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- Palatal [ˈpælətl] The name of a place of articulation. The active articulator is the front of the tongue and the passive articulator is the hard palate. [j c ɲ] are examples of palatal sounds.
- Palataling The replacement of a non-palatal sound by a palatal one. Palataling occurs as a diachronic phenomenon and as a child phonology process. An example of the latter is [çu:] for shoe.
- Palatalisation (adj. palatalised) (1) The name of a secondary articulation involving the addition of a high front tongue position to a primary articulation. Consonants may be palatalised through co-articulation with a following high front vowel or palatal consonant, as for the first consonant in the English word tune. Another possibility is for palatalisation for consonants to be contrastive in a language. An example of plain vs palatalised labiodental fricatives from Russian: [krɔf] (roof) [krɔfʲ] (blood). (2) The same as palataling.
- Palato-alveolar The name of a place of articulation. Consonants such as [ʃ ʒ] used to be classed as palato-alveolar. The IPA since 1993 recommends the term post-alveolar for such sounds and they are so labelled on the most recent IPA chart. The term palato-alveolar is retained, however, for the click symbolised [ǂ] .
- Palatography [ˌpæləˈtɒɡrəfi] A technique for determining patterns of tongue contact with the roof of the oral cavity during the production of speech sounds. Early versions of the technique involved spraying the roof of the mouth with a powder which would be wiped off by tongue contact. The roof of the mouth was then photographed. More recently a technique known as electropalatography has been used. This involves the manufacture of a false palate for a speaker. Electrodes are embedded in this palate which react to the contact of the tongue. Computer processing of the resulting signal enables a display of the changing pattern of contact over time.
- Parametric diagram [ˌpærəˈmetrɪk] A
stylised representation of the estimated movements of the articulators
during the pronunciation of a word or phrase. Most commonly the
estimated position of the velum and the state of the vocal folds are
included, but other parameters, such as lip opening/closure, may also be
shown.
- Paroxytone [pəˈrɒksɪtəʊn] A word with lexical stress on the penultimate syllable ( e.g.jelly ).
- Pascal [pæsˈkæl] The SI derived unit
of pressure, defined as force per unit area, as given by the following
equation:
where PA = Pascal, kg = kilogram, m = metre, s = second - Passive articulator See articulation.
- Pattern playback An early speech
synthesis system developed by Haskins Laboratories in the 1940s and 50s.
Stylised spectrograms were painted on acetate and these patterns were
converted to an acoustic signal by an array of photo-electric cells. The system
was used to investigate the critical cues for speech perception by
systematic variation of acoustic parameters.
- Period The time taken by one complete repetition of a periodic waveform. The period is usually symbolised T. The period of a waveform is related to the waveform's fundamental frequency by the formula T = 1/F. So, for example, if a waveform has a fundamental frequency of 200Hz, its period will be 5 milliseconds.
- Periodic Of a waveform, regularly repeating in time.
- Peripheral A term applied to vowels. Peripheral vowels are those plotted at (or close to) the edge of the vowel quadrilateral. For example [i] is peripheral whereas [ə] is not.
- Perseverative assimilation See assimilation.
- Pharyngeal [ˌfærɪnˈdʒɪəl] (also pharyngal [fəˈrɪŋɡl]) The name of a place of articulation. The active articulator is the root of the tongue and the passive articulator is the rear wall of the pharynx. [ħ] is an example of a pharyngeal sound.
- Pharyngeal airstream mechanism The same as glottalic airstream mechanism. See airstream mechanism.
- Phase The relative timing of two or more components of a complex periodic waveform. Phase is measured in degrees. Suppose that two components are at zero amplitude at the same time. If one is positive-going and the other negative-going, then they have a relative phase of 180 degrees.
- Phon [fɒn] A measure of perceived loudness. 1 phon is defined as 1dB SPL at 1kHz for pure tones. See also Equal-loudness contour.
- Phonation [fəʊˈneɪʃn] The vibration of the vocal folds.
- Phonation type Also called voice quality. The pattern of vibration of the vocal folds. The main determinants of phonation type are the rate of closure and rate of opening of the folds. Some phonation types: breathy, creaky, modal.
- Phone Another name for speech sound.
