Phonology Key Vocab

Question 1

Phonology

Answer 1

The study of abstract categories that organize 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

phoneme

Answer 3

The distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another.

Question 4

phone

Answer 4

A physical realization of a speech sound.

Question 5

Allophones of the phoneme

Answer 5

Phones which function as alternant realizations of the same phoneme.

Question 6

Narrow transcription

Answer 6

Encodes more information about the phonetic variations of the specific sounds in utterance, such as accent, dialect, and speaker differences.

Question 7

Distribution

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Complimentary distribution

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Minimal pairs

Answer 9

A pair of words which differ in only one sound but differ in meaning.

Ex: wrap and lap or wrap and map

Question 10

Released consonant

Answer 10

The release of a plosive consonant

Question 11

Unrealeased consonant

Answer 11

A stop with no audible released

Question 12

Neutralisation

Answer 12

Refers to the fact that in a particular context, a contrast between phonemes become invisible.

Question 13

Final devoicing

Answer 13

A voiceless allophone in word-final position in literature.

Question 14

Aspiration

Answer 14

An aspirated stop is a stop that is produced with an extra breath of air.

Question 15

Non-rhotic

Answer 15

Varieties in which r-sounds do not seem to occur in word-final position.

Question 16

Rhotic

Answer 16

Varieties of English are those in which r-sounds can occur in word final position.

Question 17

Constituents

Answer 17

Elements that make up a syllable.

Question 18

Nucleus

Answer 18

“slot for a vowel’

Question 19

Onset

Answer 19

“slots for consonants”

Question 20

Coda

Answer 20

Postvocalic slot

Question 21

Vowel epenthesis

Answer 21

Technical term for the insertion of vowels into syllables.

Question 22

Syllabification

Answer 22

Assigning syllable structure to words

Question 23

Maximal Onset Principle

Answer 23

Phonetic principle that says as many consonants as possible should belong to the second syllable.

Question 24

Sonority

Answer 24

Technical term for the category that captures our acoustic impression of ‘clear audibility’.

Question 25

Sonority Sequencing Principle

Answer 25

Sounds preceding the nucleus must rise in sonority and sounds following the nucleus must fall in sonority.