Phonetics is the study of the production and perception of human speech sounds.
The three main sub-categories:
- Articulatory phonetics – the study of the physical gestures of sound production
- Acoustic phonetics – the study of the physical properties of sound production
- Auditory phonetics – the study of how sounds are perceived as incoming sound signals
The exercises below cover a range of information concerning these areas.
When learning sound symbols and transcription, remember that there are different phonetic alphabets, the most familiar of which are the IPA (The International Phonetic Alphabet), the APA (The American Phonetic Alphabet). Most writers for LinguisticsNetwork use the IPA.
Extra Resources
- To compare the IPA and the APA vowels, click here
- Click here for an IPA chart of English diphthongs.
- Check out our tutorials for extra support and don’t forget to look up any terms you are not familiar with in our glossary!
It is important to grasp the idea that the orthographical representation or spelling of a word is NOT the same as its phonetic transcription. This is the downfall of many students. Remember that you are using symbols to represent sounds.
Our List of Exercises
Remember that Level 1 is for the novice and Level 2 is for the intermediate linguist.
Phonetic Exercises for Members
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