Branches of the phonetics plan Abstract

Chapter I. What is Phonetics?
1.1 What is Phonetics?
Phonetics is the scientific study of language sounds. It does not study an individual language; rather it studies language sounds in general. It is one of the important branches of linguistics, which deals with the study of speech sounds. Phonetics is concerned with the nature of language and communication.
Phonetics is pronounced as /fəˈnɛtɪks/ and it is derived from the Greek word; means sound or voice. It is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech. It covers the domain of speech production, transmission and reception. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds like production of sound, acoustic properties of sound, auditory perception of sound.
Phonetics deals with how human speech sounds are made. Phonetics comes under descriptive linguistics and it is physics of sounds. It also covers the reception aspect of speech sounds. The speech sounds made by humans when they talk are studied through different branches of phonetics like articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and auditory phonetics.
Phonetical units are called phones; Phonetic symbols are enclosed in square brackets as [f], [m], etc. A phone is a sound which has some physical feature and the term is mostly used in a nontechnical sense. Phonetics describes the way sounds are spoken and interpreted by the native speaker.
Phonetics describes the production of all human speech sounds regardless of any specific language. Phonetics simply describes the articulatory (production of sound through cavity) auditory (reception of speech sound through eardrum), and acoustic (transmission of sound in a medium) properties of speech sounds.
Phonetics is divided into three main Branches: (1) articulatory phonetics, (2) acoustic phonetics, and (3) auditory phonetics.
1.2 Articulatory phonetics
Articulatory phonetics describes how the speech organs/vocal organs also known as articulators, are used to produce speech sounds. It also analyses which organs and muscles are used to produce speech sounds. In articulatory phonetics, we discuss different questions like:
What are speech sounds?
How speech sounds fall into patterns?
How speech sounds change in different circumstances?
How sounds convey meaning?
Acoustic phonetics
Acoustic phonetics covers the field of physical properties of speech sounds i.e., how air vibration caused by vocal tracts pass from speaker to listener? In acoustic phonetics, phoneticians depict and analyze sound waves using computer machines and by different computer programs. Speech sound consists of variations in vibration of air molecules which results from physical disturbances of air pressure caused by air thrust out of the lungs. This air thrust out of the lungs makes the air molecules to compress and oscillate, creating increases and decreases depending on thrust of lungs. The resulting sound wave travels in medium of air and reach from speaker to hearer where these sound waves are interpreted as a meaningful message.
Auditory phonetics
Auditory phonetics covers the field of “the perception of speech sounds by the listener”. In Auditory Phonetics, we study how the sounds are transmitted from the ear to the brain, and how they are processed.
As we speak, the sound spreads as a sound wave, causing the air molecules to crowd together and causing a vibration. These vibrating air molecules cause the eardrum in the middle ear to vibrate and this vibration is then carried on from the eardrum to the three little bones: mallet, incus, and stirrup. From the stirrup, the vibration is carried on to the inner ear where the auditory receptor cells are located. The cells in the inner ear (on the basilar membrane) convert vibrations into neural signals that are transmitted via the auditory nerves to the brain, where a listener identify the incoming sound as actual sound.
◾Articulatory phonetics: The technique of speech sounds are produced and a subfield of phonetics.
Articulatory phoneticians clarify how humans generate speech sounds through the interaction of
different physiological structures. Sounds can be divided into consonants and vowels. The former can be
characterised according to-
⚪Place of articulation
Active places of articulation:--
▪Exo-labial--Linguistics Of a feature of vowel rounding, in which the intersections of the mouth are
drawn barely together and the lips may be compressed horizontally, but the lips do not swell and only
their outer surface is exposed.
▪Endo--labial-In vastly languages this rounded vowel is pronounced with protruded lips.
▪Dental--made with the tongue touching the teeth.
▪Alveolar-- Formed with the tip of the tongue touching the internal ridge of the gums of the upper front
teeth.
▪Post-alveolar-- Any sound articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar cliff.
▪Palatal--produced with the front of the tongue near or touching the hard palate
▪Velar--produced with the back of the tongue touching or near the soft palate (as `k' in `cat' and `g' in
`gun' and `ng' in `sing').
▪Uvular--relating to the uvula.
▪Pharyngeal-- articulated in the back of the mouth or throat.
▪Glottal--A sound made with the glottis.
▪Epiglottal--Produced using the epiglottis(Uvula).
▪Radical--Produced using the root of the tongue.
▪Postero-dorsal--Relating to the back of the upper surface of an organ.
▪Antero-dorsal--There are two organs located anterodorsally, one on each side of the cephalon.
▪Laminal--Produced with the blade of the tongue.
▪Apical--Produced with the top of the tongue.
▪Sub-apical or sub-laminal.
⚪Manner of articulation:-Conscious the place of articulation is not sufficient to completely analyze a
consonant, the way in which the structure happens is equally important. Manners of articulation
describe how definitely the active articulator modifies, narrows or finishes.
▪Fricatives:
While nasal and stop consonants involve a complete blockage of the vocal tract, fricative sounds involve
only an unfair backup of the vocal tract so that air has to be compelled through a narrow tunnel.
