Phonology of English: Incisive Overview

This paper succinctly examines the phonology of English: by defining the term, exploring its theoretical concepts and examining the major concerns. Indeed, the sound system of a language is crucial in a linguistic study of the language; sounds constitute the framework for the construction of words linguistic stretches. To understand the phonology of English, phonemes have to be explained not just in terms of individual phonemes (vowels and consonants), but also in terms of prosodic features: stress, intonation and rhythm. A phoneme is the smallest sound unit in a language. Phonology relates to the study of phoneme at a level that is different from how sound segments are studied in phonetics. This study is therefore a synopsis of the phonology of English via an elucidation of the phonetics of the language. The study concludes that the phonology of English is essentially the systematic and functional perspectives of sound segments in the language, as in other human languages. In this regard, sounds of a language are structural units constructed through linguistic rules (principles).