phoneme

A category of speech segments that contrasts systematically with other categories of speech segments; can be used to minimally distinguish one word from another. For example, the words cat, rat, bat, and hat all begin with different phonemes, the words cat, can, cab, and cad all end with different phonemes, and the words cat, kit, cut, and cot all have different phonemes in the middle.

segment

The smallest chunk of speech with a linguistic function; an individual instance of a phoneme.

sonority

The degree of sound (as opposed to noise) associated with a spoken name or a part or individual phonetic segment of a name. High-sonority sounds combine voicing (vibration of the vocal folds) with an unobstructed flow of air through the vocal tract. The segments with the highest sonority are vowels. Consonants all involve some obstruction of air flow. Partial obstruction produces noise. Total obstruction stops sound briefly.

(Note: This glossary will grow gradually)

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