phonetic

Adjective

phonetic (comparative more phonetic, superlative most phonetic)

1. Relating to the sounds of spoken language.
2. (linguistics) Relating to phones (as opposed to phonemes)

Related terms

• phone
• phoneme
• phonemic
• phonetics
• semiphonetic

Noun

phonetic (plural phonetics)

1. (linguistics) In such logographic writing systems as the Chinese writing system, the portion of a character (if any) that provides an indication of its pronunciation; contrasted with radical.

Phonetics (from the Greek: φωνή, phōnē, "sound, voice", pronounced /fəˈnetɪks/) is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds (phones): their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory perception, and neurophysiological status. Phonology, on the other hand, is concerned with abstract, grammatical characterization of systems of sounds.There are 44 vowels which can be studied deeply with the help of phonetics.

History

Phonetics was studied as early as 2500 years ago in ancient India, with Pāṇini's account of the place and manner of articulation of consonants in his 5th century BC treatise on Sanskrit. The major Indic alphabets today order their consonants according to Pāṇini's classification. The Ancient Greeks are credited as the first to base a writing system on a phonetic alphabet. Modern phonetics began with Alexander Melville Bell, whose Visible Speech (1867) introduced a system of precise notation for writing down speech sounds.