DLAB Phonetic Pattern Recognition Flashcards

In a language, /s/ becomes /z/ when it appears between two vowels: 'asa' is pronounced [aza]. What phonological process is this?

Answer: Voicing (intervocalic voicing)

The voiceless /s/ becomes voiced /z/ between vowels (intervocalic position). The surrounding voiced vowels cause the consonant to assimilate their voicing feature. This intervocalic voicing is common in Spanish, where 's' between vowels often voices.

A language has these words: 'pat,' 'pit,' 'pot,' 'put.' The vowels /a, i, o, u/ can all appear in the same position. How many vowel phonemes are minimally demonstrated?

Answer: 4

Four different vowels (/a, i, o, u/) in the same consonant frame (p_t) create four different words. Since each vowel change produces a meaning change, each must be a separate phoneme. This gives us a minimum of four vowel phonemes.

In a language, the plural suffix is '-lar' after back vowels (a, o, u) and '-ler' after front vowels (e, i, ö, ü). What phonological process determines the suffix form?

Answer: Vowel harmony

The suffix vowel matches the frontness/backness of the stem vowel: back vowels trigger '-lar' (back) and front vowels trigger '-ler' (front). This is vowel harmony — a long-distance assimilation where vowels in suffixes agree with stem vowels. Turkish is the textbook example.

The sounds [p] and [pʰ] (aspirated p) both appear in a language. [p] appears after /s/ and [pʰ] appears at the start of words. They never swap positions. What is their relationship?

Answer: They are allophones of one phoneme

[p] and [pʰ] are in complementary distribution — each appears in a specific environment where the other does not. This means they are allophones (predictable variants) of a single phoneme /p/. English works exactly this way: 'spin' [sp] vs. 'pin' [pʰ].

A word is pronounced differently in fast speech: 'handbag' becomes 'hambag.' The /n/ changed to /m/ before /b/. What process occurred?

Answer: Place assimilation (the nasal matches the following consonant)

The alveolar nasal /n/ assimilated to the bilabial place of /b/, becoming bilabial /m/. This is place assimilation — a sound changes its place of articulation to match an adjacent sound. This is one of the most common phonological processes in natural speech.

In a language, a word-final voiceless stop is released with a burst of air: 'tak' ends with [kʰ]. But the same /k/ in 'takna' (before a nasal) has no burst. What conditions the difference?

Answer: The position (word-final vs. pre-nasal environment)

The same phoneme /k/ has different realizations depending on its environment: aspirated [kʰ] word-finally, unreleased before a nasal. The phonological environment (following sound or word boundary) conditions which allophone appears.