What is Phonetics

Lecture No1
Title: What is phonetics
Language is one of the distinctive characteristics of human beings. Without formal instruction, we learn the skills that we need to be successfu lusers of a language. In acquiring language we learn words, and how to put them together;we learn to link wordsand sentences to meaning; we learn how to use such structures to get what we want. Linguistics is the formal study of language. Language and speech are often distinguished in linguistics. Phonetics is the study of the phonic medium. It is physical and directly observable. Phonetics is sometimes seen as not properly linguistics, because it is the outward, physical manifestation of the main object of linguistic research, which is language not research and language is abstract. Speech is the commonest and primary form of language. Speech is produced by the controlled movement of air through the throat, mouth and nose. It can be studied in a number of different ways:
1.articulatory phonetics is concerned with how sounds are produced by means of organs of speech.
2.accoustic phonetics is concerned with the physical properties of the sounds .
3.auditory phonetics is concerned with how the listner percieves the sounds produced by the speaker.