pharynxn
that part of the throat which extends from above the vocal cords up to
the soft palate (velum) at the back of the mouth. The pharynx is like a large
chamber and in the production of speech sounds its shape and volume can
be changed in various ways:
a by tightening the muscles which enclose it
b by movement of the back of the tongue
c by either raising or lowering the soft palate.
Changes in the shape of the pharynx affect the quality of the sounds produced.
see also place of articulation
phatic communionn
a term used by the British-Polish anthropologist Malinowski to refer to
communication between people which is not intended to seek or convey
information but has the social function of establishing or maintaining
social contact. Examples of phatic communion in English include such
expressions as How are you? and Nice day, isn’t it?
phi correlation(F)
see correlation
philologyn philologicaladj
another term for comparative historical linguistics
phonen phonicadj
individual sounds as they occur in speech. Phones are grouped by phonemic
analysis into the distinctive sound units (phonemes) of a language.
For example, in English, the different ways of pronouncing the vowel in the
word can, e.g. long [æp], shorter [æ], with nasalization [ 2 ], are all phones
of the phoneme /æ/.
see also allophone, phonemics, phonology
phonemen phonemic adj
the smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two words.
For example:
a in English, the words panand bandiffer only in their initial sound:
panbegins with /p/ and banwith /b/
b banand bindiffer only in their vowels: /æ/ and /i/.
Therefore, /p/, /b/, /æ/, and /i/ are phonemes of English. The number of
phonemes varies from one language to another. English is often considered
to have 44 phonemes: 24 consonants and 20 vowels.
see also allophone, minimal pair, phonemics,phonology
pharynx