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(update: 4-11-2003)
A part, whose boundaries I am not able to trace, of the terms and definitions used in this site is probably not appropriate from a (english) linguistic point of view. Many terms and definitions are personal inventions, others are a temptative translation into English of Latin or Italian terms. I apologize for the inconveniences this situation could give rise to, but - after all - these are the advantages of being an absolute beginner (in the Zen sense, I dare to say).
Contrary to what I have just stated, the following definitions were taken from the Wikipedia.
Bilabials are consonants articulated with both lips. Examples:
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
Labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lips and the upper teeth, or viceversa. Examples:
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
Dentals are consonants articulated with both the lower and the upper teeth.
Examples:
In French, Italian, and Spanish t, d, n, and l are all dental, whereas they're alveolar in English.
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
Alveolars are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue against the internal side of the upper gums (known as the alveoles of the upper teeth).
Examples:
( From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
Palatals are consonants articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). English [j] (spelt y) is a palatal approximant, and German [ç] (spelt ch after front vowels, as in nicht) or Spanish [jj] (spelt y before vowels, as in ayuda) are palatal fricatives. Consonants with other primary articulations may be palatalised, that is, accompanied by the raising of the tongue surface towards the hard palate. For example, English [S] (spelt sh) has such a palatal component, although its primary articulation involves the tip of the tongue and the upper gum (this type of articulation is called palatoalveolar).
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).
Examples:
Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive and the movements of the dorsum are not very precise, velars easily undergo assimilation, shifting their articulation back or to the front depending on the quality of adjacent vowels. They often become automatically fronted, that is partly or completely palatal before a following front vowel, and retracted before back vowels.
Palatalised velars (like English [k] in keen or cube) are sometimes referred to as palatovelars. Many languages also have labiovelar phonemes, including the approximant [w] and others given symbols like [kw] etc. In these the articulation is accompanied by rounding of the lips.
( From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
Uvular consonants are articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is further back in the mouth than velar consonants are. Most uvular consonants are either stops or fricatives, but a very small number of languages use them as nasals, trills, or approximants.
Uvular consonants are found in many African and Middle-Eastern languages, most notably Arabic, and Native American languages, as well as the letter "r" in French and German.
The unvoiced uvular stop is expressed as "q" in most transliteration schemes, and is pronounced like a "k" with the middle of one's tongue against the soft uvula rather than the velum. The most familiar use will doubtless be in the transliteration of Arabic place names to English (such as Qatar and Iraq), though most English speakers pronounce the sound as their nearest equivalent, "k".
The voiced equivalent of "q" is much rarer, and is written in SAMPA as /G\/. It sounds like a "g" articulated in the same position as "q". There is no widely-used language that uses it, except some varieties of Persian.
The unvoiced uvular fricative is also exceedingly rare. It sounds similar to the "kh" (represented in IPA as "x") in Spanish, German, Russian, or Arabic, except that it is articulated on the uvula. It can be heard in French at the end of a word following t, c, or p, as in maître: the r is here a voiceless uvular.
The voiced uvular fricative is much more common in Europe: it is found in French as the usual value of the letter r, and has spread into some neighbouring languages. In German it is an approximant.
( From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
In phonetics, a glottal consonant is one that is pronounced with the glottal folds, the structure which is farthest back in the vocal cavity. In English, /h/ is a glottal sound, as is the glottal stop in the Cockney pronunciation of the word "bottle".
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
A stop is a consonant sound produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract by the lips or tongue.
In the case of oral stops, the airflow is blocked completely, causing pressure to build up. The obstruction in the mouth is then suddenly opened; the released airflow produces a sudden impulse in pressure causing an audible sound.
The oral cavity can also be completely obstructed while allowing air to escape through the nose; this may be called a nasal stop. Usually the term "stop" is used to refer to oral stops only, with nasal stops called simply nasals. Since nasals are always continuous, not abrupt, it seems strange to call them stops, though strictly the definition of stops given above allows it.
