JULIO BLANCO

PHONOLOGY

Definition

Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages.

Discussion

The phonological system of a language includes

an inventory of sounds and their features, and rules which specify how sounds interact with each other.

Phonology is just one of several aspects of language. It is related to other aspects such as phonetics, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics.

Here is an illustration that shows the place of phonology in an interacting hierarchy of levels in linguistics:

VOCAL TRACT

The vocal tract is the cavity in human beings and in animals where sound that is produced at the sound source (larynx in mammals; syrinx in birds) is filtered. Sagittal section of human vocal tract. In birds it consists of the trachea, the syrinx, the oral cavity, the upper part of the esophagus, and the beak.

CONSONANT SOUNDS

"The 24 usual consonants occur in the following words, at the beginning unless otherwise specified: pale, tale, kale, bale, dale, gale, chain, Jane, fail, thin, sale, shale, hale, vale, this,

zoo; (in the middle of) measure, mail, nail; (at the end of) sing, lay, rail, wail, Yale. Not one of these consonants is spelled in a completely consistent way in English, and some of them are spelled very oddly and inconsistently indeed. Note that our

alphabet has no single letters for spelling the consonants in chain, thin, shale, this, measure, and sing. Those letters that are commonly used for spelling consonants may be called consonant letters, but calling them consonants is loose and

misleading." (R.L. Trask, Mind the Gaffe! Harper, 2006)

VOWEL SOUNDS

noun 1. any voiced speech sound characterized by generalized

friction of the air passing in a continuous stream through the pharynx and opened mouth but with no constriction narrow enough to produce local friction; the sound of the greatest prominence in most syllables

2. a letter (as a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y) or a character or a symbol representing such a sound

MISCELLANY