Week 12: phonology Flashcards
What are the three modalities for language?
Signing
Spoken
Written
What is phonetics?
a set of methods providing low-level, detailed descriptions of articulation and acoustics of ‘speech sounds’ of spoken language
What is phonology?
the study of how the sounds of language are organised
Phoneme
The smallest unit of speech distinguishing one word from another
Allophone
a variant of a phoneme which does not contribute to a distinctiveness of meaning.
How are vowels produced?
Periodic vibrations in the glottal folds
The difference between vowels is due to…
…their timbre (higher overtones)
Consonants mostly consist of ________ (________) noise although some combine it with _________ ____________ .
chaotic (turbulent) noise
periodic vibrations
What does phonotactics study?
Possible phonemic sequences
What shows how borrowed words have changed in new languages?
Loanword adaption
What are phonotactic rules formed in terms of?
Syllables
What is a syllable?
Hard-to-define unit consisting of a vowel and its surrounding consonants.
Phonological rules
Spotted by comparing pronunciation of different forms of words.
Name four frequent phonological rules
Assimilation
Dissimilation
Insertion
Deletion
What is assimilation?
When a sound becomes more similar to a nearby sound
What is dissimilation?
When two similar sounds which are close together change to make them easier to pronounce
What is insertion?
The process of adding a sound between two other sounds
What is deletion?
The removal of a sound from a word
What are the two approaches to explaining phonological rules?
Diachronic/historical
Synchronic
Summarise the diachronic approach
Different word forms undergo processes of sound change.
Speakers learn and remember how to pronounce all word forms.
