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HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

MID-TERM TEST ON PHONETICS &

E-LEARNING CENTRE

PHONOLOGY
Test No: 1

Question 1: What is a phoneme? How are phonemes classified? Give
examples to illustrate your answer.
Question 2: What is a consonant? How are consonants classified?
Give examples to illustrate your answer.
BÀI LÀM
Question 1: What is a phoneme? How are phonemes classified? Give
examples to illustrate your answer.
A phoneme in linguistics is a sound which is regarded as a „real‟ sound,
represented by a symbol in the writing system, if there is one.
Technically speaking, a phoneme is recognized as a sound capable of
changing meaning.
Phonemes are discovered by examining the lexicon and finding words
which differ by only one sound, e.g. „home‟ and „hone,‟ or „hit‟ and


„hip.‟ In these cases (called „minimal pairs‟) the two words are identical
except for their pronounced final consonant. Since these words have
different meanings, the contrasting final sounds must be part of the basic
sound system of the language. But not all related sounds are contrastive:
the final „t‟ of „hit‟ may be pronounced with an aspirated release, or
even not released. The aspiration and non-release are therefore not
utilized in the language to change meaning, and they cannot, therefore,

be contrasting, or „phonemic‟ sounds.
Each language has a complement of sounds which native speakers
recognize as „real‟ sounds, sounds which can change meaning, and
linguists terms these contrasting sounds „phonemes.‟ All sounds are
produced by a combination of vocal gestures, and these are regarded as
„features‟ of the sound. Thus, some of the features of the phoneme „t‟
are production by the tip of the tongue blocking the air stream through
contact with the alveolar ridge (the gum behind the upper teeth)
orcontact with the back of the incisor tooth, without voice (vibration of
the vocal chords); in articulatory phonetic terms, this means a STOP


(full arrest of the air stream) in the fore part of the mouth (tongue
touching alveolar ridge or back of incisor) , with no voice (vocal chords
not vibrating: „t‟ can thus be characterized as a voiceless, alveolar stop.
Each of these features is phonemic in English, that is, the same, or
similar sounds are phonemic and can change meaning in words if they
include some or all of these features. (To give another example, „p‟ is a
voiceless bilabial stop, because the stoppage of the air column is at the
lips.)
The individual sounds used to create speech are called phonemes. Each
sound that you hear in a word is a Phoneme. It‟s the smallest unit of
sound that makes up a complete word. This is not to be confused with
the letter itself; Phonemes are only the sounds made. It's important to
understand that Phonemes can be made of more than one letter.
There are 44 Phonemes in the English language, consisting of 24
consonant sounds and 20 vowel sounds. Think of the different
combinations of consonants and vowels (like “ch” or “ea”) that make
unique sounds.

Take the word dog for example. There are three Phonemes involved: the
“d” sound, a short “aw” sound, and a “g” sound.
The word **hope” is a three Phoneme word, too: the “h” sound, the long
“oo” sound, and the “p” sound.
And for something a little more difficult, the word “school” has four
Phonemes: the “s” sound, a “k” sound, a long “uu” sound, and an “l”
sound.
Question 2: What is a consonant? How are consonants classified?
Give examples to illustrate your answer.
Consonants are the letters of English alphabets that enunciate a speech
sound by obstructing the airflow at one or more points completely or
partially. In Englishalphabets, the letters a, e, i, o, u are known as vowels
and the remaining ones are termed as consonants.
The speech sounds produced by the vowels experienced no obstruction
in the vocal tract. Try to pronounce vowels like A, E, I, O, U. You‟ll
notice that your mouth or vocal tract remained open for the airflow. Now
try to say the letter „T‟.


