ANSWER KEY

Task 1

A. In producing most speech sounds, including all the sounds used regularly in English, the air we
use comes from the lungs. This air travels up from the lungs, passing through the trachea
(windpipe), until it reaches the larynx, where it might be set into vibration. The larynx is
commonly known as the voice box, and the front of the larynx is the protrusion that can be felt in
the front of the neck, which is called the Adam’s apple in men. The air passes through the larynx
into the vocal tract.

B. In terms of theory, researchers also sometimes disagree about the syllable distribution of the
intervocalic consonants (consonants in between vowels). Some people think that stress attracts
intervocalic consonants, so that the /p/ in ‘happy’ would belong to the first syllable, as it is
stressed (louder and longer than the second syllable). Some people even think that the /p/ in
‘happy’ belongs to both syllables at the same time (that is, as the coda of the first syllable and the
onset of the second) and say it is ambisyllabic.

C. When we say the words Chinese and Waterloo in isolation, the stress is on the final syllable: Chi
ˈnese and Waterˈloo. However, in phrases like ˈChinese ˈtakeaway and ˈWaterloo ˈstation, stress
likely falls on the first syllable of each element. This phenomenon is known as stress shift,
because stress shifts from the lexical stress position to somewhere else. This happens because
another stressed syllable occurs immediately afterwards – that is, at the start of ‘takeaway’ and
‘station’. English likes stressed syllables to be separated by some unstressed syllables, and stress
shift is one of the techniques the language employs to do just that.
D. Phonemes are the smallest units that can make a meaning difference in a language, but they occur
in slightly different forms depending on their environment (the other sounds around them, and
factors such as stress and their position in the syllable). We can tell if two sounds are variants of
the same phoneme by replacing one for another in a word and seeing if they make a meaning
difference. If they do not, then we know they are different versions of the same phoneme. These
different versions are called allophones.

Task 2
Match the symbols on the left with the places of articulation on the right. There will only be one
match for each one.

/p/ bilabial
/z/ alveolar
/f/ labiodental
/ð/ dental

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 /tʃ/ postalveolar
[ʔ] glottal
/j/ palatal
/ŋ/ velar

Task 3

In (a), words that fit are ‘pan’, ‘ban’ and ‘man’.

In (b), words that fit are ‘mate’, ‘made’, ‘mace’, ‘maze’, ‘main’ and ‘mail’.
In (c), words that fit are ‘tuck’, ‘tug’ and ‘tongue’.

Task 4

Each of the following sets contains an inappropriate member. Pick it out and say why it is
inappropriate. Put your answers here in the spaces provided below.

A.

1. /b/ (the others are nasals)

2. /n/ (the others are plosives)

3. /s/ (the others are pronounced with complete closure manner of articulation)

4. /ʊ/ (the other are front unrounded vowels)

5. /l/ (the other are fricatives)

6. /p/ (the others are alveolars)

7. /d/ (the others are voiceless)

8. /t/ (the others are velars)

(another answer: / ŋ/- a nasal sound while the others are plosive sounds)

9. /p/ (the others are post-alveolar voiced)

10/ t/ (the others are approximants, sonorants)

B.

1. /p/ is voiceless; the others are voiced.

2. /ɡ/ is velar; the others are alveolar.

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 3. /w/ is approximant; the others are fricatives.
4. /d/ is obstruent; the others are sonorant.

Task 5

1. Affricate
2. Nasal
3. Lateral
4. Plosive
5. Obstruents

Task 6

POA Active articulator Passive articulator

Bilabial Bottom lip Top lip
Labiodental Bottom lip Top/upper teeth
Dental Tongue tip Upper front teeth
Alveolar Tongue tip Alveolar ridge
Postalveolar Tongue tip or blade Region behind the alveolar ridge
Palatal Tongue front Hard palate
Velar Tongue back Velum
None (the vocal folds move
Glottal Vocal folds towards
each other)

Task 7
a) False (because the velum is raised for /ɡ/, as for all plosives)
b) True
c) False ( because some voiced sounds are obstruents, such as /b v dʒ/)
d) True
e) False ( because the air flows over the midline of the tongue, as /j/ is a median approximant. It
only flows over the sides of the tongue for lateral sounds such as /l/)
f. True
g.True
h.True
j. True

