Glossary

Nr.

WORDS AND MEANINGS

WHAT I UNDERSTAND

1

ALLOPHONE

Is a sound that is slightly different from another sound, although both sounds belong to the same phoneme and the difference does not affect meaning. For example, the /l/ at the beginning of little is different from the /l/ at the end.

The sound of a letter depends of the rule applied in the case of the position before or after another consonant, as in the case of the consonant “l”.

2

APPROXIMANT

A general term used by some phoneticians in the classification of speech sounds on the basis of their manner of articulation, and corresponding to what in other approaches would be called frictionless continuants, i.e. [w], [j], [r], [l], and all vowels. The term is based on the articulations involved, in that one articulator approaches another, but the degree of narrowing involved does not produce audible friction. In some analyses, [h] would also be considered an approximant (i.e. the voiceless equivalent of the vowel following).

The manner of articulation involved in the combination of a consonant and a vowel, prepares the next combination in the pronunciation, so, the position of the organs of the mouth follow to the next sound to form de sound of a syllable.

3

CONSONANT

One of the two general categories used for the classification of speech sounds, the other being vowel. Consonants can be defined in terms of both phonetics and phonology. Phonetically, they are sounds made by a closure or narrowing in the vocal tract so that the airflow is either completely blocked, or so restricted that audible friction is produced. Consonant articulations are relatively easy to feel, and as a result are most conveniently described in terms of place and manner of articulation. In addition, a routine phonetic description of consonants would involve information about the mode of vibration of the vocal folds (see voicing), and it is often necessary to specify the duration of the sound, the airstream mechanism involved and the direction of airflow (egressive or ingressive). From a phonological point of view, consonants are those units which function at the margins of syllables, either singly or in clusters. Usually, phonetic and phonological criteria coincide: [f], for example, is a consonant in that there is audible friction and the sound occurs marginally, as in fat, leaf. In sounds such as [l], [r], [w] and [j], however, there is a conflict between the two criteria. Phonologically, these sounds are consonants, because their role in syllables is the same as that taken by [f], [p], etc., e.g. lip, rip, wet, yet. But, phonetically, they lack the friction required by the above definitions: they are vowel-like in character. Such sounds as a result are often called ‘semivowels’ or semi-consonants. The trouble arises from having only one term to do two jobs (phonetic and phonological descriptions). Several terminological solutions have been suggested, the most well-known one being the suggestion of the American linguist K. L. Pike (1912–2001) to reserve the term ‘consonant’ for the phonological level of analysis, and to introduce contoid for the phonetic level (as opposed to vocoid). In this way, [p] would be consonant and contoid, and [l], etc., consonant and vocoid.

There are two categories of letters: consonants and vowels. The consonants don´t make syllables by themselves, they need the vowels to complete the syllable or the word. Consonants can be voiced and voiceless.

4

DIPHTHONG

A term used in the phonetic classification of vowel sounds on the basis of their manner of articulation: it refers to a vowel where there is a single (perceptual) noticeable change in quality during a syllable, as in English beer, time, loud. Related terms are monophthong, where no qualitative change is heard, and triphthong, where two such changes can be heard. Diphthongs, or ‘gliding vowels’, are usually classified into phonetic types, depending on which of the two elements is the more sonorous: ‘falling’ (or ‘descending’) diphthongs have the first element stressed, as in the English examples: ‘rising’ (or ‘ascending’) diphthongs have the second element stressed, as in a possible analysis of English cue [kiu]. Other classifications of diphthongal types exist, in terms of the extent of their movement (e.g. whether it is ‘wide’ or ‘narrow’) and their direction (whether the diphthong is ‘centring’ or not, i.e. ending with a central vowel). Diphthongization is the term used to describe a process where a monophthong has become a diphthong (has been diphthongized), as in cases of historical or dialect change. Diphthongs are transcribed using symbols which represent the extremes of vowel movement between the two positions, as in [a}] for the unit in fine.

Is a sound, as in boy, that starts at or near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves to or toward the position of another. And the end the sound ends with the sound of the second vowel. The manner of articulation moves from one sound to another.

5

FALLING

(1) A term used in classifying the linguistic uses of pitch, referring to a movement from relatively high to relatively low. Falling tones (or falls) of various kinds (e.g. ‘high/low falling’, ‘falling-rising’) may be encountered in the study of intonation systems and of tone languages.

(2) A term used in a two-way classification of diphthongs (opposed to rising), referring to cases where the first element of the diphthong receives the maximum prominence (usually sonority). An example is the diphthong in the English word lie [laiy], where the [a] element is more prominent (sonorous) than the [iy].

