Do you know what is Phonetics, or how many branches there are in phonetics?

If you have read my other educational posts, then you already know what is phonecitcs. In case you didn’t, phonetics is the scientific study of speech sounds. It deals with the production, description and representation of speech sounds by written symbols. To produce speech sounds parts of human body plays a very important role.

We all know that phonetics is a sub-branch of descriptive linguistics. But phonetics also have three branches of its own. They are:

1. Articulatory Phonetics
2. Acoustic Phonetics
3. Auditory Phonetics

Articulatory Phonetics:
This particular phonetics deals with the production of speech sounds. It studies the organs of speech and their use in producing speech sounds. It deals with production and description of speech sounds. For example, p the letter sound is produced by aggressive air from lungs and there is no obstruction in vocal cords. Articulators are upper and lower lip.

We are going to discuss about three organs that takes part in producing speech sounds. 

Lungs: Lung is a bladder like structure which is made up of small sacs called alveoli. The air we breathe passes through the throat into the lungs through a tube called trachea or bronchial tube. If you are student who paid close attention in your biology class then it is really simple for you to understand. The muscles of the lungs expands and contracts due to ingression or aggression of air. The air stream involving lung air is called pulmonic air stream mechanism.

Larynx: Larynx is situated behind the Adam’s apple. You do know what an adam’s apple is right? Every man has an extra bone in their neck. It is called adam’s apple. It has a religional meaning behind the meaning. It is the main organ referred to as a sound box. In the larynx there are vocal cords. The vocal cords are held together like a structure called arytenoids cartilages.

Pharynx: This includes mainly the active and passive articulatiors. It is a tube like structure which has bifurcation on both ends. One opening goes directly to mouth and another goes to the nose.

These three organs play the main part in producing sounds.

Acoustic Phonetics:
It deals with the transmission of speech sounds. Sound is spread from the speaker to the hearer through the medium of air. Sound consists of airwave frequencies. Frequency of vibration is measured in hertz and volume of sound is measured is decibel.

Auditory Phonetics:
It deals with perception of speech sounds to know the kind and quality of sounds. From inner ear, message is sent to central nervous system and then we understand the quality of sound: sweet, harsh, rude, melodious or kind of sounds: cry, anger, girl, boy, women, men, sound of mosquito and other kind of sounds.

So these were the main branches of phonetics. I hope I could make it clear to you.