Phonetics Overview

Phonetics

• The systematic study of the production, transmission, and reception of speech sounds.
• Focuses on the physical aspects of speech.
• A branch of linguistics.
• Deals with the medium of speech.

Branches of Phonetics

• Articulatory phonetics: Focuses on the production of speech sounds by the vocal tract.
• Acoustic phonetics: Studies the physical properties of speech sounds.
• Auditory phonetics: Examines the perception of speech sounds by the listener.

Articulatory Phonetics

• Involves the study of how the vocal tract is used to produce speech sounds.
• Focuses on the organs of speech production, such as the lungs, vocal cords, tongue, teeth, and lips.
• Identifies the place and manner of articulation.
• Examines how air is directed during articulation.

Airstream Mechanism

• The mechanism that generates the flow of air used to produce speech sounds.
• Pulmonic egressive: The most common airstream mechanism, where air is pushed out of the lungs.
• Pulmonic ingressive: Air is drawn into the lungs, less common.
• Velaric ingressive: Air is drawn into the mouth, used for clicks.
• Glottalic egressive: Air is pushed out by raising the larynx, used by some languages.
• Glottalic ingressive: Air is drawn into the mouth by lowering the larynx, rare.

Acoustic Phonetics

• Studies the physical properties of speech sounds.
• Uses sound waves to create visualizations of speech.
• Can identify different sounds based on their frequency, amplitude, and duration.
• Analysis of sound waves allows for precise identification and classification of speech sounds.

Auditory Phonetics

• Examines the perception of speech sounds by the listener.
• Studies how the auditory system processes sound waves.
• Investigates how the brain interprets speech sounds.
• Employs tools to measure and analyse responses to sound stimuli.