Phonetics Overview

These flashcards cover essential vocabulary and concepts related to phonetics, a key topic in general linguistics.

Phonetics

The study of all speech sounds humans are capable of producing.

Phonology

The study of sound systems in particular languages.

Articulatory Phonetics

Studies physical mechanisms involved in the production of speech.

Auditory Phonetics

The study of hearing and perception of speech.

Acoustic Phonetics

The study of physical properties of sound waves and speech signals.

Voicing

The vibration of the vocal folds when producing sounds.

Voiced consonants

Consonants produced with vibration of the vocal cords.

Voiceless consonants

Consonants produced without vocal cord vibration.

Place of articulation

The point in the vocal tract where airflow is constricted during sound production.

Manner of articulation

The way in which airflow is modified or constricted to produce sounds.

Fundamental frequency (F0)

The lowest frequency of a periodic waveform, perceived as pitch.

Formants

Resonant frequencies in the vocal tract that shape vowel sounds.

Diphthongs

Vowel sounds where the tongue moves from one position to another during pronunciation.

Suprasegmentals

Features that influence stretches of sound larger than a single segment, including length, tone, and stress.

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

A standardized representation of the sounds of spoken language.

Spectrogram

A visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies in a sound signal as they vary with time.

Syllable

A unit of spoken language that consists of a vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants.

Acoustic wave

A wave that represents the propagation of sound.

Speech recognition systems

Technologies that convert spoken language into text.

Text-to-Speech (TTS) systems

Technologies that convert text into spoken language.

Phonetic transcription

A visual representation of the sounds of speech.

Phoneme

The smallest unit of sound in a language that can distinguish meaning.

Allophones

Variations of a phoneme that do not change meaning.

Larynx

The voice box; the organ where voice is produced.

Vocal tract

The cavity in the body where sound is produced, including the throat and mouth.

Velum

The soft part of the roof of the mouth towards the back.

Bilabial

Sounds produced with both lips, such as [p] and [b].

Alveolar

Sounds produced with the tongue against the alveolar ridge, such as [t] and [d].

Nasal cavity

The air-filled space behind the nose.

Lip rounding

A feature of vowels that involves rounding the lips.

Pharynx

The part of the throat behind the mouth and nasal cavity.

Diaphragm

The muscle that aids in breathing and is essential for speech production.

Articulators

The speech organs that create sounds, such as the tongue and lips.

Syllable stress

The emphasis placed on a specific syllable in a word.

Intonation

The variation of pitch while speaking.

Pitch

The perceptual property of sound that corresponds to frequency.

Tonality

The use of pitch to convey meaning, particularly in tonal languages.

Articulatory features

Characteristics of sounds based on how they are produced.

Speech disorders

Conditions that affect a person's ability to speak clearly.

Noise robustness

The ability of a system to function effectively in the presence of background noise.

Voice synthesis

The generation of human-like speech by computer systems.

Phonetic concepts

Frameworks and terminologies used to analyze speech sounds.

Human-Like Communication

The ability of AI systems to mimic natural human speech patterns.