ENG1503 - Academic Language And Literacy In English Pronunciation.

ENG1503 - Academic Language And Literacy In English Pronunciation.gUESTIONS I. General Phonetics 1. How many sounds are there in the word raw? 2. What is the main difference between the first sound and the last? 3. What is a vowel? 4. What is voice? 5. What is the glottis? 6. What are the vocal cords? 7. What is the difference between the larynx and the pharynx? 8. What is typical in the pronunciation of a vowel? 9. What is typical in the pronunciation of a consonant? 10. Which sounds are more sonorous, consonants or vowels? 11. What is the sonority of a sound? 12. What does the natural sonority of a sound depend on? 13. What is meant by relative sonority? 14. Which of the following three vowels has the greatest natural sonority: [i:J, [o:J, [u:J? Why? 15. What is the difference in pronunciation between lead and lid? 16. Define the vowels of these two words. 17. Explain each of the terms you use. 18. How do you know that the distance between tongue and palate is greater in [iJ than in [i:J? 19. How do phoneticians arrive at the vowel trapezium which you find in most books on phonetics? 20. Is the front the foremost part of the tongue? 21. Is there anything between the tip and the front of the tongue? 22. Where are dental sounds produced? Where labial sounds? 23. What is the difference between the uvula and the epiglottis? 24. What is their function in speech? 25. What is the main difference between a velar and an alveolar sound? II. Monophthongs 26. Compare the length of the vowels in bead and beat. 27. What does the difference depend on? 28. The vowel in bead is sometimes called a "long" vowel, that in bid a "short" vowel; is that quite correct? 29. Do you know better terms to compare the vowels in these two words? 30. Explain the terms "free" and "checked." 31. Give an example of a long free vowel, a short free vowel, a long checked vowel, and a short checked vowel. 32. Which two mistakes do West African students often make in their pronunciation of lead and lid? 33. How will you try to correct this? 34. Why do we transcribe the first vowel in air [e:l] with [e:], why not [e ] or [re] ? 35. Why do we transcribe the first vowel in high, how, [hai, hau], with [a], why not [o]? 36. Which of the three vowels [re, a, 0] occurs in many African languages? 37. Does this have any influence on the way Africans pronounce English words like cat, cart? 38. How would you try to correct this pronunciation? 39. If there is much difficulty in pronouncing [re], which African vowel could you start from? 40. What is the difference between the vowels of bad and bed? 41. Transcribe gorgeous. 42. Define the last vowel. 43. Explain the terms used. 44. Does the vowel [l] occur in your mother tongue? If not, what mistake are your people likely to make in the pronunciation of words like appear, ago, father? 45. How would you correct it? 46. The words letter, hire, lawyer, flour, have been taken over in Yoruba as l(Jta, haya, [pya, flawa. Can you account for the last sound in each of them? 47. What is the difference between [l] and [l:]? 48. Which three vowels are often substituted for [~:J in West Africa? 49. Use each of the vowels [~] and [a:] in a word. 21 ll. Monophthongs (Cant.) 50. Is there any difference between the first and the last vowel in appear? What is it ? 51. Is there a regular spelling for the sound [;}] ? 52. Are there also back vowels? Mention them. Where does [A] belong? 53. Many African languages do not have the vowel [A]. What mistake are your pupils likely to make in the pronunciation of dock and duck, and what should they do to correct it? 54. Many African languages have only the [J], not the [J:]. What mistake are your pupils likely to make in the pronunciation of pot and port? What would you do to correct this? 55. Is there also a difference in tongue-position between rJ] and [J:] ? 56. Is there no vowel [0] in English? 57. What is its tongue position? 58. What is the difference in the vowels of rude and root? 59. What is the difference in the vowels of rude and good? 60. Transcribe: cat, car, pat, pass, path, chait, hall, chalk. ill. Diphthongs 61. Which of the two u-sounds do you hear in no: [u:] or [u] ? 62. What can you say about the combination of two vowels in no? 63. What is a diphthong? 64. The word heat has two vowels: e and a; what sort of diphthong is it? 65. What is a digraph? 66. Mention some vocalic digraphs. 67. Mention some consonantal digraphs. 68. How is no often pronounced by Africans? Why? 69. Is no pronounced as a monophthong by any British people? 70. Does the usual phonetic transcription [ou] render the actual pronunciation of educated English people? 71. What should you tell your students to pronounce as the first part of this diphthong? 72. With which word will your pupils often confuse the word paper in their pronunciation? 22 ITI. Diphthongs (Cont.) 73. Transcribe: I say; he says; I said; I lay; he lays; he paid. 74. What sort of diphthongs are [ou] and [ei]? Explain the term. 75. Does the tongue actually reach the position of [i] and [u]? 76. How can the teacher make use of this" closing" quality ofthese sounds in his teaching? 77. Compare the diphthongs in high and hay. Explain the terms. 78. What sort of diphthong do we have in hear? Explain the term. 79. Do you know any more centring diphthongs? 