Week 5 Flashcards
phonology
the study of abstract categories that organize a language’s sound system
spectrogram
representation of the frequency distribution of sound waves that give the hearing impression of speech sounds
phone
a physical realization of a speech sound like the voiceless or the voiced alveolar approximant
complementary distribution
two sounds that are distributed in a manner that can only occur where the other cannot occur
minimal pair
a pair of words that differ in one sound (e.g., sap and wrap)
free variation
speakers choose which allophone they use
neutralization
a contrast between phonemes becomes invisible
aspiration
process of aspirating stops
syllabic consonants
consonants that occupy the central part of the syllable
vowel epenthesis
insertion of vowels into syllables
syllabification
the process of assigning syllabic structure to words
sonority
acoustic impression of clear audibility
final devoicing
voiceless allophone in word-final position
distribution
different positions that speech sounds can or cannot occur in words
allophones of the phoneme
phones that function as an alternant realization of the same phoneme
