Phonetics is the study of speech sounds and their production, transmission, and reception. It deals with describing, classifying, and transcribing the sounds used in human speech. Phonetics analyzes the basic physical segments of speech, called phones, and the abstract linguistic units called phonemes that distinguish meaning. Phones are transcribed between brackets [ ] while phonemes use slashes / /. There are several types of speech sounds classified by their place of articulation in the mouth, including bilabials, labiodentals, alveolars, velars, interdentals, and palatals.