closant

Coined by British physician John Antony Michael Martin in 1981 (see quotation).

coined

Coordinate term: vocant

At an earlier stage still, during the first few months of life, the vowel-like and consonant-like sounds are usually so far removed from normal speech that even this convention is misleading. We will label these sounds vocants and closants and their transcription will be enclosed within double square brackets e.g. bə.

[1981, J[ohn] A[ntony] M[ichael] Martin, “Vocal Behaviour and the Origins of Speech” (chapter 4), in Voice, Speech, and Language in the Child: Development and Disorder (Disorders of Human Communication; 4), Wien [Vienna]: Springer-Verlag, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 56–57:

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the PP is an early developmental indicator of increasing phonetic diversity. It was hypothesized that the PP's estimation of increased use of different places of closant and vocant articulation would describe the growth of phonetic diversity early in life.

1992, Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, Volume 6, Taylor & Francis, page 320:

These syllables consist of a closant (consonant-like element) and a vocant (vowel-like element) with a closant - vocant or vocant - closant transition that has a duration that commonly occurs in natural spoken languages (generally < 120 ms).

1995, William P. Smotherman, editor, Developmental Psychobiology, Volume 28, John Wiley & Sons, page 5:

2003, Journal of the Indian Statistical Association, Volumes 41-42, Indian Statistical Association, page 342,
At both the ages, children are found to produce more closant-vocant and vocant - closant utterances than closant - closant and vocant - vocant.

(linguistics, phonology) A consonant-like sound such as uttered by a preverbal infant.


umlautable

The umlautable vowels in German are a, o, u, and au.

In western Old Dutch, only short vowels were umlautable.

(phonetics, of a vowel or diphthong) capable of being affected by umlaut


Pherecratean

/ˌfɛɹɪkɹəˈtiːən/

From Latin Pherecratēus, by-form of Pherecratīus, from Ancient Greek Φερεκρᾰ́τειος (Pherekrắteios), from Φερεκρᾰ́της (Pherekrắtēs, “Pherecrates”), the name of the metre’s inventor.

der

Φερεκρᾰ́τειος

Pherecratean verses are sometimes combined in systems: but much more frequent are Glyconic systems closing with a Pherecratean.

(Ancient Greek and Latin prosody, of a logaoedic metre or verse) Consisting of three prosodic feet, normally a spondee, dactyl, and spondee (or trochee), but admitting of some variations.

Φερεκρᾰ́τειος

consisting of three feet, spondee–dactyl–spondee or spondee–dactyl–trochee


Pherecratean

/ˌfɛɹɪkɹəˈtiːən/

Φερεκρᾰ́τειος

(Ancient Greek and Latin prosody) A Pherecratean metre.

(Ancient Greek and Latin prosody) A Pherecratean verse.


sound-symbolic

(linguistics, phonology) characterized by sound symbolism

"Bouba" and "Kiki" are sound-symbolic labels, not directly imitating any actual sound but nonetheless carrying strong intrinsic associations with roundness and pointiness, respectively.

(more specifically) (of a unit of sound or meaning such as a word, morpheme, phoneme, syllable, etc.) composed of speech sounds that are not arbitrary but also not overtly onomatopoeic


nonpalatalization

en-noun

nonpalatalization (countable and uncountable, plural nonpalatalizations)

The presence or absence of the palatalization is marked by the following vowels (or by one of two special letters, ъ, the 'hard sign', denoting the nonpalatalization, and ь, the soft sign noting the palletization).

2012, Martin Neef, Anneke Neijt, Richard Sproat, The Relation of Writing to Spoken Language, page 59:

(phonology, uncountable) The state or quality of not being palatalized, of not pronouncing a sound with the tongue against the palate of the mouth.

(phonology, countable) An instance of pronunciation in which a sound is nonpalatalized.


fricativization

fricativization (countable and uncountable, plural fricativizations)

From fricative + -ization or fricativize + -ation.

(phonology, uncountable) The state or quality of being fricativized.

