Phonologize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To analyze or treat speech sounds in terms of their phonemes; to represent spoken language by identifying its phonological features; to apply the principles of phonology in linguistic or speech study
2. The act of converting speech into phonemic units for analysis; the process of delineating sound systems in language; the method of rendering linguistic sounds into their smallest distinctive elements
3. To interpret or transcribe spoken language into a system of phonemes; to conceptualize speech through its constituent sounds; to organize spoken language according to phonological structure

Etymology: "Phonologize" is a plain formation: it combines "phonology," the study of how speech sounds function within a language, with the verbal suffix "-ize," which turns a noun into a verb meaning to make or treat in a certain way. Put together, it means to describe or analyze speech sounds in phonological terms. The suffix does most of the work here. "-ize" entered English through French and ultimately comes from Greek "-izein," and it has been used for centuries to form verbs such as "organize" and "modernize." Attaching it to "phonology" follows the same pattern, with the sense shifting from making something into a system to treating speech sounds as a system. The base "phonology" is itself a modern technical coinage built from Greek roots meaning "sound" and "study," and it belongs to the vocabulary of linguistics rather than everyday speech. That is why "phonologize" is mostly found in specialist writing about sound systems.

Synonyms: phonemicize, sound-systematize