The pronunciation of falling intonation can be found in the case of the wh questions.

The pronunciation of the diphthongs involves another falling case when the first vowel is stronger and the second one is weak.

6

FRICATIVE

A term used in the phonetic classification of consonant sounds on the basis of their manner of articulation: also sometimes called spirant, it refers to sounds made when two organs come so close together that the air moving between them produces audible friction, or frication. There is no complete closure between the organs (in which case a plosive articulation would be produced): there is simply a stricture, or narrowing. There are several such sounds in English, both voiced and voiceless, as in fin [f], van [v], thin [θ], this [¨], sin [s], zoo [z], ship [à], measure [è], hoop [h]. Other fricative sounds may be heard in English, in restricted contexts or speech styles, such as the palatal fricative [ç], and several other fricatives may be heard in other languages, e.g. a voiceless velar fricative [x] in Welsh or German, a voiceless pharyngeal fricative [h] in Arabic, a voiced bilabial fricative [β] in Spanish. The fricative manner of articulation produces a wider range of speech sounds than any other. They are sounds with a potential for considerable duration (e.g. s-s-s), and, from this point of view, the opposite of fricative (i.e. a continuant sound lacking friction) is called a frictionless continuant. The term spirantization is sometimes used for the process of deriving a fricative from some other type of articulation.

This is a group of consonants that are produced by the friction of the air passing around or through the combination of vocal organs according to the manner of articulation in the mouth, nose, and the thorax.

7

MANNER

(1) One of the main parameters in the phonetic or phonological classification of speech sounds, referring to the kind of articulatory process used in a sound’s production. The distinction between consonant and vowel is usually made in terms of manner of articulation. Within consonants, several articulatory types are recognized, based on the type of closure made by the vocal organs. If the closure is complete, the result is a plosive, affricate or nasal. If the closure is partial, the result is a lateral. If the closure is intermittent, the result is a roll (trill) or flap. And if there is narrowing without complete closure the result is a fricative. Within vowels, classification is based on the number of auditory qualities distinguishable in the sound (pure vowel, diphthong, triphthong), the position of the soft palate, and the type of lip position (see rounding). Sounds which are vowel-like in manner of articulation, but consonantal in function, are classified as semivowels or frictionless continuants. The term has special status in distinctive feature theory in phonology, where it constitutes one of the five main dimensions in terms of which features of speech sound are analysed (the others being major class features, cavity features, source features and prosodic features). The features subsumed under this heading, all analysed as oppositions, are: continuant, release features (instantaneous and delayed), supplementary movements (suction and pressure) and tense.

(2) Several linguists use this term in the classification of language varieties (more fully, manner of discourse), referring to the relations among the participants in a language activity, especially the level of formality they adopt (colloquial, formal, etc.). Alternative labels which have been proposed for this area are style or tenor of discourse.

To produce English sounds are needed all of the vocal organs. The recognized sounds are grouped in the international classification of IPA.

Every language has different sounds, so the vocal organs produce more or another sounds, and the predominance of them, when producing sounds change.

8

MINIMAL PAIR

Are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme, toneme or chroneme and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate that two phones constitute two separate phonemes in the language.

Many phonologists in the middle part of the 20th century had a strong interest in developing techniques for discovering the phonemes of unknown languages, and in some cases setting up writing systems for these languages. The major work of Kenneth Pike on the subject has the title Phonemics: a technique for reducing languages to writing. The minimal pair was an essential tool in the discovery process, arrived at by substitution or commutation tests. Modern phonology is much less interested in such issues, and the minimal pair is consequently considered to be of little theoretical importance.

As an example for English vowels, the pair "let" + "lit" can be used to demonstrate that the phones [ɛ] (in let) and [ɪ] (in lit) do in fact represent distinct phonemes /ɛ/ and /ɪ/. An example for English consonants is the minimal pair of "pat" + "bat". The following table shows other pairs demonstrating the existence of various distinct phonemes in English. All the possible minimal pairs for any language may be set out in the same way.

Minimal pair helps the student to recognize different sounds as in the case of monosyllable words, where they can practice how to pronounce vowels and consonants.

9

MONOPHTHONG

A term used in the phonetic classification of vowel sounds on the basis of their manner of articulation: it refers to a vowel (a pure vowel) where there is no detectable change in quality during a syllable, as in English cart, cut, cot. Vowels which change in quality are known as diphthongs (or triphthongs). In some dialect and diachronic studies, a process of monophthongization can be found, i.e. a change in vowel quality from a diphthong to a monophthong.

