ASIAN 401 - Introduction to Asian Linguistics

Instructor: Zev Handel

Spring 2009

Announcement: There is a revised schedule for the last two weeks of classes.

Announcement: Do you need a refresher on basic English grammar terms like "noun", "conjunction", "compound word"? A good resource is Grammar: a student's guide by James R. Hurford (Cambridge University Press, 1994).


Syllabus

ASIAN 401 syllabus | Revised schedule for Weeks 9-10 | Asian Linguistics Workbook

Handouts

Class handouts | extra morphology exercises (April 30)

Lectures

Powerpoint slideshows and overheads

Answers

Answer keys to homework, exercises, and exams

Fonts

Download free Unicode IPA font from SIL (Windows or Macintosh)
Get free fonts from Berkeley's STEDT project including IPA and other symbols (Windows or Macintosh)

Both Windows and Macintoshes now come with complete Unicode fonts that include IPA symbols. These are already installed in your system. The Windows fonts are "Arial Unicode MS" and "Lucinda Sans Unicode". The Macintosh font is "Lucida Grande". Both are quite ugly. The links above are for nicer-looking fonts.

It is not always easy to get the symbols you want into your documents. On a Macintosh, you can install the "Show Character Palette" keyboard layout, and look for phonetic symbols in the "IPA Extensions" Unicode block; or better, download and install the free IPA Palette. In Microsoft Word on Windows XP, you can use "Insert Symbol" and scroll through the font to find the appropriate symbols. This can be time-consuming, but once you find the symbol you want, you can assign a keystroke to it so that you can enter it easily in the future. You can find a description of how to do this here.

You may also download this detailed guide to entering IPA symbols. Most of the information is for Mac.

Phonetics

Web site of the International Phonetic Association
Full chart of the International Phonetic Alphabet
Instructions for using IPA practice programs at the LLC
• Many of the multimedia examples played in class are from Ladefoged's Vowels & Consonants or A Course in Phonetics

These web sites will allow you to view and listen to the production of speech sounds:

Paul Meier's Interactive IPA Charts (note that on this site, 'stops' are referred to as 'plosives', and all voiceless stops are pronounced as aspirated even though they are not so marked)
University of Arizona's "Languages Samples Project" IPA charts
Université de Lausanne's articulatory phonetics introduction
UW Language Learning Center's IPA tutorial
U of Iowa's Phonetics: Sounds of English, Spanish and German interactive site
Peter Ladefoged's Course in Phonetics and Consonants and Vowels web site (contains many examples of sounds in non-English languages)
SIL's IPA Help site

New resources become available on the web all the time, so feel free to search for other useful tools, and let me know if you find something that should be included here.

Textbook

Companion web site to Contemporary Linguistics

(Many files on this site are in Adobe pdf format. If you cannot view them, try downloading a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader. If your computer system does not have Chinese capability, be sure to include the Asian Language Files in your installation )