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Phonotactics refers to the set of rules in a language that govern the permissible sequences of phonemes. Essentially, it dictates how sounds can be combined to form syllables and words. These rules are not arbitrary but rather reflect the underlying structure and sound patterns of a particular language. For instance, English phonotactics generally does not allow a word to begin with a sequence like "ng" or end with "bz."

The constraints imposed by phonotactics are crucial for intelligibility and ease of pronunciation. They help speakers produce and listeners recognize speech patterns efficiently. Different languages have vastly different phonotactic rules. For example, Japanese has a much simpler syllable structure than English, often restricting consonant clusters. Vietnamese, on the other hand, has a more complex system involving tones and diphthongs.

Understanding phonotactics is fundamental to phonology, the study of sound systems in languages. It plays a significant role in language acquisition, as children learn these permissible sound combinations naturally. Phonotactic constraints also influence loanword adaptation; when a word is borrowed from another language, its sounds may be modified to fit the phonotactic rules of the borrowing language. This study is also relevant in fields like speech synthesis and computational linguistics.