Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of
language. It encompasses various aspects of language, such as origins, organization, nature, development history, comparison, formation, phonetics, etc.
Linguistics includes a large number of topics that cannot be covered in a single blog post, so we will only talk of Phonetics here which is one of the aspects of linguistics.
The study of individual speech sounds is known as Phonetics.
International phonetic alphabet (IPA)
Speech sounds are individual units but not words that are combined to form words. There are a limited number of sounds but the words made with these sounds could be unlimited.
To understand speech sounds we need to understand how these are produced by human organs.
The vocal tract is the area from the lungs to the lips and the organs within this tract move to make different sounds.
Speech sounds are of two kinds.
Consonant sounds and vowel sounds.
Consonant sounds are produced with the obstruction of air in the mouth.
Vowel sounds are produced without the obstruction of air in the mouth.
Consonant sounds are 24 in number and vowels are 20 in number in total they are 44 and called phonetics symbols.
Following are the International phonetics alphabet with examples
Categorization of vowel sounds
Vowel sounds are divided into two types.
Monophthongs and diphthongs
Monophthongs
Monophthongs are also called pure vowels, these are twelve in number and are single vowel sounds produced without any change in quality or length.
Diphthongs
Diphthongs are combinations of two vowel sounds, pronounced together and sound like a single vowel, and are eight in number.
Phonology combining individual speech sounds to create words is called phonology
A phoneme is the smallest unit of speech sound also known as a phonetic symbol and can change the meaning of a word for example,/b/ and /p/ in words bet are phonemes.
The spellings of both are the same in the end but only the single phonemes /b/ and /are changing the meaning of both.
Allophones in simple words Allophones are the variation of a phoneme, for example
/p/ in pin is aspirated (pronounced with an exhalation of breath or with a puff of air)
/p/ in spin is unaspirated ( not pronounced with the sound of breath)
Morphemes are the smallest unit of language and are meaningful for example, the word help has one morpheme, which is help and the word helped has two morphemes which are help and ed.
Morphology shows how parts of words that are morphemes make various meanings by combining or standing alone. For example play and played are meaningful words.
Play is a single morpheme and meaningful
Play + ed are two morphemes that created a word that is also meaningful.
Syntax The study of combining words to form sentences is known as syntax.
Semantics Meaning of words and sentences is semantics.
Pragmatics is also the study of meaning, but in a social context.
Find more topics here.