Phonetics & Phonology Flashcards
manner of articulation
what the articulators involved do
place of articulation
where the articulatory gesture happens, the point where the airflow in the vocal tract is constricted
voicing
in voiced sounds, the vocal cords are pulled together and vibrate
plosives
complete closure somewhere in vocal tract, then air released
fricatives
articulators move quite close together, with audible friction in the air, hissing sound
affricates
plosive + fricative combination, pronounced as a single sound in the time it takes to pronounce a single consonant; a plosive released as a fricative
nasals
- velum loweres so air exits via nose, also complete closure somewhere in the mouth.
- produce a resonant sound, but are also like plosives in that there is a full closure in the mouth,
- generally voiced
approximants
articulators approach each other, but not close enough for friction, hence a more resonant, vowel-like sound
glides
behave phonologically like consonants, because unlike other vowels, they only occur directly before vowels and at start/end of a syllable and select the a-form of the indefinite article
laterals
partial closure made with tongue at the alveolar ridge; one or both sides of the tongue are lowered and air escapes through the resulting passageway
rhotics
r-sounds
bilabial
both lips are active articulators
p,b,m
labiodental
upper lip, lower teeth
f,v
(inter)dental
dental = tongue touches back of teeth; interdental = tongue between teeth
th-sounds
alveolar
passive articulator is the alveolar ridge (= gum ridge)
t,d,s,z,r
postalveolar
= alveo-palatal, palato-alveolar
passive articulator between alveolar ridge and hard palate; s/sh sounds
palatal
hard palate is passive articulator
j in yes
velar
back of tongue approaches soft palate
k,g,n
glottal
made in glottis, space between vocal folds
Pure Vowels
don’t change while being pronounced
diphtongs
a vowel in which the tongue glides from the position of one vowel to the position of another. This takes about the same time to pronounce a single (long) vowel.
tongue height
describes the highest point of the tongue in pronouncing the vowel
high > high-mid > low-mid > low
backness
which part of the tongue is the highest (or how far back is the passive articulator)
front/central/back
tenseness
tense (long) vowels are articulated with more muscular effort & higher air pressure than lax (short) vowels
roundedness
rounded vowels: lips rounded & pushed forward
unrounded: lips are spread
phone
the actual sound of a word/letter you can hear
it is represented in phonology with square brackets surrounding it
phoneme
the smallest unit that discerns meaning between sounds in any given language
written in slashes; the mental representation of a specific word; the mental image we store in our brain of the specific word
allophones
a phone which is one of the set of phones which can realize a particular phoneme
different ways you can say a word or basically another way to pronounce a phoneme
clear & dark l
dark l: back of the tongue is raised towards the velum
clear l: back of tongue is in its normal low position
free variation
variants of the same sound which appear within one environment, because of dialect or emphasis, e.g. rhotic and non-rhotic r sounds
complementary distribution
variants of the same sounds which appear in different environments; e.g. aspiration of a voiceless plosive at the start of a stressed syllable
assimilation
a sound becomes more similar to a sound near it
regressive assimilation
a sound influences another sound before it, e.g. five past (the voiced fricative v becomes voiceless because of the following voiceless consonant)
progressive assimilation
a sound influences a sound after it, e.g. the plural s in dogs is voiced because of the voiced g before it
deletion
the non-pronunciation of a sound in fast speech,e.g. [ɹaspbərɪ] > [ɹɑzbɹi] (schwa deletion)
epenthesis/insertion
adding a sound to facilitate pronunciation of neighbouring sounds, e.g. quizzes [khwɪzəz] (Obligatory epenthetic schwa,
vowel reduction
the pronunciation of a vowel as a lax vowel (most often schwa) in unstressed syllable
syllable organisation
nucleus contains the vowel; onset and coda contain respectively the consonants before and after the nucleus. The nucleus and coda form a unit called the rhyme
syllabic consonants
some consonants can be a syllable nucleus, in fast speech we find syllabic [n,m,l,r] when schwa is deleted in front of them in unstresses syllables
e.g. button [bʌtn̩ ], subtle [sʌtɫ̩ ]
heavy and light syllables
- light syllables have a short vowel and no coda
- heavy syllables have either a coda or no coda but a long vowel in the nucleus
- light syllables have one timing unit in the rhyme, heavy ones have more than one
- only heavy syllables can be stressed
Sonority Sequencing Generalisation
The nucleus of the syllable is the most sonorous (» vowel-like, loudest) element. The onset and coda are organised such that the most sonorous elements are closer to the nucleus.
Sonority scale or sonority hierarchy
(< = ‘is less sonorous than’):
obstruents < nasals < liquids < glides < vowels
Maximal Onset Principle
If a segment is not a
nucleus, assume that it is an onset rather than a coda unless the resulting
syllabification produces an unpronounceable syllable. In other words, try to make
onsets as big as possible.
