Key terminology

Question 1

Articulatory phonetics

Answer 1

How we make speech sounds

Question 2

Acoustic phonetics

Answer 2

How speech sounds are transmitted from the speaker to the hearer

Question 3

Auditory phonetics

Answer 3

How the hearer receives and processes the acoustic signal coming from the speaker

Question 4

Larynx

Answer 4

Thickened part of trachea consisting of cartilage and bone structures connected by ligaments and muscles

Question 5

Vocal folds

Answer 5

Muscular tissue attached to the arytenoid cartilage

Question 6

Vocal tract

Answer 6

Area above the larynx

Question 7

Voiced sounds

Answer 7

Speech sounds made with the vocal folds vibrating

Question 8

Voiceless sounds

Answer 8

Sounds where air particles pass through the separated vocal folds

Question 9

Articulation

Answer 9

How the airstream is modified units journey through the vocal tract

Question 10

Active articulator

Answer 10

Flexible and mobile, take an active role in articulation

Question 11

Passive articulator

Answer 11

Largely immobile during articulation

Question 12

Place of articulation

Answer 12

Where in the vocal tract articulators modify the airflow to create a particular effect

Question 13

Manner of articulation

Answer 13

Configuration of articulators in articulation

Question 14

Sustained contact

Answer 14

Articulators touch firmly, air particles cannot escape

Question 15

Close approximation

Answer 15

Little space between articulators, some air particles can pass through easily

Question 16

Open approximation

Answer 16

Gap between articulators, air particles can pass through easily

Question 17

Plosive

Answer 17

Articulators in sustained contact preventing air particles escaping, veil closure, pressure in vocal tract rises until pressure inside mouth is higher than pressure outside, articulators actively moved apart allowing air particles to escape creating a popping sound

Question 18

Fricative

Answer 18

Sounds made by narrowing 2 articulators causing turbulence, close approximation, veil closure required

Question 19

Affricate

Answer 19

Close knit sequence of a plosive and a following fricative involving more or less the same articulators and the same place of articulation

Question 20

Nasal

Answer 20

No velic closure, no rise in pressure in vocal tract, usually voiced

Question 21

Lateral approximant

Answer 21

Air particles do not travel through the centre of the oral cavity, forced to make way over one or both sides of the tongue as centre of oral cavity blocked off while openings are created on one or both sides of the tongue

Question 22

Median approximant

Answer 22

Always voiced as need the amplification, airstream flows through centre of oral cavity, need velic closure

Question 23

Trill

Answer 23

Flexible active articulator placed close to passive articulator but not in contact, air stream passed over it causing it to flap

Question 24

Tap

Answer 24

Nearly identical to trill but stops after first contact between active and passive articulators

Question 25

Secondary articulation

Answer 25

Second sound in diphthongs

Question 26

Three-term labels

Answer 26

3 parameters by which we can identify consonants: phonatory properties, place of articulation and manner of articulation

Question 27

Diacritics

Answer 27

Symbols added to main IPA symbols to indicate some change or addition to the basic gesture

Question 28

Obstruents

Answer 28

Plosives, affricates and fricatives

Question 29

Sonorants

Answer 29

Nasals, approximants, trills and taps

Question 30

Liquids

Answer 30

Laterals and rhotics

Question 31

Glides

Answer 31

Semi-vowels, [j] and [w]

Question 32

Tongue height

Answer 32

How high the highest point of the body of the tongue is inside the oral cavity

Question 33

Horizontal tongue position

Answer 33

How far forward or back the highest point of the body of the tongue is inside the oral cavity

Question 34

Lip position

Answer 34

Are the lips rounded or unrounded

Question 35

Syllable

Answer 35

Made up of 3 parts: onset, nucleus and coda

Question 36

Onset

Answer 36

One or more consonants preceding the nucleus, non-syllabic

Question 37

Nucleus

Answer 37

Occupied by vowel sound, obligatory, syllabic

Question 38

Coda

Answer 38

After nucleus, can be occupied by one or more consonants, non-syllabic

Question 39

Primary stress

Answer 39

Vertical stroke (superior), tells us which syllable stands out the most and has the greatest emphasis

Question 40

Phone

Answer 40

Smallest perceivable discrete segment of sound in a stream of speech, single phonetic segment

Question 41

Phoneme

Answer 41

Abstract unit of a group of similar sounds perceived by the speakers of a language as being one sound

Question 42

Allophone

Answer 42

A variant of a phoneme, does not change meaning of word, similar to one another and appear in different positions in the word

Question 43

Complementary distribution

Answer 43

Relation which exists in a given speech variety between 2 phones which never occur in the same environment

Question 44

Free variation

Answer 44

Ability to substitute one phoneme for another with no change in the word's meaning

Question 45

Minimal pair

Answer 45

2 mor more words that are identical except for one phoneme that occurs in the same position in one word