Phonology Flashcards
understand key vocabulary
Phonology
the study of the abstract categories that organise the sound system of a language
spectogram
a graphic representation of the frequency distributionof the complex jumbleof sound waves that give the hearing impression of speech sounds
phone
a physical realisation of a speech sound like the voiceless or the voiced alveolar approximant
distribution
the different positions in which a speech sound can occur or cannnot occur in the words of language
complementary distribution
two sounds which are distributed in such a way that one can only occur where the other cannot occur
minimal pairs
a pair of words which differ in only one sound, but differ in meaning
free variation
speakers can choose which allophone they use
neutralisation
refers to the fact that in particular context, a contrast between phonemes becomes invisible
final devoicing
when a voiced phoneme has a voiceless allophone in word (final position)
aspiration
the process of aspirating steps
syllabic consonants
consonants which occupy th central part of the syllable
onset
the prevocalic slot
coda
postvocalic slot
vowel epenthesis
the technical term for the insertion of vowels into syllables
syllabification
assigning syllable structures to words
sonority
the technical term for the category that captures our acoustic impression of “clear audibility”
narrow transcription
transcriptions that include additional articulatory details
unreleased
the air pressure is not released
clear 1
non velarised realisation
dark 1
velarised realisation
constituents
elements that make up a syllable
non-rhotic
r-sounds do not
seem to occur in word-final position
rhotic
r-sounds can occur in word-final position
cognates
words that have the same linguistic derivation as another; from the same original word or root
