A Primer of American Intonation

A'lthough I started to write this'little booklet only in .|985, it actually began 35 years ear'lier - one winter evening in .|950 at Indiana University. There at one of the sess'ions of the Ethno- Linguistics Seminar (the periodic meeting ground of all the facu'lty and students in linguistics), Henry Lee Smith, Jr. presented the analysis of English sounds that he and George Trager were soon to publish. The part of thejr ana'lysis that dealt with pitch, stress, and juncture seized my attention that evening and has never let go. This'little booklet is the latest result of that long fascination. I have really tried to write a primer-something that begins at the beginning, deals in fundamentals, and stops well short of the latest research. The thirteen lessons, each provided with exercises, are meant to put before the reader just the basic points about intonation. Here and there the lessons suggest some more recondite notion, but I really have tried to keep things simple.