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How does phonetics differ from phonology in the study of speech sounds?

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Diagram of a human head in profile showing the location of vocal organs and possible places of articulation for speech sounds, with labels for lips, teeth, tongue, palate, uvula, pharynx, and vocal cords, and numbered regions corresponding to types of articulation such as bilabial, alveolar, and velar.
pronunciation Diagram depicting the location of human vocal organs and possible places of articulation used for speech.

In the study of speech sounds, phonetics and phonology serve distinct but complementary roles:

  • Phonetics focuses on the physical reality of speech. It examines the anatomy and physiology of the vocal tract used to produce sounds (articulatory phonetics) and the acoustic properties of those sound waves (acoustic phonetics). Phonetics is concerned with the measurable, continuous variation of sounds, often referred to as phones, which are represented in square brackets (e.g., [p]).123

  • Phonology investigates the sound patterns and systems within a specific language. It is concerned with the functional role of sounds—how they distinguish meaning. Phonology identifies phonemes, which are abstract, discrete units of sound represented by slashes (e.g., /p/). While phonetic identity is based on acoustic similarity, phonological identity is absolute; a sound either functions as a specific phoneme or it does not.423

Essentially, phonetics describes how sounds are made and heard, while phonology explains how those sounds are organized and used to create meaning within a language's unique structure.23