Phonic Structure Of Language And Its Components

The System Of Sounds

Syllabic Structure

• - the segmental/phonetic component;
• - the syllabic structure;
• - the accentual structure/ word stress/ lexical stress;
• - intonation

• An utterance is a succession of the smallest, further indivisible segments which are easily singled out in the flow of speech as separate discrete elements.

• This segments are also called sounds of a language or speech sounds

• Sounds function as phonemes, the units capable of differentiating the meaning of morphemes, words and sentences.

• “Sounds in the mind”= phonemes
• “Sounds in the mouth”= allophones/variants

• The sounds of the language constitute its segmental/ phonetic component. Its systemic character manifested in the following ways:
• - 2 fundamental sound types C and V;
• - certain patterns of allophones and their distribution
• - set of methods of joining allophones together in words

Syllable: 

• Articulatorily is the smallest indivisible unit of speech production
• Auditorily is the smallest unit of perception

SS has 2 inseparable aspects:

- syllable formation;

- syllable division/separation