Writing systemA writing system is any conventional system for representing a particular language using a set of symbols (called a script), as well as the rules those symbols encode. The earliest of conventional writing systems appeared during the late 4th millennium BC.
GraphemeSmallest functional written unit Various glyphs representing instances of the lower case letter ⟨a⟩, considered to be allographs of the same grapheme In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system. The word grapheme is derived from Ancient Greek's gráphō ('write'), and the suffix -eme (by analogy with phoneme and other emic units). The study of graphemes is called graphemics.LinguisticsScientific study of languageLinguistics is the scientific study of language.
GlyphPurposeful written mark Various glyphs representing lower case letter ⟨a⟩ in various typefaces and as single- and double-storey; they are allographs of the same grapheme A glyph (/ɡlɪf/ GLIF) is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface (or computer font), of an element of written language.
PhonemeBasic unit of phonology A phoneme (/ˈfoʊniːm/) is a set of similar speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—the smallest possible phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word from another. All languages contain phonemes (or the spatial–gestural equivalent in sign languages), and all spoken languages include both consonant and vowel phonemes.OrthographyAn orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and emphasis. Most national and international languages have an established writing system that has undergone substantial standardization, thus exhibiting less dialect variation than the spoken language.Speech synthesisSpeech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system converts normal language text into speech; other systems render symbolic linguistic representations like phonetic transcriptions into speech. The reverse process is speech recognition.
PhonotacticsPhonotactics (from Ancient Greek phōnḗ 'voice, sound' and taktikós 'having to do with arranging') is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. Phonotactics defines permissible syllable structure, consonant clusters and vowel sequences by means of phonotactic constraints. Phonotactic constraints are highly language-specific. For example, in Japanese, consonant clusters like /rv/ do not occur.Phone (phonetics)In phonetics (a branch of linguistics), a phone is any distinct speech sound. It is any surface-level or unanalyzed sound of a language, the smallest identifiable unit occurring inside a stream of speech. In spoken human language, a phone is thus any vowel or consonant sound. In sign languages, a phone is the equivalent of a unit of gesture.
Linguistic prescriptionLinguistic prescription is the establishment of rules defining publicly preferred usage of language, including rules of spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. Linguistic prescriptivism may aim to establish a standard language, teach what a particular society or sector of a society perceives as a correct or proper form, or advise on effective and stylistically apt communication.Linguistic descriptionIn the study of language, description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a speech community. All academic research in linguistics is descriptive; like all other scientific disciplines, it aims to describe reality, without the bias of preconceived ideas about how it ought to be.Computational linguisticsComputational linguistics is an interdisciplinary field concerned with the computational modelling of natural language, as well as the study of appropriate computational approaches to linguistic questions. In general, computational linguistics draws upon and contributes to linguistics, computer science, artificial intelligence, mathematics, logic, philosophy, cognitive science, cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, anthropology, and neuroscience, among others.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.