NB: This is a MINIMAL list of terms and definitions that you should be familiar with from the semester. This list is not exhaustive. On the final exam, you may be asked about terms that are not in this list.

Coarticulation [Anticipatory/Carryover] – Temporal overlap of articulatory movements for multiple phones. Anticipatory is influence of a subsequent phone, Carryover is influence of a prior phone.

Onset – The initial consonants of a syllable

Nucleus – The vocalic portion of a syllable

Coda – The final consonants of a syllable

Rhyme – The Nucleus + Coda of a syllable

Coproduction – Like coarticulation, but the term is intended to emphasize the overlapping but independent articulation of segments.

Manner of articulation – The classification of segments on the basis of the type of articulation needed to produce the segment such as stop, fricative, glide, etc.

Place of articulation – The location of primary constriction needed in the production of a segment.

Phonetic feature – minimal characteristics of segments which distinguish one segment from another (e.g., Voicing, stricture).

Flap – A segment produced by rapidly tapping the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge.

Allophone – A variant of a phoneme that is acoustically distinct, but does not constitute a phonemic difference in a language.

Phonemic Transcription – Identifies just sounds that are phonemic in a language.

Phonetic Transcription – Identifies allophones as well as phonemes.

Systematic Transcription – Identifies all acoustic differences known to be systematic in a language.

Impressionistic Transcription – Identifies all perceptible features.

Murmur – The low frequency and low amplitude energy found during the closure interval of a consonant.

Formant Transition – Change in the frequency of a formant typically associated with the change in articulation from one phonetic segment to the next.

Release burst – The "explosion" of air at the release of a stop consonant. The burst is a brief period of frication which may be followed by a period of aspiration.

VOT – Voice Onset Time or the time from the release burst of a stop consonant to the onset of voicing for a subsequent voiced segment.

Assimilation – The systematic shifting of the articulation of one segment when in the context of another specific segment.

Pitch Accent – A prominence lending peak or trough in the intonation contour of an utterance.

Boundary tone – A marker of certain syntactic boundaries.

Isochrony – The notion that the intervals between stressed syllables in a stress timed language should be equal.

Metrical Foot – A rhythmic unit in speech consisting of a stressed syllable and any immediately following unstressed syllables (definition for English).