Phon*-texts (was: Re: Online text on phonology)

* yl112@cornell.edu said on 2001-04-04 19:47:26 +0200
> On Wed, 4 Apr 2001, taliesin the storyteller wrote:
> >     http://ds.dial.pipex.com/town/lane/xvv88/Home/phon.htm
> >
> > It seems to be a nice little intro on phonology. If this 'un is enough
> > for conlanging purposes, money can be saved (says one whose private
> > library on phonology and phonetics has gone from one book to seven in a
> > single year :) )
>
> What books might those be?
Uhm... <signal to=brain action=find data=books-on-phonetics/phonology>
Processing... (allergy is slowing me head down, *grumble*)

A course in phonetics by Peter Ladefoged (newest or second-to newest ed.)
A dictionary of phonetics and phonology by R. L. Trask
Elements of acoustic phonetics by Peter Ladefoged
Principles of phonetics by John Laver
Sounds of the worlds languages edited by Peter Ladefoged and Ian Maddieson
The IPA handbook... argh... *scratches head* mostly phonetics too

The ones to keep are the one by Trask, the IPA-book and the wonderful,
fantastic why-didn't-I-buy-it-before "Sounds of the worlds languages".
The Laver-book might be a keeper but I haven't finished it yet. (huge!)

I've been reading a lot of phonology the last months because I'm working
on an article on diphthongs, or: what happens when vowels stand next to
other vowels:

An introduction to phonology by Katamba (which sucked)
Vowel Harmony by Krisztina Polgâardi (worst dreck I've ever wasted time on)
Phonology: an introduction to basic concepts by Roger Lass
Generative phonology by Iggy Roca
+ quite a few papers

I'm working on mini-reviews from a conlangers perspective on all of these.

> I've been trying to find a decent book on phonology [..]
Read the last two books in that order, and then read something on
optimality theory and you should be quite up-to-date. I'd like to
own both of them actually. Of special interest to conlangers is
the Lass-book because he discusses the world prior to Chomsky, and
concentrates on what humans actually say and why (and where) theories
are inadequate and not on a more-or-less abstract blob in the brain that
seems to prefer binary solutions at the expense of actual, recorded
data...</chomsky-bashing>

> [..] I did try the library, but I must not have looked in the right
> places or something, because I wasn't happy with the ones I did find.
Try the ones I mentioned and check out some of the double-starred
references in Lass's book.


t.