What Are Phonetics And Phonology example essay topic

WHAT ARE PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY? Phonetics is the branch of linguistics that deals with the production of speech by humans and. Phonetics looks at the physical manifestation of language in sound waves: how there sounds are articulated and perceived. It is the science of speech sounds and the symbols by thick they are shown in writing and printing. This science is based on a study of all the parts of the body concerned in making speech.

It includes the positions of the parts of the body necessary for producing spoken words, and the effect of air from the lungs as it passes through the larynx, pharynx, vocal cords, nasal passages and mouth. Phonetics sounds (phones) are actual speech sounds classified by the manner and place of articulation (that is by the way in which air is forced through the mouth and shaped by the tongue, teeth, palate, lips and in some languages by the uvula. The [r] of run and far are phonetically different because they are articulated differently. A phonetic system must indicate whether a vowel sound is long or short, rounded, diphthongal (that is consists of two sounds) or retroflex (made with the tip of the tongue curled up toward the palate). In addition the movement from one position to another, or glides, must be represented must be represented, stress pattern and pauses must e more exactly indicated, and pitch or intonation may also be noted.

Phonology on the other hand is central representation of sounds as part of a symbolic cognitive system; how abstract sound categories are manipulated in the processing of language. Therefore one can rightly say that phonetics is part of phonology because the former is intricately linked to the latter which is wider and broader in scope. phonology studies the patterns of sounds and their different positions in words Phonetics and phonology are concerned with the forms of speech sounds. Sound can differentiate the meanings of the words. Phonetics studies actual sound by analyzing and modeling the speech signal. For example, the air pressure wave form can be recorded into a computer so that it can be visualized and analyzed in detail. Phonology deals with more abstract description of speech sound and tries to describe the regularities of sound patterns.

Phonetics and phonology have many possible applications both in theory and practice. Speech and speakers recognition and speakers synthesis is one of the applications. A speech does not only express the meanings of the words being used but can tell us the gender and even the approximate age of the speaker. It can also tell us what geographical area the speaker is from, the social class the person belongs to, whether the person is sick, tired, cold, happy or sad. In courts it is even used to help decide whether a suspect is telling the truth. This is because speech behaviour is one of the indications of speaker properties which are many and varied.

For example a hoarse voice can indicate a night of heavy drinking, smoking a lot or just a natural voice quality. Foreign Language teaching and language teaching for hearing impaired persons, support of speech therapist, lexicography and forensic science are vital areas of application for phonetic and phonological knowledge. Phonetics and phonology have links to many different disciplines. Linguistics (language), physics and electrical engineering, biology and psychology bring information together, which is important to obtain a broad and comprehensive view of speech. Computational Linguistics is complementary to phonetics and phonology in that it focuses on the modeling of the higher levels of speech processing (morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics) which are needed to describe the entire speech production and perception chain.

Since speech analysis procedures and many applications involve computers, computer science supplies important tools. Pedagogy is important in second language teaching for hearing-impaired persons. In other to better understand speech perception and production pathologies, medicine is another area of interest. With its variety of related sub disciplines and applications, phonetics and phonology can be called a science at least at some level.

With its established methods and goals, it offers a wide spectrum of different views of nature and function of speech and speech communication THE BRANCHES OF PHONETICS Phonetics is the study of speech sounds. Although language is obviously composed of sound, speech sound came to be the main focus of linguistic investigation only in the 20th century. 19th century linguists were more interested in written rather than spoken language. Only with the work of Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure in the early 20th century did linguists recognize the primacy of sound in human language and the secondary, superficial nature of writing.

As a result phonetics has therefore evolved into three main branches of type: ACOUSTIC PHONETICS is the study of the physical properties of sounds, the air wave frequencies of which sounds consists. The frequency of vibrations measured in hertz; volume of sound measured in decibels. Instruments used to measure and records speech sounds include the sound spectrograph, which produces read outs called sound spectrograms. AUDITORY PHONETICS is also called perception phonetics because it is the study of how sounds are perceived and recognized by the human ear and brain.

ARTICULATORY PHONETICS is the study of how sounds are produced by the vocal apparatus. The flow of sound during any given speech act can be divided into units of sound that recur in the flow of other speech acts. The standard used in phonetics transcription is the international phonetics Alphabet IPA and the phones (separate sounds) are enclosed in square brackets to distinguish them from letters: [0] = the sound of the vowel in the word code, not the letter O. The division of the speech continuum into separate sounds or phones is made in the basics of both articulatory and acoustic data. Auditory, the sounds seen to the ear to change at a particular point. Acoustically, this change can be seen on a sound spectrogram. Auditor ily, the change of one sound to another is the result of measurable changes in the movement of the speech organs.

In a nutshell, articulatory phonetics is concerned with the positions and movements of the lips, tongue, vocal tracts and folds and other speech organs in producing speech. Acoustic phonetics is concerned with the properties of the sound wave and how they ate received by the inner ear. Auditory phonetics concerns itself with speech perception, principally how the brain forms perceptual representations of the input it receives. Another much less known branch of phonetics is FORENSIC PHONETICS.

