Introducing Phonetic Science (Cambridge Introductions to Language and Linguistics)

This is one of my favourite introductory books to phonetics so far. It covers all the necessary information for an introduction to the phonetics subject such as speech, voice, articulation, airstream mechanisms as well as an overview of basic phonological concepts and suprasegmentals. Every subject is dealt with in a rigorous yet clear and unsophisticated manner and using clear figures, tables, parametric diagrams and schematic representations. The vocal tract anatomy illustrations are well labeled and fully explained in the text with spectograms and waveforms explained and used extensively. At the end of each chapter there are exercises related to the material covered and the answers are provided at the end of the book. A brief glossary is also provided which I think can be expanded a bit. However, this by no means undermines the pithiness that's employed in the presentation of each topic. For anyone who needs to learn phonetics as a part of a course requirement or for general knowledge and is thinking that this subject sounds boring, try this book. It must be kept in mind though that the information about the phonemic principle is very basic in this book and sociophonetics is hardly touched upon. For a book that provides an easy but well presented introduction about the last two topics I recommend Philip Carr's English Phonetics and Phonology.