Why Phonetics? Why Phonology?

An Overview
1.1 Defining Phonetics and Phonology

Phonetics and phonology are two subfields of linguistics that study the sounds of
language. While both fields are concerned with the sounds of language, they differ in their
scope and focus. Phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds.
It is concerned with how speech sounds are produced, transmitted, and perceived by the
human auditory system.

Phonology, on the other hand, is the study of the abstract, mental representations
of speech sounds that are used by speakers of a language. It is concerned with the ways in
which speech sounds are organized and patterned in a language, and the rules that govern
their use.
Phonology deals with the sound patterns of a language at the level of mental
representations, rather than the physical properties of speech sounds.

While phonetics deals with the physical properties of speech sounds, phonology is
concerned with the mental categorization and patterning of those sounds.

1.2 Articulatory, acoustic and auditory phonetics

Phonetics is traditionally divided into three subfields: articulatory phonetics,

acoustic phonetics, and auditory phonetics.

Articulatory phonetics is concerned with the way speech sounds are produced
in the human vocal tract, including the movements and positioning of the articulators,
such as the lips, tongue, and jaw, that are used to produce speech sounds.
Articulatory phonetics uses techniques such as x-ray recordings and electromagnetic
articulography to study the movements of the articulators and to understand how
speech sounds are produced.

Acoustic phonetics is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds

as they are transmitted through the air. It is concerned with the way that speech
sounds are represented in the acoustic signal, including their frequency and
amplitude, and the way that they change over time. Acoustic phonetics uses
techniques such as spectrograms and acoustic analysis software to study the
acoustic properties of speech sounds.

Auditory phonetics is concerned with the way that speech sounds are
perceived by the human auditory system. It is concerned with the way that speech
sounds are transformed from the acoustic signal into a representation in the auditory
system, and the way that this representation is processed by the brain to form the
 perception of speech sounds. Auditory phonetics uses techniques such as
psychoacoustic experiments and brain imaging to study the way that speech sounds
are perceived by the human auditory system.

To sum up, we study phonetics and phonolgy to master the production of

different sounds of the language. One phoneme can change the whole meaning and,
especially in minimal pairs, bring us to a different word. For Example, bat and pat.

A lot of people have mastered a native English accent by studying phonetics

without even visiting a native English-speaking country.

Airstream mechanism
2.1 Defining airstream mechanism

In phonetics, the airstream mechanism is the method by which airflow is

created in the vocal tract. Along with phonation and articulation, it is one of three
main components of speech production. The airstream mechanism is mandatory for
most sound production and constitutes the first part of this process, which is called
initiation.

2.2 Types of airstream mechanism

Any of the three principal initiators − diaphragm, glottis or tongue − may act by either
increasing or decreasing the pressure generating the airstream. These changes in pressure
often correspond to outward and inward airflow, and are therefore termed egressive and
ingressive respectively.

Of these six resulting airstream mechanisms, four are found lexically around the world:

● pulmonic egressive, where the air is pushed out of the lungs by the ribs and
diaphragm. All human languages employ such sounds (such as vowels), and nearly
three out of four use them exclusively.
● glottalic egressive, where the air column is compressed as the glottis moves upward.
Such consonants are called ejectives. Ejective and ejective-like consonants occur in
16% of the languages.
● glottalic ingressive, where the air column is rarefied as the glottis moves downward.
Such consonants are called implosives. Implosive and implosive-like consonants
occur in 13% of the world's languages. Despite the name, the airstream may not
actually flow inward: While the glottis moves downward, pulmonic air passes outward
through it, but the reduction in pressure makes an audible difference to the sound.
● lingual ingressive, AKA velaric ingressive, where the air in the mouth is rarefied by a
downward and sometimes rearward movement of the tongue. These are the click
 consonants. Clicks are regular sounds in ordinary (i.e. lexical) words in fewer than
2% of the world's languages, all in Africa.
These mechanisms may be combined into airstream contours, such as clicks which release
into ejectives.

In interjections, the other two mechanisms may be employed. For example, in countries
as diverse as Sweden, Turkey, and Togo, a pulmonic ingressive ("gasped" or "inhaled")
vowel is used for back-channeling or to express agreement, and in France a lingual
egressive (a "spurt") is used to express dismissal. The only language where such sounds
are known to be contrastive in normal vocabulary is the extinct ritual language Damin (also
the only language outside Africa with clicks); however, Damin appears to have been
intentionally designed to differ from normal speech.

Articulation of Sound
3.1 What is articulation?
Articulation is the formation of clear and distinct sounds in speech. The
production of sounds involves the coordinated movement of your lips, tongue, teeth,
palate, and your respiratory system. Children will develop articulation skills as they
grow up. However, some children may need extra support with articulation.

