phone âvâ (#) Fr.: son A speech sound considered as a physical event without regard to its place in the sound system of a language. From Gk. phone "voice, sound," phonein "to speak;" cf. L. fama "talk, reputation, fame." Ãva "voice, sound," related to âvâz "voice, sound, song" (both prefixed forms), bâng "voice, sound, clamour" (Mid.Pers. vâng), vâžé "word," variants vâj-, vâk-, vâ-, vâz-, vât-; Av. vacah- "word," vaocanghê "to decalre" (by means of speech), from vac- "to speak, say;" cf. Skt. vakti "speaks, says," vacas- "word;" Gk. epos "word;" L. vox "voice;" PIE base *wek- "to speak." |
phoneme vâj (#) Fr.: phonème The smallest phonetic unit in a language that can distinguish one word from another. From Fr. phonème, from Gk. phonema "speech sound, utterance," from phonein "to sound," → phone. Vâj "voice," variant of vâž, vâz-, âvâz etc., → phone. |
phonetics âvâyik (#) Fr.: phonétique A branch of linguistics dealing with the analysis, description, and classification of speech sounds. More specifically, phonetics deals with the physical production of → phonemes regardless of language, while → phonology studies how those sounds are put together to create meaningful words in a particular language. From phonetic, from N.L. phoneticus, from Gk. phonetikos "vocal," from phonet(os) "utterable," verbal adj. of phonein "to speak clearly, utter," from → phone + -ikos, → -ics. |