[Session 7, 8] Phonology
voicing
A sound which is articulated by vibrating the vocal cords
syllable
A unit of pronunciation which is (usually) longer than a sound, but (usually) less than a word
monosyllable
A word consisting of a single syllable
allophone
Different articulations of the same phoneme; any of the different variants of a phoneme; each phoneme can be said in different ways. We do not have to think about doing this consciously, it happens instinctively mainly as a result of the influence of an adjacent phoneme be it a previous one or one that follows
weak form
If a word is unstressed it often appears in its weak form; The reduction of the vowel to a schwa is the most common way to form weak forms; 'and', 'than', 'to', 'that', 'must', 'but', 'are', 'of', 'from', 'them', 'some', 'shall', 'was', 'does', 'can', are all most often pronounced with a /ə/
juncture
The boundary between two PHONEMES accounting for the flow and pauses between sounds in speech. Three types. 1 close ... is characterized by a rapid transition between two sounds, as between /s/ and /p/ in speak 2 open ... is characterized by a slight pause between sounds, as in pronouncing I scream versus ice cream 3 terminal ... is characterized by a pause after a sound, as before and after "Mrs Brown" in "My employer, Mrs Brown, is from Canada; some utterances are phonemically identical but there are two possible interpretations of the sounds heard, consider 'I scream' and 'ice cream' or 'send the maid' and 'send them aid
closing diphthong
The glide is towards either /ɪ/ or /ʊ/, which both have a higher position in the mouth.
accommodation
The process of 'squeezing together' the syllables that occur between stressed syllables, so that each segment of an utterance takes the same time to produce
glide
The slide between the constituent sounds
onset syllable
The stressed syllable before the tonic syllable
tonic (nucleus) syllable
The syllable which carries the main stress and where the main pitch movement in an utterance takes place; the most prominent syllable within an utterance which carries the main stress.
intonation
Thornbury describes intonation thus: Intonation has been called the 'music' of speech. It is the meaningful use that speakers make of changes in their voice pitch. Intonation is a suprasegmental feature of pronunciation, meaning that it is a property of whole stretches of speech rather than of individual segments (such as phonemes) [...] Grammatical functions, such as indicating the difference between statements and questions; Attitudinal function, such as indicating interest, surprise, boredom and so on [...] Discoursal function, such as contrasting new information with information that is already known, and hence shared between speakers
lingua franca core
Those phonological features which are deemed to be vital in conveying a clear, unambiguous message to other users, especially in NNS - NNS communication
lateral /ˈlæt(ə)rəl/
are sounds which are produced by partially blocking the air stream from the lungs, usually by the tongue, by letting it escape at one or both sides of the blockage. In English /l/
tone / pitch movement
a change in PITCH which affects the meaning and function of utterances in discourse
tone / pitch movement
a change in PITCH which affects the meaning and function of utterances in discourse; fall, rise, slight rise, fall-rise, rise-fall
alveolar ridge /ˌælvɪˈəʊlə(r), ælˈviːələ(r)/
a consonant sound such as 'l', 'd', 'n', or 't', made with the tongue touching the skin behind your top front teeth
lingua franca / auxiliary language
a language that is used for communication between different groups of people, each speaking a different language
syllable time language
a language whose syllables take approximately equal amounts of time to pronounce; A language where each syllable tends to take the same length of time to say.
diphthong
a phoneme formed of two monothong sounds joining together in a glide; a vowel in which there is a change in quality during a single syllable, as in the English words boy, buy, bow. Diphthongs can be analyzed as a sequence of two vowels or as VOWEL + GLIDE; /ɪə/ as in ear /əʊ/ as in go /eə/ as in there /eɪ/ as in pay; 8; centring and closing
phonemic chart
a set of symbols that represent all the sounds in spoken English; uses symbols to show us the sounds we should make when we say a word; Each language has its own phonemic chart which contains all the sounds needed to speak that particular language or indeed variety of language;
bilabial /baɪˈleɪbiəl/
a sound articulated by bringing together the upper and lower lips, for example English /m/, /p/ and /b/ in the words my, pet, bird.
