An Introduction to English Phonology / Edition 1

by April McMahon

Overview

This is a short, lively, and accessible introduction to the sounds of modern English. Its emphasis on variation, with examples from British, American, New Zealand, and Singaporean English, make it suitable for both native and non-native speakers. McMahon focuses on the vowels and consonants, but also discusses syllables, stress, and the phonology of words and phrases. She introduces new tools and terminology gradually, and discusses the motivation for key concepts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195218916
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/21/2002
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 5.56(h) x 0.37(d)

About the Author

April McMahon is Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students at the Universityof Manchester, and Professor in the Department of Linguistics and English Language. Her previous books include Understanding Language Change, Lexical Phonology and the History of English and Change, Chance, and Optimality.

Table of Contents

To students; To colleagues; 1: Sounds, spellings and symbols; 2: The phoneme: the same but different; 3: Describing English consonants; 4: Defining distributions: consonant allophones; 5: Criteria for contrast: the phoneme system; 6: Describing vowels; 7: Vowel phonemes; 8: Variation between accents; 9: Syllables; 10: The word and above; Glossary; Discussion of the exercises; References; Index

What People are Saying About This

Dr Bert Vaux

The first edition of this book in 2002 was innovative in recruiting a leading phonologist to present an engagingly-written introduction to the field of phonology that was actually pitched at an appropriate level for beginning undergraduates. Since that time much has changed in linguistics and in society, and this new edition of McMahon’s classic textbook hits the mark with its incorporation of contemporary authentic examples of English usage, exercises with answer keys, a new section on the rapidly growing field of intonation studies, and expanded coverage of World Englishes.

Editorial Reviews

"The recommended reading for each chapter presents the interested student with material for further study, and the exercises provided are interesting, relevant and often thought provoking."—LINGUIST List 13.2169, Sat Aug 24 2002

From the Publisher