glossary of phonetics

موضوع: glossary of phonetics الخميس مايو 19, 2011 12:31 am

affricate

A phonetic segment which consists of a stop followed immediately by a
fricative. Affricates act as units phonologically and are synchronically
indivisible,
e.g. /tʃ/ in church /tʃɜ:tʃ/ or judge /dʒʌdʒ/.
allophone
The realisation of a phoneme. Each segment has different realisations
which are only partly distinguishable for speakers. A phoneme can have
different allophones, frequently depending on position in the word or on
a preceding vowel, e.g. [l] and [ɫ] in English (at the beginning and
end of a word respectively) or [ç] and [x] in German (depending on
whether the preceding vowel is front or not). Allophones are written in
square brackets.

alveolar
A classification of sounds which are formed at the alveolar ridge (the
bone plate behind the upper teeth). Alveolar sounds are formed with the
tip or the blade of the tongue. Examples are
/t,d,s,z,l,n/ in English or German.
alveolo-palatal
A classification of sounds which are formed with the hard palate as
passive articulator and the blade of the tongue as active articulator.
Examples are the two English
fricatives [ʃ] and [ʒ].
[gdwl]ambi-denta[/gdwl
]l A description of the manner of articulation of the Modern English fricatives
/θ/ and /ð/.
It is preferred to inter-dental as the tongue is not usually positioned between the teeth for these sounds.

articulatory phonetics
One of three standard divisions of phonetics which concerns itself with the production
of sounds (compare acoustic and auditive phonetics).

auditory phonetics
One of the three standard divisions of phonetics which is concerned with the perception
of sounds.

bilabial Any sound produced using both lips, e.g. [p] oder [m].

cardinal vowels
A system of 8 rounded and 8 unrounded vowels which was originally
developed by the English phonetician Daniel Jones and which is intended
as a system of reference for the unambiguous classification of vowel
values in a language. The cardinal vowels are represented in a
quadrangle with vowels at each corner and two closed mid and open mid
vowels, a pair in the front and a pair in the back of the quadrangle.

contrastive
Refers to any elements which are in opposition to each other. A phonetic
distinction is contrastive if it has significance on the phonological
level, i.e. if it distinguishes meaning.

discrete
A characteristic of human language where there is no continuous transition from one unit to another, e.g.
/p/ and /b/ are separate,
discrete sounds and speakers pronounce one or the other but not something intermediary between the two.

fricative
A type of sound which is characterised by air passing a constriction somewhere between the glottis and the lips, e.g.
[x, s, ʃ, f].
Turbulence
arises when air flows through a narrow gap and it is this which causes
the noise typical of fricatives. Fricatives can be voiced or voiceless.
The equivalent term spirant is sometimes found.

[gdwl]glide [/gdwl
]A sound which from the point of view of phonological classification lies between a vowel and a consonant, e.g.
/j/ and /w/ in English.

It is formed with little friction and has a high degree of sonority
which accounts for why glides are found near the nucleus of syllables.
Sometimes called a semi-vowel.

glottal
A term referring to sounds produced at the gap in the vocal folds. Such sounds can either be stops
[ʔ] or fricatives [h, ɦ]
— voiceless and voiced respectively.

labio-denta
l
Describes a consonant which is formed by the lower lip making contact with the upper teeth as in English and German
[f] and [v].
labio-velar
Describes a consonant which is articulated by a constriction at the velum with rounding of the lips at the same time, e.g. with
[w] in English.
levelling The disappearance of contrasts — usually phonological or morphological — in the course of a language's development.

manner of articulation

One of the three conventional parameters (the others are
place of articulation and
voice) which are used to specific how a sound is produced. Common types are plosives, fricatives and affricates.

optional
A term which refers to allophonic processes which do not necessarily have to be carried out, cf.
the shortening of high vowels before nasals
as in Received Pronunciation room
/ru:m/ > /rum/ or been /bi:n/ > /bɪn/;
in general terms any process which is not obligatory.

palatal
A place of articulation at the hard palate in the centre of the roof of the mouth.

phoneme
In traditional phonology the smallest unit in language which disinguishes meaning, e.g
/k/ and /g/
as seen in coat and goat. Each phoneme has one or more realisations, called allophones.

phonemics
The study of phonemes in language,
their distribution, status and interrelationships.

phonology
The study of the sound system
of one or more languages. Phonology involves the
[grade="00008B FF6347 008000 4B0082"]classification of sounds and a[/grade
] description of the interrelationship of the elements on a systematic level.

place of articulation
The point in the vocal tract at which a sound is produced. This can be
anywhere from the lips at the front to the glottis (the gap between the
vocal folds) at the back. The most common place of articulation is the
alveolar ridge just behind the upper teeth.

plosive
A sound which is produced with a complete blockage of the pulmonic airstream. Also called a stop, examples are
/p,t,k/.
pronunciation
A collective reference to the manner in which sounds are articulated in
a particular language. Given its concrete nature pronunciation is a
matter of phonetics rather than phonology.

redundancy
Superfluous information in language. Multiple marking of grammatical
categories is the most common case of redundancy and is often found in
German, e.g. the plural Dörfer which takes both an ending -er
and a shift in stem vowel from back to front (umlaut).

rhotic
A reference to a variety of a language in which a syllable-
final /r/ is pronounced,
for instance (generally) in American English as opposed to Received Pronunciation in England.

sibilant
A sound which is pronounced with clear, hissing friction which is reminiscent of either
/s/ or /ʃ/.

stop
A consonant which is formed by blocking off the airstream completely, e.g.
/p, t, k/.
It contrasts directly with a fricative which does not involve an interruption of the airstream.

syllable
The most important structural unit in phonology. A syllable consists of a
series of sounds which are grouped around a nucleus of acoustic
prominence (usually a vowel). A closed syllable is one which has a coda,
an open syllable has a codaless rhyme: got /gɒt/ versus go /gəʊ/.

[gdwl]voiced Spoken 00008B]]with simultaneous vibration of the vocal folds.
voiceless
Spoken without the vocal folds vibrating;
the
folds can either be open (the normal state) or closed with the
compression of air between them and the supra-glottal stop position
producing sounds which are called ejectives

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