Approximants
Their Phonetics and Phonology
Edited by
Martin J. Ball [+–]
Bangor University
Martin J. Ball is Honorary Professor in the School of Linguistics and English Language at Bangor University, Wales.
Until recently he was Professor of Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics at Linköping University, Sweden, having formerly held the position of Hawthorne-BoRSF Endowed Professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders, at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He received his bachelor’s degree with honours in Linguistics and English from the University of Wales (Bangor); his Master’s degree in phonetics and linguistics from the University of Essex; his Ph.D. from the University of Wales (Cardiff), and a DLitt degree from Bangor University.
Dr Ball has authored and edited over 35 books, 50 contributions to collections and 100 refereed articles in academic journals. He has also presented at conferences around the world. He is co-editor of the journal Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics (Taylor & Francis); and of the book series Studies in Phonetics and Phonology (Equinox), Communication Disorders across Languages (Multilingual Matters), and Language and Speech Disorders (Psychology Press). His main research interests include sociolinguistics, clinical phonetics and phonology, and the linguistics of Welsh. He has been President of the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association; he is an honorary Fellow of the UK Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. His most recent books are Principles of Clinical Phonology (Routledge, 2016) and Challenging Sonority (co-edited with N. Müller, Equinox, 2016).
Approximants are an especially interesting group of consonants. They consist of four separate types, traditionally termed lateral approximants, rhotic (or central) approximants, semi-vowels, and frictionless continuants. This book brings together an international team of scholars to examine the phonetics and phonology of this diverse group of sounds, and also looks at the question of whether they should, in fact, be grouped together.
The volume is divided into four parts. Part 1 contains 7 chapters dealing with general characteristics of approximants: their articulatory features, acoustics, and perception, together with phonological and sociolinguistic aspects, concluding with surveys of approximant systems in the languages of the world, and means of transcribing them phonetically. Part 2 has five chapters examining the acquisition of approximants (in Maltese, Spanish, Portuguese, and English) and the effects of speech disorders of different types on the production of these sounds. Part 3 describes approximant systems in a variety of the languages of the world, including several Indo-European languages but also examples of Dravidian, Semitic, Uralic, and Sinitic languages, and languages from Africa, South America and Australia. The final part contains a single chapter that examines the approximant category phonetically and phonologically, asking whether the approximant consonant group is justified.
This collection will appeal to a readership at the level of advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and to researchers in the field who may know of the concept of approximants but be unaware of its application to the range of languages (many of them under-reported languages) in this book.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Bangor University
Martin J. Ball is Honorary Professor in the School of Linguistics and English Language at Bangor University, Wales.
Until recently he was Professor of Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics at Linköping University, Sweden, having formerly held the position of Hawthorne-BoRSF Endowed Professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders, at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He received his bachelor’s degree with honours in Linguistics and English from the University of Wales (Bangor); his Master’s degree in phonetics and linguistics from the University of Essex; his Ph.D. from the University of Wales (Cardiff), and a DLitt degree from Bangor University.
Dr Ball has authored and edited over 35 books, 50 contributions to collections and 100 refereed articles in academic journals. He has also presented at conferences around the world. He is co-editor of the journal Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics (Taylor & Francis); and of the book series Studies in Phonetics and Phonology (Equinox), Communication Disorders across Languages (Multilingual Matters), and Language and Speech Disorders (Psychology Press). His main research interests include sociolinguistics, clinical phonetics and phonology, and the linguistics of Welsh. He has been President of the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association; he is an honorary Fellow of the UK Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. His most recent books are Principles of Clinical Phonology (Routledge, 2016) and Challenging Sonority (co-edited with N. Müller, Equinox, 2016).
Approximants are an especially interesting group of consonants. They consist of four separate types, traditionally termed lateral approximants, rhotic (or central) approximants, semi-vowels, and frictionless continuants. This book brings together an international team of scholars to examine the phonetics and phonology of this diverse group of sounds, and also looks at the question of whether they should, in fact, be grouped together. The volume is divided into four parts. Part 1 contains 7 chapters dealing with general characteristics of approximants: their articulatory features, acoustics, and perception, together with phonological and sociolinguistic aspects, concluding with surveys of approximant systems in the languages of the world, and means of transcribing them phonetically. Part 2 has five chapters examining the acquisition of approximants (in Maltese, Spanish, Portuguese, and English) and the effects of speech disorders of different types on the production of these sounds. Part 3 describes approximant systems in a variety of the languages of the world, including several Indo-European languages but also examples of Dravidian, Semitic, Uralic, and Sinitic languages, and languages from Africa, South America and Australia. The final part contains a single chapter that examines the approximant category phonetically and phonologically, asking whether the approximant consonant group is justified. This collection will appeal to a readership at the level of advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and to researchers in the field who may know of the concept of approximants but be unaware of its application to the range of languages (many of them under-reported languages) in this book.
Conclusion
Universitat de Barcelona
Universitat de Barcelona
Universitat de Barcelona
Part I: General Aspects
University of Strathclyde
Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh
University of Connecticut
Shenzen University, China
University of California, Berkeley
Bangor University
Martin J. Ball is Honorary Professor in the School of Linguistics and English Language at Bangor University, Wales.
Until recently he was Professor of Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics at Linköping University, Sweden, having formerly held the position of Hawthorne-BoRSF Endowed Professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders, at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He received his bachelor’s degree with honours in Linguistics and English from the University of Wales (Bangor); his Master’s degree in phonetics and linguistics from the University of Essex; his Ph.D. from the University of Wales (Cardiff), and a DLitt degree from Bangor University.