3.2 The importance of articulation in speech

Everybody uses articulation every day. Without articulation, it would be difficult

to understand what someone is saying to you and conversations could be
misinterpreted. If someone has difficulty with the articulation of certain sounds, the
meaning of their sentence may change because of the way they say certain wordsIf
a child is struggling with articulation, a speech pathologist will be able to work with
them and support them to help them produce the sounds they struggle with.
 The Articulators in Combination
4.1 We know that humans produce speech by bringing air from the lungs
through the larynx, where the vocal folds might or might not vibrate. That airflow is
then shaped by the articulators.

This image is called a sagittal section. It depicts the inside of your head as if we
sliced right between your eyes and down the middle of your nose and mouth. This
angle gives us a good view of the parts of the vocal tract that are involved in filtering
airflow to produce speech sounds.
 Let’s start at the front of your mouth, with your lips. If you make the sound
“aaaaa” then round your lips, the sound of the vowel changes. We can also use our
lips to block the flow of air completely, like in the consonants [b] and [p]. We also use
our teeth to shape airflow. They don’t do much on their own, but we can place the tip
of the tongue between the teeth, for sounds like [θ] and [ð]. Or we can bring the top
teeth down against the bottom lip for [f] and [v].

If you put your finger in your mouth and tap the roof of your mouth, you’ll find
that it’s bony. That is the hard palate. English doesn’t have very many palatal
sounds, but we do raise the tongue towards the palate for the glide [j]. Now from
where you have your finger on the roof of your mouth, slide it forward towards your
top teeth. Before you get to the teeth, you’ll find a ridge, which is called the alveolar
ridge. If you use the tip of the tongue to block airflow at the alveolar ridge, you get
the sounds [t] and [d]. We also produce [l] and [n] at the alveolar ridge, and some
people also produce the sounds [s] and [z] with the tongue at the alveolar ridge
though there are other ways of making the [s] sound. When we block airflow in the
mouth but allow air to circulate through the nasal cavity, we get the nasal sounds [m]
[n] and [ŋ].

The articulator that you move to allow air into the nasal cavity is called the velum. You
might also know it as the soft palate. For sounds made in the mouth, the velum rests against
the back of the throat. But we can pull the velum away from the back of the throat and allow
air into the nose. We can also block airflow by moving the body of the tongue up against the
velum, to make the sounds [k] and [ɡ]. Farther back than the velum are the uvula and the
pharynx, but English doesn’t use these articulators in its set of speech sounds. Every
different configuration of the articulators leads to a different acoustic output.

Coarticulation
5.1 What is coarticulation?

Coarticulation is the way the brain organizes sequences of vowels and

consonants, interweaving the individual movements necessary for each into
one smooth whole. In fact, the process applies to all body movement, not just
speech, and is part of how homo sapiens works. It takes about a fifth of a
second to produce a syllable, or about a fifteenth or twentieth of a second for
each consonant or vowel. Now it turns out it takes a little longer than that to
move the lips, tongue and jaw for each vowel and consonant. So what is
happening?
 The brain coordinates these individual articulator movements in a very
ingenious way, such that movements needed for adjacent vowels and
consonants are produced simultaneously. This results in speech being
produced very smoothly. At the same time it spreads out acoustic information
about a vowel or consonant and helps a listener understand what is being
said. Speech coarticulation is also a very important part of the special code
that enables us to speak at five syllables a second.

● For example, suppose you say the word happy on its own:
● Before you say anything, you will start breathing out, and you will have
moved your tongue into position for a and started opening your mouth for
a
● Then, while you are hissing for h, it will sound a bit like a whispered a
● When you stop hissing for h, you will turn your voice on for a
● When you start saying a, you will continue opening your mouth for a
● Once your mouth is fully open for a, you will start closing it again, and your
lips, for pp
● As your lips meet, you will switch your voice off for pp
● While your lips are together for pp, you will be moving your tongue from
where you had it for a towards where you need it for y
● As you separate your lips from pp, you will let a tiny puff of air escape
between them
● As the puff ends you will turn your voice on for y
● While you start saying y, you will continue to move your tongue to where
you need it for y and continue opening your lips after pp
● Once your tongue is in position for y, you will keep it there
● Once your done with y you will switch your voice off, move your tongue
away from y, and start breathing in
● The whole word will usually be uttered in less than half a second
References:

Airstream mechanism, an article on Wikipedia.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airstream_mechanism

Why should a language student study phonetics and phonology?

https://www.quora.com/Why-should-a-language-student-study
-phonetics-and-phonology?top_ans=207989390

Kinnuverse » Culture » Linguistics: An Overview » Phonetics and

phonology
https://kinnu.xyz/kinnuverse/culture/linguistics/phonetics-and-phonology/

Anderson, Catherine. “2.2 Articulators.” Pressbooks.pub, 15

Mar. 2018,
pressbooks.pub/essentialsoflinguistics/chapter/2-3-articulators
/.

David Wenenink, Paul Berosma. “What Is Coarticulation.” SWPhonetics,

SWPhonetics, 17 Dec. 2011, swphonetics.com/coarticulation/whatcoart/.