Article
Article name The Classification of Phonemes: Digital Code Application
Authors Zolkhoev V. . Doctor of Philology, professor, boriszolkhoev@gmail.com
Bibliographic description
Section Russian Philology
UDK 81’ 34
DOI
Article type
Annotation too many of them; 2) each type of classification is studied separately; their internal connections and relationships have not been revealed yet. This paper offers a new approach to the classification of phonemes based on the identified sets of phonologically significant features (PSF) of each phoneme which are not repeated within a system of this language. This defines the phonological content (PC) of phonemes in any language. PC is determined by the phoneme numerical symbols which form the digital code of the phoneme. The system of oppositions suggested by the leading theoretician of the Prague Linguistic Circle N. S. Trubetskoy shows different relationships between the phonemes. However, the opposition includes not only the features that distinguish the members of the opposition from each other, but the features that are common to both members of the opposition. Such features may be considered as a “basis for comparison.” Therefore, sound systems of different languages differ not only in the number of phonemes, but also in composition and number of PSF. All types of binary oppositions of phonemes are divided into three groups: a) vertical correlations (Members of these oppositions are opposed to each other by the number of PSF vertically, but they have common PSF if considered horizontally); b) horizontal correlations (They are opposed to each other horizontally); c) disjunctions. (They have no common PSF.) To describe the system of phonemes using the digital code PSF sets of each phoneme in each language were numbered. The digital code indicated that the phonological structures of different languages differ from each other not only by the number of phonemes, but also by the composition and quantity of PSF. Such an approach provides a unified basis to classify phonemes of different languages and reveals their internal relations.
Key words classification of phonemes, phonological set of essential features, phoneme phonological content, digital code, basic and additional classifications of phonemes.
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Full articleThe Classification of Phonemes: Digital Code Application