Phonology

Question 1

Phonology

Answer 1

the study of the abstract categories

that organise the sound system of a language

Question 2

spectrogram

Answer 2

a graphic representation of the frequency distribution of the complex jumble of sound waves that
give the hearing impression of speech sounds

Question 3

distribution

Answer 3

the different positions in which a speech sound can occur or cannot
occur in the words of a language

Question 4

complementary distribution

Answer 4

Two sounds which are distributed in such a way that one can only occur
where the other cannot occur

Question 5

minimal pair

Answer 5

a pair of words which

differ in only one sound, but differ in meaning

Question 6

Neutralisation

Answer 6

the fact that in a particular context, a

contrast between phonemes becomes invisible

Question 7

final devoicing

Answer 7

The fact that a voiced phoneme has a voiceless allophone in word-final position

Question 8

aspirated stop

Answer 8

a stop that is produced with an extra ‘breath of air’

Question 9

non-rhotic

Answer 9

r-sounds do not

seem to occur in word-final position

Question 10

rhotic

Answer 10

r-sounds can occur in word-final position

Question 11

constituents

Answer 11

the elements that make up a syllable

Question 12

syllabic consonants

Answer 12

Consonants which occupy the central part of the syllable

Question 13

nucleus

Answer 13

‘slot for a vowel’ in a constituent

Question 14

onset

Answer 14

the prevocalic slot in a constituent

Question 15

coda

Answer 15

the postvocalic slot in a constituent

Question 16

vowel epenthesis

Answer 16

the insertion of vowels into syllables

Question 17

syllabification

Answer 17

Assigning syllable structure to words

Question 18

Maximal Onset Principle

Answer 18

Given a sequence of consonants and vowels, syllabification proceeds in such a way that as many consonants as possible end up in an onset, even if the language allows codas.

Question 19

sonority

Answer 19

the category that captures our acoustic impression

of ‘clear audibility’

Question 20

Sonority Sequencing Principle

Answer 20

sounds preceding the nucleus (i.e. onsets) must rise in sonority, and sounds following the nucleus (i.e. codas) must fall in sonority

Question 21

phoneme

Answer 21

the minimal distinctive unit in the sound system of the language

Question 22

phone

Answer 22

A physical realisation of a speech sound like the voiceless or the voiced alveolar approximant

Question 23

allophones of the phoneme

Answer 23

Phones which function as alternant realisations of the same phoneme

Question 24

narrow transcription

Answer 24

including additional articulatory details in the transcription (such as, for example, [   ̥] in [ɹ ̥])

Question 25

free variation

Answer 25

speakers can choose which allophone they use in a complementary distribution