Phonetics Glossary

A consonant that begins with a complete stop closure and releases into a fricative. Examples include /tʃ/ and /dʒ/.

A predictable phonetic variant of a phoneme conditioned by its linguistic environment.

A place of articulation where the tongue tip or blade contacts or approaches the alveolar ridge behind the upper teeth. Examples: /t/, /d/, /n/, /s/, /z/, /l/.

A consonant produced with a relatively open constriction in the vocal tract, allowing smooth airflow without turbulence. Examples: /w/, /j/, /ɹ/, /l/.

A period of voicelessness (breathy release) following the burst of a stop consonant, transcribed with a superscript [ʰ].

A place of articulation involving both lips. Bilabial consonants include /p/, /b/, and /m/.

The overlapping of articulatory gestures for adjacent sounds, so that the production of one sound is influenced by neighboring sounds.

A speech sound produced with a significant constriction or closure in the vocal tract, classified by voicing, place of articulation, and manner of articulation.

A vowel sound that involves a glide from one vowel quality to another within a single syllable, such as /aɪ/ in 'ride' or /aʊ/ in 'house'.

A concentration of acoustic energy around a particular frequency in the vocal tract, visible as dark bands on a spectrogram. Key to vowel identification.

A consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow constriction, creating audible turbulence. Examples: /f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /θ/, /ð/.

The lowest frequency of vocal fold vibration, perceived as pitch. Measured in Hertz (Hz).

A place of articulation at the glottis (the space between the vocal folds). The glottal stop /ʔ/ and glottal fricative /h/ are produced here.

A standardized system of phonetic symbols for transcribing the sounds of spoken language, maintained by the International Phonetic Association.

The pattern of pitch changes across a phrase or sentence, used to signal questions, statements, emphasis, and speaker attitude.

The structure in the throat containing the vocal folds (vocal cords), responsible for voicing and pitch control during speech.

The way the airstream is modified in the vocal tract to produce a consonant (e.g., stop, fricative, nasal, approximant, trill, tap, lateral).

Two words that differ by a single phonetic segment in the same position and have different meanings, used to establish phonemic contrasts.

A consonant produced with the velum lowered to allow airflow through the nasal cavity. English nasals: /m/, /n/, /ŋ/.

The smallest contrastive unit of sound in a language's phonological system. Changing one phoneme can change word meaning.

The point in the vocal tract where the primary constriction occurs during consonant production (e.g., bilabial, alveolar, velar, glottal).

A consonant produced by fully obstructing the airflow in the vocal tract and then releasing the closure. Examples: /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/.

A three-dimensional visual representation of sound displaying time, frequency, and amplitude, used extensively in acoustic phonetic analysis.

Phonetic features that extend over units larger than a single segment, including stress, tone, intonation, rhythm, and duration.

A speech sound produced with an open vocal tract and no significant constriction, classified by tongue height, backness, and lip rounding.