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Glossary

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acoustic [kustk] - concerning the physical properties of sound waves active articulator [ktv tkjlet] - the part of the vocal tract that moves in order to cause a narrowing of the vocal tract. The common active articulators are the lower lip, tongue tip, tongue blade, tongue body, and tongue root. advanced [dvnst] advanced tongue root (ATR) [dvnst t ut] - the property of a sound that involves pushing the tongue root forward and expanding the pharynx. When applied to vowels, many linguists treat "ATR" as a synonym for "tense". affricate [fkt] - a single sound formed by a stop closure followed by a fricative closure at the same (or very close) places of articulation. Examples: [t], [dz], [pf]. airstream mechanism [stim mknzm] - the mechanism used to start the air-flow required by a sound. allophone [lfon] alveolar [lvil] or [lviol] - adjective for things related to the alveolar ridge - specifically: a sound made with the region between the alveolar ridge and the upper teeth as the passive articulator. alveolar ridge [lvil d] alveopalatal [lviopltl] - a palatalized postalveolar, such as [] or []. (This term is often also used loosely by linguists who fail to distinguish between postalveolar and palatal places of articulation.) amplitude [mpltjud] apical [epkl] or [pkl] - sounds made with the tip of the tongue as the active articulator. approximant [pksmnt] -the degree of constriction in which the active and passive articulators approach each other, but not closely enough to cause the air passing between them to become
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Glossary

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turbulent. The approximants of English are [w], [j], [], and [l]. arytenoid cartilages [tnjd ktldz] aspirated [spetd] assimilation [smlen] - a process that causes a sound to become more similar to one of its neighbours. back (vowel) [bk vawl] Bark [bk] bilabial [bajlebil] - adjective for things involving both lips - specifically: the place of articulation of a sound made with both lips as the articulators, e.g., [p], [b], [m]. breathy [bi] broad transcription [bd trnskpn] Canadian raising [knedin rez] - the property of many Canadian dialects of English (and some others) where the diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/ are pronounced with a higher starting point -- [j] and [w] -- when they occur before voiceless consonants. cardinal vowel [kdnl vawl] - In the system of referring to vowel positions created by Daniel Jones (and still often used, especially in Britain), one of the four "equally spaced" front vowels [i, e, , a], four "equally spaced" back vowels [, , o u], or their counterparts with opposite rounding [y, , , , , , , ]. central [sntl] (of a consonant) not lateral (of a vowel) made with the tongue body in a position horizontally between front and back centralized [sntlajzd] click [klk] -

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Glossary

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close [klos] = high (vowel) cochlea [kkli] -the organ in the inner ear that separates incoming sounds into their frequency components and sends that information as nerve impulses to the brain. coda [kod] -the part of the syllable that comes after the nucleus, e.g., [nd] in [ajnd]. coronal [knl] or [konl] - a cover term for sounds made with either tongue tip or tongue blade as the active articulator. closure (phase) [klo] - the medial phase of a stop, where the active and passive articulators are touching each other. coarticulation [ko.tkjlen] creaky [kiki] decibel (dB) [dsbl] - a unit of sound intensity (or amplitude), equal to one-tenth of a bel. degree of constriction [di v knstkn] - the narrowness of the constriction formed by the active and passive articulators. Most common degrees of constriction: stop, fricative, approximant. dental [dntl] -adjective for things involving the teeth specifically: the place of articulation for sounds with the upper teeth as the passive articulator, such as [], []. diacritic [dajktk] - a small IPA symbol placed above, below, or next to another symbol in order to slightly modify that symbol's meaning. diphthong [df] - a vowel during which the tongue body moves from one position to another. dorsal [dsl] - adjective for things involving the tongue body. dorsum [dsm] - fancy term for the tongue body -- specifically the back part of the tongue body (from the Latin word for "back"). downstep [dawnstp] -

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Glossary

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ejective [idktv] epiglottal [pltl] epiglottis [plts] extended IPA (or extIPA) [kstndd ajpie] - a set of additional phonetic symbols and diacritics, used primarily for sounds which do not typically occur in normal adult speech, but may occur in child speech or disordered speech. f0 [f zo] - abbreviation for fundamental frequency. F1, F2, F3, etc. [f wn], etc. faucal pillars [fkl plz] FFT Fast Fourier Transform [fst fije tnzfm] - the most common mathematical technique for finding the spectrum of a waveform. filter [flt] - in the source/filter model, the component that modifies (using resonance) the wave produced by the source. For speech, this is all of the vocal tract above the vocal folds. flap [flp] focus accent [foks ksnt] formant [fmnt] Fourier analysis [fije nlss] - a mathematical technique for separating a complex wave into the simple waves that make it up. frequency [fikwnsi] fricative [fktv] - the manner of articulation where the active and passive articulators are close enough together that the air flowing between them becomes turbulent; or a consonant having this manner of articulation, e.g., [f, s, z, ]. front (vowel)

