Phonology

Question 1

phonetic inventories

Answer 1

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

Question 2

sound substitution

Answer 2

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

Question 3

aspiration

Answer 3

a puff of air that follows the release of a consonant when there is a delay in the onset of voicing. symbolized by a superscript (e.g., P^h)

Question 4

noncontrastive

Answer 4

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

Question 5

contrastive

Answer 5

a term used to describe two sounds that can be used to differentiate words in a language

Question 6

allophone

Answer 6

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

Question 7

phoneme

Answer 7

a class of speech sounds identified by a native speaker as the same sound; a mental entity (or category) related to various allophones by phonological rules. phonemes are written between slashes, for example, /t/.

Question 8

free variation

Answer 8

term used to refer to two sounds that occur in overlapping environments but cause no distinction in the meaning of their respective words

Question 9

overlapping distribution

Answer 9

the occurrence of sounds in the same phonetic environments

Question 10

phonological rules

Answer 10

the description of a relationship between a phoneme and its allophones and the conditioning environment in which the allophone appears

Question 11

underlying form

Answer 11

the phonetic form of a word or morpheme begore phonological rules are applied

Question 12

conditioning environment

Answer 12

neighboring sounds of a given sound that cause it to undergo a change

Question 13

sibilant

Answer 13

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

Question 14

labial

Answer 14

a member of a natural class of sounds produced with the lips; includes both bilabial and labiodental sounds

Question 15

obstruents

Answer 15

a natural class of sounds produced with an obstruction of the airflow in the oral cavity while the nasal cavity is closed off. Includes oral stops, fricatives, and affricates

Question 16

sonorants

Answer 16

sound (usually voiced) produced with a relatively open passage of airflow. Nasals, liquids, glides, and vowels are all sonorants

Question 17

phonology

Answer 17

the study of how sounds are organized within a language and how they interact with each other

Question 18

contrastive distribution

Answer 18

simply a case in which the two sounds occur in the same phonetic environment, and using one rather than the other changes the meaning of the word (thus the sounds can also be referred to as contrastive)

Question 19

assimilation

Answer 19

rules of assimilation cause a sound (or gesture) to become more like a neighboring sound (or gesture) with respect to some phonetic property

Question 20

nasal place assimilation (English)

Answer 20

an alveolar nasal assimilates to the place of articulation of a following consonant

Question 21

vowel harmony

Answer 21

a back vowel becomes front when preceded by a front vowel in the same word

Question 22

dissimilation

Answer 22

rules of dissimilation cause two close or adjacent sounds to become less similar with respect to some property, by means of a change in one or both sounds

Question 23

manner dissimilation (Greek)

Answer 23

a stop becomes a fricative when followed by another stop

Question 24

voiceless stop insertion (English)

Answer 24

between a nasal consonant and a voiceless fricative, a voiceless stop with the same place of articulation as the nasal is inserted

Question 25

CV metathesis (Leti)

Answer 25

when three consecutive consonants occur, the first consonant trades places with the preceding vowel