The phonetics It is the part of linguistics that deals with the study of speech sounds in their physical realization, their characteristics and particularities.
It focuses on aspects such as articulatory movements and vocal resonance, how speech sounds are articulated in the vocal tract, and how sounds are transmitted and picked up by the human auditory system.
In addition, it analyzes other acoustic properties of sounds, such as frequency, intensity and duration. He also studies individual and regional variations in pronunciation, allowing the sounds of different languages to be compared and contrasted, identifying similarities and differences.
Phonetics uses a set of symbols, collected in the International Phonetic Alphabet, to transcribe and represent sounds accurately. The sounds are called allophones and are represented in square brackets ( [ ] ).
The root of the word phonetics is the Greek term “phone”, which means ‘sound’ or ‘voice’.
Three can be distinguished types of phonetics: articulatory, acoustic and auditory.
Articulatory phonetics
Three types of organs are involved in the production of articulated sound:
the organs of respiration (lungs, bronchi, trachea) the organs of phonation (vocal cords, larynx, resonators) the organs of articulation (tongue, palate, lips, teeth and glottis).
The air passes from the lungs to the bronchi and then to the trachea, in the upper part of which the larynx is located. In the larynx, the vocal cords are located, two flexible muscles that vibrate with the passage of time while breathing.
If the vocal folds approach and vibrate, sonorous sounds are produced. On the contrary, if the vocal folds do not vibrate and allow air to pass freely, dull sounds are produced.
The articulation of sound is the specific positioning of the organs of the mouth (lips, tongue, palate, soft palate, teeth, alveoli, and hard palate) at the moment the sound is produced. Due to the mobility of two of the organs in the oral cavity, the tongue and lips, it is there where most of the sounds originate.
Acoustic phonetics
Based on the description of the different organs involved in the phonation process, a classification of sounds can be established, such as:
Vowel/non-vocalic sound, if the air does not encounter obstacles on its way out. Consonantal/non-consonant sound, if the air finds obstacles on its way out. Voiced sound, if the vocal cords vibrate. Dull sound, if the vocal cords do not vibrate. Nasal sound, if the air comes out through the nasal passage. Oral sound, if the air comes out through the oral cavity. Compact/diffuse sound. Interrupted/continuous sound. Low/high-pitched sound.
Auditory phonetics
Auditory phonetics studies how speech sounds are perceived and processed by the human auditory system. For this reason it is also known as phonetic perception.
It focuses on how listeners interpret and recognize spoken sounds, how the human brain processes acoustic information, and how mental representations of speech sounds are formed.
Auditory phonetics allows us to identify acoustic patterns and the differences between sounds that can generate ambiguity of meaning in a given language.
Phonetics and phonology
Phonetics and phonology are two branches that deal with the study of sounds in spoken language from different approaches.
The phonetics It is responsible for studying the physical aspect of sounds, how they are pronounced, their formation, characteristics and singularities. Uses phonetic symbols to represent speech sounds.
For its part, the phonology It studies phonemes, that is, the mental representation we have of sounds, how they are organized and function according to the system of a specific language. Examines meaningful units (such as words and phrases), patterns, and phonetic variations in a language.
International Phonetic Alphabet (IFA)
It is an alphabetical system established internationally that allows people to orient themselves in the specific pronunciation of phonemes. Represents the sounds available in any language. For this reason, dictionaries usually include these signs in brackets next to the word to be defined.
For example, the phonetics of the Spanish word “house” is represented in the following way: [ ˈka.sa ]
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