Phonetics Resources by Subtopic!

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What is phonetics?

Phonetics, in summary, is a study of the base speech sounds in a language. What makes it different from phonology is that this field looks into how these sounds are conceptualized by themselves (that is to say, sounds that are abstracted from the environment of surrounding speech sounds. Phonology, on the other hand, centers around the interaction of sounds with each other in a particular language's structure system.

There are three main subfields within phonetics as a research field: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and auditory phonetics. In order to properly understand all of these fields, it is imperative that students learn the International Phonetic Alphabet and how to use it to transcribe speech sounds. A basic explanation of the IPA is available in this section below.

Articulatory phonetics

In a nutshell, the field of articulatory phonetics primarily focuses on the anatomical structures behind speech sounds and how the vocal tract works together to create said sounds. The vocal tract itself can be broken down into a variety of different components, as seen here:

The position in which these parts of the vocal tract, or "articulators", sit will determine the type of speech sound that is produced. For example, the lips, a pair of two articulators, may restrict air from being released or allow air to flow freely. Each combination of articulations will result in a different sound. The articulations themselves can be organized into three groups: voicing, place, and manner.

Voicing is the most simple distinction to understand for many new phonetics students. It is the simple vibration or lack thereof of the vocal chords. A great way of determining whether or not a sound is voiced is to rest your hand or finger on your throat as you make the sound. Do you hear the hum? If so, the sound you just made is a voiced sound! Important to note is that all vowels are voiced, but not all consonants are voiced. For example, [s], the simple "s" sound in English, is the voiceless counterpart to [z], the English "z" sound. The [b] sound is the voiced counterpart to [p], [ʃ] (the English "shh" sound) is the voiceless counterpart to [ʒ] (the "jjzzhhhh" sound in words like "measure"), and so on and so forth!

Very important to sound production is the manner in which the sound is produced. There are a wide variety of ways in which articulators meet each other in the mouth to "shape" airflow by restricting it. Speech sounds are generally split into two categories depending on whether or not they restrict airflow heavily or not. "Obstruents" restrict this airflow and include fricatives (sounds in which the airflow is forced through a narrow channel), plosives (sounds in which the airflow is blocked entirely and subsequently released in a burst; also known as "stops"), and affricates (a sound that begins as a stop and eventually shifts into a fricative). "Sonorants", on the other hand, are produced with continuous airflow in the vocal tract and include vowels and semi-vowels, nasal consonants (sounds in which the airflow is redirected through the nasal cavity by the velum), and liquid consonants (broadly speaking, the "l" and "r" sounds). Using the IPA Chart that I have attached below, students can discern which sounds are made with each manner of articulation.

Lastly, important to know is the place in which the speech sound is made in the vocal tract. This is where the previously-mentioned articulators come into play the most. Some articulators are "passive"; that is to say, they cannot move voluntarily. These can include the hard and soft palate, the uvula, the alveolar ridge, the upper lip, the upper teeth, and the epiglottis. In turn, the "active" articulators such as the lower lip and teeth, the tongue, and the glottis will move to meet the "passive" ones. The place of articulation describes where these articulators meet, and this is noted in the descriptive indentifying names that linguistics give the sound; for example, the [t] sound is made with the tongue meeting the alveolar ridge. In addition to this, it is a plosive because it requires a restriction and release of air. However, voicing from the vocal chords would result in the production of a [d] sound. So therefore, we can identify the phoneme [t] as being a voiceless alveolar plosive/stop.

Acoustic phonetics

Acoustic phonetics is the branch of phonetics most closely related to physics. It is the study of the actual soundwaves and their frequencies. Because it is so physics-heavy, I am willing to admit that it is not my strong suit. Therefore, I am going to hold off on fully fleshing out this section until after I have a better grasp on physics. Apologies!

Auditory phonetics

Transcription and the IPA

Phonetic transcription utilizes the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to denote pronunciation in a manner that is universally understood. Each sound has a corresponding letter in the IPA. It gives linguists a standard upon which they can analyze speech sounds and write them out, simply put. It is particularly important for languages that have multiple sounds represented by a single letter (for example: the American English "a" has different pronunciations based on the word. The "a" in the word "apple" (represented by the phoneme [æ]) is pronounced differently than the "a" sound in "vacation" (represented by the phoneme [e]). The creation of these phonemes allows for a universal understanding of pronunciation from a linguistics perspective.

Below you can see the most well-known version of the IPA chart.

This chart not only allows the pronunciation of certain words to be rendered explicit, but it allows linguists to better explain certain differences between dialects, registers, etc. between individuals and groups. The IPA is essential to know, and using it to transcribe words comes with lots of practice and memorization.

Natural Classes

Natural classes are loose groupings of speech sounds that share at least one common characteristic. For example, the phonemes [t], [p], and [k] all belong to the natural class of "voiceless stops". Another natural class may be the vowels [i] and [u], which form the natural class of "high vowels". Below is a chart showing the typical and broad classifications of speech sounds in the IPA.

Diacritics

Oftentimes in phonetics and phonology, linguists will need to provide the most detail possible when analyzing speech segments. For this, diacritics come into play. They can denote stress, nasalization, aspiration, palatalization, and more variants in speech that would be unnacounted for if only phonemes were just used. These diacritics, when combined with attention to positional variants and other phonological rules, are what separate broad transcription from narrow transcription. The complete list of diacritics can be seen at the bottom of the IPA chart above.

Examples of transcription (in American English)

Broad transcription:

• "Phonetics": [fənɛtɪks]
• "English": [ɪŋlɪʃ]
• "Palatal": [pælətəl]