Asssuming no prior knowledge of the subject, this book offers a thorough introduction to phonetics and phonology. It is usually comprehensive, including detailed attention to articulatory and acoustic phonetics as well as to the foundations of phonological analysis.

The second edition incorporates several improvements: a completely new chapter on speech perception has been added, the material on anaotomy and physiology has been rearranged and much of the detail placed later in the book to make it less demanding on readers, and the entire text has been edited to help bring it up to date.