ALTA COMPETENCY UPDATED EXAM
QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS
●● Consonant
Answer: One of a class of speech sounds in which sound moving
through the vocal tract is constricted or obstructed by the lips, tongue or
teeth during articulation.
●● Accent
Answer: Stress or emphasis on one syllable in a word or on one or more
words in a phrase or sentence. The accented part is spoken louder,
longer, and/or in a higher tone. The speaker's mouth opens wider while
saying an accented syllable.
●● Syllable
Answer: a spoken or written unit that must have a vowel sound and that
may include consonants that precede or follow that vowel. Syllables are
units of sound made by one impulse of voice.
●● Open Syllable
Answer: A syllable ending with a long vowel sound. (labor, freedom)
●● Closed Syllable
,Answer: A syllable ending with one or more consonants. The vowel is
usually short.
●● Base Word
Answer: A word to which affixes are added. A base word can stand
alone.
●● Derivative
Answer: A word made from a base word by the addition of one or more
affixes
●● Affix
Answer: A letter or a group of letters attached to the beginning or ending
of a base word or root that creates a derivative with a meaning or
grammatical form that is different that the base word or root.
●● Prefix
Answer: An affix attached to the beginning of a word that changes the
meaning of that word.
●● Suffix
Answer: A morpheme attached to the end of a word that creates a word
with a different form or use. Suffixes include inflected forms indicating
tense, number, person and comparatives.
,●● Macron
Answer: The flat diacritical mark above a vowel in a send picture or
phonic/dictionary notation that indicates a long sound.
●● Breve
Answer: The curved diacritical mark above a vowel in a sound picture or
phonic/dictionary symbol notation that indicates a short sound in a
closed syllable in which at least one consonant comes after the vowel in
the same syllable.
●● Tilde
Answer: A diacritical marking. A wavy line placed over any vowel
before r in a combination to indicate the unaccented pronunciation eg
letter. The tildes used both in coding words and in a sound picture. When
the pronunciation of any unaccented vowel-r combination is respelled in
the dictionary sound picture, the symbol (er) is used
●● Cedilla
Answer: The curved line placed beneath c to indicate its "soft" or (s)
pronunciation, as opposed to its hard or (k) pronunciation. Students use
the coding on c before the letters e, i, or y (the softeners), to remind
themselves to pronounced the (s) sound eg mice.
●● Digraph
, Answer: Two adjacent letters repressing a single consonant sound
●● Consonant Digraph
Answer: Two adjacent letters repressing a single consonant sound
●● Vowel Digraph
Answer: To adjacent letters representing a single vowel sound
●● Trigraph
Answer: Three adjacent letters which represent one speech sound (tch)
●● Quadrigraph
Answer: Four adjacent letters representing one sound (eigh)
●● Combination
Answer: A pattern of letters (found in a single syllable) which occurs
frequently together. The pronunciation of at least one of the component
parts is unexpected or the letters stand in an unexpected sequence ( ar,
er, ir, or, us, qu, wh)
●● Diphthong
QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS
●● Consonant
Answer: One of a class of speech sounds in which sound moving
through the vocal tract is constricted or obstructed by the lips, tongue or
teeth during articulation.
●● Accent
Answer: Stress or emphasis on one syllable in a word or on one or more
words in a phrase or sentence. The accented part is spoken louder,
longer, and/or in a higher tone. The speaker's mouth opens wider while
saying an accented syllable.
●● Syllable
Answer: a spoken or written unit that must have a vowel sound and that
may include consonants that precede or follow that vowel. Syllables are
units of sound made by one impulse of voice.
●● Open Syllable
Answer: A syllable ending with a long vowel sound. (labor, freedom)
●● Closed Syllable
,Answer: A syllable ending with one or more consonants. The vowel is
usually short.
●● Base Word
Answer: A word to which affixes are added. A base word can stand
alone.
●● Derivative
Answer: A word made from a base word by the addition of one or more
affixes
●● Affix
Answer: A letter or a group of letters attached to the beginning or ending
of a base word or root that creates a derivative with a meaning or
grammatical form that is different that the base word or root.
●● Prefix
Answer: An affix attached to the beginning of a word that changes the
meaning of that word.
●● Suffix
Answer: A morpheme attached to the end of a word that creates a word
with a different form or use. Suffixes include inflected forms indicating
tense, number, person and comparatives.
,●● Macron
Answer: The flat diacritical mark above a vowel in a send picture or
phonic/dictionary notation that indicates a long sound.
●● Breve
Answer: The curved diacritical mark above a vowel in a sound picture or
phonic/dictionary symbol notation that indicates a short sound in a
closed syllable in which at least one consonant comes after the vowel in
the same syllable.
●● Tilde
Answer: A diacritical marking. A wavy line placed over any vowel
before r in a combination to indicate the unaccented pronunciation eg
letter. The tildes used both in coding words and in a sound picture. When
the pronunciation of any unaccented vowel-r combination is respelled in
the dictionary sound picture, the symbol (er) is used
●● Cedilla
Answer: The curved line placed beneath c to indicate its "soft" or (s)
pronunciation, as opposed to its hard or (k) pronunciation. Students use
the coding on c before the letters e, i, or y (the softeners), to remind
themselves to pronounced the (s) sound eg mice.
●● Digraph
, Answer: Two adjacent letters repressing a single consonant sound
●● Consonant Digraph
Answer: Two adjacent letters repressing a single consonant sound
●● Vowel Digraph
Answer: To adjacent letters representing a single vowel sound
●● Trigraph
Answer: Three adjacent letters which represent one speech sound (tch)
●● Quadrigraph
Answer: Four adjacent letters representing one sound (eigh)
●● Combination
Answer: A pattern of letters (found in a single syllable) which occurs
frequently together. The pronunciation of at least one of the component
parts is unexpected or the letters stand in an unexpected sequence ( ar,
er, ir, or, us, qu, wh)
●● Diphthong
