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Contour (linguistics)
In phonetics, contour describes speech sounds that behave as single segments but make an internal transition from one quality, place, or manner to another. Such sounds may be tones, vowels, or consonants. Many tone languages have '' contour tones'', which move from one level to another. For example, Mandarin Chinese has four lexical tones. The high tone is level, without contour; the falling tone is a contour from high pitch to low; the rising tone a contour from mid pitch to high, and, when spoken in isolation, the low tone takes on a dipping contour, mid to low and then to high pitch. They are transcribed with series of either diacritics or tone letters, which with proper font support fuse into an iconic shape: . In the case of vowels, the terms ''diphthong'' and '' triphthong'' are used instead of 'contour'. They are vowels that glide from one place of articulation to another, as in English ''boy'' and ''bow.'' They are officially transcribed with a non-syllabic sign under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. The field of phonetics is traditionally divided into three sub-disciplines on questions involved such as how humans plan and execute movements to produce speech (articulatory phonetics), how various movements affect the properties of the resulting sound (acoustic phonetics) or how humans convert sound waves to linguistic information (auditory phonetics). Traditionally, the minimal linguistic unit of phonetics is the phone (phonetics), phone—a speech sound in a language which differs from the phonological unit of phoneme; the phoneme is an abstract categorization of phones and it is also defined as the smallest unit that discerns meaning between sounds in any given language. Phonetics deals with two aspects of human speech: production ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fricative
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in the case of German (the final consonant of '' Bach''); or the side of the tongue against the molars, in the case of Welsh (appearing twice in the name '' Llanelli''). This turbulent airflow is called frication. A particular subset of fricatives are the sibilants. When forming a sibilant, one still is forcing air through a narrow channel, but in addition, the tongue is curled lengthwise to direct the air over the edge of the teeth. English , , , and are examples of sibilants. The usage of two other terms is less standardized: "Spirant" is an older term for fricatives used by some American and European phoneticians and phonologists for non-sibilant fricatives. "Strident" could mean just "sibilant", but some authors include also lab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nǁng Language
Nǁng () or Nǁŋǃke, commonly known by the name of its only spoken dialect Nǀuu (), is a moribund language, moribund Tuu languages, Tuu language once spoken in South Africa. It is no longer spoken on a daily basis, as the speakers live in different villages. The ǀʼAuni language, ǀʼAuni name for the Nǀuu, ǂKhomani, is used by the South African government. As of June 2021, only one speaker of the Nǀuu dialect remains, the rest of the population having shifted to Khoekhoe language, Khoekhoe and Afrikaans. Classification and name Nǁng belongs to the Tuu languages, Tuu (Taa–ǃKwi) language family, with extinct ǂUngkue language, ǂUngkue being its closest relative and Taa language, Taa its closest living relative. The two recent dialects are a western/northwestern one, to which Nǀuu (Nǀhuki) is sometimes restricted, and a nameless eastern dialect from the area of Langeberg. As of 2010, most remaining speakers spoke Nǀuu dialect, and this was the name Nǁng appeared u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khoisan Languages
The Khoisan languages ( ; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a number of Languages of Africa, African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. Khoisan is defined as those languages that have click languages, click consonants and do not belong to other African language families. For much of the 20th century, they were thought to be Genetic relationship (linguistics), genealogically related to each other, but this is no longer accepted. They are now held to comprise three distinct language family, language families and two language isolates. All but two Khoisan languages are indigenous to southern Africa; these are classified into three language families. The Khoe languages, Khoe family appears to have migrated to southern Africa not long before the Bantu expansion. Ethnically, their speakers are the Khoekhoe and the San people, San (Bushmen). Two languages of eastern Africa, those of the Sandawe people, Sandawe and Hadza people, Hadza, were originally also cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Initiation (phonetics)
In phonetics, the airstream mechanism is the method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract. Along with phonation and articulation, it is one of three main components of speech production. The airstream mechanism is mandatory for most sound production and constitutes the first part of this process, which is called initiation. The organ generating the airstream is called the ''initiator'' and there are three initiators used phonemically in non-disordered human oral languages: * the diaphragm together with the ribs and lungs ''(pulmonic'' mechanisms), * the glottis ''(glottalic'' mechanisms), and * the tongue ''(lingual'' or ''"velaric"'' mechanisms). There are also methods of making sounds that do not require the glottis. These mechanisms are collectively called alaryngeal speech mechanisms (none of these speech mechanisms are used in non-disordered speech): * the cheeks ''(buccal'' mechanisms, notated in VoQS). See buccal speech. * after a laryngectomy, the esophagus m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Click Consonant
