Descriptive Grammar of English

Phonetics and Phonology

2008/2009

mgr Jakub Bielak

Test 1 (November 2009) Review Sheet

I. Introduction

1. Language and linguistics (branches); phonetics and its branches: articulatory, acoustic and auditory phonetics; phonology.

II. Articulatory Phonetics

1. Description, classification and functions of all organs of speech (the vocal tract, the lungs, the trachea, the tongue, etc.) including respiration (the diaphragm, the ribcage, etc.) and phonation (vibration of the vocal cords [the frequency and amplitude of vibration; types of voice], whisper [friction, air turbulence] and glottal stops).

2. Parameters typically used for the description and classification of English a) consonants, b) vowels. Why are they different?

3. Description of English sounds and classification of speech sounds into articulatory types (vowel/consonant, voiced/voiceless, the place of articulation and the manner of articulation). You should be able to give an exhaustive and detailed description of all important movements of relevant articulators which work on the airstream to produce a given English consonant. You should also be able to define the following terms and use them to classify English consonants: stops (plosives; remember the three stages of their production), nasals (nasal stops), fricatives, affricates, approximants (including the lateral and retroflex approximants), glides (semi-vowels), liquids, taps, trills (rolls), sibilants, oral sounds, central sounds, bilabial, labio-dental, dental, alveolar, post-alveolar, palato-alveolar, palatal, velar, glottal, velic closure vs. velar closure, fortis and lenis sounds.

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