Elements of General Phonetics

by David Abercrombie

This classic introduction is designed for students with no previous knowledge of phonetics in linguistics, speech therapy, and modern languages. It remains one of the best descriptions of the main topics in the study of phonetics.

Genres: Linguistics

216 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1967

Reviews

[Ester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only is this one of the most beautiful books in my collection, but more than anything this was an absolutely joy to read. A couple days ago I plowed through a textbook in English phonology, which was very a very laborious task and really tried my patience. Abercrombie, however, is both a skilled phonetician and a skilled writer, which makes his text flow and easy to read and follow. Some of the information in the book is slightly out of date, and some of his terminology is obsolete - however, if read in conjunction with some more up-to-date textbooks (such as Ogden), these minor inconveniences should not pose a problem of any considerable degree. Should be required reading for all undergraduate phonetics courses.

[Zhanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seemed to me that it addresses students with a little previous knowledge on the topic.
Even though it is a brilliant introduction, David Abercrombie seems to analyze in detail some of the Phonetics' aspects.
Personally, it helped me having read Peter Ladefoged & Keith Johnson's 'A course in Phonetics' before picking up this introduction.

The combination of these two books is a great tool for a student and I definitely recommend going through them before the semester this course will be taken.

[Saad]

Linguistic research is my goal