Phonology and morphology glossary
Terms that have specialised meaning in phonology and/or morphology.
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Oblique caseOblique cases are all morphological cases apart from the most basic ones (e.g. all but the nominative and accusative).  | |
OctaveA doubling of the fundamental frequency.  | |
OffsetCoda, especially word coda.  | |
OnsetThe part of the syllable preceding the vowel, e.g. in the syllable /pak/, the consonant /p/ forms the onset.  | |
OpenA lower variant of a vowel, as in open-mid [ε] as opposed to close-mid [e]. Contrast close.  | |
Open syllableA syllable without a consonant at the end, like the first syllables in English beehive, bylaw, sawing. Contrast closed syllable.  | |
Open-midSee mid.  | |
OptativeIn mood systems, the mood that is used to express a desire or wish for some event to occur.  | |
Optimality TheoryOptimality Theory argues that inputs (underlying forms) and outputs (phonetic forms) are related through a mechanism that evaluates how well different possible outputs (called candidates) satisfy the constraint hierarchy of a language.  | |