- Phoneme [ˈfəʊniːm] A fundamental unit of phonological structure in some theories of phonology. Crucial to the idea of the phoneme is the concept of phonological contrast. A phoneme may be viewed as a set of sounds and each of the members of this set are the allophones of the phoneme. The number, identity and membership of phonemes differs from language to language, and from accent to accent within a given language. A set of sounds which is regarded as a phoneme in a particular language has the following properties: (1) The member sounds are phonetically similar to one another (2) No two members of the set contrast with one another. An example from English: the /l/ phoneme in English contains (among others) the following sounds [l lʷ ɫ l̥ ɫ̃]. The first occurs immediately preceding unrounded vowels and [j]. None of the others occurs in these environments. The second occurs only before rounded vowels. Again none of the other members occurs in this position. Similar statements can be made for every pair of allophones in the set (including those not listed above). This means that the difference between a pair of allophones is never capable of distinguishing one word from another. Added to this is the fact that all members of the set are phonetically similar: they are all lateral and alveolar (or close to this). A final factor is that native speakers of English are insensitive to the differences between these sounds. They all count as the same thing - /l/, even though it is clear that phonetically they are distinct from one another.
- Phonetics The study of the sounds of speech as physical events. Cf phonology.
- Phonetic similarity One of the criteria for assigning two sounds to the same phoneme. Sounds which are phonetically dissimilar are usually viewed as belonging to separate phonemes, even though other criteria, such as complementary distribution, are met.
- Phonology The study of how sounds function in language.
- Phonological rule A statement of the form A
→ B / X __ Y. A B X Y all represent segments, or feature specifications or, in the case of X Y, boundaries of various types. Additionally, A or B may represent 0 (=absence of segment). A is the input to the rule. B is the output. The sequence following the symbol / is the specification of the environment in which the rule operates. This may be absent, in which case the rule is said to be context-free. Either X or Y may be absent from the environment statement. An environment of the form X __ Y means between X and Y. One of the form X__ means following X and one of the form __Y means preceding Y. The arrow in a phonological rule is to be interpreted as meaning is replaced by or is further specified as. See also Greek letter variable. Rules of this format have been used to capture the relationship between child and adult pronunciation, the relationship between different accents of a language, the change of phonological forms over time and the relationship between underlying phonological forms and surface phonetic forms. Phonological theories which employ such rules usually specify that they are ordered in sequence, so that the output of an earlier rule becomes the input to the next rule in the sequence. Rule-based phonology has been replaced in recent years by theories which place emphasis on a more complex structure of phonological forms and the idea of phonological constraints.
- Phonotactics [ˌfəʊnəʊˈtæktɪks] The study of the permitted sequences of phonemes within the syllable in a particular language.
- Phrasal stress In English, the stress pattern which characterises phrases as opposed to compounds. In a phrase such as black bird (= any bird which happens to be black), the main stress falls on the final element. In the similar compound blackbird (= a particular species of bird Turdus merula), the main stress falls on the initial element. However, there are many compound which follow the "phrasal" pattern. See also compound stress.
- Pidgin [ˈpɪdʒɪn] A language which is used as a means of communication by two or more speech communities and is not the native language of any of them. Pidgins are typically made up of elements of more than one language and have restricted vocabularies, simple grammatical structure and simple phonological inventories. When a Pidgin becomes the native language of a population it is called a Creole.
- Pitch The perceptual attribute of a sound which enables the hearer to locate the sound on a scale from high to low. The physical correlate of pitch is the fundamental frequency of the sound. In normal speech pitch is constantly varying. This pitch variation is caused by changes in the rate of vibration of the vocal folds. There are three main functions of pitch which may be found in language: (1) lexical tone (2) pitch accent (3) intonational tone. See also mel.
- Pitch
perturbation Also called micro-intonation.
Minor changes in pitch caused by consonantal
articulation.
.
- Place of articulation The location in the vocal tract of the major constriction during the production of a consonant. The majority of places are named after the passive articulator involved in the articulation.
.
- Plastic A term used to classify languages according to the strategies they use to achieve the focus/accent association. A [+plastic] language modifies the accentual structure of the sentence to signal focus while the syntactic structure remains intact. An example of a [+plastic] language is English where the nuclear accent shifts to the focal item and non-focal elements tend to be deaccented. A [-plastic] language is constrained to alter the syntactic structure of sentences to assign focus. In these languages, the prosodic structure of the utterance remains unaltered and it is the focussed constituent that moves into a prominent position. An example of a [-plastic] language is Catalan.
- Plosive [ˈpləʊsɪv] The name of a manner of articulation. Plosives are made with a complete closure in the vocal tract. If this closure is in the oral cavity the soft palate also must be raised to cut off the nasal cavity. Air pressure is allowed to build up behind the closure and then the articulators part, releasing the compressed air. Plosives are usually regarded as consisting of three phases: (1) approach, when the active articulator approaches the passive articulator (2) hold or compression, when the air pressure rises (3) release or plosion, when the articulators part. [p b t d k g q ɢ] are examples of plosives. Plosives are distinguished from affricates by having a rapid release.
