Chapter 3

Question 1

Obstruent

Answer 1

a natural class of sounds produced with an obstruction of the airflow in the oral cavity while the nasal cavity is closed off. Includes oral stops, fricatives, and affricates.

Question 2

Restricted Allophone

Answer 2

An allophone of a phoneme that appears in a more limited set of phonetic environments.

Question 3

Insertion

Answer 3

Phonological process by which a segment not present in the phonemic or underlying form is added in the phonetic form.

Question 4

Natural Class

Answer 4

Group of sounds in a language that satisfy a given description to the exclusion of other sounds in that language.

Question 5

Contrastive Distribution

Answer 5

The occurrence of sounds in language such that use their 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.

Question 6

Basic Allophone

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

Implication Law

Answer 7

Observation about language universals that takes the form of an implication. Example: If A then B, meaning if a language has feature A then we expect it to have feature B.

Question 8

Phonological Rule

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Phonotactic Constraint

Answer 9

Restriction on possible combinations of sounds, often in particular environments.

Question 10

Palatalization

Answer 10

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 11

Obligatory Rule

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

Optional Rule

Answer 12

Phonological, morphological, or syntactic rule that may or may not apply in an individual’s speech.

Question 13

Near-Minimal Pair

Answer 13

Similar to a minimal pair, but the words in a near-minimal pair are only almost identical, apart from the contrastive sounds.

Question 14

Sound Substitution

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

Weakening/strengthening

Answer 15

A process through which sounds are made “weaker” or “stronger” through some criterion.

Question 16

Free Variation

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Dissimilation

Answer 17

Process by which two nearby sounds become less alike with respect to some feature.

Question 18

Complementary Distribution

Answer 18

The occurrence of sounds in a language such that they are never found in the same phonemic environment. Sounds that are in the complementary distribution are allophones of the same phoneme.

Question 19

Conditioning Environment

Answer 19

Neighboring sounds of a given sound that cause it to undergo a change.

Question 20

Allophone

Answer 20

One set of a noncontrastive realizations of the same phoneme; an actual phonetic segment.

Question 21

Assimilation

Answer 21

A process by which a sound becomes more like a nearby sound in terms of some features.

Question 22

Natural Class

Answer 22

Group of sounds in a language that satisfy a given description to the exclusion of other sounds in that language.

Question 23

Phonetic Inventory

Answer 23

The set of sounds that are produced as a part of the grammar of a language.

Question 24

Phoneme Rule

Answer 24

A class of speech sounds identified by a native speaker as the same sound; a mental entity or category related to various allophones by phonological rules. Phonemes are written between slashes, for example, /t/.

Question 25

Deletion

Answer 25

In phonology, a process by which a sound present in the phonemic form (underlying form) is removed from the phonetic form in certain environments.