Phonology Flashcards
Phoneme
The smallest unit of language described in written language between two /_/. They are not meaningful, but together build meaningful words.
morpheme
The smallest meaningful morphological unit of a language that cannot be further without taking away from the meaning.
phonology
The study of abstract categories that organize the sound system of language.
Spectrogram
A graphic representation of frequency distribution of the complex jumble of sound waves that gives the hearing impression of speech sounds.
phone
physical realization of a speech sound like voiceless or voiced alveolar approximant
Allophone
Alternate realizations of the same phoneme
Distribution
Different position in which speech sounds can occur or cannot occur in the words of language
phonetic context
the position in which a particular sound can or cannot occur
Complimentary distribution
2 sounds that can be distributed in such a way that one can occur where the other cannot occur
Minimal pairs
pair of words which differ in only one sound but different in meaning (Shy, Sky) (Real, Reel)
released consonant
a plosive consonant that is released after a word such as that in the word clap [p]
unreleased consonant
a consonant such as [p] that is not plosive no air is released note as [p̚]
Free variation
in a word such as clap the users ability to decide which allophone they use [klæp] or [klæp̚]
word final position
a consonant ending at the end of a word
Neutralization
in particular context a contrast between phonemes becomes invisible
final devoicing
voiced phonemes have voiceless allophones in word final positions
Aspirated stop
stops that is produced with an extra breath of air [pʰ] pat [tʰ] top
constituents
elements that make up syllables
Syllabic consonants
Consonant that occupy the central part of a syllable
Nucleus
can be a slot for a vowel, dipthong, or syllabic consonant
vowel epenthesis
insertion of vowels into syllables
syllabification
assigning syllables structure to words
maximal onset principal
given a sequence of consonants and vowels syllabification proceeds in such a way that as many consonants as possible end up in the onset
sonority
term for the category that captures our acoustic impression of clear audibility
Sonority sequencing principle
sounds preceding the nucleus onset must must rise the sonority, and sound following the nucleus (i.e. codas) must fall sonority
Syllable
a unit of speech for which there is no satisfactory definition, necessary units of in the mental organization and production of utterances
