N. V. Tatsenko introduction to theoretical phonetics of english

Phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are made, transmitted, and received, i. e. it is the study of all possible speech sounds: the nature of these noises, their combinations, and their functions in relation to the meaning [Врабель 2009, p. 5]. The term phonetics comes from the Greek word фюур (phone) meaning sound, voice. Thus, it is the science of speech sounds considered as elements of language. Phonetics is a basic branch of linguistics: neither linguistic theory nor linguistic practice can do without phonetics and no language description is complete without phonetics - the science concerned with the spoken medium of language.
The two basic tasks of phonetics are the transcription and the classification of sounds. Phonetics began to be developed as a science in the 19^th century. The factors that stimulated its development were as follows:
• a more thorough acquaintance with the functioning of the human speaking apparatus;

• 
  investigations of many linguists who studied languages that had no alphabets;
  
• 
  compiling alphabets for such languages.
  

Phonetics is subdivided into practical and theoretical.
Theoretical phonetics applies the theories worked out by
general phonetics to the language it analyses. It is mainly concerned with the functioning of phonetic units in the language as a system.
Practical or normative phonetics studies the substance, the material form of phonetic phenomena in relation to meaning. Practical phonetics (applied phonetics) deals with functioning of phonetic units in speech. It is connected with all the practical applications of phonetics, which are especially important when learning a certain language.
Theoretical phonetics is itself divided into two major components: segmental phonetics, which is concerned with individual sounds (i. e. "segments" of speech) and suprasegmental phonetics (supra - something above) whose domain is the larger units of connected speech: syllables, words, rhythmic units, phrases, intonation groups, and texts. Suprasegmental system always exists with the segmental