A – Z Index of Pronunciation and Phonetics Terminology for Learners
Flummoxed by phonetic terminology? Check out our A-Z index of clear definitions of phonetics and pronunciation terminology for learners
A
Affricate Consonant – a consonant where the airflow from the lungs (pulmonic air flow) is stopped, then released through a tight space with friction, e.g. /ʤ/ in ‘judge’, /tʃ/ in ‘chair’.
Allophone – the particular behaviour of a sound according to its sequential environment, e.g. /t/ is aspirated before a vowel sound, but /t/ is often glottalised before a consonant sound.
Alveolar Consonant – where the tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge just behind the upper teeth, e.g. /t, d, n, l/ .
Alveolar Ridge – the small ridge behind the upper teeth – click to see diagram
Approximant Consonant – one which is articulated with very close proximity of the articulatory organs but too far away to give friction, e.g. /l, r, w, j/
Articulation – the use of parts of the mouth to create a speech sound.
Articulatory Organs – the parts of the mouth which we use to speak, e.g. lips, tongue tip, soft palate.
Aspiration – the sudden onset of air/breath following the release of a voiceless plosive consonant /p, t, k/ before a vowel sound when syllable initial, e.g. /p/ in ‘paint’
Assimilation – when one sound turns into another to make it easier for the speaker to reach the following sound. e.g. ‘set back’ is articulated as /’sep ‘back/
B
Back Vowel – a vowel which uses the back of the tongue, e.g. /a:/ in ‘car, father’ where the tongue is low and pulled back.
Bilabial Consonant – a consonant which uses both lips, e.g. /w, m, p, b/
Bilabial Nasal Consonant – the sound /m/ uses both lips and pushes the sound out through the nose, e.g. /m/ in ‘marmalade’.
Broad Phonetics – the general phonological symbols transcribed in slanting brackets, not giving details of allophones (as opposed to narrow phonetics which gives more details) e.g. /kæt/ (in broad/ general phonetics) vs [kʰæt] (in narrow phonetics showing the aspiration following [kʰ] )
C
Cardinal Vowel – a traditional vowel measurement tool created by phonetician Daniel Jones
Central Vowel – a vowel articulated in the central area of the mouth, such as the schwa /ə/ in ‘another’
Clear /l/ – an /l/ which has a palatal quality (where the body of the tongue is pushed up towards the front of the hard palate) as a secondary articulation [lj], such as in British RP ‘later’
Coarticulation – the manner in which phonetic sounds are influenced by each other in a speech sequence, e.g. if an /m/ is pronounced before a rounded vowel such as /ɔː/ in ‘more’ the lips will already start rounding during the /m/, hence the speech sounds overlap and blend with each other.
Creaky voice – a low frequency, creaky voice quality where the vocal folds vibrate at very low frequency.
D
Dark /l/ – an /l/ which has a velarised quality (with the back of the tongue pushing up towards the soft palate) as a secondary articulation /ɫ/, whilst the tongue tip contacts the alveolar ridge at the front as the primary articulation, as in British RP ‘tall’ and in American ‘lawless’
Dental Assimilation / dental linking – when the consonants /t, d, n, l/ are articulated on the teeth instead of the alveolar ridge before the dental consonants /θ, ð/ so in ‘got three’ we say [gɒt̪ θri:]
Dental Consonant – one which is formed with the tongue tip on the upper teeth /θ, ð/ in ‘three, these’
Diacritic – a mini-symbol in the IPA used to denote narrow phonetics, e.g. the dental [t̪] has the small diacritic mark under it to indicate that the /t/ is articulated with the tongue on the upper teeth instead of the usual place on the alveolar ridge.
Diphthong – a blending sound of two simple vowel sounds gliding into one another, e.g. /eɪ/ in ‘day’ and /aʊ/ in ‘now’. The first part of a diphthong is usually prominent and longer than the second part. Click here to listen to some examples of diphthongs
Double articulation – a consonant sound made in two places of articulation of equal importance e.g. /w/ in which the rounded lips and the raised tongue back play an equally important role in producing the sound /w/.
