Acoustic Phonetics

Paper Summary:

The field of acoustic phonetics studies the transmission of speech sounds through the air from the speaker to the hearer and measures and analyzes the movement and vibration of the air. It defines categories of speech sounds that are used to form distinctions between words in languages. This paper shows that by looking at the anatomy and physiology of speech and analyzing sound waves and mechanisms, we can create many interesting and useful applications in the field of sound. It shows how we can look at the influence of context on speech sound production, as well as develop applications to help those with disabilities that impair their communication ability. The paper shows how acoustic phonetics is applied to communications disorders and mentions the problem in this field in which all the early sound spectrograph and wave-form editors focused on analysis of the male voice spectrum, leaving out disabled women.

From the Paper:

"In theory we can talk about phonetics without reference to phonology which is the actual pronunciation of words and sentence, the regular patterning that occurs, and why the sound "ing" used at the end of the word "sing" for example, never occurs at the beginning of a word. But in fact, we can only truly define phonology in relation to phonetics, which deals with all speech sounds. Phonetics has taught us that although humans are capable of producing an enormous number of speech sounds, each language uses only some of the sounds available, and no two languages have exactly the same set of speech sounds. Even more interesting, each language organizes and makes use of sounds in its own particular way."

More papers on Acoustic Phonetics:

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• Term Paper # 133939 : "Phonetics"
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