Phonetics

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. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs (phones): their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory perception, and neurophysiological status.

Phonetics as a research discipline has three main branches:

Articulatory phonetics: the articulation of speechArticulatory .                                                      phonetics refers to the aspects of  phonetics which looks at how the sounds of speech are made with the organ s of the vocal tract.

    Articulary phonetics can be seen as divided up intro three areas to describe consonants. These are voice , place and manner respectively. Each  of this will now be  discussed separately, although all three areas combine together  in the production of speech.

1. Voice .    In  english we have voice and voicless sounds. A sounds fit into  one of these categories acording to how the vocal folds  behave when  a speech sound is produced. 

       a. Voiced: voiced sounds are sounds  that involve vocal fold vibrations when they are produced. Examples of voiced  sounds are /b,d,v,m/.
        b. Voiceless:  voiceless sounds are sounds that are produced with  no vocal fold  vibration . Examples of voiceless sounds in english  are /s, t, p, f/.

   2. place

       The vocal tract is made up of different sections , which  play a pivotal role in the production of speech. These sections are called articulators and are what make speech sounds possible. They  can be divided into two types.

   3. Manner

       In simple terms, the manner of articulation refers to the way a sound is made, as opposed to where it's made. Sounds differ in the way they are produced. When the articulators are brought towards each other, the flow of air differs according to the specific sound type. For intance, the airflow can be completely blocked of or made turbulent. 

Acoustic phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech, and aims to analyse sound wave signals that occur within speech through varying frequencies , amplitudes and durations. One way  we can analyse the acoustic properties  of speech sounds is through looking at a waveform. Pressure changes can be plotted on a waveform ,  which  highlights the air particles  being comressed and rarefied ,creating sound waves that spread outwards. A tuning fork being struck can provide on example of the pressure fluctuations in the air and how the air particles oscillate ( move in one direction rhythmically) when we perceive sound. Articulatory phonetics: the articulation of speech

Some acoustic analysis:

• Frequency vs amplitude
• Sine waves vs complex waves
• Periodic vs aperiodic aound waves
• Spectrograms 
• Transients vs continuous sounds