Sounds and their functions
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2014
This chapter addresses the analysis of phonetic and phonological patterns. Every grammar should have a chapter, fairly close to the beginning, on the phonological, and phonetic, make-up of the language. Established phonemes will provide the basis for writing down examples, and provide the foundation for an orthography. This chapter discusses issues in segmental phonology, including syllable structure, phonotactics, and unusual sounds which may occur in interjections, expressives, and onomatopoeia before turning to stress, pitch, and tone, and then to the structure of a phonological word and how it can be contrasted to a grammatical word. Phrase and clause as phonological units are discussed next. The last section addresses the issues of orthography in the language to be described.