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• Language policy is decisions made about languages and their uses in society.
• Common core is those basic aspects of a language (e.g. vocabulary

  and grammar) which a learner needs to know whatever his or her purpose

  is in learning the language.
• Minimal pair is two words in a language which differ from each other by only one distinctive

  sound (one phoneme) and which also differ in meaning.
• Allophone: any of the different variants of a phoneme.
• Aspiration: a puff of air (acoustically, a period of voicelessness) after the release of

  an articulation.
• Assimilation is a phonological process in which a speech sound changes and becomes more

  like or identical to another sound that precedes or follows it.
• Consonant cluster is a sequence of two or more consonants at the beginning of a syllable
• Diphthong is a vowel sound that is made by combining two vowel sounds.
• Voiced consonant is a consonant that is produced with the vocal folds vibrating.
• Voiceless consonant is a consonant that does not produce any sound.