Exercise: in some dialect of English the vowel in words of group A and B is different from the vowel in group C, as is shown by the phonetic transcription.

(1) What classes of sounds appear at the end of the three groups of words?

(2) Are [ai] and [ʌi] in complimentary distribution?

(3) If [ai] and [ʌi] are allophones of the phoneme, should [ai] be the phonemic representation?

(4) In what phonetic environment is the phoneme realized by the allophone [ʌi]?

教师解析

(1) The words in A end in a vowel; the words in B end in a voiced consonant; the words in C end in a voiceless consonant.

(2) Yes, they are.

(3) Yes

(4) The phoneme is realized by [ʌi] when it is followed by a voiceless consonant.