(phonology, countable) An instance of pronunciation in which a sound is fricativized.


stress deafness

(linguistics, phonology) An inconsistent perception or processing of phonological stress by a speaker of a fixed stress language.


emphaticize

en-verb

emphaticize (third-person singular simple present emphaticizes, present participle emphaticizing, simple past and past participle emphaticized)

emphaticizes (present singular third-person)
emphaticizing (participle present)
emphaticized (participle past)
emphaticized (past)

Audio (US)


deemphaticize

deemphaticize (third-person singular simple present deemphaticizes, present participle deemphaticizing, simple past and past participle deemphaticized)

deemphaticizes (present singular third-person)
deemphaticizing (participle present)
deemphaticized (participle past)
deemphaticized (past)

In addition Standard Arabic words may be subjected to other general Nigerian Arabic phonological processes. For example, voiced consonants are devoiced prepausally, and some urban speakers may deemphaticize emphatic consonants. The form lafis < *lafð̥ thus arises via (8h), with devoicing and deemphaticizing of z̥.

2000, Jonathan Owens, “Loanwords in Nigerian Arabic: a quantitative approach”, in Arabic as a Minority Language (Contributions to the Sociology of Language; 83), New York · Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, →DOI, →ISBN, page 284 of 259–345:

Undoubtedly, with this many phonologically alien consonants for an English learner of Arabic the accent is expected to be quite distinct. Unfortunately, in addition to the segmental phonological accent there will certainly be a persistent phonetic accent that runs throughout the whole words in which some of those posterior consonants occur, especially the emphatics [sˤص dˤ ض tˤ ط ðˤ ظ]. To demonstrate, consider the word <صَبَرَ> [̯sˤɑbɑrɑ] (became patient) which is fully emphaticized throughout under the influence of the emphatic [sˤ]. If the learner of Arabic fails to properly articulate this emphatic, he will not only transform the whole word semantically to mean <سَبَرَ> [̯sabara] (probed), but will also phonetically deemphaticize the word to sound impressionistically very different from <صَبَرَ>.

2014, Edward Y. Odisho, “Some Primary Sources of Accent Generation in the Pronunciation of Arabic by Native Speakers of English”, in Mediterranean Language Review, volume 21, →DOI, page 96 of 91–104:

(phonology) To render not emphatic any more.


word sound

Browning has been called unmusical, and, judged by common rules, I suppose his verse lacks melody; but for me, there is always in it a sort of spiritual harmony, which overrules the mere word-sound, and renders him one of the most musical of poets.

1852, Grace Greenwood, Greenwood Leaves, A Collection of Sketches and Letters, page 293:

Word sound is musical. It is characterized by the two leading essentials of a musical sound, rhythm and melody, while yet the other elements, time and quality of sound, are not excluded.

1873, I.N. Carleton, W.B. Dwight (editors), The Connecticut School Journal, page 9:

Now we know that it is the faculty of recalling the word-picture, aided by remembering the word-sound, which makes the good speller.

1880, Mrs. R.R. Bird, “On Spelling”, in American Primary Teacher, volume 4, page 5:

Hence, whatever may be the sense in which the word sound may be used, there is no doubt of the fact that it is caused by the vibrations of the sounding body.

1917, Atul Chandra Datta, A Text-Book of Sound, page 1:

Many people are able to imagine word-sounds with greater delicacy and discrimination than they can utter them.

1925, I.A. Richards, Principles of Literay Criticism, page 119:

In spite of this, the succession of word sounds leads to the formation of certain phonic formations and sound phenomena or characters of a new type which could not be evoked by individual word sounds.

1973, Roman Ingarden, The Literary Work of Art, An Investigation on the Borderlines of Ontology, Logic, and Theory of Literature: with an Appendix on the Functions of Language in the Theater, page 47:

Word sound is that organizing factor which can “extract” the particular sequence (characteristic for the given notion) from the continuous categorical sign series.

