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• Sagittal section [ˈsædʒɪtl] A view of the vocal tract seen from the side with the head sectioned from front to back on the midline.
• SAMPA This is the acronym for Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet - a 7-bit ASCII encoding of phonetic symbols based on the IPA.  A couple of examples from English: /θɪŋ/ = /TIN/, /ˈbʌtə/ = /"bVt@/.
• Sandhi [ˈsændi] See liaison
• Sawtooth wave A complex waveform which can be approximated by adding sine waves according to the following formula:
  
  where F = the fundamental frequency. Note that the - sign indicates that the following harmonic is 180 deg out of phase with the fundamental. The more harmonics one adds, the better the approximation to a perfect sawtooth wave.

• Scala [ˈskɑːlə] ː scala media [ˈmiːdiə], scala tympani [ˈtɪmpəni], scala vestibuli [veˈstɪbjʊli] The three fluid-filled cavities in the cochlea.

• Schwa [ʃwɑː] Also shwa. The name for the vowel symbolised [ə]. Its quality is mid, central, unrounded. Also called neutral vowel.
• Secondary articulation A stricture of lesser rank than a simultaneous primary articulation. Common secondary aticulations are: labialisation, palatalisation and velarisation.
• Semivowel An approximant with the primary constriction made by the body (front or back) approaching the hard palate or the soft palate. [w j ɥ] are semivowels.
• Sensorineural hearing loss [ˌsensəriˈnjʊərəl] Any loss of hearing ability caused by damage to, or dysfunction of, inner ear structures such as the hair cells.  Compare conductive hearing loss.
• Sentence stress See stress.
• Series A term used to denote a collection of speech sounds which share a phonetic feature.  For example, English has two series of plosives, a voiceless series [p t k] and a voiced series [b d g].
• Sharp A phonological feature. [+sharp] sounds are produced with the body of the tongue raised towards the hard palate.  This results in greater intensity in the higher part of the acoustic spectrum.  The feature may be used to distinguish palatalised sounds from their non-palatalised counterparts.
• Shimmer Irregular variation in the amplitude of vocal fold vibration.
• Shwa See schwa.
• Sibilant [ˈsɪbɪlənt] An apical fricative or affricate with intense high frequency energy. Typical sibilants are [s ʃ ].
• Sine wave [saɪn] Also called sinusoid. A mathematical function resulting in a smoothly changing repetitive wave-shape.  The basic equation as a function of time is:
  y(t)=A∙ sin(ωt+φ)
  where t=time in seconds, A = the peak amplitude of the wave's deviation from its centre position, ω = the angular frequency in radians/second, φ = phase
  The sound of an acoustic sine wave (usually known as a pure tone), where the y dimension = pressure variation, is closely approximated by the vibration of a tuning fork.
• Sinusoid [ˈsaɪnəsɔɪd] See the entry above.
• Slender consonant In Irish most of the consonants in the inventory have two forms: slender (the Irish word is caol  [kiːɫ] and broad (leathan [ˈlahən] in Irish).  The difference between these is usually described in terms of palatalisation for the former and lack of it for the latter.  The situation is considerably more complex than that, however.  For non-derived labial consonants, palatalised vs non-palatalised is phonetically accurate.  However, for linɡual consonants the differences are greater than presence vs absence of palatalisation.  For example broad s = [s], whereas slender s = [ ʃ ].  The situation is even more complex with consonants derived from a mutation process.  The lenited form of [d], for example, is [j] when slender, but [ɣ] when broad. Even for labial articulations, the simple story breaks down when it comes to derived forms.  The lenited from of [b], for instance, is [ vʲ ] when slender, but [w] when broad.
• Slit fricative A fricative such as [θ] where the surface of the tongue is relatively flat and the air exits through a wide, slit-like aperture. Cf grooved fricative
• Sociolect [ˈsəʊsiəʊlekt]  See lect.
• Soft consonant A term sometimes used with reference to Slavonic languages. Many of these languages have a phonological distinction which is signalled by the presence or absence of palatalisation of consonants. Soft consonant is the term used for the palatalised variety
• Soft palate Also called velum The soft and moveable part of the roof of the oral cavity. It is the passive articulator for velar consonants and its position regulates airflow into the nasal cavity.
• Sonagram [ˈsəʊnəɡræm] The same as spectrogram.
• Sonorant [ˈsɒnərənt] An articulation where there is a no constriction close enough to cause an increase in air pressure in the vocal tract with respect to ambient air pressure. Vowels, nasal, lateral and median approximants, taps and trill are all sonorant sounds. The opposite of sonorant is obstruent.
