phonology

Also known as phonemics, phonematics

Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics) is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages systematically organize their phonemes or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a particular language variety. At one time, the study of phonology related only to the study of the systems of phonemes in spoken languages, but now it may relate to any linguistic analysis either:

AI overview

Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages organize their basic sound units (called phonemes) or, in sign languages, the constituent parts of signs into systematic patterns. It matters because understanding these sound and sign systems helps linguists comprehend how languages are structured and how different languages organize their fundamental units differently.

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Wikidata facts

Image: Phonological Diagram of modern Arabic and Hebrew vowels.png

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Commons category: Phonology
Stack Exchange tag: linguistics.stackexchange.com/tags/phonology

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Article

9 sections

Contents

Terminology
History
Analysis of phonemes
Other topics
See also
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links

Sign languages have a phonological system equivalent to the system of sounds in spoken languages. The building blocks of signs are specifications for movement, location, and handshape. At first, a separate terminology was used for the study of sign phonology ("chereme" instead of "phoneme", etc.), but the concepts are now considered to apply universally to all human languages.