Short description:

This fifth edition of Practical English Phonetics and Phonology has been revised and updated throughout.

Long description:

Routledge English Language Introductions cover core areas of language study and are one-stop resources for students. Assuming no prior knowledge, books in the series offer an accessible overview of the subject, with activities, study questions, sample analyses and commentaries.

Revised and updated throughout, this fifth edition of Practical English Phonetics and Phonology:

• treats British and American English side by side throughout the book, which is new to this edition;


• presents the essentials of the subject and their day-to-day applications in an engaging and accessible manner;


• covers all the core concepts of phonetics and phonology, such as the phoneme, syllable structure, production of speech, vowel and consonant possibilities, glottal settings, stress, weak forms, rhythm, intonation and the surprises of connected speech;


• gives descriptions of the sound systems of Spanish, Italian, French, German, Polish and Japanese;


• includes a glossary of key terms and new exercises, diagrams and updated references;


• is accompanied by an updated companion website which hosts a collection of samples provided by genuine speakers of 25 accent varieties from Britain, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Singapore and West Africa, as well as answer keys and numerous recordings to accompany activities in the book.

Written by authors who are experienced teachers and researchers, this bestselling textbook will appeal to all students of English language and linguistics and those training for a certificate in TEFL.

Praise for the fifth edition:

?This book offers a comprehensive overview of standard British and American English pronunciation, with detailed segmental and supra-segmental descriptions. Furthermore, it provides a concise overview of the various accent varieties. It is an invaluable resource for anyone engaged in the process of learning English.?

Hiroshi Miura, Senshu University, Japan

Praise for the fourth edition:

?This book cleverly combines the details of English phonetics with a first look at sounds in other languages. Its real strengths are the exercises provided at every step of the way and its brief but unequalled survey of accents of English (using recordings on the companion website). It will remain the best all-round introduction to phonetics.?

Alan Cruttenden, The University of Oxford, UK

?This classic text just keeps getting better. It is one of very few books that I keep constantly at my side as I author my own materials. It is rich in information, clearly written and easy to read. Most importantly, it is accompanied by audio recordings which exemplify the points made.?

Richard Cauldwell, Speech in Action

Table of Contents:

List of figures

List of tables

Audio recordings (on companion website)

Prefaces

Phonemic symbols

A Segments

A1 British and American English

A2 Phoneme, allophone, syllable

A3 How we produce speech

A4 Consonant possibilities

A5 English obstruents

A6 English sonorants

A7 Vowel possibilities

A8 The English short vowels

A9 The English long vowels

A10 The English diphthongs and vowels + /r/

B Supra-segmental features

B1 Phoneme and syllable revisited

B2 Word stress

B3 Sentence stress

B4 Features of connected speech

B5 Speech melody

B6 Pronunciation change

B7 Teaching English pronunciation

B8 Learning a foreign language

C Accents of English

C1 Accent variation: GB and GA

C2 Accents of the British Isles 1: England

C3 Accents of the British Isles 2: Celtic-influenced varieties

C4 World accent varieties 1: North America

C5 World accent varieties 2: the Southern Hemisphere

C6 World accent varieties 3: second-language varieties and creole-influenced speech

Glossary

Further reading

References

The International Phonetic Alphabet

Index