Dr Ball has authored and edited over 35 books, 50 contributions to collections and 100 refereed articles in academic journals. He has also presented at conferences around the world. He is co-editor of the journal Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics (Taylor & Francis); and of the book series Studies in Phonetics and Phonology (Equinox), Communication Disorders across Languages (Multilingual Matters), and Language and Speech Disorders (Psychology Press). His main research interests include sociolinguistics, clinical phonetics and phonology, and the linguistics of Welsh. He has been President of the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association; he is an honorary Fellow of the UK Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. His most recent books are Principles of Clinical Phonology (Routledge, 2016) and Challenging Sonority (co-edited with N. Müller, Equinox, 2016).
Part II: Approximants in Acquisition and in Atypical Speech
San Diego State University
Jessica Barlow is Professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at
San Diego State University in California, USA. Her research focuses on phonological
acquisition, phonological theory and phonological disorders, with
an emphasis on English, Spanish and Spanish-English bilingualism. Most
recently she has been focusing on morphophonology in acquisition. Her
research has been published in such journals as Bilingualism: Language &
Cognition; Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics; Frontiers in Psychology; Journal of
Speech, Language, and Hearing Research; Language Acquisition; and Lingua.
She is co-editor, with Ashley Farris-Trimble, of Perspectives on phonological
theory and acquisition: In honor of Daniel A. Dinnsen (2014).
San Diego State University in California, USA. Her research focuses on phonological
acquisition, phonological theory and phonological disorders, with
an emphasis on English, Spanish and Spanish-English bilingualism. Most
recently she has been focusing on morphophonology in acquisition. Her
research has been published in such journals as Bilingualism: Language &
Cognition; Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics; Frontiers in Psychology; Journal of
Speech, Language, and Hearing Research; Language Acquisition; and Lingua.
She is co-editor, with Ashley Farris-Trimble, of Perspectives on phonological
theory and acquisition: In honor of Daniel A. Dinnsen (2014).
University of Iowa
Santa Maria Federal University, Brazil
Santa Maria Federal University, Brazil
City University, London
Prof. Rachael-Anne Knight, PhD, PFHEA, NTF, is Professor of Phonetics in the Department of Language and Communication Science, School of Health and Psychological Sciences, at City, University of London.
Pacific University
Part III: Approximants in Specific Languages and Language Groups
Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
University of South Florida
Tampa, FL USA
Tampa, FL USA
Professor, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders
University of Patras
Ioannis Papakyritsis is an assistant professor in the department of Speech and Language Therapy at University of Patras and a certified clinician. He has worked as an assistant professor in Western Illinois University. He holds a PhD from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His research interests include clinical acoustic phonetics and the analysis of suprasegmentals in neurogenic speech disorders. He is teaching classes on communication disorders at undergraduate and Master’s levels and he has been working as a clinical supervisor of student clinicians and as speech & language therapist. He currently lives in Patras, Greece.
Universidad de Concepcion, Chile
Mauricio A. Figueroa Candia is an Assistant Professor of experimental phonetics at
Universidad de Concepción (Chile). He graduated with a PhD in Speech, Hearing and
Phonetic Sciences from University College London, and specializes in the application of
experimental methods to address research questions from phonetics and phonology, often
within Sociolinguistics and Ethnolinguistics. His publications include studies of the
sociophonetic variation of Chilean Spanish, and studies on the phonetic and phonemic
systems of Chilean vernacular languages, including Mapudungun and Kawesqar.
Universidad de Concepción (Chile). He graduated with a PhD in Speech, Hearing and
Phonetic Sciences from University College London, and specializes in the application of
experimental methods to address research questions from phonetics and phonology, often
within Sociolinguistics and Ethnolinguistics. His publications include studies of the
sociophonetic variation of Chilean Spanish, and studies on the phonetic and phonemic
systems of Chilean vernacular languages, including Mapudungun and Kawesqar.
Texas Tech University
Brandon M. A. Rogers earned his PhD in Hispanic Linguistics from the University of Minnesota, USA. He currently works as an assistant professor of linguistics and translation at Texas Tech University, USA. His research focuses on phonetics, phonology, sociophonetics, prosody, and language contact. His most recent work has examined prosodic variation in Chilean Spanish, sociophonetic variation in Chilean and Peruvian Spanish, and language contact between Mapudungun and Chilean Spanish, Quechua and Peruvian Spanish, as well as English and Spanish in the US.
EFL University, Hyderabad, India
EFL University, Hyderabad, India
Associate Professor, Dept of Phonetics and Spoken English, School of Language Sciences, EFL University, Hyderabad -500007 India
EFL University, Hyderabad, India
Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Germany
All India Institute of Speech and Hearing
Sorbonne Nouvelle University
University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
Museu Nacional – Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
University College Cork
Nicola Bessell is Lecturer in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at University College Cork, Republic of Ireland, and works on variation in Irish English as well as clinical linguistics.
Nicola started linguistic life with Old and Middle English texts in the BA Hons degree at the University of Oxford, followed by a Master’s degree in Linguistics and Comparative Philology. After working in a bookshop, at Oxford University Press, and then as a research assistant at Oxford University Phonetics Laboratory, she went to Canada to do a PhD. At the University of British Columbia she started fieldwork on First Nations languages. Her PhD research is on the phonetics and phonology of the velar, uvular, pharyngeal and glottal consonants of the Interior Salish languages. She held a post-doctoral position at the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, and a faculty position in the Linguistics Department at the University of Texas at Austin.
University College Cork
Alice Lee is Lecturer in Speech and Hearing Sciences at University College Cork, Republic of Ireland. Her research focuses on perceptual and instrumental investigations of speech disorders and typical speech production, and listener training for perceptual judgement of speech disorders.
University College Cork
