Linguistics 2242B
Phonetics

Prerequisite(s): One of: Anthropology 1027A/B, Linguistics 2288A/B, both French 2805A/B and 2806A/B, or Spanish 3303A/B.

Course Description:

This course is an introduction to the study of the sounds of speech. Topics covered include: basic anatomy of speech production, articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, speech perception, phonetic description and transcription of sounds of the world’s languages.

General learning outcomes:

  • Describe and explain the anatomy and mechanisms of speech production.
  • Transcribe speech sounds of English and other languages using the International Phonetic Alphabet.
  • Describe in detail the articulation of consonants and vowels of English and other languages in isolated words and in connected speech.
  • Describe the acoustic properties of consonants and vowels and detect representations of the properties of sounds in waveforms and spectrograms.
  • Perform acoustic analysis on samples of speech from English and other languages.
  • Analyze speech at the level of the segment and the syllable and also at the level of suprasegmental phenomena: stress, length, timing, intonation and tone.
  • Identify and describe systematically rhythm and intonation patterns in English and other languages.
  • Situate phonetic analysis in relation to linguistic analysis, demonstrating an understanding of different theoretical perspectives on speech and language from research in phonetics and phonology.

Assignments and Evaluations:

  • Test (2): 30%
  • Assignments (2): 30%
  • Final Exam: 30%
  • Participation: 10%

 

Readings and other course material:

The following textbook (please get this edition) is required. The paper edition is out of print but an electronic edition is available via Amazon (and perhaps other online sources locatable with asearch engine):
Ladefoged, Peter & Keith Johnson. 2015. A course in phonetics. Seventh edition. Stamford CT:
Cengage Learning.
Textbook website: https://corpus.linguistics.berkeley.edu/acip/ 
Other material will be made available on the OWL site