1999, Tatyana Glezerman, Victoria I. Balkoski, Language, Thought, and the Brain, page 45:

(linguistics, phonology, uncommon) A particular essence or quality evoked by a spoken word.


level tone

(phonetics) A tone whose pitch is consistent or level throughout a syllable.


falling tone

(phonetics) A tone whose pitch falls or decreases during the syllable.


rising tone

(phonetics) A tone whose pitch rises or increases during the syllable.


perseverative assimilation

en-noun

perseverative assimilation (countable and uncountable, plural perseverative assimilations)

progressive assimilation
progressive assimilation#English

(phonetics) Synonym of progressive assimilation


antiformant

(phonetics) A band of frequencies, in a sound spectrum, whose intensity has been weakened; these exist in nasal sounds as the nasal cavities absorb energy and weaken some frequency bands.


oblique tone

(Chinese phonetics) A tone that is not level or consistent throughout a syllable.


departing tone

(Chinese phonetics) One of the four tones of Middle and modern Chinese, written with a grave accent (`).


neutral tone

(Chinese phonetics) The lack of one of the four primary phonetic tones of Chinese, sometimes viewed as a tone in its own right. The neutral tone is unmarked in Hanyu Pinyin.


intonational phrase

intonational phrase (plural intonational phrases)

(phonology) A chunk of spoken language containing its own melody or intonation pattern.


phonological phrase

phonological phrase (plural phonological phrases)

(phonology) A unit of speech that groups together one or more clitic groups.


phonological hierarchy

phonological hierarchy (plural phonological hierarchies)

(phonology) A series of increasingly smaller regions of a phonological utterance, each nested within the next highest region.


nurse merger

/ˈnɚs ˌmɚd͡ʒɚ/

/ˈnɜːs ˌmɜːd͡ʒə/

/ˈnɵːs ˌmɵːd͡ʒɘ/

/ˈnʌɾs ˌmɛɾd͡ʒəɾ/

/ˈnʌɹs ˌmɛɹd͡ʒɚ/

/ˈnʌɹs ˌmʌɹd͡ʒɚ/

/ˈnʌɹs ˌmɛɹd͡ʒɚ/

Another point on which Smart insists is the distinction between serf and surf […] A distinction can of course be made, and without much difficulty, by those who think of it, and is made by those who have formed a habit of doing so; but the distinction is so rarely made as to amount almost to pedantry […]

[1869, Alexander John Ellis, “III. On the Pronunciation of English in the Sixteenth Century, and its Gradual Change during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”, in On Early English Pronunciation, with Especial Reference to Shakespeare and Chaucer […] , volume I, London: Published for the Philological Society by Asher & Co., page 202:

Levelling of ME /irC/ and /urC/, which Orton assumes for the whole of the North (S. Durham §§411-13), has not taken place in Dent and S.We, where ME /urC/ remains (4:46).

[1967, Bertil Hedevind, The Dialect of Dentdale in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Uppsala: Appelbergs Boktryckeri AB, § 4.8, page 98:

(phonology) A phonemic merger occuring in most present accents of English where historic /ɛr/, /ɪr/, /ʊr~ʌr/ are pronounced identically.


Italian a

It will, perhaps, be objected, that the most frequent short sound of a, as heard in cat, rat, mat, carry, marry, parry, is the short sound of the Italian a in father, car, mar, par, and not the short sound of the a in care, mare, and pare;

1791, John Walker, A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language, London: G. G. J. and J. Robinson, page 9:

The latter sound, a in all, used to be called the ‘German a’ by older English grammarians, in opposition to the a in father, named the ‘Italian a.’ In point of fact, there is no such sound as this so-called German a in received German pronunciation, all German a’s, whether long or short, being pronounced as Italian a’s, i. e. as ‘pure’ [ā], when long, and [a], when short.

1885, Wilhelm Viëtor, German Pronunciation: Practice and Theory, Heilbronn: Henninger Bros., page 22:

The Italian a, numbered 2, is going through a transition in American speech. In British speech it is fixed as a broad sound; the use of a as in father being much more common in England than in America. Italian a as in last, past, fast, grass in this country is hardly heard west of the Hudson.

1920, Charles Henry Woolbert, The Fundamentals of Speech: A Behavioristic Study of the Underlying Principles of Speaking and Reading, New York and London: Harper & Brothers, page 293:

(phonetics, orthoepy) The speech sound represented by the letter A in the Italian language. The open central unrounded vowel (IPA: [ä]).