PHONETICS The Core of Linguistics Phonetics Speech sounds

PHONETICS The Core of Linguistics

Phonetics Speech sounds are produced by human beings. Then transmitted through the medium of air in the form of sound waves, and finally they reach and are received by the human ear and perceived in the mind. speaker Sound waves listener

-The study of the last stage, i. e. the study of the way listeners perceive human sounds, is called auditory phonetics. -The study of the second stage, i. e. the physical characteristics of the sound itself through its passage in the air, is called acoustic phonetics. -Neither of these studies is the linguist’s concern, nor are they our concern in the course.

We are concerned only with the first stage, i. e. the production of sounds, the study of which is called articulatory phonetics.

Phonetics and phonology Deal with the sounds of languages Phonetics is concerned with the ways speech sounds are made, their nature (the physics of sound waves) and how they are perceived Let’s keep in mind that we are interested only in the production of these sounds.

Phonology is concerned with the ways sounds are patterned in a language, with those characteristics that are significant in the sound system of the language.

It is generally accepted that the individual human sounds are meaningless in themselves. When they are strung together in certain patterns in a accordance with certain rules, they become meaningful in the speech community in which a particular language is spoken. This is the focus of phonology, which will be dealt with in the future.

Consonants and Vowels Human sounds are usually divided into two categories : vowels & consonants. Vowel sounds are produced by allowing the airstream coming from the lungs to flow, through narrowed and vibrating vocal cords, into cavities lying above them.

What characterizes vowel sounds is the fact that in producing them, there is no obstruction to, or even interruption of, the air stream. As far as vibration is concerned, any vowel sound is produced, they are all voiced. English vowels (Alphabets): ( a, e, i, o, u )

Diphthongs (Complex Vowels • Complex because they are two -part vowels • But count as a single sound because two vowels are articulated together. Examples: [ɑɪ] =bite [ɔɪ] = boy [eɪ]= bait

Consonant sounds are produced when the flow of air is fully obstructed, interrupted or restricted in different places above the larynx.

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