Table Of ContentA Dictionary of
Phonetics and Phonology
Written for students of linguistics, applied linguistics and speech
therapy, this dictionary covers over 2,000 terms in phonetics and
phonology. In addition to providing a comprehensive yet concise
guide to an enormous number of individual terms, it also includes
an explanation of the most important theoretical approaches to
phonology.
Its usefulness as a reference tool is further enhanced by the
inclusion of pronunciations, notational devices and symbols, earliest
sources of terms, suggestions for further reading, and advice with
regard to usage.
R. L. Trask is Lecturer in Linguistics in the School of Cognitive and
Computing Sciences at the University of Sussex. His previous pub
lications include A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Linguistics
(1993), Language Change (1994) and Language: The Basics (1995).
A Dictionary of
Phonetics and Phonology
R. L. Trask
London and New York
First published 1996
by Routledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,Oxon,OX144RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270MadisonAve, NewYorkNY 10016
Reprinted in 1996
TransferredtoDigitalPrinting2006
© 1996 R. L. Trask
Typeset in Times by Florencetype Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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Library ofCongress Cataloguing in Publication Data
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ISBN 0-415-11260-5 (hbk)
0-415-11261-3 (pbk)
Publisher's Note
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Contents
List offigures VI
Preface Vll
Acknowledgements IX
List ofabbreviations Xl
Guide to pronunciation xii
A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology 1
Appendix: the International Phonetic Alphabet
(revised to 1993) 394
References 395
Figures
Al The acoustic spectra of a clarinet note (a)
and of the vowel [i:] (b) 9
Cl The Catford classification 66
C2 A classificatory matrix for the consonants of Basque 73
Fl An aspirated plosive in the feature hierarchy 142
Ml A metrical grid 222
M2 A metrical tree 223
PI A polar chart 283
VI The vowel chart of Les Branson, 42, of Norwich (1971) 382
Preface
This dictionary is intended primarily for students and teachers of
phonetics and linguistics. Like its companion volume, A Dictionary
ofGrammatical Terms in Linguistics, this dictionary focuses on just
one major area ofthe linguistic sciences and tries to provide detailed
coverage of that area.
Of course, it is not possible to include every single one of the
many thousands of terms which make an appearance somewhere in
the phonological literature, but the nearly 2,000 terms which are
defined here should include virtually every term you are likely to
encounter outside the most specialized monographs.
The larger part of the dictionary is devoted to terms which have
been in existence for some time and which look likely to remain in
use for the foreseeable future: alternation, apical, contour tone,
creaky voice, obstruent, rule loss, sandhi, vowel harmony.
Though articulatory phonetics naturally features very prominently
in these pages, acoustic and perceptual phonetics are not neglected,
nor is general speech science: Action Theory, acousticfilter, cochlea,
duplex perception, electromyography, formant, quantal vowel,
transition..
The terminology of classical phonology is well covered, including
the terms used by the Prague School, by Daniel Jones and by the
American Structuralists: archiphoneme, biuniqueness, diaphone,
EPD, juncture phoneme, privative opposition.
Classical generative phonology is abundantly covered: absolute
neutralization, exchange rule, Halle's argument, systematic phon
eme. Among more recent developments, Autosegmental Phonology
and Metrical Phonology are treated in particular detail: demi
beat, deforestation, dumping, iambic reversal, No-Crossing Con
straint, timing tier. But the principal terms from nearly all the
major developments in phonology in the last two decades are also
defined: coronalunderspecification, Derived Environment Constraint,
feature geometry, hot feature, Prosodic Hierarchy, subjunction,
via rule.
Distinctivefeatures are covered ingreatdetail. Summariesofsome
half-dozen feature systems are given, and many dozens ofindividual
features are defined.
Preface viii
There is ample coverage of the phonology of English: dark I,
Estuary English, Great Vowel Shift, Received Pronunciation, rhotic
accent, Trager-Smith system, velar softening. Terms specific to other
languages are included if they feature prominently in the literature:
Grassmann's Law, liaison, radoppiamento sintattico, rendaku, seseo,
soft mutation, yer.
