Principles of Phonetics
Abstract
Underlying the apparent diversity shown by thousands of mutually incomprehensible languages of the world, there is a remarkable, elegant and principled unity in the way that these languages exploit the phonetic resources of speech. It is these principles that Professor Laver sets out to describe in this major new textbook. Assuming no previous knowledge of the subject, it is designed for readers who wish to pursue the study of phonetics from an initial to an advanced stage, equipping them with the necessary foundations for independent research. The book moves from a discussion of general concepts to a total of eleven chapters on phonetic classification, and it includes discussion of other issues such as the relationship between phonetics and phonology. There are illustrations from over 500 of the world's languages. Principles of Phonetics will be required reading for all serious students of speech and language.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
A low vowel has the largest sonorous value (9 being the maximum).
“a low vowel has the largest sonorous value (9 being the maximum)”
From The roles of L1 transfer, L2 exposure, and morphological salience in bilingual children's L2 English morphological development (2025) · cites this paper as Laver (1994)
A stop consonant has the smallest sonorous value (1 being the minimum).
“a stop consonant has the smallest sonorous value (1 being the minimum)”
From The roles of L1 transfer, L2 exposure, and morphological salience in bilingual children's L2 English morphological development (2025) · cites this paper as Laver (1994)
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Automatic speech recognition and speech variability: A review
Benzeghiba, M., De Mori, R., Deroo, O., Dupont, S., Erbes, T., Jouvet, D., Fissore, L., Laface, P., Mertins, A., Ris, C., et al. (2007) · Speech Communication · doi:10.1016/j.specom.2007.02.006 · Cited by 529 · see citing works
Voice as a Design Material: Sociophonetic Inspired Design Strategies in Human-Computer Interaction
Sutton, S. J., Foulkes, P., Kirk, D., & Lawson, S. (2019) · Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3290605.3300833 · Cited by 92 · see citing works
Wang, X., McMillen, S., & Shi, Y. (2025) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1566442 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Laver, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Laver, John
- Venue
- Cambridge University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Published
- 1994-05-12
- OpenAlex
- W2005526997
- Cited by
- 1,298
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 42 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 43 · 2020: 57 · 2019: 50 · 2018: 57 · 2017: 34 · 2016: 117 · 2015: 58 · 2014: 66 · 2013: 41 · 2012: 36
- FWCI
- 10.27
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Linguistics and language evolution
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Linguistics and Language Studies
- Keywords
- phonetics, phonetic classification, phonetics and phonology, speech sounds, world languages, phonetic principles, articulation
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
