ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at what we know about phonetics, exploring writing and spelling, texting and talking. It also looks at the relationship between speaking and spelling and between speech sounds, letters of the alphabet and symbols. The chapter introduces the International Phonetic Association chart and transcription, and the different types of phonetics, accents, attitudes to what people sound like, and the phonetics/phonology interface. Phonetics has a special symbol for marking the prominence, called a stress mark. Describing how sounds are made is the business of articulatory phonetics which informs theories of speech production. Articulatory phonetics is the most widespread type of phonetics taught, underpinning both other types, and is studied not only by linguistics students but also by students of speech and language therapy, many language students and some medical students, voice students, drama students, and students of singing, to name but a few.
