A Course in Phonetics

Rating:
Summary: Must-have for Linguistics students
Review: "A Course in Phonetics" is the best book available on introductory Phonetics, and I recommend it whole-heartedly for every Linguistics student, but not necessarily for those with a general interest in Linguistics and languages. What I found to be especially useful are the sections of exercises at the end of each chapter to test what you've learned. The exercises are very well designed; however, the one drawback is that the book contains no answer key (that can only be found in the professor's copy).

The sections on Articulatory Phonetics (how our mouths, teeth, and tongues interact to make sounds) and Phonetic transcription,which uses current standard IPA symbols,are particularly good. On that note, what I find lacking in the book is coverage of languages other than English. If you're interested in further information on transcribing in IPA in 29 major languages, I strongly recommend "Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the I!nternational Phonetic Alphabet." Also, the section on Acoustic Phonetics was a bit overwhelming for anyone in my class who didn't have any background in Physics.

Still, the book's strength is the depth it goes into, taking into account that this is an introductory book. Every major concept in Phonetics is touched upon, and Ladefoged makes particularly good use of tables and diagrammes to help the reader.

(Note 7/2001: When I wrote this review, this was the most current edition. However, the 5th edition was published in 2000, and I haven't reviewed that yet, but you might want to check it out.)

Rating:
Summary: A must for anyone wanting to understand speech
Review: A really excellent book that gives the maximum information in the minimum space and is packed with relevant examples. We have used it extensively with a range of people who have been working in speech synthesis and speech analysis, all have found it, not only useful, but really interesting. A genuine five star book.

Rating:
Summary: Great Introductory Textbook
Review: As a linguistics student at UCSB, I must say that this has been one of the better textbooks that I've had. It is incredibly clear in explaining all the concepts and terminology of phonetics. Additionally, as someone who usually hates textbook material, the fact that this is concise, easy to read AND follow makes a better course for the phonetics class that you are taking.

Rating:
Summary: Great Introductory Textbook
Review: As a linguistics student at UCSB, I must say that this has been one of the better textbooks that I've had. It is incredibly clear in explaining all the concepts and terminology of phonetics. Additionally, as someone who usually hates textbook material, the fact that this is concise, easy to read AND follow makes a better course for the phonetics class that you are taking.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book in a poor outfit.
Review: As it has been already noted, Ladefoged's work is excellent in every respect! However, a prospective buyer of this book should bear in mind that, although it's NOT so modestly priced, the printing and binding quality for this edition (4th edition, 2001, Heinle & Heinle) is very low. The covers and the paper are so thin, it's almost imposible to read from the book while holding it with one hand only. It feels almost like a vacuum cleaner manual, which is really a shame. This kind of book obviously deserves a better publisher.

Rating:
Summary: This is an outstanding textbook
Review: This book is pedagogically one of the best texts I've read on any subject. It is an excellent, clear overview of the field, together with many interesting tidbits and insights into our own (English)language. The explanations of how to make unfamiliar sounds is clear enough that I could understand even without a recording. The author supports his viewpoints with acoustic research without getting bogged down. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Ladefoged scores again !
Review: This text is the best current introduction to phonetics, written by the distinguished/famous/infamous Prof. Ladefoged, a linguist in the British tradition established by Daniel Jones and David Abercrombie. Probably the best introduction to precede my graduate-level book "Acoustics of Speech Communication: Fundamentals, Speech Perception Theory, and Technology"