if you read the help screen in FR/LG you would've known... but you may not've had done that before so here's a list:
physical types:
- normal
- fighting
- poison
- ground
- flying
- bug
- rock
- ghost
- steel
special types:
- fire
- water
- electric
- grass
- ice
- psychic
- dragon
- dark
all attacks of the same type (normal/psychic etc) are of the same nature (physical/special) so both volt tackle and shockwave are special... water pulse would be special (as water attacks are special) so following the trend earthquake would be considered physical
and this should immediately follow: physical attacks take into account of the attacker's ATTACK stat and the defendant's DEFENSE stats, while special attacks uses the special stats
this will be changed in D/P however, with each individual moves becoming either physical or special (a good indicator for those who are already too familiar with the mechanics of the moves we have now; most if not all contact moves will become physical in the up coming sequals)