01 / Classic Textbook Recommendation
Classic Textbook Recommendation
Citation
Ladefoged, P. (1995). Elements of Acoustic Phonetics (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press.
Why it belongs
The book is a hands-on complement to more general introductions to language and phonology. It trains students to treat speech as measurable data while keeping the listener and speaker in view.
Core coverage
Focus on acoustic properties, vowel and consonant analysis, intonation, and the tools used to represent speech. Recreate a few measurements with recordings rather than reading passively.
Selection note
MIT’s Linguistic Phonetics course lists this among its supplementary readings: MIT OCW linguistic phonetics readings.