Here are some of the oral stops. (The figures in square brackets are from the IPA.)
[p] voiceless bilabial stop
[b] voiced
[t] voiceless alveolar stop
[d] voiced
[ʈ] voiceless retroflex stop
[ɖ] voiced
[c] voiceless palatal stop
[ɟ] voiced
[k] voiceless velar stop
[g] voiced
[q] voiceless uvular stop
[ɢ] voiced
[ʔ] glottal stop
English has the following stops:
[p], [t], [k] (voiceless)
[b], [d], [g] (voiced)
[m], [n], [ŋ] (nasal)
[ʔ] (glottal stop, though not as a phoneme in most dialects)
All languages in the world have stops. Some Polynesian languages have only three. Most languages have at least [p], [t], and [k], and usually more.
Stops may be made with more than one airstream mechanism. The normal mechanism is pulmonic, that is with air flowing outward from the lungs. A pulmonic stop is called a plosive. All languages have plosives. Some languages have stops made with other mechanisms too: these are called ejective, implosive, or click dependent on the mechanism.
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often [t] or [d]) but ends with a fricative release. The English sounds spelt "ch" and "j" (transcribed [tS] and [dZ]), German z [ts] and Italian z [dz] are typical affricates. These sounds are fairly common in the world's languages, as are other affricates with similar sounds, such as those in Polish and Chinese.
Much less common are labial affricates, such as [pf] in German, and velar affricates, such as [kx] (written kg) in Setswana. Worldwide, only a few languages have affricates in these positions, even though the corresponding stop consonants are virtually universal.
Note that a fricative is a single speech segment, not a sequence of two sounds. In some languages (e.g. Polish) affricate and "stop plus fricative" clusters contrast very clearly, as in czysta 'clean (f.)' [tS...] versus trzysta 'three hundred' [t|S...] (the vertical line separates segments). In English the cluster [ts] occurs, as in bats, but it doesn't function as an affricate.
( From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
Fricative consonants are produced by air flowing through a narrow channel made by the approximation of two articulating organs (e.g. the tip of the tongue and the upper teeth, as in the pronunciation of English initial "th" in thick, or the back of the tongue and the soft palate, as in the case of German [x], the final consonant of Bach). Turbulent airflow produces a characteristic noise called "friction". Fricatives may be voiceless or voiced (see phonation).
List of fricatives
[ɸ] voiceless bilabial fricative
[β] voiced
[f] voiceless labiodental fricative
[v] voiced
[θ] voiceless dental fricative
[ð] voiced
[s] voiceless alveolar fricative
[z] voiced
[ʃ] voiceless postalveolar fricative
[ʒ] voiced
[ʂ] voiceless retroflex fricative
[ʐ] voiced
[ç] voiceless palatal fricative
[ʝ] voiced
[x] voiceless velar fricative
[ɣ] voiced
[χ] voiceless uvular fricative
[ʁ] voiced
[ħ] voiceless pharyngeal fricative
[ʕ] voiced
[h] voiceless glottal fricative
[ɦ] voiced
English has the following fricatives:
[f], [s] as in sit, [S] ("sh") as in show and [T] ("th") as in thick (voiceless)
[v], [z], [Z] ("zh") as in pleasure, [D] (the other "th") as in that (voiced)
The glottal approximant [h] is also sometimes described as a fricative.
( From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
A nasal is a sound produced when the air is allowed to escape through the nose, while its oral passage may be blocked by the lips or tongue (a nasal stop) or opened (a nasal vowel). Nasal stops are often called simply "nasals".
Here are some nasal consonants:
[m] is a voiced, bilabial nasal
[ɱ] is a voiced labiodental nasal (SAMPA [F])
[n] is an alveolar or dental nasal
[ɳ] voiced retroflex nasal, common in Indic languages
[ɲ] voiced palatal nasal (SAMPA [J]); is an usual sound in European languages
as in: Spanish ñ; or French and Italian gn; or Catalan and Hungarian ny; or
Portuguese nh.
