Phonology

Question 1

phonology

Answer 1

the study of the sound system of a 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

Question 2

phonemic inverntory

Answer 2

the set of sounds that are produced as part of the grammar of a language

Question 3

phonotactic constraits

Answer 3

restriction on possible combinations of sounds, often in particular environments

Question 4

aspiration

Answer 4

a puff of air that follows the release of a consonant when there is a delay in the onset of voicing

Question 5

noncontrastive

Answer 5

a term used to describe two sounds that are not used in differentiate words in a language

Question 6

phoneme

Answer 6

a class of speech sounds identified by a native speaker as the same sounds; mental entity related to various allophones by phonological rules

Question 7

allophone

Answer 7

one of a set of noncontrastive realizations of the same phoneme; actual phonetic segment

Question 8

distribution

Answer 8

the set of phonetic environments in which a sound occurs

Question 9

overlapping distribution

Answer 9

the occurrence of sounds in the same phonetic environments

Question 10

assimilation

Answer 10

a process by which a sound becomes more like a nearby sound in terms of some feature

Question 11

vowel harmony

Answer 11

long-distance assimilation between vowels

Question 12

metathesis

Answer 12

switching of the order of two sounds; each taking the place of the other

Question 13

flapping

Answer 13

a sound produced by bringing two articulators together very quickly

Question 14

obligatory rule

Answer 14

phonological, morphological, or syntactic rule that applies in the speech of all speakers of a language or dialect, regardless of style or rate of speech

Question 15

near-minimal pairs

Answer 15

similar to minimal pair, but whereas the words in a minimal pair are identical apart from the contrastive sounds, the words in a near-minimal pair are only almost identical, apart from the contrastive sounds

Question 16

implicational law

Answer 16

observation about language universals that takes the form of an implication

Question 17

insertion

Answer 17

phonological process by which a segment not present in the phonemic form is added in the phonetic form

Question 18

deletion

Answer 18

a process by which a sound present in the phonemic form is removed from the phonetic form in certain environments

Question 19

palatalization

Answer 19

a process wherein a sound takes on a palatal place of articulation, usually in assimilation to high or mid front vowels like (i) or (e)

Question 20

sibilant

Answer 20

a member of the natural class of sounds that are characterized by a high-pitched hissing quality

Question 21

obstruents

Answer 21

a natural class of sounds produced with an obstruction of the airflow in the oral cavity while the nasal cavity is closed off

Question 22

sonorants

Answer 22

sound produced with a relatively open passage of airflow

Question 23

restricted allophone

Answer 23

an allophone of a phoneme that appears in a more limited set of phonetic environments

Question 24

voiced

Answer 24

sound made with the vocal folds vibrating

Question 25

voiceless

Answer 25

sound made without the vocal folds vibrating