The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences (Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics) Book

This volume provides a comprehensive and authoritative survey of the key topics of the phonetic sciences. Contributions by many of the leading researchers in the field cover both theoretical and applied areas of speech communication. There are contributions on experimental phonetics, including aerodynamics of speech, speech signal processing, laboratory techniques and acoustic phonetics, as well as discussions of speech technology applications in areas such as automatic recognition of speech and speakers, and speech synthesis. Following are chapters on the biological foundations of speech and hearing, such as brain functions underlying speech, auditory neural processing, and articulatory processes in speech production. A section on theoretical approaches in phonetic sciences addresses aspects of spoken word recognition, coarticulation, articulatory/acoustic/auditory relationships and laryngeal function. The next section, linguistic phonetics, covers descriptive criteria in general phonetics and the relationship between phonetics and other areas of linguistics, such as phonology. The final selection contains contributions on speech technology, ranging from speech signal processing to speech synthesis. The volume represents an unparalleled resource to students and specialists in linguistics, phonetics and psychology, speech and language therapists and speech technologists.