Phonetics - Basic Concepts Flashcards
Phonology
The organization of sound patterns within a language. One of the functions of this organization is to arrange sounds into contrastive units.
Phonological patterns occur to make articulatory transitions more natural
Phonetics
The classification and description of speech sounds according to their production, transmission and perceptual characteristics
Phone
A concrete physical entity of sound that can be perceived and is not language specific
Phoneme
the smallest linguistic unit that establishes word meaning and distinguishes meaning between words
Allophone
A phonetic variation of a phoneme that doesn’t change its meaning
Two types: free variation and complementary distribution
Free Variation
allophones of the same phone that can occur in the same environment and therefore can be interchangeable and unpredictable
Complementary Distribution
Allophones of a phoneme that occur in mutually exclusive contexts. As they cannot occur in the same place they should be predictable
Bilabial Consonants
lower lip to upper lip
/b, p, m/
Labiodental
lower lip to upper teeth
/f,v/
Dental/Interdental
tongue tip to teeth
/ð, θ/
Alveolar
tongue tip to alveolar ridge
/s, z, t, d, n, ɹ /
Post alevolar
tongue tip to behind alveolar ridge
/ /ʃ, ʒ/
Velar
Tongue body to velum (soft palate)
/k, g, ŋ/
Palatal
Tongue body to palate (hard palate)
/j/
Glottal
vocal folds come together
/ʔ, h/
Plosives
sounds produced with a complete closure of the vocal tract. Air temporarily builds up behind the closure and is released
/p, b, t, d, k, g, ʔ/
Fricatives
sounds produced when air passes through a narrowed constriction created by the articulators closely approximating each other and causing turbulence in the airflow
/f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h/
Affricates
sounds that are produced by an initial closure of the vocal tract (stop) followed by a release of air through a narrowed constriction (fricative). The plosive and fricative are produced in one fluid movement and considered to be one sound.
/t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ/
Nasals
Sounds that are produced with an open velopharyngeal port. The articulators block the flow of air in the oral cavity, redirecting it through the nasal cavity.
/m, n, ŋ/
liquids
vowel-like sounds that are produced when the articulators come close to one another but do not create a complete closure
/ɹ, l/
Obstruents
consonant sounds in which the main sound source is due to turbulence that is created by a complete or narrow constriction of the articulators
plosives, fricatives and affricates
glides
sounds that are characterized by a gliding motion of the articulators from a partly constricted position into a more open position
/w, j/
Sonorants
sounds produced with a relatively open vocal tract and with little turbulence in the air stream as it passes through the oral cavity
nasals, liquids and glides
Stridents
Sounds that are produced with an intense noise
/f, v, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ/
Sibilants
A subset of fricatives that are characterize by greater acoustic energy in the higher frequencies
/ s, z, ʃ, ʒ, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ/
Approximants
sounds that are produced when the articulators are brought together but not closed; the constriction is less than that associated with obstruents
/l, r, w, j/
Early 8 sounds
My Big Yacht Never Waits During Peak Hours
/m, b, j, n, w, d, p, h/
Middle 8 Sounds
Tims KiNG Gave Funny Very Cheap Jam
/t, k, ŋ, g, v, f, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ/
Late 8 Sounds
She Thinks They meaSured a Lazy Silly Red Zebra
/ʃ, θ, ð, ʒ, l, s, ɹ, z/
