questions for topic 6

(try answer the questions, then move the pointer below the question to see the answer)

1. What are homophones?
   words that have the same phonological form (that are pronounced the same)
2. Why does the letter U represent both /u/ (as in put) and /ə/ (as in punk)?
   because of a sound change that affected most accents of English, called the foot–strut split, in which Middle English short /u/ split into these two vowels
3. What are want words?
   words in which an earlier /a/ (still spelled A) was preceded by /w/ and it turned into /o/, like want /wont/, quad /kwod/
4. What are love words?
   words in which an /ə/ is represented by the letter O (not U), like love /ləv/, come /kəm/, wonder /wəndə/
5. Which two diphthongs have no single vowel letter equivalent?
   /aw/, which is spelled OU/OW (house, howl) and /oj/, which is spelled OI/OY (voice, voyage)
6. Which diphthong has no regular digraph equivalent?
   /aj/ is rarely spelled EI/EY (height, eye), but in most cases it is spelled I/Y (ripe, type)
7. Can a checked vowel be spelled by a digraph?
   yes, eg EA=/e/ (head), EO=/e/ (leopard), OU=/ə/, /o/, or /u/ (country, cough, could), OO=/u/ or /ə/ (book, flood)
8. What characterizes the spelling of R vowels?
   that the vowel letter is followed by R (representing an earlier /r/), GH (representing an earlier /h/), L (which may still be present in pronunciation), or in certain words a voiceless fricative or a nasal (bath, class, staff, chance, demand, banana, example), or it is spelled AU/AW (representing an earlier diphthong)
9. Why can an R vowel be spelled in so many different ways?
   because many mergers have occured before R, ie /əː/ can be spelled like /ə/ (nurse, scourge), /i/ (bird), or /e/ (verse, heard), etc

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