Ch. 3 Phonology Key Vocabulary Flashcards
Phonology
The study of how sounds are organized within a language and how the interact with each other.
Phonetic Inventory
The set of sounds that are produces as part of the grammar of a language.
Phonotactic Constraint
Restriction on possible combinations of sounds, often in particular environments.
Sound Substitution
A process whereby sounds that already exist in a language are used to replace sounds that do not exist in the language when borrowing or when a speaker is trying to pronounce a foreign word.
Contrastive
A term used to describe two sounds that can be used to differentiate words in a language.
Non-contrastive
A term used to describe two sounds that are not used to to differentiate words in a language.
Distribution
A set of phonetic environments in which a sound occurs.
Phonetic Environment
The sounds that come before and after a particular sound in a word.
Contrastive Distribution
The occurrence of sounds in a language such that their use distinguishes between the meanings of the words in which they appear, indicating that those sounds are phonemes of the language in question. Sounds that are in contrastive distribution are allophones of different phonemes.
Minimal Pair
Two words that differ only by a single sound in the same position and that have different meanings.
Complementary Distribution
The occurrence of sounds in a language such that they are never found in the same phonetic environment. Sounds that are in complementary distribution are allophones of the same phoneme.
Free Variation
Term used to refer to two sounds that occur in overlapping environments but cause no distinction in the meaning of their respective words.
Overlapping Distribution
The occurrence of sounds in the same phonetic environments.
Phonological Rule
The description of a relationship between a phoneme and its allophones and the conditioning environment in which the allophone appears.
Underlying Form
The phonetic form of a word or morpheme before phonological rules are applied.
Types of Phonological Rules
Assimilation Dissimilation Insertion Deletion Metathesis Strengthening Weakening
Implicational Law
Observation about language universals that take the form of an implication.
Basic Allophone
The allophone of a phoneme that is used when none of the change-inducing conditions are fulfilled. Of a set of allophones, it is generally least limited in where it can occur; also termed the elsewhere allophone.
Restricted Allophone
An allophone of a phoneme that appears in a more limited set of phonetic environments.
Near-minimal pairs
Similar to minimal pair, but whereas the words in a minimal pair are identical apart from the contrastive sounds, the words in a near-minimal pair are only almost identical, apart from the contrastive sounds.
Obligatory Rule
Phonological, morphological, or syntactic rule that applies in the speech of all speakers of a language or dialect, regardless of style or rate of speech..
Optional Rule
Phonological, morphological, or syntactic rule that may or may not apply in an individual’s speech.
Allophone
One of a set of non-contrastive realizations of the same phoneme; an actual phonetic segment.
Assimilation
A process by which a sound becomes more like a nearby sound in terms of some features.
