ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY, ISLAMABAD

(Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics)

ASSIGNMENT NO. 1

Name Faiza Syed

Student ID 0000289027
Course Code 5516
Course Phonetics and Phonology (9056)
Semester Spring, 2023
Program BS English

Question No. 1: Write down the distinctive features of the final consonantal sound in
each of the following words:
1. Life 2. Dogs 3. Rain 4. That 5. Witch

Answer:
The sounds that come at the end of a word are called final consonant sounds. For
words to be properly said and understood, these sounds are essential. Final consonant
sounds in English come in a vast variety and can be divided into several sorts according
to how and where they are pronounced. The distinctive features of the final consonantal
sound of above words are mentioned below:

1. Life: The final consonantal sound is [f].

 Place of articulation: Labiodental
 Manner of articulation: Fricative
 Voicing: Voiceless
 Nasality: Oral

2. Dogs: The final consonantal sound is [z].

 Place of articulation: Alveolar
 Manner of articulation: Fricative
 Voicing: Voiced
 Nasality: Oral

3. Rain: The final consonantal sound is [n].

 Place of articulation: Alveolar
 Manner of articulation: Nasal
 Voicing: Voiced
 Nasality: Nasal
4. That: The final consonantal sound is [t].
 Place of articulation: Alveolar
 Manner of articulation: Plosive
 Voicing: Voiceless
 Nasality: Oral

5. Witch: The final consonantal sound is [tʃ].

 Place of articulation: Postalveolar
 Manner of articulation: Affricate
 Voicing: Voiceless
 Nasality: Oral

Question No. 2: Transcribe and write down the number of phonemes in each of the
following words:
1. Jugs 2. Stage 3. Psychology 4. Ear 5. Olive

Answer:

1. Jugs:
 Transcription: /dʒʌɡz/
 Number of phonemes: 4
 Syllabic Boundaries: Jugs [dʒʌɡz]
2. Stage:
 Transcription: /steɪdʒ/
 Number of phonemes: 5
 Syllabic Boundaries: Stage [steɪdʒ]
3. Psychology
 Transcription: /saɪˈkɒlədʒi/
 Number of phonemes: 9
 Syllabic Boundaries: Psy-chol-o-gy [saɪˈkɒlədʒi]
4. Ear
 Transcription: /ɪr/
 Number of phonemes: 2
 Syllabic Boundaries: Ear [ɪr]
5. Olive
 Transcription: /ɪr/
 Number of phonemes: 2
 Syllabic Boundaries: Ear [ɪr]
Question No. 3: Transcribe and write down the CV templates for the following words
showing their syllabic boundaries:
1. Faithfulness 2. Wanton 3. Hopeful 4. Successful 5. Valley

Answer:
1. Faithfulness:
Transcription: /ˈfeɪθ.fəl.nəs/
Syllabic Boundaries: Faith/ful/ness
Syllable 1: /ˈfeɪθ/ - CVCC template
Syllable 2: /fəl/ - CVC template
Syllable 3: /nəs/ - CVCC template

2. Wanton:
Transcription: /ˈwɑn.tən/
Syllabic Boundaries: Wan/ton
Syllable 1: /ˈwɑn/ - CV template
Syllable 2: /tən/ - CVC template

3. Hopeful:
Transcription: /ˈhoʊp.fəl/
Syllabic Boundaries: Hope/ful
Syllable 1: /ˈhoʊp/ - CV template
Syllable 2: /fəl/ - CVC template

4. Successful:
Transcription: /səkˈsɛs.fəl/
Syllabic Boundaries: Suc/cess/ful
Syllable 1: /sək/ - CV template
Syllable 2: /ˈsɛs/ - CVC template
Syllable 3: /fəl/ - CVC template

5. Valley:
Transcription: /ˈvæl.i/
Syllabic Boundaries: Val/ley
Syllable 1: /ˈvæl/ - CV template
Syllable 2: /i/ - V template
Question No. 4: Describe English consonants with relevant examples.

Answer:
Consonants are speech sounds that involve blocking the air before it leaves the
mouth, such as with the tongue, lips, or throat. Most letters of the English alphabet are
consonants, except for a, e, i, o, and u, which are vowels 1. There are 24 consonant
sounds in English. English consonants can be described based on various features such
as place and manner of articulation, voicing, and other features. Here is a detailed
description of English consonants along with relevant examples:
1. Place of Articulation:
Bilabial Consonants: Sounds produced by bringing both lips together.
Example: /p/ in "pat," /b/ in "bat."

Labiodental Consonants: Sounds produced by touching the lower lip to the upper teeth.
Example: /f/ in "fan," /v/ in "van."

Alveolar Consonants: Sounds produced with the tongue against or near the alveolar
ridge.
Example: /t/ in "top," /d/ in "dog."

Palatal Consonants: Sounds produced by raising the front of the tongue towards the
hard palate.
Example: /ʃ/ in "ship," /dʒ/ in "judge."

Velar Consonants: Sounds produced by raising the back of the tongue to the soft palate
(velum).
Example: /k/ in "cat," /g/ in "go."

