H1KOF Final Exam

phonetics and phonology

theoretical context of english pronunciation

phonetics

studies physical production of real sounds in general

phonology

studies how the sounds are organized, structured, their function and how they create meaning

phoneme

the smallest unit that changes the meaning of a word

accents

different pronunciation based on location, social class, time period and education level.

dialect

different vocab, word order and grammar.

RP stands for…

recieved pronunciation

RP is defined as…

An old name for the most common and accepted pronunciation among learners of English. Nowadays, it’s BBC pronunciation.

BBC pronunciation

the standard pronunciation (RP) of British English

main distinction of british english

southern and northern

estuary english

a modern Bitish English accent from London (there is the Thames Estuary)

articulators in the oral cavity

teeth, lips, tongue, alveolar ridge, hard palate, soft palate (velum), pharynx

what is pharynx?

7-8cm long tube, divided at the top into nasal and oral cavity tubes

what is velum?

regulates air pass-through thru nose, open most of the time when not speaking, the tongue touches it when producing “velar” consonants K and G

what is hard palate?

roof of the mouth, consonants made with its use are “palatal“ (e. g. j in yes)

what is alveolar ridge?

between upper teeth and hard palate, rough surface, produces “alveolar“ sounds (e. g. t, d, n)

what is the tongue?

a muscle, nimble, parts: tip, blade, front, back, root

what are teeth?

tongue is in contact with upper teeth for most speech sounds, sounds are dental (like th in the)

what are lips?

can be pressed together, in contact with teeth or rounded. sounds for when lips are in contact with each other are bilabial, when lips touch teeth it’s labiodental.

vowels vs consonants in production

vowels have no air obstruction, consonants mostly do.

what is the study of sound distribution?

study of different contexts and positions in which sounds can occur.

close vs open vowels

close (e. g. dlouhé i) moves the tongue up a bit to guide the air, open (e. g. ae) keep the airflow fully unobstructed

front vs back vowels

depends on where the highest point of the tongue is when producing, if its in the front it’s a front vowel (i) and vice versa (u)

what are cardinal vowels?

a set of vowels arranged in a front-back, open-close diagram

think of how the cardinal vowels chart looks like

why are cardinal vowels not used in english pronunciation?

they are an extreme, idealized, theoretical reference of what the human articulatory system can produce, not the actual vowels that are produced.

positions of lips

rounded (u), spread (i), neutral (not noticeably spread or round, e. .g when i “uhhh“)

all english short vowels

æ (cat), e (bet), ɪ (hit), ɒ (hot), ʌ (cut), ʊ (put), ə (again)

all english long vowels

ɑː (pass), iː (beat), ɔː (torn), uː (food), ɜː (bird)

describe diphthongs

sounds which consist of a glide from one vowel to another, length similar to long vowels, first part of a diphthong is ALWAYS stronger and longer. there are centering diphthongs (end with shwa) and closing diphthongs that can continue and become triphthongs.

name all diphthongs

/eɪ/ (day), /aɪ/ (sky), /ɔɪ/ (boy), /aʊ/ (now), /oʊ/ (go), /ɪə/ (beer), /eə/ (air), /ʊə/ (tour).

describe triphthongs

most complex vowel-type sound, glides from one vowel to another and then a third, without interruption. hard for eng learners because the middle vowel is hardly audible and it’s harder to determine whether there’s one or two syllables.

name all triphthtongs

/eɪə/: as in player, /aɪə/: as in fire, /ɔɪə/: as in loyal, /əʊə/: as in lower, /aʊə/: as in hour

what does larynx do?

it has vocal folds, is made of cartiliges and is responsible for voicing and devoicing as it contracts and opens to allow for air passthrough

egressive pulmonic airstream

phenomenon where air is forced out of the lungs

what is voicing / phonation

when vocal folds vibrate

explain plosives

consonants that can be aspirated and are produced by constricting airflow completely and then releasing it (ptk - aspirated, voiceless, bdg - not aspirated, voiced)

what is aspiration

audible plosion after consonants ptk, that sounds like a distant “h“, a puff of air kinda

what are homorganic sounds?

sounds produced at the same place of articulation (e. g. p and m are bilabial both)

what is a narrowing?

the hole through which the air passes, with its size being regulated by articulators

explain fricatives

consonants produced by forcing air through a narrowing, creating audible friction, they are continuants that can be produced without interruption as long as there is air in the lungs.

what is pre-fortis clipping?

when a vowel is followed by a fortis consonant, it is pronounced more quickly / shortens. e. g. rice vs rise, mate vs maid

explain affricates

consonants that start as plosives and end as fricatives, so at first there is complete obstruction to airflow and then that air is released into a narrowing. affricates are tʃ and dʒ

what is relative length?

vowel length is shortened when there is a fortis consonant following

why fortis and lenis? (and not voiced and voiceless)

lenis consonants are often not fully voiced when in initial or final position (e. g. r in rub seems to have no vocal vibration at all). the more important difference, according to Roach, is the force of articulation.

feature of nasals?

air escapes thru nose (m, n, ŋ)

what are approximants?

sounds where articulators approach each other but not enough to cause friction (r, l, j, w)

what are allophones?

two different realizations of a phoneme (e. g. dark L vs clear L)

what are syllabic consonants?

when a consonant acts as a peak of the syllable, such as l in cattle (they have to have a comma under them in phonetic transcription)

what is the structure of a syllable?

there is an onset (initial consonants), a peak (vowel) and a coda (final consonant). the peak and coda together are called a Rhyme.

factors that indicate syllable stress in speech

loudness, length, pitch and quality

what rhythm does english have?

stress-timed rhythm, stressed syllables occur at roughly regular intervals and the duration between them stays consistent regardless of unstressed syllables in between them.

the things above are pretty general and Gemini helped, in the book itself you only got to page 28 so if u have time, go into more specifics, info might be missing.