Is one only normal sound from a vowel, without involving a diphthong or triphthong.

10

MORPHEME

The minimal distinctive unit of grammar, and the central concern of morphology. Its original motivation was as an alternative to the notion of the word, which had proved to be difficult to work with in comparing languages. Words, moreover, could be quite complex in structure, and there was a need for a single concept to interrelate such notions as root, prefix, compound, etc. The morpheme, accordingly, was seen primarily as the smallest functioning unit in the composition of words.

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in the grammar of a language.

11

NASAL

A term used in the phonetic classification of speech sounds on the basis of manner of articulation: it refers to sounds produced while the soft palate is lowered to allow an audible escape of air through the nose. Both consonants and vowels may be articulated in this way. Nasal consonants (sometimes represented as a class by N or nas) occur when there is a complete closure in the mouth, and all the air thus escapes through the nose. Examples in English are the final consonants of ram, ran, rang [ram, ran, ra], where the closures are in bilabial, alveolar and velar positions respectively. Several other nasal sounds are possible, e.g. in palatal positions [¢], as in Spanish mañana. voiceless nasal sounds also occur, as when a nasal consonant follows [s] in English, e.g. small, snooze. In nasal (or nasalized) vowels, air escapes through nose and mouth simultaneously; the vowels are transcribed with [~] above the symbol, e.g. [ã]. Nasal vowels are opposed to oral vowels in a language, as in French and Portuguese. English has no distinct nasal vowels, but nasalization is often heard on English vowels, when they display the articulatory influence of an adjacent nasal consonant, as in mat or hand. The vowel in a word like man may be articulated with the soft palate lowered throughout, because of this influence – an instance of anticipatory coarticulation. Such cases, where the nasality comes from other sounds, would be referred to as ‘nasalized’ vowels; the term ‘nasal vowel’, on the other hand, suggests that the nasality is an essential identifying feature of the sound. A ‘nasalized consonant’, likewise, would refer to a consonant which, though normally oral in a language, was being articulated in a nasal manner because of some adjacent nasal sound. Stop consonants (and sometimes fricatives) may be articulated with a prenasal onset or post-nasal release, depending on the timing of the velic closure relative to the oral closure: Swahili, for example, has a series of pre-nasalized stops. The opposite term is denasalized, which would be applied only to sounds which normally were articulated with a nasal component (as when one speaks through a blocked nose). In certain clinical conditions, such as cleft palate, abnormal degrees of nasalization may be present: excessively nasal (or hypernasal) speech is here opposed to reduced nasality (or hyponasal speech). Other nasal effects may be heard in a language. A plosive sound, for example, when followed by a nasal articulated in the same position, may be released through the nose instead of the mouth, and the resulting auditory effect is one of nasal plosion, as in sudden [sʌdn], which is rather more likely than [sʌdn]. Nasal twang is not a term with a precise phonetic definition, as it refers to any degree of nasal effect in a speaker or accent, seen in contrast with speech which is more oral in character. The opposition between nasal and oral is given a special technical status in the distinctive feature theory of phonology, where it works alongside other two-way contrasts as part of the complete specification of a sound system. In Chomsky and Halle’s theory, for example, it is classified as a cavity feature, and grouped along with lateral under the specific heading of secondary apertures.

These are sounds that let the passing air from the lungs through the nose, produced by the closing of the mouth with the action of the lowering of the soft palate.

12

PHONEME

The minimal unit in the sound system of a language, according to traditional phonological theories. The original motivation for the concept stemmed from the concern to establish patterns of organization within the indefinitely large range of sounds heard in languages. The phonetic specifications of the sounds (or phones) heard in speech, it was realized, contain far more detail than is needed to identify the way languages make contrasts in meaning. The notion of the phoneme allowed linguists to group together sets of phonetically similar phones as variants, or ‘members’, of the same underlying unit. The phones were said to be realizations of the phonemes, and the variants were referred to as allophones of the phonemes. Each language can be shown to operate with a relatively small number of phonemes; some languages have as few as fifteen phonemes; others as many as eighty. An analysis in these terms will display a language’s phonemic inventory/structure/system. No two languages have the same phonemic system.

The IPA contains the most important phonemes for the study of English language.

13

PHONETICS

The science which studies the characteristics of human sound-making, especially those sounds used in speech, and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription. Three branches of the subject are generally recognized:

(a) articulatory phonetics is the study of the way speech sounds are made (‘articulated’) by the vocal organs;

(b) acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sound, as transmitted between mouth and ear;

(c) auditory phonetics studies the perceptual response to speech sounds, as mediated by ear, auditory nerve and brain.

