Basic concepts in phonetics

Basic concepts in phonetics

1. Phoneme

   • A phoneme is the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language.
   • Discussion:
     • Phonologists have differing views of the phoneme. Following are the two major views considered here:
       • In the American structuralist tradition, a phoneme is defined according to its allophones and environments.
       • In the generative tradition, a phoneme is defined as a set of distinctive features.

2. Phonology

   • Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages.
   • Discussion
     • The phonological system of a language includes
       • an inventory of sounds and their features, and rules which specify how sounds interact with each other.

3. Phonetics

   • Phonetics is the study of human speech sounds.
     • Branches
       • Articulatory phonetics
         • The study of how speech sounds are produced by the human vocal apparatus.
       • Acoustic phonetics
         • The study of the sound waves made by the human vocal organs for communication
       • Auditory phonetics
         • The study of how speech sounds are perceived by the ear, auditory nerve, and brain.

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