Difference between revisions of "Backness (definition)"

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When a sound is pronounced with the body of the tongue pushed to the back of the mouth, usually with the tongue balled up near the velum, we say that it is '''back'''. The English vowels /ʊ/ (as in ''book''), /u/ ''boot'', /o/ ''boat'', /ɑ/ ''pasta'' are all back. Backness can also be heard in consonants, especially [[Sonorant (definition)|sonorants]] like /l/.
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'''Backness''' is a binary feature associated with sounds pronounced with the body of the tongue pushed to the back of the mouth, usually with the tongue bunched up near the velum. Backness and its counterpart frontness are used to describe the articulatory movements required of vocalic segments. Although vowels are best described by their acoustic characteristics, binary features are enough to distinguish natural classes of vowels in a variety of languages.
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English segments /u/ (as in''boot''), /ʊ/ (as in ''book''), /o/ (as in''boat''), and /ɑ/ (as in''pasta'') are all back vowels. Backness can also be heard on consonants, notably [[Sonorant (definition)|sonorants]] like [l] whose dark L allophone ([ɫ]) is commonly produced following back vowels.
  
 
==See Also==
 
==See Also==
 
*[[Frontness (definition)]]
 
*[[Frontness (definition)]]
*[[Sounds of Scottish Gaelic]]
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*[[Vowel (definition)]]
  
 
==External Links==
 
==External Links==
http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Phonetics/Vowels/Phonetics4c.html
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*https://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~krussll/phonetics/articulation/describing-vowels.html
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The link below takes you away from the Gaelic Wiki to Wikipedia. Since wikipedia pages can be edited by anyone, they often contain inaccurate information. So be careful!
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*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_vowel
  
 
==References==
 
==References==

Latest revision as of 15:30, 30 November 2020

Backness is a binary feature associated with sounds pronounced with the body of the tongue pushed to the back of the mouth, usually with the tongue bunched up near the velum. Backness and its counterpart frontness are used to describe the articulatory movements required of vocalic segments. Although vowels are best described by their acoustic characteristics, binary features are enough to distinguish natural classes of vowels in a variety of languages.

English segments /u/ (as inboot), /ʊ/ (as in book), /o/ (as inboat), and /ɑ/ (as inpasta) are all back vowels. Backness can also be heard on consonants, notably sonorants like [l] whose dark L allophone ([ɫ]) is commonly produced following back vowels.

See Also

External Links

The link below takes you away from the Gaelic Wiki to Wikipedia. Since wikipedia pages can be edited by anyone, they often contain inaccurate information. So be careful!

References

  • Crystal, D. (2008) Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. 6th Edition. Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Ladefoged, D. (2010) A Course in Phonetics. 6th Edition. Wadsworth Publishing.