Simple consonants and vowels

Here we will adopt the standard approach of using the principles of minimal pairs and phonetic similarity to develop a phoneme inventory (see Section 7.3.2). This is not an exact procedure and 

Recall that the principle of minimal pairs states that it is not the similarity or dissimilarity of two sounds per se which is the issue, but rather whether they distinguish two separate words. By using this test, it is straightforward to determine a set of contrasts in a particular position. So if we take the form [X i p], we can find a set of contrasts as follows  

The /X i p/ pattern doesn t give the fiill list of possible contrast because not every possible legal phoneme sequence actually ends up as a real existent word. But if we take some further patterns, 

When we consider one particular pattern, the analysis seems clear pet and bet are different words, so /p/ and / must be different phonemes. It is reasonable to ask though, how we know that the soimd at the start of pet is the same sound as at the start of say pit There is no known deterministic or objective way to prove that this is the case, all we can do is rely on judgment and state that in terms of articulation, the two sounds are both produced with the lips, are unvoiced are stops and so on, and that if we examine them acoustically we see they are similar. But they are rarely so similar to be taken as identical their articulation and acoustic patterns are affected by the following vowel and this does have some effect. To a certain extent, there is a leap of faith required to say that pet and pit start with the same phoneme. This problem is even more acute when we consider sound contrasts in different positions  

So while we have no problem is saying that the last sounds in rip, write and rib are different phonemes, it is a harder matter to say that the last sound of rip should be the same phoneme as the first of pit. We can again only appeal to some notion of acoustic and articulatory similarity. We should bear in mind though that we are attempting a compromise between an accurate representation and a minimal one, and that different possibilities can be tried and tested. 

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CVC A simple spelling pattern—a consonant, a vowel, and a consonant cat. 

There are several terms you should be familiar with for voltaic cells. First, the voltage that is impressed across the circuit (that is, the difference in electrical potential between the zinc strip and the copper strip) is known as the cell voltage, which is also occasionally called the cell potential or the electromotive force, EMF. The copper electrode, because it becomes negatively charged and attracts cations, is known as the cathode. The zinc electrode becomes positively charged and is known as the anode. You are expected to know which part of the reaction takes place at the cathode and which part takes place at the anode. These can sometimes be difficult to remember, so a simple mnemonic device can help you distinguish between the two. Oxidation occurs at the Anode (note how each term starts with a vowel), and deduction occurs at the Cathode (note how each term starts with a consonant). 

The simple sine waves used for illustration reveal their periodicity very clearly. Normal sounds, however, are much more complex, being combinations of several such pure tones of different frequencies and perhaps additional transient sound components that punctuate the more sustained elements. For example, speech is a mixture of approximately periodic vowel sounds and staccato consonant sounds. Complex sounds can also be periodic the repeated wave pattern is just more intricate, as is shown in Fig. 1.105(a). The period identified as Ti appHes to the fundamental frequency of the sound wave, the component that normally is related to the characteristic pitch of the sound. Higher-frequency components of the complex wave are also periodic, but because they are typically lower in amplitude, that aspect tends to be disguised in the summation of several such components of different frequency. If, however, the sound wave were analyzed, or broken down into its constituent parts, a different picture emerges Fig. 1.105(b), (c), and (d). In this example, the analysis shows that the components are all harmonics, or whole-number multiples, of the fundamental frequency the higher-frequency components all have multiples of entire cycles within the period of the fundamental. 

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