Volume 1 of the most up-to-date and comprehensive description of the Spanish language’s phonetic and phonological system
Though there has been considerable research on Spanish phonetics and phonology, until now, there has been no in-depth and complete descriptive reference work. Fonética y fonología descriptivas de la lengua española, volumes 1 and 2, is a comprehensive reference, written in Spanish, describing the phonetics and phonology of Spanish. Edited by Juana Gil and Joaquim Llisterri, and including contributions from an international group of scholars, these books provide a comprehensive overview for understanding topics across Spanish phonetics and phonology, making clear what further research is needed.
Together, these two volumes offer a survey of Spanish descriptive phonetics and phonology. Volume 1 focuses on the segmental—consonant and vowel sound—properties of phonetic units and phonic phenomena. Each topic is examined from three angles: its phonetic description, its phonological analysis, and the characterization of its variation. The phonetic description is given from the perspectives of production, acoustic analysis, and perception. The phonological analysis includes the different treatments to which a certain phenomenon has been subjected and considers the different theoretical perspectives that have been used to address it.
With state-of-the-art information on all topics related to the sounds of Spanish, Fonética y fonología descriptivas de la lengua española will be a valuable resource for researchers, students, and scholars of Spanish linguistics who wish to deepen their understanding of the phonetic and phonological characteristics of all the varieties of the Spanish language.
Reviews
"Fonética y fonologia descriptivas de la lengua española is a two-volume book marked by extensive and meticulous work. No book of the genre is so comprehensive about the description of sound classes, their variation, and phonology. It is a definitive work that was born as a reference for anyone interested in studying or doing research on Spanish."—Plinio A. Barbosa, professor of linguistics, University of Campinas, Brazil
"These two volumes edited by Juana Gil and Joaquim Llisterri bring together many of the best specialists in the field. They offer a balanced view of both segmental and prosodic aspects of Spanish pronunciation. With a focus on readability and internal cohesion, they systematically make room for variation and dialectal considerations. A veritable tour de force."—Jacques Durand, emeritus professor of phonology, University of Toulouse-Jean Jaurès,
"These two volumes offer the most comprehensive treatment to date of Spanish phonetics and phonology, providing a panoramic description of the Spanish sound system, including its regional and social variation. They will undoubtedly be an indispensable resource for linguists, as well as for those working in related fields."—Carol A. Klee, professor of Hispanic linguistics, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, University of Minnesota,
About the Author
Juana Gil has published in Spanish phonetics and phonology, forensic phonetics and pronunciation teaching. Joaquim Llisterri teaches linguistics at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. His research and publications have focused on speech technologies, the study of phonetic transfer and the development of speech corpora.
