THE FRAMEWORK OF ARTICULATORY PHONETICS
Phonetics is a term standing for "the branch of linguistics that deals with the sounds of speech and their production, combination, and description, and representation by written symbols" (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 1992). There are three kinds of phonetics, viz.: 1) Acoustic phonetics, which is concerned with the study of the speech as heard, i.e. its waveform; 2) Experimental phonetics, which usually involves the manipulation of the waveform and makes psycho-acoustic tests to identify which aspects of sounds are essential for understanding, and for the recognition of linguistic categories; and 3) Articulatory phonetics, the oldest branch of the subject, which investigates the ways in which sounds are made. Thus, the phonetician is trained to recognize, produce, and analyze speech sounds. During the XXth century, phonetics has developed as a laboratory subject, in which instruments are used to study the production of speech in the vocal tract. For example, by monitoring the positions and movements of organs, breath flow, and air pressure. Electropalatography uses an artificial palate to record, display, and store data on articulatory movements inside the mouth (McArthur, 1992). Basically, articulatory phonetics is a branch of human physiology, whereas acoustic phonetics is a branch of physics.
"There are two points of view from which sounds can be profitably studied and described. The oldest and best established of these is known as articulatory phonetics. It is based on the assumption that the characteristics of speech sounds are the results of their modes of formation. They may accordingly be described and clarified by stating the position and action of the various speech organs. This physiological approach has been one of the basic tools of linguistics for many years and has proved very productive" (Gleason, 1955, p. 20). Nevertheless, the great variatio...