E
Ejectives / Ejective release – sounds using only air pressure from the mouth (as opposed to pulmonic air from the lungs) e.g. a word-final /t/ in ‘start, wait’ which, if released, will be with air pressure from the mouth (and not pulmonic air, from the lungs)
Elision – leaving out a sound, e.g. in ‘often’ /’ɒfn/ /(‘t’ is often missed out), ‘stand there’ /’stæ ‘ðeə/ (d is often missed out)
Epenthesis – adding in an extra sound.e.g. in English ‘sense’ and ‘cents’ sound exactly the same and are pronounced as /’sents/
F
Fall-rise tone (intonation)– an intonation tone that falls and rises to express contradiction etc. click to listen to examples
Fricative consonant – a consonant produced by the two articulatory organs in very close proximity to give friction as the air is pushed through them, e.g. /ʃ/ in ‘shoe’ and /ʒ/ in ‘measure’
Front vowel – a vowel produced using the front of the tongue, e.g. /æ/ in ‘cat’, /e/ in ‘lend’, /ɪ/ in ‘sit’. Click here to listen to examples of the front vowel /æ/
G
Glottal plosive – a sudden vocal onset from the glottis (sometimes called a ‘hard attack’)
Glottal stop – a sudden stop of the voice made by the vocal folds suddenly closing together. The symbol for a glottal stop is /ʔ/. Sometimes it will replace or reinforce a /t/ consonant in syllable final position and replace a /t/ in inter-vocalic position, e.g. when ‘better’ is spoken as /beʔə/
Glottal reinforcement – a brief glottal stop reinforces a syllable final voiceless plosive consonant and clips the vowel shorter in the syllable it closes. E.g. ‘wait’ is /weɪʔt/
H
Hard palate – the hard, boney roof across the top of the mouth
Head (intonation) – the intonation phrase head is the first stressed syllable in a phrase before the tonic syllable.
High-fall tone (intonation)– an intonation tone when a syllable falls from a high to low pitch / tone to express assertiveness, cheerfulness, finality etc. click to listen to examples
High-rise tone (intonation)– an intonation tone when a syllable falls from a medium to high pitch / tone to express surprise, double-checking etc. click to listen to examples
Hypercorrection – when a learner overdoes a feature to the extent of an ‘overkill’, e.g. when a learner of the London Cockney accent overuses features such as ‘h-dropping’.
I
Inter-vocalic – a consonant sitting between two vowels in a speech sequence, e.g. in ‘better’ the /t/ is in an inter-vocalic position.
Intonation – The music of the voice, typically 7 different tones each convey various meanings click to listen to examples
J
Juncture – the manner in which sounds border one another and transfer from one sound to the following sound e.g. in ‘right turn’ the /t/ is reinforced by a glottal stop /ʔ/ to give a sudden ‘clipped silence’ effect between the two words as the syllable final /t/ transforms to the next syllable initial /t/ click to listen to examples
L
Labio-dental – consonants articulated with upper teeth on lower lip, e.g. /f/ in ‘fine’ and /v/ in ‘vine’.
Labio-velar approximant – the sound /w/ in ‘wine’ whereby the rounded lips along with the soft palate(velum) and tongue back play an equally important role in the articulation of the sound.
Lateral approximant – a consonant where the sound goes around lowered sides of tongue. E.g. /l/ in ‘later’.
Lateral release – a plosive sound /t, d/ released into a syllabic /l/, e.g. in ‘little’
Low-fall tone (intonation) – an intonation tone on a syllable falling from mid-pitch to low pitch, which could be to express boredom, sadness, seriousness, assertiveness etc. – click to listen to examples
Low-rise tone (intonation) – an intonation tone on a syllable falling from mid-pitch to low pitch, which could be to express surprise, sympathy, double-checking etc. – click to listen to examples
M
Mid-central vowel – a vowel made with the centre of the tongue at mid-height position, e.g. the schwa vowel /ə/ in ‘another‘ and the long vowel /ɜː/ in ‘turn’.
Mid-level tone (intonation) – a flat intonation tone, sometimes called ‘the terrace’. Expresses disinterest and emotional detachment from the words that one is actually speaking – click to listen to examples
N
Narrow phonetics – detailed transcription in square brackets such as [kʰ]
Nasal consonant – a consonant articulated through the nose – /m, n, ŋ/ in ‘swimming’
Nasal release – the release of a /t/ or /d/ through the nose when /n/ is unstressed and syllabic at the end of word, e.g. in ‘kitten’ and ‘ridden’
Nasality – the degree of nasal quality in the voice. This quality varies between accents and languages.
Nucleus – another word for ‘tonic syllable’, referring to the key intonation tone glide in a phrase.
O
Orthographic – using regular alphabetic writing and not phonetic / phonological transcriptions, e.g. ‘water’ is orthographically written and /’wɔːtə/ is phonetically transcribed.
P
Palatal consonant – when the tongue front pushes up towards the hard palate, /j/ in ‘year’.
Phonetic alphabet – the sound symbols used to transcribe speech, e.g. /iː, ɪ, e, ə, ɔː, ɜː, æ, ʌ, əʊ, tʃ, ʃ, ʒ/
Phonetics – the detailed study and transcription of speech sounds, going into allophonic details from the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)
Phonology – the general study and transcription of speech sounds, but without going into allophonic details from the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet).
Plosive consonant – a consonant where by the airflow is suddenly stopped and blocked by a closure in the mouth, then released with a sudden onset. Examples of plosive consonants are /p/ in ‘pay’ and /b/ in ‘bay’
Post-alveolar – a consonant made just behind the alveolar ridge (the small ridge just behind the upper teeth), e.g. /r/ in ‘red’
Pre-head (intonation) – any unstressed / weak syllable before the head syllable of the phrase. If there is no head syllable, then the pre-head is any unstressed syllable before the tonic syllable / nucleus.
