Companion website, featuring additional resources such as sound files, can be found here: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/phonetics/ Providing a comprehensive overview of the four primary areas of phonetics, Phonetics: Transcription, Production, Acoustics, and Perception is an ideal guide to the complete study of speech and sound. An accessible but in-depth introductory textbook on the basic concepts of phonetics Covers all four areas of phonetics: transcription, production, acoustics, and perception Offers uniquely thorough coverage of related relevant areas, including vocal fold vibration and the working of the ear, creating an engagingly flexible work for instructors Includes chapter-by-chapter exercises, enabling students to put their knowledge into practice Written in a clear and concise style by two of the field’s leading scholars

The clear and easy way to get a handle on the science of speech The science of how people produce and perceive speech, phonetics has an array of real-world applications, from helping engineers create an authentic sounding Irish or Canadian accent for a GPS voice, to assisting forensics investigators identifying the person whose voice was caught on tape, to helping a film actor make the transition to the stage. Phonetics is a required course among students of speech pathology and linguistics, and it's a popular elective among students of telecommunications and forensics. The first popular guide to this fascinating discipline, Phonetics For Dummies is an excellent overview of the field for students enrolled in introductory phonetics courses and an ideal introduction for anyone with an interest in the field. Bonus instructional videos, video quizzes, and other content available online for download on the dummies.com product page for this book.

Phonetics - the study and classification of speech sounds - is a major sub-discipline of linguistics. Bringing together a team of internationally renowned phoneticians, this handbook provides comprehensive coverage of the most recent, cutting-edge work in the field, and focuses on the most widely-debated contemporary issues. Chapters are divided into five thematic areas: segmental production, prosodic production, measuring speech, audition and perception, and applications of phonetics. Each chapter presents an historical overview of the area, along with critical issues, current research and advice on the best practice for teaching phonetics to undergraduates. It brings together global perspectives, and includes examples from a wide range of languages, allowing readers to extend their knowledge beyond English. By providing both state-of-the-art research information, and an appreciation of how it can be shared with students, this handbook is essential both for academic phoneticians, and anyone with an interest in this exciting, rapidly developing field.

In their comprehensive new introduction to phonetics, Ball and Rahilly offer a detailed explanation of the process of speech production, from the anatomical initiation of sounds and their modification in the larynx, through to the final articulation of vowels and consonants in the oral and nasal tracts. This textbook is one of the few to give a balanced account of segmental and suprasegmental aspects of speech, showing clearly that the communication chain is incomplete without accurate production of both individual speech sounds (segmental features) and aspects such as stress and intonation (suprasegmental features). Throughout the book the authors provide advice on transcription, primarily using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Students are expertly guided from basic attempts to record speech sounds on paper, to more refined accounts of phonetic detail in speech. The authors go on to explain acoustic phonetics in a manner accessible both to new students in phonetics, and to those who wish to advance their knowledge of key pursuits in the area, including the sound spectrograph. They describe how speech waves can be measured, as well as considering how they are heard and decoded by listeners, discussing both physiological and neurological aspects of hearing and examining the methods of psychoacoustic experimentation. A range of instrumentation for studying speech production is also presented. The next link is acoustic phonetics, the study of speech transmission. Here the authors introduce the basic concepts of sound acoustics and the instrumentation used to analyse the characteristics of speech waves. Finally, the chain is completed by examining auditory phonetics, and providing a fascinating psychoacoustic experimentation, used to determine what parts of the speech signal are most crucial for listener understanding. The book concludes with a comprehensive survey and description of modern phonetic instrumentation, from the sound spectrograph to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The book is designed as an introduction to the scientific study of speech. No prior knowledge of phonetics is assumed. As far as mathematical knowlege is concerned, all that is assumed is a knowledge of simple arithmetic and as far as possible concepts are dealt with on an intuitive rather than mathematical level. The anatomical material is all fully explained and illustrated. The book is arranged in four parts. Part 1, Basic Principles, provides an introduction to established phonetic theory and to the principles of phonetic analysis and description, including phonetic transcription. Part 2, Acoustic Phonetics, considers the physical nature of speech sounds as they pass through the air between speaker and hearer. It includes sections on temporal measurement, fundamental frequency, spectra and spectrograms. Part 3, Auditory Phonetics, covers the anatomy of the ear and the perception of loudness, pitch and quality. The final part, Part 4, covers the articulatory production of speech, and shows how experimental techniques and tools can enhance our understanding of the complexities of speech production. Though the audience for this book is mainly students and professors in the Speech Sciences, it will also be valuable to any students studying hearing science and acoustics. The book is well supported with figures, tables, and practice boxes with experiments.

An accessible yet in-depth introductory textbook on the basic concepts of phonetics, fully updated and revised This broad, interdisciplinary textbook investigates how speech can be written down, how speech is produced, its acoustic characteristics, and how listeners perceive speech. Phonetics: Transcription, Production, Acoustics, and Perception introduces readers to the fundamental concepts of the discipline, providing coverage of all four areas of phonetics. This comprehensive textbook also familiarizes readers with concepts from other disciplines related to phonetics—such as physiology, anatomy, and psychology—through relatable, real-life examples. Now in its second edition, the text has been substantially revised to improve clarity and currency, based on student feedback received by the authors over the past decade. Brief “Nutshell” introductions have been added to all chapters to provide a clear overview of key points within the body of the text. Expanded content to this new edition examines voice quality, the acoustic correlates of different phonation types, intonation, and different theories of speech perception. Written in a clear and concise style by two of the field’s leading scholars, this textbook: Covers related relevant areas, including vocal fold vibration and the physiology of the ear Offers examples from other languages to highlight aspects of phonetics not found in English Includes chapter-by-chapter exercises, engaging illustrations, and a detailed glossary Features a companion website containing additional resources such as figures and sound files Phonetics: Transcription, Production, Acoustics, and Perception, 2nd Edition is an ideal text for both introductory and advanced courses in phonetics and speech science, general linguistics, related disciplines such as psychology, speech pathology, and audiology, and for anyone interested to learn about how we speak and hear.

American English Phonetics and Pronunciation Practice provides an accessible introduction to basic articulatory phonetics for students of American English. Built around an extensive collection of practice materials, this book teaches the pronunciation of modern standard American English to intermediate and advanced learners worldwide. This book: • provides an up-to-date description of the pronunciation of modern American English; • demonstrates the use of each English phoneme with a selection of high-frequency words, both alone and in context in sentences, idiomatic phrases and dialogues; • provides examples and practice material on commonly confused sounds, including illustrative pronunciation diagrams; • is supported by a companion website featuring complete audio recordings of practice material to check your pronunciation against; • can be used not only for studying pronunciation in the classroom but also for independent practice. American English Phonetics and Pronunciation Practice is essential reading for any student studying this topic.

Basic Phonics Skills, Level D (Grades 2-3) features 242 reproducible skill sheets and 20 reproducible Little Phonics Readers. The book is organized as follows: - Variant Consonant Sounds - Silent Letters - Vowel and Consonant Digraphs - Diphthongs - R-controlled Vowels - Syllables and Schwa - Prefixes and Suffixes - Plural and Inflectional Endings: s, es, ed, ing, ly - Word Families: activity sheets and word strips provide practice of 20 word families - Little Phonics Readers: 20 reproducible word family readers