Vocal file 3 phonetics

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 representation of the spectrum of frequencies of a signal as it varies with time.

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 of the phoneme

Answer 4

Allophones are sounds, whilst a phoneme is a set of such sounds.

Question 5

narrow transcription

Answer 5

encodes more information about the phonetic variations of the specific allophones in the utterance.

Question 6

distribution

Answer 6

the action of sharing something out among a number of recipients.

Question 7

complementary distribution

Answer 7

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 set of environments.

Question 8

minimal pairs

Answer 8

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 9

released consonant

Answer 9

is a consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases.

Question 10

unreleased consonant

Answer 10

a stop consonant with no release burst: no audible indication of the end of its occlusion (hold).

Question 11

free variation

Answer 11

the interchangeable relationship between two phones, in which the phones may substitute for one another in the same environment without causing a change in meaning.

Question 12

neutralisation

Answer 12

the elimination of certain distinctive features of phonemes in certain environments.

Question 13

final devoicing

Answer 13

a systematic phonological process occurring in languages such as Catalan, German, Dutch, Breton, Russian, Turkish, and Wolof.

Question 14

velarized

Answer 14

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 15

maximal onset principle

Answer 15

is a principle determining underlying syllable division.

Question 16

sonority

Answer 16

the relative loudness of a speech sound.

Question 17

aspirated

Answer 17

(of a sound) pronounced with an exhalation of breath

Question 18

aspiration

Answer 18

is the strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents.

Question 19

flapping

Answer 19

a phonological process found in many varieties of English, especially North American, Australian and New Zealand English, whereby the voiceless alveolar stop consonant phoneme /t/ is pronounced as a voiced alveolar flap

Question 20

non-rhotic

Answer 20

Of an accent, most often one of English: not pronouncing the written letter “r” unless it is followed by a vowel. In a non-rhotic accent, the word ‘farther’ is pronounced like the word ‘father’.

Question 21

rhotic

Answer 21

relating to or denoting a dialect or variety of English (e.g. in most of the US and southwestern England) in which r is pronounced before a consonant

Question 22

constituents

Answer 22

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

Question 23

nucleus

Answer 23

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

Question 24

vowel epenthesis

Answer 24

the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word (at the beginning prothesis and at the end paragoge are commonly used).

Question 25

syllabification

Answer 25

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