affricate
a sound used in speech that is like the 'ch' sound in 'church' or the 'j' sound in 'judge'; /tʃ/ and /dʒ/
plosive / stop
a speech sound (a CONSONANT) which is produced by stopping the airstream from the lungs and then suddenly releasing it. For example, /p/ is a BILABIAL stop, formed by stopping the air with the lips and then releasing it
vowel
a speech sound produced without significant constriction of the air flowing through the mouth
fricative
a speech sound that is made by pushing air out through a small space between your teeth and your tongue or lips, or between your tongue and palate (=the inside upper part of your mouth). 'F', 'z', and 'th'
consonant
a speech sound where the airstream from the lungs is either completely blocked (STOP), partially blocked (LATERAL) or where the opening is so narrow that the air escapes with audible friction (FRICATIVE). With some consonants (NASALS) the airstream is blocked in the mouth but allowed to escape through the nose
stress
a term we use to describe the prominent syllable of a word or a sentence; a syllable is made louder and longer; the other syllables become, or appear to be, weak by contrast. There can also be a change in pitch
monophthong
a vowel in which there is no appreciable change in quality during a syllable, as in English /a/ in father.
utterance
a word or phrase that someone speaks
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
an internationally recognized set of phonetic symbols developed in the late 19th century, based on the principle of strict one-to-one correspondence between sounds and symbols; contains all the sounds of all languages
discourse
any piece of language above the sentence level; is held together by markers indicating shifts of focus, references backwards and forwards and changes of topic; language which has been produced as the result of an act of communication
bottom-up
approach its constituents, atomistically
nasal
are sounds which are produced by stopping the airstream from the lungs at some place in the mouth and letting the air escape through the nose. The English nasal consonants are /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/
top-down
as a whole, holistically
the law of least effort
choosing the easiest option to do something
tone unit
chunks of language, broken up rather like phrases in written English, for example: If you finish quickly leave the room. (The lack of comma is intentional here) This can be chunked in 2 ways, depending on context. a) If you finish / quickly leave the room b) If you finish quickly / leave the room; basic unit of INTONATION in a language; a sub-division of an utterance which contains a tonic syllable. They are usually represented by slanted lines as in 'She got here / just after 8.00 o'clock.' Longer pauses are sometimes indicated by double slanted lines.
rhythm
consists of a pattern of pulses of air pressure
semi-wovels
consonants which precede vowels though they have vowel-like qualities. There are two in English /j/ and /w/.
centring diphthong
glide is towards /ə/; the diphthongs move towards a central position in the mouth
prominence
greater STRESS on the words or syllables which the speaker wishes to emphasize; also known as stress in sentences; The effect of emphasising certain syllables by making them louder or longer, or by increasing their pitch
approximants
include the semi-vowels and are sounds where articulators approach each other but either not narrowly enough or not enough precision to create any air turbulence. As well as the semi-vowels /j/ and /w/, the sounds /r/ and /l/ are also approximants
attenuated
long and thin
schwa
often just an unstressed syllable within a word irrespective of whether that word is said alone or within an utterance
articulator /ɑː(r)ˈtɪkjʊˌleɪtə(r)/
one of the parts of the mouth, nose and throat used to produce speech, e.g. By moving the speech ..., such as the tongue, lips and jaw, you can form speech sounds.
the tricks of the trade
quick and effective methods used by experienced people in a particular profession, e.g. There are a few ... which will help you when painting a room.
proclaiming tone
refers to an intonation pattern that either rises and then falls, or just falls. It shows that the speaker is giving new information; often shown by a fall in pitch , suggests that the speaker is introducing information which is new to the listener
referring tone
refers to an intonation pattern that falls and then rises. It shows that the speaker is referring to something that everybody already knows
attitudinal
relating to or affected by what someone feels about something
stressed time language
rhythm of English, which is determined by a number of stressed syllables in a sentence, other syllables are squashed up; a language where the stressed syllables are said at approximately regular intervals, and unstressed syllables shorten to fit this rhythm
сontinuants
sounds that continue without variation as long as the breath lasts. These include the fricatives /f/, /v/, /Ө/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/ and all of the nasal sounds
suprasegmental phonology
study of elements over the individual phonemes; includes stress, intonation patterns
segmental phonology
study of individual sounds / individual segments (phonemes)
discrimination
the ability to recognize the difference between things; the ability to distinguish between two sounds when both are heard together
citation /saɪˈteɪʃ(ə)n/ form
the form a word has when it is cited or pronounced in isolation, which may be different from the form it has when it occurs in context; 'I'm looking for accommodation', 'for' is pronounced /fə/ i.e. it is a weak form not its strong form /fɔ:/; its pronunciation has been affected by the co-text around it and where stress falls within the utterance. This schwa is, therefore, a feature of connected speech.
