Phonemes are sounds used in languages, with English using only 40. Pseudowords are permitted sounds with no meaning, useful for teaching grammar and affixes. Nonwords are unpronounceable, while nonce words have a hint of meaning.
All languages allow certain sounds and sound combinations, and restrict other possible sounds that might be quite common in another language. These sounds, called phonemes, are a relatively small set of all the possible sounds that the human mouth, palate, tongue, and lungs can create; for example English uses only 40 phonemes in total. A pseudoword is one that could exist in a language as all its sounds and combinations are permitted, but has no meaning.
In a pseudoword, not only are the sounds found in other words in that language, but the pseudoword can be written using only the symbols of that language. Pseudowords can help teach linguistic and grammar rules. For example, the student could practice conjugating the pseudo-verb fuzzy like “I fuzzy, you fuzzy, he fuzzy, we fuzzy, they fuzzy” and the past tense would be “fuzzy”.
Babies love the novelty of a good pseudoword, especially those that have an oddly delightful cadence or combination of sounds. These can also help teach affixes. An example might start with the pseudoword, piggle. Regardless of the word’s meaning or lack thereof, the prefix un would turn the apparent definition into its opposite. By adding the suffix less to the ending, the pseudoword is transformed again into unpiggleless, which according to the rules of logic, would mean the absence of a piggle, which logically would mean the presence of a piggle.
Pseudowords should not be confused with nonwords. In linguistic terms, a nonword is not only a lexical unit that does not exist in a particular language, but it may also not exist because some or all of its phonemes are limited. An example of a nonword is pguqsh, which is unpronounceable in English. Young learners love nonwords almost as much as pseudowords and often demonstrate how well they have subconsciously internalized linguistic rules by insisting that some letters are silent. Pguqsh, for example, might have a silent P, a silent g, a silent pg cluster, and a silent q.
Pseudowords, also called logotoms, do not suggest any kind of meaning. Their cousins, nonce words, are also linguistically correct constructions but contain the shadow or hint of a meaning. This may be because they are so similar in sound to another word or because they were coined to represent a meaning that pre-exists a concept that has no name. For example, James Joyce created the word quark, which appeared in Finnegan’s Wake. When science discovered a certain type of electrically charged particle, a Joyce fan borrowed the nonce quark and reassigned its meaning.
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