The Sounds of the World's Languages (Phonological Theory) [Paperback]

Peter Ladefoged (Author), Ian Maddieson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0631198156 | ISBN-13: 978-0631198154 | Publication Date: February 13, 1996 | Edition: 1

This book describes all the known ways in which the sounds of the world's languages differ. Encapsulating the work of two leading figures in the field, it will be a standard work of reference for researchers in phonetics, linguistics and speech science for many years to come. The scope of the book is truly global, with data drawn from nearly 400 languages, many of them investigated at first hand by the authors.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Scholarly account which frequently challenges many of the traditional concepts in phonetic and linguistic theory." W. J. Hardcastle, Queen Margaret College

"The Sounds of the World's Languages provides a detailed description of the articulatory processes of human speech production; it provides a descriptive backup to the UCLA speech database; perhaps most importantly it presents descriptions of the vast variety of sounds that occur in the world, and offers evidence, discussion and references which are relevant to many crucial theoretical issues at the interface of phonetics and phonology. It is a boon to all teachers and researchers in the field." W. Barry, Universitat des Saarlandes, Saarbrucken, Germany

"The Sounds of the World's Languages draws on a wealth of published and unpublished sources to determine the phonetic contrasts that support lexical minimal pairs. It is the most comprehensive treatment to date. The book is extensively documented with a variety of experimental phonetic techniques. Phonologists will find the book of special interest. There are numerous marked generalizations to be contemplated and very useful discussion of the tension between increasing the inventory of sound types versus more elaborate scenarios of gestural timing. It is a book all students of phonology and phonetics will want to own." Michael Kenstowicz, MIT

"It is well written, superbly researched and it will make a mark in the halls of linguistics publishing. It is a book a vast range of linguists, phoneticians, speech scientists and others will need to have on their shelves." John A Goldsmith, University of Chicago

"An instant standard reference work that belongs on the desk of every linguist who has interest in what sounds human languages make use of. I am unable to present a single significant criticism of this book." Geoffrey S. Nathan

"Ladefoged & maddison have put together a well written, well organized volume that is certain to become a standard reference in the field" Katharine Davis, University of Washington

"...an instant standard reference work that belongs on the desk of every linguist who has an interest in what sounds human languages make use of......I am unable to present a single significant criticism of this book"Geoffrey Nathan, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

From the Back Cover

This book gives a description of all the known ways in which the sounds of the world's languages differ. In doing so, it provides the empirical foundations for linguistic phonetics and phonology. Encapsulating the work of two leading figures in the field, it will be a standard work of reference for researchers in phonetics and linguistics for many years to come.

The scope of the book is truly global, with data drawn from nearly 400 languages, many of them investigated at first hand by the authors. A picture of the full range of possible contrasting phonetic categories is created by comparing families of similar sounds across many different languages.

Separate chapters deal with place of articulation, stops, nasals, fricatives, laterals, rhotics, clicks, vowels, and segments with multiple articulations. Each chapter is packed with illustrations documenting the articulatory and acoustic characteristics of the sounds discussed, and serving to illustrate the application of modern experimental techniques to descriptive phonetic studies.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition (February 13, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631198156
• ISBN-13: 978-0631198154
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #154,080 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best birthday present I've ever received, August 9, 2006

By 

David R. Mortensen (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sounds of the World's Languages (Phonological Theory) (Paperback)

This book is excellent and I have found it very useful both as a theorist and a fieldworker. It clarifies many common misconceptions about the nature and diversity of speech sounds, drawing on many years of studies by the authors and others. And by giving equal time to the phonetics of less-well-known languages, this book provides a corrective to phonetic references that concentrate primarily on English and other well-studied languages.

14 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Phoneticians...will be amply rewarded by this valuable book., November 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sounds of the World's Languages (Phonological Theory) (Paperback)

Phoneticians, pronunciation editors of dictionaries, linguists, language teachers, and others who are-and ought to be-interested in and knowledgeable about the sounds of many languages and who have-and ought to have-sufficient background and training to understand the technical materials on which understanding of the text relies will be amply rewarded by this valuable book.

As reviewed by Laurence Urdang, in the Summer 1996 issue (Vol. XXIII, No. 1) of VERBATIM, The Language Quarterly

7 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best book on phonology for acoustic phoneticians, April 13, 1999

By 

JMPickett (Windy Hill Lab, Morgan Bay Rd, Surry, ME 04684) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sounds of the World's Languages (Phonological Theory) (Paperback)

As a non-linguist, this is the best book on world languages for phonological questions and extra notes when you're writing an acoustic textbook. See the first few chapters of my "Acoustics of Speech Communication", 1999. Allyn & Bacon - - J.M. Pickett