Phonetics: Group 1: Mariecon M Canceran
Phonetics: Group 1: Mariecon M Canceran
Group 1:
MARIECON M CANCERAN
The study of the production and
perception of speech sounds is a
branch of linguistics called
''phonetics'', studied by
''phoneticians''. The study of how
languages treat these sounds is
called ''phonology'', covered in
the next chapter. While these two
fields have considerable overlap,
it should soon become clear that
they differ in important ways.
Phonetics is the systematic study of the
human ability to make and hear sounds
which use the vocal organs of speech,
especially for producing oral language. It is
usually divided into the three branches of (1)
articulatory, (2) acoustic and (3) auditory
phonetics. It is also traditionally
differentiated from (though overlaps with)
the field of phonology, which is the formal
study of the sound systems (phonologies) of
languages, especially the universal
properties displayed in ALL languages, such
as the psycholinguistic aspects of
phonological processing and acquisition.
One of the most important tools
of phonetics and phonology is a
special alphabet called the
''International Phonetic Alphabet''
or ''IPA'', a standardized
representation of the sounds used
in human language.
In phonetics the most basic segments are called
''phones'', which may be defined as units in
speech which can be distinguished acoustically or
articulatorily. This definition allows for different
degrees of ''wideness''.<ref>A ''wide''
transcription of speech is one which records a
relatively large amount of information which is
irrelevant to meaning, while a ''narrow''
transcription is closer to a phonemic (see next
chapter) transcription.</ref> In many contexts
phones may be thought of as acoustic or
articulatory ''targets'' which may or may not be
fully reached in actual speech. Another, more
commonly used segment is the ''phoneme'', which
will be defined more precisely in the next chapter.
The International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA) is a system of
phonetic notation which provides
a standardized system of
transcribing phonetic segments
up to a certain degree of detail.
To understand the IPA's
taxonomy of phones, it is
important to consider
articulatory, acoustic, and
auditory phonetics.
Articulatory phonetics
Articulatory phonetics is
concerned with how the sounds
of language are physically
produced by the vocal apparatus.
The units articulatory phonetics
deals with are known as gestures,
which are abstract
characterizations of articulatory
events.
Consonants
Phoneticians generally characterize consonants as being
distinguished by settings of the independent variables
place of articulation (POA) and manner of articulation
(MOA). In layman's terminology, POA is "where" the
consonant is produced, while MOA is "how" the
consonant is produced.
The following are descriptions of the different POAs:
Acoustic phonetic
Acoustic phonetics deals with the physical medium of
speech -- that is, how speech manipulates sound waves.
Auditory phonetics
Auditory phonetics is a branch of phonetics concerned
with the hearing of speech sounds and with speech
perception.
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