A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics David Crystal

phoneme 361
phonaesthetics (n.) A term sometimes used in linguistics to refer to the study
of the aesthetic properties of sound, especially the sound symbolism attributable
to individual sounds; also (especially in US English) spelled phonesthetics
here and in related forms. Cases such as the [ip] vowels in a language signalling
smallness (cf. teeny, weeny, etc.) have been suggested as evidence for a limited
sound/meaning correspondence in language (phonaesthesia or synaesthesia),
the sound units concerned being referred to as ‘phonaesthemes’. The branch
of stylistics which studies such expressive effects (e.g. the onomatopoeia of
poetry) is known as phonostylistics.
phonation (n.) A general term used in phonetics to refer to any vocal activity
in the larynx whose role is one neither of initiation nor of articulation.
The various kinds of vocal-fold vibration (voicing) are the main phonatory
activities, and the study of phonation types is aimed at accounting for the
various laryngeal possibilities, such as breathy and creaky voice. Some phoneticians
would also include under this heading the modifications in phonation
which stem from variations in the length, thickness and tension of the vocal
folds, as displayed in the various registers of speech (e.g. falsetto, soprano).
See also articulatory setting.
phonatory setting
see articulatory setting
phone (n.) A term used in phonetics to refer to the smallest perceptible
discrete segment of sound in a stream of speech (phonic continuum or phonic
substance). From the viewpoint of segmental phonology, phones are the
physical realization of phonemes; phonic varieties of a phoneme are referred
to as allophones.
phonematic unit One of the two analytic categories used in the Firthian
theory of prosodic phonology, the other being the prosody. Phonematic
units comprise consonants and vowels, occurring in linear sequence, which
cannot be handled in terms of prosodies. Despite the resemblance of the term to
phoneme, the two terms are conceptually quite different, as no attempt is made
with this unit to analyse speech totally into a single system of phonological
oppositions, valid for all places in structure (as is the case with the phoneme),
and some features which would be included in a phonemic analysis would not
be included in an analysis into phonematic features (e.g. lip-rounding).
phoneme (n.) The minimal unit in the sound system of a language, according
to traditional phonological theories. The original motivation for the concept
stemmed from the concern to establish patterns of organization within the indefinitely
large range of sounds heard in languages. The phonetic specifications of
the sounds (or phones) heard in speech, it was realized, contain far more detail
than is needed to identify the way languages make contrasts in meaning. The
notion of the phoneme allowed linguists to group together sets of phonetically
similar phones as variants, or ‘members’, of the same underlying unit. The
phones were said to be realizations of the phonemes, and the variants were
referred to as allophones of the phonemes (see allo-). Each language can be
shown to operate with a relatively small number of phonemes; some languages