Review and Preview of Essential Concepts
Ettien N. Koffi · 2020
Review and Preview of Essential Concepts - serves as a review and a preview of essential linguistic concepts that are used in this book. This approach allows readers with no prior exposure to linguistics to be on the same page with those who have had an introductory course. Terminology related to the phonetic classification of segments is discussed and illustrated. Consonants are categorized according three intrinsic features: voicing, place of articulation, and manner of articulation. The features for vowels vary from three to five: height (aperture), horizontal tongue movements (front, central, back), and lip (rounded vs. unrounded), tongue root advancement or retraction, and nasality. The chapter (re)familiarizes the reader with the IPA symbols used to transcribe English phonetically. It also contains tables that list English phonemes, their main allophones, and their frequency of occurrence. A brief discussion of the syllable is presented. The nomenclature for classifying syllables into various types is introduced, along with an illustrative syllable diagram. This chapter is a perfect segue into the rest of the book where the same concepts are revisited and expanded.