Phonetics is the study of how human beings produce and perceive speech sounds. Phonetics is a discipline of linguistics that focuses on the study of the sounds used in speech. It is not concerned with the meaning of these sounds, the order in which they are placed, or any other factor outside of how they are produced and heard, and their various properties. This discipline is closely related to phonology, which focuses on how sounds are understood in a given language, and semiotics, which looks at symbols themselves.
Phonetics, Linguistics - Photo: illustration
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The field of articulatory phonetics is a subfield of phonetics. In studying articulation, phoneticians explain how humans produce speech sounds via the interaction of different physiological structures.
Generally, articulatory phonetics is concerned with the transformation of aerodynamic energy into acoustic energy. Aerodynamic energy refers to the airflow through the vocal tract. Its potential form is air pressure; its kinetic form is the actual dynamic airflow. Acoustic energy is variation in the air pressure that can be represented as sound waves, which are then perceived by the human auditory system as sound.
The two classes of sounds
Sounds of all languages fall under two categories: Consonants and Vowels.
Consonants
All consonants may be classified as either voiced or voiceless. In articulating a voiced consonant, the vocal cords are vibrating. (The vibration may easily be felt by gripping the larynx--the "Adam's apple"--between the fingers and the thumb while articulating the consonant.) In articulating an unvoiced consonant, the vocal cords are not vibrating.
Present-Day English has several consonant pairs that are articulated alike except that one is voiced and the other is unvoiced. Some examples are the phoneme spelled b in bat (voiced) and the phoneme spelled p in pat (unvoiced); the phoneme spelled d in dab (voiced) and the phoneme spelled t in tab (unvoiced); the phoneme spelled th in this (voiced) and the phoneme spelled th in thistle (unvoiced).
Consonants may also be classified according to the manner of articulation and the point of articulation: that is, how and where the flow of air is stopped or impeded when the consonant is articulated. Thus, we get the following systems of classification.
Present-Day English has several consonant pairs that are articulated alike except that one is voiced and the other is unvoiced. Some examples are the phoneme spelled b in bat (voiced) and the phoneme spelled p in pat (unvoiced); the phoneme spelled d in dab (voiced) and the phoneme spelled t in tab (unvoiced); the phoneme spelled th in this (voiced) and the phoneme spelled th in thistle (unvoiced).
Consonants may also be classified according to the manner of articulation and the point of articulation: that is, how and where the flow of air is stopped or impeded when the consonant is articulated. Thus, we get the following systems of classification.
Vowels
Nasal vowel / Oral vowel
Previous Vowel / Later Vowel
Rounded vowel / Unrounded vowel
Open vowel / Closed vowel
Place or point of articulation
One of the differences between consonants and vowels is that when we articulate vowels, the airstream flows out freely along the middle of the tongue. When we articulate consonants on the other hand, we make some kind of obstruction in the speech organs, which prevents the air from flowing out freely. These obstructions may be made with for example some part of the tongue touching or approaching the roof of the mouth, or with the lips touching each other or the upper teeth, or by making an obstruction between the vocal chords. The parts of the speech organs which are involved in articulating consonants (tip of the tongue, lips, palate, teeth, vocal chords etc.) are called articulators.
Manner of articulation
Manners of articulation describe the kind of obstruction that takes place in articulation of the consonant in question.
Fricatives
If there is a very narrow opening between the articulators, which gives rise to audible friction when the air passes, the consonants in question are called fricatives. In other words, fricatives are consonants that are formed by impeding the flow of air somewhere in the vocal apparatus so that a friction-sound is produced. Because of the way the flow of breath is heard in producing fricatives, fricatives are also called spirants. Fricatives may be voiced (vocal cords vibrating during the articulation of the fricative) or voiceless (vocal cords not vibrating during the articulation of the fricative). Here is a list of the fricatives in Present-Day English.
1. /f/ (the phoneme spelled f in fine): voiceless labiodental fricative.
2. /v/ (the phoneme spelled v in vine): voiced labiodental fricative.
3. /q/ (the phoneme spelled th in thistle): voiceless interdental fricative.
4. /ð/ (the phoneme spelled th in this): voiced interdental fricative.
5. /s/ (the phoneme spelled s in sue): voiceless alveolar fricative.
6. /z/ (the phoneme spelled z in zoo): voiced alveolar fricative.
7. /s/ (the phoneme spelled sh in shore): voiceless alveopalatal fricative.
8. /z/ (the phoneme spelled z in azure): voiced alveopalatal fricative.
9. /h/ (the phoneme spelled h in hot): voiceless fricative, produced at various points depending upon the vowels in the vicinity. For example, in hot, /h/ is velar, whereas in heat, /h/ is alveopalatal.
The parts of the human vocal apparatus
that are relevant to the description of English phonemes
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