PHONETICS : A SIMPLE INTRODUCTION

Introduction:

The secret behind human ability to speak amazed inquisitive minds for countless of
years. And out grew from this bewilderment a number of linguistics studies like
phonetics, phonology, morphology, semantics etc.
Phonetics is a discipline of linguistics that focuses on the study of the sounds used
in speech. Generally, it is said that phonetics deals with physical and physiological
aspects of speech production.

Definition:

Phonetics, the science devoted to the physical analysis of the sounds of human
speech, including their production, transmission, and perception. A pure science
connected to acoustics and anatomy, phonetics is concerned with the accurate
description of speech sounds as sounds, rather than with the way languages divide
sounds up into meaningful units (this being the domain of phonology).

Origin:

Although phonetics might seem like a relatively obscure area of study, it has a
surprisingly long history. Approximately 2,500 years ago, ancient Indian
grammarian Panini documented the articulation of consonants in his treatise on the
Sanskrit language.

Three main areas of phonetics:

Within phonetics, there are three main areas of analysis:

• Auditory Phonetics: The study of speech perception and how the brain forms
perceptual representations of the input it receives during the course of
communication.
• Articulatory Phonetics: The study of the positions and movements of the
lips, tongue, vocal tract, and other speech organs.
• Acoustic Phonetics: The study of the properties of the sound waves and how
they are perceived by the inner ear.