[ŋ] voiced velar nasal (SAMPA [N]), as in sing.
[ɴ] voiced uvular nasal
English, German and Cantonese have [m], [n] and [ŋ]
French has [m], [n] and [ɲ]
Catalan and Italian have [m], [n], [ɲ] as phonemes, and [ŋ] as an allophone.
Spanish has [m], [n], [ɲ] as phonemes, and [ɱ] and [ŋ] as allophones.
French and Portuguese have nasal vowels. In IPA, nasal vowels are indicated by placing a tilde (~) over the vowel in question. So French sang = /sã/.
( From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
Laterals are "L"-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue.
Most commonly the tip of the tongue makes contact with the upper teeth (see: dental consonant) or the upper gum (the alveolar ridge) just behind the teeth (see: alveolar consonant). Most laterals are approximants and belong to the class of liquids.
English has the alveolar lateral [l], which in many accents has two allophones. One, found before vowels (as in lady or fly), is called clear [l], pronounced with a "neutral" position of the body of the tongue. The other variant, so-called dark [l] (found before consonants or word-finally as in bold or tell), is pronounced with the tongue assuming a spoon-like shape and its back part raised, which gives the sound an [u]-like resonance.
In many British accents (e.g. London English), dark [l] may undergo vocalisation through the reduction and loss of contact between the tip of the tongue the alveolar ridge, becoming a rounded back vowel or glide. This process turns tell into something like [tew].
The Italian gl and Spanish ll (in some dialects) are palatal laterals. The palatal lateral is present as well in these languages: Catalan ll, French ill- (in some dialects), Quechua ll.
Rarer lateral consonants include the sound of Welsh ll, which is a voiceless lateral fricative, and the retroflex laterals as can be found in most Hindustani languages.
Many non-Indo-European languages (e.g. in several native language families of North America and aboriginal Australian ones) have whole systems of several different lateral fricatives and affricates in their consonant inventories.
( From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
Rhotics, or "R"-like sounds, are non-lateral liquids. This class of sounds is difficult to characterise phonetically, though most of them share some acoustic peculiarities, most notably a lowered third formant in their sound spectrum. However, "being r-like" is a strangely elusive feature, and the very same sounds that function as rhotics in some systems may pattern with fricatives, semivowels or even stops in others. The most typical rhotic sounds found in the worlds languages are the following:
Trill (popularly known as rolled r): The airstream is interrupted several times
as one of the organs of speech (usually the tip of the tongue or the uvula)
vibrates, closing and opening the air passage. If a trill is made with the
tip of the tongue against the upper gum, we speak of an apical (tongue-tip)
alveolar trill. If it is made with the uvula against the back of the tongue,
we speak of a uvular trill.
Many languages, e.g. Russian or Italian, use trilled rhotics. In the English-speaking world, the stereotyped (if not actually very common) Scottish rrrrolled [r] is famous. Rare kinds of trills include Czech r^ (fricative trill) and Welsh rh (voiceless trill).
A bilabial trill (sometimes represented as "brrr...")
can be made with both lips, but is hardly ever used as a speech segment (there
are one or two examples of such use worldwide).
Tap or flap (these terms refer to very similar articulations): Not unlike
a trill, but involving just one brief interruption of airflow. In many languages
taps are used as reduced variants of trills, especially in fast speech. Note,
however, that in Spanish, for example, taps and trills contrast, as in pero ("but")
versus perro ("dog"). In American English flaps do not function as rhotics but are realisations
of intervocalic apical stops ([t] or [d], e.g. in city or butter).
Alveolar or retroflex approximant, as in most accents of English (with minute differences): The front part of the tongue approaches the upper gum, or the tongue-tip is curled back towards the roof of the mouth ("retroflexion"). No or little friction can be heard, and there is no momentary closure of the vocal tract.
Uvular or velar approximant or fricative: The back of the tongue approaches the soft palate or the uvula. Standard French, German or Danish [r]'s are variants of this type of rhotic. If fricative, the sound is often impressionistically described as harsh or grating.
