Difference Between Phonetics and Phonology

Phonetics

Phonology

In phonetics, we discuss physical production of speech sounds.

In phonology, we study concepts of sounds of a language and focuses on the organization of sounds by studying speech patterns

Phonetics simply describes the articulatory, auditory, and acoustic properties of speech sounds.

Phonology studies how speech sounds combine and how they change in combination, as well as sounds change in a word, can contrast to produce the difference in meaning

Phonetics comes under descriptive linguistics

Phonology comes under theoretical linguistics

Phonetics studies the production, transmission, and reception of sounds

Phonology studies different patterns of sounds in different languages

Phonetics is physics of sound

Phonology is psychology of sound

Phonetics does not deal with one particular language but all sounds in general

In phonology, We study sounds of a specific language

Phonetical units are called phones

Phonological units are called phonemes

Phonetic symbols are enclosed in square brackets as [f], [m], etc.

Phonemic symbols are enclosed in slash marks as /f/, /m/, etc.

It studies how many speech sounds a language has.

It deals with the system and pattern of speech sounds in a language

Sounds can be divided into consonants and vowels

Can be characterized according to place, manner of articulation, and voice (voiceless or voiced)

Phonetics describes the way sounds are spoken and interpreted by the native speaker

Phonology describes the way sounds functions in a language

Phonetics differentiates sound of a letter(e.g. [m]) among different words like mango, alms, jam etc.

Phonology differentiate different phonemes and how meaning changes in change of a phoneme

Phonetics describes the production of all human speech sounds regardless of any specific language

It is the study of how a specific language sounds are organized and used

Phonetics simply describes the articulatory, auditory, and acoustic properties of speech sounds

Phonology studies how speech sounds combine and how they change in combination, as well as sounds change in a word, can contrast to produce the difference in meaning

It has three branches

1.      Acoustic phonetics

2.      Auditory phonetics

3.      Articulatory phonetics

It has three branches

1.      Segmental Phonology

2.      Supra-segmental phonology

It deals with a large number of speech sounds.

It deals with a limited number of speech sounds

Phonetical units may not form contrastively

Phonological units are formed contrastively.