This review guide is intended to help you organize your studying and preparation for Quiz #1 (phonetics/phonology). Use lecture outline slides and data sets, your own notes, assigned readings and handouts, and past prep questions and their feedback.

The quiz will focus on topics that were discussed in class, which in many cases draw on general concepts in the required reading assignments. You are not responsible for material covered only in optional readings, and you do not need to memorize particular Japanese words, from the readings or otherwise.

Some questions may ask you to think about how a rule or pattern is similar to or different from a rule or pattern that we have seen in class or in a handout. Some questions may involve data from non-standard dialects of Japanese, and you may be asked to apply and compare or modify the analysis for standard Japanese (as covered in class) to make it fit the other dialect. More generally, you may be asked to apply what you know to a new or unfamiliar situation.

1. What to expect / how to prepare

• The quiz is in class, on paper, closed-book except for your notes page (see below)
• Types of questions to expect:
  • Short-answer questions drawing on basic concepts and definitions
  • Small or medium-sized data set-based questions, similar to those that we have worked through in homework assignments or in class
  • Questions providing results from OJAD that ask you to interpret the results in the context of linguistic analysis
• You may prepare and bring one page of notes:
  • Letter-size paper (8.5 x 11 inches) or A4, or smaller
  • On one side, you may print out the handout Phonetics: Reference charts
  • You may add notes on both sides of the paper
  • Other than the printed handout, your notes page must be handwritten — no screenshots or scans
    • If you handwrite on your device and print the result, that's okay
  • Your notes page must be turned in with the quiz (it won't be graded)
  • You may collaborate with classmates to prepare your notes page, but the writing on your page must be your own

2. Content covered by the quiz: Phonetics and phonology

Many, though not necessarily all, of the following topics will be included on the quiz.

(We can now answer most of the questions on the handout Context: Phonetics and phonology!)

• Know the phonetic vowel and consonant categories of Standard Japanese
  • Resources: [handout] | [Kubozono (2015: Ch 1, sec 2) reading] | [Hayes (2009: Ch 1, sec 1.4) reading]
  • Be able to give the phonetic description for any symbol on the charts
  • Be able to give the phonetic symbol(s) from the charts to match a phonetic description
• Be able to carry out a segmental (phoneme/allophone) analysis [handout]
  • Identify predictable (complementary) vs. unpredictable (contrastive) distribution in a data set, and be able to make an argument for either claim
  • Be able to state rules to produce allophones in the appropriate environments
• Know the major segmental rules of Standard Japanese [handout (on Canvas)]
  • Be able to take an underlying (phonemic) form and show what it would look like after the relevant rules have applied
  • Be able to take a surface form, with surface allophones, and state its underlying (phonemic) form
• Be able to state rules, patterns, or generalizations in terms of sound properties and sound classes
• Be aware that a phoneme or a rule might be restricted to a particular subpart of the lexicon (such as loanwords or non-loanwords)
• Know the basic definition of pitch accent, and which aspects of pitch accent phonology are specified in the lexicon versus which aspects can be handled by the grammar
  • Resources: [handout] | [Kawahara (2015: sec 1) reading]
  • Know how to apply Kawahara's tone assignment algorithm (3 rules) for Standard Japanese
• Use the concepts of moras and syllables in the context of Japanese [outline]
  • Be able to give arguments that support of the relevance of moras and syllables for Japanese phonology
  • Understand what constitutes a legal mora and a legal syllable in Japanese (see slides 10, 14)
• Be able to work with romanization (Roman alphabet-based transliteration) as a spelling system [handout]
  • Be able to distinguish between valid kunrei and non-kunrei (Hepburn) spellings
  • Be able to give the kunrei romanization for the assigned hiragana characters (see (10a-b) at end of handout)
  • Be able to identify and explain ways in which writing systems, including romanization, are different from language