Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology

Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies human speech and sounds, their production, acoustic properties and auditory perception. It also explores the properties of meaningful sound contrasts as well as the social meaning pertaining to the sound signal. The three primary branches of study in phonetics are articulatory, acoustic and auditory phonetics. Articulatory phonetics studies the production of speech, acoustic phonetics studies the qualities or physical characteristics of sound waves produced during speech and auditory phonetics studies the perception, recognition and categorization of speech sounds. The field of phonology is concerned with the organization of sounds in languages. It also covers the study of systems of phonemes and linguistic analyses at all levels of language. This book aims to shed light on some of the unexplored aspects of phonetics and phonology. While understanding the long-term perspectives of the topics, the book makes an effort in highlighting their impact as modern tools for the growth of linguistics. Through this book, we attempt to further enlighten the readers about the new concepts in these fields.