Fonetiiikka

Fonetiiikka is a Finnish word that translates to phonetics in English. It is the branch of linguistics that studies the sounds of human speech. Phonetics is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds, how they are produced by the vocal organs, how they are transmitted through the air, and how they are perceived by the ear.

There are three main branches of phonetics: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and auditory phonetics. Articulatory phonetics examines how speech sounds are produced by the vocal organs, such as the tongue, lips, and vocal cords. Acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sounds, such as their frequency, amplitude, and duration, using tools like spectrograms. Auditory phonetics investigates how speech sounds are perceived by the listener's ear and brain.

Phonetics plays a crucial role in various fields, including language acquisition, speech therapy, forensic linguistics, and the development of speech recognition and synthesis technologies. Understanding phonetics is essential for describing and classifying languages accurately, as well as for analyzing and correcting speech impediments. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a standardized system used by phoneticians to represent the sounds of all known spoken languages.