PHONETICS

SUBMITTED BY:
MEERA B R
20MSRFS025
FAVSI ACTIVITY.
INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS PHONETICS?
- PHONETICS IS A BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS THAT STUDIES HOW HUMANS PRODUCE AND
PERCEIVE SOUNDS, OR IN THE CASE OF SIGN LANGUAGES, THE EQUIVALENT ASPECTS
OF SIGN.
- PHONETICS BROADLY DEALS WITH TWO ASPECTS OF HUMAN SPEECH: PRODUCTION—
THE WAYS HUMANS MAKE SOUNDS—AND PERCEPTION—THE WAY SPEECH IS
UNDERSTOOD.
HISTORY
• THE FIRST KNOWN PHONETIC STUDIES WERE CARRIED OUT BY SANSKRIT GRAMMARIANS BY THE 6TH
CENTURY BC. HINDU SCHOLAR PĀṆINI IS AMONG THE MOST WELL KNOWN OF THESE EARLY
INVESTIGATORS, IS INFLUENTIAL IN MODERN LINGUISTICS AND STILL REPRESENTS "THE MOST COMPLETE
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR OF ANY LANGUAGE YET WRITTEN". HIS GRAMMAR FORMED THE BASIS OF
MODERN LINGUISTICS AND DESCRIBED SEVERAL IMPORTANT PHONETIC PRINCIPLES, INCLUDING VOICING.
THIS EARLY ACCOUNT DESCRIBED RESONANCE AS BEING PRODUCED EITHER BY TONE, WHEN VOCAL
FOLDS ARE CLOSED, OR NOISE, WHEN VOCAL FOLDS ARE OPEN.
• ADVANCEMENTS IN PHONETICS AFTER PĀṆINI WERE LIMITED UNTIL THE MODERN ERA, THERE WERE SOME
LIMITED INVESTIGATIONS BY GREEK AND ROMAN GRAMMARIANS. IN THE MILLENNIA BETWEEN INDIC
GRAMMARIANS AND MODERN PHONETICS, THE FOCUS SHIFTED FROM THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPOKEN
AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE, WHICH WAS THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND PĀṆINI'S ACCOUNT, AND BEGAN TO
FOCUS ON THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF SPEECH ALONE. SUSTAINED INTEREST IN PHONETICS BEGAN
AGAIN AROUND 1800 CE WITH THE TERM "PHONETICS" BEING FIRST USED IN THE PRESENT SENSE IN 1841.
• WITH NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN MEDICINE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF AUDIO AND VISUAL RECORDING
DEVICES, PHONETIC INSIGHTS WERE ABLE TO USE AND REVIEW NEW AND MORE DETAILED DATA. THIS
EARLY PERIOD OF MODERN PHONETICS INCLUDED THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INFLUENTIAL PHONETIC
ALPHABET BASED ON ARTICULATORY POSITIONS BY ALEXANDER MELVILLE BELL. KNOWN AS 
VISIBLE SPEECH, IT GAINED PROMINENCE AS A TOOL IN THE ORAL EDUCATION OF DEAF CHILDREN.
FOR COMPARING SPEECH SAMPLES FORENSICALLY,
PHONETIC PARAMETERS ARE CATEGORIZED IN LINE
WITH TWO MAIN DISTINCTIONS:
1. WHETHER THEY ARE LINGUISTIC OR NON-
LINGUISTIC.
2. WHETHER THE PARAMETERS ARE AUDITORY OR
ACOUSTIC.
FORENSIC LINGUISTICS
VS NON LINGUISTICS
• “LINGUISTIC" MEANS PERTAINING TO LANGUAGE. "NON-
LINGUISTIC" MEANS NOT USING LANGUAGE I.E, NON-LINGUISTIC
COMMUNICATION IS THE IMPARTING OF INFORMATION WITHOUT
USING LANGUAGE
EXAMPLE: GESTURES, WRITTEN SYMBOLS, OR VOICE SOUNDS
DON’T CONSTITUTE "LANGUAGE" UNLESS THEY TAKE
PLACE WITHIN A LANGUAGE FRAMEWORK
• FORENSIC LINGUISTICS (FL) IS A RELATIVELY NEW SUBFIELD
WITHIN APPLIED LINGUISTICS THAT STUDIES THE DIFFERENT
INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND THE LEGAL FIELD,
WHICH IS HEAVILY LINGUISTIC BY NATURE.
• FORENSIC LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE IS ANY TYPE OF TEXT (SPOKEN,
SIGNED OR WRITTEN) THAT CAN BE USED IN A CRIMINAL
INVESTIGATION OR AS EVIDENCE IN COURT. THESE TEXTS
INCLUDE EMERGENCY CALLS, RANSOM NOTES, ANONYMOUS
LETTERS/CALLS, SUICIDE LETTERS, TEXT MESSAGES, POLICE
RECORDS, CONFESSION STATEMENTS, ETC.
• WHAT ARE PARAMETERS IN
LINGUISTICS?
-THERE ARE PRINCIPALLY
THREE AREAS OF APPLICATION
FOR LINGUISTS WORKING IN
FORENSIC CONTEXTS:
UNDERSTANDING LANGUAGE
OF THE WRITTEN LAW,
UNDERSTANDING LANGUAGE
USE IN FORENSIC AND JUDICIAL
PROCESSES, AND. THE
PROVISION OF LINGUISTIC
EVIDENCE
AUDITORY AND ACOUSTIC PARAMETERS USED IN
FORENSIC SPEAKER IDENTIFICATION

AUDITORY PARAMETERS WERE USED TO DESCRIBE AND COMPARE VOICES

DEPENDING UPON HOW A VOICES SOUND TO AN OBSERVER. THESE OBSERVERS
WERE TRAINED IN RECOGNIZING AND TRANSCRIBING AUDITORY FEATURES.
ACOUSTIC PARAMETERS, ON THE OTHER HAND, ARE SELF-EXPLANATORY.
AFTER THE INVENTION OF THE SPECTROGRAPH, ACOUSTIC PARAMETERS STARTED
BEING CONSIDERED FOR COMPARING VOICE SAMPLES.
TODAY, COMPARING VOICE SAMPLES WITH RESPECT TO THEIR ACOUSTIC
PROPERTIES ARE EXTRACTED BY COMPUTERS.
REFERENCES

• CORREA, MAITE. (2013). FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: AN OVERVIEW OF THE

INTERSECTION AND INTERACTION OF LANGUAGE AND LAW. STUDIES ABOUT
LANGUAGES. 10.5755/J01.SAL.0.23.5020.
• NEELU & KUMAR. (2019). FORENSIC SPEAKER IDENTIFICATION: A REVIEW OF
LITERATURE AND REFLECTION ON FUTURE.
• HTTPS://WWW.MODLINGUA.COM/BLOGS/761-LINGUISTIC-AND-NON-LINGUISTIC-
ASPECTS-IN-TRANSLATION.HTML