phonology

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA ^(key): /fə.ˈnɒl.ə.dʒi/, SAMPA: /f@"nQl@dZi/
• (US) IPA ^(key): /fə.ˈnɑl.ə.dʒi/, SAMPA: /f@"nAl@dZi/

Noun

Singular phonology

Plural phonologies

1. (uncountable) (linguistics) Phonology is the study of the way that sounds (phones) carry meanings in languages (as phonemes).

   Phonetics studies the sounds of human languages, and phonology studies the meanings that those sounds have.

2. (countable) (linguistics) The phonology of a language is the set of sounds that have meaning in that language; the set of sounds that can be used to make words.

Related words

• phone
• phoneme
• phonetics