Phonologies

Phonologies study the systematic organization of sounds in languages. They examine how sounds contrast to distinguish meanings (phonemes) and how sounds interact within words and phrases (phonotactics). Phonology focuses on abstract, language-specific sound systems rather than the physical properties of speech, including inventories of units, their distribution, and recurring patterns across languages.

Core concepts include phonemes, the smallest units that create a contrast; and allophones, phonetic variants of a single phoneme. Phonology also analyzes distinctive features, syllable structure, stress, tone, and intonation. It investigates phonological processes such as assimilation, dissimilation, lenition, elision, and epenthesis, and how these may be described as rules or constraints shaping surface forms.

Theoretical approaches credit generative phonology with underlying representations and rule-based derivations, while autosegmental-metrical theory uses multi-tier representations for features like tone and prominence. Optimality theory models phonology as constrained by ranked universal constraints. Modern work includes probabilistic, constraint-based, and computational models. Phonology situates itself within cross-linguistic typology and diachronic change, examining how sound systems evolve and how loans adapt to fit a language’s phonology.

Methods involve data from native speech and careful transcription, analysis of minimal pairs, and corpus evidence. Applications extend to language teaching, literacy, and speech technology, as well as the study of sign languages, where phonological units include features of handshape, location, and movement.