Abstract
What justification might there be foi an essay on phonetics and phonology? After all, there is already a plethora of books on the subject. However, most of them are highly academic their approach, provide a detailed initiation into this particular area of language study and tend to be as technical as lengthy. Of course, they serve their purpose well, but can be daunting to the neophyte. This essay then is meant to cover the need for a more general and gradual introduction to such a complex area of the study of English. I simply intend to supply a support to the more academically oriented introductions to phonetics, thus preparing the conceptual ground. This is a summary overview of the main features of this area of linguistics: its scope and principles of enquiry, its key concepts and basic issues. These are expressed and explained such a way to make them as accessible as possible to people who have no prior knowledge or expertise the subject. Yet, allow me to say that however simple my approach may be, it is not simplistic. The idea is to give students an inicial familiarity with the fascinating and challenging world of sounds in action' , and to encourage them into close critical exploration where the issues might not be readily accessible. DOI: 10.28998/0103-6858.2005v2n36p147-181
Highlights
1.1 LANGUAGE ACQUISITIONThe sounds of speech surround us — we hear and utter diem yetwe know SC little about diem.There are an unlimited number of speech sounds presenting minute phonetic differences wliich are way below die limit of perception
LEITURA-INGLÊS;ENSINO E LITERATURAS,n.36.jul./dez.2005 ourattentdon on how alanguage is acquiied.The first aspect to be underlined is tliat this is a specific characterisdc of ali human beings and no otlier animais
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which is based on the Roman alphabet, fixed the phonetic values of the letters corresponding to the main European languages
Summary
The sounds of speech surround us — we hear and utter diem yetwe know SC little about diem. Wales(UK),where a Spanish coUeague of mine and liis fíve cliildren lived in diat particular period The astonishing tíiingwddi this family was that Pepe and his wife(in their late thirties at the time)spoke\viüi a very heavySpanish accent and had great difficult}'in understanding English,whereas dieirkids spoke !t well. It was crystal clear diat as die age of the speaker decreased, the quality of the language was nearer and nearer to die native Welsh accent. To this a), an adequate and thorough account of language acquisition is sti to acconiplished, aldiough enormous progress has been made towards this aim
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