Phonetics and Sound Patterns

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Questions and Answers

What controls whether air flows through the nose or the mouth during speech?

The vocal cords
The epiglottis
The tongue
The soft palate (correct)

Which of the following statements about vowels is correct?

Vowels are produced by constricting airflow.
Vowels can be voiceless.
Vowels are always voiced. (correct)
Vowels do not participate in syllable formation.

In which vowel pair does the tongue remain in the same position?

/æ/ and /ɑ/
/eɪ/ and /ɛ/
/ɪ/ and /iː/ (correct)
/ʌ/ and /ɑː/

What is the meaning of 'lateral' in terms of sound production?

<p>Air flows around the sides of the tongue. (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the study of possible sound combinations called?

<p>Phonotactics (C)</p> Signup and view all the answers

Flashcards

What part of your mouth determines if a sound is nasal or oral?

The soft palate, also known as the velum, controls whether air flows through the nose or the mouth, resulting in nasal or oral sounds, respectively.

What type of sound has no distinction between voiced and voiceless sounds?

Vowels are always voiced, meaning that the vocal cords vibrate when producing them. There is no distinction between voiced and voiceless vowels as there is for consonants.

Which vowel pairs are produced with the same tongue position?

Short and long vowels, such as /ɪ/ and /iː/, or /ɔː/ and /uː/, are produced with the tongue in the same position. The difference lies in the duration of the vowel.

What does "lateral" mean in phonetics?

"Lateral" refers to sounds produced by allowing air to flow along the sides of the tongue. An example of this is the English phoneme /l/ in words like "light" or "love".

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What is the field that studies possible sound combinations?

Phonotactics is the branch of linguistics that studies how sounds can be combined within a language. It explores which sequences of sounds are permissible and which are not. For example, in English, the sound /ŋ/ cannot occur at the beginning of a word.

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Study Notes

Nasal/Oral Sounds

The soft palate controls whether air flows through the nose (nasal sounds) or the mouth (oral sounds).

Voiced/Voiceless Sounds

Vowels do not have a distinction between voiced and voiceless; they are always voiced.

Vowel Pairs

Short and long vowel pairs, such as /ɪ/ vs /i:/ or /ɔ/ vs /ɔ:/, have similar tongue positions.

Lateral Sounds

"Lateral" describes sounds where air flows along the sides of the tongue. An example is /l/ in English.

Phonotactics

Phonotactics studies possible sound combinations in a language.
Examples include sounds that can or cannot occur at the beginning of a word, such as /n/ not occurring at the start of a word in English.