• Sonority hierarchy [səˈnɒrəti] A ranking of sound types depending on their their sonority, which is usually defined as the degree of resistance of an articulation to free airflow through the vocal tract, where higher resistance equals lower sonority. There are a number of versions of the hierarchy to be found in the the literature. One common one is: obstruents<nasals<liquids<glides<vowels, where < means "less sonorous than". The hierarchy is used define universal tendencies in syllable structure. Syllables tend to increase in sonority towards the centre and then decrease towards the end.
• Spectrogram [ˈspektrəɡræm] A graph of the variation of spectral shape as a function of time. A spectrogram has three axes: the horizontal axis represents time, the vertical axis represents frequency and the density of marking represents the intensity of the signal at a particular time-frequency co-ordinate. Spectrograms are divided into two varieties, depending on the bandwidth of the analysing filter: (1) wide-band (usual filter bandwidth=300 Hz) which gives good resolution in the time domain (2) narrow-band (usual filter bandwidth=45 Hz) which gives good resolution in the frequency domain.
• Spectrograph A machine used to produce a spectrogram. It is usual nowadays to use a computer program for this task.
• Speech sound Any sound produced by the human vocal tract which is found as part of the make-up of words in some human language, or a copy of such a sound produced synthetically.
• Speech pressure waveform A graph of the variation of pressure as a function of time during the production of speech.
• Speech reading The perception of speech by observing facial movement. Also called lip reading. Speech reading is used by many hearing impaired people as an aid to the understanding of speech.
• Spelling pronunciation The use of a pronunciation of a word which follows common spelling-to-sound rules of a language, but which is different from the usual, or traditional, pronunciation of the word. An example from English:  [ˈfɔːhed] instead of the traditional [ˈfɒrɪd] for forehead.
• Spirantisation [ˌspaɪrəntaɪˈzeɪʃn]  A type of lenition which involves a plosive turning into a fricative.  An example from Sardinian: [ˈbaka] cow  [sa ˈβaka] the cow.
• Split A sound change which results in the increase in the number of phonemes in a phonological system.  Splits tend to be complex affairs which proceed in stages.  The following simple example is hypothetical, but not implausible.  Suppose a language has long and short allophones of its vowel phonemes.  The conditioning factor is the position of the syllable in the word.  In final syllables vowels are long.  Elsewhere they are short.  Take two forms like: /bitə/ and /bit/.  These are phonetically [bitə] and [biːt].  Now suppose that the language undergoes a change where final syllables are deleted.  The two phonetic forms would now be [bit] and [biːt]. In effect the conditioning factor has disappeared and a new phoneme /iː/ has appeared.
• Spoonerism A category of speech error which involves the swapping of components of the syllable between two words.  Example: crooks and nannies for nooks and crannies. The error is named after the Reverend Spooner, an Oxford academic, who reputedly was prone to such mistakes.
• Square wave A complex waveform which, ideally, switches instantaneously between two amplitude levels.  An approximation to a perfect square wave can be synthesised by adding sine waves according to the following formula:
  
  where F = the fundamental frequency. The more harmonics one adds, the better the approximation to a perfect square wave.
• Stapes [ˈsteɪpiːz] See stirrup.
• Starred form (1) A form preceded by an asterisk indicating that it is impossible in a particular language. For example, *[bnɪk] is impossible in English. The same convention is used in morphological and syntactic studies. (2) In phonetic transcription, an indication that the following word is a name.
• Steady state For sounds with a well-defined formant structure (mainly monophthongal vowels), that part of the sound where the formants are relatively steady in frequency and unaffected by transitions from or to neighbouring sounds.
• Stirrup Also called stapes. One of the small bones of the middle ear, connected to the oval window of the cochlea.
• Stød Danish: [støð] A feature of many, but not all, varieties of Danish.  The phonetic form varies between a glottal stop and creaky voice.  It occurs only in the coda of the syllable and its occurrence vs absence is contrastive.  An example of a minimal pair: ånden ("breathing") [ˈʌnn] vs ånden ("the spirit") [ˈʌnʔn]. As can be seen from this example, the presence of stød cannot always be inferred from the spelling.
• Stop A consonant produced with a complete closure in the vocal tract which interrupts the airflow. Stops may be subdivided into oral stops, essentially plosives and affricates, where there is no nasal airflow, and nasal stops, commonly just called nasals, where the soft palate is lowered and the airstream escapes via the nasal cavity.
• Stopping A feature of child speech. Many children go through a phase in the development of their speech when adult target consonants with an open articulation, such as fricatives or approximants, are replaced with homorganic or near-homorganic stops, usually plosives. An example from English the pronunciation [ˈtɪdəd] for adult scissors. An example from French: [watu] for adult oiseau.
