About this course [see also course flyer]
This course is an introduction to the general principles and concepts of linguistic phonetics. You will learn about the articulatory and acoustic properties of speech sounds from languages around the world, through audiovisual materials and hands-on projects.
Topics
- Basic acoustics for speech analysis
- How are sound waves produced, and how can we describe them?
- What are formants, and how are their frequencies determined?
- The use of speech analysis software for investigating
the acoustic properties of speech sounds
- What are the acoustic properties of different kinds of sounds?
- Which acoustic properties are linguistically relevant?
- The articulation of speech sounds, including the
anatomy of the vocal tract and the physiology
of speech production
- How are speech sounds articulated?
- Which articulatory properties are linguistically relevant?
- How does articulation relate to acoustics?
- Experiment design, and the analysis of quantitative data
- What makes a good research question?
- How can we generate and test hypotheses?
- How should we plan an experiment, from stimuli to data analysis?
- How can we interpret and communicate numerical results?
- The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as a system for transcribing speech sounds
Textbooks
Available at the campus bookstore
- Johnson (2012), Acoustic & Auditory Phonetics (3rd edition only) | publisher's info
- Ladefoged & Disner (2012), Vowels and Consonants (3rd edition strongly preferred; ebook available) | publisher's info