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Glossary

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[fnt] fundamental frequency [fndmntl fikwnsi] glide [lajd] - a type of approximant which is essentially a vowel occupying a consonant's position in a syllable, such as [j] corresponding to [i] or [w] corresponding to [u]. glottal [ltl] - adjective for things having to do with the glottis. glottal stop [ltl stp] - a consonant formed by closing the vocal folds, symbolized by IPA [], as in English [] uh-uh. glottal wave [ltl wev] - the waveform produced by the larynx, before it is filtered by the rest of the vocal tract. glottis [lts] - the opening between the vocal folds. harmonic [hmnk] - one of the simple sine waves that makes up the spectrum of a complex wave. Hertz (Hz) [hts] - a measure of a waves frequency: the number of times the wave repeats itself in one second. (also known as "cycles per second") high (vowel) [haj] implosive [mplosv] intonation [ntnen] IPA [aj pi e] -International Phonetic Alphabet, or International Phonetic Association labial [lebil] - adjective for things having to do with the lips labialized [lebilajzd] labio-velar [lebiovil] - a sound that involves both a bilabial constriction and a velar constriction articulated simultaneously (or with a lot of overlap). E.g., [w], [gb]. laminal

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Glossary

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[lmnl] - a sound made with the tongue blade as the active articulator. laryngeal [lndl] laryngealized [lndlajzd] larynx [lks] lateral [ltl] lateral release [ltl lis] lax [lks] length [l] Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) [lni pdktv kod] - a computer algorithm for figuring out the formants of a waveform. linguolabial [lwlebil] - a sound made by the tongue tip or blade touching the upper lip -- very rare. liquid [lkwd] -a cover term for "l"-like or "r"-like sonorants. low (vowel) [lo] medial (phase) [midil fez] mel [ml] mid (vowel) [md] modal voicing [modl vjs] monophthong [mnf] - a vowel during which the tongue body stays in more or less the same place, as opposed to a diphthong, where the tongue body moves. narrow transcription -

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Glossary

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nasal [nezl] -1) general, 2) IPA row nasalized [nezlajzd] nasal release [nezl lis] non-pulmonic [nn plmnk] nucleus [njuklis] - the part of the syllable containing the vowel (including any of the vowel's on-glides or off-glides). E.g., the [aj] in [ajnd]. obstruent [bstunt] - a plosive or a fricative. offglide [flajd] offset (phase) [fst fez] onset (of a syllable) [nst] onset (phase) [nst fez] open [opn] = low oral [l] palatal [pltl] - adjective for things related to the hard palate - specifically: the place of articulation for sounds made with the hard palate as the passive articulator, such as [j] palatalized [pltlajzd] passive articulator [psv tkjlet] pharyngeal [fndl] - adjective for things involving the pharynx, or upper throat. - specifically: the place of articulation of sounds with the pharynx as the passive articulator. pharyngealized

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Glossary

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[fndlajzd] pharynx [fks] phonation [fonen]- the kind of activity the vocal folds are engaged in. "Voiced" and "voiceless" are the two most common types of phonation. phoneme [fonim] phonology [fnldi] pitch [pt] place of articulation (POA) [ples v tkjlen] plosive [plosv] POA - abbreviation for place of articulation postalveolar [post lvil] - adjective for things involving the area immediately behind the alveolar ridge. - specifically: the place of articulation of sounds with the postalveolar region as the passive articulation, such as [], [], [t], and [d]. pre-aspirated [pispetd] prenasalized [pinezlajzd] primary stress [pajmi strs] pulmonic [plmnk] - adjective for things involving the lungs, especially for the airstream mechanism where the movement of air is caused by the lungs (i.e., the normal airstream mechanism, as opposed to clicks, ejectives, and implosives). radical [dkl] - adjective for things involving the tongue root. reduced [djust] release

