A Course in Phonetics (with CD-ROM)

I had to buy this book for my Intro to Linguistics class.


It's easy to read, and it has taught me the basics to phonetics.

great introduction to phonetics, although some of the standard and typical presentations can be misleading when individual speech is analyzed and shows much more variation. he is more exact in this book at setting specific boundaries compared with some of his later books. a great resource to refer to later also with lots of basics, easy to read and understand, CD is helpful too

Peter Ladefoged's Course in Phonetics covers the so-called science of speech (according to Professor Higgins)in every respect. Unlike many other texts on the field, this is no only meant to describe the phonological system of a language in particular or give you some background on general phonetics. This book really teaches you to become a phonetician! This is not just because of Ladefoged's imcomparable background in phonetics and physics (what a great scientist!), but also because Ladeofged himself acts like a motivator as he passes his own passion to the readers.

The interactive CD is awesome. You will be able to listen to the XX century's leading English phonetician Daniel Jones making his own cardinal vowels. There is also an invaluable x-ray short movie of different articulations, and believe me! It is really illuminating to have the chance to see that rather than beautifully designed drawings. Ladefoged himself will teach you by dictating and pronouncing a great number of words, nonsense, English and other languages.

I really recommend this book to whoever is interested or passionate about this discipline. Even though Prof. Ladefoged is not here with us anymore, this is an excellent - and for many of us the only one - chance to be taught by one of the greatest.

My son is taking his first linguistics course at NYU this semester and this textbook was required. He informs that the book is readable and understandable and is pleased that the professor chose it for the class.

I'm taking a phonetics and phonology class this semester, so the book was requried reading. Nevertheless, it proved to be very useful and readable, which was nice. The interactive CD-rom is the best part about, though I imagine that's what makes the book so expensive. For those of you who need the book but don't want to break the bank, the fourth edition is almost exactly the same, though without the CD.