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Glite Dictionary
isophone

isophone

9.9
A line on a map that shows where people pronounce sounds differently
  • noun
  • /ˈaɪsəˌfoʊn/
  • Specialized
translation icon : isófono
  • The linguist drew several isophones on the map to illustrate dialect variations across the region.

Examples

  • By analyzing the isophones, researchers identified distinct pronunciation patterns among various groups.

  • The study of isophones helps linguists understand how pronunciation changes across geographical areas.

  • So I'll have a second set of isophones that now intersect with these.

  • So in this case, these curves, these wave fronts would be just isophones in the image plane.

Synonyms

isogloss
vsisophone
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A line on a map that shows where people speak differently

is narrower and marks only pronunciation boundaries on maps

Surface Forms

isophone singular
isophones plural

Morphology

isophone = phone (opaque) = iso + phone

The combining form 'iso-' and the technical '-phone' (speech sound) are specialized linguistic elements unlikely to be transparent to an average B1 learner.

Etymology

Isophone combines iso- meaning 'equal' and -phone meaning 'sound', the same phone in 'telephone'. An isophone is a line on a map that shows where people say a sound the same, so it marks the border between different accents.