Phonetics Terms Flashcards
Define the terms for Chapter Two: Phonetics. Provide examples where possible.
Glottal state
refers to whether the sound is voiced or voiceless.
Place of articulation
refers to the place in the vocal tract that has the greatest constriction.
Manner of articulation
one of various configurations of diffeent areas of the vocal tract (lips, teeth, velum, etc.) to make sounds.
Stop
a sound made with a complete closure either in the oral cavity or the glottis.
[p] [k] [t]
Fricative
a consonant produced with a continuous airflow through the mouth.
[v] [h] [s]
Affricate
a phonetically complex sound made with a stop and a slow release of the closure. There are two in English.
[tʃ] [dʒ]
Obstruent
any non-sonorant consonant
stops, fricatives, affricates
Nasal
a sound made with the airflow coming out of the nasal cavity.
[m] [n] [ŋ]
Liquid
a class of sounds that contains the numerous variants of [l] and [r].
lateral
varieties of l that, as articulated, allow air to escape the mouth along the lowered sides of the tongue.
[l]
Glide
a rapidly articulated non-syllabic segment that shows properties of both consonants and vowels.
[y] [w]
Aspiration
a lag or brief delay of sound before the voicing of a following vowel accompanied by a release of air.
[pʰ] [tʰ]
Unreleased stop
a stop, often word-final, where the sound is not released after the closure.
[kʰæp ̚ ]
Monophthong
Simple vowel - vowels whose quality does not change during their articulation (represented by a single segment)
Major diphthong
vowel sounds whose quality change is easy to hear.
Minor diphthong
vowel sounds whose quality is harder to hear.
Fixed-stress language
a language where the position of the stresses in words are always consistent.
Variable-stress language
A language in which the position of the stresses in words is not fixed.
Stress-timed language
In terms of thythm, the time between stresses are the same.
e.g. English
Syllable-timed language
In terms of rhythm, the amount of time between syllables is the same.
e.g. French
Coarticulation
A phonetic situation where there is more than one articulator.
Process
a change in sound during the production of connected speech - often occurs to make sounds easier to articulate.
Epenthesis
A process that inserts a segment within an existing string of segments.
[wormpθ] vs. [wormθ]
Deletion
a process that removes a segment from certain phonetic contexts.
[pʰərejd] vs [pr̥ejd]
Assimilation
a number of different processes in which one sound influences another - one sound becomes more like another nearby sound.
Nasal assimilation
a nasal sound influenced one nearby.
“can” [kæ̃n]
Place assimilation
the place of sound influences the way it is articulated.
“Banff” [bæm̪f] or “sink” [sɪŋk]
Voicing assimilation
voicing in first consonant influences voiding in the second.
voiceless plural: [kæts] vs. [dɑwgz]
Metathesis
process that occurs with the change in placement of sounds (doesn’t really happen in English).
“ask” [æsk] => [æks] “aks”
