Key Terms Exam 2

Question 1

affricate

Answer 1

Speech sound composed of a stop followed by a fricative, such as scraTCH.

Question 2

alveolar ridge

Answer 2

Tissue above the upper teeth on the roof of your mouth where your tongue rests to produce “alveolar” sounds, such as /t/ or /z/.

Question 3

approximant

Answer 3

Sound made by restricting but not blocking vocal tract, such as /r/ or /j/.

Question 4

distinctive feature

Answer 4

Characteristics of speech sounds that distinguish them from one another. Specifically manner of articulation, place of articulation, and voicing for consonants. As well as, height, frontness, tenseness, and roundedness for vowels.

Question 5

epiglottis

Answer 5

The cartilage that covers the opening between vocal chords and the larynx.

Question 6

flap

Answer 6

Consonant sound produced by single, rapid contact between two organs of articulation. In american english it is most commonly produced by the /t/ or /d/ between two vowels, like butter.

Question 7

fricative

Answer 7

Speech sound such as /f/ produced when articulators are brought together closely producing friction as air passes through the mouth.

Question 8

glide

Answer 8

Speech sound produced by transition from one speech sound to another, such as /w/ or /j/.

Question 9

glottal stop

Answer 9

Speech sound produced in the larynx, when the glottis (opening between the vocal chords) is closed then audibly released.

Question 10

larynx

Answer 10

Muscular, cartilaginous part of the respiratory tract that contains the vocal chords.

Question 11

liquid

Answer 11

Consonant sound produced when articulators are in proximity of each other but do not impede airflow, such as /l/ or /r/.

Question 12

obstruent

Answer 12

Speech sounds like affricates, fricatives, or oral stops, that are produced through obstruction of airflow in the mouth.

Question 13

oral sound

Answer 13

Speech sound produced by funneling air through the mouth, such as affricates, fricatives, and stops.

Question 14

phonotactic constraint

Answer 14

Rules for what sounds or sequences of sounds can occur in the onset or coda of a syllable in a particular language.

Question 15

pitch

Answer 15

Rate of repetition or vibration of the vocal chords in the production of speech sounds.

Question 16

soft palate (velum)

Answer 16

The rear surface of the roof of the mouth, leading forward to the hard palate and back towards the larynx.

Question 17

sonorant

Answer 17

Any speech sound that includes “humming” or voicing.

Question 18

spectogram

Answer 18

Image of a sound wave, used for acoustic and auditory phonetics.

Question 19

stop

Answer 19

Speech sound produced, in part, by complete obstruction of airflow.

Question 20

tone

Answer 20

Pitch of a word that changes it’s meaning.

Question 21

trachea

Answer 21

The “windpipe” through which air flows from the lungs to the larynx.

Question 22

vocal chords

Answer 22

The elastic muscles that stretch over the larynx.

Question 23

phonetics

Answer 23

Description and classification of sounds and the study of their production and perception.

As opposed to the study of application of phonetics in a particular language or language family that is phonology.

Question 24

phonology

Answer 24

The study of sound systems and sound change, usually within a particular language or family of languages.

As opposed to the broader study of production, perception, classification, and description of ALL sounds that is phonetics.

Question 25

phoneme

Answer 25

The smallest unit of language: individual sound units, or segments.

Question 26

allophone

Answer 26

A variation of a phoneme that changes depending of phonetic environment (surrounding sounds). Such as light or dark /l/ and the aspirated /p/ or /k/.

Question 27

articulatory phonetics

Answer 27

Focuses on how speech sounds are produced with articulators, like the tongue, teeth, lips, hard/soft palate etc.

Question 28

acoustic phonetics

Answer 28

Focuses on how speech sounds are transmitted. (the characteristics of sound waves created and perceived as part of “speech”)

Question 29

auditory phonetics

Answer 29

Focuses on how the ear translates sound waves into electrical impulses to the brain and how the brain perceives these as speech sounds. (how the brain translates sound waves into speech sounds)

Question 30

consonants

Answer 30

Generally involve stopping or impeding the airflow from the lungs as the articulators near or touch each other.

Question 31

vowels

Answer 31

Characterized by unimpeded airflow, during which speakers change the shape of the oral cavity and the relative position and shape of the tongue to create different sounds.

Question 32

dipthong

Answer 32

Speech sound that begins at the point of articulation of one vowel sound and end at the point of articulation of another.

Question 33

offglide

Answer 33

Sound made when a vowel moves into a glide, like in the word cow.

Question 34

onglide

Answer 34

Sound made when the glide moves into the vowel. Like in the word February.

Question 35

natural class

Answer 35

Set of sounds that can be described by their shared features so as to include all those sounds and exclude all others.

Question 36

minimal pair

Answer 36

Two words that have the same phonemes except for one difference in the same place. Such as cat and pat.

Question 37

assimilation

Answer 37

Phonological process in which a sound changes to resemble a nearby sound. Such as when the plural /s/ becomes /z/ to assimilate voicing.

Question 38

dissimilation

Answer 38

Phonological process in which we change sounds to distinguish them from the similar sounds they are surrounded by to ease articulation. Such as the past tense /Id/ to break up two bilabial stops.

Question 39

insertion (epenthesis)

Answer 39

Phonological process in which a sound is added to a word. Such as the word “com/p/fortable” or “atta/t/ch”.

Question 40

deletion

Answer 40

Phonological process in which speech sounds disappear from words. Such as “c(o)rrupt” or “gran(d)ma”.

Question 41

metathesis

Answer 41

Phonological process in which sounds switch places in the phonemic structure of a word. Such as “relevant” being pronounced “revelant”.

Question 42

syllable

Answer 42

A unit of speech consisting of uninterrupted sound composed of one or more phonemes. Generally constructed onset>nucleus>coda. In english the nucleus is usually a vowel sound.

Question 43

McGurk Effect

Answer 43

Shows that sound perception is both auditory and visual. For example if a listener hears /ba/ but sees /ga/ their perception is /da/.