English Phonetics and Phonology: An Introduction

A field within linguistics that explores human speech and sounds, including their generation, acoustic characteristics, and how they are perceived by the auditory system, is known as phonetics. It delves into the characteristics of significant sound distinctions and the societal significance associated with these sound signals. The three main branches of study within phonetics are articulatory, acoustic and auditory phonetics. Articulatory phonetics examines the process of speech production, acoustic phonetics focuses on the attributes or physical traits of sound waves generated in speech, and auditory phonetics investigates the perception, recognition, and categorization of speech sounds. Phonology concerns itself with the arrangement of sounds within languages. It encompasses the examination of phoneme systems and linguistic analyses across all language levels. This book is a valuable compilation of topics, ranging from the basic to the most complex theories and principles in the field of phonetics and phonology. Most of the topics introduced herein cover new techniques and the applications of this field. For someone with an interest and eye for detail, this book covers the most significant topics in the field of phonetics and phonology.