Adjacent sounds are sounds that follow each other.
Affricates are consonants that begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as [t] or [d]) but release as a fricative (such as [s] or [z] or occasionally into a fricative trill) rather than directly into the following vowel.
Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. Alveolar consonants may be articulated with the tip of the tongue (so-called apical consonants), as in English, or with the flat of the tongue just above the tip (the "blade" of the tongue; called laminal consonants), as in French and Spanish. The laminal alveolar articulation is often mistakenly called dental, because the tip of the tongue can be seen near to or touching the teeth. However, it is the rearmost point of contact that defines the place of articulation; this is where the oral cavity ends, and it is the resonant space of the oral cavity that gives consonants and vowels their characteristic timbre.
Alveoles or alveoli are depressions in the upper jaw, which socket the upper teeth.
Apical consonant is a phoneme (speech sound) produced by obstructing the air passage with the apex of the tongue (i.e. the tip of the tongue).
Articulation is coordinated movements of speech organs in the process of speech.
Aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents.
Assimilation is a common phonological process by which the phonetics of a speech segment becomes more like that of another segment in a word.
Backlingual consonants are consonants pronounced with the help of the back part of the tongue.
Bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips.
Cacuminal is a consonant articulated with the tip of the tongue turned back towards the hard palate
Consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are [p], pronounced with the lips; [t], pronounced with the front of the tongue; [k], pronounced with the back of the tongue; [h], pronounced in the throat; [f] and [s], which are noisy (fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have air flowing through the nose (nasals).
Constrictive consonants are consonants pronounced with an incomplete obstruction to the air stream, when the air passage is constricted.
Constrictive fricative sounds are sounds in articulation of which the air passage is narrowed or constricted to such an extend that the air passing through it produces noise or friction.
Constrictive sonants are sounds in articulation of which the narrowing for the air passage is not wide enough to eliminate the noise or friction completely; on the other hand it is wide enough to make the cavity function as a resonator.
Dental consonant or dental is a consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as /t/, /d/, /n/, and /l/ in some languages.
Devoiced consonants are those consonants which are pronounced with vocal cords switched off.
Diphthong is a contour vowel - that is, a unitary vowel that changes quality during its pronunciation, or "glides", with a smooth movement of the tongue from one articulation to another.
Dipthongoids are the 2 sounds in English [i:] and [u:]; while pronouncing them long two more sounds appear [j] in [i:] and [w] in [u:].
Dipping intonation is the intonation which falls at the beginning and then rises.
Disyllabic words are such words which having or characterized by or consisting of two syllables.
Falling intonation means that the pitch decreases with time.
Forelingual consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue raised against the teeth or teethridge.
Fortis (Latin "strong") and lenis ("weak") are linguistic terms. They refer in a vague way to the opposition between "stronger" and "weaker" (or "more tense" vs. "more lax") consonants, such as the distinction between p, t and b, d.
Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together.
Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis.
Glottis is defined as the combination of the vocal folds and the space in between the folds.
Grapheme is an orthographic unit with which a phoneme can be correlated.
Hard palate is a roof of the mouth; thin horizontal bony plate of the skull, located in the roof of the mouth. It spans the arch formed by the upper teeth.
Inter-dental are produced by placing the blade of the tongue (the top surface just behind the tip of the tongue) against the upper incisors.
Intonation is variation of pitch while speaking which is not used to distinguish words. Intonation and stress are two main elements of linguistic prosody.
Intonation group is an actualized intonation sense group.
Jaw is any opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth, typically used for grasping and manipulating food.
Labial consonant is a consonant articulated with lips.
Labio-dental are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.
Lateral having to do with the sides of the tongue.
Lateral sounds are sounds in the articulation of which the air passages are formed at the lateral sides of the tongue.
Larynx (plural larynges), colloquially known as the voicebox, is an organ in the neck of mammals involved in protection of the trachea and sound production. The larynx houses the vocal folds, which are an essential component of phonation. The vocal folds are situated just below where the tract of the pharynx splits into the trachea and the esophagus.
Lenis (see fortis) pronounced with weak articulation.
Level tone neutral tone, without the rise or fall of the tone used to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words.
Lingual - a consonant articulated with the help of the tongue and other speech organs.
Logical stress is the singling out of the word, which seems to be most important in a sentence.
Lower (upper) teeth, tip, lip, jaw are organs involved in articulation; lower ones are more active then the upper ones.
Lungs are the source of the air stream that makes it possible to produce sounds. The latter also regulate the force of the air pressure and produce vibrations in the intensity of speech sounds.
Medial is passing through the middle of the air-passage.
Medial sonorant is a sound articulated with the air-passage through the middle part of the tongue.
Medio-lingual consonant is a consonant articulated with the help of the middle part of the tongue.
Monophthong is a "pure" vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation.
Monosyllabic word is the word having only one syllable.
Mouth is the cavity in the head containing the teeth the tongue and the palate with the uvula.
Mouth cavity is the cavity between thå teeth and the pharynx.
Nasal cavity is an immovable cavity inside the nose and nasopharynx; it is separated from the mouth cavity by the upper jaw with the teethridge and palate.
Nasal sonants are sounds articulated with the blocked passage for the flow of air through the mouth cavity. This is effected by lowering the soft palate.
Nasal vowels are vowels articulated when th flow of air is directed from the lungs both through the mouth and the nasal cavity.
Obstruction is either the narrowing in the articulation or a complete closure of the speech organs.
Occlusive consonants are consonants when he air on is way out breaks up a complete obstruction.
Oral sounds are the sounds which are produced with the raised soft palate, thus the air goes out of the mouth cavity.
Organs of speech are the organs that together with biological functions, such as breathing, feeding, smelling and tasting, serve to carry out intercommunication through the elaborate work of the four mechanism: then power, the vibrator, the resonator and the obstructer.
Palatal sound is the sound that is connected with the palate articulation.
Palate - is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity.
Palato-alveolar sounds are the consonants articulated by the tip of the tongue raised against the teethridge (there is a narrowing between then) and the middle part of the tongue which is simultaneously raised to the hard palate.
Peaking intonation is the intonation which rises first and then falls.
Pharynx is the cavity between the mouth and the oesophagus communicating with the nasal passage and ears.
Phoneme is the shortest functional unit of a language. Each phoneme exists in speech in the form of mutually non-distinctive speech sounds, its allophones. Each speech sound is an allophone of some phoneme.
Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound.[1] It is one of the three major auditory attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre.
Place of articulation is the point of contact, where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an active (moving) articulator (typically some part of the tongue) and a passive (stationary) articulator (typically some part of the roof of the mouth). It can be complete or incomplete obstruction; it forms consonants.
Plosive - a consonant produced by stopping the flow of air at some point and suddenly releasing it; "his stop consonants are too aspirated".
Post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants.
Primary stress is the strongest degree of stress placed on a syllable in the pronunciation of a word.
Reduced form of a word sounds weaker in the process of speech; articles, conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns are mostly affected by reduction.
Rising intonation means the pitch of the voice increases over time.
Roof of the mouth is the inner upper part of the mouth, which is for the purpose of consonant analyses divided into 5 parts: gums, teethridge, the back slope of the alveolar ridge, the soft palate (the velum), the uvula.
Scwa is an unstressed central vowel.
Secondary stress (or secondary accent [obsolete]) is the weaker of two degrees of stress in the pronunciation of a word.
Soft palate (or velum) is the soft tissue constituting the back of the roof of the mouth. The soft palate is distinguished from the hard palate at the front of the mouth in that it does not contain bone.
Sonorants are sounds pronounced with tone prevailing over noise; the air passage is rather wide when they are produced.