Theoretical Linguistics

Phonology

Phonology is the study of speech sounds within and across languages. It touches topics such as speech sound variation, speech sound combinations and acquisition.

What are the sounds of a language with which differences in meaning are produced? How can we account for the patterned variation in the pronunciation of these sounds? How can these sounds be combined with each other to form syllables and words? And how are the sounds and sound combinations acquired by children?

These are just a few questions we try to answer. Whereas some of us have phonology as our core expertise, this research field significantly overlaps with other fields we study, such as experimental linguistics, phonetics and morphology.