Phonology Key Terms (Ch. 3) Flashcards
phonetic inventories
the sounds that are produced as part of the language
phonotactic constraints
restrictions on possible combinations of sounds
sound substitution
speakers use sounds of their native language to replace non-native sounds when pronouncing the words of a foreign language
aspiration
short burst or putt of air
phoneme
a set of speech sounds that are perceived to be variants of the same sound
allophone
member of a particular phoneme set, which corresponds to an actual phonetic segment produced by a speaker
phonetic environments
the sounds that come before and after it in a word
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 whose pronunciations differ by exactly one sound
free variation
sounds with interchangeable patterning
phonological rules
the mapping between phonemic and phonetic elements
natural class
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.
obstruents
are produced with an obstruction of the airflow
sonorants
are segments produced with a relatively open passage for the airflow
assimilation
cause a sound to become more like a neighboring sound with respect to some phonetic property
nasal place assimilation
an alveolar nasal assimilates to the place of articulation of a following consonant
vowel harmony
a back vowel becomes front when preceded by a front vowel in the same word
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
insertion
cause a segment not present at the phonemic level to be added to the phonetic form of a word
deletion
rules eliminate a sound that was present at the phonemic level
overlapping distribution
sounds that can occur in the same environment
flapping
an alveolar stop is realized as a flap when it occurs after a stressed vowel and before an unstressed vowel
voiceless stop insertion
between a nasal consonant and a voiceless fricative, a voiceless stop with the same place of articulation as the nasal is inserted
CV metathesis
when three consecutive consonants occur, the first consonant trades places with the preceding vowel
implicational law
the presence of the less common sound implies that the more common sound will also be used in the language