This is the use of phonetics for legal purposes, and the extension of poetic research to investigations relevant to legal situation. Forensic phonetics is mainly concerned with o Speaker identification: Here phonetic expertise is used to give evidence as to the likelihood that a particular recorder voice was produced by a particular person. Another less common use of phonetics in speaker identification is to give evidence as to the extent to which a witness identification of a person from their voice alone should be considered reliable. o Transcription: Here phonetic expertise is used either to create a transcript of a recording that is difficult to understand (for example if it has lots of background noise) or to give evidence as to the reliability of a transcript prepared by some else. o Authentication of recordings: phonetic expertise is used to give evidence as to whether a recording has been tampered with or falsified in some way. o Language or accent identification: phonetic expertise is used to give evidence as to the likely of origin of a particular speaker. AIRSTREAM MECHANISMS This is the manner in which an airstream is set in motion for the purposes of speech.

Airstream mechanisms may produce ingressive (inward) or e gressive (outward) airflow. An airstream mechanism consists of the movement of an initiator. Speech sounds are produced with one of three air stream mechanisms, or occasionally by a combination of two of these. The mechanisms are: pulmonic airstream mechanism, airstream mechanism and other less notable ones such as duc cal airstream mechanism and gastric airstream mechanism.

Airstream mechanisms are what are used by language to produce sounds. The air is modified by the vocal cords and the source of the air is the way sounds are categorized according to phonetic features. They are the most important in producing the world's language TYPES OF AIRSTREAM MECHANISM NAME INI ATOR GRESSIVE INGRESSIVE Pulmonic Lungs Most speech sounds Glottalic / Pharyngeal Closed glottis Ejectives Voiceless implosivesVelaric / Oral Velar closure Clicks Pulmonic + Glottalic Voiced implosivesPULMONIC AIRSTREAM MECHANISM is the most important airstream mechanism for producing sounds in the world's languages. The sounds of the pulmonic airstream mechanism is produced by manipulating air coming into the vocal tract as it is being exhaled or in haled by the lungs. When the air that is being manipulated by the vocal tract is exhaled by the lungs it is referred to as pulmonic e gressive airstream mechanism. The sounds produced in this way are referred as pulmonic e gressive sounds.

Almost all sounds in most languages are produced by manipulating exhaled air. Virtually all sounds in English are pulmonic e gressive sounds. Another variety of the pulmonic airstream is when sounds are produced by manipulating inhaled air. This means that inhaled air can be modified to produce speech sounds. This happens in few rare and special cases, such as in Thou an aboriginal language of Taiwan, which has inhaled [f] and [h] such sounds are called pulmonic ingressive sounds, and the airstream mechanism for making such sounds is called the ingressive rather than the e gressive version of pulmonic airstream mechanism. This sounds are special because it is physiologically harder to slow down an ingressive sounds are extremely rare.

GLOTTALIC AIRSTREAM MECHANISM also another important airstream mechanism which involves the glottis in the vocal tract. This happens when the glottis is immediately closed before any other sounds are produced, thereby trapping a pocket of air in the vocal tract. If this reservoir of stationary air is manipulated in the production of sound it yields the glottal ic airstream mechanism. During the process the vocal cords completely close so that for a brief moment no air escapes from the lungs and air is compressed in the throat (pharynx) If the closed glottis is raised to push the air up and out ward, an ejective consonant is produced. The air is forced into the vocal tract and there manipulated by the organs of speech. Ejectives are found in the languages of the Caucasus Mountains, among many Native American and Afro-asiatic languages of North Africa e.g. Hausa-Fulani, Amharic.

If the closed glottis is lowered to create a small vacuum in the month, an implosive consonant is produced. The lowering glottis acts like the downward movement of a piston to create a brief ratification of the air in the vocal tract. When the stricture in the mouth is released air moves into the mouth. Swahili has three implosive's: [b], [d], [9].

Implosive occur mostly in languages of east Africa and several other languages in northern India and South America. VELAR IC AIRSTREAM MECHANISM is the type of airstream mechanism that is confined to certain languages of south West Africa. Regular oral articulation is done while the back of the tongue seals off air from the lungs and creates a relative vacuum. Air in the mouth is rarefied by backward and downward movement of the tongue. When the stricture is released the air rushes in, creating a click. Such sounds are thought ot be exotic but English uses a few of them for quasi-linguistic sound gestures: "grandmother's kiss" (bilabial click), encouraging a horse (lateral click), task-task (actually a dental or alveolar click).

Some languages have many clicks and the type depends on their features such as aspirated, nasal, non-nasal or oro-nasal clicks. A few of the Bantu languages of South Africa such as Zulu have clicks. Presumably these sounds were borrowed from the Bushmen and Hottentot peoples who originally lived throughout all southern Africa. Zulu and the other Bantu languages that use clicks spell them with the letters C, X, Q. An example is the name of the tribe Xhosa. In order to complete the discussion on airstream mechanisms one should look at to her possible sources of air that can produce sound in human language. The BUCCAL AIRSTREAM MECHANISM is one that has been employed by and is unique to the Walt Disney cartoon character Donald Duck.

A puff of air is trapped in either cheek, then released to be manipulated by the speech organs. However no language has been know to use the GASTRIC AIRSTREAM MECHANISM which would be modifying air burped up from the stomach.

Bibliography

Compton's Encyclopedia No. 19: 1981 by F.
E Compton Company, Division of Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc Encyclopedia Britannica Vol (IV) (1978) web S.
Dictionaries - The Art and Craft of Lexicography (1996), Cambridge, Melbourne World Book Encyclopedia, (1990) World Book Incorporation, Chicago.