Glossary: morphology and phonology

Pronounced without vibrations of the vocal folds, as in English [ s ] in see.

The presence of vocal fold vibrations during the production of a sound produces voicing. See also phonation.

See Voice Onset Time.

A sound produced without a close constriction in the vocal tract, and which forms the centre (peak or nucleus) of a syllable.

The tendency for vowel systems to consist of qualities that are widely and evenly (i.e. symmetrically) dispersed in perceptual space.

Agreement in a particular domain for one or more distinctive features between vowels that are not adjacent to one another (cf. consonant harmony). Languages that display vowel harmony include Hungarian, Finnish, Turkish and many others.

The timbre of a vowel caused almost entirely by the frequencies of the vowel formants. Compare with vowel quantity.

The approximate length of a vowel, especially as compared to other vowels in the same vowel system.

The set of contrastive vowel qualities found in a particular language.