Phonology Vocabulary Flashcards
Phonology
The study of the sound features used in a language to communicate meaning.
Phoneme
The smallest unit of sound that can make a difference to meaning in a language.
Phonemic Transcription
When the symbols are written one after the other to represent a word or group of words.
Vowel
Sound is made with the mouth partly open and where the air is not stopped by the tongue, lips or teeth.
Consonant
Consonant
Sound is made when the flow of air is partly blocked by the tongue, lips or teeth.
Voiced Sound
Spoken using the vibration of our voice.
Voiceless
Spoken without using our voice.
Minimal Pairs
Words distinguished by only one phoneme.
complementary distribution.
Two sounds which are distributed in such a way that one can only occur where the other cannot occur.
free variation:
speakers can choose which allophone they use.
final devoicing.
a voiced phoneme has a voiceless allophone in word-final position
Phonological rule predicting allophonic realisations of /l/ /l/ is realised
as [l]̥ after word-initial voiceless consonants, – as [ɫ] in word-final position, and
– as [l] elsewhere.
aspirated stop
is a stop that is produced with an extra ‘breath of air’.
t/d- flapping.
The phone- mic contrast is, however, neutralised in intervocalic position. Here both /t/ and /d/ can be realised as [ɾ],
Phonological rule predicting allophonic realisations of /p/ in RP /p/ is realised
– as [ph] in word-initial position before vowels,
– as [p] between [s] and a vowel and between two vowels, and – as [ph] or [p] or [p˺] in word-final position.
non-rhotic
r-sounds do not seem to occur in word-final position.
rhotic
varieties of English are those in which r-sounds can occur in word-final position.
Phonological rule predicting allophonic realisations of /ɹ/ in RP /ɹ/ is realised
– as [ɹ] ̥̥ after voiceless consonants,
– as zero word-finally after long vowels and diphthongs, and – as [ɹ] elsewhere.
syllable.
every syllable contains ex- actly one vowel
syllabic consonants
Consonants which occupy the central part of the syllable are termed
coda
the postvocalic slot is termed
onset
the prevocalic slot
nucleus
‘slot for a vowel’
vowel epenthesis.
the insertion of vowels into syllables