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Glossary

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[lis] - the offset phase of a stop, where the active articulator stops touching and moves away from the secondary articulator. release burst [lis bst] resonance [znns] response curve [spns kv] -a graph of how much a particular object would resonate if it were given various frequencies, graphed with frequency on the horizontally and response curve on the vertical axis. retracted [tktd] - adjective for a sound that occurs with the active articulator somewhat further back in the mouth than it usually is (or further back than the IPA symbol without any diacritics might suggest). retracted tongue root (RTR) [tktd t ut] - a term for sounds which have the tongue root pushed back toward the rear wall of the pharynx -- often used as a synonym for "lax". retroflex [toflks] - adjective for things involving a curled-up tongue tip. - specifically: the place of articulation for sounds made with the tongue tip curled back to the postalveolar region or further. rhotic [otk] - a cover term for "r"-like sounds, including taps and flaps [] and [], trills [r] and [], and the approximants [] and []. rhoticized [otsajzd] round [awnd] - adjective for a sound made with the lips rounded. schwa [w] secondary articulation [skndi rtkjelen] secondary stress [skndi sts] segment [smnt] sibilant [sblnt] - another term for a strident

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Glossary

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sine wave [sajn wev] sone [son] sonorant [snnt] source [ss] spectrogram [spktm] spectral tilt [spktl tlt] spectrum [spktm] - the set of simple waves that a complex wave is composed of. spectrum diagram [spktm dajm] - a representation of a complex wave's spectrum. Ideally has a vertical line (representing frequency and amplitude) for each simple wave -- though computer-generated spectrum diagrams are usually much messier. stop [stp] stress [sts] striation [stien] strident [stajdnt] - a fricative with especially loud turbulent noise. The strident sounds in English are [s, z, , z, t, d], but not [f, v, , ]. suprasegmental [supsmntl] syllabic consonant [slbk knsnnt] - a consonant that occurs in the nucleus of a syllable, that is, in the position of a syllable where you normally expect a vowel. tap [tp] tense [tns] tone

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Glossary

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[ton] tongue blade [t bled] - the flat part of the surface of the tongue immediately behind the tongue tip. tongue body [t bdi] tongue root [t ut] tongue tip [t tp] trill [tl] triphthong [tf] unreleased [n list] upstep [pstp] uvula [juvjl] - the dangly piece of tissue forming the farthest back and lowest part of the soft palate. uvular [juvjl] - adjective for things involving the uvula. - specifically: the place of articulation for sounds with the uvula as the passive articulator, such as [q] or []. velar [vil] -adjective for things involving the velum, or soft palate. - specifically: the place of articulation for sounds with the velum as the passive articulator, such as [k], [], and []. velarized [vilrajzd] - adjective for sounds having a velar approximant [] as a secondary articulation. velar pinch [vil pnt] - a characteristic pattern of formant transitions often found for velar consonants, where F2 and F3 approach each other. velum [vilm] - the soft palate. vocal folds [vokl foldz] -

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Glossary

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voice bar [vjs b] - a thin, dark, horizontal bar often seen at the bottom of a spectrogram during voiced sounds. voice onset time (VOT) [vjs nst tajm] - the length of time between the release of an oral stop closure and the beginning of vocal fold vibration for the following voiced sound (usually a vowel). Voiceless unaspirated plosives usually have VOTs close to zero (i.e., the stop's release and the onset of voicing happen at about the same time). Aspirated plosives have longer VOTs. voiced [vjst] - adjective for sounds made with vocal fold vibration. voiceless [vjsls] - adjective for sounds made without vocal fold vibration. waveform [wevfm] - a diagram of the vibrations of a wave, with time shown on the horizontal axis and pressure variation or amplitude on the vertical axis. wavelength [wevl] - the spatial distance between comparable points in two successive cycles of a wave (e.g., between peak and peak or between trough and trough). Inversely related to frequency: high-frequency waves have shorter wavelengths; low-frequency waves have longer wavelengths. Wh-question [dublju et kwstn] - a question that expects a specific piece of information (as in "What did you eat?"), as opposed to yes/no question (as in "Are you hungry?"). Called "Wh-questions" because most of the question words used in this type of question in English begin with "wh": who, what, where, why, when, how. yes/no question [js no kwstn] - a question that expects either a "yes" or a "no" for an answer (as in "Are you hungry?"), as opposed to a Wh-question, which expects a specific piece of information (as in "What did you eat?").

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