Phonetic Analysis of Speech Corpora

“The book undoubtedly succeeds entirely in its goal to provide an accessible and effective practical introduction to using Emu speech database system and Emu-R functions to analyze phonetic data. It is written in a clear and accessible language and the topics are introduced in a coherent and easy to follow manner with the complexity of the material gradually increasing from the beginning towards the end of the book. Even rather complicated concepts are made easy to understand with an exceptional use of analogy and a commendable restraint from going into too many mathematical and technical details…this is a well-written, well-structured, easy-to-follow workbook which boasts an excellent set of practical exercises and demonstrations and covers a wide range of techniques. Overall, those readers who have a basic background in phonetics and statistics and are prepared to work their way carefully through this book will be greatly rewarded with its informativeness and effectiveness.” (LINGUIST List, January 2011)

Jonathan Harrington is Professor of the Institute of Phonetics and Speech Processing (IPS), University of Munich, Germany. His recent research has primarily focused on modelling the acoustic and perceptual mechanisms of sound change. He is co-editor of Speech Production: Models, Phonetic Processes, and Techniques (with Marija Tabain, 2006) and Techniques in Speech Acoustics (with Steve Cassidy, 1999).