phonetics

2 4.8

Study of how people make and hear the sounds of speech

noun
/fəˈnɛtɪks/

Specialized

: fonética

The cutting-edge program emphasizes phonetics, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning.
phonetics and linguistics
phonetics and phonology
Department of Phonetics

Examples

Understanding phonetics can significantly aid in mastering the pronunciation of foreign words.
At 4.5 years, John demonstrated his curiosity about sounds in his interest in phonetics, specifically the initial sounds in words, in a set of drawings.

Academic text (2003)
So basically you have these three parts from a basic string to phonetics, to throat postures until finally you get the actual speech output.
Your grasp of phonetics and the way you've adapted your grammar-- it's quite remarkable, really.

The Makeover (2013)
Current reading assessments put emphasis on the five components of reading competency, which include fluency, grasp of phonetics, comprehension abilities, phonemic awareness, and vocabulary.

Academic text (2015)
In her linguistics course, students study phonetics to understand how different sounds are produced and perceived.
The speech therapist focuses on phonetics to help children improve their pronunciation.

Surface Forms

phonetics singular

phonetics plural

Morphology

phonetics = phonetic (transparent) = phonetic + s

The noun names the field formed straightforwardly from the adjective 'phonetic' by a nominalizing -s/-ics pattern, so knowing 'phonetic' yields the meaning.

Etymology

Phonetics comes from the Greek root phon- meaning 'voice' or 'sound' and the ending -ics meaning 'study of'. The same root is in everyday words like phone and microphone, which are about sound, so phonetics is the study of speech sounds.