The term instrumental phonetics is used for the study of any of these aspects of the subject using physical apparatus, such as devices for measuring airflow, or for analysing sound waves. People engaged in the study of phonetics are known as phoneticians.

The science in charge of the study of the way we need to speak and write English. After all, the future teachers will teach English to the new generations of the second language.

14

PLACE OF ARTICULATION

One of the main parameters used in the phonetic classification of speech sounds, referring to where in the vocal apparatus a sound is produced. It is usual to represent this parameter horizontally, though as a result this dimension does omit some of the variations which can only be identified transversely, e.g. whether one or both sides of the tongue is involved in an articulation. The conventionally recognized places or points of articulation for consonants correspond to main anatomical divisions, viz. labial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, palatal, velar, uvular, pharyngeal, glottal, but other places relative to these are also recognized, such as post-alveolar and retroflex. The analogous traditional classification of vowels is made in terms of auditory criteria, using the horizontal scale of front and back, and the vertical scale of close and open; but because of the lack of a clear anatomical correlate it has been less usual to talk about vowels in terms of articulatory ‘places’ or ‘points’, except in a loose way. The notion of place (PL), for both consonants and vowels, has come to the fore in non-linear phonological models, where a specific place node may be represented in the feature hierarchy, and used as a constituent under which consonant and vowel (or vowel-like) features are organized. For example, some articulator-based models recognize a place node (with no phonetic content) for constriction location, represented by C-place for consonants and V-place for vocoids. Some approaches also characterize segments which lack oral articulatory targets as placeless: examples would be glottal stop, schwa and [h].

All of the vowels and consonants sounds are produced in an specific place or manner of articulation with the participation and combination of the vocal organs in the mouth, nose and thorax, especially lungs and diaphragm.

15

PLOSIVES

A term used in the phonetic classification of consonant sounds on the basis of their manner of articulation: it refers to a sound made when a complete closure in the vocal tract is suddenly released; the air pressure which had built up behind the closure rushes out with an explosive sound, hence the term. Examples in English are [p, b, t, d, k, g, ?]. Plosion is the term used to refer to the outwards movement of air upon release. Plosive consonants are one type of stop consonant. It is also possible, using a different airstream mechanism than the one which produces an outwards flow of lung air, to produce plosives (implosives) where the air upon release moves inwards.

Is a group of consonant sounds produced when a complete closure in the vocal tract is suddenly released out of the mouth.

16

RAISING INTONATION

(1) A type of rule recognized in some models of transformational grammar: in its broadest sense, any rule that moves a constituent to a higher position. In a ‘raising-to-object’ (or object-raising rule, the linear constituents in a string consisting of a main clause + complement clause (e.g. he believes John to be honest) are bracketed so that the subject of the complement clause appears to have been raised to become the object of the higher clause (he believes it + John is honest becoming he believes John + to be honest). In a subject-raising rule, an underlying subject complement clause has the subject taken from it and ‘raised’ to be the subject of the main clause. For example, in relating such sentences as it seems that the man is angry to the man seems angry, one may begin with: Subject-raising (in association with other transformational operations, omitted here) places the man as subject of seems, producing (the man) (seems) (to be angry). The formalization of such rules is controversial, as is the extent of their application (they are both governed rules, applying to small classes of verb only). In government-binding theory, classical TG subject-to-object raising constructions are analysed in terms of exceptional case marking, and classical TG subject-raising constructions in terms of NP-movement. In phrase- structure grammar and lexical functional grammar, both are regarded as types of control constructions. Sometimes raising constructions are referred to as catenative constructions. Other syntactic applications of the term ‘raising’ may also be encountered (e.g. ‘predicate-raising’, ‘negative raising’, ‘quantifier raising’).

(2) In phonetics and phonology, a vertical process affecting tongue height; opposed to lowering. For example, in the study of vowel harmony, a vowel might be said to raise (e.g. from mid to high) in the context of a following high vowel. In the course of language change, a vowel in an originally low position might be raised to a relatively high position.

The rising intonation during speech, sometimes is produced when the speaker involves the state of vitality or energy or situation between or among others. Friends and family speak different, than in front of the boss.

The phonetic case when we make yes, no questions and others.

