phonetics chapter 2

allograph

different letter sequences of patterns that represent the same sound; different ways to spell sounds

allograph example

long e: ee, ie, ei, ea, e, i, y, ey, e-e

digraph

pairs of letters that represent one sound

allophones

variant pronunciation of a particular phoneme, but the variant pronunciations do not change the meaning of the word; members of the “family”

phonetic alphabet

an alphabet that maintains a one-to-one relationship between a sound and particular letter/symbol

morphemes

smallest unit of langauge that carries meaning

examples of spelling not reflecting sounds

silent letters, different letters representing the same sounds, same letter representing different sounds

soft "c" rule

when "c" is followed by i, e, or y; it makes the "s" sound

free morphemes

can stand alone (the words are known as bases)

free morphemes example

book, music, press

bound morphemes

cannot stand alone; they must attach to other words

bound morphemes example

pre(date), re(read), (book)s, (music)ian, (press)ure

root words

can't stand alone/is not a word by itself

bases

can stand alone as a word

accent shift

when we add a suffix, the emphasis on the word shifts

phonemes

a speech sound that can differentiate morphemes; that is, they distinguish meaning; a “family” of sounds

minimal pairs

words that vary by only one phoneme

grapheme

printed alphabet letters used in the representation of an allograph

complementary distribution

choice of allophones depends on phonetic context; they are not interchangeable; allophone production that is tied to a particular phonetic environment

free variation

choice of allophone is not constrained by phonetic context; they are interchangeable; allophone production that is not tied to a particular environment

diacritics

used to indicate an alternate way of producing a certain sound

suprasegmentals

loudness, pitch, rate, stress, volume, length, prosody

syllable

basic unit of speech production and perception generally consisting of a segment of greatest acoustic energy (peak, usually a vowel) and segments of lesser energy (trough, usually consonants); unit of speech consisting of an onset and/or rhyme

all syllables must have a

vowel

onset

all of the consonants before a vowel

rhyme

all of the letters after the vowel

consonant cluster (blend)

two or three contiguous consonants in the same syllable

nucleus

the part of a syllable with the greatest acoustic energy; usually, but not always, a vowel

coda

consonants that follow a vowel in any syllable; not all syllables have this

syllabic consonants

when consonants take on the role of vowels

open syllables

end in vowel phonemes; have no coda

closed syllables

syllables that end with a consonant phoneme

diphthong

single phoneme consisting of two vowel elements, the first termed the onglide and the second the offglide

canonical syllable

a basic syllable that indicates, for a particular language, how many consonants may occur before and after the vowel nucleus

word (lexical) stress

the increased emphasis in the production of one syllable in a multisyllabic word; you say that sound louder; the production of a syllable with increased force or muscular energy, resulting in a syllable that is perceived as being louder, longer in duration, and higher in pitch

broad (phonemic) transcription

purpose is to transcribe sounds that make a difference in meaning (phonemes), typically denoted by slash marks

narrow (allophonic) transcription

purpose is to transcribe details of articulation (allophonic variation), typically denoted by brackets

systemic transcription

transcription with preexisting knowledge of the sound system of a language; can be broad or narrow transcription

impressionistic transcription

transcription of an unknown language or atypical/disordered speech; is typically narrow transcription because details of speech are recorded