Definition of phonotactics in English:
phonotactics
plural noun ˌfəʊnə(ʊ)ˈtaktɪksˌfōnōˈtaktiks
treated as singular The study of the rules governing the possible phoneme sequences in a language.
Example sentencesExamples
- The answer is, I don't know, though I once listened to a lecture on the phonotactics of comic-book sounds in Finnish, and I have passed many a happy hour in foreign train stations reading the comics noises in diverse languages.
- These figures reflect French syllable structure constraints (phonotactics) more closely than English, which does permit most consonants and even allows multiple consonants at the ends of syllables.
- So there will be words that always always have schwa in them, just exactly where you'd predict based on the phonotactics.
Derivatives
adjective
But in terms of syllable structure, the phonotactic constraints of French are winning out over English.
Example sentencesExamples
- The vocalist has a good grasp of English sounds and phonological processes, but in terms of syllable structure, we can say that his yaourt conforms more to French phonotactic constraints than those of English.
- These results suggest that speech perception of segment-level duration or quantity differences and phonotactic skills in speech production are strongly predictive of reading development from an early age onward.
- Consequently, we need to scrutinize next the role of prosody, as well as the role of the word, syllable, and phonotactic nature of children's speech.
- A few of them look like they are generated randomly without regard to phonotactic constraints.