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Phonetics,Branches of Phonetics

Article in Language and Linguistics · June 2020

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Moududul Hoque
National University, Gazipur, Bangladesh
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°°Introduction to Linguistics.

°°°Phonetics°°°

Phonetics is a segment of linguistics that studies the characteristic of speech sounds and provides
methods for their narration, classification, and imitation. It is concerned with narrating the speech
sounds that are happy in the language of the world. This is a system in linguistics which vocation with
the imitation of sounds. These units are called phonemes. Phonetics is the scientific study of speech
sounds, that is described and categorizing human sounds, understanding the creation of sounds,
comparing and contrasting sounds diagonally language. Finding constraints and restriction of possible
human speech.

Phonetics deals with the sounds of speech and their production, combination, description, and
representation by written symbols.

💠Why Everyone Should Learn Phonetics: In today’s era, where communication influences an important
part in every area like teaching, corporates, education and much more, Important are how proper do we
communicate, how is our accent, are we sure enough. So, here are three explanations why you should
learn phonetics:-

🔹Makes you a genius at speaking-Phonetics boosts you in analyzing words and pronouncing it correctly.
It decreases mumbling and fumbling and supports in strengthening your confidence.

🔹Improves your fluency and accent-Fluency is how detailed you read the topic. Phonetics inculcate a
skill of analyzing a word and recognising it with the sound which with practice improves the fluency and
the accent.

🔹Helps in generating a reading habit-When one reads correctly, it gives enthusiasm and automatically
one is moved into that way.

💠Branches of Phonetics

Phonetics comprises of three main subfields according to the production (articulatory), transmission
(acoustic) and perception (auditive) of sounds. The three classifications of sounds must be recognised at
the outset: phones (human sounds), phonemes (units which distinguish meaning in a
language), allophones (non-distinctive units).

◾Articulatory phonetics: The technique of speech sounds are produced and a subfield of phonetics.
Articulatory phoneticians clarify how humans generate speech sounds through the interaction of
different physiological structures. Sounds can be divided into consonants and vowels. The former can be
characterised according to-

⚪Place of articulation

Active places of articulation:--

▪Exo-labial--Linguistics Of a feature of vowel rounding, in which the intersections of the mouth are
drawn barely together and the lips may be compressed horizontally, but the lips do not swell and only
their outer surface is exposed.

▪Endo--labial-In vastly languages this rounded vowel is pronounced with protruded lips.

▪Dental--made with the tongue touching the teeth.

▪Alveolar-- Formed with the tip of the tongue touching the internal ridge of the gums of the upper front
teeth.

▪Post-alveolar-- Any sound articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar cliff.

▪Palatal--produced with the front of the tongue near or touching the hard palate

▪Velar--produced with the back of the tongue touching or near the soft palate (as `k' in `cat' and `g' in
`gun' and `ng' in `sing').

▪Uvular--relating to the uvula.

▪Pharyngeal-- articulated in the back of the mouth or throat.

▪Glottal--A sound made with the glottis.

▪Epiglottal--Produced using the epiglottis(Uvula).

▪Radical--Produced using the root of the tongue.

▪Postero-dorsal--Relating to the back of the upper surface of an organ.

▪Antero-dorsal--There are two organs located anterodorsally, one on each side of the cephalon.

▪Laminal--Produced with the blade of the tongue.

▪Apical--Produced with the top of the tongue.

▪Sub-apical or sub-laminal.

⚪Manner of articulation:-Conscious the place of articulation is not sufficient to completely analyze a

consonant, the way in which the structure happens is equally important. Manners of articulation
describe how definitely the active articulator modifies, narrows or finishes.

▪Fricatives:
While nasal and stop consonants involve a complete blockage of the vocal tract, fricative sounds involve
only an unfair backup of the vocal tract so that air has to be compelled through a narrow tunnel.

For example, you create a /t/ stop consonant when you block airflow fully with your tongue against the
alveolar cliff. But if you let up with the tongue a little and let the air seep through, you make an
/s/ fricative consonant.

