English 615: Modern English Linguistics

Phonology Sample Problems

Japanese


Examine [i] and [I]. [I] in this case, represents a voiceless high front tense vowel.

1. [SIte] doing
2. [ite] be
3. [kIte] come
4. [mite] look!
5. [risa] smile
6. [kISimoto] a family name
7. [kirei] pretty
8. [mizu] water

The voiceless [I] occurs between voiceless consonants. the voiced [i] occurs elsewhere. Their distribution doe snot overlap. they are in complementary distribution and thus allophones of the same phoneme.


There is no audio file for this problem. Back to Homepage