Phonetics

Phonetics

Languages can basically be thought of as systems - highly complicated ones - which enable us to express our thoughts by means of “vocal noises”, and to extract meaning from the “noises” (speech sounds from now on!) that are made by other people. Linguistics is the study of the nature and properties of these systems, and its various branches focus on different aspects of the communication process.

Phonetics is the branch concerned with human speech sounds, and itself has three different aspects:
• Articulatory Phonetics (the most anatomical and physiological division) describes how vowels
and consonants are produced or “articulated” in various parts of the mouth and throat.
• Acoustic Phonetics (the branch that has the closest afnities with physics) studies the sound
waves that transmit the vowels and consonants through the air from the speaker to the hearer
• Auditory Phonetics (the branch of most interest to psychologists) looks at the way in which the hearer’s brain decodes the sound waves back into the vowels and consonants originally intended by the speaker.

Closely associated with Phonetics is another branch of linguistics known as Phonology. This focuses on the way languages use differences between sounds in order to convey differences of meaning between words, and how each language has its own unique sound pattern. Phonology is really the link between Phonetics and the rest of Linguistics.

PHONETICS

PHONETICS 

When you speak a foreign language, your pronunciation is not a factor of
fluency…unless...you speak so poorly no one can understand you. But your pronunciation is
the first thing native speakers notice; in spite of dialectical differences, they are all agreed on
what is acceptable speech. When you speak their language, is your speech
acceptable? This should be possible – after all, we all possess the same kind
of vocal “hardware” (mouth, tongue, teeth, lips, nose, etc.), and can produce
the same sounds. So, “I can’t make that sound” is not really the case. Yes
you can! And why would you not want to?
Becoming aware of what your mouth is doing in the pronunciation of words is the first step
toward becoming a better speaker of another language as you learn it. As you pronounce each
of the following words in the right column, pay attention to how the initial consonant of each
word is being produced.
PHONETICS is the linguistic discipline which addresses the recognition, production and
recording of the different speech sounds. Questions like “How and where are those sounds
produced?”, “Are there different categories of sounds that share certain features?”, and “How
can they all be written?”…these questions come to mind.
Focus on what happens to the air when you produce (and hold) the initial consonant of each
of these words.
There are about 700 speech sounds in the world. When you were born, you were able to
produce any of them, but since you only needed a few, your mouth locked onto those sounds
it needed to make you sound like everyone else around you. Even though you are still able to
produce those hundreds of other speech sounds, you are no longer working with a “clean
slate.” This is where phonetics training comes in along with the practice necessary to result in
good pronunciation.
VOICED sounds occur when the vocal folds in the larynx (i.e. the GLOTTIS) are close
together and vibrating. VOICELESS sounds occur when the vocal folds are apart and are
stationary.
Practice turning the voicing on and off without stopping the flow of air. 

PHONETICS-ARTICULATION

I will begin by describing how speech sounds are made. In nearly all

speech sounds, the basic source of power is the respiratory system pushing

air out of the lungs. Try to talk while breathing in instead of out. You will

find that you can do it, but it is much more inefficient than superimposingPHONETICS- ARTICULATION

speech on an outgoing breath.

Air from the lungs goes up the windpipe (the trachea, to use the more,

technical term) and into the larynx, at which point it must pass between

two small muscular folds called the vocal cords. If the vocal cords are

apart, as they normally are when breathing out, the air from the lungs will

have a relatively free passage into the pharynx and the mouth. But if the

vocal cords are adjusted so that there is only a narrow passage between

them, the airstream will cause them to vibrate. Sounds produced when the

vocal cords are vibrating are said to be voiced, as opposed to those in

which the vocal cords are apart, which are said to be voiceless.

In order to hear the difference between a voiced and a voiceless sound,

try saying a long v sound, which we will symbolize as [vvvvv]. Now compare

this with a long f sound [fffffl, saying each of them alternately-

[ffffvvvvvfffffvvvvv]. Both of these sounds are formed in the same way in

the mouth.

 The difference between them is that [v] is voiced but [fl is

voiceless. You can feel the vocal cord vibrations in [v] if you put your fingertips

against your larynx. You can also hear the buzzing of the vibrations

in [v] more easily if you stop up your ears while contrasting [fffffvwvv].

The difference between voiced and voiceless sounds is often important

in distinguishing sounds. In each of the pairs of words "fat, vat; thigh, thy;

Sue, zoo" the first consonant in the first word of each pair is voiceless,

whereas in the second word, it is voiced.

 To check this for yourself, sayjust the consonant at the beginning of each of these words and try to feeland hear the voicing as suggested above.

 Try to find other pairs of words that are distinguished by one having a voiced and the other having a voiceless

consonant. 

PHONETICS -A SOUND STUDY

Phonetics attempts to describe and understand how speech is produced and perceived;

phonology attempts to understand the patterning — in general, the behavior — of speech

sounds in particular languages and in all languages. Is phonetics part of phonology? This

straightforward question has received various answers at different points in the history of

linguistics. In this paper I attempt to document that for the two centuries starting

approximately with the eighteenth century, phonetics was well integrated into linguistics but

that around the start of the 20th century phonetics and phonology were estranged, at least in

some cases. During the second half of the 20th century there began a trend, continuing today,

to re-integrate phonetics and phonology.

phonetics is concerned with describing the speech sounds that occur in

the languages of the world. We want to know what these sounds are,

how they fall into patterns, and how they change in different circumstances.

Most importantly, we want to know what aspects of the sounds are

necessary for conveying the meaning of what is being said. The first job of

a phonetician is, therefore, to try to find out what people are doing when

they are talking and when they are listening to speech.

We will begin by describing how speech sounds are made. In nearly all

speech sounds, the basic source of power is the respiratory system pushing

air out of the lungs. Try to talk while breathing in instead of out. You will

find that you can do it, but it is much more inefficient than superimposing

speech on an outgoing breath.

Air from the lungs goes up the windpipe (the trachea, to use the more,

technical term) and into the larynx, at which point it must pass between

two small muscular folds called the vocal cords. If the vocal cords are

apart, as they normally are when breathing out, the air from the lungs will

have a relatively free passage into the pharynx and the mouth. But if the

vocal cords are adjusted so that there is only a narrow passage between

them, the airstream will cause them to vibrate. Sounds produced when the

vocal cords are vibrating are said to be voiced, as opposed to those in

which the vocal cords are apart, which are said to be voiceless.

In order to hear the difference between a voiced and a voiceless sound,

try saying a long v sound, which we will symbolize as [vvvvv]. Now compare

this with a long f sound [fffffl, saying each of them alternately-

[ffffvvvvvfffffvvvvv]. Both of these sounds are formed in the same way in

the mouth. The difference between them is that [v] is voiced but [fl is

voiceless. You can feel the vocal cord vibrations in [v] if you put your fingertips

against your larynx. You can also hear the buzzing of the vibrations

in [v] more easily if you stop up your ears while contrasting [fffffvwvv].

The difference between voiced and voiceless sounds is often important

in distinguishing sounds. In each of the pairs of words "fat, vat; thigh, thy;

Sue, zoo" the first consonant in the first word of each pair is voiceless,

whereas in the second word, it is voiced. To check this for yourself, say

just the consonant at the beginning of each of these words and try to feel

and hear the voicing as suggested above. Try to find other pairs of words

that are distinguished by one having a voiced and the other having a voiceless