Phonology Vocabulary Flashcards
Phonology
branch of linguistics that studies language and speech sounds.
Spectrogram
visual way to represent signal strength or loudness.
Narrow transcription
indicating precise details of sounds.
Free variation
using two or more sounds in the same environment without changing the meaning.
Neutralisation
involves the elimination of a phonemic distinction.
Final devoicing
refers to the devoicing of syllable-final voiced consonants.
Aspiration
strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or the closure of some obstruents.
Non-rhotic
having an accent in English in which an “r” sound is retained after consonants.
Rhotic
dialect of English in which the “r” is pronounced at the end of a syllable or before a consonant.
Constituents
linguistic part of a larger sentence, phrase, or clause.
Syllabic consonants
phonetic element that normally patterns as a consonant, but may fill a vowel slot in a syllable.
Onset
part of the syllable that precedes the vowel of the syllable.
Vowel epenthesis
vowel inserted into a phonological environment to repair
a marked or illegal structure.
Syllabification
process of dividing a word into its constituent syllables.
Maximal Onset
Principle
a principle determining underlying syllable division.
Sonority
how much acoustic energy a given speech sound has.
Sonority Sequencing
Principle
principle that aims to outline the structure of a syllable in terms of sonority.
Phoneme
smallest unit of sound in a word that makes a difference in its pronunciation and meaning.
Complementary distribution
mutually exclusive relationship between two phonetically similar segments.
Minimal pairs
pairs of words or phrases in a particular language.
Velarised
secondary articulation in the pronunciation of consonants.
Nucleus
central part of a syllable.
Coda
the part of a syllable that follows the nucleus vowel.
Cognates
Pairs of sounds that differ by voicing.