80. Can you find a reason why [i;:)] should sometimes be pronounced [j;:):] (hear [hj;:):], year [j;:):]) ? Whicp. other diphthong often changes for the same reason? IV. "Triphthongs" and Semi-vowels 81. Transcribe fire, power. 82. What are these groups of vowels sometimes called? 83. Is this right? What would be the objection? 84. Are there triphthongs in English? 85. Which words are sometimes taken as examples of real triphthongs? 86. Is the usual transcription [fai;:)]; [pau;:)] quite correct? 87. Can the words fire and power be pronounced as monosyllables? Transcribe. 88. What happens to the "triphthongs" in that case? 89. How are these words often pronounced in West Africa? 90. Transcribe: hiding, hiring, loading, lowering, housing, louring, alluding, alluring. 91. How is it that we could use why and yea as examples for "triphthongs"? Are not the first sounds of these words consonants? 92. How many consonants are there in yes, web? 93. How many consonants are there in bay, now? 94. Explain the difference in function of the sounds indicated by y and w in these words. 95. What is the main mistake in the West African pronunciation of pure as [piu;:)] and of poor as [pwa]? 23 IV. "Triphthongs" and Semi-Vowels (Cont.) 96. Transcribe hideous in two ways. Account for the two different transcriptions. 97. Describe the first sounds in huge and why. 98. Are "vowellikes" the same as "semi-vowels"? 99. Why are both groups of consonants compared with vowels? 100. Transcribe: new, stew, during, million, precious, gloomier, soldier, various, opinion, millennium. V. Nasalized and Nasal 101. In several West African languages, nasalized vowels are indicated by an n after the vowel: Yoruba rin = [rI], ran = [raJ. What mistake are African students likely to make in the pronunciation of English words like intention, pension, etc.? 1 02. How would you try to correct this mistake? 1 03. What is a nasalized sound? I 04. What is a nasal? lOS. What is the opposite of a nasal or a nasalized sound? 106. Are there nasalized sounds in British English? 107. What kind of English is characterized by its many nasalized sounds? 108. Do you know what this pronunciation is sometimes called? 109. How many nasals are there in English; mention them. I 10. How do African students often pronounce he didn't? How would you correct it? III. Are there any other auxiliaries with -n't in which you must watch out for the same mistake? Which? 112. What happens to the air which is "stopped" by the d, when you pronounce the following n in didn't, couldn't etc. ? 113. How do you open the nose passage? 114. What mistake do many Africans make in the pronunciation of singing [siUiUJ ? How would you try to correct it? 115. Is there an explanation for the faulty pronunciations [jA!)g, stro!)g, bUg] for young, strong, long? VI. "Vowellikes" and the Syllable 116. Compare the nasals in the italicized words in: "By dint of hard work he didn't fail." 117. What do you mean by "vocalic" or "syllabic"? 118. Which sounds are usually the syllable bearers and why? 119. Give a list of the consonants according to their degrees of natural sonority, starting with the most sonorous ones. 120. Transcribe the words bulb and bubble. How many syllables has each of them? 121. The two words consist of the same sounds, explain the difference in the number of syllables. When do we hear a new syllable in a word? 122. Can you explain now why in lire and power, if pronounced with three vowels, we hear two syllables and not a real "triphthong" in one syllable? 123. What can you say about the difference in function of the l's in bulb and bubble? How can this be indicated? 124. Do you know any other consonants that can bear a syllable besides nand l? Give an example of each case. 125. What do we call this group of consonants? 126. Do they have any other features in common with vowels? If so, which? 127. Is there a difference between the n's in send and sent? Why? 128. Have the vowellikes breathed corresponding sounds in English? 129. If breathed fricatives are more sonorous than breathed plosives, because of the freer mouth passage, how is it that in bits, ducks we do not hear a new syllable with the s? 130. Transcribe with as few symbols as possible: government, condition, gentleman, sociable, social, temporary. VII. Glottal Sounds and Phonemes 131. Transcribe the word dogs. 132. Why do you render the last sound with [z ] ? 133. What is a voiced sound? 134. Is a voiced consonant strong or weak? 135. Is a voiceless consonant strong or weak? 136. Is "voiceless" the same as "breathed"? 25 VIT. Glottal Sounds and Phonemes (Cont.) 137. Is the last sound of dogs really voiced? 138. If this s is not voiced finally, why do we still render it with [z] in this position instead of with [s]? 139. How do Africans often pronounce this inflexional s? What would you do to correct it? 140. What happens when we whisper? 141. Which sounds of normal speech remain the same when we whisper? 142. Are there any English speechsounds produced in the glottis? If so, define them. 143. Explain the terms of these definitions. 144. Is the glottal plosive a phoneme in English? 145. Does that mean that it never occurs in English? If it does, give an example. 146. Why do we still say that the glottal plosive is not a phoneme in English? 147. What is the chief property of a phoneme? 148. Is [h] a phoneme in English? Prove it. 149. Which is correct: a hotel or an hotel? A house or an house? 150. Transcribe: annihilation; vehicle. What happens to medial h in these words and why.