Phonology Flashcards
Phonology
The study of the sound system of language, how the particular sounds contrast in each language to form an integrated system for encoding information, and how such systems differ from one language to another.
Phonetic inventories
The set of sounds that are produced as part of the grammar of a language.
Phonotactic constraints
Restriction on possible combinations of sounds, often in particular environments.
Sound substitution
A process whereby sounds that already exist in a language are used to replace sounds that do not exist in the language when borrowing or when a speaker is trying to pronounce a foreign word.
Allophone
One of a set of non contrastive realizations of the same phoneme; an actual phonetic segment.
Phoneme
A class of speech sounds identified by a native speaker as the same sound.
Minimal pair
Two sounds that differ only by a single sound in the same position and that have different meanings.
Phonetic environments
The sounds that come before and after a particular sound in a word.
Contrastive distribution
The occurrence of sounds in language such that their use distinguishes between the meanings of the words in which they appear, indicating that those sounder phonemes of the language in question.
Free variation
Term used to refer to two sounds that occur in overlapping environments but cause no distinction in the meaning of their respective words.
Overlapping distribution
The occurrence of sounds in the same phonetic environments.
Underlying form
The phonemic form of a word or morpheme before phonological rules are applied.
Conditioning environment
Neighboring sounds of a given sound that cause it to undergo a change.
Obstruent
A natural class of sounds produced with an obstruction of the airflow in the oral cavity while the nasal cavity is closed off.
Sonorant
Sound produced with a relatively open passage of airflow.
Assimilation
A process by which a sound becomes more like a nearby sound in terms of some features.
Palatalization
A process wherein a sound takes on a palatal place of articulation, usually in assimilation to high or mid front vowels like [i] and [e].
Dissimilation
Process by which two nearby sounds become less alike with respect to some feature.
Implicational Law
Observation about language universals that takes the form of an implication
Basic allophone
The allophone of a phoneme that is used when none of the change inducing conditions are fulfilled.
Restricted allophone
An allophone of a phoneme that appears in a more limited set of a phonetic environments.
Mokilese
Is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family, spoken in Micronesia.
Sindhi
An Indo-European language of the Indo-Aryan family spoken in Pakistan and India.
Standard Italian
An Indo-European language of the romance family, spoken in Italy.
