Type of Credit: Elective
Credit(s)
Number of Students
This class provides an introduction to the acoustic properties of speech sounds along with the anatomy and physiology of speech production. In particular, the course examines various aspects of human speech production and perception as well as the nature of the acoustic signal transmitted from speaker to listener.
The acoustic features to be explored include time-domain properties such as waveform amplitude, duration and fundamental frequency (F₀) as well as frequency-domain characteristics such as the frequency spectrum, spectrogram and combined spectrotemporal features.
The course also includes hands-on training in transcribing and identifying sounds using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Students will learn to create and analyze broadband spectrograms using PRAAT (Boersma & Weenink, 2020) and will explore a wide range of articulatory and acoustic patterns found in the world’s languages.
The course consists of two-hour lecture sessions and one-hour laboratory components each week.
Notes:
1. 加退選課期間歡迎旁聽選課，加退選截止日過後課堂學生必須為正式選課生，本門課不收旁聽生。
Students who enroll in the class in an official capacity will receive a grade and course credit. Auditing or sitting in on the class is not permitted.
2. 2025年11月24日至12月7日之間開設的課程將以線上方式進行。
Courses offered between November 24 and December 7 will be conducted online.
能力項目說明
This class provides an introduction to the acoustic properties of speech sounds along with the anatomy and physiology of speech production. In particular, the course examines various aspects of human speech production and perception as well as the nature of the acoustic signal transmitted from speaker to listener.
The acoustic features to be explored include time-domain properties such as waveform amplitude, duration and fundamental frequency (F₀) as well as frequency-domain characteristics such as the frequency spectrum, spectrogram and combined spectrotemporal features.
The course also includes hands-on training in transcribing and identifying sounds using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Students will learn to create and analyze broadband spectrograms using PRAAT (Boersma & Weenink, 2020) and will explore a wide range of articulatory and acoustic patterns found in the world’s languages.
The course consists of two-hour lecture sessions and one-hour laboratory components each week.
| Week | Day | Lecture Topic, Readings, and Assignments |
| 1 | 9/1 |
Introduction to course; Review articulatory phonetics and IPA symbols Language Demo: American English Reading: Reetz & Jongman_C1 |
| 2 | 9/8 |
Articulaiton: Stricture Type and Location Reading: Cartford_C4-C5 Assignment #1: Parts of the vocal apparatus |
| 3 | 9/15 |
Phonetic Transcription Language Demo: Dutch and German (Consonants); French and Potuguese (Vowels) Readings: Reetz & Jongman_C3; IPA: Appendices Assignment #2: IPA exercises |
| 4 | 9/22 |
Place and Manner of Articulation Language Demo: Arabic (Consonants); Hindi (Consonants); Hungarian (Vowels) Reading: Reetz & Jongman_C4 |
| 5 | 9/29 | HOLIDAY (NO CLASS) |
| 6 | 10/6 | HOLIDAY (NO CLASS) |
| 7 | 10/13 |
Physiology of the Vocal Apparatus Reading: Reetz & Jongman_C5 Assignment #3: Mathematics exercise |
| 8 | 10/20 |
Airstream Mechanism; Sound Waves Reading: Reetz & Jongman_C6-C7 |
| 9 | 10/27 |
Fourier Transform Reading: Reetz & Jongman_C8 |
| 10 | 11/3 |
The Source-Filter Theory of Speech Production Reading: Reetz & Jongman_C9 |
| 11 | 11/10 |
Acoustics: Vowels Reading: Chapter 10 Assignment #4: Spectrogram analysis on vowels |
| 12 | 11/17 |
Acoustics: Fricatives Reading: Chapter 10 Assignment #4: Spectrogram analysis on vowels |
| 13 | 11/24 |
Acoustics: Stops and Affricates Readings: Chapter 10 |
| 14 | 12/1 |
Acoustics: Spectrogram on connected speech Assignment #5: Spectrogram analysis on consonants |
| 15 | 12/8 |
Syllables and Suprasegmentals Reading: Chapter 11 Langugae Demo: Cantonese and Thai (Tone); Japanese and Korean (Pitch-Accent) Assignment #6: Spectrogram analysis on connected speech |
| 16 | 12/15 |
Speech Perception Reading: Chapter 12, Chapter 13 |
Language Demonstrations: 10%
Homework Assignments: 35%
Term Project/Presentation: 30%
Final Exam: 25%
Notes on Assignments:
Language Demonatrations: The class will present a demonstration of the phonetics of a foreign language, with handouts indicating correct phonetic symbols.
Homework Assignments: These are designed to allow you to solidify your understanding of concepts discussed in class by using them to analyze new data, particularly, spectrograms. You may discuss the questions on the assignments with other class members or with the instructor, but you must write up your answers individually. In most cases you will have a week to do the assignment, and it will be due at the beginning of class on the due date. However, you should never skip class because your assignment is not completed; please see the instructor if you have occasional problems with due dates.
Term Projects: Students will do original elicitation of phonetic data from a native speaker of a language which the student does not speak; alternatively your subject may be a child, or an adult with a language disorder. The paper will consist of an analysis of the subject’s phonetic system, and should include acoustic analyses done in the Phonetics Lab (i.e. spectrograms, F0 points, etc.)
Final Exam: Two-hour exam held during finals week; comprehensive, open book/note.
1. Reetz, Henning and Allard Jongman. 2009. Phonetics: Transcription, Production, Acoustics and Perception. Wiley-Blackwell. [Required]
2. John. C. Catford. 2010. A Practical Introduction to Phonetics. Oxford University Press.
3. Ladefoged, Peter and Keith Johnson. 2015. A Course in Phonetics. Cengage Learning.
4. Johnson, Keith. 2003. Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics. Blackwell Publishing.
5. Bickford, Anita & Rick Floyd. 2006. Articulatory Phonetics: Tools for Analyzing the World’s Languages. International Academic Bookstore.
6. Handbook of the international phonetic association: A guide to the use of the IPA.
Note: Readings and exercises out of books are to be prepared prior to the lecture for which they are assigned.