What Are Phonetics and Phonology?
Phonetics is the scientific study of speech sounds—their production (articulatory), transmission (acoustic), and perception (auditory). It answers questions like: How do we make sounds? What physical properties do they have?
Phonology, by contrast, studies how sounds function within a particular language or languages. It examines patterns, rules, and systems that govern sound combinations and changes.
Branches of Phonetics
- Articulatory Phonetics: How speech sounds are made using the vocal tract.
- Acoustic Phonetics: The physical properties of sound waves produced in speech.
- Auditory Phonetics: How listeners perceive and process speech sounds.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
The IPA is a standardized system for representing the sounds of spoken language. It allows linguists to transcribe any human speech sound consistently.
Example: The English word "ship" is transcribed as [ʃɪp], while "sheep" is [ʃiːp].
Phonemes vs. Allophones
A phoneme is an abstract sound unit that can distinguish meaning in a language (e.g., /p/ vs. /b/ in "pat" vs. "bat").
An allophone is a variant of a phoneme that doesn’t change meaning (e.g., the aspirated [pʰ] in "pin" vs. unaspirated [p] in "spin" in English).
Why Study Phonology and Phonetics?
- Essential for language learning and teaching.
- Crucial in speech therapy and pathology.
- Fundamental to natural language processing (NLP) and voice recognition technology.
- Helps preserve endangered languages through accurate documentation.