Subsidiary variants of english vowel phonemes

Exercises

1. Transcribe these words. Use them to illustrate the distributional characteristics of the /i:/ phoneme; Define the consonants which (a) precede and (b) follow it.

(a) we, fever, theme, sea, deal, cheeks, reaches, yield, he, meals, me; needn’t;

(b) grebe, leave, sheath, breathe, eat, feel, leash, each, beak, league, spleen.

2. Transcribe these words. Use them to illustrate the distributional characteristics of the /ı / phoneme. Define the consonants which (a) precede and (b) follow it.

(a) mist, big, fish, thinks, thing, did, sit, lift, giver, rich, kill, hid;

(b) him, if, live, myth, with, is, bill, tin, ridge, pick, big.

3. Transcribe these words. Use them to illustrate the distributional characteristics of the /e/ phoneme. Define the consonants which (a) precede and (b) follow it.

(a) wet, met, vest, then, rest, left, need, chest, jet, read, yes, get, help;

(b) ebb, them, chef, death, Bays, tell, pen, fetch, ledge, lengthy.

4. Transcribe these words. Use them to illustrate the distributional characteristics of the /æ/ phoneme. Define the consonants which (a) precede and (b) follow it.

(a) van, that, lamb, gnat, champ, jam, rank, Yankee, gas, ham;

(b) have, hath, match, badge, bag, sang.

5. Transcribe these words. Use them to illustrate the distributional characteristics of the /a:/ phoneme. Define the consonants which (a) precede and (b) follow it.

(a) waft, mar, vest, tear, lark, nasty, chance, jar, raft, yard, gar, den;

(b) herm, starve, hearth, pees, bars, snarl, march, large.

6. Transcribe these words. Use them to illustrate the distributional characteristics of the /ɔ/ phoneme. Define the consonants which (a) precede and (b) follow it.

(a) was, mop, vocative, thong, lot, not, chop, job, rob, yonder, got, god, hot; (b) mock, bomb, of, moth, wee, doll, upon, scotch, dodge, fog, wrong.

7. Transcribe these words. Use these to illustrate the distributional characteristics of the /ɔ:/ phoneme. Define the consonants which (a) precede and (b) follow it.

(a) war, more, vortex, thorn, sew, law, nor, chore, jaw, raw, your, core, gore, horn;

(b) orb, storm, cough, north, horde, horse, all, thorn, gorge, morgue.

8. Transcribe these words. Use these to illustrate the distributional characteristics of the /ʌ/ phoneme. Define the consonants which (a) precede and (b) follow it.

worry, much, vulgar, thunder, thus, luck, nut, just, rub, young, glitter, hut; tub, come, love, doth, buzz, dull, none, much, judge, bug, young.

9. Transcribe these words. Use them to illustrate the distributional, characteristics of the /u/ phoneme. Define the consonants which (a) precede and (b) follow it.

(a) wood, foot, soot, hook, July, rook, good, cook;

(b) room, puss, bull, putsch, took.

10. Transcribe these words. Use them to illustrate the distributional characteristics of the /u:/ phoneme. Define the consonants which (a) precede and (b) follow it.

(a) woo, food, you, zoom, loop, noon, roof, chew, June, youth, goose, zoo;

(b) broom, groove, booth, goose, choose, moon, stooge, duke, Bug.

11. Transcribe these words. Use them to illustrate the distributional characteristics of the /з:/ phoneme. Define the consonants which (a) precede and (b) follow it.

(a) were, murky, virgin, thirst, lurch, church, journey, year, girl, her;

(b) worm, serve, mirth, earl, burn, urge, quirk, burg

12. Transcribe these words. Use them to illustrate the distributional characteristics of the /ə:/ phoneme. Define the consonants which (a) precede and (b) follow it.

(a) maroon, vocation, lagoon, narrate, raccoon, Japan, galloon, habitual;

(b) loathsome, of, Plymouth, Jewel, letters, bulwark, agnostic.

I3. Describe the allophonic differences of the vowel phonemes /i:, ı, e, æ, a:, ʌ, ɔ, ɔ:, u, u: ə:,з:/ in these words.

№ 1 / i:/

easily, sea, we, meals, cheaper, tree, fever, sleet, speaker, he, teach, keep, sheep

№ 2 /ı/

in, ill, big, pit, silly, middle, shilling, thing, rivers, lived, hill

№ 3 /e/

help, bed, ten, said, pence, weather, eleven, anyway, them, very, dead, debt.

№ 4 /æ/

bad, plan, sad, exam,' natural, imagine, shallow, strand, channel, Jack, hats, pal, cab

№ 5 /a:/

bar, far, started, dancing, large, grass, half, harbour, card, yard

№ 6 / ɔ/

o'clock, body, watch, solid, nodded, crop, coughing, shocked, long, dollar, bomb, John, gone, yonder, hot, pot

№. 7 / ɔ:/

bore, door, talk, thought, sorts, shore, record, water, George, altogether, norm, fall, more

№ 8 /u/

put, books, would, took, looked, soot, room, should, awfully, good-bye, cook

№ 9 /u:/

blue, beautiful, move, food, soon, ruined, cool, hoof, boot, chew, «hoe, too

№ 10 /ʌ/

bus, must, nothing, funny, summer, instructor, luck, just, come, chuckle, wonderful, vulgar, thunder, thus, shut

№ 11/ə:/

bird, turned, girl, sir, heard, Sherlock, workers, Germany, churches, curly, nurse, dirt, year, murky, purr

№ 12 /ə/

along, about, upon, to gee, perhaps, summer, August, London, desolate, condition, consist, speaker, letter, never, anxious, human.

14. Transcribe these words. Present the rules for reading the vowel phonemes in bold type. Single out the words which are exception from the rules.

holidays, Maria, forward, sightseeing, mouth, comfort, cafe, billiards, workers, Crusoe, Sherlock, Mathew, Earnest, forehead, pneumonia, detached, bothers, head, varnished, Priestley, puzzling, pieces, asylum, record, Maugham, Friday, woodland, newspaper, taxi, unbelievable, purpose, unfortunately, awful, year, hotel, awkward, coughing, employs.