Branches of Linguistics > Phonetics >

What is Phonetics?
First things first, phonetics has a lot of new terminology to take on board. Check out this glossaryto find
new terms with clear definitions.
Phonetics is all about studying the sounds we make when we talk. There are three main branches of this
discipline.

The three branches of Phonetics

Acoustic Phonetics

This is the study of the sound waves made by the human vocal organs for communication and how the sounds
are transmitted. The sound travels through from the speaker's mouth through the air to the hearer's ear, through
the form of vibrations in the air. Phoneticians can use equipment like Oscillographs and Spectographs in order
to analyse things like the frequency and duration of the sound waves produced. Acoustic phonetics also looks
at how articulatory and auditory phonetics link to the acoustic properties.

Auditory Phonetics

This is how we perceive and hear sounds and how the ear, brain and auditory nerve perceives the sounds. This
branch deals with the physiological processes involved in the reception of speech.

Articulatory Phonetics

Articulatory phonetics is interested in the movement of various parts of the vocal tract during speech.The vocal
tract is the passages above the larynx where air passes in the production of speech. In simpler terms which bit
of the mouth moves when we make a sound.

VPM labels is a term that is used in phonetics, it means Voice Place Manner labels. These labels are given to
sounds, in order to describe where the sound is produced, how and whether it is voiced or unvoiced
(voiceless).

Check out this diagram to help you see where exactly the articulators are.
Voiced and Voiceless sounds

Voiced sounds are sounds vibrate the vocal chords, you can feel this in the throat. Whereas voiceless sounds
don't vibrate the vocal chords. Why not give it a go! Place two fingers on the front of your throat and make the
/z/ sound as in buzz, do you feel your vocal chords vibrating? Now try doing the same thing but making the /s/
sounds as in grass, what do you feel now? The /s/ sound is a voiceless sound and the /z/ sound is voiced.

Place of Articulation

Speech sounds are classified in terms of which articulators are used, in other words, which bit of the mouth is
used in making the sound. Here are some basic classifications to get you started.

Term Explanation Example

Bilabial Sound made using /p/ as in pat
both lips. /b/ as in bat

Labiodental Sound made using /f/ as in fat

the lower lip and /v/ as in vase
upper teeth.
Alveolar Sound made where /d/ as in dad
the tongue touches the /s/ as in sat
alveolar ridge.
Dental Sound made using /ð/ as in the
 the teeth and tongue. / θ/ as in thing
Velar Sound made using /k/ as in cat
the back part of the /g/ as in gate
tongue and the soft
palate (velum).
Glottal Sound made using Glottal stops:/ʔ/
the glottis.

Manner of Articulation

Manner of articulation is how the tongue, lips and jaw along with other speech organs are involved when
making a sound.

The manners:

Plosive (stop)
Sounds that are made with complete a complete stop of air flow in the vocal tract. Sounds like /p/, /b/, /t/ and
/k/.

Nasal
Sounds that are made where air escapes through the nasal cavity. Sounds like /n/ and /m/.

Fricative
A sound produced by a near complete stoppage of air. Sounds like /s/, /z/ or /f/.

Approximant
Sound made where one articulator comes close to another without causing audible friction. Sounds like /w/ or
/r/.

 Lateral Approximant: Where air escapes through the sides of the tongue, however the tongue blocks the
air from going through the middle of the mouth. Sounds like /l/.

Affricate
A sound made that starts like a plosive and then releases into a fricative. Sounds like /dʒ/ and /tʃ/.

Now we know if a sound is voiced or voiceless, the place of articulation and manner of articulation we can
start to make VPM labels (Voice Place Manner labels).

For each sound we need to decide, if its voiced or voiceless and where and how the sound is made. Here are a
few examples:

/s/- Voiceless Alveolar Fricative

/b/- Voiced Bilabial Plosive

/m/- Voiced Bilabial Nasal

/θ/- Voiceless Dental Fricative

The IPA

The IPA is a system devised to create a standardised representation of all the sounds spoken by a language.
This is used in phonetic transcription. It provides a clear and consistent way to transcribe words when
phoneticians transcribe dialects for example. Every single speech sound or 'phoneme' has its own symbol
corresponding to it. This helps us to transcribe words, the exact way they are said. (See Where is Phonetics
studied? for more information on the IPA community.)
The IPA looks very daunting at first glance so here is a bit of an easier way to help you learn the IPA symbols
on a basic level.

Vowel Sounds

æ as in cab e as in pet ɪ as in kit

ɒ as in dog ʊ as in dug ʌ as in putt (like a southerner saying strut)

ɪə as in fear eə as in pear ɔɪ as in toy

aɪ as in buy əʊ as in float eɪ as in hey

aʊ as in cow uː as in room iː as in leek

ɜː as in third aː as in arm ɔː as in pour

ə as in about

Consonant sounds

b: as in bad k: as in cat d: as in dog f as in frog g as in gas h as in help

l as in leap m as in man n as in no p as in pat r as in rat s as in sat

t as in tap v as in veil z as in zoo j as in yellow w as in wash ʒ as in leisure

dʒ as in large tʃ as in child ʃ as in ship θ as in thing ð as in the ŋ as in flying

ʔ is a glottal stop.

Why not have a go at transcribing some words yourself? Start with easy short words (like your name,
etc) and build it up!

Where to next?

 Check your knowledge: Do you know the IPA? - See how much you've learnt from this section by
taking this quick match-up quiz!
 Why is Phonetics studied? - Follow on to this page to find out the many purposes of phonetics.
 How is Phonetics studied? - Discover what techniques are used to explore phonetics.

© University of Sheffield 2012

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