Glottal Consonants: Sounds produced at the glottis, the space between the vocal cords.
Example: /h/ in "hat," /ʔ/ as in the 'uh-oh' gap.

2. Manner of Articulation:

Stops: Sounds produced by briefly stopping and then releasing airflow.

Example: /p/ in "pat," /d/ in "dog."

Fricatives: Sounds produced by forcing air through a narrow constriction.

Example: /s/ in "sit," /f/ in "fun."

Affricates: Sounds that begin as stops and release as fricatives.

Example: /tʃ/ in "church," /dʒ/ in "judge."

Nasals: Sounds produced with airflow through the nose.

Example: /m/ in "man," /n/ in "not."
Liquids: Sounds produced with a relatively open vocal tract.
Example: /l/ in "love," /r/ in "red."

Glides (Semivowels): Sounds produced with a smooth gliding motion.

Example: /w/ in "wet," /j/ in "yes."

3. Voicing:

Voiced Consonants: Vibrating vocal cords during sound production.

Example: /b/ in "bat," /z/ in "zoo."

Voiceless Consonants: No vibration of vocal cords during sound production.

Example: /p/ in "pat," /s/ in "sit."

4. Phonemic Stress:
Some consonants can change their sound quality under stress.
Example: /t/ in "potato" (unstressed) versus /t/ in "potato" (stressed).

Question No. 5: Describe 'intonation' and explain the possible functions of intonation in
speech.

Answer:
Intonation describes the varying pitch in voice. It is the musical quality of language,
with changes in pitch, rhythm, and volume. Beyond the meaning of the words themselves,
intonation is extremely important. It enriches spoken language with subtleties like
emotion, attitude, grammatical structure, and context. Prosody, which includes all the
rhythmic and melodic elements of speech, includes intonation.

Functions of Speech Intonation:

Intonation aids in the expression of emotions and attitudes. A changing pitch can
convey several emotions, such as surprise, displeasure, sarcasm, or exhilaration. A rising
pitch, for instance, can imply a query, whereas a dropping pitch might imply assurance or
declaration.

Statement and Question Differentiation:

Tone helps to distinguish between statements and questions. Typically, an inquiry
is expressed with a rising pitch pattern, while a statement is expressed with a falling pitch
pattern. For example, the pitch of "Is it raining?" rises while that of "It's raining" falls.

Topic and Focus:

Intonation can draw attention to the most crucial clause in a sentence, highlighting
the message's main point. This makes it easier for listeners to understand what the
speaker means. For instance, "She's going to Paris" highlights the place she is going, but
"She's going to Paris" highlights the thing she is doing.
Conveying Attitudes:
Intonation communicates sentiments like sarcasm, uncertainty, or politeness. The
same words might have wholly distinct meanings when pronounced with various
intonations. According to intonation, the phrase "That's just great" could be used to
convey sincere satisfaction or sarcasm.

Contrast and Emphasis:

Intonation makes it easier to tell apart differences in meaning between contrast
and emphasis. You can distinguish between homophones or similar words via varying
pitch patterns. For instance, depending on the stressed word, "I didn't say she stole my
money" can signify seven different things.

Turn-taking and Discourse:

In a discussion, intonation indicates when it is proper to take a turn. A turn's end is
indicated by a statement's pitch falling at the end; a turn's continuance may be indicated
by a statement's pitch increasing.

Information Structure:
Intonation aids in the organization of information within a sentence. Old or
predicted information typically has a dropping pitch, while new information typically has a
rising pitch. This makes it easier to understand the content and sentence structure.

Mirroring Punctuation:
In written language, intonation frequently corresponds to punctuation.
Exclamation points, question marks, and commas have corresponding rising, falling,
and rising-falling intonations.

Social and Regional Variation:

Intonation can reveal social or geographic group memberships. Different dialects
and accents have distinctive intonational patterns that influence identity and sense of
community.

In conclusion, intonation is a dynamic feature of speech that performs a variety of

tasks, including expressing attitudes and emotions as well as highlighting sentence
structure, contrasts, and turn-taking. It gives spoken language more nuance and nuance,
enabling the successful conveyance of complex concepts beyond the simple words.
Question No. 6: Define 'Auditory Phonetics' and describe the processes involved in
speech hearing.

Answer:
Auditory Phonetics is a branch of phonetics that focuses on how humans perceive
and interpret speech sounds. It explores the different acoustic signals that are present in
speech and how the human auditory system interprets them so that we may recognize
and comprehend spoken language.

Processes Involved in Speech Hearing

1. Sound Waves and Reception:

When someone talks, their voice chords vibrate, producing sound waves that move
through the air. The pinna, or visible portion of the ear, and the ear canal make up the
outer ear, which is where these sound waves are picked up. The eardrum's tympanic
membrane vibrates as a result of the waves.

2. Middle Ear Transmission:

The middle ear receives vibrations from the eardrum, which are amplified and
transferred by three little bones (ossicles) called the malleus, incus, and stapes. The
oval window, a membrane that divides the middle ear from the inner ear, is attached to
the stapes bone.

