Phonetics Midterm

What is phonetics?

The study of speech-sound production and perception.

What is clinical phonetics?

Applying phonetics to clinical populations or disordered speech.

What is a phone?

A specific speech sound.

What is a phoneme?

A contrastive sound category in a language.

What is an allophone?

A context-dependent realization of a phoneme.

What is a grapheme?

A written symbol representing a language sound.

What is an allograph?

A variant form of a grapheme.

What is orthography?

The writing/spelling system of a language.

What is a morpheme?

The smallest meaningful linguistic unit.

What is a free morpheme?

A morpheme that can stand alone as a word.

What is a bound morpheme?

A morpheme that cannot stand alone.

What is an allomorph?

A variant form of a morpheme.

What is morphology?

The study of morphemes and word structure.

How many IPA symbols will you focus on for English?

About 42 symbols.

What are the three systems of speech production?

Respiratory, laryngeal, and supralaryngeal systems.

What structures make up the respiratory system?

Lungs, rib cage, abdomen, and associated muscles.

What does egressive mean?

Airflow moves outward from the lungs.

What does ingressive mean?

Airflow moves inward.

What is the respiratory system's role in speech?

It provides airflow and energy for speech production.

What is fundamental frequency?

The rate of vocal-fold vibration.

What is Hertz (Hz)?

Cycles per second.

What is the average adult male fundamental frequency?

About 150 Hz.

What is the average adult female fundamental frequency?

About 250 Hz.

What is vocal-fold vibration?

Rapid vibration of the vocal folds that produces voice.

What technologies study phonetics?

X-ray, MRI, ultrasound, EMA, EPG, endoscopy, aerodynamic and acoustic analysis.

What does EMA stand for?

Electromagnetic articulography.

What does EPG stand for?

Electropalatography.

What does MRI allow researchers to study?

Speech structures and movements using magnetic resonance imaging.

What are the major supralaryngeal structures?

Structures above the larynx involved in shaping speech.

What are mobile articulators?

Articulators that can move during speech.

What are immobile articulators?

Articulatory structures that remain relatively stationary.

What are the four tongue regions from front to back?

Tip, blade, dorsum, and root.

What is velopharyngeal closure?

Closure that separates the oral and nasal cavities during speech.

What is the labiodental place of articulation?

The lower lip contacts the upper teeth.

Which sounds are labiodental?

/f/ and /v/.

What is source-filter theory?

The vocal-fold source is shaped/filtered by vocal-tract resonances.

What is the source for a voiced vowel?

Vocal-fold vibration in the larynx.

What is the filter for a voiced vowel?

The resonating vocal tract.

What is a resonator?

A structure that selectively reinforces certain frequencies.

What is a formant?

A resonant frequency of the vocal tract.

What is frequency?

The number of cycles completed per second.

What acoustic property is perceived as pitch?

Frequency.

What are the three dimensions of sound?

Time, frequency, and intensity.

How is duration measured acoustically?

In milliseconds (msec).

How is frequency measured?

In Hertz (Hz), or cycles per second.

How is intensity measured?

In decibels (dB).

What is intensity perceived as?

Loudness.

What does a spectrogram display?

Time, frequency, and intensity of sound.

Where is time shown on a spectrogram?

On the x-axis.

Where is frequency shown on a spectrogram?

On the y-axis.

What do darker areas on a spectrogram indicate?

Greater intensity.

What are formants on a spectrogram?

Dark horizontal bands representing vocal-tract resonances.

What is F1 inversely related to?

Tongue height.

What happens to F1 as tongue height increases?

F1 decreases.

What is F2 related to?

Tongue advancement/frontness.

What happens to F2 as the tongue moves forward?

F2 increases.

Which has lower F1: /i/ or /æ/?

/i/, because it is a high vowel.

Why are formants properties of the filter?

They result from vocal-tract resonances shaping the source.

What are the major vowel features?

Height, backness/advancement, rounding, and tenseness.

What does vowel height describe?

How high or low the tongue is positioned.

What does vowel backness describe?

How front or back the tongue is positioned.

What does vowel rounding describe?

Whether the lips are rounded during production.

What does vowel tenseness describe?

A tense versus lax vowel distinction.

What is a monophthong?

A vowel with one relatively stable articulatory position.

What is a diphthong?

A vowel that moves between two articulatory positions.

What is a central vowel?

A vowel produced with the tongue positioned centrally.

What is an r-colored vowel?

A vowel with an /r/-like quality.

What distinguishes /i/ in 'beat' from /ɪ/ in 'bit'?

Tenseness.

What is voicing?

Vocal-fold vibration during sound production.

Is /v/ voiced or voiceless?

/v/ is voiced.

Is /f/ voiced or voiceless?

/f/ is voiceless.

What place do /p, b, m/ share?

Bilabial.

What does place of articulation describe?

Where constriction occurs in the vocal tract.

What determines regular plural allomorph selection?

The phonological context of the preceding sound.

What are the four classic articulation error categories?

Substitution, omission, distortion, and addition.

What is response complexity in transcription?

The complexity of the speech response being transcribed.

Why can conversational transcription be less reliable?

It contains more variable and complex speech than a single target word.

What are the three regular plural allomorphs?

/s/, /z/, and /ɪz/.

When is the plural pronounced /ɪz/?

After sibilant sounds, requiring an extra vowel.

Why does 'buses' have an extra vowel?

The plural follows a sibilant, so /ɪz/ is used.

What is a syllabic consonant?

A consonant that functions as the nucleus of a syllable.

What is the syllabic consonant in 'kitten'?

The syllabic /n/ in the second syllable.

What is a digraph?

Two letters representing one sound.

What is an allograph?

A variant written form of a grapheme.

What is a flap [ɾ]?

A rapid tap-like consonant used in casual American English.

What two phonemes can the flap represent?

/t/ or /d/.

What does intervocalic mean?

Occurring between two vowels.

Why can 'writer' and 'rider' sound alike?

Both may use a flap [ɾ] between vowels in casual American English.

What are the three components of syllable structure?

Onset, nucleus, and coda.

What is stress?

Relative prominence given to a syllable.

Where is stress in the noun 'permit'?

The first syllable: PERmit.

Where is stress in the verb 'permit'?

The second syllable: perMIT.

What is the main difference between noun/verb stress in 'permit'?

Noun: first-syllable stress; verb: second-syllable stress.

How many muscles contribute to speech production?

More than 100 muscles.

How fast can conversational speech be produced?

About 6–9 syllables or 20–30 phonetic segments per second.

What are all vowels?

Voiced and produced with an open vocal tract.