This document discusses the differences between phonetics and phonology. Phonetics is the scientific study of speech sounds, including their production, transmission, and perception. It has three branches: articulatory, acoustic, and auditory phonetics. Phonology studies how sounds are organized in language and form systems of phonemes. While phonetics describes the physical aspects of sounds, phonology examines the psychological aspects and how sounds combine meaningfully. The document also introduces socio-phonetics, which examines socially constructed phonetic variation and how language varies based on social factors like gender, age, and occupation.

1. “In the name of Allah
the most beneficent the most merciful”
Difference between Phonetics and Phonology
Socio-Phonetics
Presented by: Tahir Imam
M.Phil English (linguistics)

2. Phonetics and Phonology
Phonetics:
“ The scientific study of production,
transmission and perception of speech sounds
in general is called phonetics.”

3. Branches of Phonetics
There are three branches of phonetics:
1. Articulatory phonetics.
2. Acoustic phonetics.
3. Auditory phonetics.

4. 1. Articulatory Phonetics:
• Production of speech sounds through speech
organs is called articulatory phonetics.
• Speech is produced by the movements of the
organs of the speech.
• In order to learn how speech sounds are
produced it is necessary to become familiar with
different parts of vocal tract, such as: Pharynx,
Velum, Hard palate, Alveolar ridge, Tongue, Teeth
and Lips.
• These parts are called articulators and their study
is a part of articulatory phonetics.

5. The Articulators

6. 2. Acoustic Phonetics
The study of physical properties of speech sounds is
called acoustic phonetics.
• The sound travels from speaker’s mouth through the air
to the hearer’s ear (in the form of vibrations).
• Phoneticians can use instruments like Tuning fork,
Oscillographs and Spectographs in order to analyze
things like frequency, amplitude and duration of the
produced sound waves.
•

8. 2. Acoustic Phonetics
• Acoustic phonetics also looks at how
articulatory and auditory phonetics link to the
acoustic properties.
• The study of acoustic
phonetics was greatly enhanced in the late
19th century by the invention of the Edison’s
Phonograph. The Phonograph allowed the
speech signals to be recorded and then later
processed and analyzed.

9. Thomas Edison’s Phonograph

10. 3. Auditory Phonetics
• The study of hearing and perception of speech sounds
is called auditory phonetics.
• It focuses on how we hear and sounds, and how ears,
brain and auditory nerves perceive the sounds.
• It deals with the psychological processes involved in
the reception of the speech.
• When we listen to a sound, then through ears different
parts of our brain receive the sound and analyze the
sound and then they make meaning of the sound.
• It studies different auditory impressions of quality,
pitch and loudness of the sounds.

11. The table below shows some correspondences
between physical properties and auditory sensations.
Physical Properties Auditory Perception
Amplitude or intensity Loudness
Fundamental frequency Pitch
Spectral structure Sound quality
duration length

12. Phonology
• Phonology is a branch of linguistics which
deals with organization of sounds in language.
• It studies the sound systems of languages.
• The sound system involves the actual
pronunciation of the words, which can be
broken up into smallest units of
pronunciations known as segment or
phoneme.

13. Difference between Phonetics and Phonology
Phonetics
• The scientific study of
production, transmission
and perception of speech
sounds in general is called
phonetics.
• Phonetics concerns with
physical production, acoustic
transmission and perception
of speech sound.
• Phonetics deals with
production of human speech
sound often without prior
knowledge of the language
being spoken.
Phonology
• Phonology is the branch of
linguistics which deals with
organization of sounds in
language. It studies the
sound systems of languages.
• Phonology describes the
way sounds function within
the language.
• Phonology is about patterns
of the sounds. It is the
study of how these sounds
are used in language, and it
specifies any language.

14. Difference between Phonetics and Phonology
Phonetics
• Phonetical units are called
phones.
(A speech segment that
possesses distinct physical
properties.)
• Phonetics deals with
physical properties of the
elements of the sound
system
How sound is produced?
• Phonetic transcription [ ]
Phonology
• Phonological units are
called segment or
phonemes.
(minimal linguistic units)
• Phonology deals with the
sound systems of languages.
How sounds are combined?
Relation between them and
how they affect each other?
• Phonemic transcription / /

15. Difference between Phonetics and Phonology
Phonetics
Phonetics has three main branches:
• (i)Articulatory Phonetics: deals with
production of sounds.
• (ii) Acoustic Phonetics: deals with
transmission of the sounds.
• (iii) Auditory Phonetics: deals with
perception of sounds.
Phonology
Phonology has four main branches:
• (i)Segmental phonology: based on
segmentation of language into
individual speech sounds derived
from phonetics.
• (ii)Supra-segmental phonology:
deals with attributes of
pronunciation which cannot be
segmented. E.g. rhythm, stress
• (iii)Diachronic phonology: studies
the patterns of sound systems
through the history of the language.
• (iv)Synchronic phonology: studies
the patterns of sound systems
regardless of historical change.

16. Difference between Phonetics and Phonology
Phonetics
• Phonetics describes
physics of sound.
• Phonetics relates to the
sound of the language.
Phonology
• Phonology describes
psychology of sound.
• Phonology studies how
those sounds are put
together to create
meanings.

17. Socio-Phonetics

18. Socio-Phonetics
Socio-phonetics is a branch of linguistics that
broadly combines the methods of socio-linguistics
and phonetics.
Socio-linguistics + Phonetics = Socio-phonetics

19. Socio-Phonetics
It deals with how socially constructed variation in
the sound system is used and learned. The term
“socio-phonetics” was first used by Denise Deshaies
Lafontame in 1974.

20. Socio-Phonetics
While linguisticsis the scientific study of the
language, Socio-linguisticsis the study of
relationship between language and society.
Socio-linguistics explains why we speak differently in
different social context. Identifying the social functions
of language and the ways it is used to convey social
meanings.

21. Socio-Phonetics
Socio-linguistics also studies how language
varieties differ between groups, separated by
certain social variables: ethnicity, religion, status,
gender, age, level of education etc.
The language used by the participants is influenced
by number of social factors.

22. Socio-Phonetics
These social factors include:
• Nature of participants: (socio-economic, gender, occupational, etc.)
• Number of participants: (two face-to-face, one addressing a large
audience, etc.)
• Role of participants: (teacher/student, father/son, husband/wife, etc.)
• Function of speech event: (formal, informal, request, information, verbal,
etc.)
• Nature of medium: (speech, writing, gesture, etc.)
• Genre of discourse: (scientific, art, religion, etc.)
It describes specific vocabulary associated with different occupational
group e.g. doctors, engineers, etc.
• Physical setting: (noisy/quiet, public/private, formal/informal, etc.)
• Regional or geographical setting:
Variety of languages spoken by people living in an area.