Outline of General Phonetics Revised Edition

Author: Luo Changpei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-02-01
Features: The preliminary draft of this book was originally published under the title "Common Knowledge of Phonetics" by Tian Gong in the journal Chinese Language from January 1954 to May 1955, spanning 14 issues. It has now been revised, supplemented, and compiled into this small book. Since 1934, when I began teaching at Peking University, I have offered phonetics courses several times, but I never managed to compile a complete set of lecture notes or textbooks. It wasn't until the autumn of 1952, when I co-taught phonetics with Comrade Wang Jun at the Language Department of Peking University, that we decided to expand and revise the accumulated materials, working together to compile a textbook as a foundation for nurturing young scholars. This book is the result of that plan. The structure of this book applies the general principles of applied phonetics, connecting them with the specific realities of Chinese languages. The examples primarily focus on Mandarin, followed by examples from various dialects, and then examples from minority languages when necessary to supplement sounds absent in Chinese or for comparative convenience. Some examples from foreign languages are also cited for reference. In terms of phonetic theory, the book primarily adopts the advanced doctrines of Soviet phonetics while also incorporating good aspects from the phonetic works of other countries. During our collaborative process, I suffered from a prolonged chronic illness, and Comrade Wang Jun contributed significantly more effort. Later, when Comrade Wang Jun joined the Zhuang Language Work Team, Comrade Wang Fushi helped draft the chapter on "Phonetic Changes." Although I participated in revisions before each printing and reviewed the entire manuscript two or three times, I am still concerned that some omissions or even errors may have been left uncorrected or standardized. We sincerely hope that readers will point out any such issues, and we will be grateful for your corrections. Originally, we had planned to supplement a chapter on "Methods for Investigating Languages and Dialects," but due to the urgency of the printing schedule, we were unable to complete it in time. We will add it in the second edition.