IPA

Phonetics – the study of speech sounds
Articulatory Phonetics – the study of how the vocal tract produces the sounds of language
*To describe speech sounds, it is necessary to know what an individual sound is, and how each sound differs from all others.

The Phonetic Alphabet

The discrepancy between spelling and sounds gave rise to a movement of “spelling reformers” called orthoepists. They wanted to revise the alphabet so that one letter would correspond to one sound and one sound would correspond to one letter, thus creating a phonetic alphabet to simplify spelling.

It is easy to understand why spelling reformers believe there is a need for a phonetic alphabet. Several letters may represent a single sound:

to, two, too
through, threw
clue, shoe

A single letter may represent different sounds:

dame dad father call village many

A combination of letters may represent a single sound:

shoot character Thomas physics either deal rough nation coat glacial theater plain

Some letters have no sound at all in certain words:

mnemonic autumn resign ghost
pterodactyl write hole corps
psychology sword debt gnaw
bough lamb island knot

The spelling may fail to represent sounds that occur. In many words, the letter u represents a y sound followed by a u sound.

cute (compare: coot)
futile (compare: rule)
utility (compare: Uzbek)