Phonology and morphology glossary

The front part of the roof of the mouth, just behind the upper front teeth.

See alveopalatal.

A consonant produced by placing the tongue on the hard palate behind the alveolar ridge. Also alveolopalatal.

Noise in the environment which may interfere with the recording of sounds.

A consonant that belongs to two syllables simultaneously (e.g. perhaps [d] in Eng. ladder). The existence of ambisyllabicity is disputed.

A measure of the up-and-down extent of a waveform (as distinct from its frequency). For a sound wave, the extent of pressure variation above or below atmospheric pressure.

The creation of linguistic forms based on a proportion A : B :: C : X. Mostly associated with historical changes, e.g. the replacement of irregular forms, such as chicken - chickens :: cow - kine (the old plural of 'cow'). Kine was replaced by cows.

A language whose words usually contain only one morpheme, such as Vietnamese.

See host.

A semantic property of nouns that has to do with whether a noun denotes a living (or sentient) thing.