Linguistics: Phonetics

Linguistic, acoustic, and articulatory phonetics. Stresses phonetic theory and the analysis of speech variation around the world and across the lifespan. Prerequisite: LING 1500.

Prereqs enforced by the system: LING 1500 PACE students by permission and override

This course examines articulatory and acoustic phonetics from three perspectives: (1) embodied awareness of articulation, or speech production, at the idiolectal, self-oriented level; (2) language-specific analysis of American speech at the community level, including regional/social varieties and American Sign Language; and (3) cross-linguistic analysis of speech at the global level, especially where speech sounds and processes differ from those in American English. Articulatory phonetics, the science of the anatomy, physiology, and production of speech, will be our primary focus, though acoustic phonetics will be interwoven throughout the semester. In the final few weeks, we will take a finer-grained look at acoustic phonetics, the science of the signal, recording, and representation of speech, collaborating on an experiment in which we analyze our speech in a capstone project. Pre-/Co-requisite: LING 080/1500, Introduction to Linguistics

With consistent, hard work in the course, you should be able to: -Define phonetics inclusively, incorporating, for one, an account of signed languages -Distinguish between articulatory and acoustic phonetics and become aware of other subfields of phonetics, including socio-, auditory, and experimental phonetics -Understand the relationship between articulatory gestures and acoustic properties of speech -Develop an embodied awareness of speech production, including the articulatory gestures and processes associated with vowels, consonants, and suprasegmentals -Recognize phonetic similarities and differences across speech varieties/languages, thus learning what and how phonetics contributes to linguistic diversity -Transcribe speech with greater ease across levels of linguistic analysis: idiolectal, dialectal/social, and cross-linguistic -Facilitate collaborative discussions of phonetics with greater confidence -Get introductory practice conducting and refining an acoustic and experimental phonetic study -Navigate the basics of acoustic and experimental phonetics technology, including Praat -Learn how to find reliable information about phonetics independently

Homework assignments/Ch. exercises (6 total): 40% Quizzes (5 total) & extra credit assignment: 30% Group presentation: 20% Research journal: 10%