phonetics and phonology

what is phonetics

• The study of speech emphasising the description and classification of speech sounds according to their production transmission and perceptual features

• Articulatory: How speech sounds are produced by the vocal organs (lips, tongue, teeth, etc.).

• Auditory: How we perceive and interpret speech sounds in our ears and brain.

• Acoustic: The physical characteristics of sound waves produced during speech.

what is the difference between phonetics and phonology

Phonetics focuses on the physical aspects of speech sounds, including production, acoustics, and perception, while phonology studies how sounds are organized and function within a language's grammar

what is a phoneme

• The smallest segments of sounds that are distinguished by their contrast (or change in meaning) in words in a given language

• Abstract mental representations of groups of sounds

• For example: “tea” and “key” are different words therefore.../t/ vs /k/ are PHONEMES

what is an allophone

• Subtle phonetic variations within a phoneme

• Phonetically similar

• Sounds do not contrast with one another

• In English the t sounds in the words “hit,” “tip,” and “little” are allophones; phonemically they are considered to be the same sound although they are different phonetically in terms of aspiration, voicing, and point of articulation.

what is an allograph

A letter or combination of letters that can represent one phoneme

such as pp in hopping representing the phoneme \p\

what is a phone

• Speech sound with no reference to meaning or contrasting group

• Phonetic segment

• Describe ‘phones’ by features e.g. [ʔ] [p] [ß], clicks, uvular fricatives, ...