Primary articulation – the main articulator forming a consonant sound, e.g. in the /r/ of the British RP accent, the primary articulator is the tongue tip pulled just behind but not touching the alveolar ridge.
Pulmonic air – air flow rising from the lungs to produce speech.
R
Retroflex r – refers to the type of /r/ used in the general American whereby the tongue tip is pulled far back across the hard palate and the middle of the tongue body is slightly ‘bunched up’ and raised back towards the hard palate.
Rhotic accent – an accent where every /r/ in the spelling is pronounced, such as in general American or Irish the final /r/ in ‘near’ and ‘far’ would be pronounced.
(Non) rhotic accent – an accent where /r/ is only pronounced before a vowel sound, but silent when syllable final or before a consonant sound. Non-rhotic accents include British RP and Australian. In a word such as ‘nearly’ the final /r/ would be silent.
Rhotic r – the syllable-final /r/ that is pronounced in rhotic accents in words such as ‘here’ and ‘or’.
Rhoticity – refers to whether or not an accent pronounces rhotic /r/s or not.
Rise-fall tone (intonation) a tone glide which rises and falls on one syllable, which could be to express defensiveness, challenge, sarcasm, assertiveness, humour etc. – click to listen to examples
S
Schwa vowel – the most common vowel sound in English and is used in reduced weak syllables. The schwa is symbolised by /ə/ in words such as ‘percent’ /pə’sent/ and ‘arena’ /ə’ri:nə/.
Soft Palate – the soft area behind the hard palate which acts as the door into the nasal cavity. If the soft palate is lowered in speech, sound can enter and resonate in the nasal cavity whereas if it is raised and shut, sound cannot enter the nasal cavity.
Secondary articulation – the articulator of only secondary importance in forming a consonant sound, e.g. in the /r/ of the British RP accent, secondary articulator is slightly rounded lips, where as the primary articulator (most important articulator) is the tongue tip, which is pulled just behind but not touching the alveolar ridge.
Secondary stress – not the main stress of a word. It is only longer words that can have a secondary stress, such as ‘compensation’ /,kɒmpən’seɪʃn/ the first syllable is the secondary stress and the third syllable is the primary stress.
Stressed syllable – the loudest syllable in a word or phrase, e.g. in ‘today’ /tə’deɪ/ the second syllable is stressed.
Stop consonant – one which completely stops the airflow momentarily, e.g. /t/ in ‘today’
T
Tail (intonation) – any remaining syllable(s) following the tonic syllable / nucleus of a word/phrase.
Tap – an /r/ in which the tongue tip taps on the top front of the mouth on the alveolar ridge is called a ‘tap /r/’
Tonic syllable (intonation) – the main stressed syllable in a phrase which contains the prominant tonal glide.
Trill – sometimes called a ‘rolling /r/’ when the tongue tip vibrates on the alveolar ridge behind the upper teeth as air is pushed through the tight space. A voiced sound.
U
Unstressed syllable – (speech rhythm) – the un-emphasised syllable(s) in a word / phrase, e.g. in ‘consider’ the first and last syllables are unstressed and the second syllable is stressed /kən’sɪdə/
V
Velar – a place of articulation created by the back of the tongue interacting with the soft palate on the upper back of the mouth, e.g. /k/ in ‘key’ is the ‘voiceless velar plosive’ consonant.
Velarised – a secondary articulation (adding a secondary layer of sound quality to a consonant) caused by the back of the tongue interacting in close proximity with the soft palate. The ‘dark /l/ in American ‘law’ and British RP ‘tall’ are examples of the velarised, or ‘dark /l/.
Voice – voice is produced by the the vibration of a persons larynx as pulmonic air rises from the lungs and pushed through the vibrating vocal folds.
Voice placement – Voice placement is the main muscular area, or (zone / oral posture) where the sounds are taking place and around which the accent is based. Even if a speaker ‘pronounces’ the sounds of the accent perfectly fine, they won’t sound completely native unless the voice is ‘placed’ properly in the mouth and vocal tract. Voice placement is caused by the relative tension in the tongue and neck, the lips, and the position of the soft palate (which controls nasality) and the jaw aperture whilst speaking.
Voiced consonant – As we speak, air is pushed from the lungs and passes through the larynx, which contains the vocal folds. If the sound is voiced, the vocal folds vibrate and you can feel this vibration if you hold your fingers against your larynx (located on your neck) and say the voiced sound “zzzzz”.
Voiceless consonant – a voiceless consonant is where the vocal folds are open as for normal breathing and there is no vibration as you say the voiceless sound “sssss”. Alternatively you can feel the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds by blocking your ears and making the sounds “zzzz” and “sss”.
W
Weak form – an unstressed, un-emphasised and quieter syllable in a word or phrase.
Weak syllable – another way of describing a ‘weak form’ as above.
