Phone and Phoneme

Human speech sound is called phone. Phone is concrete sound which we hear. Phoneme is the abstract thing of analysis. Phones or speech sounds are studied in phonetics, while phoneme is the object of phonology. Phonemes are often defined as the smallest distinctive unit of language. One phoneme can be realized (pronounced) in more than one phone. The phones which are the variants of phonemes are called allophones. To differentiate between phonemes and phones or allophones, the different signs are used. Phonemes are placed in the slanting lines / /, and phones are placed in the brackets [ ]. Phonetics and phonology are the sciences which have relation with human speech sounds. Therefore it is useful for learning pronunciation, especially in learning foreign languages.

The Diachronic Study of Language

The diachronic study of language is the study of language through history. Based on the history, some languages are traced to find out whether they are from the same proto language. The diachronic study of language is like a trunk of tree which is cut from the top to the bottom.

Language is arbitrary

We may ask why the same thing can be represented in different forms of different languages. The word "tree" in English, for example, refers to the same thing (concept) which is represented by the word "pohon" in Indonesian language, "wit" in Javanase language(one of languages used in Indonesia), and "sajarotun" in Arabic language. The examples above show that every speech community can create its own language (words). There are no agreements in creating the words. It means that there is no relation between a word (sound of word) and the message (meaning) a human being wishes. This phenomenon is called the arbitrariness of language. In other words, we can say that language is arbitrary.

The Synchronic Study of Language

The synchronic study of language is the study of language at one particular poin of time. It means that in studying language, we need not see the history of the language. If we want to study or describe one language at presnt time synchronically, we just describe the languae or one aspect of the language (phonological, lexical or grammatical aspect)at present time without paying atttention to the history. The synchronic study of language is like a tree which is cut horizontally.

Allophones

Phoneme is the smallest distinctive unit of lanfguage. It is called distinctive because a phoneme can distnguish meaning. phoneme is placed between slanting lines (/ /). A phoneme sometimes is realized (pronounced) into more than one representation. In other words a phoneme can have more than one phones. The voiceles stop phonemes in english ( /p/, /t/, /k/), for examples, have two variants, namely aspirated voiceles stops, and unaspirated voiceles stops. The variants of a phoneme are called allophones of the phoneme. Therefore, allophone is difined as the variant of phoneme.

Code Mixing

In daily life, people sometimes use two languistic codes(including dialects, register, jargon, or other varieties of language)together in one utterance. This phenomenon is called codw mixing. The use of code mixing is often influenced by social factors such as situation, relationship between the speakers and the listeners, age, and so on. Javanese people (people living in Java island, especially central Java), for example like to mix Javanese language (their regional language) when they speak Indonesian language (the national language). They do so perhaps because they want to show the politeness, which they cannot find in Indonesian language. Of course there are other purposes of using code mixing depending on what the speakers want to show.

Language and Society

There are some factors which influence the use of language in the speech community such as social class, kinship system, sex and culture. Social class influences the use of language in society. The high class often uses different language variety from the lower class. The use of different variety in different social class is usually called non-reciprocal, while the use of the same variety in the same social class is called reciprocal. Kinship system also influences the use of language. Different social groups may have more complete kinship terms than the other social groups. The use of language may be determined by sex. There are terms which only refer to male or female. In English, the words she, sister, and daughter have female marker. In Indonesian language, the words dia, saudara and anak do not have sex marker. To refer to she, sister, and daughter in English, Indonesian language needs two words. The words she, sister, and daughter become dia perempuan, saudara perempuan and anak perempuan in Indonesian language. Language is culturally transmitted. Therefore, the culture of the society also plays an important role in the use of language. Based on the description above, the relation of language and society is very close.

Address Terms

The terms of address are universal phenomena in language use. It means that all language in the world has adress terms. Although address terms are universal, The use of address terms in the society is different. In Javanese (a language used in Central Java, an Island in Indonesia}, there are various kinds of female adress terms. The adress terms mbok, bu,and mam are used to refer to mother. The word mbok, is used by the lower class society. The word bu, is used by the midlle class society, and mam (the abbreviation of mama or mami), is used by the high class society.