Catford's unique interactive approach to the study of phonetics leads readers to explore the entire range of human sounds through a series of introspective experiments carried out in their own vocal tracts, proceeding systematically from familiar vocal postures and articulations to new and unknown ones. By actually articulating sounds, and attending to the motor sensations they produce, the reader acquires a deep, personal understanding of the principles of phonetic classification. Informed throughout by recent research in aerodynamics and acoustics, this book will interest a wide range of students and teachers of languages, linguistics, speech therapy, and anthropology.

This book deals with the pronunciation of English in the United States, and is designed primarily for elementary courses in phonetics. It should also be useful in courses dealing with the improvement or correction of voice and speech. Chapters 21 to 23 should be useful in an advanced course in linguistic geography.

Two principles underlie the presentation of the subject matter. One is that the distinctive sound unit, or phoneme, as discussed in Chapter 1, is basic to our understanding of speech. English, like any other language; rests on basic phonemic patterns, but not all varieties of English use exactly the same pattern.

The title Applied Phonetics has been given to this book to suggest its main intent: to apply phonetic symbols and nomenclature to the description of the principal varieties of the English language in America and the British Isles. Actually, the name is not entirely accurate in respect to the first part of the book, where phonetic modes of thought and phonetic symbols are given preliminary presentation .without specific application.

A primary objective of this book is to assist such students in developing whatever level of skill they aspire to in the use of speech form. It would be naive to suppose that good speech can somehow come about without effort or that it can be achieved simply through vocal drill and exercise, necessary as these may be in an incidental way.

It is a generally recognized fact that the English language presents far greater difficulties with regard to its pronunciation than any other European language. This does not mean that foreigners find it partic' ularly hard to acquire a correct pronunciation ofthe various speech sounds of which English is made up. From this point of view English is not any harder to learn than many other languages.