Skip to main content

Those marked with * are especially recommended for purchase.

1. Introductory Texts

  • Abercrombie, D. 1967. Elements of General Phonetics. Edinburgh University Press. Brief and excellent, without technicalities.
  • Raphael, L. J., G. Borden & K. Harris. 2007. Speech Science Primer. 5th ed. Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. For many years a standard introduction to speech acoustics and physiology.
  • Catford, J.C. 2001. A Practical Introduction to Phonetics. 2nd ed. OUP.

    A shorter volume than Catford 1977 (see below), giving similar but less detailed coverage of the articulatory questions.
  • Clark, J, C. Yallop & J. Fletcher. 2007. An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology. 3rd edition. Blackwell.  Basic phonetics with modern phonology in one volume. Comprehensive, broad coverage.
  • Davenport, M. and S.J. Hannahs. 2010. Introducing Phonetics and Phonology. 3rd ed. Arnold.
  • Fry, D. 1979. The Physics of Speech. CUP.

    A gentle introduction to basic acoustics for phoneticians.
  • *International Phonetic Association. 1999.Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. CUP.
  • Johnson, K. 2003. Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics. 2nd ed. Blackwell.

    Rather more up-to-date than Fry, with a very clear, elementary approach to digital signal processing.
  • Ladefoged, P. & K. Johnson. 2011. A Course in Phonetics. 6th ed. Cengage. A standard textbook, with numerous practical exercises
  • *Ladefoged, P. 2005. Vowels and Consonants. 2nd ed. Blackwell.
  • Laver, J. 1994. Principles of Phonetics. CUP.
  • Lieberman, P. and S.E. Blumstein 1988. Speech Physiology, Speech Perception, and Acoustic Phonetics. CUP.

2. Advanced Texts

  • Abercrombie, D. 1965. Studies in Phonetics and Linguistics. OUP.
  • Abercrombie, D. 1991. Fifty Years in Phonetics. Edinburgh University Press.
  • Baken, R. & R. F. Orlikoff. 2000. Clinical Measurement of Speech and Voice. 2nd ed. Thompson Learning. Very detailed description of acoustics and workings of a wide range of instruments.
  • Catford, J.C. 1977. Fundamental Problems in Phonetics. Edinburgh University Press. Detailed, carefully argued, but idiosyncratic discussions of major areas of phonetics.
  • Hardcastle, W. 1976. Physiology of Speech Production. Academic Press.
  • Henderson, E.J.A. 1971. The Indispensable Foundation: A Selection From the Writings of Henry Sweet. OUP.
  • Ladefoged, P. 1967. Three Areas of Experimental Phonetics. OUP.

    Accounts of elegant experiments, each still seminal, in three contrasting fields; an object lesson in how to do research.
  • *Lass, N.J., ed. 1996. Principles of Experimental Phonetics. Mosby. A very informative course, with each chapter by a leader in the field. Excellent value for money.
  • Jones, W.E & J. Laver 1973. Phonetics in Linguistics: a Book of Readings. Longman.

3. Reference

  • Gimson, A. 2008. Gimson's Pronunciation of English. 7th edition, revised by A. Cruttenden. Hodder. The standard description of RP [Received Pronunciation], with much information on variation. Not too technical.
  • Hardcastle, W.J. and J. Laver, eds. 2010. The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences. 2nd ed. Blackwell. A compendious collection of overview papers, each of which is consequently rather brief. Lass (1996) is rather better value.
  • Kent, R.D., B.S. Atal and J.L. Miller (eds.) (1991). Papers in Speech Communication: Speech Production. Acoustical Society of America.

    Definitive collection of many important research papers in speech production.
  • Ladefoged, P. and I. Maddieson 1995. The Sounds of the World's Languages. Blackwell. A very broad and accurate survey.
  • Olive, J. P., A. Greenwood and J.Coleman 1993. Acoustics of American English Speech. Springer Verlag.
  • Stevens, K.N. 1998. Acoustic Phonetics. MITP. An excellent and comprehensive work.
  • Wells, J.C. 2008. Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. 3rd ed. Pearson Education.

4. Journals on Phonetics

Location key:

PL Phonetics Laboratory
Bod Bodleian Library
RSL Radcliffe Science Library
T Taylor Institution Library
Psych. Experimental Psychology Library

5. Working Papers

Important work is very often disseminated first through working papers, only being published in refereed journals much later. The Phonetics Laboratory has an extensive collection of Working Papers from other institutions.