ABSTRACT
The previous chapters have taken a somewhat simplistic approach to phonetic performance and analysis, focusing on what we might think of as the “core” characteristics of each sound in isolation. As we stressed at the start, this is a rather artificial, if convenient, way of thinking about speech. When we look at real connected speech, it rapidly becomes clear that it is not always easy to define clear-cut boundaries between segments and that the precise pattern of production of the “same” segment (i.e., something that can be represented by one label and symbol) may actually vary quite significantly. This subtle variation may be caused by a range of factors, including differences between speakers and the influence of adjacent segments. This chapter introduces some additional features of speech production that may be useful for anyone trying to record and understand the way in which phonetic segments vary, or how different parts of the speech production process are coordinated. This leads in to a brief discussion about some alternative approaches to phonetic analysis, which may be prompted by an interest in such detail. The richness and variety to be found in speech performance is such that we cannot hope to provide a comprehensive coverage, but we hope that the examples selected here will give a flavor of the intricacies that can be revealed by careful phonetic analysis.
