what is phonetic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Phonetics (pronounced /fÉËnÉtÉªks/ , from the Greek: ÏÏÎ½Î®, phÅnÄ, 'sound, voice') is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, orâin the case of sign languages âthe equivalent aspects of sign.pplications of phonetics include: 1  Forensic phonetics: the use of phonetics (the science of speech) for forensic (legal) purposes. 2  Speech recognition: the analysis and transcription of recorded speech by a computer system.