Phonology Key Vocabulary

Question 1

Phonology

Answer 1

the study of the abstract categories
that organised 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

any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another

Question 4

allophones

Answer 4

the linguistically non-significant variants of each phoneme

Question 5

narrow transcription

Answer 5

captures as many aspects of a specific pronunciation as possible and ignores as few details as possible

Question 6

distribution

Answer 6

The range of contexts that a phone can appear in

Question 7

complementary distribution

Answer 7

the distribution of phones in their respective phonetic environments in which one phone never appears in the same phonetic context as the other.

Question 8

minimal pairs

Answer 8

words that differ by only one sound

Question 9

free variation

Answer 9

In linguistics, free variation is the phenomenon of two (or more) sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in meaning

Question 10

Neutralisation

Answer 10

eliminate a contrast between two (or more) phoneme.

Question 11

final devoicing

Answer 11

a systematic phonological process occurring in languages such as German, Dutch, Polish, Russian and Catalan

Question 12

velarised

Answer 12

secondary articulation in the pronunciation of consonants, in which the tongue is drawn far up and back in the mouth (toward the velum, or soft palate), as if to pronounce a back vowel such as o or u

Question 13

aspiration

Answer 13

a delay in the beginning of vocal fold vibration after the end of the stop

Question 14

flapping

Answer 14

a phonological process involving a voiced alveolar tap or flap

Question 15

constituents

Answer 15

a structural unit of a definable syntactic, semantic, or phonological category that consists of one or more linguistic elements (such as words, morphemes, or features) and that can occur as a component of a larger construction

Question 16

syllabic consonants

Answer 16

Consonants which occupy the central part of the syllable

Question 17

onset

Answer 17

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

Question 18

coda

Answer 18

made up of the consonants at the end of a syllable

Question 19

vowel epenthesis

Answer 19

technical term for the insertion of vowels into syllables

Question 20

syllabification

Answer 20

When you divide a word into its individual vowel sounds

Question 21

sonority

Answer 21

the loudness of speech sounds relative to other sounds of the same pitch, length and stress

Question 22

Maximal Onset
Principle

Answer 22

a principle determining underlying syllable division

Question 23

cognates

Answer 23

a word that has the same linguistic derivation as another

Question 24

orthography

Answer 24

the conventional spelling system of a language

Question 25

allophonic alternations

Answer 25

alternation is the phenomenon of a morpheme exhibiting variation in its phonological realization