Phonetics

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Phonetics

• Lauren Dobbs

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What is it?

• Phonetics is the study of the sounds of speech.
• It focuses both on the physical production of the
  sounds as well as the physiological production.
• The study of phonetics first began in 500 B.C.
  where it mainly studied the articulation of
  consonants. (modern phonetics didnt start till
  1867)
• There are three main sections of phonetics
• Articulator the vocal structures of the
  throat that create sound
• Acoustic structure of sounds and how they form
  words
• Auditory the ear and its relation to creating
  speech

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The Phonetic Alphabet

• The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a
  phonetic system based on the Latin language along
  with some Greek
• The IPA shows how sounds are pronounced in
  relation to the mouth and throat
• The IPA has also been used to create to new
  written languages

http//www.uiowa.edu/acadtech/phonetics/english/f
rameset.html
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Articulator

• The main focus of articulatory phonetics is
  articulation
• It focuses on the process of turning air into
  sound
• Creating sound is a process of air flow, vocal
  flow vibration, the articulators, and using the
  muscles of the throat and diaphragm
• There are two types of sound
• Periodic sound produced by vocal fold vibrations
  and the tongue (vowel)
• Aperiodic sound produced by the oral cavity
  (consonants)

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Acoustic

• Acoustic phonetics studies properties of sound
  such as wavelength, duration, and amplitude.
• Acoustic studies allowed sounds to be analyzed to
  determine the differences in vowels.
• Through acoustic phonetics periodic and aperiodic
  sound was discovered
• Deals with quality of voice, resonance,
  intonation, and sound on a spectral level

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Auditory

• Auditory phonetics studies how sound is perceived
  by the ear
• It is used to help create hearing aids and is
  also used when learning a foreign-language
• First the fact that sound is occurring is
  processed then the sound is further analyzed to
  give meaning to it. Acoustic cues are the main
  factor.
• Babies first distinguish the differences in
  sounds before the language

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Phonetics and Knowing

• Sounds sound different because everyone speaks
  differently yet we are able to perceive vowels
  and consonants as constants.
• There are different triggers that give sounds
  meaning, vowel duration can be a stress.
• The resonance of sound varies with the voice and
  so the brain must process the resonance and then
  line it up with the rest of the information to
  identify it.

http//www.youtube.com/watch?vs9GBf8y0lY0
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Sources

• Wikipedia.org
• citeseerx.ist.edu
• http//www.physics.ucla.edu/demoweb/demomanual/aco
  ustics/effects_of_sound/chladni_plate.html