For My Non-Linguist Classmates

SOME IMPORTANT VOCABULARY RELATED TO LINGUISTICS

All definitions from Macintosh version of The New Oxford American Dictionary

philology |fəˈläləjē| noun
the branch of knowledge that deals with the structure, historical development, and relationships of a language or languages.
• literary or classical scholarship.

orthography |ôrˈθägrəfē| noun ( pl. -phies)
1 the conventional spelling system of a language.
• the study of spelling and how letters combine to represent sounds and form words.
2 another term for orthographic projection .

lenition |liˈni sh ən| noun
the process or result of weakened articulation of a consonant, causing the consonant to become voiced, spirantized, or lost.

prevocalic |ˌprēvōˈkalik|adjective
occurring immediately before a vowel.

diplomatic |ˌdipləˈmatik|adjective
2 (of an edition or copy) exactly reproducing an original version : a diplomatic transcription.

diacritic |ˌdīəˈkritik|noun
a sign, such as an accent or cedilla, which when written above or below a letter indicates a difference in pronunciation from the same letter when unmarked or differently marked.
adjective
(of a mark or sign) indicating a difference in pronunciation.

phonology |fəˈnäləjē; fō-|noun
the branch of linguistics that deals with systems of sounds (including or excluding phonetics), esp. in a particular language.
• the system of relationships among the speech sounds that constitute the fundamental components of a language.

amanuensis |əˌmanyoōˈensis|noun ( pl. -ses |-ˌsēz|)
a literary or artistic assistant, in particular one who takes dictation or copies manuscripts.
ORIGIN early 17th cent.: Latin, from (servus) a manu ‘(slave) at hand(writing), secretary’ + -ensis ‘belonging to.’

paleography |ˌpālēˈägrəfē| ( Brit. palaeography) noun
the study of ancient writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts.

morphology |môrˈfäləjē|noun ( pl. -gies)
the study of the forms of things, in particular
• Biology the branch of biology that deals with the form of living organisms, and with relationships between their structures.
• Linguistics the study of the forms of words.