What’s fair game?

Basically anything we’ve done in class, quizzes and assignments is fair game except for live transcription

What do you mean fair game?

Fair game just means I get to ask the odd question about any topic as described above.

What will you focus on?

I will focus on what we’ve spent the most energy on in class

Can you give some examples?

Gladly:

1) The information summarized in the charts on pages 336 and 337.

Exception 1: We use a slightly different vowel chart. It’s at the following link MasterVowelChart You only need to know the vowels on that chart.

You will see the equivalent of a blank version of this vowel chart that you will have to fill in. (The empty cells in the chart will be shaded out).

Exception 2: The following extra symbols at the top of p 337 will NOT be tested

Advanced and retracted tongue root, retracted tongue root

voiceless epiglottal fricative

voiced epiglottal fricative

epiglottal plosive (stop)

alveolar lateral flap

The following diacritics in the BOX on p337 will NOT be tested.

more rounded, less rounded

centralized, mid-centralized

Apical, laminal

Exception 3. Suprasegmentals ( p 337). Only the symbols for primary stress, secondary stress, long, half-long, and extra-short will be tested. The rest of the suprasegmentals will NOT.

Exception 4. Tone and word accents symbols will not be tested

2) Implicit knowledge of definitions of various phonation types and airstream mechanisms.

Example 1. You should know that the term click is an abbreviation for (normally voiceless) ingressive velaric airstream. Multiple choice or matching questions could be based on this.

Example 2. Be able to relate descriptions of production with their labels. Sample Multiple choice question:

What kind of sound is produced with a closed glottis moving upward to compress air trapped in the mouth by a lingual or labial closure?

a) click b) plosive c) implosive d) ejective e) explosive

Note the question above could be constructed in the other direction (i.e. choose a description among several for a ‘click’) or might be put in a matching section.

3) Acoustic phonetics You’ll see some problems similar to assignments. Some key skills are:

3a) Being able to identify waveform, wide (or broad) band spectrograms, narrow band spectrograms (e.g. I give you a picture and you say which kind of display it is)

3b) Being able to measure fundamental period and fundamental frequency i) from waveform [ period relatively directly, fundamental frequency more indirectly] ii) from a narrow band spectrogram [fundamental frequency relatively directly, fundamental period more indirectly];

3c) Being able to measure VOT and vowel formant frequencies from broad band spectrogram

3e) Being able to distinguish among pre-voiced, voiceless unaspirated ( or weakly aspirated), and voiceless strongly aspirated plosives from VOT measurements

3f) Being able, given broad band spectrograms or formant measurements (as well as maximum and minimum F1 and F2 values for speaker’s formant space) to distinguish between:

(i) definitely front versus definitely back vowels,

(ii) definitely high versus definitely low vowels.

(iii) clear monopthongs like [ɑ] versus clear diphthongs like [aj]

iv) [ju] versus [ɔj].

[Note 3f(i) to 3f(iv) involve knowing the rough relationship between F1 and vowel height and F2 and vowel advancement]

The following topics will get at most one or two questions each