Phonetics versus Phonology
Phonetics
and phonology are two terms that need to be understood in order to understand
the difference between them. It is important to realize that phonetics is the
study of how sounds are made. On the other hand, phonology deals with the study
of the properties of sounds and their changes. This is the fundamental
difference between phonetics and phonology. It is very important to also remember
that both phonetics and phonology are part of the scientific study of any
language known as linguistics. Linguistics is divided into four main
parts: phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Phonetics falls under
phonology as both deals with sound.
What is phonetics?
Phonetics deals with the organs of sound production. The organs of sound production are the mouth, tongue, throat, nose, lips and palate. Various sounds are produced from these organs or parts in the mouth. These sounds are known as gutturals, palatals, cerebrals, dentals, and labials. Gutturals are produced in the throat, palatals are produced by the palate, cerebrals are produced at the roof of the palate, dentals are produced by the teeth, and labials are produced by the lips. However, if you look at the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), the classification for the place of origin or articulation of the sound for consonants (pulmonary) is much broader. They are like Bilabial (lips), Labio-Dental (lips and teeth), Dental (teeth), Alveolar (alveolar ridge), Postalveolar, Retroflex (tongue is rolled back), Palate (palate):
1 . labial or
( outer part of the lips )
2 . endo -labial or
( inner part of the lips )
3 . dental or
( maxillary teeth )
4 .
alveolar or ( dental dam )
5 . alveolar
( between the perineum and the hard palate )
6 . palatal
or ( anterior part of the hard palate )
7 . palatal
or ( hard palate , palatum )
8 . velar or
( soft palate / soft palate , velum )
9 . uvular or
( uvula , uvula )
10 .
pharyngeal or ( throat , pharynx )
11 .
glottal or ( left vocal folds )
12 .
epiglottal or ( epiglottis )
13 .
radical or ( root of tongue )
14 .
postero - dorsal or ( back part of the
tongue )
15 . antero
- dorsal or ( front part of the tongue )
16 .
laminal or( tongue blade )
17 . apical
or( tip of tongue )
18 .
sublaminal ( underside of the tongue ) _
The word
phonetics comes from the Greek word φωνητικóς ( phōnētikós ) ' belonging to
sounding , speaking ', extracted from the word φωνή ( phōnḗ ) ' voice , sound ,
sound , sound .
Check IPAchart
Phonetics,
as part of phonology , studies the factors and components of linguistic sounds
. It is an independent interdisciplinary field between linguistics, biology ,
acoustics , neuroscience , medicine and other sciences . The subject area of
phonetics is the spoken one Language in all its realizations.
What is phonology?
Phonology,
on the other hand, deals with the sounds and their changes due to various
factors such as climate change, race, influence of other languages and the
like. There are various sound changes such as diphthongization, palatalization,
metathesis, anaptyxes, apocope, syncopation, vowel break, haplology,
assimilation, dissimilation and the like. It is interesting to note that
phonology plays an important role in the study of languages or linguistics.
This is due to the fact that phonology paves the way or lays the foundation for
morphology or word formation.
It can be
said that phonetics is the backbone of phonology. Because of the fact that
phonology is based on phonetics; phonetics plays a very significant role in studying
and understanding the origin of sounds.
The main difference
• Phonetics
deals with the study of the process or the production of sounds. On the other
hand, phonology deals with the study of the properties of sounds and its
changes. This is the main difference between phonetics and phonology.
• Phonetics
studies the organs of sound production.
•
Phonology, deals with the sounds and their changes.
• One can
say that phonetics is the subset of phonology.