Grammar includes word-phoneme relations {inflexion} {inflection}|. Inflection is also about sound stresses.
English has 1000 to 2000 phoneme combinations {syllable}|. Syllables {closed syllable} {blocked syllable} {checked syllable} can end in consonants. Syllables {open syllable} can end in vowels.
Inflection can show case, tense, and number {accidence}|.
Sound repetition {reduplication} is for tense in Greek and for plurals in Malay.
Words have phonological units {morpheme}|, such as word roots, prefixes, suffixes, infixes, and qualities. Morphemes are not separate and independent but have sequences. Phonological units can have preferred order or no order. Succeeding-morpheme probability depends on preceding morphemes. People recognize morphemes only in context, because preceding and succeeding morphemes indicate current morpheme through associations and sound cues.
Morphemes can be alone {free form} {form, grammar}. Free morphemes can be in complex forms {underlying form}. Morphemes attached to words can have only one meaning {bound form}.
Rules can combine morphemes {morphology, grammar}|. Morphological rules can indicate case, tense, and number {inflectional morphology} or make new words {derivational morphology}.
Word parts {root, word}| hold main meaning.
Roots {stem, word}| can add thematic suffixes.
Roots or stems {base, word} can add inflectional endings.
Sounds {determinative sound} added to roots can specify word aspects.
Sounds {formative, grammar} added to roots can change meanings or derive new words.
Words can add sounds {affix, word}|.
Formatives {infix}| can be within words.
Modifiers {prefix, affix}| can be before words.
Modifiers {suffix}| can be after words.
Stem roots can add suffixes {thematic suffix}.
Words can follow usual noun declension {regular noun} or verb conjugation {regular verb}.
Words {heteroclite} can have irregular declension or conjugation.
Vowels change over time {vowel change}. Internal vowels can change qualitatively, change duration, or mute, to change meaning {vowel gradation}. Vowels in next syllables can cause internal-vowel changes {vowel mutation}. Nearby sounds can make vowels become diphthongs {vowel fracture}.
Similar words that vary in accent can then vary at vowel {ablaut}, such as irregular verb tenses.
Two vowel sounds can fuse into one sound {syneresis}.
Pure vowels, such as "i" and "e", can change to semivowels {yodization}.
Internal vowel changes can show verb past tense or noun plurals or oblique case {strong word}.
Rather than internal vowel changes, suffixes can show verb past tense or noun plurals or oblique case {weak word}, as in Germanic languages.
Spoken language is a phoneme series. Phonemes are not separate and independent sounds but have specific sound sequences. Phonemes have contexts. Contexts determine possible phoneme substitutions {contrast, grammar} {paradigm, grammar}, which have different probabilities or strengths. Substitutions can change next-phoneme contexts. All utterances have paradigms. Words and spoken language have morpheme series, which have paradigms. People first learn frequently used grammar contrasts, which resist change most.
In context paradigms, linguistic units can be more distinct {marked, grammar} {positive, grammar} or more general {unmarked, grammar} {neutral, grammar}.
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Date Modified: 2022.0225