What is Phonetics?
'''Phonetics''' (from the [[Greek language|Greek]] word φωνή, ''phone'' which means 'sound' or 'voice') is the [[science]] of the [[sound]]s of human [[speech]]. Someone who is an [[wikt:expert|expert]] in phonetics is called a phonetician.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phonetician|title=Definition of PHONETICIAN|website=www.merriam-webster.com}}</ref> Phonetic theory regards the nature of sounds in speech (called [[Phone (phonetics)|phones]]) and how they are made, heard and thought of. [[Phonology]], which came from it, studies sound systems and sound units (such as [[phoneme]]s and [[distinctive feature]]s). Phonetics is one of the two parts of [[orthographical linguistics]], the other part being [[spelling]], differing from [[grammar]] and [[lexis]]. Phonetics has three main branches: * [[articulatory phonetics]], regarding the [[place of articulation]] and the movement of the lips, tongue, vocal tract, and [[vocal cords|vocal folds]], * [[acoustic phonetics]], concerned with the traits of the sound waves and how the inner ear hears them, and * [[auditory phonetics]], concerned with [[speech perception]] (mostly how the brain thinks of what the ears hear) There are more than 100 different phones recognized by the [[International Phonetic Association]] (IPA) and are shown in their [[writing system]] called the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]]. The first time phonetics was studied was 2,500 years ago in what is now [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]] province of [[Pakistan]] , with {{Unicode|[[Pāṇini]]}}, when he wrote about the [[place of articulation|place]] and [[manner of articulation]] of [[consonant]]s in [[Sanskrit]] in his [[5th century BC]] essay on Sanskrit linguistics. The major [[Indic]] scripts today order their consonants the way {{Unicode|Pāṇini}} did. ==References== {{Reflist}} ==Accessible sources== * [http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Phonetics.html Introduction to phonetics for beginners] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071231223036/http://www.ic.arizon