Week 7: Written Quiz 3

Written Quiz #3

Here you have our Written Quiz 3, exclusively for transcriptions. Make sure you read the instructions carefully.

The quiz consists of a task divided into two different exercises, one related to the other: You will have to transcribe the words in the recording, but you will also have to write a "meaningful" sentence with the word. That is, you must write a sentence that shows that you understand the word’s meaning and use.

Please, don't write long sentences, and make sure your quiz fits a maximum of two pages. Check your grammar carefully, and type your answers. Because you don't have the corresponding program to use phonetic fonts, handwrite your transcriptions.

Audio material for the quiz:

http://www.divshare.com/download/12692334-32b

http://www.mediafire.com/?ag48qo31c78mox7

Download the quiz from any of these two links:

http://www.divshare.com/download/12699546-8bc

http://www.mediafire.com/?0m4xykgf9ugxhzx

An extra hint for this quiz is to use an Oxford or Cambridge dictionary or a Web-link such as www.dictionary.com. The drawback of using sources like this is that, at times, they don't use phonological transcriptions like the ones we use at the university. Make sure to make proper changes to make the words fit our course standards.

Good luck!

Week 2: Plural Forms Pronunciation

How are the following words pronounced in plural forms? With, /s/, /z/, or /ɪz/?

GROUP 1: /s/ vs. /z/

1. injury / injuries
2. knee / knees
3. doctor / doctors
4. drink / drinks
5. teammate / teammates
6. guy / guys
7. brother / brothers
8. thought / thoughts
9. period / periods
10. week / weeks
11. check / checks
12. center / centers
13. emotion / emotions
14. liver / livers
15. family / families

GROUP 2: /z/ vs. /s/ vs. /ɪz/

1. friend / friends
2. wonder / wonders
3. athlete / athletes
4. player / players
5. letter / letters
6. minute / minutes
7. season / seasons
8. month / months
9. place / places
10. cartoon / cartoons
11. wish / wishes
12. donor / donors
13. service / services
14. slogan / slogans
15. increase / increases

NOW LET’S ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. How many brothers do yo have? (Name them.)

2. Can you explain why humans eat cattle's livers?

3. What qualities make good friends? (Mention them.)

4. Name the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

5. Mention at least three outstanding Costa Rican athletes.

6. Name the amount of soccer players in a team by their field-position name.

7. How many minutes are there in a day?

8. Can you name the months of the year or the days of the week in other languages? (Tell your partner.)

9. Which places have you visited this year? (Name them.)

10. What were your favorite cartoons as a kid? Why?

11. What other services should the university provide?

12. How many types of doctors can you name?

NOW READ THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE

American newspapers are very large. On Sunday, they usually cont^hain over a hundred p^hages. Much of this space is occupied by large advert^hisements. Much of the rest of the newspaper is filled with “features” of all k^hinds. These inc^hlude household and beauty suggestions, c^homic strips, gossip c^holumns, and political commentary. Many of these features are syndic^hated, that is, they are sold to large numbers of newspapers throughout the c^hountry and p^hrinted on the same day in all of them.

NOW TRANSCRIBE THE FOLLOWING WORDS FROM THE TEXT ABOVE

1. newspapers
2. pages
3. advertisements
4. kinds
5. suggestions
6. strips
7. columns
8. features
9. numbers

Week 4: Aspiration in English

What’s Aspiration?

In the study of consonants in English, and perhaps in some other European languages, we are bound to find this particular characteristic of a “special” group of consonants. But what is it? Aspiration can be defined as “an extra puff of air” in a given group of consonants. In other words, not all consonants suffer this phonological phenomenon.

In general terms, any voiceless consonant in English has aspiration, which is marked as a little /^h/ immediately after the consonant in transcriptions. However, for this course, BIN-06 Pronunciation II, we will concentrate on the use of aspiration with voiceless stop consonants: /p/, /t/, and /k/.

As pointed out before, aspiration is an extra puff of air that is present when /p/, /t/, and /k/ are pronounced. But aspiration is not a random event; it does follow some basic rules that need to be consciously developed by the pronunciation student as a way to eliminate his/her accent in the target language: English.

Aspiration Rules

Aspiration is a phenomenon that obeys three basic rules. Let’s pay attention to them in detail:

1. Aspiration is always present in one-syllable words, only when the first consonant of those words are voiceless stops.

Examples:

/p^h/: p^hen, p^hart, p^huck, p^hale, p^heel

/t^h/: t^hell, t^heam, t^hill, t^hold, t^hon

/k^h/: c^hase, K^hen, c^hare, K^him, c^hore

2. Aspiration only takes place in stressed syllables when we have two or more syllables in a word, only if the voiceless stop is the first consonant of that stressed syllable.

Examples:

/p^h/: p^hartly, rep^hlacement, p^hencil, p^haper, p^hermit (n.),

imp^hortant

/t^h/: t^hreasure, t^hrekking, t^hraining, ret^hirement, ret^harded,

ent^hicement

/k^h/: rec^hall, rec^hapture, rec^hord (v.), k^hetchup, k^hettle, c^hriminal

3. Aspiration becomes nullified when /p/, /t/, and /k/ appear immediately after /s/. Why does this happen? As mentioned before, all voiceless consonants contain aspiration, and /s/ is not the exception. Thus, there can’t be two consecutive aspirated consonants in a word. In case you need to transcribe one of these words, /^h/ does not need to be included.

Examples:

/sp/: spaced-out, spank, sparkling, speaker, specialist, speculate,

spelling

/st/: stab, stadium, staging, stairway, standard, starch, steamy

/sk/: scaffolding, scale, scalp, scarcely, scattered, school, scooter

Can voiceless stops be aspirated if they are not the first sound in a stressed syllable?

Depending on the variation of English you are learning or you have learned, it is possible to find native speakers that aspirated final voiceless stops. Although it is not a common phenomenon, you can expect to listen to it anywhere where English is spoken.

Example with past tenses:

/t^h/: walked, laughed, stepped, crossed, fixed

Example with words ending in /p/, /t/, or /k/:

/p^h/: steep^h, rap^h, lap^h, stomp^h, soap^h

/t^h/: tent^h, front^h, client^h, next^h, lot^h

k^h/: clock^h, rack^h, stuck^h, zinc^h, chic^h

Transcription Exercise:

Transcribe the following words by including the aspiration symbol.

01. Tablet

02. Tasty

03. Teacher

04. Tendency

05. Tight

06. Pacify

07. Package

08. Pauper

09. Pedestal

10. Pervert

11. Karma

12. Kingdom

13. Contract (n.)

14. Continent

15. Comedy

Additional links on aspiration to explore:

http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/1603

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspiration_(phonetics)

http://www.textkit.com/tutorials/20031222-phonetics-page2.php?aid=2&tid=5

The Sounds of Spanish

Comparing the point of articulation of consonants in English with the ones in Spanish

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/spanish/frameset.html

The Sounds of American English

Consonant Features: Point of Articulatiion & Manner of Articulation

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html

Week 2: The Speech Apparatus

The Components of the Speech Apparatus

http://facweb.furman.edu/~wrogers/phonemes/phono/index.htm

Week 2: Voicing and Regular Plural Forms of Nouns

Voicing and its Application to -s or -es in Regular Plural Forms of Nouns

http://poster.4teachers.org/worksheet/view.php?id=149865

Week 1: Voicing and Past Tense -ed Pronunciation

Voicing and its Application to -ed Pronuciation in Regular Past Tense

http://poster.4teachers.org/worksheet/view.php?id=149863