You‟ll see that the front part of the tongue interrupts the airflow to make
this sound.
In hat, H and T are consonants. A consonant can likewise be a
descriptive word that portrays things that seem like they should go
together, things that are “pleasing.” You could say a country‟s proposal
of help is consonant with their settlements.
At the point when you hear consonant sounds in music, they are
satisfying, something contrary to “noisy” sounds which are brutal. There
are 24 consonant sounds in the English language and are produced by 21
letters of regular English alphabets. Let us look closely into the class of

speech sounds produced by the consonants.
To classify the consonant sounds we need three types of information –
voiced or voiceless, Place of Articulation and Manner of Articulation.
The thing to remember is that consonants are pronounced by creating a
barrier in the airflow.
1. Voiced OR Voiceless


The first most thing is to determine that are the consonants are voiced or
voiceless? Some consonant sounds are produced by the vibration of
vocal cords such as /z/ and /v/. These are called voiced consonants.
While some consonants are produced without the vibration of vocal
cords such as /s/ and /f/. The airflow is the only factor that produces
these sounds. These are called voiceless consonants.
2. Articulation PlaceThe second thing is to know the portion of the vocal
tract where the airflow is interrupted. This is known as the place of
articulation. Don‟t get intimidated by the word articulation. It is a
technical term used in articulatory phonetics (the study of how we speak
and pronounce). Let‟s look at some places of articulation along with
some examples of English alphabets.
Bilabial
If the vocal tract is interrupted at lips by pressing both lips against each
other, the place of articulation will be bilabial. You can experience this
by pronouncing English alphabets like [p] and [b].
Labiodental


The consonant sounds made by pressing upper teeth at the bottom lip
fall in the category of labiodental. The alphabets like [f] and [v] produce
this type of speech sounds.

Alveolar
When you press the top of the tongue with the alveolar ridge, the place
of articulation is alveolar. The alphabets like [t] and [d] are common
examples of this category.
Palatal
When the tongue approaches the hard portion of palate, the sounds like
[j] are produced. This obstruction portion is called palatal.
Velar
By pressing the tongue against the back portion of the palate to produce
consonants sounds like [k], [g]. This place of articulation is classified as
velar.
Glottal


The English alphabets like [h] produce the sound right at the larynx and
is classified as glottal fricative sound.
DentalIn dental consonants, the tip of the tongue touches the upper teeth
and the airflow is interrupted to produce a specific sound like „ϴ
[theta]‟. These are known as dental consonant sounds.
3. Articulation Manner
The last thing we need to confirm is the way in which the vocal tract is
obstructed. This is the last dimension to classify the consonant sounds
completely.
These terms are discussed in detail under the subject of articulatory
phonetics. If the airflow is interrupted or blocked completely by the
means of lips, teeth, or tongue, the consonant sounds are called Plosives
(stops). There are six plosive consonants in English alphabets. These are
[p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [g]. You can further classify based on the places of
articulation.
If the airflow is blocked by the mouth but the air is permitted to flow

through the nasal cavity, the consonant sounds are then called Nasals. In


English alphabets, [m] and [n] generate nasal sounds. Sometimes these
are also termed nasal stops.
It is also possible to don‟t block the airflow completely but allow the air
to pass turbulently through the small space in articulators. This type of
consonant sounds is called Fricatives. [f], [v], [s], [z], [h] are some
fricatives in English alphabets.
Similarly, when the air flows smoothly through closely spaced
articulators then the resulting sound is called Approximant. The
alphabets like [j], [w] are approximants.
The sound produced by [r] is called Trill. It involves the rapid vibrations
of articulators by narrowing down the gap between them. The English
alphabet „r‟ has some touch of trill in it.
Affricates are the consonant sounds that combine the features of plosives
and fricatives.Note your tongue while saying the word „life‟. The top of
your tongue touches your alveolar ridge or upper teeth. The air flows
from the opened sides of the tongue instead of stopping completely.


Such sounds are called Laterals in which the air flows around the sides
of the tongue.
To wrap up the discussion, these three properties are used to identify the
type of consonant sounds. Based on these dimensions, the consonant
sounds are may be voiced or voiceless, bilabial or alveolar and plosives
or nasals. You can break it down further as you like to classify the
sounds produced by the consonants