Faculty of Letters and Humanities

Department of Letters and Humanities

Honour’s Degree in English Language Teaching
Phonetics and Phonology - TASK 1 - EaD - Semester 1 - 2021

Answer the questions below:

1. Phonetics and phonology are two linguistic sub-disciplines concerned with sounds of natural languages.
a) Identify the difference between Phonetics and Phonology.
b) Define vowels and consonants and provide one example for each term.
2. Classify the following vowels.
E.g. /u/ high/close back rounded1

a) /ɑː/ b) / ə/ c) / æ/ d) /I/

3. Classify the following consonant sounds using the VPM label (Voicing, Place and Manner).
E.g. [z] – Voiced, alveolar fricative.
a) [t] b) [m] c) [f] d) [g]
b) When producing consonants at least two articulators are involved. Identify the active articulators
involved in the production of the sounds in a).
4. Transcription:
a) Write the basic phonetic transcription of the following sentences:
E.g. My name is John. = /maɪ neɪm ɪz ˈdʒɒn/

i. We are writing Exam this week.

ii. Many students need to understand the teaching principles.

b) Read and write in normal orthography the short text below:

[fəˈnetɪks ənd fəʊˈnɒlədʒi ɑː wɜːθ ˈstʌdɪɪŋ fə ˈsevrəl ˈriːzənz |

wʌn ɪz ðæt əz ɔːl ˈstʌdi əv ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒ ðə ˈstʌdi əv fəʊˈnɒlədʒi ɡɪvz
əz ˈɪnsaɪt ˈɪntə ˌhaʊ ðə ˈhjuːmən ˈmaɪnd ˈwɜːks
ˌtu: mɔː ˈriːzənz ɑː ðæt ðə ˈstʌdi əv ðə fəˈnetɪks əv ə ˈfɒrən
ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒ ɡɪvz əz ə ˈmʌtʃ ˈbetər əˈbɪlɪti bəʊθ tu hɪər ənd tu kəˈrekt
mɪˈsteɪks ðæt wi ˈmeɪk ənd ˈɔ:lsəʊ tu tiːtʃ prənʌnsɪˈeɪʃn̩ əv ðə ˈfɒrən
ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒ ɪn ðɪs keɪs ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ tu ˈʌðəz]

1
Note that for vowel classification you can either use High/Low or Close/open to describe the position of the tongue in the mouth
while producing them. High = close; low = open.