phone

A single sound that can be produced
by the human vocal tract.

phoneme

A single speech sound that is
important to differentiate words within a
language or dialect.

allophones

Variation of a phoneme that
does not alter the meaning of a word.

grapheme

A letter used to represent a
meaningful concept (e.g., "s" usually
represents /s/; "ch" usually represents "the
choo choo sound"

morpheme

A unit of meaning in a language
or dialect.

allomorph

Variation of a morpheme.

dialect

Variation of a language that may result from isolation of one form or another.

accent

Specifically the phonology and intonation of a dialect (not word order, vocabulary, etc.)

Speech patterns resulting from learning a second language.

register

Style of speech adjusted to the perceived needs or preferences of our listener.

idiolect

Each person's own individual way of speaking in
different situations.

IPA

International Phonetic Alphabet

consonant

Speech sound that is produced by a partially or completely constricted vocal tract.

vowel

A speech sound that is produced with an unobstructed vocal tract; the nucleus of a syllable.

syllable

The unit of speech production which must minimalllycontain a vowel or syllabic consonant.

stop

A consonant produced with complete blockage of the airflow through the oral cavity.

 fricative

A consonant produced with partial blockage of the breath stream causing turbulence, or friction, during it's production.

flap

A speech sound that results when the active articulator contacts briefly the passive articulator, usually the tip and blade of the tongue against either the alveolar ridge or teeth.

affricate

A consonant that begins as a stop, but releases as a fricative.

nasal

A consonant produced with airflow around one or both sides of the tongue.

lateral

A consonant produced with airflow around one or both sides of the tongue.

liquid

A generic term for classifying the /r/ and /l/ sounds.

approximant

A consonant that is produced with the articulators in close approximation, but to the extent that turbulence is created.

glide

A consonant that provides a rapid transition, usually to a following vowel.