Phonetics is a branch of [[linguistics]] that studies the sounds used in speech. It is concerned with how sounds are produced, transmitted, and perceived by humans. Phonetics is divided into three main areas: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and auditory phonetics. Articulatory phonetics focuses on how speech sounds are physically produced by the speaker's vocal tract, including the position of the tongue, lips, and other articulators. Acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of sound waves produced by speech sounds, such as their frequency and amplitude. Auditory phonetics deals with how these sounds are perceived by the human ear and brain. Phonetics plays an important role in language teaching, speech therapy, and speech technology research.