phonetician
Studies speech sounds
A phonetician is someone who studies the sounds of human speech—how they're produced, transmitted, and perceived.
The field covers everything from the physical mechanics of articulation to acoustic properties of sound waves.
Phoneticians work in linguistics departments, speech therapy, language teaching, and technology companies developing voice recognition systems.
The phonetician analyzed recordings to document the dialect's distinctive vowel sounds.
Non-distinctive sound variation
- vowelUnobstructed speech sound
- consonantIn agreement with
- diphthongComplex vowel gliding between positions
- monophthongSteady, ungliding vowel sound
plosive · fricative · affricate · trill · nasal · lateral · voiced · voiceless
Speech-producing throat organ
- glottisVocal cord opening
- palateOral cavity ceiling
- pharynxMuscular throat cavity
- velumMuscular mouth membrane
epiglottis · vocal folds · tongue · alveolar · bilabial · velar · uvular · dental
Pitch variation in speech
- stressPressure, mental or vocal
- toneQuality of sound
- pitchFrequency of sound
- rhythmPatterned stress and silence
cadence · accent · contour · prominence · timing · uptalk · sentence stress · word stress
Frequency-over-time display
- formantSpectral concentration in speech
- waveformGraphed oscillation pattern
- frequencyRate of recurrence
- amplitudeMaximum oscillation displacement
speech analysis · voiceprint · harmonics · spectral analysis · duration · intensity · sound wave · F1
Sound notation system
- diacriticsMarks altering letter pronunciation
- transcribeConvert to written form
- narrow transcriptionDetailed phonetic spelling system
- broad transcriptionRough phonetic representation
grapheme · orthography · symbols · notation · schwa · bracketing · segmental · encoding
Study of language variation
- dialectologyStudy of regional speech differences
- language acquisitionDeveloping communication ability
- psycholinguisticsScience of mental speech processes
- speech pathologyStudy of communication disorders
allophone
Non-distinctive sound variation
- vowelUnobstructed speech sound
- consonantIn agreement with
- diphthongComplex vowel gliding between positions
monophthong · plosive · fricative · affricate · trill · nasal · lateral · voiced · voiceless · aspiration
larynx
Speech-producing throat organ
velum · epiglottis · vocal folds · tongue · alveolar · bilabial · velar · uvular · dental · pharyngeal
intonation
Pitch variation in speech
rhythm · cadence · accent · contour · prominence · timing · uptalk · sentence stress · word stress · tonal language
spectrogram
Frequency-over-time display
- formantSpectral concentration in speech
- waveformGraphed oscillation pattern
- frequencyRate of recurrence
amplitude · speech analysis · voiceprint · harmonics · spectral analysis · duration · intensity · sound wave · F1
IPA
Sound notation system
- diacriticsMarks altering letter pronunciation
- transcribeConvert to written form
- narrow transcriptionDetailed phonetic spelling system
broad transcription · grapheme · orthography · symbols · notation · schwa · bracketing · segmental · encoding · romanization
sociolinguistics
Study of language variation
- dialectologyStudy of regional speech differences
- language acquisitionDeveloping communication ability
- psycholinguisticsScience of mental speech processes
- voice professionalsvoice coach, vocal coach, voice actor, voice teacher, speech coach
- language professionalslexicographer, translator, interpreter, editor, proofreader
- linguistslinguist, comparativist, etymologist, philologist, morphologist
- language resourcesdictionary, thesaurus, lexicon, bilingual dictionary, electronic dictionary
- word loverslogophile, logophiles, word nerd, word nerds, wordsmith
- speech expertsspeech therapist, speech pathologist, SLP, voice therapist, speech coach
phoneticiansemanticist
One who studies meaning
lexicographer · semiotician · graphologist · paleographer · epigraphist
phoneticianspeech therapist
Communication disorder specialist
speech pathologist · speech coach · voice coach · dialect coach · elocutionist