Fundamentals of Phonetics: Chapter 2 - Phonetic Transcription of English

Flashcards covering key definitions and concepts from the 'Phonetic Transcription of English' lecture notes, including spelling vs. sound, morphemes, phonemes, allophones, syllables, word stress, and types of transcription.

Allographs

Different letters or letter combinations that represent the same sound (e.g., 'oo' in 'loop,' 'ough' in 'through,' 'ew' in 'threw').

Morphemes

The smallest unit of language that carries meaning (e.g., 'music-musician').

Free morphemes

Units of language that carry meaning and can stand alone as words (e.g., 'book,' 'music').

Bound morphemes

Units of language that carry meaning but cannot stand alone; they must attach to other words (e.g., 'pre-', '-s,' '-ian').

Phonemes

A speech sound that can differentiate morphemes and distinguish meaning (e.g., /l/ vs. /b/ as in 'look' vs. 'book').

Minimal pairs

Words that vary by only one phoneme, demonstrating how different sounds distinguish meaning (e.g., 'look-book,' 'cat-cab').

Allophones

Variant pronunciations of a particular phoneme that do not change the meaning of the word (e.g., the /l/ sound in 'lip' vs. 'bottle').

Complementary distribution

The relationship between allophones where the choice of allophone depends on the phonetic context and they are not interchangeable (e.g., aspirated /p/ in 'pit' vs. unaspirated /p/ in 'spit').

Free variation

The relationship between allophones where the choice of allophone is not constrained by phonetic context and they are interchangeable (e.g., released vs. unreleased /p/ at the end of 'keep').

Syllable

An intuitive linguistic unit, typically consisting of multiple phonemes, forming a basic rhythmic unit of speech.

Onset

The initial consonant(s) that begin a syllable (e.g., 'scr' in 'scrub').

Rhyme

The part of a syllable that includes the nucleus (vowel) and any following coda (consonant(s)) (e.g., 'ub' in 'scrub').

Nucleus

The core of a syllable, typically a vowel or a syllabic consonant (e.g., 'u' in 'scrub').

Coda

The final consonant(s) that follow the nucleus in a syllable (e.g., 'b' in 'scrub').

Open syllables

Syllables that end with a vowel (e.g., 'I', both syllables in 'maybe').

Closed syllables

Syllables that end with a consonant (e.g., 'had', both syllables in 'contain').

Word/lexical stress

The increased emphasis in the production of one syllable in a multisyllabic word.

Primary stress

The syllable in a multisyllabic word that is produced with the greatest force, muscular energy, duration, higher pitch, and loudness.

Linguistic function of stress

Stress can indicate word class (e.g., 'CONtract' noun vs. 'conTRACT' verb) or distinguish words with identical consonants and vowels.

Broad (phonemic) transcription

A type of phonetic transcription that records only the sounds that make a difference in meaning (phonemes), typically enclosed in slash marks / /.

Narrow (allophonic) transcription

A type of phonetic transcription that records the fine details of articulation and allophonic variations, typically enclosed in brackets [ ].

Systematic transcription

Transcription performed with preexisting knowledge of the sound system of a specific language; can be broad or narrow.

Impressionistic transcription

Transcription of an unknown language or atypical/disordered speech, typically narrow to capture maximum detail due to lack of prior knowledge.