Received Pronunciation: use the pronunciation of a variety of British English. Type of pronunciation which is generally taught in Spanish and other European universities.

International English Pronunciation: type of pronunciation that is not from any particular geographical area.

 RP: received pronunciation, developed among London, Cambridge and Oxford. Adopted by the Court and the upper classes. Adopted by the BBC eveloped from a South Eastern accent.

Standard English: the grammar of the most prestigious variety of English.

Speech sounds: created using air from the lungs during expiration. The air goes through the trachea and passes though the larynx where the glottis is located.

Vocal folds: two folds of membranous tissue,situated in yhe glottis.

Glottis open: when we are brathing normally, the vocal cords are held apart and the air from the lungs can make its way into the pharynx and the mouth. In this position it is difficult to hear the air passing throug the glottis. If we narrow the glottis and force aitr through the vocal fols, we will hear audible friction.

Glottal stop: close the glottis tightly. The air from the lungs is completely obstructed and cannot escape into the mouth. If the vocal folds are bought very close together, the pressure of the air from the lungs can cause them to vibrate. The glottis closes momentarily, air pressure buillds up and the vocal cords are forced apart. The pressure drops and the vocal cords close again and the whole process is repeated.

Voiced sounds: sounds procuded by the vibration of the vocal cords.

Voiceless sounds: without vocal cord vibration.

Articulators: the parts of the vocal tract.

Pharynx: where the vocal tract starts. Cavity formed by the upper throat, and continues into the mouth proper.

Oral tract: air from the lungs can either escape though the mouth.

Nasal tract: air from the lungs can either escape through the nose dependind on the position of the soft palate.

Vocal tract: space that can change depending on the position of the articulators and plys an essentian part in the production of different consonants and vowels. Acts as a resonator.

Alveolar ridge: small bump.

Hard Palate: bony structure.

Soft palate / velum: kind of flexible muscular flap.

Uvula: fleshy proturberance.

Pharynx wall: at the back of the mouth, is involved in some sounds like the long vowel in calm.

Lower articulators: more mobile

Epiglottis: below the root of the tongue and opposite the pharyngeal wall. Flap of cartilage which is lowered during swallowing.

Bilabial consonants: /p/, /b/, /m/, involve a complete clousure of the lips.

Labiodental: /f/, /v/ the lower lip is raised so it is very close to the upper front teeth.

Dental: /θ/, /ð/ the tongue tip or blade is raised to touch the back of the upper front teeth or protrudes between the upper and lower teeth.

Alveolar: /t/, /d/, /n/, /s/, /z/, /l/, /r/ the tongue tip or blade are raised so they either touch or are very close to the alveolar ridge.

Retroflex: /r/ the tip of the tongue is close to the back of the alveolar ridge and the under part of the blade or lamina of the tongue.

Palato-Alveolar: /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/ /dʒ/ made with the tip, blade and front of the tongue touching the back of the alveolar ridge and the teeth at either side.

Palatal: /j/ made by raising the back of the tongue till it touches the soft palate.

Velar: /k/, /g/ made by raising the back of the tongue till it touches the soft palate.

Glottal: /h/ made by the air drom the lungs being forced through an almost closed glottis.

Stops: involve an explosion of scaping air, complete closure of the articulators.

Fricatives: produced when two articulators are close enough together for audible friction, caused by turbulent airflow, to be heard.

Affricates: audible friction can be heard when the sound is released as in the case of fricatives.

Approximants: produced when the articulators are close but not close enough for a turbulent air-stream to be produced.

Lateral: complete obstruction od the centre of the oral tract. The air escapes between one or both sides of the tongue and inside the mouth.

Phonology: the brach of linguistics which studies the sound systems of languages.

Phoneme: the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a given language and this is one of the fields we study.

Allophones: different realizations of phonemes.

Syllable: the linguistic organization above the level of the phoneme.

Closing diphtongs: their articulation goes from more open to more close.