GENERAL LINGUISTICS

HOMEWORK – WEEK 2
Phonetics Phonology Writing Systems
Full name: Bùi Thị Mai Hoa - 21045247
Câu 1:
1)True
Vietnamese is often erroneously considered to be a "monosyllabic"
language. Vietnamese words may consist of one or more syllables. There is a
tendency for words to have two syllables (disyllabic). Some words have three or
four syllables — many polysyllabic words are formed by reduplicative
derivation. Additionally, a Vietnamese word may consist of a single morpheme
or more than one morpheme. Polymorphemic words are either compound words
or words consisting of stems plus affixes or reduplicants. Most Vietnamese
morphemes consist of only one syllable. Polysyllabic morphemes tend to be
borrowings from other languages.
For example: 
Vietnamese word: cơm
English gloss: cooked rice
Phonological form: monosyllabic
Morphological form: monomorphemic
English is polysyllabic as English consists of several syllables, for example:
children: /ˈtʃɪl.drən/
chicken./ˈtʃɪk.ɪn/ 
tonight./təˈnaɪt/ 
2) False: Vietnamese doesn’t have more than 2 speech sounds (i.e. 2
phonemes) in a word.
=> Vietnamese doesn’t have more than 3 speech sounds (i.e. 3 phonemes) in
a word.
Of all the combinations of phonemes possible in Vietnamese, a word can not
have more than three phonemes.
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Besides 14 vowels, Vietnamese has two semivowels, one front and one back:
/y,w/. They serve as glides in many types of combinations of diphthongs. They
can either precede or follow a vowel phoneme. The tongue, in the production of
a glide or a semivowel, is normally at a higher elevation and more front or more
back in comparison with the peak vowel within which it is combined. We have
on-glide and off-glide according to the position of the glide in the combination.

3) True:  Vietnamese is a language with no ending consonants.

Vietnamese belongs to the group of isolating languages where there are no
inflectional endings and all the words are invariable. Grammatical relationships
are expressed not by changing the internal structure of the words (the use of
inflectional endings), but by the use of auxiliary words and word order. In this
sense, the traditionally recognized inflectional morphology is not applicable to
Vietnamese
Ví dụ: Cơm, gà, cá, tôm, (rice, chicken, fish, shrimp) 
4) False: Vietnamese does not have any speech sounds similar to English
ones.
=> Vietnamese has some speech sounds similar to English ones.
At the beginning of words (syllable-initial), Vietnamese and English share the
following consonant sounds: /p, b, d, k, m, n, f, v, s, z, h, l/, the r-flap in “utter”
and “y” in “yard.” It should be noted that /p, k/ in Vietnamese are unaspirated
and may sound like “b” and “g” to an English speaker. In English, /p, k/ may be
aspirated depending on context. At the end of words (syllable-final), Vietnamese
and English share the following consonant sounds: /p, t, k, m, n/ and “ng.” In
Vietnamese, syllable-final /p, t, k/ are unreleased or “held in,” whereas these
sounds may be released in English.

Câu 2:
2.1

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 OPEN SYLLABLE CLOSED SYLLABLE

+ End in a vowel + Have a vowel followed by a consonant

+ Usually observed in the form such as + Usually observed in the form such as
V, CV, CCV, etc VC, VCC, CVC, etc
+ The vowel sound is usually a long + The vowel sound is usually a short sound
sound

Example: Example:
1. we /wiː/ 1. wet /wet/
2. lá 2. lát

2.2. What type of syllables outnumbers the other (opened or closed) at the
end of each line in the song lyrics where notes are linked together for
prolongation? Provide the number to prove your answer! Why does that
type of syllables predominate?
Opened syllables outnumber closed ones at the end of each line in the song
lyrics where notes are linked together for prolongation. There are 15 opened
syllables in comparison with 07 closed syllables. The use of opened syllables
helps to create the feeling of continuation, which makes the song's rhythm seem
to be longer.

Câu 3: Why is it important to pronounce ending sounds in English? What are

possible reasons why Vietnamese learners normally have trouble pronouncing
ending sounds in English?
It is important to pronounce ending sounds in English because mispronouncing
sounds at the ends of words makes English unclear and also negatively affects
English grammar. When we mispronoun an ending sound in a word, it may
appear to be a different word on the listener's side. On the other hand,
Vietnamese is an isolating language which has single words with no ending

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sounds. That is the reason why Vietnamese learners have difficulties with
English pronunciation, particularly ending sounds.

Câu 4: 
The troubles that the Italian man had to face up to when he went to Malta come
from his wrong pronunciation.
- The first situation happened in a restaurant where the man ordered 2 pieces of
toast; however, the waitress just brought 1 piece. When he called the waitress
and said that he wanted 2 pieces, instead of pronouncing the word “pieces”
containing 2 syllables /ˈpiːsɪz/ in which the first one has a long high front
unrounded vowel /iː/, he didn’t pronounce the ending sounds of the word.
Moreover, he pronounced /iː/ into a short front unrounded vowel /ɪ/. As a result,
the waitress thought he said the word “piss”, which made her get angry with
him.   
- In the second situation, the Italian man told the waitress that he wanted a fork
on the table. Nevertheless, the waitress misunderstood what he wanted to say
since he didn’t pronounce that word accurately. While the word “fork” should
have been pronounced with a long mid central rounded vowel /ɔː/, he said the
word consisting of a vowel in a short low central neutral form /ʌ/, which
changed the word from “fork” into “fuck”.
- The third case is the same as the first one because he made mistakes when
pronouncing /iː/ and /ɪ/. Consequently, as he told the manager he wanted a
“sheet” on his bed, he said it into “shit”
- Since the man couldn’t pronounce the sound /iː/ and /ɪ/ accurately, he also
misunderstood when hearing the receptionist. In fact the receptionist said, “
Peace on you,’; however, the Italian man thought that was “piss” instead of
“peace”. Consequently, he replied angrily, “ Piss on you too.”

