Linguistic Terminology

Linguistic terminology can be quite varied. The terminology used is often a matter of personal preference. In certain cases, the terminology tends to vary from one area to another.

The word plosive is common in Britain, but in the United States stop is more common. The /p/ of peach can be described as a voiceless bilabial plosive or a voiceless bilabial stop. The /f/ of friend is a fricative, but the term spirant is also possible. However, it is more common to say voiceless labiodental fricative than voiceless labiodental spirant. 

The process which changes plosives to fricatives is called spirantization. The term fricativization is less common. The German word Wasser means water and is an example of spirantization.

The high vowel of see is also called a close vowel. The term high vowel is common in the United States, and close vowel is common in Britain. The low vowel of cat is called an open vowel in Britain. 

Rounded vowels can also be called labial vowels. Likewise, unrounded vowels are also called illabial. However, the terms rounded and unrounded are more common. The front vowels can be called palatal and the back vowels can be called velar. Today most linguists use the terms front and back.

The terms used in linguistics are not entirely consistent. The terminology is often a little different in Britain and in the United States. In other cases, the term used may be simply a matter of preference, but it is is true that certain terms are more common than others.