3. Inner Ear and Cochlea:

The vibrations are subsequently sent to the inner ear, which also houses the cochlea.
The cochlea is a fluid-filled, spiral-shaped organ that is covered in microscopic hair cells.
These hair cells are in charge of transforming mechanical vibrations into understandable
electrical impulses.

4. Auditory Nerve and Brain Processing:

The primary auditory cortex is one of the auditory processing units in the brain
where the electrical impulses produced by the hair cells are sent after traveling via the
auditory nerve to the brainstem. These areas of the brain translate electrical signal
patterns into discernible speech sounds and words.

5. Speech Sound Discrimination:

The brain processes the incoming auditory information to distinguish between
different speech sounds. This involves identifying frequency patterns, durations, and
intensity variations in the speech signal. The brain can distinguish between phonemes
(distinct speech sounds) even when they are produced with slight variations due to
accents or different speakers.

6. Segmentation and Parsing:

The brain further processes the speech stream into segments, such as phonemes,
syllables, and words. It uses various linguistic and contextual cues to parse the
continuous stream of sound into meaningful units, aiding in understanding.
7. Prosody and Intonation:
Beyond segmenting speech, the brain also processes prosodic features like
intonation, rhythm, and stress patterns. These cues provide information about sentence
structure, emphasis, and emotional content.

8. Speech Sound Recognition:

The brain matches the acoustic features of incoming speech sounds to stored
mental representations of phonemes and words in our linguistic memory. This recognition
process allows us to understand spoken language.

In summary, the auditory process involved in speech hearing is a complex

sequence of events that involves collecting, transmitting, converting, and decoding
acoustic signals. This process allows us to perceive and interpret the rich range of speech
sounds, enabling effective communication and language comprehension.

(Question 7 on next page)

Question No. 7: Phonemically transcribe the following passage:
This is a unit used in the study of quantity and rhythm in speech. In this study it is
traditional to make use of the concept of the syllable. However, the syllable is made to
play a lot of different roles in language description: in phonology we often use the syllable
as the basic framework for describing how vowels and consonants can combine in a
particular language, and most of the time it does not seem to matter that we use the same
unit to be the thing that we count when we are looking for beats in verse or rhythmical
speech. Traditionally, the syllable has also been viewed as an articulatory unit consisting
in its ideal form of a movement from a relatively closed vocal tract to a relatively open
vocal tract and back to a relatively closed one. Mora is an important feature of generative
phonology.

Answer:

/ðɪs ɪz ə ˈjuː.nɪt juːzd ɪn ðə ˈstʌd.i əv ˈkwɒn.tɪti ənd ˈrɪð.əm ɪn spiːʧ/

/ɪn ðɪs ˈstʌd.i ɪt ɪz trəˈdɪʃənl tuː ˈmeɪk juːs əv ðə ˈkɒn.sɛpt əv ðə ˈsɪl.ə.bəl/
/haʊˈɛv.ər ðə ˈsɪl.ə.bəl ɪz meɪd tuː pleɪ ə lɒt əv ˈdɪf.ər.ənt roʊlz ɪn ˈlæŋ.ɡwɪdʒ dɪsˈkrɪp.ʃən/
/ɪn foʊˈnɒl.ə.dʒ wi ˈɒf.ən juːs ðə ˈsɪl.ə.bəl əz ðə ˈbeɪ.sɪk ˈfreɪm.wɜːrk fɔːr dɪsˈkraɪb.ɪŋ haʊ
ˈvaʊlz ənd ˈkɒn.sə.nənts kən kəmˈbaɪn ɪn ə pəˈtɪk.jə.lər ˈlæŋ.ɡwɪdʒ/
/ənd ˈmoʊst əv ðə taɪm ɪt dʌz nɒt sim tuː ˈmæt.ər ðæt wi ˈjuːs ðə seɪm ˈjuː.nɪt tuː bi ðə
θɪŋ ðæt wi kaʊnt wen wi ər ˈlʊk.ɪŋ fɔːr biːts ɪn vɜːrs ɔːr ˈrɪð.mɪ.kəl spiːʧ/
/trəˈdɪʃ.ənəli ðə ˈsɪl.ə.bəl hæz ˈɔːl.soʊ bɪn vjuːd əz ən ɑːˈtɪkjʊ.ləˌtɔːr.i ˈjuː.nɪt kənˈsɪst.ɪŋ
ɪn ɪts aɪˈdiːl ˈfɔːrm əv ə ˈmuːv.mənt frəm ə ˈrɛl.ə.tɪv.li kloʊzd ˈvoʊ.kəl trækt tuː ə ˈrɛl.ə.tɪv.li
ˈoʊ.pən ˈvoʊ.kəl trækt ənd bæk tuː ə ˈrɛl.ə.tɪv.li kloʊzd wʌn/
/ˈmɔːrə ɪz ən ɪmˈpɔːrt.ənt ˈfiːtʃər əv ˈʤɛn.ər.ə.tɪv fəˈnɒl.ə.dʒ/