This textbook is a basic introduction to phonetics as a subdiscipline of general linguistics. All areas of phonetics are presented in depth (phonation, articulation, acoustics, perception, etc.), along with a short history of the discipline. The main objective of this introduction is to present the phonetic phenomena observable in vocal communication and the processes associated with them in the physical world as use of our biological endowment for communicative purposes.

Bernd Pompino-Marschall, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.