CT Script Morphology & Phonetics 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In transliteration, what term describes a single written character that represents a consonant-vowel unit rather than a single phoneme?
- Logogram
- Syllabograph (Correct answer)
- Morpheme
- Diacritic
Correct answer: Syllabograph
A syllabograph (or syllabic character) represents an entire consonant-vowel syllable unit, as found in syllabic scripts like Cherokee or Japanese kana.
Question 2: Which feature of Arabic script most directly affects transliteration decisions for short vowels?
- Ligature formation between letters
- The abjad nature that omits short vowels by default (Correct answer)
- Right-to-left directionality
- The presence of sun and moon letters
Correct answer: The abjad nature that omits short vowels by default
Arabic is an abjad where short vowels are typically unwritten, requiring transliterators to choose a convention for representing vowel sounds that are absent from the source text.
Question 3: When a source-language phoneme has no equivalent in the target writing system, the transliterator's primary strategy is to:
- Omit the phoneme entirely
- Use the closest approximate symbol or digraph (Correct answer)
- Translate the word instead
- Use a numeral as a substitute
Correct answer: Use the closest approximate symbol or digraph
Standard transliteration practice uses the closest approximate symbol or a digraph/diacritic combination to represent phonemes absent from the target script.
Question 4: The Cyrillic letter 'щ' is typically transliterated into Latin script as:
- sh
- shch (Correct answer)
- sc
- sch
Correct answer: shch
The Cyrillic 'щ' represents a long palato-alveolar fricative and is conventionally transliterated as 'shch' in most international standards including ISO 9.
Question 5: In phonetic morphology, an 'allomorph' most relevantly affects transliteration when:
- A morpheme changes its phonetic form depending on context (Correct answer)
- Two words share the same spelling
- A script uses cursive forms
- Letters are silent in pronunciation
Correct answer: A morpheme changes its phonetic form depending on context
Allomorphs are variant phonetic forms of the same morpheme; a transliterator must decide whether to represent the underlying form or the surface phonetic realization.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes 'aspiration' as a phonetic feature relevant to transliteration from languages like Sanskrit or Hindi?
- A nasal resonance added to vowels
- A burst of air accompanying a stop consonant (Correct answer)
- Lengthening of a vowel sound
- Voicing of an otherwise voiceless consonant
Correct answer: A burst of air accompanying a stop consonant
Aspiration refers to the puff of air following a stop consonant (e.g., 'ph', 'th', 'kh' in Devanagari), and must be distinguished from unaspirated counterparts in transliteration.
Question 7: A 'retroflex' consonant, common in South Asian languages, is characterized by:
- Articulation with the tongue tip curled back toward the palate (Correct answer)
- Production using both lips pressed together
- A fricative sound made at the glottis
- A lateral sound produced on the sides of the tongue
Correct answer: Articulation with the tongue tip curled back toward the palate
Retroflex consonants are produced with the tongue tip curled back, and are typically indicated in transliteration with an underdot (e.g., ṭ, ḍ, ṇ).
CT Script Morphology & Phonetics 2
In transliteration, what term describes a single written character that represents a consonant-vowel unit rather than a single phoneme?