2. The branches of phonetics. Application of phonetics

Speech is a very complicated phenomenon, each of its aspects being a separate subject for investigation

1. Articulatory phonetics studies the physiology of speech and the mechanism of sound production. It studies the movements of the speech organs and their coordination in the production of the sounds. So, articulatory phonetics deals with the work of speech apparatus, its organs and their functioning

2. Acoustic phonetics studies the physical features of sounds. It studies the way in which the air vibrates between the speaker’s mouth and the listener’s ear.

3. Auditory phonetics

4. Functional phonetics studies phonetics units as elements of a system in terms of their functions, mutual relations and rules of realization

Applications of phonetics

As a linguistic science, phonetics is naturally connected with other linguistic disciplines, such as grammar, lexicology, stylistics, dialectology and sociolinguistic. Also, phonetics is related to a number of non-linguistic sciences which study the processes of speech production and speech perception.

Here are just a few spheres phonetic investigation results are applied in:

- Communication engineering

- Medicine (speech pathology)

- Psychology

- Psycholinguistics

- Sociolinguistics

- Oratory

- Foreign language teaching

3. Articulatory characteristics of speech sounds: place, organs and manner of articulation, the work of the vocal cords. Coarticulation. Types of assimilation.

Articulatory phonetics is a branch of linguistics which studies the progress of sound production. All speech sounds are produced by means of the speech apparatus. The speech apparatus is principally the same with all people and consist of 3 parts: the lungs (respiratory apparatus), the larynx (which contains the vocal cords) and organs of articulation located in mouth and nasal cavities.

The air stream released by the lungs goes through the wind-pipe and comes to the larynx, which contains the vocal cords. The vocal cords are two elastic folds which may be kept apart or brought together. The opening between them is called the glottis. If the tense vocal cords are brought together, the air stream forcing an opening makes them vibrate and we hear some voice. Such sounds are called voiced. Voiceless sounds are made with the vocal cords kept apart. There is one more state of the vocal cords – the glottal stop. When the vocal cords are brought close together and then opened suddenly by the air stream there comes a sort of coughing noise, a kind of the 'click' of the vocal cords. This sound is called the glottal stop.

The most important organ of speech is the tongue. Phoneticians divide the tongue into four sections, the part which lies opposite the soft palate is called the back of the tongue; the part facing the hard palate is called the front; the one lying under the teeth ridge is known as the blade and its extremity the tip. The central part of the tongue is the area where the front and back meet. The tongue may lie flat or move in the horizontal or vertical directions.

The lips can take up various positions as well. They can be brought firmly together or kept apart neutral, rounded, or protruded forward.

All the organs of speech can be divided into two groups:

1) Active organs of speech, movable and taking an active part in the sound formation:

(a) the vocal cords, which produce voice;

(b) the tongue, which is the most flexible, movable organ;

(c) the lips affecting very considerably the shape of the mouth cavity;

(d) the soft palate with the uvula, directing the stream of air either to the mouth or to the nasal cavity; (e) the back wall of the pharynx contracted for some sounds;

(f) the lower jaw, which movement controls the gap between the teeth and also the disposition of the lips;

(g) the lungs providing air for sounds;

2) Passive organs of speech:

(a) the teeth,

(b) the teeth ridge,

(c) the hard palate and

(d) the walls of the resonators.

In the process of speech production any sound goes through three phases of articulation:

− excursion, i.e. the moment when the speech organs get set to the position necessary to articulate a sound;

- exposure, i.e. the period of time when the speech organs stay in a certain articulatory position;

− recursion, i.e. the moment when the speech organs either return to the state of rest or get ready to articulate another sound.

Speech sounds influence each other in speech flow, thus becoming pronounced in a different way. These modifications of speech sounds are observed both within words and at word boundaries. Such intercourse between sounds in connected speech is termed «coaticulation». Coarticulation results in assimilation, when one of the sounds becomes fully or partially similar to the adjoining sound.

There are 3 types of assimilation:

1. Direction. The influence of the neighboring sounds in English can act in:

- progressive direction. When some articulatory features of the following sound are changed under the influence of the preceding sound, which remains unchanged, assimilation is called progressive

- regressive direction. When the following sound influences the articulation of the preceding one assimilation is called regressive.

- double direction. It means complex mutual influence of the sounds.

2. Degree of completeness. According to its degree, assimilation can be:

- complete (in the case when the two adjoining sounds become alike or merge into one (less shy))

- incomplete (when the likeness of the adjoining sounds is partial (For example, the voiced sounds [w, l, r] are partly devoiced when preceded by the voiceless [p,t, k, s, f, Ố) within words: sweet, place, try))

3. Degree of stability. Many assimilatory phenomena have become obligatory in modern English. Changes which have taken place over a period of time within words are called historical. Besides there are a lot of widely spread but non-obligatory cases of assimilation which can be traced mainly at word boundaries

Here are some more examples of sound changes which can result from coarticulation process:

- labialization

- nasalization

- loss of plosion

- palatalization

- velarization

Articulatory characteristics of sounds:

1) The place of articulation where organs of sounds can come close to each other

2) Organs of articulation

3) The manner of articulation is determined by the of obstruction

4) The position of the soft palate nasal\oral

1) - labial [m] [b] [p] -labio-dental- [v] [f] -inter dental[ θ ] [ ð ] - alveolar [t] [d] [s] [z] [n] [l] -post-alveolar [r] -palatal [j] -velar[g] [k] [ ŋ] -glottal [h]	2) -labial [m] [b] [p] [v] [z] -lingual a) forelingual [t] [d] [s] [z] [ θ ] [ ð ][n] [r] [l] [∫][3 ][ d3] [ t∫ ] b) medialingual [j] c) backlingual [g] [k] [ŋ] - glottal [h]
3) - plosive(взрывной) [p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [g] -fricative [f] [v][ θ ] [ ð ] [s] [z] [h] [∫][3] -affricative [d3] [ t∫ ] - approximants [w] [l] [r] [j]	4) -oral (all the other sounds) -nasal [m] [n] [ŋ]