Fonético

Fonético, in linguistics, refers to phonetics, the scientific study of the physical properties of speech sounds. It investigates how sounds are produced, transmitted, and perceived, focusing on their acoustic and articulatory properties rather than their use in any particular language. Phonetics is usually divided into three main subfields: articulatory phonetics, which studies how speech sounds are formed by the vocal tract; acoustic phonetics, which analyzes sound waves; and auditory phonetics, which examines perception by the ear and brain.

Researchers use various methods and tools, including phonetic transcription with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), spectrographic analysis, and instrumental techniques such as ultrasound, MRI, and X-ray imaging. Data from phonetics support the description of languages, the teaching of pronunciation, and the diagnosis of speech disorders.

Phonetics is closely related to phonology, which studies abstract sound systems and patterns in languages. Applications include language teaching, speech therapy, linguistics research, speech synthesis and recognition, forensic phonetics, and language documentation.

Historically, modern phonetics consolidated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the development of the IPA and professional associations. Key figures include Henry Sweet, Paul Passy, and Daniel Jones, who helped standardize methods and terminology for cross-language sound comparison.