Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies the sounds of human speech, or
in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of
sign. Phoneticians—linguists who specialize in phonetics—study the
physical properties of speech. The field of phonetics is traditionally divided
into three sub-disciplines based on the research questions involved such as how
humans plan and execute movements to produce speech (articulatory
phonetics), how different movements affect the properties of
the resulting sound (acoustic phonetics), or how
humans convert sound waves to linguistic information (auditory phonetics). Traditionally,
the minimal linguistic unit of phonetics is the phone—a speech sound in a language—which differs from
the phonological unit of phoneme; the phoneme is an abstract categorization of
phones.
Phonetics
broadly deals with two aspects of human speech: production—the ways humans make
sounds—and perception—the way speech is understood. The modality of
a language describes the method by which a language produces and perceives
languages. Languages with oral-aural modalities such as English produce speech
orally (using the mouth) and perceive speech aurally (using the ears). Many
sign languages such as Auslan have a manual-visual modality and produce speech
manually (using the hands) and perceive speech visually (using the eyes), while
some languages like American Sign have manual-manual dialect for use in tactile signing by deaf blind speakers
where signs are produced with the hands and perceived with the hands as well.
Language
production consists of several interdependent processes which transform a
nonlinguistic message into a spoken or signed linguistic signal. After
identifying a message to be linguistically encoded, a speaker must select the
individual words—known as lexical items—to represent that message in a process called
lexical selection. During phonological encoding, the mental representation of
the words is assigned their phonological content as a sequence of phonemes to be produced. The phonemes are specified
for articulatory features which denote particular goals such as closed lips or
the tongue in a particular location. These phonemes are then coordinated into a
sequence of muscle commands that can be sent to the muscles, and when these
commands are executed properly the intended sounds are produced.
These
movements disrupt and modify an airstream which results in a sound wave. The
modification is done by the articulators, with different places and manners of
articulation producing different acoustic results. For example, the words tack and sack both
begin with alveolar sounds in English, but differ in how far the tongue is from
the alveolar ridge. This difference has large effects on the air stream and
thus the sound that is produced. Similarly, the direction and source of the
airstream can affect the sound. The most common airstream mechanism is
pulmonic—using the lungs—but the glottis and tongue can also be used to produce
airstreams.
Language
perception is the process by which a linguistic signal is decoded and
understood by a listener. In order to perceive speech the continuous acoustic
signal must be converted into discrete linguistic units such as phonemes, morphemes, and words. In order to correctly identify and categorize
sounds, listeners prioritize certain aspects of the signal that can reliably
distinguish between linguistic categories. While certain cues are prioritized
over others, many aspects of the signal can contribute to perception. For
example, though oral languages prioritize acoustic information, the McGurk effect shows
that visual information is used to distinguish ambiguous information when the
acoustic cues are unreliable.
Modern
phonetics has three main branches:
·
Auditory phonetics which
studies the way listeners perceive and understand linguistic signals (Reception
and Perception
The first
known phonetic studies occurred in the Indic subcontinent during
the 6th century BCE, among which was Hindu scholar Pāṇini's articulatory description of voicing, though
this pioneering work was primarily concerned with the relationship between
written Vedic texts and spoken vernacular languages. With the advent of modern
phonetics in the 19th century CE, the focus of scholarship shifted to the
physical properties of speech itself. Before the widespread availability of
recording devices, phoneticians relied upon phonetic transcription systems to collect and share data.
Some systems, such as the International
Phonetic Alphabet are still in wide use among phoneticians.
Assignment
1. Explain
the term, Phonetics and its related
branches.
2. Analyze
the following terms with relevant examples.
a.
Speech organs with a diagram
b. Air
streams
c.
Vowels
d. Consonants
e.
Diphthongs
f.
Triphthongs
g.
Voiced sounds
h. Voiceless
sounds
i.
International Phonetic Alphabet with a table
Both
questions should be included in the same assignment. Refer to the web sites and
books related. (Minimum 06 pages/ Maximum 10 pages)
Make a
list of books you referred to and web sites you visited regarding this
assignment.
Examples:
References:
2 Aloysius,
M. (2015), Problems of English teaching
in Sri Lanka: How they affect teaching efficacy, Bedfordshire, University
of Bedfordshire
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