Topic-162: Phonetics of the Community and of the Individual Linguistic phonetic descriptions (of speech sounds) are, by and large, descriptions of the phonetics of the community (excluding the individual properties and considering the shared properties of the sound system of a language by its native speakers. The representations that experts write and use in the IPA, and analyze in a formal phonological theory, are intended to show the community’s shared knowledge of how to say the words of a language. It is important to note that this shared phonetic knowledge is perceptible to other speakers (and thus to the phonetician as well) and experts are mainly related to the aggregate behavior of linguistic group in the sense that it captures what community members accept as correct pronunciation system. So the focus of linguistic phonetic description is the phonetics of the community and the phonetics of the individual is considered only for specific purposes when required.
