This textbook is a revision and expansion of A Manual for Articulatory
Phonetics, compiled by Rick Floyd in 1981 and revised in 1986, and again in
2003 by Anita Bickford. It includes many other people's materials from
articulatory phonetics courses as taught for over sixty years in the
training schools of SIL International. It also includes much information
from sources outside of SIL.
It is written in an informal, personal style and is a practical book for
teachers and students alike. Most chapters begin with a statement of goals
and concludes with a list of key concepts and exercises. Examples, tables,
and explanatory figures are distributed liberally throughout.
This book is oriented primarily towards native speakers of American
English, particularly with reference to examples used to guide
pronunciation of new sounds. However, most of the information included
should be profitable to students regardless of their native language.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is used for the phonetic
transcription, but the equivalent Americanist symbols are also given in
order to equip the student to use other linguists' materials, regardless of
which system they use to transcribe their data.