Phonology Flashcards
phonology
the branch of linguistics that deals with systems of sounds (including or excluding phonetics), within a language or between different languages.
spectrogram
a graphic representa-
tion of the frequency distribution of the complex jumble of sound waves that
give the hearing impression of speech sounds.
phoneme
smallest unit of speech distinguishing one word (or word element) from another,
phone
A physical realisation of a speech sound like the voiceless or the voiced alveolar approximant
allophones of the phoneme
Phones which function as alternant re-
alisations of the same phoneme
arrow transcription
captures as many aspects of a specific pronunciation as possible and ignores as few details as possible.
distribution
the different positions in which a speech sound can occur or cannot occur in the words of a language
complementary distribution.
two sounds which are distributed in such a way that one can only occur where the other cannot occur complementary distribution.
minimal pairs
a pair of words, as pin and bin, or bet and bed, differing only by one sound in the same position in each word
released consonant
The consonant at the beginning of a syllable
unreleased consonant
a stop consonant with no release burst
free variation
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
Neutralisation
the elimination of certain distinctive features of phonemes in certain environments
final devoicing
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
aspiration
the strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents.
flapping
a consonant sound produced by a single quick flip of the tongue against the upper part of the mouth
non-rhotic
of, relating to, having, or being an accent or dialect in English in which an /r/ sound is not retained before consonants
rhotic
varieties of English are those in which
r-sounds can occur in word-final position.
constituents
a word or a group of words that function as a single unit within a hierarchical structure.
syllabic consonants
Consonants which occupy the central part of the syllable
onset
the consonant or consonant blend at the beginning of a word that precedes the first vowel
coda
The optional final part of a syllable, placed after its nucleus, and usually composed of one or more consonants
vowel epenthesis
the insertion of vowels into syllables
cognates
words in two languages that share a similar meaning, spelling, and pronunciation
syllabification
assigning syllable structure to words
