Phonetics is the science of spoken language or speech. Phonetics was originally a sub-discipline of linguistics, the science of the written language and involves investigations of the processes of speaking and hearing.

The phonetic sciences investigate: the way speech is produced (articulatory phonetics), the specific characteristics of speech sounds (acoustic phonetics), and the processes that make it possible to perceive sounds as speech and interpret them as words and sentences (perceptual or auditory phonetics).

Articulatory phonetics is concerned with processes involved in speech production, including planning and execution of vocal tract configurations necessary to produce speech. In order to understand how different speech sounds are produced, imaging methods are often employed. In addition to the observation of articulation in healthy speakers, articulatory disorders are examined in an effort to develop therapeutic methods.

In acoustic phonetics, physical properties of speech signals as sound waves are investigated. The relevant acoustic features of speech sounds and the relationship between articulation and the speech signal, as well as between acoustic signal and perception, are of concern.

The main focus of perceptual (or auditory) phonetics is the relationship between acoustic signals and the perceptual response to them, hence understanding anatomy and physiology of the ear is a prerequisite. Psychophysical and behavioural data are collected and analysed in studies of perceptual phonetics.

Phonology is different from phonetics in that it is not concerned with actual utterances but with sound systems in relation to the semantic systems of different languages. The rules that govern possible sound combinations are investigated in studies of phonology, e.g., the combination of the sounds 'vrst' is a word in Croatian (meaning 'type'), but not in English, due to the different phonological systems of these two languages.

Language-general phonetic and language-specific phonological knowledge is applied to automatic speech recognition, speech synthesis, telecommunication, forensic speaker identification, and speech therapy.

Recommended Text Book

Hardcastle, William J.; & Laver, John (Eds.). (1997). The handbook of phonetic sciences. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers

Summary Written By

Barbara Schwanhaeusser MARCS Auditory Laboratories, University of Western Sydney
Email: b.schwanhaeusser@uws.edu.au
Webpage: http://marcs.uws.edu.au/people/schwanhaeusser/