Phonetics is a science which deals with speech and its processes and variations. It includes the process of production, analysis and perception of speech sounds from a physiological and an acoustic point of view. Phonetics is divided into three categories which include articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics and auditory phonetics. Articulatory phonetics is the study of how the sounds of language are produced through the vocal tracts, whereas, auditory phonetics is the study of how we perceive language sounds. And finally acoustic phonetics deals with the physical characteristics of the language sounds.
Phoneticians specialize in the study of the physical aspects of speech. Since the dawn of civilization, a number of people have contributed to the study of speech and its respective sounds; one such person, who made numerous contributions in the field of phonetics, is Richard Brazil Walsh. Walsh was born on 18th October, 1914 in Slieverue South County Kilkenny, Ireland and was a linguist, phonetician and an Irish language scholar. He is known for phonetically transcribing Munster Irish and was the first trained phonetician in the newly independent state of Ireland. He is the author of many works where the focus is on the phonology and phonetics of the Irish language. Walsh was the eldest child of his parents Michael Walsh and Elizabeth Brazil and had three siblings. He married Micheline Kerney Walsh in 1941 and fathered six children. Walsh first enrolled in a primary school in Slieverue, but was later moved to Mount Sion in Waterford city, where he completed his early education and then progressed to secondary school. He was taught by the likes of Sean Silleabhain during his time at Mount Sion. Walsh was part of a Kilkenny hurling team that won an All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. In order to deepen his knowledge of the language, Walsh attended Lawrence U.Chadhla’s night classes in Slieverue. Because of his innate linguistic talent and diligent efforts, he received scholarships from the Irish language summer college Coláistena Rinne and University College Dublin. He studied under Cormac Ó’ Cadhlaigh and graduated with a B.A. degree in Irish, Latin and English in 1936 and completed his M.A. in 1938 from University College Dublin.
In 1939, he began The Irish of Ring, Co. Waterford: a phonetic study, after receiving training in phonetics from Daniel Jones at University College London. He continued researching this subject during his time at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, where he was admitted in 1941 and was the first scholar to enter its School of Celtic Studies. The Irish of Ring, Co. Waterford: a phonetic study was published in 1947. His professional career started in 1942, when he was appointed part-time assistant at the School of Celtic Studies at DIAS. At the UCD School of Irish, Celtic Studies and Folklore, he was appointed lecturer in Irish language and was later offered the job of phonetician in the linguistic department. He served as a deputy research worker at the School of Celtic Studies from 1943-1946 and from 1952-1965. He was awarded his Ph.D. degree in 1952, and in 1957, he was elected to the Royal Irish Academy.
In the 1960s, during his employment at UCD, he was invited as guest lecturer to the Universities of Strasburg, Louvain and Copenhagen. He also lectured at Harvard University in the 1970s. Walsh served as visiting faculty at the Department of English at Memorial University of Newfoundland, from January 1970 to December 1970. His illustrious career came to an end in 1983, when he retired. Just ten years after his retirement, Walsh died on 26th October 1992 and is now buried in Slieverue Cemetery. Walsh is remembered not only for his pioneering work in phonetics, but for the content he collected from native Irish speakers in the form of poems, personal reminiscences, fairy tales, legends and stories, while gathering phonetic data. His recordings are now archived in the Irish Folklore Commission at the UCD School of Irish, Celtic studies and Folklore. It is because of the contributions of phoneticians like Richard Brazil Walsh that the field of phonetics has flourished and gained so much importance over the years.