University College London Department of Phonetics and Linguistics

MA Phonetics programme

Reading list

0. General linguistics | 1. General phonetics | 2. Experimental phonetics | 3. Phonetics and phonology of English | 4a. Intonation | 4b. Varieties of English | 5. Writing your dissertation | 6. Audio resources on the web

0. General linguistics

Any of the following will give you an accessible introduction to the field, allowing you to place phonetics and phonology within a wider linguistic framework.

• Aitchison, J., 1989. The articulate mammal. London: Hutchinson. ISBN: 0091509211
• Hudson, R., 1984. An invitation to linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN: 0631141766
• Jackendoff, R., 1993. Patterns in the mind. New York: Basic Books. ISBN: 0465054625
• Pinker, S., 1994. The language instinct. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN: 0140175296

The following are all sound theoretical introductions, of increasing complexity.

• Ashby, P., 1995. Speech sounds. London: Routledge. ISBN: 0415085713 An excellent workbook, largely based on English, for complete beginners.
• Roach, P., 2001.Phonetics. Oxford: OUP. ISBN: 0194372391 A brief survey for beginners.
• Ladefoged, P., 2001. Vowels and consonants. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0631214119, 0631214127. Includes a CD-ROM with lots of sound files, including a clickable IPA chart. You can also access it here.
• O'Connor, J.D., 1973. Phonetics. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Out of print.

• Ashby, M and Maidment, J., 2005. Introducing phonetic science. Cambridge: CUP. ISBN: 0521808820 Just out.
• Ladefoged, P., 2001. A course in phonetics.. Fourth edition. Fort Worth: Harcourt College. ISBN: 0155073192 Includes exercises. Probably the best coursebook.
• Clark, J. and Yallop, C., 1995. An introduction to phonetics and phonology. Second edition. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN: 0631194525 Very comprehensive, with useful sections on speech production and acoustics.
• Laver, J., 1994. Principles of phonetics. Cambridge: CUP. ISBN: 052145655X Best used as a reference book.

You need to become acquainted with the vast phonetic range of the world's languages.

• Ladefoged, P. and Maddieson, I., 1996. The sounds of the world's languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN: 0631198156
• [Nolan, F. et al.], 1999. Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge: CUP. ISBN 0521652367, 0521637511. Authoritative, with descriptions of twenty-nine languages.

The following take a practical approach, with plenty of performance exercises.

• Wells, J.C. and Colson, G., 1971. Practical phonetics. London: Pitman.
• Catford, J.C., second edition 2001. A practical introduction to phonetics. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN: 0199246351

• Denes, P.B. and Pinson, E.N., 1993. The speech chain: the physics and biology of spoken language. Second edition. Freeman. ISBN: 0716723441
• Pickett, J. M., 1999. The acoustics of speech communication. Fundamentals, Speech Perception Theory, and Technology. London: Allyn and Bacon. ISBN: 0205198872 Covers similar ground to Denes and Pinson, but at a higher level.
• Ladefoged, P., 2003. Phonetic data analysis. An introduction to fieldwork and instrumental techniques. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN: 0631232702 Full of helpful practical advice.
• Naidoo, S.V. and Feth, L.L., 1995. Anatomy and physiology of the hearing mechanism. In Wall, L. G. (ed.), Hearing for the speech-language pathologist and health care professional. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann. A compact treatment of the physiological/anatomical background.
• Perkins, W.H. and Kent, R., 1986. Textbook of functional anatomy of speech, language and hearing. London: Taylor and Francis. ISBN: 0205135722 An extended and visual treatment, including study guide and self-assessed questions.
• Rosen, S.M. and Howell, P., Signals and systems for speech and hearing. London: Academic Press. ISBN: 0125972318

• Gimson, A.C., 2001. Gimson's Pronunciation of English. Sixth edition, revised by Alan Cruttenden. London: Arnold. ISBN 0340759720. An essential reference work
• Roach, P., 2001. English phonetics and phonology. Third edition. Cambridge: CUP. ISBN: 0521786134 An accessible and useful introductory account
• Jenkins, Jennifer, 2000. The phonology of English as an international language. Oxford: OUP. ISBN: 0194421643 Provocative.
• García Lecumberri, M.L. and Maidment, J.A., 2000. English transcription course. London: Arnold. ISBN: 034075978X
• Collins, Beverley and Mees, Inger, 2003. Practical phonetics and phonology. A resource book for students. London: Routledge. ISBN: 0415261341 Good treatment of various accents. Excellent CD

A pronunciation dictionary is always useful.

