Phonetics is the scientific study of the speech sounds of a language. It deals with the production, transmission and the reception of speech. It studies the medium of spoken language. Phonetics has been regarded now as a pure science because is studies speech sounds in a scientific way./ It study the speech organs which produce sounds of language, It studies waves in which sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another, and studies the way in which human being receive sounds through the medium of air.
Phonetics is thus the science of human sounds:
It teaches people how to organize the different sounds, which occur in the spoken form of any language, and to produce them from themselves.. It trains people to describe the many ways in which the tongue, lips and the other vocal functions in order to produce these sounds, it also provides training in methods of finding out about their physical characteristics. Someone who specializes in studying the phonetics features of language is called phonetician.
Definition:
According to English English Dictionary defines phonetics as a branch of acoustics concerned with speech process including its production, perception and acoustic analysis.
Branches of phonetics:
Phonetics has three major branches to discuss:
i. Articulatory Phonetics:
Articulatory phonetics is the investigation of how discourse sounds are verbalized. Articulatory phonetics is concerned with moments of speech organs in the production of speech. In this branch of phonetics the phonetician is interested in the way in which the air is set in motion. in the moments of speech organs and the coordination of the movements in the production of single sounds and sequence of sounds.
ii. Acoustic Phonetics:
Acoustics phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds as transmitted between the mouth and air. According to paul Skandera Acoustic studies the physical properties of speech sounds, for example :
The way in which the air vibrates as sound pass from speaker to listener.
In this branch of phonetics the mouth of the speaker and the air of the listener, The phonetics is interested in the way in which the air vibrates between the mouth of the speaker and the air of the listener. Complex sounds waves produced in the speech can be analyzes to find out their components.
iii. Auditory Phonetics:
Auditory phonetics is the study of the perceptual response to the speech sounds received by the ear, auditory nerve and the brain. It is the study of hearing reception of speech sounds. As per Paul Skandera " Hear-able phonetics explores the view of the speed sounds by the audience.
For example:
How the sounds are sent from the ear to the mind and how they are handled.
Thus, phonetics is more general and investigates scientifically the characteristics of speech sounds of any human language in the world. It studies the process of production, transmission and the reception of the sounds. It enables people to understand and describe the many ways in which the vocal organs function in order to produce these sounds.
Articulatory Phonetics
Articulatory phonetics is one of the three major branches of phonetics. It is concerned with the production, transmission and articulator of sounds. It studies the roles of speech organs, their movements and air-escape and the coordination of the movements in the production of single sounds and sequences of sound.
According to Paul Skandera Articulatory phonetic describe detail how the speech organs is also called vocal organs or articulator, in the vocal tract are used in the order to produce or articulator , speech sounds.
Articulatory phonetics studies the production of speech sounds which involves three process:
a. Initiation:
Initiation means to set air in motion through the vocal tract.
b. Phonation:
Phonation means the modification of air flow as it passes through the larynx.
c. Articulation:
Articulation means the shaping of airflow to generate particular sound type.
Vocal tract:
The development of any sound includes the development of air. Most speech sounds are produced by pushing air through lung air through the vocal cords up the throat, and in to the mouth or nose, and finally out of the body. When we open the mouth ew inhale the air air enter into the mouth than passed through the vocal tract and it also produce the sound. Different vocal tract shapes result in the differing sounds of language.
Articulatory phonetics describes in detail how the organs or articulators in the vocal tract are used in order to produce speech sounds.
Areas of Articulatory phonetics
Articulatory phonetics can be partitioned into three regions to depict consonants.
i. Voice:
A sound squeezes into one of these classes as per how the vocal folds act when a discourse sound is created.
a. Voiced sounds
b. Voicele4ss sounds
ii. Place of Articulator:
iii. Manner of Articulator:
Thus it is the study of the speech sounds which produce the language.