Module 3 Chapter 3 Vocab Terms

Question 1

phonotactic constraint

Answer 1

restriction on possible combinations of sounds, often in particular environments

Question 2

sound substitution

Answer 2

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 3

underlallophone

Answer 3

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

Question 4

phoneme

Answer 4

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-/t/

Question 5

noncontrastive vs. contrastive

Answer 5

noncontrastive-a term used to describe two sounds that are not used to differentiate words in a language
contrastive-a term used to describe two sounds that can be used to differentiate words in a language

Question 6

List the set of phonetic environments that a sound can occur

Answer 6

Overlapping Distribution-The occurrence of sounds in the same phonetic environment
Complementary Distribution-The occurrence of sounds in a language such that they are never found in the same phonetic environment-they are allophones of the same phoneme
Contrastive Distribution-The occurrence of sounds in a language such that their use distinguishes between the meanings of 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 7

minimal pair

Answer 7

two words that differ only by a single sound in the same position and have different meanings

Question 8

alternation in phonology

Answer 8

in phonology, a difference between two or more phonetic forms that one might expect to be related

Question 9

free variation

Answer 9

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

Question 10

phonological rule

Answer 10

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

Question 11

underlying form

Answer 11

the phonetic form of a word or morpheme before phonological rules are applied

Question 12

conditioning environment

Answer 12

neighboring sounds of a given sound that cause it to undergo change

Question 13

natural class

Answer 13

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

Question 14

sibilant

Answer 14

a member of the natural class of sounds that are characterized by a high-pitched hissing quality

Question 15

obstruent

Answer 15

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 16

sonorant

Answer 16

sound (usually voiced) produced with a relatively open passage of air flow. Nasals, liquids, glides, and vowels are all sonorants

Question 17

assimilation

Answer 17

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

Question 18

palatalization

Answer 18

a process by which a sound takes on a palatal place of articulation, usually in assimilation to high or mid front vowels like [i] or [e]

Question 19

vowel harmony

Answer 19

long distance assimilation between vowels

Question 20

deletion

Answer 20

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

Question 21

metathesis

Answer 21

switching of the order of two sounds, each taking the place of the other

Question 22

aspiration

Answer 22

a puff of air that follows the release of a consonant when there is a delay in the onset of voicing

Question 23

insertion

Answer 23

phonological process by which a segment not present in the phonemic (or underlying) form is added in the phonetic form

Question 24

implicational law

Answer 24

observation about language universals the takes the form of an implication (e.g. if A the B, meaning that if a language has feature A, then we can expect it to have feature B)

Question 25

basic vs. restricted allophone

Answer 25

basic allophone-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
restricted allophone-an allophone of a phoneme that appears in a more limited set of phonetic environments