Glossary

Question 1

ablaut

Answer 1

alternation between different vowels within one →paradigm or in
different derivatives of a root, e.g. sing, sang, sung.

Question 2

affricate

Answer 2

combination of a →stop and a →fricative, e.g. EN ch and j as in
child and jaw.

Question 3

approximant

Answer 3

→semivowel.

Question 4

aspiration

Answer 4

voiceless pronunciation of the first part of a vowel after a 
voiceless consonant (as if a h followed), e.g. EN pen; in most 
variants of EN and GER, p, t and k are aspirated.

Question 5

attestation

Answer 5

instance of a word form appearing in a written or oral text.

Question 6

attested

Answer 6

(word) appearing in a written or oral text; (language) known from
written or oral texts.

Question 7

cognate

Answer 7

an etymologically related sound or word.

Question 8

dental

Answer 8

a sound pronounced with the tongue touching the front teeth, e.g.
d or t.

Question 9

diacritic

Answer 9

a distinctive sign such as the umlaut on German ü, which serves
to distinguish it from u.

Question 10

diphthong

Answer 10

a combination of a vowel and a →semivowel within the same

syllable, e.g. mOUse or pIE.

Question 11

finite

Answer 11

verb form a conjugated verb form, e.g. am, is or was.

Question 12

fortis

Answer 12

pl. fortes, “tense” pronunciation of →stops; can be paired with
voicelessness, longer duration of the stop and →aspiration; cf.
→lenis.

Question 13

fricative

Answer 13

a sound produced with breath friction, e.g. f or h.

Question 14

gloss

Answer 14

explanatory comment on a word form, consisting of grammatical
information and translation.

Question 15

glottalization

Answer 15

the partial closure of the vocal folds in the pronunciation of a
sound.

Question 16

glottal stop

Answer 16

→stop produced by the closing of the vocal folds, e.g. in EN uh-oh
between the →schwa and the oh.

Question 17

infinitive verb form

Answer 17

unconjugated verb form, for example in EN the dictionary form of
a verb.

Question 18

labial

Answer 18

sound produced with the lips, e.g. p or b.

Question 19

laryngeal

Answer 19

sound produced with the larynx, e.g. h.

Question 20

lenis

Answer 20

pl. lenes, ‘lax’ (non-‘tensed’) pronunciation of →stops,

characterized by the absence of features of →fortis stops.

Question 21

morphology

Answer 21

the study of word forms.

Question 22

occlusive

Answer 22

occlusive or plosive consonant, e.g. t or b.

Question 23

palatal

Answer 23

consonant pronounced with the hard palate.

Question 24

palatalization

Answer 24

shifting of the pronunciation of a consonant toward the hard
palate, e.g. from k to ch, as in EN chin from *kin.

Question 25

paradigm

Answer 25

set of all the inflectional forms of a word; e.g., am, are, is, are, are,
are is the paradigm of the present tense of the verb to be

Question 26

pharyngeal

Answer 26

a sound produced with the pharynx.

Question 27

phoneme

Answer 27

a minimally distinctive sound of a language, e.g. t and d in EN.

Question 28

phonetics

Answer 28

pronunciation and perception of speech sounds.

Question 29

phonology

Answer 29

the science of speech sounds; describes the set of minimally
distinctive sounds in a language (→phonemes)

Question 30

plosive

Answer 30

occlusive or plosive consonant, e.g. t or b.

Question 31

resonant

Answer 31

sonorant; in EN, inherently voiced consonants, e.g. r, l, m, n, y or w.

Question 32

root t

Answer 32

he basic form of a word, without →suffixes or endings; for

example, √like is the root of lik-ing, like-ly en like-able

Question 33

schwa

Answer 33

mid central vowel, as in thE and sofA.

Question 34

semivowel

Answer 34

sound that falls between a vowel and a consonant, e.g. y or w

Question 35

sibilant

Answer 35

a hissing sound, e.g. s or z.

Question 36

stem

Answer 36

→root plus →suffixes without the ending, e.g. writing-s.

Question 37

stop

Answer 37

occlusive or plosive consonant, e.g. t or b

Question 38

suffix

Answer 38

a part of a word with a grammatical or derivational function, e.g.
us-ed, us-ing, use-ful (cf. →root).

Question 39

syllabic

Answer 39

like a vowel, in that it forms the nucleus of a syllable.

Question 40

velar

Answer 40

vowel pronounced with the soft palate, e.g. k or g.