Phonetics and Linguistics
The phonetics of a language concerns the concrete characteristics (articulatory acoustic, auditory) of the sounds used in languages, while phonology concerns how sounds function in a systematic way in a particular language. Besides being concerned with the sounds of a language, both phonetics and phonology must also describe the combinatory possibilities of the sounds (syllable structure) and the prosody of the language, that is, how features of pitch, loudness, and length work to produce accent, rhythm, and intonation. Additionally, a study can be made of the relationship between the sounds of a language and the letters used in its writing system. In other words, both phonetics and phonology can be generally described as the study of speech sounds. Phonetics is more specifically the study of how speech sounds are produced, what their physical properties are, and how they are interpreted. Phonology, on the other hand, investigates the organization of speech sounds in a particular language.
Other Components of Language
1. The Lexicon: the words of the language, the sequence of phonemes of which they are compose, together with their meanings.
2. The Morphology: the structure of words, in particular their inflexion (e.g. start/started- here the past tense morpheme is added to the stem morpheme).
3. The Syntax: the description of categories like noun and verb, and the system of rules governing the structure of phrases, clauses and sentences in terms of order and constituency.
4. The Semantics: the meaning of words and the relationship between word meanings, and the way such meanings are combine to give the meanings of sentences.
5. The Pragmatics: the influence of situation on the interpretation of utterances.
Moreover, various other aspects of linguistics involve phonetics and phonology. Stylistics concerns the variations involved in different situations and in different styles of speech. Sociolinguistics concerns the interaction between language and society (e.g. the variation involved across classes and between the sexes). Applied Linguistics concerns the acquisition of a second language.
Articulatory phonetics
How Speech Sounds are Produced?
Articulatory phonetics deals with the sender rather than the receiver of the message. The human being differs from other animals in that they have been able to organize the range of sounds which they emit into a highly efficient system of communication. Animals rarely progress beyond the stage of using the sounds they produce as a reflex of certain basic stimuli to signal fear, hunger, sexual excitement, and the like. Most sounds of all languages are made with outgoing breath from the lungs. The air stream provided by the lungs travels up the trachea (windpipe), it passes through the larynx (voice box). The larynx contains vocal fords (less correctly called the vocal cords). The inner edge of the vocal folds can be moved towards each other so that they meet and completely cover the top of the windpipe, or they can be drawn apart so that there is a gap between them (known as glottis) through which the air can pass freely. This gap is covered by a membranous flap called epiglottis during swallowing and prevents anything that is swallowed from entering the lungs. When the vocal folds are together, a voiced sound results, as in the initial sound in ‘zebra’. When the vocal folds are apart, a voiceless sound results, as in the initial sound in ‘keen’. Some of the English sounds have voice, that is, vocal folds vibrate (e.g. g) and some do not, that is, vocal folds do not vibrate (e.g. k).
The roof of the mouth is divided, for the purposes of phonetics, into three parts: the teeth-ridge, the hard palate, and the soft palate. The soft palate curves down towards the tongue and becomes narrow and ends in a point called the uvula. The soft palate can move: it can be raised so that it makes a firm contact with the back of the pharynx and this stops the breath from going up into the nasal cavity and forces to go into the mouth only. When the soft palate is lowered, as in normal breathing, air may escape through the nose and the mouth.
The soft palate may be lowered so that a nasal outlet is afforded to the air stream, but a complete obstruction is made at some point in the mouth, with the result that, although air enters all or part of the mouth cavity, no oral escape is possible. A purly nasal escape of this sort occurs in such nasal consonants as (m,n,…) in the words ram, ran, rang.
The soft palate may be held in its raised position, eliminating the action of nasopharynx, so that the air escape is solely through the mouth. All normal English sounds, with the exception of the nasal consonants mentioned above, have this oral escape.
The tongue may also articulate with the fixed upper incisors. The remaining teeth do not play any positive part in speech, though the loss of, for instance, the lower incisors may have an adverse effect on certain sounds, notable‘s’. Of all the moveable organs within the mouth, the tongue is by far the most flexible, and is capable of assuming a great variety of positions in the articulation of both vowels and consonants. For the purpose of phonetics, the tongue is divided into parts. The part which lies opposite the hard palate is called the front and that which faces the soft palate is called the back. The part which lies opposite the teeth-ridge is called the blade. The extremity of the tongue is called the tip.
Place of Articulation
The place of articulation is the description of where the obstruction occurs in the vocal tract. The following shows how the vocal tract is shaped for each place of articulation.
Bilabial
The bilabial sounds of English include /p b m/, as in the initial sounds of the words ‘pea’, ‘bee’, ‘me’. The lower lip articulates against the upper lip. The sound /p b m/ are made by completely closing the lips. The sound /p/ is voiceless; /b m/ are voiced. The sound /w/, as similatenously involves both labial and velar articulates
Labiodental
There are two labiodental sounds in English: /f v/, e.g. feel, veil. When you make these sounds, your lower lip articulates against your upper teeth; /f/ is voiceless and /v/ is voiced.
Dental
Two dental sounds occur in English; both are normally written with the letters th. Example: ‘then’ , ‘thin. The initial sound of ‘then’ is voiced, while the initial sound of ‘thin’ is voiceless.
Alveolar
The alveolars include more consonants in English than any other place of articulation: /t d s z n l/. If you say the sentence Ed edited it, you will feel the tip of your tongue repeatedly hitting the alveolar ridge.
Postalveolar
Postalveolar refers to the area at the rear of the alveolar ridge, bordering on the palate. English has four sounds in this area;
Palatal
Palatals are made with the front of the tongue articulating against the palate. The only palatal in English is the sound /j/, the initial sound in ‘yes’.
Velar
This sound is articulated with the back of the tongue articulating against the velum. In English the velars are /k g /.
Manner of Articulation
The manner of articulation is the degree and kind of constriction (narrowing) in the vocal tract. For example, in making a /t/, the tongue is raised to the alveolar ridge and momentarily seals off the vocal tract so that no air passes out. By contrast, during an /s/, we leave a gap between the articulators so that air continues to pass out. You can make a long, continues /ssssss/, but not a long /ttttttttt/.
Stops
A stop involves a complete closure such that no air passes out of the mouth. In English /p t k b d g/ are stops. In making each of these, a complete closure is made, at the lips, the alveolar ridge, or the velum, such that no air can escape through the moth. The nasal stops are a special kind of stop.
Fricatives
Fricatives are sound made with a small opening, allowing the air to escape with some friction. The escaping air is turbulent (uncontrolled) and produces a noisy friction-like sound, called friction. The fricatives in English are . Here the lower articulator is close to the upper articulator, but not so close that air cannot escape, creating friction. The essential components of a fricative are obstructed air-flow with friction.