Phonetic Data Analysis: An Introduction To Fieldwork And Instrumental Techniques

Describing how people talk requires recording and analyzing phonetic data. This is true for researchers investigating the variant pronunciations of street names in Los Angeles, missionaries translating the Bible into a little-known tongue, and scholars obtaining data from a carefully controlled group in a laboratory experiment. "Phonetic Data Analysis" examines the procedures involved in describing the sounds of a language and illustrates the basic techniques of experimental phonetics, most of them requiring little more than a tape recorder, a video camera, and a computer.

This book enables readers to work with a speaker in a classroom setting or to go out into the field and make their own discoveries about how the sounds of a language are made. Peter Ladefoged, one of the world's leading phoneticians, introduces the experimental phonetic techniques for describing the major phonetic characteristics of any language. Throughout the book there are also comments, written in a more anecdotal fashion, on Ladefoged's own fieldwork.

"Phonetic Data Analysis" examines the procedures involved in describing the sounds of a language and illustrates the basic techniques of experimental phonetics, most of them requiring little more than a tape recorder, a video camera, and a computer.
Examines the procedures involved in describing the sounds of a language and illustrates the basic techniques of experimental phonetics.
Written by Peter Ladefoged, one of the world's leading phoneticians.
Enables readers to work with a speaker in class or go out into the field and make their own discoveries about how the sounds of a language are made.
Provides full descriptions of techniques that are readily available and do not require the resources of a major phonetics laboratory.
Includes enlightening comments throughout about Ladefoged's own fieldwork experiences.