Words of the Daze...Yes, I'm a Geek

af·fri·cate (fr-kt)
n.  

A complex speech sound consisting of a stop consonant followed by a fricative; for example, the initial sounds of child and joy. Also called affricative.

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[Latin affrictus, past participle of affricre, to rub against : ad-, ad- + fricre, to rub.]

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

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al·lo·phone  (l-fn)
n.  

1. Linguistics. A predictable phonetic variant of a phoneme. For example, the aspirated t of top,t of stop, and the tt (pronounced as a flap) of batter are allophones of the English phoneme /t/. the unaspirated
2. or Allophone Canadian. A person whose native language is other than French or English.

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[allo- + phone(me).]

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allo·phonic (-fnk) adj.
allo·phoni·cal·ly adv.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved

allophone

n : (linguistics) any of various acoustically different forms of the same phoneme

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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diph·thong   (dfthông, -thng, dp-)

n.  

A complex speech sound or glide that begins with one vowel and gradually changes to another vowel within the same syllable, as (oi) in boil or () in fine.

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[Middle English diptonge, from Old French diptongue, from Late Latin diphthongus, from Greek diphthongos : di-, two; see di-¹ + phthongos, sound.]

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diph·thongal adj.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

diphthong

n : a vowel sound that starts near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves toward the position for another

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

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pho·neme  (fnm)

n.  

The smallest phonetic unit in a language that is capable of conveying a distinction in meaning, as the m of mat and the b of bat in English.

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[French phonème, from Greek phnma, phnmat-, utterance, sound produced, from phnein, to produce a sound, from phn, sound, voice. See bh-² in Indo-European Roots.]

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved

pho·neme (fnm)
n. 

The smallest phonetic unit in a language that is capable of conveying a distinction in meaning, as the m of mat and the b of bat in English.   

Source: The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company

Main Entry: pho·neme
Pronunciation: 'fO-"nEm
Function: noun
  :  a member of the set of the smallest units of speech that serve to distinguish one utterance from another in a language or dialect <the  /p/  of English pat and the  /f/  of English fat are two different phonemes> —pho·ne·mic  /f&-'nE-mik, fO-/   adjective    —pho·ne·mi·cal·ly  /-mi-k(&-)lE/   adverb 

Source: Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.

phoneme

n : (linguistics) one of a small set of speech sounds that are distinguished by the speakers of a particular language

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University