Definition of Phonetics and Phonology

Indira Ahmed Fernandez | Feb. 2022
Bachelor of Hispanic Letters

According to Coseriu's claims, the two disciplines are interdependent and complement each other. Saying thought is justified by the fact that these, with respect to sounds, deal with two aspects that can be equated with the perception that of the linguistic sign Saussure does (which contains signifier and signified). The phonetics studies the meaning of sounds, their materialization in the human voice, while phonology treats these as signifiers, providing them with a written representation.

Phonology

Phonology, on the other hand, is concerned with interpreting the value of the phonic units in a system and with international phonetic alphabet is intended to standardize the graphic signs with which the sounds.

Taking as an example the systems of the Italian language and the Spanish language, it can be seen that the sound of the "c" is represented by the same spelling and different characters in the international phonetic alphabet. The letter with which we represent the sound (“c”) is the field of phonology.

It is necessary to consider that within a linguistic system the brain creates intrinsic relationships between sounds and the way they are represented. We know how a “p”, a “b”, the vowels sound. The Greek alphabet was able to recreate each sound with a single graphic sign, so it does not imply any confusion and there are no complex spellings. (like the Latin “ch”): “each sound is always represented by a single graphic sign, and reciprocally each sign corresponds to a simple sound”. It is this sign that is recognized as a phoneme.

Phonetics

phonetics is that discipline, complementary to phonology, which studies sounds in terms of their articulation in the human voice. It is a matter of this to indicate what characteristics the phonemes present according to their sound materialization.

It is important to know that this is closely linked to the production of the human voice, which happens in the vocal apparatus. This is the relation of phonetics to physiology, relationship that was not taken into account by the first linguists, and that proved to be vital for their study. Why? Well, because each letter, as a phoneme (sound representation) is formed in a specific part of the vocal apparatus and this determines the type of phoneme in question.

Take for example the Spanish language system and the grapheme “c”. We know that in Spanish this letter, followed by “e”, “i” sounds like an “s”; while if it is followed by “a”, “o”, “u” it will have the sound of “k”. The first is an alveolar phone (/s/), produced with the tongue and palate; while the second is an occlusive phone (/k/), produced by a total obstruction or occlusion of the oral cavity, so that the air does not come out.

In opposition, in the Italian language system, the spelling “c” can represent two sounds: the stop /k/, when it is followed by “a”, “o”, “u”; and the voiceless alveopalatal fricative phone /ʃ/ followed by “e”, “i” (which sounds like the Spanish digraph “ch”).

Intonation is also included in this area, although this aspect is also related to dialectology and sociolinguistics.

Throughout the history of humanity, language, as a living entity in constant evolution, has changed, which includes the sounds. The phonetic evolution has had grammatical consequences that are also the object of study of the linguistics.

References

- Alarcos Llorach, E.: Methodology structural and functional in linguistics.

- Fernández Pérez, M.: Linguistic disciplines.

- Navarro Tomás, T.: Manual of Spanish pronunciation.

- Saussure, F.: General Linguistics Course.