/f/ – “fro” and “calf“- air is forced through the upper teeth and lower lip (labiodental)

/v/ – “vine” and “have” – air is forced through the upper teeth and lower lip (labiodental)

/θ/ – “thick” and “bath” – air is forced through upper teeth and tongue (dental)

/ð/ – “the” and “rather” – air is forced through upper teeth and tongue (dental)

/s/ – “suit” and “bus” – air is forced through the tongue and alveolar ridge (alveolar)

/z/ – “zit” and “jazz” – air is forced through the tongue and alveolar ridge (alveolar)

/ʃ/ – “shot” and “brash” – air is forced through the tongue and point just beyond alveolar ridge (Post-
alveolar)

/ʒ/ – “vision” and “measure” – air is forced through the tongue and point just beyond alveolar ridge
(Post-alveolar)

/h/ – “happy” and “hope” – actually /h/ isn’t a fricative. It’s technically not even an actual consonant
sound since there’s no constriction/obstruction of airflow.

▪Nasal:

Nasal consonants are created when you completely block airflow through your mouth and let the air
pass through your nose.

/m/ – “mad” and “clam” – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).

/n/ – “no” and “man‘ – oral passage is blocked by pressing tongue tip against the alveolar ridge
(alveolar).

/ŋ/ – “going” and “funk” – Oral passage is blocked by pressing the back of your tongue against the soft
palate (velar).

▪Lateral:

Lateral consonants are when the tongue shuts off the middle of your mouth so that air has to pass
around the sides.

/l/ – “luck”- place the tip of the tongue at the alveolar ridge (alveolar).

Stop
▪Stop or Plosive:

Like nasal consonants, stop consonants happen when the vocal tract is closed completely. But for stops,
the airflow is NOT redirected through the nose. Instead, the air quickly builds up pressure behind the
articulators and then releases in a burst.

/p/ – purse and rap – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).

/b/ – “back” and “cab” – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).

/t/ – “tab” and “rat” – oral passage is blocked by pressing the tongue tip against the alveolar ridge
(alveolar).

/d/ – “dip” and “bad” – oral passage is blocked by pressing the tongue tip against the alveolar ridge
(alveolar).

/k/ – “kite” and “back” – block airflow with the back of the tongue against the soft palate (velar).

/g/ – “good” and “bug” – block airflow with the back of the tongue against the soft palate (velar).

▪Approximant:

Approximants are when two articulators come near together but not quite close sufficient to establish
air turbulence. The occurring sound is additional like a rapid vowel than anything else.

For example, the /w/ approximant is like a fast /u/ sound (say /u/ + /aɪ/ really fast and you get the word
“why”). Notice how your tongue never actually comes in contact with the top of your mouth.

/w/ – “wet” and “Howard” – back of tongue raises to velum (but not too close!) and lips are rounded
(velar)

/j/ – “yes” and “bayou” – tongue raises to the hard palate (but not too close!) (Palatal)

/ɹ/ – “right” and “roar” – tongue raises to the hard palate (but not too close) (alveolar/post-alveolar).

▪Affricate:

When stop consonants mix with fricative consonants, the result is an affricate consonant. Affricate
consonants start as stop sounds with air building up behind an articulator which then releases through a
narrow channel as a fricative (instead of a clean burst as stops do).

/tʃ/ – “chick” and “match” – air is blocked with tongue just beyond the alveolar ridge (post-alveolar),
then released as a fricative.

/dʒ/ – “jam” and “badge” – air is blocked with tongue just beyond the alveolar ridge (post-alveolar),
then released as a fricative.
▪Trill:

Trills are consonants in which the tongue or lips are set in motion by the airstream.

▪Click:

Clicks are stops in which tongue activity affects air to be sucked in the mouth, this is cited to as a velaric
airstream.

⚪Vowels(voiceless or voiced).

Vowels are produced by the passage of air through the larynx and the vocal tract. Most vowels are
voiced(i.e. the vocal folds are vibrating). Except in some marginal cases, the vocal tract is open, so that
the airstream is able to escape without generating fricative noise.

◾Acoustic phonetics: method of speech sounds are sent from originator to felt.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
compressed and rarefied, creating sound waves that spread outwards. A tuning fork being struck can
provide an example of the pressure fluctuations in the air and how the air particles oscillate (move in
one direction rhythmically) when we perceive sound.Some acoustic

🔹Some acoustic :

•Frequency vs Amplitude

•Sine Waves vs Complex Waves

•Periodic vs Aperiodic sound waves

•Spectrograms

•Transients vs Continuous sounds

•Voicing on a spectrogram
 ◾Auditory phonetics: method of speech sounds are felt.

Auditory phonetics is a department of phonetics concerned with the hearing of speech sounds and
with speech perception. It thus encompasses the study of the relationships between speech bases and a
listener’s responses to such bases as reconciled by mean of the peripheral and central auditory systems,
including certain cortical regions of the brain.

Moududul Hoque

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