phonology
Phonology maps how speech sounds form a working system inside one language: which contrasts keep words apart, and which differences are only pronunciation variants.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Definitions
- ling. / gram. Linguistics field that models a language's sound system: it sets functional units and combination rules, kept apart from phonetics (articulation and acoustics) and from morphology (word structure).
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - hist. lex. In historical dictionaries: Webster 1913 presents PHONOLOGY as a science of elementary speech sounds, pairs the label with phonetics, and also allows a treatise on sounds. Arct 1921 sends Polish Fonologia to Fonetyka. Lexical evidence of older label overlap.
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Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (PHONOLOGY); M. Arct 1921 (Fonologia = Fonetyka), open source - hist. / etym. On the etymological trail (Skeat 1910 under PHONETIC): phono-logy sits among phono- compounds from Greek φωνή via -λογία (discourse, from λέγειν). Lexical evidence only; not a modern classroom definition.
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Editorial team; facts: W. W. Skeat 1910 (PHONETIC; phono-logy); Webster 1913 (PHONOLOGY: Phono- + -logy), open source - colloq. In casual and press talk: a loose tag for remarks about sound systems or pronunciation, without an account of functional contrasts. Informal range, pending review confirmation.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Examples
- The drill asked which consonant pairs in English form a phonological contrast and which ones are only articulatory variants covered in phonetics.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - Her outline put phonology beside morphology and syntax in the linguistics list, and left semiotics with pragmatics as separate layers of inquiry.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - Lecture notes recorded that Arct (1921) redirects Fonologia to Fonetyka, that Webster 1913 equates PHONOLOGY with phonetics, that Skeat 1910 derives phono-logy from φωνή and -λογία, and that Brückner 1927 is silent on lemma fonologia.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - A columnist warned that calling a dispute mere phonology of debate often hides the missing analysis of the sound system and its mix-up with articulatory description alone.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - She set a phonological sketch of the language against a bare list of pronunciations, asking where systemic description ends and articulatory detail begins.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Usage
Everyday English often swaps the lemma for phonetics, or for any tip about how a word is said. Careful prose separates four layers: systemic (contrasts and functional units inside one language), historical-lexical (Arct redirecting Fonologia toward Fonetyka; Webster on PHONOLOGY; Skeat on φωνή and -λογία), older synonymy (Webster treating PHONOLOGY and phonetics as one label), and informal tags that name no method. State which layer you mean, or the word drifts into phonetics, morphology, or guesswork about spelling aloud.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Webster 1913 builds PHONOLOGY from Phono- + -logy. The gloss covers elementary speech sounds of the human voice, with their distinctions, modifications, and tone combinations; the entry also accepts a treatise on sounds and sets the lemma next to phonetics. PHONETICS sense 1 points back here. Nearby stand phonogram, phonograph, and other phono- compounds. Full wording belongs in the etymology field; the glosses stay lexical evidence, not the service definition.
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Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, open sourceSkeat under PHONETIC lists phono-logy from -λογία (discourse, from λέγειν) in the family around φωνή. He also notes phonics as an earlier English label for the science of sounds, plus other phono- compounds. On the Polish side Arct 1921 prints Fonologia and sends the reader to Fonetyka; Fonetyka itself is entered as głosownia and the study of sounds. OCR is often garbled. Brückner 1927 leaves lemma fonologia unopened.
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Editorial team; facts: W. W. Skeat 1910; M. Arct, Słownik wyrazów obcych, 9th ed., Warsaw 1921; A. Brückner 1927 (no lemma fonologia), open sourceAcademic prose favours phrases such as phonological system, phonological opposition, and phonological analysis. Phonological is the usual adjective. Careful writers keep the term away from phonetics (physical sound description), morphology (word-internal structure), semantics (sense of language units), and pragmatics (use in situation). Authors still draw the borders differently. Calling every pronunciation remark linguistic phonology empties the label.
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Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (PHONOLOGY), open sourceWord forms
Regular English noun. Usually uncountable when naming the discipline (phonology is...). Countable singular appears in phrases such as a phonology of consonants. Plural phonologies appears when contrasting systems of different languages or schools.
word forms
| przypadek | forma |
|---|---|
| uncountable (usual) | phonology |
| countable singular (a theory / treatise / approach) | a phonology |
| plural (systems / schools) | phonologies |
| related adjective | phonological |
Word forms: Editorial team
Collocations
- phonological system
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - phonological opposition
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - phonological analysis
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - distinctive features
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - linguistic phonology
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Synonyms · Antonyms
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Etymology
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, open sourcealso
W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910 (PHONETIC: Gk. φωνητικός; φωνή; φημί; Ban; phono-logy), open sourcealso
M. Arct, Słownik wyrazów obcych, 9th ed., Warsaw 1921 (Fonologia = Fonetyka; Fonetyka = głosownia), open sourcealso
A. Brückner, Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego, Kraków 1927 (no lemma fonologia), open sourceRelated words
- phonological , adjective: relating to the sound system of a language
- phonetics , lexical neighbour (ling. / gram.): talk of physical sound description against talk of the sound system (Webster 1913 equates PHONOLOGY with phonetics historically)
- morphology , lexical neighbour (ling. / gram.): talk of word structure against talk of the sound system
- syntax , lexical neighbour (ling. / gram.): talk of clause structure against talk of the sound system
- semantics , lexical neighbour (ling. / philos.): talk of meaning of language units against talk of the sound system
- pragmatics , lexical neighbour (ling. / philos.): talk of use in situation against talk of the sound system
- semiotics , lexical neighbour (ling. / philos.): talk of sign systems against talk of the sound system
- fonologia , etymologically related Polish noun (Arct: Fonologia = Fonetyka; Skeat/Webster Greek trail)
Related entries
The same entry in Polish: fonologia
Questions and answers
What does phonology mean?
It covers how speech sounds form an organised inventory in one tongue: which oppositions separate words. Webster 1913 and Skeat 1910 record the historical trail. Informal talk often flattens the name into a vague tag for pronunciation. Context decides.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Where does the word phonology come from?
Greek supplies φωνή (a sound) and -λογία (a discourse). Skeat 1910 lists phono-logy on that path; Webster 1913 prints PHONOLOGY from Phono- + -logy. Arct 1921 redirects Polish Fonologia to Fonetyka. Brückner 1927 omits a separate Polish lemma.
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Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913; W. W. Skeat 1910; M. Arct 1921; A. Brückner 1927 (no lemma), open sourceHow is phonology pronounced, and what is the IPA?
This page uses /fəˈnɑləˌdʒi/ from CMUdict via pipeline/ipa-en.mjs for lemma phonology. Stress sits on the second syllable. The usual adjective beside the noun is phonological.
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Editorial team; facts: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary via pipeline/ipa-en.mjs (lemma phonology), open sourceHow does phonology differ from phonetics, and is it the same as Polish fonologia?
Phonology asks how sounds form a system. Phonetics asks how they are produced and measured. Polish fonologia is the matching classroom noun. The split is editorial and didactic; everyday speech often blurs both labels.