I have made a point of including a number of terms largely
confined to the older philological literature, since these are often
maddeningly difficult to look up elsewhere: anlaut, cacuminal,
implosive position, surd, tenuis.
There is a good deal of coverage of phonological change and
variation, both traditional terms and recent ones: apocope, BillPeters
effect, chain shift, lexical diffusion, reversal ofmerger, rhotacization,
umlaut. Given the current importance ofmetrical ideas in phonology,
traditional terms from metrics are well covered: crasis, masculine
rhyme, synizesis, tetrameter, trochee.
For many entries there are multiple definitions; competing and
conflicting usages are noted and described, and recommendations
are often provided; examplesoftroublesome terms are breathy voice,
dorsum, flap, heavy syllable, hypercorrection, prosody, tone. As far
as possible, I have tried to identify the original sources of the terms,
and for many of the more important terms I have suggested further
reading.
The alphabetical order used is one which ignores both hyphens
and spaces between words. Thus, for example, provection precedes
P-rule, while off-glide precedes off rhyme, which precedes offset
phase.
The pronunciation given is that typical of the south of England.
Speakers of other varieties of English will, I hope, find little diffi
culty in making any necessary adjustments.
In an enterprise of this kind, it is no doubt inevitable that there
will prove to be a few errors and omissions. If you find any, I shall
be pleased to hear about them. You can write to me at the School
of Cognitive and Computing Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer,
Brighton BNl 9QH, UK, or e-mail [email protected].
Acknowledgements
I should like to thank Julia Hall, Emma Cotter, Alison Foyle and
Caroline Cautley of Routledge for encouraging this book and for
putting up with several exasperating delays along the way. To Dick
Hudson I am indebted for getting me into the linguistic lexicography
business in the first place. Two anonymous readers, and later Richard
Coates, John Goldsmith and most especially Max Wheeler, read and
commented on early drafts of varying sizes; I am grateful to all of
them, and I have managed to incorporate most of their comments
into the final version. I regret that Goldsmith's 1995 book appeared
too late to be taken into account in preparing the dictionary; this
book contains useful further reading on many of the entries in the
dictionary. I am further indebted to Kasia Jaszczolt for making avail
able to me a body of unpublished work in Optimality Theory. And,
as always, I am deeply grateful to Jenny Potts for an impeccable job
of copy-editing.
Naturally, lowe an enormous debt to all my fellow linguists, past
and present, whose works I have combed for terms and definitions.
Among those phoneticians and linguists of whose work I have made
particularly heavy use are David Abercrombie, John Anderson;
Stephen Anderson, Sheila Blumstein, Philip Carr, 1. C. Catford,
Noam Chomsky, John Clark, Alan Cruttenden, David Crystal, Peter
Denes, Jacques Durand, Eli Fischer-J~rgensen, Victoria Fromkin,
D. B. Fry, Hans Giegerich, A. C. Gimson, John Goldsmith, Morris
Halle, Richard Hogg, Larry Hyman, Daniel Jones, Francis Katamba,
Michael Kenstowicz, William Labov, Peter Ladefoged, Roger Lass,
John Laver, Philip Lieberman, C. B. McCully, Elliot Pinson, Peter
Roach, Iggy Roca, Alan Sommerstein, John Wells and Colin Yallop
- though these names certainly do not exhaust the sources I
consulted.
Needless to say, none of these people bears any responsibility for
any shortcomings the dictionary may prove to have.
The author and publisher would like to thank the following for
permission to reprint copyright material: Figure AI: from D. B. Fry
(1979) The Physics of Speech, p. 56 and p. 77, by permission of
Cambridge University Press; Figure CI and Figure PI: from 1. C.
Catford (1977) Fundamental Problems in Phonetics, p. 143, p. 145
