Phonetics: Transcription, Production, Acoustics, and Perception

Preface. 1. About this book. Phonetics in a nutshell. The structure of this book. Terminology. Demonstrations and exercises. 2. Articulatory Phonetics. Phonation at the larynx. Basic articulatory terms. The articulation of consonants. The articulation of vowels. 3. Phonetic Transcription. Consonants. Vowels. Diacritics and other symbols. Transcription of General American English. 4. Place and Manner of Articulation of Consonants and Vowels. Consonants. Additional manners of articulation. Vowels. Secondary articulations. 5. Physiology of the Vocal Apparatus. The subglottal system: lungs, bronchi, and trachea. Structure and function of the larynx. Vocal tract. 6. Airstream Mechanisms and Phonation Types. Airstream mechanisms. Phonation types. Voicing, voicelessness, and aspiration in plosives. Common and rare sounds. 7. Basic Acoustics. Sound waves. Measuring sound waves. Acoustic dimensions and their units of measurement. 8. Analysis Methods for Speech Sounds. Digitizing acoustic signals. Types of acoustic signals. Analyzing acoustic signals. 9. The Source-filter Theory of Speech Production. Resonance. Damping. Filters. Source and filter of the vocal apparatus. Formants. 10. Acoustic Characteristics of Speech Sounds. Vowels. Consonants. Summary. Variability and invariance. 11. Syllables and Suprasegmentals. Syllables. Stress. Length. Tone and Intonation. 12. Physiology and Psychophysics of Hearing. The external ear. The middle ear. The inner ear. The structure of the basilar membrane. Sound localization. Auditory frequency scales. Auditory loudness scales. Auditory time scales. 13. Speech Perception. Vowels. Consonants. Contributions of the Motor Theory of Speech Perception. The role of linguistic experience in speech perception. Summary. A.1 Mass, force, and pressure. A.2 Energy, power, and intensity. A.3 The decibel (dB). B.1 Physical terminology. B.2 Mathematical notations. C.1 Formant values. C.2 Fundamental frequency values. Glossary. References. Index