Glossary of Pronunciation Terms

accent affricate air flow/airstream alveolar alveolar ridge approximants articulation aspiration auditory bilabial the unique speech patterns of a person or group a speech sound (consonant) that contains a stop followed by an immediate fricative, as in the ch /!/ in "chair" the flow or passage of air out of the mouth sound formed by touching the tip of the tongue to the upper alveolar ridge, as in / t/ or /d/ the bony region at the roof and bottom of the mouth behind the front teeth; contains the tooth sockets consonants with a partial obstruction of airflow, as in /w/ and /r/ the act of making speech sounds a small "explosion" of air when you make a sound hearing (not seeing) consonant sounds formed using both lips, as in /p/ or /b/

close vowel a vowel sound that is pronounced with the tongue close to the roof of the mouth (sometimes called (but not close enough to constrict the air and make a consonant), as in /i:/ in the "high" vowel) word "free" consonant clusters curl dental dialect diphthong a speech sound made when there is complete or partial obstruction of air in the mouth, as in /v/, /h/, /d/ (compare vowel) blended sounds put together to make a single sound a position of the tongue where the tongue is shaped in a curve, not flat a consonant sound made when the tongue touches the upper teeth, as in /t/ and / n/ unique vocabulary, pronunciation and usage that is typical of a certain group of people a sound made by the combination of two vowel sounds in a single syllable, as in "boy", "loud" or "wide", where the sound starts as one vowel and moves towards another vowel a positioning of the tongue where the tongue is flat not round a speech sound (consonant) in which air is forced to pass through a small opening and creates friction, as in /f/ and /v/ moving the tongue while saying a word the sound that is made when the vocal folds are closed very briefly; as in the middle of the word "uh-oh" (common in American English) the tissue around the base of the teeth hard part of the roof of the mouth change in pitch of a sentence, up and down; the music or rhythm of speech sounds that are made with the lower lip and upper teeth, as in /f/ and /v/ the hollow, muscular organ in the throat that holds the vocal chords; the voice box a speech sound that is made by touching the tongue to the middle of the alveolar ridge, allowing air to pass on both sides make the duration of the sound longer the joining of words when speaking, as in "Ca-nI-ha-va-bi-to-fegg?" (Can I have a bit of egg?) lips are open slightly and pulled back bottom of mouth two words that differ only in terms of one sound, as in "cat and bat" OR "fine and vine" a single vowel sound that does not change in auditory quality; also called a "pure vowel" consonant sounds made by pushing air through the nose, as in /m/, /n/ and /!/ when the air comes from a source other than the lungs a blockage of air flow

flatten fricative glide/slide glottal stop gum hard palate intonation labiodental larynx lateral lengthen sound linking lips spread lower minimal pairs monophthong nasal consonants non-pulmonic obstruction

open vowel (also a vowel that is produced with the tongue far down from the roof of the mouth, as called "low" vowel) in the /a:/ sound in "far" palatal palate phoneme phonetic alphabet phonetic transcription plosive pitch a sound that is made when the tongue is near or touching the roof of the mouth the roof of the mouth an individual speech sound an alphabet that represents the sounds of speech a form of notation that uses symbols to identify the individual sounds (phonemes) in a word a consonant sound produced when there is a complete obstruction of air followed by its sudden release, as in the /p/ of "pot" amount of highness or lowness of a sound or speech

non-pulmonic obstruction

when the air comes from a source other than the lungs a blockage of air flow

open vowel (also a vowel that is produced with the tongue far down from the roof of the mouth, as called "low" vowel) in the /a:/ sound in "far" palatal palate phoneme phonetic alphabet phonetic transcription plosive pitch postalveolar pressed lips protruded lips pulmonic raised reduction rhotic a sound that is made when the tongue is near or touching the roof of the mouth the roof of the mouth an individual speech sound an alphabet that represents the sounds of speech a form of notation that uses symbols to identify the individual sounds (phonemes) in a word a consonant sound produced when there is a complete obstruction of air followed by its sudden release, as in the /p/ of "pot" amount of highness or lowness of a sound or speech a consonant sound made with the tip of the tongue slightly back from the alveolar ridge, as in /"/ in "shut" top and bottom lips touching rounded lips, pushed out a sound that is made using the airstream directly from the lungs higher than the neutral position the natural shortening of sounds when speaking (e.g. "going to" reduced to "gonna") a variety or dialect of English in which "r" is pronounced before a consonant (as in "hard") and at the end of words (as in "car"); Midwestern American English, for example, is "rhotic" the inside top part of the mouth lips formed into the shape of a circle a vowel made with rounded lips the placement of emphasis on specific words within a sentence or phrase make the duration of a sound shorter soft part of the roof of the mouth sounds that are made when air is impeded only slightly, as in /m/, /n/ a consonant sound that is produced when the airflow is (temporarily) stopped entirely by the lips or tongue, as in /p/ a single unit of sound that creates one beat in a word; the word "coffee" has two syllables (cof-fee) the central part of a syllable, usually a vowel touch quickly the emotion that is conveyed through the sound of speech (e.g. anger or sadness) muscular tissue in the mouth used for tasting and articulating the hard area directly behind the top front teeth a vibrating sound made with a flapping tongue, as in the rolled "r" sound made when people roll their r's top of mouth of a sound that is made with the back of the tongue near the soft palate, as in the the /!/ in "sing" a soft membrane on the roof of the mouth (also called "soft palate")

roof rounded lips rounded vowel sentence stress shorten sound soft palate sonorant stop (stop consonant) syllable syllable nucleus tap tone tongue tooth ridge trill upper velar velum

vocal chords (AmE two muscles inside the larynx that vibrate and create the voice cords) vocal tract voiced vowel the entire apparatus that produces voice, starting in the lungs and ending at the lips and nostrils (openings of the mouth and nose) of a sound made with the vocal chords (voice box) vibrating a speech sound made when air is free to pass through the mouth with little or no obstruction, as in sounds made with the letters a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y (compare consonant) position of the tongue in relation to the back of the mouth when making a vowel sound (positions include front, near-front, centre, near-back, back) distance between the tongue and the roof of the mouth when pronouncing a vowel sound (IPA has 7 heights: close (highest), near-close, mid-close, mid, open-mid, near-open, open (lowest) the placement of emphasis within a word that has more than one syllable

voiceless/unvoiced of a sound made without the vocal chords (voice box) vibrating

vowel backness vowel height

word stress