Introduction to phonetics

 PHONETICS

What is phonetics?

Is the study of all sound that human are capable of articulating. Or

Is the scientific study of how human speech sound are produced, transmitted and perceived. Or

Phonetics is the brunch of Linguistics which deals with the study of speech sounds (phonemes) in general. 

PHONOLOGY

What is Phonology?

Is the study of speech sound of a particular language. Or

The study of how speech sounds form patterns. These patterns can be simple or complex.

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Phonetics divided into three types which are 1.Articulatory phonetics

2.Acaustics phonetics

3.Auditory phonetics.

PLACE/POINT OF ARTICULATION

According to the point of articulation consonants are classified as follows:

a).Bilabial; The bilabial sounds are articulated by the two lips. /p/, /b/, /m/, (/w/).

b).Labio-dental; they are articulated by the lower lip against the upper teeth resulting in /f/ and /v/.

c).Dental or interdental; They are articulated by the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth as / θ / in ‘thin’ and / ð / in ‘this’

d).Alveolar; They are articulated by the tip of the tongue or the blade of the tongue against the teeth ridge as in /t/, / d/, / n/, / l/, /s/, / z/, /r/.

Palato-Alveolar or alveo palatal; They are articulated by the tip and the blade of the tongue against the teeth ridge with raising of the front of the tongue towards the palate i.e. along with the alveolar articulation, the tongue is raised towards the hard palate, e.g. / ʃ / as in ship, / ʒ / as in pleasure, / ʧ /as in church and /ʤ/ as in judge.

e).Palatal; They are articulated by raising the front of the tongue towards the hard palate. /j/ as in ‘young’ /j ʌ ŋ/, /j/ is the only palatal sound in English.

f).Velar; They are articulated by raising the back of the tongue towards the soft palate (velum), e.g /k/, as in kiss, /g/ as in go and /ŋ / as in mango

f).Glottal or Laryngeal; They are articulated in the glottis. e.g. /h/ as in the word ‘house’. In the production of /h/ sound, the glottis is completely closed and air is compressed by pressure from lungs. Then the glottis is opened by separating the vocal cords and the air escapes suddenly.