Patterns of Sounds (Cambridge Studies in Speech Science and Communication) [Hardcover]

Maddieson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 1984 | ISBN-10: 0521265363 | ISBN-13: 978-0521265362

Patterns of Sounds describes the frequency and distributional patterns of the phonemic sounds in a large and representative sample of the world's languages. The results are based on UPSID (the UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database), a computer file containing the phonemes of 317 languages selected on the basis of genetic diversity. The book contains nine chapters analysing the UPSID data, as well as fully labelled phoneme charts for each language and a comprehensive segment index. Questions of the frequency and co-occurrence of the particular segment types are discussed in detail and possible explanations for the patterns observed are evaluated. The book is thus both a report on the research into phoneme inventory structure that has been done using UPSID and a resource that provides the reader with the tools to extend that research.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

Patterns of Sounds describes the frequency and distributional patterns of the phonemic sounds in a large and representative sample of the world's languages. The results are based on UPSID, a computer file containing the phonemes of 317 languages selected on the basis of genetic diversity. The book contains nine chapters analysing the UPSID data, as well as fully labelled phoneme charts.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (November 30, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521265363
• ISBN-13: 978-0521265362
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,687,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Standard reference work in phonetics - why don't they reissue it?, September 17, 2007

By 

mianfei - See all my reviews

This review is from: Patterns of Sounds (Cambridge Studies in Speech Science and Communication) (Hardcover)

Ian Maddieson's "Patterns of Sounds" looks 317 of the world's languages and the sound systems thereof in an effort to understand the patterns of phonetics found therein.

The book begins with plosives and moves on through fricatives, nasals, liquids, semivowels, glottalised consonants, and finally to vowels, all in an extremely logical manner. Although none of the conclusions will be remarkable to anybody who has reasonable knowledge of phonology on a worldwide scale, the detail present in "Patterns of Sounds" far more than compensates for this. Nowhere else can one see so close a comparison of the world's languages and their sound systems - and the differences, like the well-known confinement of rounded front vowels to northern Eurasia, are made out extremely clearly. More than that, Maddieson is extremely skilled at explaining why the sounds follow the patterns they do, showing how one sound (like an ejective) always implies another (a corresponding pulmonic obstruent).

This book has been cited by a great many laguage texts since it was published in 1984, but there is nothing like being able to find and read a copy of the original version. It's a pity somebody does not try to have "Patterns of Sounds" properly reissued so that everyone interested can read this classic phonetics reference text.