What does the field Phonetics study?

• A. Grammar rules
• B. Sounds of spoken language
• C. Word meanings
• D. Language evolution

Answer: (B)

Phonetics is about sounds of spoken language—how speech sounds are produced, transmitted, and perceived. It looks at the physical side of speech: articulatory phonetics studies how the speech organs (lips, tongue, palate, vocal cords) shape sounds; acoustic phonetics examines the sound waves themselves (their frequency, intensity, and duration); and perceptual or auditory phonetics explores how listeners hear and distinguish those sounds. Tools like the International Phonetic Alphabet represent these sounds across languages so we can analyze and compare them.

This focus on sounds distinguishes phonetics from grammar, which deals with structure and rules of sentences; semantics, which is about meaning of words and sentences; and historical or language-evolution topics, which study how languages change over time.