Белорусский государственный

Diphthongization – 
slight shifting of the position of the organs of speech within the 
articulation of one and the same vowel (these organs are mostly – the tongue, the lips and the lower 
jaw). Diphthongization changes the quality of the sound during its articulation. 
Diphthongoid
– a vowel articulated when the change in the tongue position is fairly weak, 
in this case the articulated vowel is not pure, but it still consists of one element. In English /i:/ and 
/u:/ are diphthongoids. 
Direct methods
– methods of phonetic investigation which consist in observing the 
movements and positions of one’s own or other people’s organs of speech in pronouncing various 
speech sounds, as well as in analyzing one’s own kinaesthetic sensations during the articulation of 
speech sounds and in comparing them with the resultant auditory impressions. 
Discourse
– language seen from the point of view of information structure, the interaction 
between language users, and the background knowledge which speakers and hearers share. 
Distinctive (relevant) features
– the articulatory features which form the 
invariant
of the 
phoneme. 
Distinctive function of speech sounds
– it is manifested most conspicuously in minimal 
pairs when the opposition of speech sounds is the only phonetic means of distinguishing one 
member of that pair from the other. 
Dorsal
– sounds produced when the blade of the tongue is active. Dorsal sounds are 
articulated with the back of the tongue. 
Dorsum
– the back of the tongue. 
Downdrift
– the gradual lowering of pitch level (usually in a tone language) from the 
beginning to the end of a stretch of speech. The tendency for the pitch to fall throughout an 
intonation phrase. 
Duration
– the quantity of time during which the same vibratory motion, the same patterns 
of vibration are maintained. 

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