Phonetics

Our aim is to study the sound patterns of English. The understanding of phonological patterns cannot be done without the raw material, phonetics. In order to be able to come up with reliable phonological descriptions, we need to have accurate phonetic data. Thus, students and professionals who deal with the patterns of spoken language in various groups of speakers (linguists, speech therapists, and language teachers) need a basic knowledge of phonetics.

Phonetics, which may be described as the study of the sounds of human language, can be approached from three different perspectives. Articulatory phonetics deals with the physiological mechanisms of speech production. Acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of sound waves in the message. Auditory phonetics is concerned with the perception of speech by the hearer. Our coverage will be limited to the first two of these approaches. The exclusion of auditory phonetics is basically due to the practical concerns of the primary readership as well as the little information available about the workings of the brain and speech perception.