phonology
[ fuh-nol-uh-jee, foh- ]
/ fəˈnɒl ə dʒi, foʊ- /
noun, plural pho·nol·o·gies.
the study of the distribution and patterning of speech sounds in a language and of the tacit rules governing pronunciation.
the phonological system or the body of phonological facts of a language.
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Is It Tis Or ‘Tis?What does ‘tis mean? ‘Tis, as in “`tis the season” is an old—very old—contraction of it is. The apostrophe replaces the i in the word it to create ’tis . . . not quite how we create contractions today. According to Google’s Ngram Viewer, the contraction ’tis was a fan favorite in the early 1700s. At this time, it was likely used more often than it’s. Why is ’tis used? ‘Tis …
RELATED WORDS
utterance, accent, diction, enunciation, articulation, twang, elocution, speech, drawl, phonetics, syllabification, phonemics, orthoepy
Nearby words
- phonol.,
- phonolite,
- phonological,
- phonological rule,
- phonologist,
- phonometer,
- phonometric,
- phonomyoclonus,
- phonon,
- phonopathy
Origin of phonology
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for phonology
phonology
/ (fəˈnɒlədʒɪ) /
noun plural -gies
the study of the sound system of a language or of languages in generalCompare syntax (def. 1), syntax (def. 2), semantics
such a sound system
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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phonology
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper