Chapter 3

Question 1

Phonology

Answer 1

the study of the distribution of sounds in a language and the interactions between the different sounds

Question 2

phonotactic constraints

Answer 2

restrictions on possible combinations of sounds

Question 3

sound substitution

Answer 3

sounds that exist in a language a speaker knows are used to replace sounds that do not exist in that language when pronouncing the words of a foreign language

Question 4

allophone

Answer 4

one of a set of noncontrastive realizations of the same phoneme

Question 5

alternation

Answer 5

in phonology, a different between two or more phonetic forms that one might expect to be related.

Question 6

assimilation

Answer 6

a process by which a sound becomes more likely a nearby sound in terms of some feature

Question 7

contrastive distribution

Answer 7

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

Question 8

complementary distribution

Answer 8

the occurrence of sounds in a language such that they are never found in the same phonetic environment.

Question 9

free variation

Answer 9

term used to refer to two sounds that occur in overlapping environments but cause no distinction in the meaning of their respective words.

Question 10

labial

Answer 10

a member of a natural class of sounds produced with the lips

Question 11

minimal pair

Answer 11

two words that differ only by a single sound in the same position and that have different meanings

Question 12

noncontrastive

Answer 12

a term used to describe two sounds that are not used to differentiate words in a language

Question 13

overlapping distribution

Answer 13

the occurrence of sounds in the same phonetic environments

Question 14

obstruent

Answer 14

a natural class of sounds produced with an obstruction of the airflow in the oral cavity while the nasal cavity is closed off

Question 15

phoneme

Answer 15

a class of speech sounds identified by a native speaker as the same sound

Question 16

phonological rules

Answer 16

the description of a relationship between a phoneme and its allophones and the conditioning environment in which the allophone appears

Question 17

underlying form

Answer 17

the phonemic form of a word or morpheme before phonological rules are applied

Question 18

vowel harmony

Answer 18

long distance assimilation between vowels

Question 19

palatalization

Answer 19

a process wherein a sound takes on a palatal place of articulation, usually in assimilation to high or mid front vowels like [i] or [e]

Question 20

insertion

Answer 20

a segment not present in the phonemic form is added in the phonetic form

Question 21

maximally distinct

Answer 21

consonants that have very few qualities in common with the vowels, and the vowels are likewise very different from the consonants

Question 22

deletion

Answer 22

a process by which a sound present in the phonemic form is removed from the phonetic form in certain environments

Question 23

metathesis

Answer 23

switching of the order of two sounds, each taking the place of the other

Question 24

aspiration

Answer 24

a puff of air that follows the release of a consonant when there is a delay in the onset of voicing

Question 25

flapping

Answer 25

a sound produced by bringing two articulators together very quickly