Phonetics summary

Definitions:
1-native speaker: a person who has spoken the language in question from earliest childhood.
Ex: native speakers of English
2-Nonnative speaker: someone who has learned a particular language as a child or adult
rather than as a baby
Ex: non-native speaker of English
3- phonetics (the science of speech sound)
Ex: An example of phonetics is the difference between the pronunciation of "Z"
and "S" , Our vocal cords vibrate when we
pronounce "Z" but not when we pronounce "S".
4- phonology (how sounds pattern and function in a given language)
Ex: For example, the phonemes /t/ and /d/ are pronounced in a particular way by
most people who speak English. One such pronunciation can be illustrated by the following
rule: stop alveolar consonants are pronounced as a flap when they succeed a stressed vowel
and precede an unstressed vowel in a word.

5- Accent: The several ways in which the language can be pronounced

Ex: several ways in which the language can be pronounced
6-Dialect: a particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group.
It covers the variation in grammar and vocabulary in a language
Ex: Some examples of dialects include Australian English, Chilean Spanish,
Egyptian Arabic, and Jamaican Patois.
7-Variety: aspects of language variation such as pronunciation together with grammar and
vocabulary
Ex: For example, if one person utters the sentence 'John is a farmer' and another
says the same thing except pronounces the word farmer as 'fahmuh,' then the variation is one
of accent.
8-regional variety: is a distinct form of a language spoken in a particular geographical area.
Ex: in Britain, regional dialects include Cockney, Liverpool English and 'Geordie'
(Newcastle English)
9- social variety: differences between one social group and another in terms of language usage
(this can cover such matters as gender, ethnicity, religion, age and, very significantly, social
class).
Ex: people from the lower socioeconomic class often mix slang words with proper English,
while people from the upper middle class speak a more standardized and formal version of the
language.
10- basilect: a less prestigious dialect or variety of a particular language.
Ex: For example, in Jamaica, Jamaican Creole is the basilect whereas Standard
Jamaican English is the acrolect or prestige language.

11- acrolects: The most prestigious forms of speech are termed acrolects
Ex: in Hawaii an example of what linguists call an acrolect is SAE, which is taught
in schools, and is considered the socially prestigious lect.
12- mesolects: A variety of speech that is midway between the acrolect and the basilect.
Ex:
13- sociolinguistic pyramid: basilect, mesolects and acrolects has often been represented in
the form of a triangle, sometimes referred to as the sociolinguistic pyramid

Ex:

14- prestige accent: A prestige dialect is the dialect that is considered most prestigious by the members of that
speech community.

Ex: Oxford English and BBC English

15-received pronunciation: the standard form of British English pronunciation, based on

educated speech in southern England, widely accepted as a standard elsewhere.
 For example, the RP pronunciation for butter is /ˈbʌtə/, but for
Ex:
buttery /ˈbʌtəri/ the r sound is retained.
16- non-regional pronunciation NRP: A neutral type of modern British English but one which nevertheless lacks
obvious local accent features.

Ex: NRPN can be heard from educated middle and younger generation speakers in England who have a
pronunciation which cannot be pinned down to a specific area.

17- General American: the variety of English spoken in the greater part of the US, particularly with reference to the
lack of regional characteristics.

Ex: In general American The diphthong in words like boat and rode is pronounced relatively back: i.e. IPA boʊt and roʊd and the r
is pronounced at the end of words like car and mother.

18- acoustics: The study of sound in general is the science of acoustics.

Ex: the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound
and infrasound.

19- phonetics: is the term used for the study of sound in human language.

Ex: studying vowels and consonants in English alongside with their phonetic transcription, their manner and place of
articulation etc.

17- phonology: The study of the selection and patterns of sounds in a single language is called phonology

Ex: Phonology examples often include phonological rules as they visually aid phonologists in
understanding and expressing how letters and words are pronounced. For example, the
phonemes /t/ and /d/ are pronounced in a particular way by most people who speak English.
One such pronunciation can be illustrated by the following rule: stop alveolar consonants are
pronounced as a flap when they succeed a stressed vowel and precede an unstressed vowel in
a word.
18- linguistics: is the science that deals with the general study of language.

Ex: the study of syntax morphology and phonology

19- linguist: A specialist in linguistics is technically termed a linguist.

Ex: a linguist of English

20- Phonetician and phonologist: are the terms used for linguists who study phonetics and phonology respectively.

Ex: a phonetician of English

21- articulations: The movements of the tongue, lips and other speech organs are called articulations

Ex: We can produce the /r/ sound using two tongue positions: the retroflex position, where the tip of the tongue is
raised or curled at the roof of the mouth; the bunched position, where we move our tongue towards the back of our
teeth while the tongue tip points a bit down.

22- articulatory phonetics: aspects

of phonetics which look at how the sounds of speech
are made with the organs of the vocal tract.
Ex: when making a p sound, the lips come together tightly, blocking the air
momentarily and causing a buildup of air pressure. The lips then release
suddenly, causing a burst of sound.
23- acoustic phonetics: the study of the physical properties of speech and aims
to analyze sound wave signals that occur within speech through varying
frequencies, amplitudes and durations.
24- auditory phonetics: The study of how the ear receives the speech signal we call auditory phonetics.

25- psycholinguistics: Psycholinguistics is the study of the mental aspects of language and speech and a branch of
both linguistics and psychology.

26- segmentation: dividing up this continuous flow of speech into smaller chunks that are easier to deal with when
analyzing speech is called segmentation

27- segments: the resulting smaller sound units after the segmentation process are termed segments

28- minimal pair: Two words of this kind distinguished by a single sound are called a minimal pair.

29- minimal set: A set of words distinguished in this way is termed a minimal set

30- phonemes: The contrastive units of sound which can be used to change meaning are termed phonemes.

31- phonemic inventory:

32- glottal stop:

cases in which languages allow for multiple pronunciation

34- allophonic variation:
variants for the same phonological units
Ex: Allophonic variation in consonants: aspiration, de-voicing, velarization, dentalization, labialization, velar
shifting, retraction and glotalization

35- allophones: Allophones are variations in the sound of particular phonemes.

Ex: In English the t sounds in the words “hit,” “tip,” and “little” are allophones;
phonemically they are considered to be the same sound although they are
different phonetically in terms of aspiration, voicing, and point of articulation.
Sounds which represent different pronunciations of the same
36- phonetic similarity:
phoneme. We consider two sounds to be phonetically similar when they share
the same place or manner of articulation.
Another definition: Phonetically similar segments are two or more sounds which share phonetic
features and are frequently found as variants of a single phonological unit in a language.

Ex:

37- idiolect: the language or languages spoken by each individual.

For example, if you are multilingual and can speak in different registers and styles, your idiolect comprises several
languages, each with multiple registers and styles.