English Phonetics and Phonology

Seminar 1

1. Define phonetics and account for the components of the definition

2. Which are the branches of phonetics – what does each of the branches study?

3. Why is articulatory phonetics more widely used than the other branches of phonetics?

4. What is the International Phonetic Alphabet?

5. Why do we need the IPA?

6. Acoustic phonetics: how reliable is it?

7. Why is auditory phonetics the least developed branch of phonetics?

8. Phonology. Define phonology and account for its role as opposed to that of phonetics.

9. Types of evidence in phonetics and in phonology.

10. Define: phoneme, allophone, free variant and provide examples

11. What is a minimal pair? Provide examples.

12. Are the following sounds phonemes of English?

/s/ and /k/

/t/ and /n/
/æ/ and /ɪ/
/ɪ/ and /i:/

13. List the organs of speech found in the oral cavity.

14. Describe the role of the larynx in speech.

15. Why is voice relevant in distinguishing sounds? Give examples. You may provide
examples from languages other than English, but make sure that you can explain them to your
colleagues who may not be familiar with your language of choice.

16. Familiarize yourselves with the IPA symbols corresponding to the sounds of English.
Please pay attention to the various ways of spelling each sound.
Vowels
Symbol Examples
[ɪ] <bridge, kit, milk, ship, women>
[ε] <dress, edge, friend, neck, ready, step>
[æ] <bag, cat, hand, map, sack, trap>
[ɒ] <boss, cloth, drop, lot, stop>
[ə] <above, comma>
[ʌ] <cut, luck, pulse, trunk>
[ʊ] <bush, foot, good, look, wolf>
[i:] <bee, feel, key, people, speak>
[u:] <cool, goose, mute, tomb, view>
[ɔ:] <broad, for, hawk, sauce, thought, war>
[ɑ:] <car, father, heart, psalm, spa>
[ɜ:] <bird, hurt, nurse, term, urge>
[eɪ] <face, day, raid, steak, veil>
[aɪ] <arrive, buy, lie, price, try>
[ɔɪ] <choice, join, noise, spoil, toy>
[əʊ] <goat, home, know, so, toll>
[aʊ] <crowd, house, loud, mouth, now>
[ɪə] <beard, beer, fear, near, sincere>
[εə] <fair, pear, square, vary, where>
[ʊə] <cure, plural, poor, sure, tour>

Consonants
Symbol Examples
[p] <put, support>
[b] <ball, rubber>
[t] <take, petty, Thomas, washed>
[d] <dig, ladder>
[k] <cut, key, liquor, mock, stomach>
[g] <good, bigger>
[f] <fine, afford, stuff, philology, laugh>
[v] <van, have, of>
[θ] <think, ether, cloth>
[ð] <this, either, breathe>
[s] <sun, asset, science>
[z] <zebra, fuzzy, lose, xenophobic>
[ʃ] <ship, fish, mansion, social, nation, ocean, sure, assure, machine>
[ʒ] <genre, beige, usual, treasure>
[h] <hat, who>
[ʧ] <cheat, teach, nature>
[ʤ] <jump, age, gin, gym, soldier, Greenwich>
[m] <man, summer>
[n] <name, coin, runner>
[ŋ] <sing>
[l] <love, call>
[r] <red, hurry>
[w] <well, twenty, what, quick>
[j] <yard, beauty>