PHONETICS MANUAL.indd - HumBox

answers to exercises
[6]
Section 2 (The Vocal Tract)
1. The lungs supply the air for almost all speech sounds. Air passes from them
into the bronchi, one from each of the two lungs, and these two airstreams
merge in the trachea, a short tube situated in the lower part of the neck.
On top of this is a valve known as the larynx. Here the supply of air to
the throat and mouth is controlled by opening or closing the glottis — the
gap between the two vocal folds. In ordinary quiet breathing the glottis is
open; for swallowing it is closed in order to protect the lungs. A noteworthy
evolutionary adaptation in humans allows voice to be produced by positioning
the vocal folds in such a way that passage of air between them causes them to
vibrate.
2. (a) [z] voiced; [T] voiceless; [b] voiced; [p] voiceless; [ð] voiced;
[s] voiceless.
(b)
[f] voiceless; [v] voiced; [t] voiceless; [d] voiced; [k] voiceless;
[g] voiced; [] voiceless.
3. pin (vl), bin (vd)
fail (vl), veil (vd)
toll (vl), dole (vd)
gin (vd), chin (vl)
zoo (vd), sue (vl)
wreath (vl), wreathe (vd)
either (vd), ether (vl)
Aleutian (vl), allusion (vd)
4. zeal, racer, eyes, scares, angle, duck/tug, bigger/picker, lunch, juice/choose, joke,
thy, confusion.
5. See Fig. 6.
6. (a) the velum: here it is pressed against the wall of the pharynx and is closing off the
nasal cavity. The uvula “dangles down” below this point of closure.
(b) the pharynx: the projection on the left is the epiglottis, an appendage at the top of
the larynx, which rarely if ever has any function in speech.
Answers to Exercises
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