Re: Linguistic Terminology

Sheets, Jeff wrote:

>I'd like a plain english definition of the following terms:
>
These words are actually required knowledge for all conlangers. So
allow me to enlighten you.

>phoneme
These are the distinctive sounds of a particular language system.
Thus, in English the sounds /p/ and /b/ are different phonemes
because they distinguish "peak" /pi:k/ from "beak" /bi:k/; the
sounds [p_h] and [p] (aspirated and unaspirated "p" respectively)
are different phonemes in Khmer because they can distinguish two
words, but they are not in English as they simply form two variant
allophones of the same phoneme without distinguishing tow words.

>phone
This simply means sound. Thus, "phoneme" means sound element while
"allophone" means alternative sound. Get it?

>allophone
These are the alternative pronounciations of phonemes in a
particular language that never affect the meaning, usually
predictable from their environment. For example, English /t/ is
normally aspirated but is unaspirated after an /s/ in a consonant
cluster. Similarly, English /l/ is normally velarized at the end of
words; compare "lick" with "kill". In Polish, velarized and
unvelarized /l/ are different phonemes.

BEFORE WE GO ON, you might want to know that "morph" simply means
shape. So "morpheme" would mean shape element, while "morphology"
would mean study of shapes. Get it?

>morpheme
This is the smallest unit in the grammar that is either a word in
its own right (free morpheme e.g. "bird"), or part of a word (bound
morpheme e.g. "-s" in "birds"). Note that in the examples just
given, "bird" is a lexeme (a lexical/dictionary word) while the "-s"
ending is a plural suffix.

>morphology
This refers to the description of the general shape of words
including syllable shape and affixation (i.e., prefix, infix,
suffix). So languages with a complex morphology may refer to a
language with long words that are made up of complicated syllables
and numerous affixes. The Chinese languages could be considered a
language with a simpler morphology in that most words are only one
syllable in length with little or no affixation.

>orthography
This refers to the spelling system used to transcribe a language.
Thus, a Romanized orthography refers to a writing or spelling system
where Roman letters are used. Many languages uses a Romanized
orthography, but others have their own writing systems. However,
differences can also occur within a Romanized orthography. In
Indonesia, the /dZ/ and /j/ sounds was once represented by "dj" and
"j" respectively following Dutch orthographical practices. But after
a reform of the orthography, these sounds are now represented as
"dy" and "y" respectively.
>
>Also, in relation to these terms, when should I use // and [] to
>enclose sounds?
Have a look at my previous post, which I posted just before
answering this one.

Hope this also helps,
-Kristian- 8-)