Phonology SUMMARY

We examined the functional values of sounds in different systems. Two or more sounds may be shared by two or more languages/ systems, but the apparent phonetic identity of these sounds does not mean phono logical identity, as they may be employed differently in different systems. We looked at the analytical technique (phonemic analysis) for discovering the functional values of sounds. It is commonly observed that while two sounds are allophones of the same phoneme (complementary distribution) in one system, the very same two sounds can belong to separate phonemes (contrastive distribution) in another system. Phonemic analysis, which deals with the distributional function of sounds, is not only a tool for linguists, but a very important and helpful means for professionals (language teachers and therapists) who deal with the mismatches of systems in remediation.