• Stranding A stranded word is one that has had the material that would otherwise follow it deleted or moved by a syntactic operation (typically ellipsis or fronting). Examples include the words at the end of the sentences Where do you come from? (preposition with no following noun phrase) and I can run faster than you can, you know (auxiliary or modal verb with no following lexical verb). In English, stranded function words take their strong form even though unstressed.
• Stress The relative prominence of syllables. It is usual to distinguish lexical stress and sentence stress (also called rhythmic stress). The former may be thought of as a syllable's potential to receive prominence and the latter the actual degree of prominence observed when a word is uttered as part of a longer utterance. The two often coincide, but not always. One common way of indicating stress is shown in [ˌrestəˈreɪʃn] where the two diacritic marks indicate secondary and primary stress respectively. Another method uses accents over the relevant vowel symbols: rèstorátion.
• Stress clash See stress shift.
• Stress shift Also called iambic reversal. The tendency in some languages, including English, to avoid stress on adjacent syllables (called a stress clash) by moving one stress (usually the first) to another syllable. A simple example is the phrase afternoon tea which is usually pronounced [ˈɑːftənuːn ˈtiː] rather than [ˌɑːftəˈnuːn ˈtiː], where the primary lexical stresses of the two words fall on adjacent syllables. The formal definition of a stress clash is somewhat complex and a matter of some dispute.
• Stress-timed A type of rhythm where stressed syllables tend to occur (at least perceptually) at equal intervals in time. Many accents of English are said to display mainly stress-timed rhythm. See also syllable-timed
• Strict Layer Hypothesis See prosodic hierarchy.
• Stricture [ˈstrɪktʃə] A narrowing in the vocal tract caused by one articulator approaching another. See also rank of stricture.
• Strident [ˈstraɪdnt] The name of a binary feature, often abbreviated to [stri]. [strident] is only relevant for coronal fricatives and affricates such as [s tʃ]. [+stri] sounds are produced with a groove in the tip/blade of the tongue which causes the friction noise to be more intense and higher in frequency. [-stri] sounds include [θ ð].
• Strong cluster See syllable weight
• Strong form In many English accents, some monosyllabic function words (prepositions, auxiliary verbs, pronouns, conjunctions) have two different pronunciations. The strong form is that typically used when the word is stressed or stranded (see stranding). For example, the strong form of was is [wɒz]. See also weak form.
• Suppletion [səˈpliːʃn] A term used to denote the situation where two alternants of a morpheme have different roots cannot be related to each other by a general phonological rule.  A prime example from English is the pair go and went.
• Surd [sɜːd] An old-fashioned term for a voiceless sound.
• Svarabhakti [ˌsfærəˈbækti] See anaptyxis.
• Syllabary [ˈsɪləbəri] A writing system where the symbols represent whole syllables, rather than the vowels and consonants which make up the syllable.  For example, the single symbol と from the Japanese Hiragana syllabary represents the syllable [to].
• Syllabic consonant [sɪˈlæbɪk] A consonant, usually a sonorant, acting as the nucleus of a syllable. An example from English: bottles pronounced as [ˈbɒtlz] rather than [ˈbɒtəlz].
• Syllable A phonological structure composed of speech sounds. Words are made up of syllables. The syllable is the domain of association for such phenomena as accent, stress and lexical tone. Syllables are generally considered to be composed of a number of constituents: onset, rhyme, nucleus and coda.
• Syllable-timed A type of rhythm where syllables tend to have equal duration. French is an example of a language said to be preponderantly syllable-timed. See also stress-timed
• Syllable weight The weight of a syllable depends on the make-up of its rhyme constituent. If the rhyme consists of a long vowel (or diphthong) followed by zero or more consonants (a so-called strong cluster), the syllable is heavy. If the rhyme consists of a short vowel followed by a maximum of one consonant (a weak cluster), then the syllable is light. The weight of a syllable is important for lexical stress assignment in many languages. Heavy syllables take precedence over light syllables in the assignment of primary lexical stress.
• Synizesis [ˌsɪnɪˈziːsɪs] A type of compression involving the loss of syllabicity of a vowel (most commonly a high vowel) immediately before another vowel, resulting in an approximant.  An example from French: il tue  [i ty] ("he kills") - il a tué  [il a tɥe] ("he killed").
• Syntactic doubling See raddoppiamento sintattico.
• Systematic gap  The absence of a linguistic form from a language because it contravenes one or more phonological constraints -- usually phonotactic constraints.  For example, the putative German word [mob] is a systematic gap, because word-final obstruents must be voiceless in German.
• Systemic difference A type of difference between accents where two accents have different phonological systems. An example is the difference between most British accents of English, which have a contrast between [θ] and [t] and many accents of the Caribbean which lack this contrast.