Did you know there are over 7000 languages all over the world? Amazing, isn’t it! However, out of so many only about 23 languages are used for communications by most of the people. So, how do people from different countries communicate? How are they able to learn a foreign language?
All languages follow a common set of rules ever since their origin. These rules determine how the speaker sounds while speaking. Here’s where Phonology comes into work.
What is Phonology?
Phonology is the study of sound patterns and their meanings, within and across languages.
Consider this simple example for better understanding. Speak out loud the word “bakes” and notice the ending sound. Now say the word “waves” loud enough so you notice the ending sound. What did you observe? Though the words end with the same letter “s” they sound different, right?
The word “bakes” ends with the sound of “s” whereas “waves” end with the sound of “z”. The reason behind this difference can be studied through Phonology. Hence, if we have to define Phonology we can say that, it is the study of speech sounds and how they transform depending on situations or their position in syllables, words, and sentences.
For the vocal part, phonology is pronounced as “fah-NOL-ah-gee.”, and the term is derived from the Greek language meaning “sound” or “voice.”We are sure you must have understood the meaning of Phonology by now. So, let us dive deeper into the two branches of phonology – Segmental and Suprasegmental Phonology.
1. Segmental Phonology
Segmental Phonology studies the segmentation of language into individual speech sounds given by phonetics. As you must have already studied, Phonetics concerns the production, transmission and perception of the sound. But segmental phonology is different because it helps us focus on the functions of various sounds and their possible combinations within the sound system of one particular language.
An example of Segmental Phonology is the study of various sounds and the way they come together to form speech and words – such as the comparison of the sounds of the two “p” sounds in “pop-up.”
2. Suprasegmental Phonology
Suprasegmental Phonology is also known as Prosody. It basically concerns the remaining features of Phonology, which cannot be covered under Segmental Phonology. These include features of pronunciation that cannot be segmented because they are more than one segment, or sound. For example, stress, rhythm and pitch movements.
Importance of Phonology Literacy Development in Kids
Phonological Awareness is a crucial skill for every pre-primary student, as without this a child can even face reading and writing difficulties in the future.
Phonology plays a vital role in the development of a child’s pre-literacy skills as it develops the child’s ability to:-
- Understand rhymes and alliteration.
- Understand words by listening to spoken language.
- Understand the patterns of syllables while listening.
- Produce similar sounding words.
- Getting familiar with rhyming words and their production.
- Noticing individual sounds in words.
- Blending individual sounds of letters to form a word. (e.g. b+a+t = bat).
- Segmenting individual sounds in a word. (e.g. bat = b+a+t).
- Removing, replacing and modifying sounds in words.
With this, now you must have efficiently understood the concept of Phonology and its importance.
Do you wish to improve your phonology skills or learn a new language? We at English Bix have designed fun activity worksheets and printables just for you!