In broad transcription rhotics are usually symbolised as [r] unless there are two or more types of rhotic in the same language. The International Phonetic Alphabet has a full set of different symbols which can be used whenever more phonetic accuracy is required (e.g. an upside-down r for the alveolar approximant, and [R] for the uvular trill).
( From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
Semivowels are vowels that function as consonants. They are typically briefer, less stable and often closer than the corresponding vowels. Palatal semivowels correspond to front vowels, velar semivowels to back vowels, and labialized semivowels to rounded vowels. Examples:
English y in yes (SAMPA [j] ), a palatal or unrounded front semivowel.
English w in well (SAMPA [w] ), a velar labialized or rounded back semivowel.
French hu in huit (SAMPA [H] ), a palatal labialized or rounded front semivowel.
To a great extent, languages are formulated applying a hierarchical structure. The top of the tree is the basic language unit, the speech (it does not matter how it is expressed, by voice or writing or whatever else). Every speech is made by one or more periods or statements.
Suppose to write down a speech, using the occidental conventions. Every group of words laying between two full stops (or the beginning of the speech and the next full stop) is a period (or sentence). The period is composed by two basic elements (subject and predicate) and by eventual secondary elements, like complements. A period with just one predicate is called a simple period, if with more predicates complex period. While the simple period coincides with its only clause, the complex one is made by several clauses.
A statement is a message that is complete in its communicative content even if lacking of the subject or the predicate. E.g.: "Me too.", "Absolutely not!", "Attention, please.", "What a pity!" etc.
Every clause is built around a predicate, so we can state: "to each predicate corresponds a clause". There are several clause types:
A minimal clause is a clause composed only by one predicate and its subject. E.g.: "The children will sleep".
A simple clause is a minimal clause with added one or more secondary elements (attributes, complements, adverbs). E.g.: "The children, tired after the exhausting walk, will sleep deeply tonight". The secondary elements (in the example: "tired after the exhausting walk", "deeply", "tonight" are also called clause expansions.
An independent clause is a clause that does not depend on another clause to express its meaning; on the contrary, a dependent clause depends on another clause to work. E.g.: "Mom, to please my uncle Henry who today will lunch with us, prepared the wiener schnitzels with a lot of french fries". "Mom prepared the etc." is an independent clause, "to please my uncle Henry" and "who today will lunch with us" are dependent clauses.
A root is the word invariant part, which sets its basic meaning. In IE-family languages, most roots are inherently nominal, verbal, or adjectival (the remainder being numerals, prepositions, etc.)
In natural languages, the basic root meaning can vary - without any apparent modification of the word - by affinity or metaphorically, etc. This kind of modifications can't be planned, so in ConLangs several explicit meaning modifiers (MM) are provided. There are three basic MM types: auxiliary words (e.g. adjectives and adverbs), compound words, and affixes.
Affixes are morphemes that, when linked to a root, modify its meaning. There are two types of affixes: prefixes, put before the root, and suffixes, put after the root.
A stem consists of the root (or roots, in the case of compound words) plus any affixe added to modify the meaning of the root(s). In other words, the word minus the eventual ending.
An ending is the termination of the word, which usually gives grammatical information, i.e. what part of speech the word is, the word number, how it fits into the sentence, and so on. If you like, endings can be combined, e.g. in Esperanto the noun marker -o can be combined with the plural marker -j and even with the accusative ending -n, giving the possible endings: -o, -on, -oj, -ojn.
A complete word, then, consists of the stem plus any ending(s).
When putting together roots and MMs, or stems and endings, it is indispensable to assure that the resulting word is pronounceable and - possibly - euphonic. Natural languages adopt generally an inflective method to accomplish this task, while ConLangs prefer in most cases the agglutinative way. What this means is that each part of the ending's meaning is changed by changing only the corresponding part of the ending, not by combining the morphemes of the entire word along with phonetic rules as in Latin or - for instance - in modern French, Italian, German and Spanish.
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