Phonology

Question 1

phonology

Answer 1

the branch of linguistics that deals with systems of sounds (including or excluding phonetics), within a language or between different languages.

Question 2

spectrogram

Answer 2

a graphic representa-
tion of the frequency distribution of the complex jumble of sound waves that
give the hearing impression of speech sounds.

Question 3

phoneme

Answer 3

smallest unit of speech distinguishing one word (or word element) from another,

Question 4

phone

Answer 4

A physical realisation of a speech sound like the voiceless or the voiced alveolar approximant

Question 5

allophones of the phoneme

Answer 5

Phones which function as alternant re-
alisations of the same phoneme

Question 6

arrow transcription

Answer 6

captures as many aspects of a specific pronunciation as possible and ignores as few details as possible.

Question 7

distribution

Answer 7

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

Question 8

complementary distribution.

Answer 8

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

Question 9

minimal pairs

Answer 9

a pair of words, as pin and bin, or bet and bed, differing only by one sound in the same position in each word

Question 10

released consonant

Answer 10

The consonant at the beginning of a syllable

Question 11

unreleased consonant

Answer 11

a stop consonant with no release burst

Question 12

free variation

Answer 12

the phenomenon of two (or more) sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in meaning and without being considered incorrect by native speakers

Question 13

Neutralisation

Answer 13

the elimination of certain distinctive features of phonemes in certain environments

Question 14

final devoicing

Answer 14

systematic phonological process occurring in languages such as Catalan, German, Dutch, Breton, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, Turkish, and Wolof. In such languages, voiced obstruents in final position become voiceless before voiceless consonants and in pausa

Question 15

aspiration

Answer 15

the strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents.

Question 16

flapping

Answer 16

a consonant sound produced by a single quick flip of the tongue against the upper part of the mouth

Question 17

non-rhotic

Answer 17

of, relating to, having, or being an accent or dialect in English in which an /r/ sound is not retained before consonants

Question 18

rhotic

Answer 18

varieties of English are those in which
r-sounds can occur in word-final position.

Question 19

constituents

Answer 19

a word or a group of words that function as a single unit within a hierarchical structure.

Question 20

syllabic consonants

Answer 20

Consonants which occupy the central part of the syllable

Question 21

onset

Answer 21

the consonant or consonant blend at the beginning of a word that precedes the first vowel

Question 22

coda

Answer 22

The optional final part of a syllable, placed after its nucleus, and usually composed of one or more consonants

Question 23

vowel epenthesis

Answer 23

the insertion of vowels into syllables

Question 24

cognates

Answer 24

words in two languages that share a similar meaning, spelling, and pronunciation

Question 25

syllabification

Answer 25

assigning syllable structure to words