Chapter 3 The Sound System: Phonology Flashcards
Phonology
The study of the abstract categories
that organize the sound system of a language.
Spectrogram
a graphic representation of the frequency distribution of the complex jumble of sound waves that give the hearing impression of speech sounds.
phoneme
the minimal distinctive unit in the sound system of the language.
phone
A physical realization of a speech sound like the voiceless or the
voiced alveolar approximant
allophones of the phoneme
Phones which function as alternant realizations of the same phoneme
narrow transcription
additional articulatory details in the transcription (such as, for example, [ ̥] in [ɹ ̥̥]
distribution
the different positions in which a speech sound can occur or cannot
occur in the words of a language.
complementary distribution
Two sounds which are distributed in such a way that one can only occur
where the other cannot occur.
minimal pairs
pair of words which differ in only one sound, but differ in meaning.
released consonant
where the air is released
un-released
where the air is not released
free variation
speakers can choose which allophone they use.
final devoicing
a voiced phoneme has a voiceless allophone in the word-final position
aspirated stop
a stop that is produced with an extra ‘breath of air’.
flap
a sound in which the tongue very quickly taps
the alveolar ridge once.
