [j]
2. Final sound.
a. fleece [s]
f. cow [aʊ]
b. neigh [e] ~ [eɪ]
g. rough [f]
c. long [ŋ]
h. cheese [z]
d. health [θ]
i. bleached [t]
e. watch [ʧ]
j. rags [z]
3. Phonetic transcription. Note: transcriptions may vary across dialects. For example, the merry / marry /
Mary distinction is neutralized in many dialects in the United States.
a. physics
[fɪzɪks]
b. merry
[mɛri]
c. marry
[mæri] ~ [mɛri]
d. Mary
[meri] ~ [mɛri]
e. yellow
[jɛlo]
f. sticky
[stɪki]
g. transcription
[træ̃nskrɪpʃə̃n]
h. Fromkin
[frãmkɪn] ~ [frãmpkɪn]
i. tease
[tʰiz]
j. weather
[wɛðər]
k. coat
[khot]
l. Rodman
[radmə̃n]
m. heath
[hiθ]
n. (student’s name, answers will vary)
o. touch
[tʰʌʧ]
p. cough
[kʰaf] ~ [kʰɔf]
q. larynx
[lerɪ̃ŋks]
r. through
[θru]
s. beautiful
[bjutɪfəl]
t. honest
[anɪst]
u. president
[prɛzɪdɛ̃nt] ~
[prɛzɪdɪ̃nt] ~
[prɛzɪdə̃nt] ~
[prɛzǝdɛ̃nt] ~
[prɛzǝdɪ̃nt] ~
[prɛzǝdə̃nt]
4. Correcting major errors in transcription.
Error
a. [cʌ̃m]
b. [sed]
c. [tʰɔlk]
d. [ãnd]
e. [wæx]
f. [khӕbəgəz]
g. [ɪs]
h. [wɛθər]
5. English orthography.
a. [hit] heat
b. [strok] stroke
c. [fez] phase ~ faze
d. [ton] tone
e. [boni] bony
f. [skrim] scream
g. [frut] fruit
h. [priʧər] preacher
i. [krak] crock
j. [baks] box
k. [θæŋks] thanks
l. [wɛnzde] Wednesday
m. [krɔld] crawled
n. [kanʧiɛnʧəs] conscientious
o. [parləmɛntæriən] parliamentarian
p. [kwəbɛk] Quebec
q. [pitsə] pizza
r. [bərak obamə] Barack Obama
s. [mɪt ramni] Mitt Romney
t. [tu θaʊzənd ænd twɛlv] two thousand and twelve
6. Symbols for phonetic descriptions.
Description
Sound
Sample
word
a. voiceless bilabial unaspirated stop
[p]
spill
b. low front vowel
[æ]
tack
c. lateral liquid
[l]
lip
d. velar nasal
[ŋ]
sing
e. voiced interdental fricative
[ð]
this
f. voiceless affricate
[ʧ]
cherry
g. palatal glide
[j]
yodel
h. mid lax front vowel
[ɛ]
head
i. high back tense vowel
[u]
food
j. voiceless aspirated alveolar stop
[tʰ]
team
7. Phonetic properties.
a. bath—bathe: [θ]-[ð]. The th in bath is voiceless; the th in bathe is voiced. Both are interdental fricatives.
b. reduce—reduction: [s]-[k]. The c in reduce is an alveolar fricative; the c in reduction is a velar stop.
8. Transcriptions.
Written word
Transcription
a
swam
[swæ̃m]
swan
[swãn]
ea
hear
[hir]
heart
[hart]
heard
[hərd]
o
bone
[bõn]
done
[dʌ̃n]
gone
[gãn]
one
[wə̃n]
both
[boθ]
bother
[baðər]
brother
[brʌðər]
ou
shout
[ʃaʊt]
should
[ʃʊd]
shoulder
[ʃoldər]
trouble
[tʃrʌbəl]
you
[ju]
9. Shared features.
a. [g] [p] [t] [d] [k] [b]
oral, stop, consonant
b. [u] [ʊ] [o] [ɔ]
back, round, non-low, vowel
c. [i] [ɪ] [e] [ɛ] [æ]
front, unrounded, vowel
d. [t] [s] [ʃ] [p] [k] [ʧ] [f] [h]
voiceless, oral, obstruent, consonant
e. [v] [z] [ʒ] [ʤ] [n] [g] [d] [b] [l] [r] [w] [j]
voiced, consonant
f. [t] [d] [s] [ʃ] [n] [ʧ] [ʤ]
coronal, consonant
10. Translating phonetics to spelling.
a. Noam Chomsky is a linguist who teaches at MIT.
