Phonology

Question 1

Phonology

Answer 1

The study of the abstract categories that organize the sound system of a language.

Question 2

Spectrogram

Answer 2

Is a graphic representation of the frequency distribution of the complex jumble of sound waves that give the hearing impression of speech sounds.

Question 3

Phoneme

Answer 3

A class of speech sounds identified by a native speaker as the same sound.

Question 4

Phone

Answer 4

A speech sound, phones are written in square brackets [t].

Question 5

Allophones of the Phoneme

Answer 5

Phones which function as alternant realizations of the same phoneme.

Question 6

Distribution

Answer 6

The different positions in which a speech sound can occur or cannot occur in the words of a language.

Question 7

Complementary Distribution

Answer 7

Two sounds which are distributed in such a way that one can only occur where the other cannot occur.

Question 8

Minimal Pair

Answer 8

Is a pair of words which differ in only one sound, but differ in meaning.

Question 9

Free variation

Answer 9

Term used to refer to two sounds that occur in overlapping environment but cause no distinction in the meaning of their respective words.

Question 10

Neutralisation

Answer 10

Refers to the fact that in a particular context, a contrast between phonemes becomes invisible.

Question 11

Final devoicing

Answer 11

The fact that a voiced phoneme has a voiceless allophone in word-final position.

Question 12

Velarised

Answer 12

The third realisation of /l/, [t], also termed dark l. ‘Velarised’ comes from ‘velum’, which is the name of the soft back part of the roof of the mouth (‘soft palate’).

Question 13

Aspiration

Answer 13

The term is derived from the Latin word spiritus, meaning something like ‘a breath of air’.

Question 14

Aspirated stop

Answer 14

A stop that is produced with an extra ‘breath of air’. Aspirated stops are marked in narrow phonetic transcription by adding a superscript to the symbol.

Question 15

Non-rhotic

Answer 15

A language variety in which sequences of vowel-/r/-consonant or vowel-/r/-word boundary are not permitted to occur.

Question 16

Rhotic

Answer 16

A language variety in which sequences of vowel-/r/-consonant or vowel-/r/-word boundary are permitted to occur.

Question 17

Constituents

Answer 17

Elements that make up a syllable.

Question 18

Syllabic consonants

Answer 18

Consonants which occupy the central part of the syllable.

Question 19

Nucleus

Answer 19

Core element of a syllable. ‘Slot for a vowel’. (obligatory).

Question 20

Onset

Answer 20

‘slots for consonants’ (optional)

Question 21

Coda

Answer 21

post vocalic slot (optional)

Question 22

Syllabification

Answer 22

Assigning syllable structure to words.

Question 23

Maximal Onset Principle

Answer 23

Intervocalic consonants should be considered onsets first if possible as long as there is no violation of the sonority hierarchy.

Question 24

Sonority

Answer 24

Is the technical term for the category that captures our acoustic impression of ‘clear audibility’.

Question 25

Sonority Sequencing Principle

Answer 25

A curve that goes much further than just stating that sounds in onsets and sounds in codas must be lower in sonority than their respective nuclei. It claims that sounds preceding the nucleus must rise in sonority, and sounds following the nucleus must fall in sonority.