Important viva questions on phonetics

1. 

1. What is Phonetics? --- Phonetics is the science of speech

2. How many sounds are there in English-?---- 44

3. What are consonants? ---- A consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a constriction or closure at one or more points along the vocal tract.

4. What are vowels? --- A vowel is a sound in spoken language pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis

5. Consonant sounds and symbols-----

Consonants                    voiceless

Voiced              book day give very the zoo vision jump look run yes we moon name sing Vowels  i:sheep     a:farm     u:cool   o:horse   3:bird    I ship   ǽ hat ư foot    o socks  ə above

pen town cat fish think say she cheese

7. Difference between voiced and voiceless sounds – voiced sounds are produced with vibration while voiceless sounds are produced without vibration

8. How many voiceless sounds are there? ----- 9

9. What are plosives? ---- Plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract or with an explosion

10. What are Fricatives?----- Fricative sounds are produced when the articulators are brought so closely together that the sounds are accompanied by audible friction

11. What are Nasals?----- A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose

12. What are laterals?---- Laterals are "L"-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue.

13. What are articulation or speech organs?---. Articulation, in phonetics is a configuration of the vocal tract (the larynx and the pharyngeal, oral, and nasal cavities) resulting from the positioning of the mobile organs of the vocal tract (e.g., tongue) relative to other parts of the vocal tract that may be rigid (e.g., hard palate). This configuration modifies an airstream to produce the sounds of speech. The main articulators are the tongue, the upper lip, the lower lip, the upper teeth, the upper gum ridge (alveolar ridge), the hard palate, the velum (soft palate), the uvula (free-hanging end of the soft palate), the pharyngeal

14. What are diphthongs?-

--- A diphthong "two sounds" or "two tones"), also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel. In most dialects of English, the words eye, hay, boy, low, and cow contain diphthongs.

15. What are Monophthongs?--- Monophthong is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation.