Practice Time

Exercise 1. For each of the following words, give the IPA symbol and the articulatory description for the first sound in the word:

• thumb
• knee
• rainbow
• gym
• holiday

Exercise 2. For each of the following words, give the IPA symbol and the articulatory description for the vowel sound in the word:

• desk
• spill
• weight
• duck
• boost

Exercise 3. For each of the following words, give the IPA symbol and the articulatory description for the last sound in the word:

• lamb
• crave
• fling
• dill
• frog

Exercise 4. Listen to these speakers of Australian English and Canadian English compare their pronunciations of various words.

Pay special attention to the word leisure. As accurately as you can, describe the difference between the two pronunciations using the new vocabulary you’ve learned in Chapter 2.

(This exercise is adapted from Linguistics 001: Introduction to Linguistics by Mark Liberman. Used with permission.)