Basic terminology of phonetics

Phonetics = the science which studies the characteristics of human sound making, especially those used in speech. Major activities are description of sounds made in speech, their classification and transcription by transcription symbols.

Articulatory phonetics – studies the way speech sounds are made (articulated)

Acoustic phonetics – studies physical properties of speech sounds as transmitted between mouth and ear

Auditory phonetics – studies the perceptual response to speech sounds

Phonology = a branch of linguistics which studies the sound system of languages – sounds which have distinctive features. The sounds are organized into a system of contrasts which are analysed in terms of phonemes.

Segmental phonology – analyses segments called phonemes

Suprasegmental phonology – analyses those features which extend over more than one segment like rhythm, stress placement and intonation

Diachronic phonology – studies historical development of sound system (dia = between)

Synchronic phonology – studies present sound system (syn = present, chronos = time)

Phoneme = the smallest unit of speech that can be used to make one word different from another

bid x bad x bed x bud – the sound in the middle distinguish the meaning

Phonetic transcription = a method which helps to represent the spoken language by means of written text. Since we cannot use standard letter of the alphabet, linguists in the end of the 19^th century invented International Phonetic Alphabet that offers a set of symbols which can represent any sound used in any language of the world. Americans do not use IPA, though.