Phonology Flashcards
Phonology
the study of how sounds are organized within a language and how they interact with each other
phoneme
a set of speech sounds that are perceived to be variants of the same sound
allophone
each member of a particular phoneme set
contrastive distribution
two sounds occur in the same phonetic environment, and using one rather than the other changes the meaning of the word
minimal pair
two words (with different meanings) whose pronunciations differ by exactly one sound
complementary distribution
sounds that do not occur in the same phonetic environments
phonological rules
the mapping between phonemic and phonetic elements
natural class
a group of sounds in a language that share one or more articulatory or auditory property, to the exclusion of all other sounds in that language
sibilant
segments that have high-pitched, hissing sound quality
obstruents
are produced with an obstruction of the airflow
sonorants
are segments produced with a relatively open passage for the airflow
palatalization
refers to a special type of assimilation in which a consonant becomes lie a neighboring palatal
vowel harmony
a back vowel becomes front when preceded by a front vowel in the same word
manner dissimilation
a stop becomes a fricative when followed by another stop
insertion
cause a segment not present at the phonemic level to be added to the phonetic form of a word
deletion
may be deleted in unstressed syllables
CV metathesis
when three consecutive consonants occur, the first consonant trades places with the preceding vowel
basic allophone
assumed to be the closest approximation of the mental “sound” that speakers store in memory
phonetic inventories
the sounds that are produced as part of the language
sound substitution
speakers use sounds of their native language to replace non-native sounds when pronouncing the words of foreign language
overlapping distribution
when sounds can occur in the same environment; sounds that are in contrastive distribution and sounds that are in free variation
underlying form
the mapping between the phonemic form
nasal place assimilation
an alveolar nasal assimilates to the place of articulation of a following consonant
strengthening
make sounds stronger; also called fortition
obligatory phonological rule
always applies in the speech of all speakers of a language or dialect having the rule, regardless of style or rate of speaking
