Phonology and Phonetics Vocabulary

These flashcards cover key vocabulary related to phonology and phonetics as discussed in the lecture.

Rime

Part of a syllable which consists of its vowel and any consonant sounds that come after it.

Phoneme

Smallest units of speech.

Consonant

A speech sound characterized by friction or stoppage of airflow as it passes through the vocal tract; usually any letter except a, e, i, o, and u.

Vowel Digraphs

Two vowel letters together that make one sound, like oa in 'boat'.

Phonological Awareness

The ability to identify and manipulate phonemes, onsets and rimes, and syllables; it includes phonemic awareness.

Auditory Discrimination

The ability to hear the differences in sounds.

Segment

To pronounce a word slowly, saying each sound distinctly.

Long Vowels

Vowel sounds that are also names of the alphabet letters.

Grapheme

A written representation of a sound using one or more letters.

Consonant Blends

Two or more consonants where each makes its own sound.

Diphthongs

A sound produced when the tongue glides from one sound to another; where two vowels in one syllable of a word (e.g., oy in 'boy').

Phonics

Correlating sounds with letters or groups of letters in an alphabetic writing system.

Alphabetic Principle

The assumption that speech sounds are represented by letters.

Open Syllable

A syllable ending in a vowel sound (e.g., re- in 'resign').

Blend

To combine the sounds represented by letters to pronounce a word.

Short Vowels

The vowel sounds in cat, bed, big, hop, and cut.

Phonology

The sound system of language.

Consonant Digraphs

Two-letter combinations that have one sound.

Onset

The part of a syllable (or one-syllable word) that comes before the vowel (e.g., str in 'string').

Phonemic Awareness

The ability to manipulate the sounds in words orally.

Visual Discrimination

The ability to see the differences in letters.

Closed Syllable

A syllable ending in a consonant sound.

Graphophonemic

Referring to sound-symbol relationships.

Morpheme

Smallest meaningful unit of language, like 'un-' in 'unhappy' or the plural '-s' in 'dogs'.

Affix

A morpheme that’s added to the end of a base or root word.

Suffix

A word part that is added to the end of a base word that changes the meaning of the word.

Multisyllabic

A word having more than one syllable.

Orthography

The spelling system.

Continuous Sound

Spoken sounds that are made with a continuous flow of air from the mouth or nose.

Stop Sound

Spoken sounds made when the flow of air from the mouth is first blocked and then released.

Prefix

An affix that appears in front of a root word (e.g., non in 'nonsense').

Syllable

A word or part of a word that is pronounced in a single, uninterrupted sounding of the voice. All syllables must have one vowel (but a single vowel can be a syllable too).