Definitions
Accent: The characteristic pronunciation patterns associated with a particular region, social group, or individual speaker.
Allophone: Variant pronunciations of a phoneme that do not change the meaning of a word, occurring in different phonetic contexts.
Articulators: Organs or structures involved in shaping speech sounds, including the tongue, lips, and palate.
Aspiration: A burst of air accompanying the release of a voiceless plosive, as in the initial sound of “top.”
Consonant: A speech sound characterized by constriction or closure at one or more points in the vocal tract, excluding vowels.
Diphthong: A complex vowel sound formed by the combination of two simpler vowel sounds, pronounced within the same syllable.
Fricative Sound: A speech sound produced by forcing air through a narrow channel, causing friction or turbulence.
Glide Vowel: A speech sound that functions as a vowel but glides quickly into or out of another vowel sound.
Glottal Stop: A brief interruption of airflow caused by the closure of the glottis, often heard as a replacement for a consonant sound.
Intonation: The variation in pitch or tone used in speech, which can convey meaning, mood, or emphasis.
Manner of Articulation: The way in which airflow is obstructed to produce a consonant sound, such as stop, fricative, or nasal.
Monophthong: A single, unchanging vowel sound, produced without any glide or change in quality.
Phoneme: The smallest unit of sound in a language that can change meaning.
Phonetics: The study of speech sounds, including their production, transmission, and perception, often involving the analysis of the physical properties of sounds.
Plosive Sound: A speech sound produced by a sudden release of air after a complete closure in the vocal tract.
Prosody: The patterns of rhythm, intonation, and stress in spoken language, which contribute to its musical and expressive qualities.
Schwa: The most common vowel sound in English, represented by the symbol /ə/, occurring in unstressed syllables and having a neutral or reduced quality.
Semi-vowel: A speech sound that has characteristics of both a vowel and a consonant, such as /j/ in “yes” or /w/ in “we”.
Stop Consonant: A consonant sound produced by a complete closure of the vocal tract, followed by a sudden release of air.
Syllable: A unit of speech that typically contains a vowel sound and may be accompanied by consonant sounds, forming the basic building blocks of words.
Syllabic Consonant: A consonant sound that serves as the nucleus of a syllable, functioning as a vowel.
Syllable Stress: Emphasis placed on a particular syllable within a word when speaking.
Tone: The pitch or sound quality of a spoken syllable, which can convey emotions, attitudes, or linguistic distinctions.
Linking R: The pronunciation of the /r/ sound in certain positions in connected speech, such as between a word ending in a vowel sound and a word beginning with a vowel sound.
Phonetic Transcription: The representation of speech sounds using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), providing a precise and standardized way to notate pronunciation.
Stress-timed Language: A language in which syllables are pronounced at relatively regular intervals, with stressed syllables occurring at consistent intervals, such as English.
Syllable-timed Language: A language in which syllables are pronounced at relatively equal intervals of time, such as French or Spanish.
Voiced: A sound produced with vibration of the vocal cords, such as /b/, /d/, /g/.
Voiceless: A sound produced without vibration of the vocal cords, such as /p/, /t/, /k/.
Place of Articulation: The point in the vocal tract where a consonant sound is produced, such as the lips, teeth, or back of the throat.