vowels/formants Flashcards
lax vowels occur in ___ syllabels
closed
one of the greatest phonetitians of all time
daniel jones
simple waves are defined by what 2 properties
amplitude and frequency
amplitude=
height/loudness
frequency=
rate of repetion (cycles per second)
if the fundemental frequency is 250, the 2nd harmonic is at
500
harmonics will differ in
amplitude
(in sounds waves) the vocal tract acts as a filter that modifies the ___
resonances
what are formants
peaks in the vowel’s frequency spectrum
do different vowels have different formants?
yes
first formant roughly correlates with
vowel height
second formant strongly correlates with
frontness
third formant has a lot to do with __ and __
rounding and rhoticity
in a spectogram the formants are dispalyed as
darkness
A ______ is a vowel whose quality changes from one vowel sound to another within a
single syllable.
dipthong
In English, the vowel sound /ə/ (also known as “schwa”) is commonly found in _____ syllables.
unstressed
in many West African languages, the articulatory basis for vowel contrasts like [i] vs. [ɪ], [e] vs. [ɛ], [o] vs. [ɔ], [u] vs. [ʊ] is the position of the _____, which causes expansion of the ____
tongue root, pharynx [or pharyngeal cavity].
Because the vowel space is not symmetric, languages typically make more vowel contrasts (in
terms of backness and/or rounding) among ____ vowels than they do among ____ vowels.”
high, low
true or false? “In English, vowels are typically longer before a voiced consonant than before a voiceless
consonant.”
TRUE
Thus, front vowels are typically _____ , whereas back vowels are most often _____
unrounded, rounded
In the world’s languages, by far the most common number of distinct vowels for a language to have in its phonemic inventory is:
5
