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Quizzes > Language Studies

General Phonetics Quiz

Free Practice Quiz & Exam Preparation

Editorial: Review CompletedCreated By: Nelson Da SilvaUpdated Aug 28, 2025
Difficulty: Moderate
Questions: 15
Study OutcomesAdditional Reading
3D voxel art showcasing General Phonetics course material

This General Phonetics quiz helps you practice ear training, basic IPA transcription, and noticing how speech sounds are made and differ. Work through 15 quick questions to check gaps before an exam and refresh core terms, so you feel more sure when you listen, label symbols, and explain place, manner, and voicing.

In IPA, which symbol represents the voiced dental fricative sound in the word this?
ð (eth) - Correct: ð represents the voiced dental fricative as in this.
ʞ - Not an IPA symbol for a common English phoneme.
z - Voiced alveolar fricative.
θ (theta) - Voiceless dental fricative as in thin.
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A bilabial stop is produced by bringing both lips together to obstruct airflow.
True
False
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Which articulatory feature distinguishes [p] from [b]?
Voicing - [p] is voiceless, [b] is voiced.
Manner - Both are oral stops.
Nasality - Neither is nasal.
Place - Both are bilabial.
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Aspiration is the burst of turbulent air following the release of certain voiceless stops.
False
True
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Which term refers to a sound produced with complete closure in the oral cavity and air escaping through the nose?
Fricative - Narrow constriction, not complete closure.
Affricate - Stop plus fricative release orally.
Approximant - Wide constriction, no turbulent airflow.
Nasal stop - Oral closure with nasal airflow.
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In a spectrogram, the vertical axis typically represents frequency and the horizontal axis represents time.
False
True
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High vowels generally have which acoustic characteristic for F1?
Random F1 - Not random; systematic relation exists.
High F1 - Opposite of the acoustic relationship.
Unchanged F1 - F1 varies with height.
Low F1 - High tongue position lowers F1.
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The IPA symbol [ʌ] corresponds to which English vowel quality in cut for many dialects?
Mid central rounded - Not cut.
Open back rounded - That is [ɔ] or [ɒ] depending on system.
Open-mid back unrounded - Typical quality for cut in many accents.
Close front unrounded - That is [i].
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Voice Onset Time (VOT) is the interval between stop release and the onset of voicing.
False
True
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Which description matches an affricate?
A rapidly tapped closure - That is a tap or flap.
A stop closure followed by a homorganic fricative release - e.g., [tʃ].
A vowel-like resonant - That is an approximant.
Two simultaneous closures - That suggests a double articulation, not affrication.
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Creaky voice (laryngealization) involves tightly adducted vocal folds vibrating at a low, irregular rate.
False
True
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A click consonant is produced by an ingressive pulmonic airstream.
False
True
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In source-filter theory, the source is the glottal airflow and the filter is the supraglottal vocal tract resonances.
True
False
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Which pair is a minimal pair in English?
bat vs pat - Contrast in a single phoneme with meaning difference.
writer vs writer - No phonemic contrast.
spin vs pin - Initial allophony; cluster context differs in aspiration but meaning differs lexically, not a segmental minimal pair.
cats vs cat - Plural morpheme adds a segment; not a minimal pair of single phoneme contrast.
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Ejectives use a glottalic egressive airstream mechanism.
True
False
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Carryover assimilation refers to a segment being influenced by a following segment.
True
False
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Which place and manner describe [ç]?
Voiceless palatal fricative.
Voiceless velar stop.
Voiceless alveolar fricative.
Voiced palatal approximant.
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Which best describes a prenasalized stop?
A nasal stop with no oral closure.
A brief nasal murmur immediately preceding an oral stop closure.
A stop produced with ingressive airflow.
A stop released directly into a trill.
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Which timing unit is used in moraic phonology to measure syllable weight?
Phoneme - Not a prosodic timing unit.
Syllable - Contains mora(e).
Mora - A unit contributing to syllable weight.
Foot - Larger prosodic unit than a mora.
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Which acoustic visualization best reveals formant structure of vowels?
Waveform - Shows amplitude over time but not resonant frequencies directly.
Narrowband spectrogram - Emphasizes harmonic structure over clear formant bands.
Wideband spectrogram - Shows clear formant bands for vowels.
Pitch trace - Shows F0 only.
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Study Outcomes

  1. Understand key concepts of phonetic transcription and pronunciation representation.
  2. Apply ear training techniques to accurately identify and transcribe speech sounds.
  3. Analyze the basic principles of phonetics through practical transcription exercises.
  4. Evaluate and compare phonetic symbols used in representing different pronunciations.

General Phonetics Additional Reading

Ready to dive into the world of phonetics? Here are some top-notch resources to get you started:

  1. This comprehensive resource from UC Berkeley covers everything from the basics of phonetic transcription to acoustic phonetics and prosody. It's a treasure trove for anyone looking to master the art of pronunciation and transcription.
  2. Offered by MIT OpenCourseWare, this exercise provides real-world audio samples for transcription practice, helping you hone your ear training and transcription skills with diverse dialects.
  3. This article introduces exercises designed to provide practice in phonetic transcription using the Alvin software, offering immediate feedback and a variety of drills to enhance your transcription proficiency.
  4. Developed by Cornell University, Earmaster is an interactive game that makes learning IPA transcription fun and engaging, allowing for modular exercises and immediate feedback to reinforce your learning.
  5. These exercises from UC Berkeley's 'A Course in Phonetics' provide practical tasks to apply your knowledge, including vowel plotting and transcription of sentences, enhancing both your theoretical understanding and practical skills.
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