Branches of Phonetics

Speech sounds have the following aspects, which are studied by separate branches of phonetics:

1) physiological or articulatory (biological);

2) acoustic and auditory;

3) phonological or functional (linguistic, social)

They can’t be separated from one another in the process of communication. But each of the 4 are singled out for purposes of linguists analysis. Being singled out it becomes a separate object of investigation.

1) Physiological or articulatory phonetics studies speech sounds from the point of view of their articulation and in connection with the organs of speech by which they are produced. Its oldest and most available method of investigation is the method of direct observation (visual o b s. auditory ob.).

2) Acoustic and auditory aspect. Sounds can be analysed from the acoustic point of view. Being acoustic phenomena, they share their properties with other acoustic phenomena. Thus, Lila any other sounds, speech sounds are communicated to the air in the form or sound wares. Speech sounds have pitch, intensity, tamber. Speech sounds can be investigated by the same methods as any other sounds and are subject to the same acoustic laws.

Auditory aspect. Vocal cords set in vibration by the energy of the air stream coming under pressure from the lungs produce vowels, sonorants and partly voiced noise consonants.

The vocal cords vibrate not only over their whole length but also in all their parts.

The frequency of the vibration of the vocal cords over their whole length is called the fundamental frequency. These vibrations are regular or periodic and produce musical tone or pieta. Changes in fundamental frequency produce intonation.

Vibrations of parts of vocal cords produce the so-called overtones, or harmonics. They play the main role in the formation of vowels and sonorants.

The vocal cords are not the only source of vibration in the production of speech sounds. Disturbances of very high frequencies can be set up in the air by the friction of the tightening air particles, passing through a constriction in the respiratory tract above the larynx, as in the production of fricative consonants f, θ, s,

There is another source of high-frequency air disturbance which is in fact a speech sound. It is a sudden burst of air behind a complete closure of the respiratory tract in the larynx or above it when this closure is quickly removed e.g. the production of plosives __p, t, k.

Individual bands of energy, which are characteristic of a particular sound are know as the sound’s formants. Five components of sound matter of speech sounds are the basic component of the sound matter of language. Every sound as a physical phenomenon has its spectrum, made up by formants. As a result we can speak about spectral or formant component of the sound matter of language.

Fundamental frequency, or pitch forms intonation and it forms the pitch component of the sound matter of language.

Another component of sound matter of language is voice-tamber component (only in voiced sounds). It helps to express all sorts of emotions in speech.

Other components of sound matter of language are intensity, or force component time or temporal component and which manifest themselves through and duration or length of speech sounds. The branch of phonetics with is concerned with the study of the acoustic aspect of speech sounds, or of the 5 components of the sound matter of language in particular, is called acoustic phonetics or phono-acoustics.

3) the branch of phonetics concerned with the study of the linguistic aspect of speech sounds was founded by an outstanding Polish-Russian linguist, Professor Ivan Alexandrovitch Bandowin de Courtenay (1845-1929).

This branch of phonetics is also called functional because of the role speech sounds play in the functioning of language as a medium of Luman intercommunication and social because of its communicative function.

It is also called phonology or phonemics because it is concerned with all the components of the sound matter of Language.

All components of the sound matter of language perform the following functions.

1. – constitutive

2. – distinctive

3. – recognitive

1. Speech sounds constitute the material form of morphemes, words and sentences, thus having a constitutive function.

2. Morphemes, words and sentences constituting a language differ from one another.

3. A native speaker normally recognizes different allophones in different positions and consequently, understands speech e.g. the allophone of the English phoneme t used in the word two is an alveolar aspirated voiceless plosive consonant; the allophone of the same t – consonant in word (eighth 8^th) is dental in aspirated. The native speaker would never mix them up and he will always hear if they are mixed up.

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