Äännemerkkejä

Äännemerkkejä, meaning "sound marks" or "phonetic marks" in English, is a broad term referring to graphical symbols used to represent specific sounds in spoken language. These marks are fundamental to phonetics and phonology, the study of speech sounds and their organization within a language. While various systems exist for representing sounds, the most widely recognized and used is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The IPA provides a standardized way to transcribe the sounds of all languages, ensuring consistency and clarity for researchers, linguists, and language learners.

Äännemerkkejä can also encompass diacritics, which are small marks added to existing letters to modify their pronunciation. Examples include the acute accent (´) in words like "café" to indicate stress or a specific vowel sound, or the umlaut (¨) in "naïve" to show that the vowel is pronounced separately. These diacritics are often integrated into existing alphabets to represent sounds not covered by the base letters. Beyond the IPA and diacritics, older or less common phonetic transcription systems might also be considered äännemerkkejä, though they are less prevalent in modern linguistic discourse. The primary purpose of all äännemerkkejä is to provide a visual representation of the auditory elements of speech.