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Voiced Sound; Nasal; Semi - vowels; Cardinal Vowels; Open Syllable etc..


  1. What is the position of glottis during the production of a voiced sound?
Ans:   During the production of a voiced sound the Vocal Cords are held loosely together, so that the glottis is narrow and the Vocal Cords vibrate. (During a voiceless sound the Vocal Cord are drawn wide apart and the glottis is open).

  1. What is the position of a soft palate during the production of a Nasal?
Ans:  The Soft Palate is lowered towards the back of the tongue, so that the air passes through the nasal cavity.

  1. Why are the semi vowels called semi - vowels?
Ans:  The semi - vowels are so called because although they are articulated like vowels, they cannot from the nucleus of a syllable, and therefore do not function as vowels. (Semi - vowels are those phonemes which are articulated like vowels but do not functions as voice because they cannot from the nucleus of a syllable)

  1. What does articulatory phonetics deal with?
Ans:  Articulatory Phonetics deals with the movement of the speech organs during the articulation or production of human speech sound (Acoustic phonetics is the study of the manner in which human speech sounds are transmitted from the speaker to the auditor though the medium of sound waves in the air / Auditory Phonetics is the study of the manner in which human speech sounds are heard or perceived by the human ear)

  1. For what purpose do we need the cardinal vowels?
Ans: The eight cardinal vowels serve as a general frame of reference for the vowel sounds of all human languages.

  1. What is an open syllable? Give an example.
Ans: A syllable which ends with a vowel is called an open syllable. E.g. the 'see' (/si:/) ends with a vowel and is therefore an open syllable .

  1. What is a closed syllable? Give an example.
 A closed syllable is one in which the syllable ends with a consonant sound. e. g, ' is' (/iz/) is a syllable which ends with a consonant and is therefore a closed syllable.

  1. Difference between a tone language and an intonation language:
Ans: An intonation language is one in which the variation in the pitch of the voice during the production of the entire utterance conveys certain semantic information such as a question, an exclamation, a statement, a polite request, or a command.
         In a tone language the pitch features of -- word or even the segmental speech sounds alter the meaning English is an intonation language where as Chinese is a tone language.

  1. What is a releasing consonant? Give an example:
Ans: If a syllable begins is called a releasing consonant. If a syllable ends with a consonant, the consonant with which the syllable ends is called an arresting consonant. e.g. in the syllable 'is' (lisp), lzl is the arresting consonant. / A marginal element and /s/ is the final marginal element. 

  1. What is the position of the soft palate during the production of a nasalized sound?
Ans: While a nasal sound is one in which the soft plate is so lowered as to touch the back of the tongue in order to make the entire air pass through the nasal cavity, in a nasalized sound the soft palate is lowered only to the extent in which it would allow the air stream to pass through both the oral and the nasal cavities. In English the three nasal sounds are /m/, /n/, /n/. In English there is no nasalized sound. The language French has nasalized sounds. Such as the nasalized vowel in bon ( /bo~n/).
  Ardhendu De    

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  1. AnonymousDecember 9, 2012 at 12:33 PM

    sir, your blog is so much helpful in my studies.......i am a student of m.a ist .....i want to improve my written and spoken english.....i need ur advice.....i hope u will surely help me......thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ardhendu DeDecember 10, 2012 at 7:39 PM

    Mahnav, thanks for your comment and suggestions. I will surely update on your queries soon.

    ReplyDelete

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