Phonetics is the scientific study of the production, transmission and reception of speech sounds (sounds of human speech). It studies the medium of spoken language, speech processes, including the anatomy, neurology and pathology of speech, the articulation, description, classification, production and perception of speech sounds. It looks at speech from three distinct but interdependent viewpoints:
- It studies the speech organs, which produce sounds of language.
- It studies waves, the physical way in which sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another.
- It studies the way in which human beings perceive sounds through the medium of the ear.
Phoneticians try to study how the various organs of speech – the lungs, the larynx, the soft palate, the tongue and the lip function in the production of speech. They also attempt to offer articulatory descriptions of various sounds by describing the air-stream mechanism and the phonatory and articulatory processes involved.