Elements of Acoustic Phonetics

by Peter Ladefoged

This revised and expanded edition of a classic textbook provides a concise introduction to basic concepts of acoustics and digital speech processing that are important to linguists, phoneticians, and speech scientists. The second edition includes four new chapters that cover new experimental techniques in acoustic phonetics made possible by the use of computers. Assuming no background in physics or mathematics, Ladefoged explains concepts that must be understood in using modern laboratory techniques for acoustic analysis, including resonances of the vocal tract and the relation of formants to different cavities; digital speech processing and computer storage of sound waves; and Fourier analysis and Linear Predictive Coding, the equations used most frequently in the analysis of speech sounds. Incorporating recent developments in our knowledge of the nature of speech, Ladefoged also updates the original edition's discussion of the basic properties of sound waves; variations in loudness, pitch, and quality of speech sounds; wave analysis; and the hearing and production of speech.

Like its predecessor, this edition of Elements of Acoustic Phonetics will serve as an invaluable textbook and reference for students and practitioners of linguistics and speech science, and for anyone who wants to understand the physics of speech.

Genres: Linguistics, Language, Nonfiction, Reference, Academic, Textbooks

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1971

Reviews

[Giang Sarlah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short book delivers a concise introduction of basic acoustic phonetics concepts to all students interested in speech acoustics. Made up of seven chapters, a glossary of technical terms, and an annotated bibliography, this book serves as a gentle introduction to the world of acoustic analysis by covering the fundamentals in a clear and accessible manner.

Chapter One, Sound Waves, discusses the physical nature of sounds as waves and representing air pressure variations with a sinusoidal diagram. Chapter Two, Loudness and Pitch, quantifies loudness and pitch, perceptual notions, in terms of acoustics. Chapter Three, Quality, describes the reality of speech sounds as complex waves, rather than simple waves such as those produced by a tuning pork. Chapter Four, Wave Analysis, presents concepts such as fundamental frequency and harmonics. It describes how decomposing complex waves into their frequency components at different amplitudes, yielding a sound spectrum, gives us a precise way to describe characteristics of the sounds. This chapter presents parallels between sound waveforms and sound spectra for a variety of sounds. Chapter Five, Resonance, introduces concepts related to resonators, acoustic filter, and bandwidth of the filter. Chapter Six, Hearing, explains the logarithmic way in which the ear perceives different frequencies and why different scales of loudness are needed to align better with the faculty of hearing. The last chapter, The Production of Speech, presents articulation of mostly vowels and other soronant speech segments, their corresponding sound spectra and formants.

[Ka Yau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book that covers basic concepts in an accessible manner, without sacrificing precision. Converting the algorithms in the book to a modern language is also probably good practice for programming and phonetics alike.

[Jeremy Mifsud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid introduction into acoustic phonetics and was quite understandable, apart from a chapter here and there.