Human language displays a wide variety of sounds, but not all the sounds that humans are capable of producing with the vocal tract in speech. The class of possible speech sounds is not only finite, but also universal. Any human is able to pronounce these sounds, regardless of racial or cultural background.
Scope of Phonetics
Speech is a purposeful human activity. Phonetics is the scientific study of speech and is concerned with defining and classifying speech sounds according to how they are produced. A complex set of physical operations takes place when a spoken message goes from a speaker to a hearer.
Phonetics studies the above facets of speech. However, the neurological facets of production and reception are often considered falling outside the scope of phonetics proper. Generally, the study of phonetics is composed of three separate fields: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics and auditory phonetics .
Articulation of Sounds
A wide range of physical activity is involved in the production of the speech sounds in human language. Vocal organs often articulate or move against each other in the production of speech. Vocal organs refer to all the parts of the human body that are related to speech production
Articulation of Sounds
When describing individual sound segments, phoneticians and linguists often employ two parameters to examine how sounds are articulated: manner of articulation and place of articulation.
Manner of Articulation
The manner of articulation is very important during the production of the sound. It is based on the size of the air passage. When the articulators are brought close together and the airflow in the oral cavity is completely blocked, the resultant manner of articulation is termed a stop. Stops are divided into two types: oral stops (plosives), and nasal stops (nasals).
