Phonetics

General Linguistics

Presented to:
Dr. Raza e Mustafa
Presented by:
Ayman Batool 20014002-002
OUTLINE
• Phonetics
• Branches of Phonetics
• Types of speech sounds
• Airstream mechanism
• Minimal pairs
 Phonetics
 It is the study of speech sounds: how they are
articulated, transmitted and perceived.
 It deals with the study of nature of sounds.
 It studies how articulation of speech sounds
varies according to dialect.
 It studies which sounds are present in a
language.
 Articulatory phonetics
Articulatory phonetics studies that how speech sounds are
produced or articulated in human vocal tract
It tells that how air is changed into sound through human
vocal tract
Organs like tongue, lips, teeth, hard palate and glottis are
involved in articulation process
 Acoustic phonetics
It is the study about transmission of speech sounds for example
sound waves in the air.
It describes the physical properties of speech sounds.
This is the study of the sound waves made by the human vocal
organs for communication and how the sounds are transmitted.
 Auditory phonetics
It is the branch of Phonetics that deals with the
perception of speech sounds.
For example how the ears of the listener perceive the
sound waves.
Listener of sound uses his sense of hearing to receive
message and then proceed it.
Manner of Articulation

Stop Fricatives Affricates

Nasals Liquids Glides

Airstream mechanism
It is a mechanism that involves flow of air through
human vocal tract to produce speech sounds.

Pulmonic Airstream: In this lungs and respiratory

muscles set the air stream into motion

Glottalic Airstream: In this larynx within glottis

firmly closed, is moved up or down to initiate
airstream.

Velaric Airstream: In this back of tongue in firm

contact with soft palate is pushed forward or pulled
back to initiate airstream.
 Minimal pairs
A pair of words or phrases that differ only by one phone(sound) in the
same position in each word.
• Tin, Pin
• Jar, Car
• Thing, Think
• Bet, Jet
• Hat, Cat
Thank you