Any language has different elements that are unique to it. Whereas language elements of one language may hold sound relevance to the elements of another, the interaction and relationships are subject to historical interaction of the languages in question. Phonology is one of the language elements that possess a significant aptitude to discern language interactions. Phonology refers to the branch of study of languages dealing with systematic organization of sounds. Traditionally, phonology focussed on the study of systems of phonemes in specific languages. The study has evolved to include other features of linguistic analysis like articulatory features, onset, articulatory gestures, rhyme and syllable.
The primary concept of pre-generative, traditional school of morphology is determining sounds that can be grouped into distinct sound categories within a language. Linguists call these specific sound groups phonemes. For instance, the sound of “p” in the word “spot” is not aspirated and is, therefore, pronounced as [p]. The same sound of “p” is aspirated in the word “pot” and is pronounced as [pʰ]. Part of phonetics deals with data collection of speech of native speakers. The attempt of these efforts is to deduce the sound inventories of a language as linguists dissect underlying phonemes.
Other than menial units in phonology that serve the purpose of differentiating meanings based on sounds, phonetics also survey how sounds alternate. This deals with the manner in which words replace each other in different forms within the same morpheme. In addition, the study analyses accents, stress, intonation and sentence structure. Further, phonology deals with phonological constraints on sounds that appear in particular positions of a given language. Moreover, it gives guidance on the alteration of pronunciation of sounds as phonological rules are applied in various languages.
Reference
Chomsky, A., Noam, T., Halle, S., & Morris, M. (2008). The sound pattern of English (Illustrated ed.). New York: Harper & Row.
