LING 201 Professor Oiry

Fall 2009
Exam 2 key
Phonetics & Phonology

1. IPA Transcription (/40)

1.1 Transcribe in IPA these English words (/24)

hang [hæŋ] breeze [briz]

blue [blu] squash [skwɑʃ]
clash [klɑʃ] pink [piŋk]
done [dʌn] mix [miks]
both [boθ] them [ðɛm]
Canada [kænəәdəә] amuse [əәmjuz]

1.2 Do those words are English or French? When it is an English word, write the transcription
in English. Circle the French sounds that do not exist in English. (/16)

a. [tɔrtyr] French d. [aksjõ] action

b. [siŋk] sink c. [dø] french
e. [lain] line f. [əәwɛ] away
d. [plɛ̃] French g. [kwɛstʃəәn] question

2. Korean [r] and [l] (/30)

Consider the distribution of [r] and [l] in Korean in the following words: are they allophones of a
single phoneme or are they two different phonemes?
Describe clearly their environment and conclude.

a. [rupi] ‘ruby’ f. [mul] ‘water’

b. [kiri] ‘road’ g. [pal] ‘big’
c. [saram] ‘person’ h. [seul] ‘Seoul’
d. [irumi] ‘name’ i. [ilkop] ‘seven’
e. [ratio] ‘radio’ j. [ipalsa] ‘barber’

No minimal pairs.
Environment [r]: beginning; inside
[l]: end; inside
[r] before [i], [a], Ø after [u], [a].
[l] before [i], [a], [u] after [s], [k], Ø
They are two allophones of one phoneme, they are in a complimentary distribution: only [l]
appears before consonants and at the end; and [r] appears only before vowels and at the
beginning.
3. Korean palatalization (/30)

Are [s] and [ʃ] allophones of a single phoneme or are they two different phonemes?
Describe clearly their environment and conclude.
If [s] and [ʃ] are allophones, try to argue for the basic phoneme and justify.

[ʃi] ‘poem’ [ʃilsu] ‘mistake’

[sal] ‘flesh’ [kasəәl] ‘hypothesis’
[miʃin] ‘superstition’ [oʃip] ‘fifty’
[ʃinmun] ‘newspaper’ [miso] ‘smile’
[kasu] ‘singer’ [paŋʃik] ‘method’
[thaksaŋʃikye] ‘table clock’ [kanʃik] ‘snack’
[sanmun] ‘prose’ [kaʃi] ‘thorn’
[susek] ‘search’ [so] ‘cow’

No minimal pairs.

Environment [s]: beginning; inside

Environment [ʃ]: beginning; inside

Before [s]: [i], [a], [k], [u], [l], Ø

After [s]: [a], [əә], [o], [e], [u]
Before [ʃ]: [a], [i], [o], [n], [ŋ], Ø
After [ʃ]: [i]

They are two allophones of one phoneme, they are in a complimentary distribution: [ʃ] appears
only after [i] and [s] after everywhere else.
He has a greater distribution, so /s/ must be the basic phoneme.