Reviewed by Mousa A. Btoosh, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University

In addition to the admirable success of the previous two widely cited editions as comprehensive and insightful handbooks and textbooks, this revised edition makes a significant contribution by providing students and professionals with up-to-date insights on these domains. In spite of the involvement of the new coauthor, Janet Fletcher, the format of this edition is almost identical to the earlier ones. The book is organized into a total of eleven chapters in addition to the preface, two appendices, the references, and the index.

The introductory chapter (1–9) explains the basic concepts of phonetics and phonology, the importance of the theoretical-based exploration of spoken languages, and the applications of phonetics and phonology. Ch. 2, ‘Segmental articulation’ (10–54), presents detailed information on articulatory phonetics, covering speech organs, speech sounds, and phases of speech sound production. Ch. 3, ‘Units of speech’ (55–80), seeks to explain the notion of speech units: ‘On one phonological level we may speak of speech sounds as units, while on another level we may recognize syllables as units, and on yet another, phonological words or phrases’ (56). The chapter also reports on complex articulations and illustrates how certain combinations of sounds are better interpreted within the linguistic systems of which they are part. Ch. 4, ‘The phonemic organization of speech’ (81–125), presents sufficient discussion of the major traditional principles of phonological organization. Furthermore, the chapter tackles several major notions including phonetic variability and morphophonemic alternation.

In addition to presenting the origins and the basic notions and rules of generative phonology, Ch. 5, ‘The generative approach to phonology’ (126–58), sheds light on the three critical issues that have been pushed to the fore by the research on the this approach. Ch. 6, ‘The anatomy and physiology of speech production’ (159–203), provides a comprehensive account of the speech organs, including the underlying structures and functions of the nervous and respiratory systems. Ch. 7, ‘The acoustics of speech production’ (204–96), examines the nature of sounds, the basic acoustic features, the sound waves, and the importance of spectrographic analysis in modern phonetic research.

Ch. 8, ‘Speech perception’ (297–325), deals with auditory phonetics. Several key ideas to speech sound perception, including the complexity of perceptual task and the structure and perceptual functioning of the human ear, are thoroughly discussed. Ch. 9, ‘Prosody’ (326–71), is devoted to suprasegmental features including pitch, duration, loudness, tone languages, pitch-accent languages, stress, and intonation. Ch. 10, ‘Feature systems’ (372–92), mainly deals with the concept of features and their various types: acoustic features, articulatory features, and abstract features, among others. The closing chapter ‘The progress of phonology’ (393–434), surveys the theoretical and historical development of the fields in question up to the present time.

Taken together, the chapters of An introduction to phonetics and phonology provide a proper consideration for nearly all subfields of these domains. In sum, for all students and researchers on phonetics and phonology, this book is certainly needed.