Language and Linguistics Flashcards
Define/explain: The Alphabetic Principle vs Logographic Languages
The idea that sounds used in oral speech are represented by written symbols, that these symbols can be combined to form units of speech such as words.
The idea that sounds correspond to written symbols
Applies to many modern languages but there is a lot of variance between the symbols and the sounds they represent
Do all languages have alphabetic writing systems?
No. Some languages have symbols that represent ideas/meanings these are logographic languages. In alphabetic languages symbols represent each individual sound in the word.
Phonology
The rule system within a language by which phonemes are sequenced, patterned, and uttered to represent meanings, and the study of this rule system
Define/explain: Phonemes
The smallest unit of sound that can change the meaning of a word, but does not have a meaning of its own
The same letter or multiple letters can often represent multiple phonemes, ex. with vowels these are called long and short sounds
The sound a letter makes depends on its position in a word and the letters around it
What are the two broad categories into which we organize phonemes (sounds) in the English language?
Vowels and Consonants basically two different ways of articulating sounds
Define: Vowels
Sounds that can be produced without occluding, diverting, or obstructing the flow of air from the lungs
Sounds that can be made while keeping the tongue and lips still
AEIOU
Define: Consonants
Sounds that require the use of lips and tongue to alter air-flow while making the sound
Define: Articulation
How we use our mouth, tongue, lips, and our lungs to form a speech sound
Define: Diphthong
A pair of vowels that makes a single sound, two vowels in a single syllable
A sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves towards another
Define/explain: Phonemic Awareness
The conscious awareness that words and utterances are made up of segments of our own speech that are represented with letters in an alphabetic orthography
The knowledge that a word is made up of letters and that those letters represent sounds
Define: Segmenting
Breaking apart a word into its component sounds, ex.
CAT to C-A-T
Define: Blending
Putting together phonemes to make words,ex. C-A-T to CAT
Define: Rhyming
Identifying similar phonemes in different words
Phonics
An approach to the study of relationships between letters and what they represents
The reading instruction technique/approach that teaches sound-symbol correspondences in order to help students sound out words
*We use phonics to teach phonemic awareness, they are not the same thing
