In linguistics (particularly phonetics and phonology), the phonetic environment of a given instance of a speech sound (or "phone"), sometimes also called the phonological environment, consists of the other phones adjacent to and surrounding it. The phonetic environment of a phone can sometimes determine the allophonic or phonemic qualities of a sound in a given language.
For example, the English vowel sound [æ], traditionally called the short A, in a word like mat (phonetically [mæt]), has the consonant [m] preceding it and the consonant [t] following it, while the [æ] itself is word-internal and forms the syllable nucleus. This all describes the phonetic environment of [æ]. In linguistic notation it may be written as /m_t, where the slash can be read as "in the environment", and the underscore represents the target phone's position relative to its neighbours. The expression therefore can be read as "in the environment after the m sound and before the t sound".
See also
- Allophone
- Complementary distribution
- Contrastive distribution
- Free variation
- List of phonetics topics
- Minimal pair
- Phoneme
References
- Hayes, Bruce (2009). Introductory Phonology (1. publ. ed.). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1405184113.
External links
- What is an environment?
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In linguistics particularly phonetics and phonology the phonetic environment of a given instance of a speech sound or phone sometimes also called the phonological environment consists of the other phones adjacent to and surrounding it The phonetic environment of a phone can sometimes determine the allophonic or phonemic qualities of a sound in a given language For example the English vowel sound ae traditionally called the short A in a word like mat phonetically maet has the consonant m preceding it and the consonant t following it while the ae itself is word internal and forms the syllable nucleus This all describes the phonetic environment of ae In linguistic notation it may be written as m t where the slash can be read as in the environment and the underscore represents the target phone s position relative to its neighbours The expression therefore can be read as in the environment after the m sound and before the t sound See alsoAllophone Complementary distribution Contrastive distribution Free variation List of phonetics topics Minimal pair PhonemeReferencesHayes Bruce 2009 Introductory Phonology 1 publ ed Malden MA Wiley Blackwell ISBN 978 1405184113 External linksWhat is an environment This phonetics article is a stub You can help Wikipedia by expanding it vte
