Vocab: Module 3

Question 1

Phonology

Answer 1

the system of contrastive relationships among the speech sounds that constitute the fundamental components of a language.

Question 2

Spectrogram

Answer 2

A visual way of representing the signal strength, or “loudness”, of a signal over time at various frequencies present in a particular waveform.

Question 3

Phoneme

Answer 3

any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another, for example p, b, d, and t in the English words pad, pat, bad, and bat.

Question 4

orthography

Answer 4

the conventional spelling system of a language.

Question 5

minimal pairs

Answer 5

are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, spoken or signed, that differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme, toneme or chroneme, and have distinct meanings.

Question 6

allophones

Answer 6

are the linguistically non-significant variants of each phoneme.

Question 7

final devoicing

Answer 7

refers to the devoicing of syllable-final voiced consonants.

Question 8

velarised

Answer 8

is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant.

Question 9

complementary distribution

Answer 9

is the relationship between two different elements of the same kind in which one element is found in one set of environments and the other element is found in a non-intersecting (complementary) set of environments.

Question 10

non-rhotic

Answer 10

speakers no longer pronounce /r/ in postvocalic environments—that is, when it is immediately after a vowel and not followed by another vowel.

Question 11

rhotic

Answer 11

speakers articulate /r/ in all positions

Question 12

constituents

Answer 12

a constituent is a word or a group of words that function as a single unit within a hierarchical structure.

Question 13

syllabic consonants

Answer 13

is a consonant that forms a syllable on its own, like the m, n and l in the English words rhythm, button and bottle, or is the nucleus of a syllable, like the r sound in the American pronunciation of work.

Question 14

vowel epenthesis

Answer 14

The insertion of a vowel to break up a cluster.

Question 15

erroneous pronunciation

Answer 15

Incorrect pronounciation

Question 16

syllabification

Answer 16

the division of words into syllables, either in speech or in writing.

Question 17

Maximal Onset Principle

Answer 17

is a principle determining underlying syllable division.

Question 18

sonority

Answer 18

a nonbinary phonological feature categorizing sounds into a relative scale.

Question 19

Sonority Sequencing Principle.

Answer 19

s a phonotactic principle that aims to outline the structure of a syllable in terms of sonority.

Question 20

polysyllabic

Answer 20

having more than one and usually more than three syllables

Question 21

schemata

Answer 21

linguistic “template”, “frame”, or “pattern” together with a rule for using it to specify a potentially infinite multitude of phrases, sentences, or arguments,

Question 22

cognates

Answer 22

are words in two languages that share a similar meaning, spelling, and pronunciation.

Question 23

onset

Answer 23

is the initial phonological unit of any word

Question 24

coda

Answer 24

is the name of a syllabic constituent, which contains the consonant(s) following the nucleus.

Question 25

nucleus

Answer 25

is the central part of the syllable, most commonly a vowel