Englisch (Subject) / Practical Pronunciation (Lesson)

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Theorie für den OCT.

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  • Affricate A sound with both a stop and a fricative component. The stop is followed by a fricative release of breath.
  • Allophones The individual, non-distinctive realizations of a phoneme
  • The three branches of phonetics Articulatory: Study of the production of speech sounds. Acoustic: Study of the transmission of speech sounds (physical properties) Auditory: Study of the reception of speech sounds
  • Assimilation A change in the production of a sound due to the influence of one or more neighboring sounds: regressive: When the production of a preceding sound is influenced by a following sound. (grandpa - grampa) progressive: When the production of a following sound is influenced by a preceding one. (open - opm)
  • Consonants A speech sound produced by stopping, diverting or obstructing the airflow from the lungs
  • Diacritics Marks used by phoneticians to modify existing IPA symbols. They are used in close or allophonic transcription
  • Dialect A variety of a language that is distinguished from other varieties of the same language by features of grammar, vocabulary and phonology and by its speakers geographic or social separation from others
  • Accent A slang term: Accent = allophonic variation of a language
  • Diphthong A speech sound during whose articulation there is a continuous change from the position for one vowel to that for another in the same syllable
  • Fortis/Lenis articulation Articulations of consonants that involve a relatively big/small amount of muscular tension (p - b, k - g). Voiceless stops in middle and final positions are normally lenis articulations in AE
  • Fricatives Sounds (consonants) produced by a constriction of the flow of air
  • Glide Consonant category; those speech sounds that function as consonants but have sound qualities like a vowel. Also called semi-vowels: /w/, /j/, /r/
  • Intonation The rise and fall of the pitch of the voice during speech. Tonic stress: The most prominent syllable in the tone group (tone group = group of words that are naturally spoken together)
  • Minimal pair Two words that are different in only one unit of sound, e. g. bid - bit
  • Morpheme The smallest meaningful unit in a language, e. g. "Boy" or "s"
  • Nasal Consonants whose production is characterized by an escape of air through the nose
  • Pitch The highness or lowness of a sound determined by the frequency of the sound waves, depends on the rate of vibration of the vocal chords
  • Phonemes The basic (smallest) sounds of a language that distinguish meaning
  • R.P. Received Pronunciation - the single standard of pronunciation recognized in all of Great Britain as correct. No such single standard exists in the USA. There are 44 phonemes in R.P.
  • Segmentals The individual sound units that follow one another in speech (=segments)
  • Semantics The study of the meaning of speech sounds, also of the development and change of words and word groups
  • Stops Consonants produced by completely blocking the flow of breath
  • Stress The emphasis (level of loudness) put on a syllable or word in speech ("accent")
  • Suprasegmentals Three sound features (in addition to the phonemes of a language) that can make a difference in meaning in speech: stress, intonation, juncture (pause or lack of it)
  • Syllable A segment of speech produced with a single pulse of air pressure from the lungs. Consists of a center of great sonority (vowel) surrounded by less sonorous elements (consonants)
  • Tense-Lax The relative degree of muscular tension with which a vowel is produced
  • Vowel A speech sound produced by an uninterrupted or nonrestricted outward flow of voiced breath
  • Four criteria to describe a vowel Height of the tongue Place of articulation Tense or lax (tension of tongue muscles) Lip-rounding (yes or no)
  • Three criteria to describe a consonant Place of articulation (Bilabial, Labio-Dental, Dental, Alveolar, Palato-Alveolar, Palatal, Velar, Glottal) Manner of articulation (Plosive, Affricate, Nasal, Fricative, Approximant (=Glide), Lateral) Voiced or unvoiced
  • Weak Forms The unstressed form of certain words in connected speech. Different degrees of weakening are called "gradation".
  • What are GA and NRP also called? GA - Newscaster English NRP - BBC English
  • The nine major accents of North America Canada, Northern New England, The North, Greater New York City, The Midland, The South, North Central, The West, African-American-vernacular English
  • What is GA, who speaks it? General American, dialect that is devoid of any regional variation, spoken by people from Southern Florida and Canadians.
  • Idiolect/Sociolect An idiolect is an individuals own personal variation inside his language A sociolect is a dialect without a connection to geography but to a social group/class
  • The seven differences between RP and GA Long "a" in RP ("half") "a"-lip-rounding ("full") in GA yod-dropping (nuz in GA - njuz in NRP) rhotic "R" dominant in GA three "t"s in GA: time (real) fight (glottal stop) water (flapping) more diphthongs in NRP
  • Stages of speech production Airstream process: Air is pushed through trachea Phonation: Voiced - Voiceless Oronasal-process: Nasal or oral cavity Articulation
  • Active articulators Lips, tongue, glottis, epiglottis, uvula, vocal chords, velum
  • Passive articulators Nasal/oral cavity, teeth, palate, oesophagus, alveolar ridge, pharynx, larynx, trachea, velum
  • Why is the "schwa" important? It appears frequently in weak forms.
  • Juncture Phoneme that has no phonological sound: A pause that contributes to meaning (e. g. ice-cream)