What is an isogloss in linguistics?
What is an isogloss in linguistics? In linguistics, an isogloss is a geographic boundary line delimiting the area in which a particular linguistic feature is used. These features can include…
What is a grapheme in linguistics?
What is a grapheme in linguistics? In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest unit of a writing system that represents a phoneme in the language. It can be a single…
What is “Metalinguistic Awareness”?
What is “Metalinguistic Awareness”? Metalinguistic awareness has been defined as “the ability to reflect on and manipulate the structural features of language”. It is generally agreed that metalinguistic awareness…
What is an abugidas script?
What is an abugidas script? An abugida script, also known as an Alphasyllabary, is a type of phonetic writing system where consonants form the main body of characters, and vowels…
What is Microlinguistics?
What is Microlinguistics? Microlinguistics refers to the study of small-scale linguistic phenomena within a specific language or languages. It focuses on detailed analysis of fundamental properties of languages and…
What is macrolinguistics?
What is macrolinguistics? Macrolinguistics refers to the study of language on a large scale, focusing on broad patterns, structures, and trends that are observed across different languages or within…
What is an abjad script?
What is an abjad script? An abjad script is a writing system in which each symbol represents a consonant, leaving the reader to infer the appropriate vowel sounds. Abjads…
What is semiotics?
What is semiotics? Semiotics, also called semiology, is the study of signs and symbols and how they convey meaning. It explores how people create and interpret signs, including words,…
What is a phoneme?
What is a phoneme in languages? A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language that can change the meaning of a word. In linguistics, phonemes are…
Fundamental Properties (FP) of Languages: (10)
Fundamental Properties (FP) of Languages: (10) Phonetic Languages (PL) vs Ideographic Languages (IL); (definite article, indefinite article) It is commonly understood that there are differences between phonetic languages and ideographic…
Fundamental Properties (FP) of Languages: (9)
Fundamental Properties (FP) of Languages: (9) Phonetic Languages (PL) vs Ideographic Languages (IL): (Inflections) According to the fact that most phonetic languages have more complicated syntactic rules with many inflections,…
What is syntax?
What is syntax? Syntax refers to the set of rules that dictate the structure of sentences in a language. It specifies how words from different parts of speech (such…
Fundamental Properties (FP) of Languages: (8)
Fundamental Properties (FP) of Languages: (8) Phonetic Languages (PL) vs Ideographic Languages (IL); (Syntax) In this section, we will primarily define syntactic rules in synthetic languages, agglutinative languages, fusional languages,…
What is semantics?
What is semantics? Semantics refers to the study of meaning in language. It deals with how words, phrases, sentences, and texts are used to convey meaning. Semantics explores the…
Fundamental Properties (FP) of Languages: (7)
Fundamental Properties (FP) of Languages: (7) Phonetic Languages (PL) vs Ideographic Languages (IL); (Semantics) Why are ideographic languages mainly Chinese? For thousands of years, the Chinese language has inherited and…
What is phonology?
What is phonology? Phonology is the study of the sounds used in speech within a particular language or languages. It is a subfield of linguistics, which focuses on the…
Fundamental Properties (FP) of Languages: (6)
Fundamental Properties (FP) of Languages: (6) Phonetic Languages (PL) vs Ideographic Languages (IL); (Phonology) In our IPT database containing over 100 languages, we have analyzed and identified similarities and differences…
Fundamental Properties (FP) of languages: (5)
Fundamental Properties (FP) of languages: (5) Spoken languages vs written languages; Humans are born and inherited with a unique speech apparatus that allows us to produce a wide range of…
Fundamental Properties (FP) of languages: (4)
Fundamental Properties (FP) of languages: (4) Why Has Chinese Survived as an Ideographic Language with Meaningful Characters and Pictorial Writing? There are several reasons for Chinese to continue its heritage…
Fundamental Properties (FP) of languages: (3)
Fundamental Properties (FP) of languages: (3) Due to different functions within the phonetic and ideographic language branches, it is important to examine and identify their fundamental properties. Historically, most linguistic…