5. Vowels Flashcards
(44 cards)
Which of the following best describes the number of phonological vowel choices in Standard Southern British English?
About 20
Which pair of words demonstrates a phonological merger in some English varieties?
A. BOW – BED
B. COT – CAUGHT
C. BEAD – BID
D. BOD – BOOED
B. COT – CAUGHT
In some English varieties, which of the following pairs are not phonologically distinct?
A. STRUT – FOOT
B. DRESS – TRAP
C. GOOSE – GOAT
D. KIT – FLEECE
A. STRUT – FOOT
Which dimensions are used to describe vowel articulation in the IPA vowel chart?
Height, backness, rounding
The term “high” in vowel articulation corresponds to which IPA label?
Close
Which of the following vowels is rounded and back in the IPA vowel chart?
A. [i]
B. [u]
C. [æ]
D. [ɛ]
B. [u]
What is the primary acoustic source for vowels in speech?
Periodic vibration at the larynx
In the source-filter model, what is the role of the vocal tract?
It filters the glottal source to shape vowel quality
Which term refers to the resonant peaks in the vocal tract’s frequency response?
Formants
Which formants are typically most important for characterizing vowel quality?
F1 and F2
What is the main reason for using formant normalization?
To reduce variation caused by physical vocal tract differences
What is the z-score formula used for formant normalization?
z=x−MSDz = \frac{x - M}{SD}z=SDx−M
Which of the following is true after formant normalization?
A. Male and female formant ranges remain completely separate
B. Normalized vowel plots still reflect raw physical size differences
C. Speakers’ vowel spaces become more directly comparable
D. Normalized F1 is unrelated to perceived vowel height
C. Speakers’ vowel spaces become more directly comparable
A diphthong is best described as:
A transition between two vowel qualities
- Which of the following are examples of diphthongs in Standard Southern British English?
A. [i:], [u:]
B. [eɪ], [aɪ], [ɔɪ]
C. [æ], [ʌ], [ɑ]
D. [ɪ], [ʊ], [e]
B. [eɪ], [aɪ], [ɔɪ]
On a spectrogram, what characteristic is used to identify a diphthong?
Formant transition (sloping formants)
When comparing formant frequencies across speakers, which variable must be controlled to avoid misleading conclusions?
Speaker’s height and vocal tract length
In a normalized F1-F2 vowel space, which of the following would indicate a front and close vowel?
A. High F1, low F2
B. Low F1, high F2
C. High F1, high F2
D. Low F1, low F2
B. Low F1, high F2
In vowel synthesis, using the speaker’s own F0 and formant values makes the synthesized vowel:
A. Sound like a robot
B. Unrecognizable
C. More similar to the speaker’s natural vowel
D. Louder and higher pitched
C. More similar to the speaker’s natural vowel
How many vowel phoneme choices are there in Standard Southern British English?
About 20
What is the phonological difference between “COT” and “CAUGHT” in some varieties of English?
In some varieties they are merged (sound the same), in others they are distinct.
Give an example of a phonological merger in some varieties of English.
STRUT = FOOT (in some dialects)
What is the sound source for vowel production?
Periodic glottal vibration (phonation)
What is the function of the vocal tract in the source-filter model?
Acts as a filter that shapes the glottal source into specific vowel sounds
