What is phonetics?

Definition
	Phonetics is the study of human speech sounds.

Branches
	Phonetics is divided into three branches:
	Articulatory phonetics The study of how speech sounds are produced by the human vocal apparatus. Acoustic phonetics The study of the sound waves made by the human vocal organs for communication. Auditory phonetics The study of how speech sounds are perceived by the ear, auditory nerve, and brain.

Source
	Crystal 1985 339

Context for this page:

Concept module: phonetics
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): P
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 2 July 1998

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