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B-accent An intonational pitch accent proposed by Bolinger. The form of the accent is a pitch rise from or to the accented syllable.
Back The name of a binary feature. [+back] sounds involve retraction of the body of the tongue and include back vowels such as [u o ɔ] and consonants such as velars and uvulars.
Background A term used to to denote the shared assumptions and beliefs of the participants in a conversation. Intonational features (particularly the choice of intonational tone) are believed by many writers to signal the relationship of (part of) a contribution to the background of the conversation.
Bandwidth The range of frequencies within which a filter or resonator responds effectively to an input. Bandwidth is conventionally measured at 70.7% of maximum response.
Bark scale An auditory scale of frequency representation, which takes into account that the bandwidth of auditory filters increases with centre frequency. To convert a frequency F in Hz to a Bark value the following formula is used: Bark=[(26.81*F)/(1960+F)]-0.53, and the following adjustments are made: if the result <2 add 0.15*(2-result), if the result >20.1 add 0.22*(result-20.1).
Basilar membrane [ˈbæzɪlə ˈmembreɪn] A membrane which runs along the centre of the cochlea and forms the base of the organ of Corti. The basilar membrane vibrates in response the different frequencies of an incoming sound. Its vibration stimulates the hair cells in the organ of Corti.
Basilect [ˈbæzɪlekt] See lect.
Bernoulli effect [bɜːˈnuːli] A physical principle discovered by Daniel Bernoulli, a Swiss mathematician and physician living in the 18th century. The principle is based on the observation that a fluid increases its velocity when flowing through a constriction in a passageway. The velocity increase causes a pressure drop at the constriction. The Bernoulli effect is essential for the maintenance of vocal fold vibration.
Bidirectional assimilation See assimilation (coalescent)
Bilabial [baɪˈleɪbiəl] The name of a place of articulation. The two articulators concerned are the two lips. Examples of bilabial sounds are [p b m].
Bilateral opposition A type of phonological contrast involving only two units distinguished by a single feature. An example from English is the pair of phonemes /k/ and /g/. These are the only two units in the system which are plosive and velar and they are distinguished by the voicing feature. The term is particularly associated with Prague School phonology.
Binary feature [ˈbaɪnəri] A property which is used to classify a linguistic form in terms of two opposite values. In phonetics and phonology, for example, units may be specified as [+high] or [-high], depending on whether the body of the tongue is raised or not. Various inventories of phonetic binary features have been proposed. Some are based on acoustic properties, some on articulatory properties and some on a mixture of the two. See also element, n-ary feature.
Bitonal accent [baɪˈtəʊnəl] An intonational accent consisting of two tones in sequence. The concept is particularly associated with the analysis of intonation proposed by Pierrehumbert. The bitonal accents proposed are H*+L, H+L*, L*+H and L+H*. The starred tone is associated directly with the accented syllable and the non-starred tone (a leading or trailing tone) specifies the transition from preceding or to following syllables.
Biuniqueness [ˌbaɪjuːˈniːknəs] A phonological principle particularly associated with taxonomic phonemic phonology. According to this principle any sequence of units at the phonological level (phonemes) is represented by a unique sequence of units at the phonetic level (phones) and vice versa.
Blade An area of the tongue. The blade is the free part of the tongue which lies beneath the alveolar ridge when the tongue is at rest. The very forward end of the tongue is called the tip or apex.
Bleeding A feature of the ordering of phonological rules. If two rules, A and B, are in a bleeding order, the application of rule A causes a decrease in the number of forms to which rule B can apply. An example: suppose rule A changes some consonants from voiceless to voiced in some environments and rule B only applies to voiceless consonants. The application of rule A before rule B would mean that fewer forms are available for rule B to apply to. See also feeding.
Bone conduction The conduction of sound to the inner ear through the bones of the skull rather than through the outer ear, ear-drum and middle ear. Some hearing-aid devices exploit bone conduction to circumvent middle ear problems. Bone conduction is the reason why a person perceives his/her own voice differently from other hearers. Bone transmits lower frequencies better than air does.
Boundary The edge of a phonological domain. Phonological theories differ in the types of boundary they recognise. Most, however, make use of word boundary (usual symbol #) and morpheme boundary (symbol +). Some also add syllable boundary (symbol $).
Boundary tone A tone associated with an intonational boundary as opposed to those associated with accented syllables. Boundary tones may be associated to the initial or final boundaries of intermediate phrases (symbols L- and H-) or intonational phrases (symbols L% and H%). The concept is particularly associated with Pierrehumbert's analysis of intonation. An example: a fall rise tone would be represented as a H* pitch accent, followed by a L- intermediate phrase boundary tone and a H% intonational phrase boundary tone.
Bounded foot A foot with at most two syllables.
Braces The use of braces in phonological rules is a notational device to abbreviate two or more similar rules. For example: C→[-voi]/__{C[-voi], #}, abbreviates the two rules C→[-voi]/ __ C[-voi] and C→[-voi]/ __ #.
Breaking The development of a vocalic offglide after a vowel in certain environments. There are various forms of breaking:
1. Pre-L breaking: vowels before [ɫ] have a [ə] offglide in many accents of English. Example: feel [fiəɫ]
2. Pre-R breaking: the development of a [ə] offglide before /r/. It is this phenomenon which is responsible for the appearance of centring diphthongs in many English accents. For example, fear has developed from [fiɹ] to [fɪə] by a process of pre-R breaking and subsequent loss of /r/.
3. Southern breaking: occurs in Southern accents of USA English. Short vowels, especially before labial consonants, have a [ə] offglide. Examples: lip [lɪəp], grab [græəb]. Before [ʃ ʒ g ŋ], the offglide usually has a [ɪ] quality. Examples: bush [bʊɪʃ], egg [eɪɡ].

Breathed [breθt] (Note unusual pronunciation) An old-fashioned term for voiceless.

Breath group See Group
Breathy voice [ˈbreθi] Also called murmur. A phonation type characterised by accompanying friction noise at the glottis. The pattern of vibration of the vocal folds is such that the open phase is very long and a considerable volume of air is released on each cycle of vibration. Breathy voice is used in many languages as a paralinguistic signal of passion. Some languages, Hindi is an example, have breathy voiced segments in contrast with modal voiced varieties. In these cases, the breathy voice is often called "voiced aspiration".
Broad consonant In Irish, a non-palatalised consonant. See slender consonant.
Broad focus See focus.
Broad transcription See transcription.
Broca's area [ˈbrəʊkə] An area in the brain situated in the frontal lobe of the left cerebral hemisphere. It was discovered in 1861 by Paul Broca, a Parisian neurosurgeon. It was thought to be the prime site for control of speech production, although nowadays the brain is thought to be more flexible in its assignment of function.
Buccal [ˈbʌkl] A term sometimes used instead of oral, as for example in the phrase the buccal cavity.
Bundle See feature geometry.
Burst The brief aperiodic sound caused by the release of air under compression in the vocal tract. Plosives and affricates are sounds which have bursts.