Understanding of English phonetics and phonology / Arun Kumar.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

English phonetics and phonology -- Vowels -- Received pronunciation -- Beginning of phonetics -- Pronunciation and the development of language acquisition -- Speech technology.

"Phonetics is the study of the production and perception of speech sounds, and phonology concerns the study of more complex and abstract sound patterns and structures (syllables, intonation, etc.). Several researchers at the Department of Linguistics focus on a range of different types of phonetic and phonological research, including fieldwork, corpus data analysis, experimental phonetics, and articulatory methods. English phonology is the system of speech sounds used in spoken English. Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar (but not identical) phonological system. Among other things, most dialects have vowel reduction in unstressed syllables and a complex set of phonological features that distinguish fortis and lenis consonants (stops, affricates, and fricatives). This new edition takes into account recent developments in the teaching of phonology. It is designed to be read from beginning to end, and is therefore different from a reference book"-- Back cover.