Linguistics 2248A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Rotokas Language, Phoneme, Minimal Pair
14 Apr 2018
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The way sound patterning reflects information that arises within other components of grammar with which phonology is interfaced (morphology, syntax, etc. ) Sounds are meaningless - their purpose is to build words and sound different from other sounds. Because [t] and [d] exist, time and dime can be distinctive words. To analyze a language"s phonology, we must locate all basic sounds: phonemes. Phonemes are written in slanted brackets: / / The language with the lowest number of phonemes is probably rotokas (east papuan, new guinea) with 11. The language with the highest number of phonemes is probably !x (khoisan, botswana/namibia) with 160. English has about 37-41 phonemes, depending on the dialect and the analysis. The average amount of phonemes is about 30. Methods for establishing the phoneme inventory of a language or dialect. If any two words of a language are pronounced differently, they must differ in at least one phoneme.
