phonology
|pho-nol-o-gy|
🇺🇸
/fəˈnɑːlədʒi/
🇬🇧
/fəˈnɒlədʒi/
study of sound systems
Etymology
'phonology' originates from Greek, specifically the word 'phonologia', where 'phone' meant 'sound, voice' and 'logia' meant 'study, discourse'.
'phonology' changed from the Greek word 'phonologia' into Late Latin/Medieval Latin scientific usage and was adopted into English as 'phonology' in the 19th century through linguistic scholarship.
Initially it meant 'study of sounds/voices' in a general sense; over time it evolved into the more specialized linguistic meaning 'study of sound systems and patterns in language'.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
the branch of linguistics that studies the systematic organization of sounds in languages, including phonemes, their patterns, and rules.
She wrote her dissertation on the phonology of bilingual children.
Synonyms
Noun 2
the sound system of a particular language or dialect — the inventory of sounds and the rules for combining and contrasting them.
English phonology includes distinctions in vowel length and stress patterns.
Synonyms
Noun 3
the abstract study of sound units (like phonemes and allophones), prosody, and rules that govern pronunciation and sound alternations.
Researchers in phonology analyze how phonemic contrasts convey meaning.
Synonyms
Last updated: 2025/12/10 00:37