Phonetics and Phonology Comparison

Jamil M. Osorio Lopez S00700772

ENGL-310: English Phonetics

Universidad Ana G. Méndez

Recinto de Cupey

Prof. Rubén Lebrón León

 Phonetics and Phonology Comparison

In this comparison piece we will be talking about two subfields of linguistics, phonetics,

and phonology. Phonetics deals with the production of speech sounds by humans, often without

prior knowledge of the language being spoken. Phonology is about patterns of sounds, especially

different patterns of sounds in different languages, or within each language, different patterns of

sounds in different positions in words (Lass R., 1984). These are both very crucial in

understanding the nuance of any language and how it operates.

Phonetics is the study and classification of speech sounds. It is concerned with the

physical properties of sounds (Hasa, 2016). To put it simply, phonetics deals with how sounds

are produced, transmitted, and received. These can be classified as articulatory, acoustic, and

auditory phonetics. Articulatory studies the production of sound by the vocal tract of the speaker,

acoustic deals with its physical transmission and auditory with the reception and perception of

the listener (Hasa, 2016). In essence, phonetics deal with the more biological aspect of speech.

This is also affected by our native language as some sounds may appear in some languages but

not in others.

Phonology is the system of contrastive relationships among the speech sounds that

constitute the fundamental components of a language (Hasa, 2016). In simple terms, phonology

studies sound and its patterns that appear in different languages. It studies how different sounds

are combined together to form words, dealing with an inventory of sounds and the rules which

dictate how they interact with each other. We learn to reproduce the sound patterns in our native
language from the birth itself (Hasa, 2016). This means that some sounds might not have any

relevance or appear at all depending on our native tongue.

Phonetics and phonology differ in that phonetics studies the production of sounds, and

phonology studies the combination of sounds. (Espinoza E, 2022) states that phonetics can be

used to explore the sounds that are used in any language, but phonology looks at only one

language at a time. In this case we can see that phonetics ends up doing more of descriptive

linguistic while phonology deals more with the theorical. Phonetics studies how sound is

produced, how it is transmitted and how we process it when we listen to it. Phonology studies the

different patterns that arise in different languages. Phonetics also does not study a particular

language while phonology can be concentrated on a specific one if need be.

In conclusion, in the fields of linguistics even though phonetics and phonology have a

common ground in the study of sound they approach it in different ways. Where phonetics deals

with a more biological descriptive approach, phonology deals with the more theorical and

societal aspect of it that can differ between the different native languages in the world. Both are

important and to be used together to better understand how words and speech is formed and

evolves throughout the years, and the changes that can lead to its evolution.
 References

 Hasa, 2016. Difference Between Phonetics and Phonology

https://pediaa.com/difference-between-phonetics-and-phonology/

 Espinoza E, 2022. What Is the Difference between Phonetics and Phonology?

https://www.languagehumanities.org/what-is-the-difference-between-phonetics-and-

phonology.htm

 Lass, R. (1984) Phonology: an introduction to basic concepts. Cambridge University

Press.