Phonology Key Vocabulary

Question 1

Phonology

Answer 1

The study of the abstract categories that organize the sound system of a language.

Question 2

Spectrogram

Answer 2

A spectrogram is 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

Any of the perceptually 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 like the voiceless or the voiced alveolar approximant.

Question 5

Allophones of the Phoneme

Answer 5

Function as alternant realisations of the same phoneme

Question 6

Narrow Transcription

Answer 6

Particular phoneme, it is sometimes necessary to include additional articulatory details in the transcription.

Question 7

Distribution

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Complementary 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

Is a pair of words which differ in only one sound, but differ in meaning.

Question 10

Released

Answer 10

After the building-up phase, something else follows – the release of the air that has been built up

Question 11

Unreleased

Answer 11

The air pressure is not released.

Question 12

Free Variation

Answer 12

Speakers can choose which allophone they use.

Question 13

Allophone

Answer 13

A set of multiple possible spoken sounds – or phones – or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language.

Question 14

Neutralisation

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Final Devoicing

Answer 15

The fact that a voiced phoneme has a voiceless allophone in word-final position is known in the literature.

Question 16

Dark l

Answer 16

Way of saying an /l/ sound, in which the back of the tongue is raised slightly.

Question 17

Clear l

Answer 17

The letter /l/ sound an additional movement is made with the back of the tongue, which is raised towards the velum.

Question 18

T/D- Flapping

Answer 18

Most American dialects to flap /t/ between a stressed and an unstressed vowel.

Question 19

Non-rhotic

Answer 19

Speakers do not pronounce /r/ when it is at the end of a word. That is when it is immediately after a vowel and not followed by another vowel.

Question 20

Rhotic

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Constituents

Answer 21

The elements that make up a syllable.

Question 22

Syllabic Consonants

Answer 22

Consonants which occupy the central part of the syllable.

Question 23

Nucleus

Answer 23

Can be filled by a vowel, a diphthong, or a syllabic consonant.

Question 24

Onset

Answer 24

The consonant or consonant blend at the beginning of a word that precedes the first vowel.

Question 25

Coda

Answer 25

Comprises the consonant sounds of a syllable that follow the nucleus.