Phonetics and Phonology: Understanding Speech Sounds

Posted on Aug 29, 2024 in Biology

Phonetics studies the sounds of human speech. It is an empirical science based on the observation of facts. It tells us how sounds are produced and furnishes us with methods for their classification. It is not considered to be part of linguistics. Phonetics is divided into three branches:

  1. Articulatory phonetics: which studies the articulation of the sounds
  2. Acoustic phonetics: studies the physical properties of speech sounds during the transmission of the sounds from speaker to hearer.
  3. Auditory phonetics: perception or audition of the sounds by the hearer; Phonetics is used in teaching diction, teaching the pronunciation of foreign languages, speech therapy, helping deaf-mutes to identify and reproduce sounds, and sound transmission.

Phonology is a branch of linguistics that studies the sound systems of languages. It applies linguistic criteria to the material provided by phonetics, so its concern is scientific theory, studying the linguistic functions of sounds. It writes descriptions of the sound patterns of particular languages and makes general statements about the nature of the sound systems of the languages of the world.

Concerns of Phonology:

  • The linguistic use of sound:
    • Phone: any speech sound.
    • Phoneme: the basic unit of phonology; the smallest contrastive unit that distinguishes meaning. (seat vs. sheet/bite vs. might). Contrastive pairs like seat and sheet are called minimal pairs and are established by the commutation test (if substituting one sound segment for another, a different word is produced, then those segments are phonemes. Near minimal pairs occur when minimal pairs cannot be found because of uncommon sounds or defective distribution (vision vs. mission).
    • Allophone: a phoneme sub-type. Similar sounds which are not contrastive in a language. They are: concrete realizations of phonemes, contextually dependent, non-contrastive. Usually in complementary distribution phot vs spot, opposite free variation: beta/be?a. Neutralization: of phonological opposition-flapping in Am. Eng (betting and bedding)
  • Phonotactics: it’s concerned with permissible strings of sounds. Two given languages may have certain sounds in common, but these sounds may not be combined in the same way. Ex: Spanish and English have the consonant sound ‘theta’ (θ)-thin, but in Spanish it is not possible to be followed by (r) like in English ex: three, thread. Phonotactics deals not only with the way consonants combine, but also with the position consonants and vowels may occupy in the syllable of the word. Ex: h is possible at the beginning of syllables in Eng (have, behind) but not at the end. Syllable structures: some languages have a rigid CV structure (Japanese); another language allows a more complex structure: C0-3VC0-4


The Organs of Speech

The speech organs: The lungs; the larynx; the supraglottal cavities

  1. Initiation: lungs (air-stream mechanism)- the source of air used in making sounds. The initiation process is the moment when the air is expelled from the lungs. Air-stream mechanism: the method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract. In order to generate sounds, it is necessary to have air pressure->3 sources of air pressure:
  • Pulmonic sounds: air pressure generated by the lungs;
  • Velaric sounds: the back of the tongue is raised towards the velum and the tip towards the front; closure at the front & back of the mouth, vacuum in the middle;
  • Glottalic sounds: oral tract is closed at the glottis; VFs are jammed together; air is compressed. Air may flow in two directions:
    • Egressive: air flows out of the mouth (exhaled);
    • Ingressive: air flows into the mouth (inhaled).
  • Pulmonic egressive sounds vs pulmonic ingressive; Velaric ingressive sounds-clicks; Glottalic egressive (glottal stop) vs. Glottalic ingressive.
Phonation: larynx (glottis & VC)- The Larynx is the hard casing around the vocal cords. It protects the cords from damage and it plays an essential role in speech production, eating and breathing. During normal breathing, the cords are wide apart so that the air from the lungs passes through without producing vibration. In speech, the cords may adopt three principal positions:
  1. wide open and not vibrating-> voiceless sound
  2. close together and vibrating-> voiced sound
  3. tightly shut and sudden release-> glottal stop

The glottal stop: the obstruction of the airstream produced by the closure of the VC; the sudden release of the air when the vocal cords separate. Pre-glottalization of Vs and Cs is very common: btw vs (letter); before syllabic n and l (button, little); to avoid hiatus; before any word initial stressed V

Oral Nasal Phase: resonators (pharynx, oral & nasal cavities)- the air and vibration passing through the vocal tract are shaped by the articulators into speech. The supraglottal cavities: the pharynx, the oral cavity, the nasal cavity. Oral vs Nasal articulation: Raised-oral sounds; Lowered-nasals. The oral cavity: the mouth (soft palate, hard palate, uvula, alveolar ridge, lips, teeth, tongue. Articulation: the articulators: active (lips, tongue, VF), passive (teeth, alveolar ridge, velum, uvula, hard palate and the pharynx walls)
  • Velar closure-> velar sounds: complete obstruction to the airflow produced at the velum by the back of the tongue
  • Velic closure-> nasal sounds: the velum rises and touches the back wall of the pharynx (the air is forced to escape through the nasal cavity only)




As the air from the lungs is unobstructed, we produce the UNVOICED SOUNDS, such as (p) and (f). If the cords are so close together that the air from the lungs makes them vibrate as it passes through the glottis, then we produce the VOICED SOUNDS. When the vocal cords are tightly shut so that the air from the lungs builds up behind them, a GLOTTAL STOP is produced if they suddenly open.