In discussing the sounds of human language from the point of view of their articulation, phoneticians have evolved descriptive techniques to allow comparison across languages and to avoid the difficulties inherent in describing sounds in terms of standard orthographic practices.  For this reason it is not possible to use customary orthographic representations to analyse sound structure: even within one language, some sounds correspond to more than one letter while some letters correspond to more than one sound.  And, of course, a single letter can be used to represent different sounds in different languages.  As a result, we need a completely separate system to represent the actual sounds of human languages.

 In scientific discussion, the requisite characteristics of symbols to represent sounds are clarity and consistency. The best tool is a phonetic alphabet, and the most widely used is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).  The IPA is an attempt to provide a unique written representation of each sound in the languages of the world independent of the of the orthographies of particular languages.  Most dictionaries do not use the IPA, preferring systems of their own devising.  Linguists, too, mix and match from different systems to suit their specific purposes.  In keeping with customary practice in North American books, we shall use a modified version of the IPA, substituting more traditional and more transparent orthographic symbols (sometimes used with diacritics) forf a few of the IPA symbols.

EXERCISES

1.

Give a phonetic description of the following sounds.  For consonants, include voicing and place and manner of articulation; for vowels, include height and a frontness/backnesss dimension.  Examples: [s] voiceless alveolar fricative; [æ] low front vowel.

Consonants: [z] [t] [b] [n] [] [r] [] []

Vowels: [] [] [I] [u] [o] []

2.

A minimal pair is a set of two words that have the same sounds in the same order, except that one sound differs: pit [pIt]/bit [bIt]; bell [b_l]/bill [bIl]; and either [i__r]/ether [i__r].

(a)

For each of the following pairs of English consonants, provide minimal pairs that illustrate their occurence in initial, medial, and final position. (Examples are given for the first two pairs.)

(b)

For each of these pairs of vowels,  cite a minimal pair of words illustrating the contrast.  Example : [u] [æ] boot/bat.

[i] [I]; [_y] [ay]; [u] [U]; [æ] [_]

3.

Transcribe each of the following words as yu say them in casual speech. (Do not be misled by the orthography.) Examples : bed [b_d]; rancid [ræns_d]

ANSWERS

1.(a) voicing place and manner or articulation.

Consonants:

[z]  voiced alveolar fricative

[t]  nonvoiced alveolar stop

[b]  voiced (bi)labial stop

[n]  voiced alveolar nasal

[]  voiced palatal nasal

[r]  voiced alveolar liquid

[] = [d_]  voiced (alveo)palatal affricate

[] = [t_]  unvoiced lveopalatal affricate

(b) Height, frontness, backness.

Vowels:

[]  mid front

[]  mid back

[I]  high front

[u]  high back

[o]  mid back

[]  mid central

2. Possible answers

(a)

(b)

3.  Phonetic transcription (without nasal or aspiration diacritics)

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