Phonetics and Phonology Basics

Study Notes

Speech Sounds: Phonetics and Phonology

Speech sounds are studied in two fields: Phonetics and Phonology.

Phonetics

Phonetics studies the properties of speech sounds, independent of any language.
The word "Phonetics" means scientific or systematic study of human speech sounds.
Branches of Phonetics:
- Articulatory Phonetics: describes how speech organs/vocal organs are used to produce speech sounds.
- Acoustic Phonetics: studies the physical transmission of speech sounds from speaker to listener.
- Auditory Phonetics: studies hearing and perception of speech sounds, including how sounds are transmitted from ear to brain and processed.

Phonetics: Characteristics of Speech Sounds

Phonetics is concerned with physical properties/features of human speech sounds, such as:
- Voice (e.g., [p] + bilabial + stop)
- Consonants: distinguished by articulatory features, including voicing, place of articulation, and manner of articulation.
- Vowels: articulatory features include height, backness, and roundedness.

Phonology

Phonology investigates the role of speech sounds in different languages.
Definition: Phonology is the study of how speech sounds form patterns in a language.
Phonology tells us:
- What sounds are in a language
- How they combine into words
- Why certain phonetic features are important to identifying a word
- The sound system of a particular language, including dialects and language varieties

Phonology: Sound Patterns

Phonology is about the system of rules that underlies and governs sound patterns in a language.
Examples:
- In English, we cannot have */lp/ at the beginning of a word, but we can have /pl/.
- We can have words like: p...

Description

This quiz covers the basics of phonetics and phonology, two fields that study speech sounds. Phonetics examines the properties of speech sounds, while phonology investigates their role in different languages.