- Polarity focus Focus on the positive or negative nature of the verb phrase. Negative polarity focus in English is often signalled by placing the intonational nucleus on the negative marker, as in I did not say that. Positive polarity focus is signalled by placing the intonational nucleus on the auxiliary verb, which may be inserted specifically for this purpose, as in I do like cabbage.
-
Polysyllable [ˈpɒliˌsɪləbl] A word of two or more syllables.
- Post-alveolar The name of a place of articulation. The active articulator is the blade of the tongue, for laminal post-alveolars such as [ʃ ʒ] or the tip of the tongue for apical post-alveolars such as [ɹ]. The passive articulator is the rear of the alveolar ridge. Laminal post-alveolars are also called palato-alveolars, especially in older works.
- Post-lexical rule See Lexical Phonology. An example of a post-lexical rule is assimilation in English.
-
Pre-aspiration The occurrence of a weak
fricative sound (usually glottal) before the closure for a voiceless
plosive. Pre-aspiration is not a common phenomenon in languages of the
world and is thought not to be distinctive in any. Icelandic is an
example of a language where the phenomenon occurs. It is found only
after stressed vowels. The word nótt
meaning "night" sounds like this
. - Pre-consonantal Occurring immediately before a consonant.
- Prehead [ˈpriːhed] Any unaccented
syllables at the beginning of an intonation phrase.
- Pre-nasalised consonant A sequence of a nasal and a homorganic obstruent (usually a plosive). The sequence behaves phonologically as a single segment. An example is the language name Ndebele.
- Pre-occlusion A sound change that occurred in Cornish whereby a homorganic voiced plosive was introduced before nasal consonants in the coda of stressed syllables. For example pen ("head") [pen] became pedn [pedn]. A similar phenomenon occurs (optionally) in Manx. For instance, lhong ("ship") [loŋ] → [loɡŋ].
- Pre-palatal Articulated at the front of the hard palate.
- Pre-pausal Occurring immediately before a pause.
- Pre-velar Articulated at the front of the soft palate.
- Pre-vocalic Occurring immediately before a vowel.
- Progressive assimilation See assimilation.
- Proparoxytone [ˌprəʊpəˈrɒksɪtəʊn] A word with lexical stress on the antepenultimate syllable (e.g. canopy) .
- Prosodic hierarchy A model of the phonological organisation of language which has a number of layers, each consisting of units made up exclusively of units on the layer below. This organisation conforms to what is known as the Strict Layer Hypothesis. The highest layer in the hierarchy is the Utterance (U). U is made up of one or more Intonation Phrases (IP), which in turn are made up of one or more Intermediate Phrases (ip). Both of these latter constituents are the domain of well-formed intonation patterns. The details of other layers vary from account to account and may be different in different languages. Other layers which have been posited are listed in descending order: Accentual Phrase (ap), the domain of a single accent, Foot (w), the domain of stress assignment and finally Syllable (s).
- Prosody The study of features such as pitch variation and duration which affect the syllable, the foot and larger domains. Typical prosodic objects of study are stress, lexical tone, and intonation.
- Prosthesis [prɒsˈθiːsɪs] (adj. prosthetic [prɒsˈθetɪk]) The addition of a vowel or consonant at the beginning of a word. An example is t-prosthesis in Irish. After the definite article [t] is added to a masculine noun beginning with a vowel or [s], so "the water" is an t-uisge and "the priest" is an t-sagairt.
- Pseudo-elision The deletion of a sound leaving behind some trace of its former presence. An example from English is the pronunciation of the word university as [ˌjuːnɪˈvɜːsːti]. The vowel of the penultimate syllable has disappeared, but the preceding fricative has been lengthened, making the ending of the word different from, say, thirsty [ˈθɜːsti] where no deletion has taken place.
- Pulmonic airstream mechanism See airstream mechanism.
- Pure tone See sinewave.
- Pure vowel Another name for monophthong.
- Push-chain See chain.
- Quality See vowel quality
- Quantity The perceptual attribute of a sound which depends on its duration. Most languages which have quantity distinctions only have two degrees: short and long. There are a few languages, Estonian is an example, which are reported to have three: short, long and over-long.
- Quefrency [ˈkwiːfrənsi] See cepstrum.
- Question mark ? The symbol used to represent the stop element.