• Wells, J.C., 2000. Longman pronunciation dictionary. Second edition. Harlow: Pearson Education. ISBN: 058236468X, 0582364671 Incorporates a valuable mini-textbook of English pronunciation, and includes non-RP educated variants.
• Roach, P. and Hartman, J. (eds.), 1997. English pronouncing dictionary. Fifteenth edition. Cambridge: CUP. ISBN: 0521452724, 0521459036 Based on the famous work by Daniel Jones.

These books deal with 'prosodic' (suprasegmental) phenomena such as stress, rhythm and intonation.

• O'Connor, J.D. and Arnold, G., 1973. Intonation of colloquial English. Second edition. Harlow: Longman. ISBN 0582523893 A practical but systematic account, with the foreign learner in mind, but equally useful to the native speaker. Now dated, and also out of print, except in a Japanese adaptation, 1994, Nan'undo, ISBN 4523300585
• Cruttenden, A., 1997. Intonation.. Second edition. Cambridge: CUP. ISBN: 0521598257
• Couper-Kuhlen, E., 1986. An introduction to English prosody. London: Edward Arnold. ISBN: 0713164603
• Ladd, D.R., 1996. Intonational phonology. Cambridge: CUP. ISBN: 0521475759
• Tench, P., 1996. The intonation systems of English. London: Cassell. ISBN: 0304336912 Clear, well-informed, and packed with examples.

These are important if you want to explore varieties of English beyond RP.

• Bartsch-Parker, E. et al., 1999. British phrasebook. Hawthorn, Vic.: Lonely Planet. ISBN 0864424841. Primarily aimed at tourists, but extremely well informed and thus a good general introduction.
• Hughes, A. and Trudgill, P., 1996. English accents and dialects. Third edition. Also a cassette. London: Edward Arnold. ISBN: 0340614455. Introductory.
• Wells, J.C., 1982. Accents of English. Three volumes plus cassette. Cambridge: CUP. ISBN 0 521 22919 7 (hard covers, vol. 1), 0 521 29719 2 (paperback, vol. 1), 0 521 24224 X (hard covers, vol. 2), 0 521 28540 2 (paperback, vol. 2), 0 521 24225 8 (hard covers, vol. 3), 0 521 28541 0 (paperback, vol. 3), 0 521 24648 2 (cassette). Detailed world-wide coverage
• Foulkes, Paul and Docherty, Gerard (eds.), 1999. Urban voices. Accent studies in the British Isles. ISBN: 0340706082. Also audio cassette and CD-ROM. London: Edward Arnold. Fifteen studies reporting recent research.

• Bell, Judith, 1999. Doing your research project. Third edition. Buckingham: Open University Press. ISBN: 0335203884. Aimed at those doing educational research, but contains a lot that is applicable to everyone.

• clickable IPA chart
• recording of the cardinal vowels
• The Speech Internet Dictionary A web dictionary of speech terminology.
• Vgrid A clickable vowel quadrilateral test (user hears a vowel and has to click the vowel quadrilateral).
• Toni A test of the user's perception of O&A nuclear tones.
• Plato A test of the user's perception of the nucleus placement.
• POW Prosody on the Web. Tutorials on simple intonational concepts.
• A clickable vocal tract outline quiz

JEH/JCW 2001 09 07 Last revised 2005 10 06

MA Phonetics programme

Most of the cover shots are taken from the amazon.co.uk website. You can buy the books there.