Chapter 4: Fundamentals of Phonetics

vowel

a phoneme produced without any appreciable blockage of airflow in the vocal tract

tongue height

a term used to classify vowel production in relation to tongue position along the high/low dimension in the oral cavity

tongue advancement

a term used to classify vowel production in relation to tongue position along the front/back dimension in the oral cavity

vowel quadrilateral

a two-dimensional figure (representing tongue height and tongue advancement) that displays the relative position of the tongue during vowel production

rounded

a rounded lip position during vowel production

unrounded

a spread or retracted lip position during vowel production

monophthongs

a vowel phoneme consisting of one distinct articulatory element

diphthongs

a single phoneme consisting of two vowel elements, the first termed the onglide and the second termed the offglide

onglide

the first element of a diphthong

offglide

the second element of a diphthong

tense

the description of a vowel produced with an increased muscular effort; such a vowel can be located in the final position of an open monosyllable

lax

the description of a vowel produced with a reduction in muscular effort; a lax vowel does not appear in the final position of an open monosyllable

nasalization

production of an oral phoneme with accompanying nasal resonance, due to a lowered velum

resonance

the vibratory properties of any sound-producing body

quality

the perceptual character of a sound based on its acoustic resonance patterns; timbre

timbre

sound quality

spectrogram

a graphic representation of the three major parameters that describe the acoustic characteristic of any sound: time, frequency, and intensity

time

(in acoustics) the duration of any particular sound

frequency

the number of cycles a vibrating body completes in one second

pitch

the perceptual correlate of frequency

intensity

the amplitude (magnitude) of energy associated with a particular sound

loudness

the perceptual correlate of intensity

formants

a resonant frequency of the vocal tract

spectrum

the frequency array, or energy pattern, characteristic of any sound

point vowel

one of four extreme corner vowels of the vowel quadrilateral

rhotic diphthong/r-colored vowel

a speech sound consisting of the two elements: a vowel, and an /r/ auditory quality

rhotacization

production of a phoneme with an /r/ auditory quality

format transition

dynamic change in the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract over time, signaling modifications in the place of articulation of speech sounds (as seen on a spectrogram)