TechAnnounce

Why is "blik" a possible word of English, but not "bnik"? Why can we have [tl] in the middle of a word (e.g., "butler"), but not at the start or the end? (And how come some languages, like the modern Aztec language Nahuatl, are perfectly content with [tl]-final words?)

This course provides an overview of the field of phonology—how languages organize, represent, and manipulate their sounds. We will begin by discussing the sounds of the world's languages and their articulatory, acoustic, and distributional properties. We will examine why some sounds are allowed in certain parts of a word but not others, and how sounds change based on their surroundings.

Linguists and non-linguists alike are welcome to join this course.