For example, you create a /t/ stop consonant when you block airflow fully with your tongue against the
alveolar cliff. But if you let up with the tongue a little and let the air seep through, you make an
/s/ fricative consonant.
/f/ – “fro” and “calf“- air is forced through the upper teeth and lower lip (labiodental)
/v/ – “vine” and “have” – air is forced through the upper teeth and lower lip (labiodental)
/θ/ – “thick” and “bath” – air is forced through upper teeth and tongue (dental)
/ð/ – “the” and “rather” – air is forced through upper teeth and tongue (dental)
/s/ – “suit” and “bus” – air is forced through the tongue and alveolar ridge (alveolar)
/z/ – “zit” and “jazz” – air is forced through the tongue and alveolar ridge (alveolar)
/ʃ/ – “shot” and “brash” – air is forced through the tongue and point just beyond alveolar ridge (Post-
alveolar)
/ʒ/ – “vision” and “measure” – air is forced through the tongue and point just beyond alveolar ridge
(Post-alveolar)
/h/ – “happy” and “hope” – actually /h/ isn’t a fricative. It’s technically not even an actual consonant
sound since there’s no constriction/obstruction of airflow.
▪Nasal:
Nasal consonants are created when you completely block airflow through your mouth and let the air
pass through your nose.
/m/ – “mad” and “clam” – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).
/n/ – “no” and “man‘ – oral passage is blocked by pressing tongue tip against the alveolar ridge
(alveolar).
/ŋ/ – “going” and “funk” – Oral passage is blocked by pressing the back of your tongue against the soft
palate (velar).
▪Lateral:
Lateral consonants are when the tongue shuts off the middle of your mouth so that air has to pass
around the sides.
/l/ – “luck”- place the tip of the tongue at the alveolar ridge (alveolar).
Stop
▪Stop or Plosive:
Like nasal consonants, stop consonants happen when the vocal tract is closed completely. But for stops,
the airflow is NOT redirected through the nose. Instead, the air quickly builds up pressure behind the
articulators and then releases in a burst.
/p/ – purse and rap – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).
/b/ – “back” and “cab” – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).
/t/ – “tab” and “rat” – oral passage is blocked by pressing the tongue tip against the alveolar ridge
(alveolar).
/d/ – “dip” and “bad” – oral passage is blocked by pressing the tongue tip against the alveolar ridge
(alveolar).
/k/ – “kite” and “back” – block airflow with the back of the tongue against the soft palate (velar).
/g/ – “good” and “bug” – block airflow with the back of the tongue against the soft palate (velar).
▪Approximant:
Approximants are when two articulators come near together but not quite close sufficient to establish
air turbulence. The occurring sound is additional like a rapid vowel than anything else.
For example, the /w/ approximant is like a fast /u/ sound (say /u/ + /aɪ/ really fast and you get the word
“why”). Notice how your tongue never actually comes in contact with the top of your mouth.
/w/ – “wet” and “Howard” – back of tongue raises to velum (but not too close!) and lips are rounded
(velar)
/j/ – “yes” and “bayou” – tongue raises to the hard palate (but not too close!) (Palatal)
/ɹ/ – “right” and “roar” – tongue raises to the hard palate (but not too close) (alveolar/post-alveolar).
▪Affricate:
When stop consonants mix with fricative consonants, the result is an affricate consonant. Affricate
consonants start as stop sounds with air building up behind an articulator which then releases through a
narrow channel as a fricative (instead of a clean burst as stops do).
/tʃ/ – “chick” and “match” – air is blocked with tongue just beyond the alveolar ridge (post-alveolar),
then released as a fricative.
/dʒ/ – “jam” and “badge” – air is blocked with tongue just beyond the alveolar ridge (post-alveolar),
then released as a fricative.
▪Trill:
Trills are consonants in which the tongue or lips are set in motion by the airstream.
⚪Vowels(voiceless or voiced).
Vowels are produced by the passage of air through the larynx and the vocal tract. Most vowels are
voiced(i.e. the vocal folds are vibrating). Except in some marginal cases, the vocal tract is open, so that
the airstream is able to escape without generating fricative noise.
◾Acoustic phonetics: method of speech sounds are sent from originator to felt.Acoustic phonetics is the
study of the physical properties of speech, and aims to analyse sound wave signals that occur within
speech through varying frequencies, amplitudes and durations.
One way we can analyse the acoustic properties of speech sounds is through looking at
a waveform. Pressure changes can be plotted on a waveform, which highlights the air particles being
compressed and rarefied, creating sound waves that spread outwards. A tuning fork being struck can
provide an example of the pressure fluctuations in the air and how the air particles oscillate (move in
one direction rhythmically) when we perceive sound.Some acoustic
🔹Some acoustic :
•Frequency vs Amplitude
•Sine Waves vs Complex Waves
•Periodic vs Aperiodic sound waves
•Spectrograms
•Transients vs Continuous sounds
•Voicing on a spectrogram
◾Auditory phonetics: method of speech sounds are felt.
Auditory phonetics is a department of phonetics concerned with the hearing of speech sounds and
with speech perception. It thus encompasses the study of the relationships between speech bases and a
listener’s responses to such bases as reconciled by mean of the peripheral and central auditory systems,
including certain cortical regions of the brain.