* The first systematic study of speech sounds: The earliest known attempts at describing and classifying speech sounds came from Greek philosophers and grammarians such as Plato and Aristotle. They recognized that speech was made up of distinct sounds and attempted to analyze their production and perception.
* Panini's work in Sanskrit: While not strictly phonetic, the work of the ancient Indian grammarian Panini on Sanskrit (around the 4th century BC) significantly contributed to the development of phonetics. He developed a sophisticated system for describing and analyzing the sounds of Sanskrit, including rules for pronunciation and morphology.
* The rise of modern phonetics: Modern phonetics emerged in the 19th century with the work of scholars like Hermann von Helmholtz and Alexander Melville Bell. They used scientific methods to study speech sounds, leading to the development of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), a standardized system for transcribing speech sounds.
Therefore, while the origins of phonetics can be traced back to ancient Greece and India, its modern development is rooted in the 19th century with the application of scientific methods.