Final Exam

Question 1

phoneme

Answer 1

a speech sound that is psychologically a single unit for a specific language

Question 2

allophone

Answer 2

a predictable phonetic variant of a phoneme; similar production and won’t change meaning of the word

Question 3

minimal pair

Answer 3

words that differ in only one sound when written phonetically

Question 4

complementary distribution

Answer 4

predictable variants of a phoneme that never appear in the same environment

Question 5

free variation

Answer 5

variants of the same phoneme that can be swapped in the same environment without changing the meaning

Question 6

natural classes

Answer 6

a group of speech sounds that share common phonetic features

Question 7

characteristics of southern American english

Answer 7

1. /ɪ/-/ɛ/ merger before nasal
2. /ɛ/ raised to /eɪ/ before [g, ʃ, ʒ]
3. /ɔ/ used in many words ending with /ɑ/
4. /aɪ/ said as /a/
5. /ɔɪ/ becomes /ɔ/ before /l/
6. deletion of post-vocalic /ɹ/

Question 8

characteristics of eastern American english

Answer 8

1. /æɹ/ used in place of /ɛɹ/
2. use /a/ or /ɑ/ before fricatives and /n/, not æ
3. /ʊ/ replace /u/ in certain words
4. deletion of post-vocalic /ɹ/, sometimes replaced by /ə/
5. /ɚ/ in words ending in /ə/

Question 9

characteristics of AAE

Answer 9

1. reduction of word-final consonant clusters if both are voiced/voiceless
2. deletion of postvocalic /l/
3. [θ, ð] become [t, d] at start
4. /ɛ/ to /ɪ/ before /n/
5. [θ, ð] become [f, v] in middle or end

Question 10

characteristics of Spanish-influenced english

Answer 10

1. stopping
2. affricate fricatives and glides
3. deaffrication
4. devoice consonants
5. reduce word-final consonant clusters
6. epenthesis of /ə/ before initial /s/ or clusters

Question 11

characteristics of Asian-influenced english

Answer 11

• Chinese: drop ends of word
• Japanese: add vowel at end
• problem sounds: [θ, ð], [f, v], /z/, [tʃ, dʒ], /ɹ/, /l/

Question 12

5 processes that typically occur during connected speech

Answer 12

1. assimilation: phonemes take on phonetic character of neighboring sounds
2. elision: elimination of a phoneme during speech
3. epenthesis: addition of a phoneme in the production of a word
4. metathesis: position of 2 phonemes is switched
5. vowel reduction: normal vowel moves in direction of /ə/ in connected speech

Question 13

aspects of suprasegmentals

Answer 13

• word stress: primary and secondary stress
• sentence stress (content words stressed, function words not)
• intonation (rising and falling)

Question 14

amplitude

Answer 14

• LOUDNESS
• how high the waves go on a graph

Question 15

frequency

Answer 15

• PITCH
• how frequently the waves happen

Question 16

waveform

Answer 16

graphs time and amplitude

Question 17

line spectrum

Answer 17

• graphs frequency and amplitude
• (x, y) = (hertz, decibels) = (frequency, amplitude)
• single instance in time

Question 18

spectrogram

Answer 18

• see frequency, amplitude, and time
• darker for high frequency
• vowels = low

Question 19

formant

Answer 19

• harmonics filtered through vocal tract and made to resonate at certain frequencies

Question 20

narrow vs wide-band

Answer 20

wide
- harmonics combined
- shows vocal fold pulses

narrow
- harmonics individually
- displays formants horizontally
- no pulses

Question 21

harmonics

Answer 21

• multiples of a fundamental frequency
• come from vocal folds

Question 22

article 1: phonological processes which characterize unintelligible and intelligible speech in early childhood

Answer 22

• wanted to see difference between intelligible and unintelligible speech to work on it in schools
• more phonological processes in unintelligible children; specific patterns can be predicted

Question 23

article 2: phonological features of a child… AAE

Answer 23

• find features of AAE in 2nd-5th graders
• 2nd graders produce 3x as much AAE as other grades (ratio)
• older grades had no significant difference

Question 24

article 3: fx and DS

Answer 24

• DS had greater delays than both other groups

Question 25

article 4: effects of computer assistant pronunciation

Answer 25

- ESL learners at a university used computer program - helped with pausing and stress but not intonation

Question 26

article 5: effects of phonetic instruction Spanish phonemes

Answer 26

- tested advanced phonetic course instruction on college students - no significant difference (pre/posttest), but got better in some way

Question 27

article 6: initial investigation phonological patterns... 4 yr old bilingual children

Answer 27

- study phonological patterns of sp-eng children using word lists - bilingual and monolingual children have similar phonological process and substitutions; no significant differences