| accent
| stress and pitch combined. If a stress occurs in the stepping head without a downward step in pitch, the word concerned is not accented. Stress in such words is usually weakened because there is no change of pitch accompanying them
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| accommodation
| adaptation of vowels to different adjacent sounds, e.g. in /tu:/ /t/ is labialized under the influence of /u:/ and /u:/ is a little bit advanced under the influence of /t/
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| adjacent sounds
| sounds that follow each other
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| affricates
| the sounds formed during the separation of the articulating organs: in their articulation the complete closure gradually and uninterruptedly opens into a flat-slit narrowing: / /
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| allophones
| variants or members of one and the same phoneme, which never occur in identical positions, but are said to be in complementary distribution, they are actual speech sounds
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| alveoles
| depressions in the upper jaw, which socket the upper teeth
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| apex
| the tip of the tongue
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| aspiration
| a slight puff of breath which is heard after the explosion of /p, t, k/ in initial position
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| assimilation
| the result of coarticulation, when one sound is made similar to its neighbour in English it mainly affects the place of articulation e.g.: ֽten 'men — ֽtem 'men. It can be progressive, regressive or reciprocal. Most commonly the sounds which undergo assimilation are immediately adjacent in the stream of speech. For example in сдал /с/ is voiced under the influence of /д/; in horseshoe /s/ is pronounced as / / under the influence of / / which follows it
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| bilabial
| articulated by the upper and the lower lip. Bilabial consonants are: /p, w, b, m/
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| cardinals
| an international standard set of artificial vowel sounds which, according to D. Jones, can be produced with the bulk of the tongue at the four cardinal points in the front part of the mouth cavity and at the four cardinal points in the back part of the mouth cavity
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| continuants
| consonants that can be prolonged during the stop-stage of their articulation. For example: /m, n, l, r, /
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| descending scale
| gradual lowering of the voice pitch
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| diacritic marks
| additional symbols used to characterize separate phonemes or their allophones. For examples, the Russian й, the German Ü. Diacritic marks help to use the inventory of the letters of the alphabet, without enlarging it
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| diphthong
| a vowel phoneme which consists of two elements: a nucleus and a glide. The first element of a diphthong is more loud and distinct, the formation of the second element of a diphthong is not accomplished. English diphthongs can be normal — this term is used because they are similar to the diphthongs normally occurring in other languages: /ei, ai, oi, iυ, əυ/ and centring: /iə, εə, oə, υə/ — they are called so because their glide /a/ is considered to be a central vowel
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| dissimilation
| substitution of one sound for another, similar in tamber but different articulatorily: пролубь, лыцарь instead of прорубь, рыцарь
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| dorsum
| the middle and back parts of the tongue
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| elision
| dropping off of a vowel in initial or terminal position. For example: ‘tis instead of it is, th’ eternal instead of the eternal
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| fricative consonants
| produced by friction of the flow of air through the narrowing formed by articulatory organs. For example: /v, s, z/
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| glide
| that part of a diphthong which constitutes its additional element, the full articulation of which is not accomplished
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| glottal stop
| a sound which reminds a slight cough and is articulated by the vocal cords, before a vowel sound is heard in eases of emphatic speech
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| glottis
| the space between the vocal cords, which is the entrance to the trachea, or the windpipe
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| high-pitched sound
| a sound, which is high in tone
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| inhalation
| breathing the air in
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| instructive sounds
| alien to the word. For example: /'himpjudənt/ instead of /'impjudənt/; /'pleijiŋ/ instead of /'pleiiŋ/
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| juncture
| the place, where two sounds or words are joined together
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| labialization
| lip rounding
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| larynx
| an organ of the respiratory tract above the windpipe. It consists of an elaborate arrangement of cartilage and muscles and contains a pair of vocal cords
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| lax vowels
| vowels in the articulation of which the muscular tension of the tongue, lips, and the walls of the resonating cavities is not so great as in the articulation of tense vowels
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| logopaedics
| a branch of phonetics, which studies speech defects and the ways of correcting them
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| melody
| changes in the voice pitch in the process of speech
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| method of distinctive oppositions
| this method enables to prove whether the phonetic difference is relevant or not
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| monophtong
| a vowel sound in the articulation of which the articulating organs are more or less stable, which results in the stationary nature of the vowel
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| murmur
| soft speech, sometimes indistinct
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| nucleus of a diphthong
| that part of the diphthong, which is more prominent
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| occlusive
| the sounds pronounced when the air on its way out breaks up a complete obstruction. Occlusive consonants are /p, b, t, d, k, g/ — stop or plosives and sonorants /m, n, ŋ/ — nasals
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| oscillograph
| an instrument which makes it possible to record speech in the form of graphs
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| palatalization
| softening of consonants, which results from the secondary place of articulation— front-secondary focus. It takes place when the middle part of the tongue is raised to the hard palate and the air passage is narrowed or constricted, which gives the consonant soft colouring. All consonants, with the exception of medico-lingual, can be affected by palatalization when they are followed by /i:, i, e or j/. Palatalization is phonemic in the Russian language (compare: пыл - пыль). In the English language palatalization is non-phonemic, and when it takes place in the articulation of sounds other than
/ /, under the influence of the Russian language it is a mistake
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| phoneme
| the shortest functional unit of a language. Each phoneme exists in speech in the form of mutually non-distinctive speech sounds, its allophones. Each speech sound is an allophone of some phoneme
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| pitch
| the degree of highness or lowness varying with the number of vibrations of a note. V. A. Vassilyev defines it as “perception of the frequency of repeated pressures on the ear-drum”
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| progressive assimilation
| the process when the first of the two neighbouring sounds influences the second and makes it similar to itself. For example, the pronunciation of the suffix -ed of regular verbs is based on progressive voicing and devoicing: it is pronounced /t! after voiceless consonants /d/, after vowels and voiced consonants /id/ after /t/, /d/: dropped / /, remained / /, extended / /
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| prominence
| singling out acoustically, which produces the effect of greater loudness
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| pulmonic consonants
| the sounds in producing which the exhaling air goes out from the lungs
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| rhyme
| the repetition of identical or similar terminal sounds, sound combinations or words
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| rhythm
| “rhythm is a flow, movement, procedure, etc., characterized by basically regular recurrence of elements or features, as beat, or accent, in alternation with opposite or different elements or features” (Webster’s New World Dictionary). Rhythm in speech is the periodic recurrence of stressed syllables. Rhythm exists both in prose and in verse. It can be regarded as one of the forms in which a language exists
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| scale of sonority
| the arrangement of phonemes according to their degree of loudness. According to this scale the most sonorous are front low vowels, then go sonants and voiced consonants. Voiceless consonants are characterized by minimal sonority
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| semi-vowels
| the term is almost out of use nowadays. It refers to /j, w/
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| sibilants
| the sounds of a whistling or hissing nature. In English sibilants are /s, z, /
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| triphthong
| a vowel sound that consists of three elements, the first element is a diphthong and the second — a neutral vowel /ə/
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| uvula
| a fleshy conical body suspended from the soft palate over the back of the tongue
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| velar
| the term is used in the classification of consonants which are articulated with the help of the soft palate: velar nasal sonorant /ŋ/, velar stops /k, g/
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| velum
| the soft palate. When the soft palate is raised the air passes out of the mouth cavity, when the soft palate is lowered the flow of air is directed through the nasal cavity
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| vocal cords
| elastic folds of membrane inside the larynx which vibrate to produce voice
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| weak vowels
| the vowels which are shorter and less- distinct, sometimes they are reduced to the neutral vowel /ə/. Weakening or reduction of vowels is a characteristic feature of Russian and English
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