Linguistics Book

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the fundamental concepts of phonetics and phonology, including sound classification, transcription models, phonological rules, and prosody.

Phonetics

The branch of linguistics concerned with sounds (phones) as such, particularly the substance of sounds used in human communication, regardless of the language.

Phonology

The branch of linguistics interested in the function of sounds within a given sound system and whether they have a meaning-distinguishing function.

Phoneme

The smallest meaning-distinguishing unit of a language that exists as an abstract, idealized unit in the mental grammar.

Allophone

A phonetic variant of a phoneme that does not change the meaning of a word, such as clear [l] in lip versus dark [ɫ] in pill.

Complementary Distribution

A situation where allophones of a phoneme are predictable and never occur in the same phonological environment.

Free Variation

A situation where different allophones of a phoneme can be used in the same environment without resulting in a change of meaning.

Minimal Pair Test

A method for determining phoneme status by substituting one sound in a sequence to see if it results in a change of meaning.

Transcription

A system used to represent sounds in writing, crucial for languages like English where orthography and pronunciation often diverge.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)

A transcription system developed by the International Phonetic Association for the transcription of any linguistic sound.

Active Articulators

Movable speech organs, such as the lips and the tongue, used to produce speech sounds.

Passive Articulators

Relatively immovable speech organs, such as the upper jaw, hard palate, and the pharynx.

Vowels

Sounds formed when air passes through the oral cavity relatively freely; they are generally voiced.

Consonants

Sounds formed via a partial or complete obstruction of the airflow somewhere in the vocal tract.

Obstruents

A major class of consonants (plosives, fricatives, and affricates) where the airflow is strongly or completely obstructed.

Sonorants

A class of consonants (nasals, liquids, and semi-vowels) that are usually voiced and produced with less abstraction than obstruents.

Approximants

A grouping of liquids and semi-vowels characterized by two articulators approaching or touching each other without audible friction.

Homorganic Sounds

Sounds that are produced at the same place of articulation.

Cardinal Vowels

A set of idealized reference vowels developed by Daniel Jones used for the description and classification of any vowel.

Monophthongs

Pure vowels where the tongue largely remains stable in its position during the production of the sound.

Diphthongs

Gliding vowels where the tongue moves from one position towards another during articulation.

Tense Vowels

Vowels produced with greater muscle tension that can occur in stressed open syllables, including long vowels and diphthongs.

Lax Vowels

Short vowels produced with less muscle tension that generally cannot occur in stressed open syllables.

Phonotactics

The branch of phonology dealing with the restrictions on the combination of phonemes, such as consonant clusters, within a language.

Prosody

Also known as supra-segmental phonology, it deals with features like stress, rhythm, and intonation that extend over more than one segment.

Stress-timing

A rhythmic tendency where stressed syllables occur at fairly equal intervals of time, characteristic of English and Russian.

Syllable-timing

A rhythmic system where all syllables occur at roughly the same intervals of time, characteristic of French and Spanish.

Intonation

The distinctive use of pitch movements in an utterance to fulfill grammatical, pragmatic, and emotional functions.

Assimilation

The process by which immediately neighboring sounds become more alike regarding one or more articulatory features due to coarticulation.

Elision

The loss or omission of a vowel, consonant, or syllable in connected speech.

Liaison

A connected speech phenomenon, such as the linking /r/, where a sound is added to facilitate fluidity between neighboring syllables.

Intrusion

The addition of a sound in connected speech, like the intrusive /r/, that is not justified historically or orthographically.