In linguistics, which field is concerned with the actual physical production, acoustic properties, and auditory perception of speech sounds, regardless of their function within a specific language’s system?

💡 Explanation:

Phonetics is the study of the physical characteristics of speech sounds (how they are made by the mouth/larynx, how they travel as sound waves, and how they are perceived by the ear). It is distinct from Phonology, which studies how those sounds are organized into functional systems within a particular language.