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Structure of Sound – Phonetics and Phonology

Now that we have taken a closer look at the structure of words and sentences, and we’re used to the idea that we can analyse language in quite some detail, perhaps it’s time to look into words in even more detail. So far we’ve looked at great chunks of language like phrases and words. However, words themselves are also built up from smaller elements.

Linguists are mainly concerned with spoken language. Writing is considered to be a cultural invention, handy for communication through time and space. Originally written language is meant to represent the sounds of a language, but languages change through time. Spoken language is far more flexible than written language, which is bound by all sorts of rules that are necessary to ensure that people can understand each other's writing. As a result written language has become an unreliable source of information (although we will see that written Dutch is a lot clearer in this respect than written English).

Linguists, then, are more interested in spoken language and the sounds that are involved in speaking. As you’ve read before, phoneticians focus on how people actually produce and perceive sounds, whereas phonologists study the way these sounds are structured and used systematically. The difference will become clear over the next few chapters. Let’s start with finding out what phonetics is all about.

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(phonetics)



Dutch Linguistics Home Welcome Outline of course Terminology Syntax Sound structure Phonetics Phonology Meaning Glossary References Further reading Feedback form Copyright Close Studypack	Structure of Sound – Phonetics and Phonology Now that we have taken a closer look at the structure of words and sentences, and we’re used to the idea that we can analyse language in quite some detail, perhaps it’s time to look into words in even more detail. So far we’ve looked at great chunks of language like phrases and words. However, words themselves are also built up from smaller elements. Linguists are mainly concerned with spoken language. Writing is considered to be a cultural invention, handy for communication through time and space. Originally written language is meant to represent the sounds of a language, but languages change through time. Spoken language is far more flexible than written language, which is bound by all sorts of rules that are necessary to ensure that people can understand each other's writing. As a result written language has become an unreliable source of information (although we will see that written Dutch is a lot clearer in this respect than written English). Linguists, then, are more interested in spoken language and the sounds that are involved in speaking. As you’ve read before, phoneticians focus on how people actually produce and perceive sounds, whereas phonologists study the way these sounds are structured and used systematically. The difference will become clear over the next few chapters. Let’s start with finding out what phonetics is all about. next (phonetics)