An Introduction to General American Phonetics

by Charles G. Van Riper, Dorothy E. Smith

Since the first edition was published in 1954, this outstanding work has consistently served as a comprehensive yet easy-to-follow guidebook to general American phonetics. Included are chapters dealing with the transcription of ongoing speech, narrow transcription, normal and deviant allophones, and information on how speech sounds are produced, as well as an examination of the linguistic principles that have come to play a prominent role in modern speech pathology. The application of phonemics and phonetics to the understanding of the problems of deviant speech and language, foreign accent, and dialect enhances reader comprehension in these areas. Numerous exercises and self-checking tests are provided to help readers gain both practical experience and an accurate idea of their progress. The reading passages and transcription material provided are attractive and designed to help students facilitate their mastery of both.

Genres: Linguistics

226 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Charles Gage Van Riper (December 1, 1905 – September 25, 1994) was a renowned speech therapist who became internationally known as a pioneer in the development of speech pathology. A severe stutterer throughout his career, he is described as having had the most influence of any speech-language pathologist in the field of stuttering.