Phonotax

//ˈfəʊnə(ʊ)taks// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The total sum of a language's phonological or phonotactic rules. countable, uncommon, uncountable

    "It is crucial for the phoneme structure of Finnish — traditionally /d/ has not been included in the Finnish phonotax, but it fulfils the criteria of a phoneme (Karlsson, 1983: 66-7)."

Example

More examples

"It is crucial for the phoneme structure of Finnish — traditionally /d/ has not been included in the Finnish phonotax, but it fulfils the criteria of a phoneme (Karlsson, 1983: 66-7)."

Etymology

A blend of phonotactics + syntax or phonology + syntax.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.