Phonetics: Speech Sounds, Production, and Classification

Phonetics

The study of speech sounds.

Articulatory Phonetics

Study of how the human vocal tract produces sounds.

Acoustic Phonetics

Study of the physical properties of sounds.

Speech Sounds (Segments/Phones)

Individual, discrete units that form words but have no inherent meaning. The number of sounds is not always the same as the number of letters.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)

A universal system where one symbol always represents one speech sound, used for consistent, unambiguous representation.

Pulmonic Egressive

Most speech sounds are produced by expelling air from the lungs.

Larynx

Contains the vocal folds.

Glottis

The space between the vocal folds.

Voiceless Sound

Produced when the glottis is open, vocal folds are apart, and air passes through unhindered (e.g., [f], [s]).

Voiced Sound

Produced when the glottis is closed and vocal folds vibrate as air passes through, creating periodic sound waves (e.g., [v], [z]).

Consonants

Speech sounds with more constricted articulation, less sonorous, can be voiced or voiceless, and are found at the periphery of the syllable.

Vowels

Speech sounds with open (unconstricted) articulation, more sonorous, usually voiced, and form the core/nucleus of the syllable.

Sonority

An acoustic measure of how 'powerful' a sound is (louder, longer lasting).

Syllable

A peak of sonority (usually a vowel) surrounded by less sonorous segments, with the peak called the nucleus.

Glides (Semivowels/Semiconsonants)

Sounds sharing properties of both consonants and vowels; articulation is like vowels but they do not form the syllable nucleus (e.g., [j] and [w]).

Simple Vowel

A vowel that does not show a noticeable change in quality during its production (e.g., [ɪ] in 'pit').

Diphthong

A vowel sound that shows a noticeable change in quality, starting with a simple vowel and ending in a glide (e.g., 'buy' [baj]).

Vowel Articulation Parameters

Tongue Height (High, Mid, Low), Tongue Frontness/Backness (Front, Central, Back), and Lip Rounding (Rounded, Unrounded).

Tense Vowels

Vowels characterized by greater vocal tract constriction and longer duration. Monosyllabic words can only end with tense vowels.

Lax Vowels

Vowels characterized by lesser vocal tract constriction and shorter duration.

Schwa ([ə])

A mid/central/unrounded/lax vowel that is reduced, has brief duration, and always occurs in an unstressed syllable