Phonetics Exam 1 Review

Syllable

A unit of pronunciation that has at least one vowel sound.

Open syllable

A syllable that ends with a vowel and does not have a coda.

Closed syllable

A syllable that ends with at least one consonant.

Simple Syllable

A syllable that consists of only a vowel or a combination of singleton consonants and a vowel.

Complex Syllable

A syllable that contains at least one consonant sequence.

Prevocalic

A consonant that comes before a vowel in a syllable.

Intervocalic

A consonant that is located between two vowels in a word.

Postvocalic

A consonant that follows a vowel in a syllable.

Minimal Pair

A set of two words that differ by only one phoneme, having different meanings.

Maximum Onset Principle

A guideline for dividing syllables so that the onsets are as long as possible within language constraints.

Phonology

The sound system of a language.

Phonetics

The study of the production and perception of speech sounds.

Phonotactic Constraints

The allowable combinations of sounds in a particular language.

Phoneme

A sound that carries a difference in meaning.

Allophone

Variant pronunciations of a particular phoneme.

Grapheme

Another name for an alphabet letter.

Allographs

Different letter sequences that can represent the same sound.

Digraph

Two graphemes representing one sound.

Rime

A unit of pronunciation consisting of a vowel sound with preceding or following consonants.

Nucleus

The core part of a syllable, typically containing the vowel sound.

Coda

The part of a syllable that follows the nucleus.

Idiolect

An individual's unique way of speaking.

Dialect

A variety of language produced by a particular group.

Acoustic Phonetics

The branch of phonetics that studies the acoustic properties of speech.

Frequency

The number of cycles that vocal folds complete in one second, related to pitch.

Intensity

Amplitude or loudness of speech sounds.

Diaphragm

The muscle that helps regulate airflow during speech production.

Vocal Folds

Structures that vibrate to create sound during phonation.

Velum

The part of the mouth that closes off the nasal cavity during the production of certain sounds.