This book is about the sounds of languages. There are thousands of distinct languages
in the world, many of them with sounds that are wildly different from any that you
will hear in an English sentence. People trill their lips and click their tongues when
talking, sometimes in ways that are surprising to those of us who speak English. Of
course, some of the things that we do, such as hearing a difference between fin and
thin, or producing the vowel that most Americans have in bird, are fairly amazing to
speakers of other languages, as we will see.
There are about 200 different vowels in the world’s languages and more than 600
different consonants. There is no way that I can discuss all these sounds in an
introductory book. I’ve just tried to give you some idea of what happens when
people talk, explaining most of the well-known sounds, and giving you a glimpse of
some of the more obscure sounds. If you want a fuller, more systematic, account of
phonetics, there are many textbooks available, including one of my own.
Many of the sounds discussed are reproduced on the Vowels and Consonants
website, www.wiley.com/go/ladefoged. If possible, you should listen to the sounds
while you read. I hope you will be entertained by what you hear and read here,
and will look at the suggestions for further reading at the end of the book. I’ve been
thrilled by a lifetime chasing ideas in phonetics. Who knows, perhaps you, too, will
go on to become a phonetician. Enjoy.