Phonetics is a discipline of linguistics that focuses on the study of the sounds used in speech. It is not concerned with the meaning of these sounds, the order in which they are placed, or any other factor outside of how they are produced and heard, and their various properties.
This discipline is closely related to phonology, which focuses on how sounds are understood in a given language, and semiotics, which looks at symbols themselves. There are three major subfields of phonetics, each of which focuses on a particular aspect of the sounds used in speech and communication. Auditory phonetics looks at how people perceive the sounds they hear, acoustic phonetics looks at the waves involved in speech sounds and how they are interpreted by the human ear, and articulatory phonetics looks at
how sounds are produced by the human vocal apparatus. This third subfield is where the majority of people begin their study, and it has uses for many people outside of the field of linguistics. These include speech therapists, computer speech synthesizers, and people who are simply interested in learning how they make the sounds they do 2. The Organs of Speech The various organs which are involved in the production of speech sounds are called speech organs (also known as vocal organs). The study of speech organs helps to determine the role of each organ in the production of speech sounds. They include the lungs, the vocal folds, and most importantly the articulators.
1. The Lungs The airflow is by far the most vital requirement for producing speech sound, since all speech sounds are made with some movement of air. The lungs provide the energy source for the airflow. The lungs are the spongy respiratory organs situated inside the rib cage. They expand and contract as we breathe in and out air. The amount of air accumulated inside our lungs controls the pressure of the airflows