Task 8, 9

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 /ɪə/ hear

/ɑ/ part

/ɛə/ hair

/u/ plume

/æ/ mass

/ɪ/ gin

/ɔɪ/ boy

/ cow
aʊ/

Task 9.  Each of these transcriptions of English words contains errors.  Spot the errors and
correct them .

a) quick /qwic/    => /kwik/

b)        ring /Ring/      => /rɪŋ/

c) box /Box/       => /bɒks/

Task 10

a) /hæv ju ɡɒt eniθɪŋ ælkəhɒl fri:/

b) /ðə bɜ:dz ɑ: ɒn ðə fi:dəz ɪn ðə ɡɑdən/(or ‘garden’ could have a syllabic /n/)
c) /aɪ bɪli:v ʃiz ɡɒt ɪlevən junɪts left tə rɑɪt/

Task 11

For [θ]–[ð] ‘thigh’ and ‘thy’

For [z]–[ʒ], ‘baize’ and ‘beige’

For [ɡ]–[ʒ] ‘mega’ and ‘measure’ (possibly the only minimal pair for these two sounds.)

(Reference: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/wordscape/wordlist/.)

No minimal pairs for /ŋ/ and /h/

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Task 12

/dɛm/ and /splim/ are both perfectly good English words, which just happen not to exist in the
language at the moment. All the others, however, violate some important rules of English. These are
rules that English speakers store internally in their minds about what is permissible in the language,
and not conscious rules of what is right and wrong.
The word /ŋʊdəl/ is problematic because words in English can never begin with /ŋ/. Words can end
with this sound and it can occur intervocalically (between two vowels), but it never occurs at the
start of a word.

The status of /ʒɔdʒ/ is a bit less clear. In general, English words can not begin with /ʒ/. However,
there are a few exceptions, such as ‘genre’, which have usually been borrowed into the language
from French. It is still unlikely that newly invented words would begin with this sound, as many
speakers would turn the initial /ʒ/ into the affricate /dʒ/.

/spfid/ Onsets like /sp/ are fine in English, as in ‘spin’, and /sp/ can also be followed by /l/ or /r/ in
English, as found in ‘splint’ and ‘sprint’. However, /sp/ cannot be followed by another obstruent,
such as /f/, in the onset.

/bɑh/ is an impossible English word because the syllable ends in /h/.

/sɪŋt/ is impossible because of its coda. In English, nasals can be followed by voiceless plosives in
the coda, as long as they agree in place of articulation. Hence, we have words like ‘rank’, ‘ramp’
and ‘rant’, where both coda consonants are velar, bilabial and alveolar, respectively. It is not
possible to mix places of articulation for the nasal and voiceless plosive, however, so /sɪŋt/, with a
velar nasal and alveolar plosive, is not a possible word of English.

Task 13.
1. Lengthy
2. Restore

Lengthy /lɛŋ.θi/ (In a word like ‘lengthy’, /ŋ/ and /θ/ both occur intervocalically. Using the maximal
onset principle and our knowledge of phonotactics and distribution, we would say that /θ/ is the onset to
the second syllable, but that /ŋ/ cannot be the initial consonant in the onset, so it must be the coda to the
first syllable.

Restore /rɪ.stɔ:/ ( maximal onset principle)

Task 14
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 gold, silver, bronze, website, bagpipe, hotdog

gold→   [g̥əʊɬd̥]
silver → [sɪɬvər ]  
bronze → [b̥rɒnz̥ ]
 website →  [web̥săɪt ,] 
bagpipe→ [bæg̥paɪp ]
 hotdog → [ˈhɒ̆td̥ɒg̥]

Task 15

fire in the hole → linking /r/ in “fire in”

car boot → neither

Arizona and Tennessee → intrusive /r/

pay on time → neither

in awe of him → intrusive /r/

a pair of fives → linking /r/

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Task 16

/waɪk kɒfi/

/reb waɪn/

/ɡri:ŋ ɡrɑs/

/vaɪələk kri:m/

/tʃɒkləp braʊn/

/braʊm beə/

/ðəʊʒ ʃerɪfʃ ʃɔli kɑmp memb maɪ ʃɒkgʌŋ kwɪkli/

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Task 17

a) /ðæp bɑr ɪznk kwaɪp bɪg ɪnʌf/

b) b) /ðə bes fren ʃib menʃən kʊdənk kʌm/