Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to: navigation, search




vocalization (plural vocalizations)

  1. The act of vocalizing or something vocalized; a vocal utterance
  2. Any specific mode of utterance; pronunciation
  3. The use of speech to express an idea
  4. (music) The production of musical sounds using the voice, especially as an exercise
  5. (orthography) The vowel diacritics in Hebrew and Arabic, which are not normally written, but which are used in dictionaries, children's books, religious texts and textbooks for learners.
  6. (linguistics) The change in pronunciation of historically or variably consonant (typically sonorant) sounds as vowels. For example, the syllabic /l/ in words like people or the coda one in words like cold or coal are variably realized as a high back vowel or glide—[ʊ], [u], [ɤ] or [o]—in many dialects of English in the US, UK, and the Southern Hemisphere. For example, in African American Vernacular English, one common pronunciation of the words "people", "cold", and "coal" is [pʰipʊ], [kʰoɤd], or [kʰoɤ] respectively.