Phonetics

Phonetics is the study of the physical sounds of human speech — how they are produced, transmitted, and perceived.

Scope

It covers articulatory, acoustic, and auditory phonetics, phonetic transcription, and the description of the sounds of the world's languages.

Core questions

• How are speech sounds produced by the vocal tract?
• What are the acoustic properties of speech?
• How are speech sounds perceived?
• How can sounds be transcribed and compared across languages?

Key concepts

• Articulatory phonetics
• Acoustic phonetics
• IPA transcription
• Place and manner of articulation
• Cardinal vowels
• Speech perception

Key theories

Systematic phonetic description

Jones advanced the systematic description and transcription of speech sounds (e.g., cardinal vowels).

Linguistic phonetics

Ladefoged grounded phonetics in instrumental measurement and its relation to phonological theory.

History

Modern phonetics developed from nineteenth-century articulatory description and the International Phonetic Alphabet, through instrumental acoustic phonetics, to laboratory phonology integrating phonetics with phonological theory.

Debates

Phonetics versus phonology

Where physical sound description ends and abstract sound-system analysis begins.

Key figures

• Daniel Jones
• Peter Ladefoged

Seminal works

• jones-1917
• ladefoged-1971

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between phonetics and phonology?

Phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sounds; phonology studies how sounds function in the system of a particular language.