11. Phonetic features distinguishing sounds.
A
B
a. front
back
b. voiceless
voiced
c. labial
other places of articulation
d. high
non-high (mid and low)
e. continuant
non-continuant
f. non-back (front and central)
back
13. Tense and lax vowels.
Part One
a. [i]
tense
b. [ɪ]
lax
c. [u]
tense
d. [ʌ]
lax
e. [ʊ]
lax
f. [e]
tense
g. [ɛ]
lax
h. [o]
tense
i. [ɔ]
lax
j. [æ]
lax
k. [a]
tense
l. [ə]
lax
m. [aɪ]
tense
n. [aʊ]
tense
o. [ɔɪ]
tense
Part Two. Answers will vary.
Vowel
Sample word
a. [i]
leash [liʃ]
b. [ɪ]
fish [fɪʃ]
c. [u]
Koosh [kuʃ] (as in Koosh ball, the popular novelty ball from the 1980s) and
smoosh [smuʃ] (a slang variant for smush [smʊʃ]); potentially does not exist in
English outside of these examples and borrowings from French
d. [ʌ]
rush [rʌʃ]
e. [ʊ]
push [pʊʃ]
f. [e]
potentially does not exist in English
g. [ɛ]
mesh [mɛʃ]
h. [o]
potentially does not exist in English, but note gauche [goʃ] (borrowed, but in com-
mon use)
i. [ɔ]
wash [wɔʃ], in some dialects
j. [æ]
ash [æʃ]
k. [a]
posh [paʃ]
l. [ə]
potentially does not exist in English
m. [aɪ]
potentially does not exist in English
n. [aʊ]
potentially does not exist in English
o. [ɔɪ]
potentially does not exist in English
Part Three. The majority of such words have lax vowels.
14. Sentence with monophthongs and diphthongs. Answers will vary. Sample answer: “The old brown dog
chased my big cat.” [ðə old braʊn dag ʧʰest maɪ bɪg kʰæt]
15. Transcribing French.
French word
Transcription
tu “you”
[ty]
bleu “blue”
[blø]
heure “hour”
[œʀ] or [œr]
16. Challenge exercise: Monosyllabic words containing vowels followed by [t], [r], and [ŋ].
a. Monosyllabic words containing vowels followed by [t]. (Some speakers may not have a word such as
Vowe
l
Sample word
i
meet [mit]
ɪ
bit [bɪt]
e
mate [met]
ɛ
met [mɛt]
æ
mat [mæt]
u
moot [mut]
ʊ
foot [fʊt]
ʌ
hut [hʌt]
o
moat [mot]
ɔ
bought [bɔt]
a
pot [pat]
aɪ
fight [faɪt]
aʊ
grout [graʊt]
ɔɪ
Hoyt [hɔɪt], a man’s name. Also, a dialectal pronunciation
of hurt.
b. Monosyllabic words containing vowels followed by [r]. (There is much dialectal variation in these
choices. The answers given reflect just one dialect of American English; there are many other possibil-
Vowel
Sample word
i
ear [ir]
ɪ
does not occur in this dialect
e
hair [her]
ɛ
does not occur in this dialect
æ
does not occur in this dialect
u
sure [ʃur]
ʊ
does not occur in this dialect
ʌ
does not occur in this dialect
o
bore [bor]
ɔ
does not occur in this dialect
a
bar [bar]
aɪ
hire [haɪr], but some speakers may pronounce
this word with two syllables
aʊ
our [aʊr], but some speakers may pronounce
this word with two syllables
ɔɪ
does not occur in this dialect
c. Monosyllabic words containing vowels followed by [ŋ]. Similar comments regarding dialectal variation
and tense/lax choices apply here as noted in part B. Answers will vary.
Vowel
Sample word
i
sing [sĩŋ]
ɪ
does not occur in this dialect
e
length [lẽŋθ]
ɛ
does not occur in this dialect
æ
does not occur in this dialect
u
does not occur in this dialect
ʊ
does not occur in this dialect
ʌ
rung [rʌ̃ŋ]
o
does not occur in this dialect
ɔ
wrong [rɔ̃ŋ]
a
does not occur in this dialect
aɪ
does not occur in this dialect
aʊ
does not occur in this dialect
ɔɪ
does not occur in this dialect
d. Quantitative differences. Yes. There is a greater variety of vowels preceding [t] than preceding [r].
Likewise, there are more vowels preceding [r] than [ŋ].
17. Matching names and works.
a—1 (Dickens, Oliver Twist)
b—4 (Cervantes, Don Quixote)