The aural component of Paper XII: Phonetics and Phonology consists of detailed phonetic transcription of a small sample of an unfamiliar language. In previous years, the samples have been of two or three sentences. The recordings were presented on audio CD's, on which the first few tracks contained the sentences. Subsequent tracks contained the same sentences, edited into separate words.

The test materials from recent years are provided below, for practise. (Note that the identity of the language is not disclosed at the time of the examination.)

Trinity Term 2002: Kassem (Niger-Congo; Ghana)

Trinity Term 2003: Thai

Trinity Term 2004: Fula (Niger-Congo, West Atlantic; Fouta Djallon, Guinea)

Trinity Term 2005: Kuku dialect of Bari (Nilo-Saharan, Eastern Nilotic; spoken by ethnic groups surrounding Juba town in Southern Sudan)

Trinity Term 2006: Lun Bawang

Other examples, for practise:

Amharic

Cantonese

Irish

Clickable IPA chart, with MP3 audio clips