Definition: Phonology is defined as the study of the systematic relationships between a language’s sounds. Phonology examines the patterns and behaviours of sounds as a system in a language (Zsiga, 2013, p. 199). That is, phonology is the study of how a language’s sounds interact with each other.
Below you can find of list of terms commonly found in the discussion of phonology. Click a term and you will be directed to a page with a definition of the term and examples in Hul’q’umi’num’, Skwxwú7mesh, and Secwepemctsín if they are available.
List of Terms:
- Phoneme
- Allophone*
- Contrastive
- Complementary Distribution*
- Phonological Environment*
- Minimal Pairs
- Near Minimal Pairs
- Phonotactics
- Phonological Alternations
- Distinctive Features
- Natural Class
- Major Class and Manner Features
- Manner Features
- Laryngeal Features
- Place Features
- Subsidiary Place Distinctions
- Vowel Features
- Autosegmental Phonology
- Syllable & Syllable Structure
- Syllable Onset
- Syllable Rhyme (Nucleus and Coda)
- Closed versus Open Syllable
- Stress
- Lexical (free) Stress*
- Paradigmatic Stress
- Positional (fixed) Stress *
- Primary versus Secondary Stress
- Weight Sensitivity/Syllable Weight
- Boundedness
- Metrical Foot
- Prosody
- Rhythm*
- Tone*
- Tone-bearing Unit
- Tonal Stability
- Tonal Morphemes
- Intonation
INLP Linguistic Glossary 