Reviewed by Pekka Lintunen, University of Turku
Phonetics and phonology are often discussed separately. Introducing phonetics and phonology combines these two subfields of linguistics into a single textbook. The earlier editions have been widely used as introductory textbooks at the university level. The current third edition expands the treatment of phonology with a more thorough discussion of optimality theory and a glossary of 143 items. Of the thirteen chapters, there are exercises for Chs. 2–12. Model answers are not provided. Each chapter offers suggestions for further reading, and chapters usually include a summary, a conclusion, or an overview. This edition also has indices of subjects, languages, and varieties of English discussed in the text.
As the title suggests, the book can be divided into two parts: Chs. 2–6 focus on phonetics, and Chs. 7–13 on phonology. Although internal references are many, both parts will work as separate introductions if that is what the reader needs. The treatment of phonetics is mainly supplemented by examples from English. There are, however, also examples from other languages in discussions of sound categories. Ch. 3 ends with a summary inventory of English consonants, and Ch. 4 ends with a presentation of four English vowel systems (General American and three from the British Isles). The phonetic discussion also includes Ch. 5 on acoustic phonetics and Ch. 6 on suprasegmental issues, with a relatively short six-page treatment of tone and intonation.
The phonology part mainly discusses features of English but provides many examples, including material in the exercises, from different languages. Each chapter introduces basic concepts such as phonological features, allophones, alternations, and rules. Ch. 10 focuses on phonological structures and has a short introduction to autosegmental phonology. Ch. 11 goes deeper into derivational analysis. Ch. 12, then, discusses optimality theory, and the final chapter details restrictions of phonological models.
Unlike some other introductory books focusing on English, this book takes into account various accents of English, especially, but not exclusively, from the British Isles. Largely for this reason, the system of symbols is not always consistent. For example, figure 4.11 does not have a length mark for the mid back vowel as the example does. The vowels of English in figure 7.4 do not correspond to any vowel system described in Ch. 4. The reason is undoubtedly a choice to avoid only one model for English. Although very interesting for advanced students, a beginning nonnative reader might be puzzled by the various accents.
Instructors will likely need to help readers to understand Ch. 5 on acoustics and Ch. 7 on phonological features, which include many numbers and details. On the whole, the book is very accessible. In its present edition, as the authors claim, this book can be used as a solid introductory book for beginning university students of linguistics, phonetics, or the English language.