Chapter 2 - The Phonological Component: Phonetics

Question 1

Phonetics

Answer 1

The study of speech sounds: their physical properties, the way they are received and decoded by the brain, and the way they are produced.

Question 2

Acoustic phonetics

Answer 2

The study of the physical properties of sound.

Question 3

Auditory phonetics

Answer 3

The study of how sounds are received by the ear and decoded by the brain.

Question 4

Articulatory phonetics

Answer 4

The study of the production of speech sounds.

Question 5

Ingressive sounds

Answer 5

Speech sounds that are produced by sucking air into the mouth

Question 6

Egressive sounds

Answer 6

Produced by expelling air from the lungs

Question 7

Articulators

Answer 7

The organs of speech

Question 8

Trachea (windpipe)

Answer 8

A tube that extends from the voice box to the lungs

Question 9

Larynx (voice box)

Answer 9

The uppermost part of the trachea that contains the vocal chords or folds and is one of the main sound-producing organs

Question 10

Vocal folds (vocal cords)

Answer 10

A muscular pair of elastic folds, which can be moved into various degrees of openness

Question 11

Glottis

Answer 11

The space (opening) between the vocal folds

Question 12

Epiglottis

Answer 12

A membrane flap that covers the glottis during swallowing and prevents anything that is swallowed from entering the lungs

Question 13

Pharyngeal cavity

Answer 13

The space or passageway in the throat

Question 14

Nasal cavity

Answer 14

The passageway in the nose

Question 15

Oral cavity

Answer 15

The space or passageway in the mouth

Question 16

Uvula

Answer 16

The fleshy lobe at the back of the roof of the mouth

Question 17

Alveolar ridge

Answer 17

The hard ridge behind the upper front teeth

Question 18

Hard palate

Answer 18

The bony section of the mouth

Question 19

Soft palate (velum)

Answer 19

The back, fleshy section of the roof of the mouth that is movable and closes off the nasal cavity during swallowing

Question 20

Voiced sounds

Answer 20

Produced, in part, by the vibrations of the vocal folds

Question 21

Voiceless sounds

Answer 21

Produced when the vocal folds are apart and the airstream flows from the larynx with minimal or no vibrations

Question 22

Orthography

Answer 22

Refers to spelling and to the writing system of a language

Question 23

Consonant

Answer 23

A speech sound that is produced when the airstream is constricted or stopped (and then released) at some point along its path before it escapes from the body

Question 24

Vowel

Answer 24

A speech sound without constriction or stoppage

Question 25

Articulation

Answer 25

The production of speech sounds by the movement of the speech organs

Question 26

Aspiration

Answer 26

The amount of air that is produced upon the release of a stop

Question 27

Diacritics or diacritic marks

Answer 27

Notations added to the main phonetic symbol to clarify details of pronunciation

Question 28

Tense vowels

Answer 28

Produced with more tension and more constriction than lax vowels; they are usually of longer duration

Question 29

Lax vowels

Answer 29

Show less tension and constriction; they are usually shorter in duration than tense vowels

Question 30

Schwa

Answer 30

An unstressed mid-central vowel that is a shorter version of a similar sounding but longer vowel (Bach)

Question 31

Accent

Answer 31

A way of pronouncing words that identifies one speaker of a language as speaking differently from another speaker of the same language

Question 32

Monophthong

Answer 32

A single vowel sound

Question 33

Diphthong

Answer 33

A double vowel sound that begins with one vowel sound and gradually moves into another vowel sound or glide

Question 34

Homophones

Answer 34

Words that sound the same but differ in meaning and/or spelling

Question 35

Syllabic consonants

Answer 35

Nasal or liquid consonants that can take the place of vowels as the nucleus of a syllable in certain words

Question 36

Phonetic segment or phone

Answer 36

A speech sound that is perceived as an individual and unique sound, different from other such sounds

Question 37

Suprasegmentals or prosodic features

Answer 37

Characteristics of speech that can distinguish words, phases, or sentences that are otherwise identical in their phonetic segments. They are associated with stretches of speech larger than an individual phonetic segment.

Question 38

Fundamental frequency

Answer 38

The rate at which the vocal folds (cords) in speech

Question 39

Pitch

Answer 39

The perception of fundamental frequency evaluated on a scale from high to low

Question 40

Intonation contour

Answer 40

The overall pitch of an utterance, sometimes represented by a line drawn over the utterance that are otherwise the same

Question 41

Tone language (tonal language)

Answer 41

Pitch difference in the same string of phones will change the meaning of that string

Question 42

Tone

Answer 42

A specific change in pitch that functions in tonal languages to distinguish words that are made up of the same segments

Question 43

Duration

Answer 43

How long a phone lasts

Question 44

Geminate

Answer 44

A phone with duration about twice that of the same phone pronounced with a short duration: a long consonant or vowel

Question 45

Singleton

Answer 45

An individual phone with a duration about half as long as a geminate

Question 46

Stress

Answer 46

To make emphatic or more prominent

Question 47

Juncture

Answer 47

A real or perceived pause within a series of phones

Question 48

Geminate

Answer 48

A phone with duration about twice that of the same phone pronounced with a short duration: a long consonant or vowel