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distribution A very important aspect of the study of the phonology of a language is examining the contexts and positions in which each particular phoneme can occur: this is its distribution. In looking at the distribution of the r phoneme, for example, we can see that there is a major difference between BBC pronunciation and General American: in the former, r can only occur before a vowel, whereas in the latter it may occur in all positions like other consonants. It is possible to define the concepts of ‘vowel’ and ‘consonant’ purely in terms of the distributions of the two groups of sounds: as a simple example, one could list all the sounds that may begin a word in English – this would result in a list containing all the consonants except ŋ and all the vowels except υ. Next we would look at all the sounds that could come in second place in a word, noting which initial sound each could combine with. After the sound , for example, only consonants can follow, whereas after ʃ, with the exception of a few words beginning ʃr, such as ‘shrew’, only a vowel can follow. If we work carefully through all the combinatory possibilities we find that the phonemes of English separate out into two distinct groups (which we know to be vowels and consonants) without any reference to phonetic characteristics – the analysis is entirely distributional. START
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dorsal For the purposes of phonetic classification, the different regions of the surface of the tongue are given different names. Each of these names has a noun form and a corresponding adjective. The back of the tongue is involved in the production of consonants such as velar and uvular, and the adjective for the type of tongue contact used is dorsal. START
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drawl This term is quite widely used in everyday language but does not have a scientific meaning in phonetics. From the way it is used one can guess at its likely meaning: it seems to be different from speaking slowly, and probably involves the extreme lengthening of the vowels of stressed syllables. This is used to indicate a relaxed or “laid-back” attitude. START
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© Peter Roach 2009