1. Articulatory Phonetics: This branch focuses on the production of speech sounds. It studies the movements of the vocal tract, including the lips, tongue, teeth, and soft palate, to understand how they create different sounds.
2. Acoustic Phonetics: This branch examines the physical properties of speech sounds, specifically the sound waves that are produced. It utilizes tools like spectrographs and oscilloscopes to analyze the frequency, intensity, and duration of sound waves.
3. Auditory Phonetics: This branch investigates the perception of speech sounds by the human ear and brain. It explores how listeners process and interpret the acoustic signals they receive, including how they differentiate between similar sounds and recognize different speech patterns.
Each type of phonetics provides a unique perspective on the study of speech sounds, contributing to our understanding of how we speak, hear, and process language.