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English Phonology

 

Lecturer: Barry Pennok-Speck

 

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Definitions:

Consonant: any speech sound that involves a significant obstruction of the airstream in the vocal tract and that functions at the beginning or end of a syllable, either singly or in a cluster, or a letter of the alphabet representing such a speech sound.  (From a Dictionary of Psychology in Politics and Social Sciences)

 

Vowel:  a speech sound which is produced by comparatively open configuration of the vocal tract, with vibration of the vocal cords but without audible friction, and which is a unit of the sound system of a language that forms the nucleus of a syllable. (From the Oxford Dictionary of English 2nd edition revised)

 

Diphthong: a sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves towards another (as in coin , loud , and side ) (From the Oxford Dictionary of English 2nd edition revised)

 

From the Oxford Dictionary:

The pronunciation of kestrel: ({sm}k{ope}str{shti}l)

The main definition of Phonology in English: Originally: the science of speech sounds and pronunciation, esp. as they occur in a particular language. Now: the branch of linguistics concerned with the study of phonological relationships within a language or between different languages; the system of contrastive and phonotactic relations among the speech sounds of a particular language.

 

The etymology of crow: [OE. cráwe f., corresp. to OS. krâia, MLG. krâge, krâe, krâ, LG. kraie, kreie, MDu. kraeye, Du. kraai, OHG. chrâwa, chrâja, chrâ, crâwa, crâ, MHG. kræe, krâwe, krâ, Ger. krähe; a WG. deriv. of the vb. crâwan, crâian to CROW, q.v.] 

 

Translation of the word crow into Spanish: cuervo, grajo, corneja