palate /ˈpælət/
the inside upper part of your mouth
tonic / nuclear stress
the main stress in the pronunciation and intonation of words, requiring the use of extra muscular and respiratory energy during the articulation of the syllable which receives, due to certain reasons, more emphasis than surrounding syllables
sound
the original constituent of language; is used to designate one of the phonemes of a particular language; (phoneme is used as a term rather than 'sound')
intonation pattern
the pattern of pitch changes that occur across an UTTERANCE, often accompanied by differences in loudness and SPEECH RHYTHM. Intonation contours may have grammatical functions. For example, the word ready? - said with rising intonation - is a question, while the same word with falling intonation is a statement.
pitch
the relative level of speech sounds perceived by the listener either 'high', 'mid' or 'low'
phoneme
the smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two words; English is often considered to have 44 phonemes: 24 CONSONANTs and 20 VOWELs
liaison /liˈeɪz(ə)n/ / catenation
the smooth linking or joining together of words in connected speech; intrusion; consonant vowel linking; juncture
velum / soft palate
the soft part at the top back of your mouth
phonology / phonemics
the study or description of the distinctive sound units (PHONEMEs) of a language and their relationship to one another
leave someone to their own devices
to allow someone to make their own decisions about what to do, e.g. He seemed to be a responsible person, so I ...
lie at the heart of something
to be the most important part of something, e.g. The questions of training and pay ... of the staffing problems.
know/learn the ropes
to know or learn how to do something, especially a job, e.g. It didn't take her new assistant long to ...
elide
to leave out a sound when you say a word or group of words, for example when you say it quickly in ordinary conversation
minimal pair
two words in a language which differ from each other by only one distinctive sound (one PHONEME) and which also differ in meaning. For example, the English words bear and pear are a minimal pair as they differ in meaning and in their initial phonemes /b/ and /p/
pitch range
variations in PITCH height that an individual speaker is able to produce; the distance between a speaker's customary top and bottom note; Some languages have a wide pitch range: English is notably wide, as is Chinese but other languages have a narrower pitch range e.g. Spanish, or German; the distance between the lowest pitch of a language and the highest. The range of English is very wide; other languages less so
assimilation
when a speech sound changes, becoming more like another sound which follows or precedes it; 1.regressive (looking backwards), when a sound affects what comes before it; 2. progressive (looking forwards), so that a preceding sound has an effect on the following sound, e.g. past tense ending (voiced/unvoiced); 3. coalescent, when both sounds affect each other, as in the boundary between 'would' and 'you' in 'Would you...?' where the sounds /d/ and /j/ coalesce into the sound /ʤ/
intrusion
when an extra consonant is added at the end of a word to link it to a following word starting with a vowel, e.g. 'pie and chips'; when said without pausing, you may notice a /j/ occurring between 'pie' and 'and' /paɪjən(d)ʧɪps/; there are three intrusive sounds: /j/, /r/ and /w/. These occur between two vowel boundaries and help link the vowel sounds together smoothly. An example of intrusive /r/ is 'China and Japan' /ʧaɪnərənʤəpæn/ with an intrusive 'r' between the schwa at the end of 'China' and the schwa or /æ/at the beginning of 'and'. An intrusive /w/ occurs in 'go away' /gəʊwəweɪ/. The vowel boundary in this case is the /əʊ/ at the end of 'go' and the schwa at the start of 'away'
elision
where similar sounds occurring together result in one sound being omitted, or elided; 'pie and chips', /paɪjənʧɪps/, the final 'd' is omitted; often occurs with the consonant sounds /t/ and /d/, consider the phrases 'next please', 'old man' and 'first day; It can also work within words as with the omission of the schwa in 'suppose' /spəʊz/
function word
words which have little meaning on their own, but which show grammatical relationships in and between sentences (grammatical meaning), e.g. Conjunctions, prepositions, articles; they are also called form words, empty words, functors, grammatical words, structural words, structure words
content word
words which refer to a thing, quality, state, or action and which have meaning (lexical meaning) when the words are used alone, they are mainly nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, e.g. book, run, musical, quickly; they are also called full words, lexical words