(a) When a syllable ends in a silent "e", the silent 'e' is a signal that the vowel in front of it is___.

Ans. Long

(b) In which of the following words, the letter "b' is not pronounced?

(i) Cambridge (ii) double (iii) Combing (iv) Combine

Ans. Combing
Part-II

(2x2)
2. Answer any TWO of the followings:

(a) Give two rules of word stress.

Ans.
I. One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you
hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress
in some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only
used in long words.)

II. We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help you understand where to put the
stress. But do not rely on them too much, because there are many exceptions. It is better to try to
"feel" the music of the language and to add the stress naturally.

(b) What is a syllable?

Ans. Word stress is like a golden key to speaking and understanding English.

If you do not already know about word stress, you can try to learn about it. This is one of the best ways for you to
understand spoken English - especially English spoken fast.

What is word stress?

Take 3 words: photograph, photographer and photographic. Do they sound the same when spoken? No.
Because ONE syllable in each word is STRESSED (stronger than the others).

 PHOtograph
 phoTOgrapher
 photoGRAPHic

This happens in ALL words with 2 or more syllables: TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE, converSAtion,
INteresting, imPORtant, deMAND, etCETera, etCETera, etCETera

The syllables that are not stressed are "weak" or "small" or "quiet". Native speakers of English listen for the
STRESSED syllables, not the weak syllables. If you use word stress in your speech, you will instantly and
automatically improve your pronunciation and your comprehension.
If you have an English teacher, you can ask her to help you understand word stress. Or you can try to hear the
stress in individual words each time you listen to English - on the radio, or in films for example. Your first step is
to HEAR and recognise it. After that, you can USE it.

Two important rules about word stress:

One word, one stress

The stress is always on a vowel

OR

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a

syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants).
Syllables are often considered the phonological "building blocks" of words.[1] They can influence
the rhythm of a language, its prosody, its poetic metre and its stress patterns. Speech can usually
be divided up into a whole number of syllables: for example, the word ignite is made of two
syllables: ig and nite.
Syllabic writing began several hundred years before the first letters. The earliest recorded
syllables are on tablets written around 2800 BC in the Sumerian city of Ur. This shift
from pictograms to syllables has been called "the most important advance in the history of writing".
[2]
A word that consists of a single syllable (like English dog) is called a monosyllable (and is said to
be monosyllabic). Similar terms include disyllable (and disyllabic; also bisyllable and bisyllabic)
for a word of two syllables; trisyllable (and trisyllabic) for a word of three syllables;
and polysyllable (and polysyllabic), which may refer either to a word of more than three syllables
or to any word of more than one syllable.

(c) In which of the following words, the stress is on the first syllable?

(i) China (ii) Begin

Ans. china

(a) Write a brief note on IPA.

Ans.

This phonemic chart uses symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet. IPA symbols are
useful for learning pronunciation. The symbols on this chart represent the 44 sounds used in
British English speech (Received Pronunciation or RP, an educated accent associated with but not
exclusive to south-east England).

This version of the phoemic chart is based on the familiar Adrian Underhill layout. Learners and
teachers may want to print a copy of this phonemic chart to keep close at hand for reference.
See full size (will print on A4 or US Letter)
(b) Where is the stress given in compound nouns? Give two examples.

Ans.

A compound noun is a noun that is made with two or more words. A compound noun is usually
[noun + noun] or [adjective + noun], but there are other combinations (see below). It is important to
understand and recognize compound nouns. Each compound noun acts as a single unit and can
be modified by adjectives and other nouns.

Compound nouns tend to have more stress on the first word. In the phrase "pink ball", both words
are equally stressed (as you know, adjectives and nouns are always stressed). In the compound
noun "golf ball", the first word is stressed more (even though both words are nouns, and nouns are
always stressed). Since "golf ball" is a compound noun we consider it as a single noun and so it
has a single main stress - on the first word. Stress is important in compound nouns. For example,
it helps us know if somebody said "a GREEN HOUSE" (a house which is painted green) or "a
GREENhouse" (a building made of glass for growing plants inside).

BUS STOP, FOOT BALL, GOLF BALL ( NOUN + NOUN)

FULL MOON, BLACKBOARD,SOFTWARE( ADJECTIVE+NOUNN)

(b) Discuss the consonant sounds with suitable examples

Ans.
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or
partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are [p] and [b], pronounced with the lips; [t] and [d],
pronounced with the front of the tongue; [k] and [g], pronounced with the back of the tongue; [h],
pronounced in the throat; [f], [v], and [s], pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel
(fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have air flowing through the nose (nasals). Contrasting with
consonants are vowels.
Since the number of speech sounds in the world's languages is much greater than the number of
letters in any one alphabet, linguists have devised systems such as the International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA) to assign a unique and unambiguous symbol to each attested consonant.
The English alphabet has fewer consonant letters than the English language has consonant
sounds, so digraphs like ⟨ch⟩, ⟨sh⟩, ⟨th⟩, and ⟨ng⟩ are used to extend the alphabet, though some
letters and digraphs represent more than one consonant. For example, the sound spelled ⟨th ⟩ in
"this" is a different consonant from the ⟨th⟩ sound in "thin". (In the IPA, these are [ð] and [θ],
respectively.)