A Practical Introduction to Phonetics

Well, let's begin by confess that, contrary to Catford's strictures, I simply read this through without doing the practical exercises. Thus, I can't have any informed opinion on how well the book achieves its purpose.

That said, I found the survey of articulatory phonetics well-organized and clear.

(So why did I ignore Catford's strictures? Simply because while I have a reasonable amount of opportunity to read silently, such to do practical exercises in articulatory phonetics are scant. Maybe I'll return to the book at some point when such is more plentiful and derive greater benefit from it.)

LIKE I SAID: Specialists should never write introductory textbooks to any subject. Unless they're specialists in writing introductory textbooks to any subject. "Practical introduction" indeed.

LATER: Okay, he gets an extra .5 for this: "Note, in parenthesis, that all basic phonetic experiments must be done with firm, definite articulation and with a reasonably powerful initiation. There is little to be learned from indecisive fumbling articulation and feeble kitten-like mewings."

LATER STILL: Okay, and this thing of classing fricatives, approximants (including vowels like [i]), and resonants (open vowels) is intriguing and probably makes more sense ultimately than Ladefoged's way of doing it. I guess this is why you shouldn't review a show more book before you're done reading it:)

AND FINALLY: Oh, damn it. You know what this is? It's Ladefoged II, providing an alternative look at a lot of judgment calls he makes, but more importantly, expanding and breaking down a lot of his descriptions. All the stuff I've been thinking about with possible phonemic distinctions, it's basically all here. I just spend twenty minutes contorting my lips and sticking my fingers down my throat. Second only to A Course in Phonetics, this is (it turns out) a must-read. show less

It has very good exercises about how to learn pronouncing the IPA phonemes. One of its ideas is that you can learn this by yourself. Also, good tips about the phonemes.