17

VOICE

(1) A fundamental term used in the phonetic classification of speech sounds, referring to the auditory result of the vibration of the vocal folds; also called voicing. Sounds produced while the vocal folds are vibrating are voiced sounds, e.g. [b, z, a, i]; those produced with no such vibration are voiceless or unvoiced, e.g. [p, s, h]. A sound which is normally voiced, but which in a particular phonetic environment is produced with less voice than elsewhere, or with no voice at all, is said to be devoiced (symbolized by a small circle beneath the symbol) – examples are the reduced voicing on voiced plosives in a word-final position as in bib, bed [b}s], [bed]. This contrast is considered to be of primary significance in phonological analysis, and is used as a main parameter of classification both in phonemic and distinctive feature theories of phonology. Voiced, for example, is one of the source features of sound set up by Chomsky and Halle in their phonological theory. Voiced sounds are defined articulatorily, as those where the vocal folds are in a position which will enable them to vibrate in an airflow. Its opposite is non-voiced (or voiceless), referring to sounds where vocal-fold vibration is impossible, because of the wide gap between them.

(2) A category used in the grammatical description of sentence or clause structure, primarily with reference to verbs, to express the way sentences may alter the relationship between the subject and object of a verb, without changing the meaning of the sentence. The main distinction is between active and passive, as illustrated by The cat bit the dog and The dog was bitten by the cat: in the first sentence, the grammatical subject is also the actor; in the second sentence the grammatical subject is the goal of the action – it is ‘acted upon’, and thus ‘passive’. There will be certain differences in the emphasis or style of these sentences, which will affect the speaker’s choice, but the factual content of the two sentences remains the same. In other languages, further contrasts in voice may be encountered, e.g. the ‘middle’ voice of Greek (which included verbs with a reflexive meaning, e.g. She cut herself), and there are several other types of construction whose role in language is related to that of voice, e.g. ‘reflexive’, causative, ‘impersonal’ constructions. Voice contrasts may be formally marked in the verb (e.g. by inflection, word-order or the use of special auxiliaries), or elsewhere in the sentence (e.g. by the use of passive ‘agent’); the English passive can involve all three factors, as in I was kicked by a bull.

These are sounds produced by the vibration of the vocal cords.

18

VOWEL

One of the two general categories used for the classification of speech sounds, the other being consonant. Vowels can be defined in terms of both phonetics and phonology. Phonetically, they are sounds articulated without a complete closure in the mouth or a degree of narrowing which would produce audible friction; the air escapes evenly over the centre of the tongue. If air escapes solely through the mouth, the vowels are said to be oral; if some air is simultaneously released through the nose, the vowels are nasal. In addition to this, in a phonetic classification of vowels, reference would generally be made to two variables, the first of which is easily describable, the second much less so: (a) the position of the lips – whether rounded, spread, or neutral; (b) the part of the tongue raised, and the height to which it moves. Relatively slight movements of the tongue produce quite distinct auditory differences in vowel (or vocalic) quality. Because it is very difficult to see or feel these movements, classification of vowels is usually carried out using acoustic or auditory criteria, supplemented by details of lip position. There are several systems for representing vowel position visually, e.g. in terms of a vowel triangle or a vowel quadrilateral such as the cardinal vowel system. These sounds are usually voiced, though some languages have been analysed as having ‘voiceless’ vowels, e.g. Portuguese. From a phonological point of view, vowels are those units which function at the centre of syllables. In some approaches, the term ‘vowel’ is reserved for the phonological level of analysis; vocoid is then used for the phonetic level (as opposed to contoid, for the phonetic equivalent of a consonant). The usefulness of this distinction is in relation to those sounds which are vowel-like in articulation, but which function as consonants in syllables: [r], for example, is phonetically very similar to a vowel, but it occurs at the margins of English syllables, as in red, car. In such cases, it is sometimes clearer to talk of a ‘vocoid with consonantal function’. In establishing the vowel system of a language, several further dimensions of classification may be used. One criterion is in terms of the duration of the vowel (whether relatively ‘long’ or ‘short’ vowels are used). Another is whether, during an articulation, there is any detectable change in quality. If the quality of a vowel stays unchanged, the term pure vowel, or monophthong, is used, e.g. the standard British pronunciation of red, car, sit, seat. If there is an evident change in quality, one talks instead of a gliding vowel. If two auditory elements are involved, the vowel glide is referred to as a diphthong, e.g. light, say, go; if three elements, as a triphthong, e.g. fire, hour (in some pronunciations). In the distinctive feature theory of phonology, the term vocalic is used as the main feature in the analysis of vowel sounds. Yet another way of classifying vowels is in terms of the amount of muscular tension required to produce them: vowels articulated in extreme positions are more ‘tense’ than those articulated nearer the centre of the mouth, which are ‘lax’: cf. seat v. sit, flute v. foot.