Phonology
Phonology is the study of how sounds function within a particular language or languages. While phonetics focuses on the physical properties of sounds, phonology examines how sounds pattern and interact in linguistic systems. This is one of the most common areas tested in NACLO problems.
What is Phonology?
Phonology deals with:
- How sounds are organized in a language
- Which sound differences are meaningful (phonemic)
- How sounds change in different contexts
- The rules that govern sound patterns
In NACLO, you'll often need to identify phonological rules that explain why sounds change in predictable ways.
Phonemes and Allophones
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that can distinguish meaning in a language. For example, in English, /p/ and /b/ are different phonemes because "pat" and "bat" have different meanings.
Allophones are variant pronunciations of the same phoneme that don't change meaning. For example, in English:
- The aspirated [pʰ] in "pin"
- The unaspirated [p] in "spin"
These are both allophones of the phoneme /p/ because swapping them doesn't change meaning—they're just different ways of pronouncing the same sound.
Phonological Processes
Phonological processes describe how sounds change in different contexts. Common processes include:
- Assimilation: Sounds becoming more like neighboring sounds (e.g., "impossible" where "in-" becomes "im-" before /p/)
- Deletion: Sounds being removed in certain contexts
- Insertion: Sounds being added (e.g., adding a vowel to break up consonant clusters)
- Metathesis: Sounds switching positions
Phonological Rules in NACLO
NACLO problems frequently ask you to:
- Identify phonological rules from data
- Predict how sounds will change in new contexts
- Recognize patterns in sound alternations
- Understand how sounds correspond between related languages
These problems require careful observation of patterns and systematic hypothesis testing.