Câu 5: 

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My impression of the video is that the man is talking on the phone in a hilarious
way and that his English pronunciation is very difficult to understand due to his
Vietnamese’s influence. As can be seen from the video, he intentionally imitates
the Vietnamese accent. The pronunciation of almost all the words is incorrect,
each word is pronounced separately with a tone but without stress and ending
sounds, not to mention stress in the whole sentence. In Vietnamese, we do not
have combinations of consonants, particularly voiceless consonants, ending
sounds, linking words or intonation in the same way that English does. As a
result, the man pronounces English words, such consonants are omitted.
Factors affecting his pronunciation are:
 Vietnamese language does not have stress on word level - each word is
pronounced clearly and equally.
  Tones, which are a typical feature of Vietnamese, are not included in
English. Therefore, when he talks in the above-mentioned way, it is very
weird.
 Vietnamese language does not have linking sounds or ending sounds like
English does.
 Related to his dialect, pronouncing habits, etc. Don’t care about everyone;
just say words and phrases.
Câu 6: 
1. Picture 1:
In essence, “psychotherapist” is a word. But maybe because there was not
enough space to write, the man had to split it into three parts, causing the doctor
misunderstand. Psychotherapist - Psycho the Rapist (rape is when you force
against their will someone to have sex)
2. Picture 2:

When communicating, the postman misunderstood the meaning of the two

women because of the words that are homonyms but have different meanings.
So the postman   understood the sentence: "Thank you mailman" to "Thank you

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male man" and that's why the postman replied with the same: "You are welcome
female woman"

3. Picture 3:
Situation: a deer is fighting with a bear and they are playing words with each
other
Deer: "I'll fight you with my bear hands" (bear hands - bare hands).
Bear: “Oh deer” - Oh dear
Because of the words that are homonyms but have different meanings. 
Câu 7: The correct pronunciation of the verb(determine) is /dɪ’tə:mɪn/ and
(examine) is /ik’zæmain/
1. These two words including the consonants and vowels are
pronouced as such because they have different stress patterns which
also leads to reduction of different vowels, both of which cause
differences in pronunciation

2. They are often mispronounced because they have the same

ending “mine” in writing
Câu 8: 
1. “extraordinary” 
BrE: /ɪkˈstrɔːdnri /=> 4 syllables
AmE: /ɪkˈstrɔːrdəneri/=> 5 syllables 
We get a reduction from six to five syllables among most speakers.
Here, the vowel combination is -ao-, which doesn't have a standard English
pronunciation (it is /au/ in words like Maori, /ei.o/ in words like aorta, /ei.ɔ/ in
words like chaos, and don't get me started on pharaoh or gaol). Few words
contain the letter sequence –ao-, and even fewer split the sequence at a
morpheme boundary (others include supraorbital and intraocular). Now,
because extraordinary is a six-syllable word, it's particularly prone to having
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an unstressed syllable (like the second syllable) elided. It is also common
enough in daily speech for such a
change to occur and spread widely. Most dictionaries list both the six- and
five-syllable variants, and most (including the OED) list the five-syllable
version first, indicating that it is more commonly used. With longer
formations such as extraordinarily, the likelihood that a speaker is going to
elide one (or more) syllables increases.
In “extraordinary”,the obvious difference is the way the second letter “r” 
pronounced. In BE, when r comes after a vowel in the same syllable (as in
car, hard, or market), the r is not pronounced. In AE,the r is pronounced.
Câu 9: 
In the Vietnamese phonetic system, the first 3 consonants c-, k- and qu-
have the same nature, are all tongue root sounds, pronounced the same, only
qu- is the tongue root sound with rounded lips, so it should be written as
qu- /kw-/. Temporarily take English as a representative for the following
example (other Western languages are similar):
- The letter c- is pronounced like k- (in Vietnamese to avoid confusion, c-
reads “cờ”, and k- reads "ka"), it will coordinate with the remaining vowels,
including -a, -u, -o, for example: Car, Cut, Cow...In Vietnamese, c- will
coordinate with the remaining 8 vowels, including -a, -ă, -â, -o, -o, -e, -u, -u,
for example: Ca, Căn, Câm, Cò, Cô, Cơ, Cu, Cứ…
The letter qu- is c- with rounded lips, where "u" represents the rounded-lip
vowel, always goes with the letter q- to form a pair of matching cards, for
example: Queen, Quit, Quick, Quark, Technique, Unique…In Vietnamese, it
will coordinate with the following vowels: -a, -ă-, -â-, -y, -ô, -o-, for example:
Qua, Quy , Quắc, Quất, Quốc, …)
Thus, it can be seen that the consonant qu- is written with 2 letters q and u,
but it is only a single consonant, not a double consonant like nh-, th-, ch-...
Many Vietnamese people do not understand this nature, so they mistakenly
think that the consonant q- stands alone, and "u" belongs to the rhyme part.
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Just a glance at the word "Queen" is enough to see that there is no rhyme that
is written with the 3 letters "-uee". In Vietnamese, if we think that the "u" in
the qu- consonant belongs to the rhyme part, it will be impossible to explain
the following case:
The letter CUA = C + UA, in which the rhyme -ua has the nature of -uo-,
because there is no tailwind behind (the last syllable), so -uo- is written as -ua
(pronounced the same).
The letter QUA = QU + A, where qu- is a consonant and the vowel is -a.