Click consonants, or clicks, are speech sounds that occur as consonants in many languages of Southern Africa and in three languages of East Africa. Examples familiar to English-speakers are the '' tut-tut'' (British spelling) or '' tsk! tsk!'' (American spelling) used to express disapproval or pity (IPA ), the '' tchick!'' used to spur on a horse (IPA ), and the '' clip-clop!'' sound children make with their tongue to imitate a horse trotting (IPA ). However, these paralinguistic sounds in English are not full click consonants, as they only involve the front of the tongue, without the release of the back of the tongue that is required for clicks to combine with vowels and form syllables. Anatomically, clicks are obstruents articulated with two closures (points of contact) in the mouth, one forward and one at the back. The enclosed pocket of air is rarefied by a sucking action of the tongue (in technical terminology, clicks have a lingual ingressive airstream mechanism). Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ǃXóõ Language
Taa ( ), also known as ǃXóõ ( ; ; also spelled ǃKhong and ǃXoon), formerly called by the dialect name ǂHoan, thus also known as Western ǂHoan, is a Tuu language notable for its large number of phonemes, perhaps the largest in the world. It is also notable for having perhaps the heaviest functional load of click consonants, with one count finding that 82% of basic vocabulary items started with a click. Most speakers live in Botswana, but a few hundred live in Namibia. The people call themselves ǃXoon (pl. ǃXooŋake) or ʼNǀohan (pl. Nǀumde), depending on the dialect they speak. The Tuu languages are one of the three traditional language families that make up the Khoisan languages. In 2011, there were around 2,500 speakers of Taa. is the word for 'human being'; the local name of the language is , from 'language'. (ǃXóõ) is an ethnonym used at opposite ends of the Taa-speaking area, but not by Taa speakers in between. Most living Taa speakers are ethnic ǃXoon (pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voice (phonetics)
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts: *Voicing can refer to the ''articulatory process'' in which the vocal folds vibrate, its primary use in phonetics to describe phones, which are particular speech sounds. *It can also refer to a classification of speech sounds that tend to be associated with vocal cord vibration but may not actually be voiced at the articulatory level. That is the term's primary use in phonology: to describe phonemes; while in phonetics its primary use is to describe phones. For example, voicing accounts for the difference between the pair of sounds associated with the English letters ⟨s⟩ and ⟨z⟩. The two sounds are transcribed as and to distinguish them from the English letters, which have several possible pronunci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fijian Language
Fijian (') or iTaukei is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, Malayo-Polynesian family spoken by some 350,000–450,000 ethnic Fijians as a native language. The 1997 Constitution of Fiji#New Constitution for 2013, 2013 Constitution established Fijian as an official languages of Fiji, language of Fiji, along with English and Fiji Hindi and there is discussion about establishing it as the "national language". Fijian is a verb–object–subject, VOS language. Standard Fijian is based on the Bau (island)#Language, Bau dialect, which is an East Fijian language. Pidgin Fijian, A pidginized form is used by many Indo-Fijians and Chinese in Fiji, Chinese on the islands, while Pidgin Hindustani is used by many rural ethnic Fijians and Chinese in areas dominated by Indo-Fijians. History History of the language The Fijian language was introduced to Fiji 3500 years ago by the islands' first settlers. For millennia, it was the only spoke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trilled Affricate
In articulatory phonetics, trilled affricates, also known as post-trilled consonants, are consonants which begin as a stop and have a trill release. These consonants are reported to exist in some Northern Paman languages in Australia, as well as in some Chapacuran languages such Wariʼ language and Austronesian languages such as Fijian and Malagasy. In Fijian, trilling is rare in these sounds, and they are frequently distinguished by being postalveolar. p. 131 In Malagasy, they may have a rhotic release, , be simple stops, , or standard affricates, . Most post-trilled consonants are affricates: the stop and trill share the same place of articulation. However, there is a rare exception in a few neighboring Amazonian languages, where a voiceless bilabially post-trilled dental stop, (occasionally written ) is reported from Pirahã and from a few words in the Chapacuran languages Wariʼ and Oro Win. In the Chapacuran languages, is reported almost exclusively before rou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toda Language
Toda is a indigenous Dravidian language noted for its many fricatives and trills. It is spoken by the Toda people, a population of about one thousand who live in the Nilgiri Hills of southern India. The Toda language is considered to have originated from the Toda-Kota subgroup of South Dravidian. Krishnamurti (2003) does not consider the existence of a single Toda-Kota branch and says Kota split first and later Toda did as Kota doesn't have the centralized vowels of other Tamil-Toda languages. Phonology Vowels For a Dravidian language, Toda's sixteen vowels is an unusually large number. There are eight vowel qualities, each of which may occur long or short. There is little difference in quality between the long and short vowels, except for , which occurs as when short and as when long. Consonants Toda has an unusually large number of fricatives and trills. Its seven places of articulation are the most for any Dravidian language. The voiceless laterals are true f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Retroflex Trill
The voiced retroflex trill is not a single consonant quality, but a sliding cluster sound within the time of a single segment. It has been reported in Toda and confirmed with laboratory measurements. Peter Ladefoged transcribes it with the IPA symbol that is normally associated with the retroflex flap, . Although the tongue starts out in a subapical retroflex position, trilling involves the tip of the tongue and causes it to move forward to the alveolar ridge. Thus, the retroflex trill gives a preceding vowel retroflex coloration, like other retroflex consonants, but the vibration itself is not much different from an alveolar trill The voiced alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental consonant, dental, alveolar consonant, alveolar, and postalveolar consonant, postalve .... Thus, the narrower transcription is also appropriate. Wintu and Lardil are other languages with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
