Functional Phonetics Workbook is a graded and practical activity book on the basics of phonemic transcription of American English. Initially aimed at undergraduate students of communication disorders who are exposed to only one term of instruction in Phonetics, the material is also offered for self-study for individuals learning English, or for professionals in need of refreshing their IPA transcription skills. This workbook was originally designed by Sadanand Singh – who sadly passed away recently – and Mary Lou Marsoun Cancio, and its second edition has been published as a spiral-bound paperback, supplemented with a set of cardboard study flashcards for phoneme review, and three audio CDs. The instructional materials have been divided into sixteen chapters and four appendices, and this new edition sees the introduction of new units on central vowels and word stress, a glossary, as well as the addition of study questions at the end of each chapter.

It is established from the beginning of this workbook that the preferred variety for instruction is Standard American English (SAE), defined as an ‘accent-free’ variety (p. 275), which may not echo other current views on what constitutes ‘accented speech’. The approach to transcription is mostly practical, and a great part of the material is characterised by an orderly and recurrent succession of hands-on activities, beginning with initial transcription exercises with audio support, which also introduce the distribution of the sounds in the syllable; this is followed by a second set of transcription tasks, which reveal the complexity of English spelling. A ‘Phoneme Description Page’ generally ensues, aimed at systematising the phonemes through a fact-file template that describes: distinctive features, tongue position, voicing/velopharyngeal port; spelling variations; word position; and clinical information related to each sound. At the end of every chapter, students are once again invited to integrate knowledge through witty thematic word searches and crossword puzzles that centre around several everyday vocabulary areas, as well as study questions to review key concepts.

Even though the list of spellings and examples provided in the description pages is generally quite thorough, the use of slanted lines (//) to represent orthography in some units may lead students to confuse phonemes with graphemes; for example, the sound /p/ is said to ‘appear as /p/ in words’ (p. 42). At the same time, the joint presentation of silent letters/historical elision and sounds may appear to be puzzling to the student, such as for instance in the activity whose title is /g/, where the words gnat, laugh and gentle (p. 61) are introduced together with other /g/ words. Along the same lines, the presentation of spellings may also require a distinction between what is perhaps ‘standard’, and what can be seen as a process of assimilation, such as the production of /dʒ/ for ‘d’ in the word cordial (p. 139), claimed to be a common spelling.

On a positive note, the repetition of the same task format in every chapter should clearly have a positive role in facilitating the learners’ acquisition of transcription conventions by creating a familiar order of tasks that limits the presence of distractors. The sequencing of stages for the introduction of the IPA starts from the presentation of familiar symbols resembling Roman letters, beginning with consonants, followed by the transcription of vowels, which in general happen to be more difficult for the learner to acquire.

The proposed IPA transcription for SAE for some items at times begs the question of whether the authors have a reason to confer phonemic status on a variant that may be generally considered to be allophonic, such as /hw/, or on semivowel + vowel combinations such as /ju/, which has been considered as a diphthong – the latter choice traceable perhaps to Ladefoged & Johnson (Reference Ladefoged and Johnson2011: 39). Another aspect that may perhaps need further clarification is the adoption of certain symbols, such as the use of a ‘slur’ to link the elements making up diphthongs, when most other choices, such as the use of /o/ for the vowel in no, and /e/ for the vowel in hey are consistent with other pronunciation materials and descriptions of General American, including the conventions in the Handbook of the IPA (Ladefoged Reference Ladefoged1999: 42).

Chapter 1, ‘The International Phonetic Alphabet’, contains a brief introduction to the history of the IPA, and a note stressing the importance of phonemic transcription in a language with lack of clear spelling-to-sound correspondence such as English. The authors acknowledge in this chapter that a one-semester course in Phonetics – for which this material has been designed – may not be enough for speech-language pathologists, and it may be this limitation which caused the writers to include a basic selection of features at the expense of others, such as allophonic variants, which have been somehow downplayed, or at times, not too accurately represented in the material. It needs to be said that a serious omission in this workbook is the explanation of the distinction between phonetics and phonology, which appears to be the reason behind many of these imprecisions.

Chapter 2, ‘Learning to write IPA symbols, syllables and word shapes’, explains some basic phonotactic aspects of English, particularly in terms of vowel and consonant distribution, possible SAE clusters, and the ‘releasing’ and ‘arresting’ functions of consonants towards vowels. This section also introduces syllable division practices onto orthographic marking, but with no explicit mention of the syllabification criteria utilised. Most practical tasks therefore require students to rely on their perception of the audio files.

In addition, throughout this section, the symbols of the IPA consonants are introduced gradually, facilitating the focus of students on the symbols which may not so straightforwardly be associated with a certain sound or spelling, with an emphasis on the conventional drawing of the shapes of the symbols.

Chapter 3, ‘Articulatory aspects of phonetics’, begins with a very clear and graphically-rich review of the organs of speech and their workings in the speech processes, referred to as PARR: phonation, articulation, respiration, resonance. A description of places of articulation follows, with some choices worth discussing, such as the use of the term lingua-palatal for consonants such as /ʃ/, which are, in other materials, classified as palato-alveolar (Cruttenden Reference Cruttenden2014), versus /tʃ dʒ r/ classified as alveo-palatal – known as post-alveolar, or palato-alveolar and post-alveolar, respectively, in other manuals. Another theoretical selection which would also be considered unconventional includes the phonemic status given to /hw/ as a labial-velar fricative sound, and the introduction of /r/ as labial, which are said to be in keeping with the classification proposed in previous work by Singh (2006). The presentation of manner of articulation is also visually enhanced with a graphic representation of binary oppositions and shaded feature contrasts, as devised by the same author. Among the creative activities included in this unit is one requiring the recognition of sound features in the titles of selected songs by The Beatles.

This chapter also contains two tables, one presenting consonant cluster combinations in SAE, and another, of high interest to future speech pathologists, with a summary of studies listing the expected age of acquisition of segments.

The subsequent five chapters deal with consonant sounds, classified according to their manner of articulation. Chapter 4, ‘Stop consonants’, presents plosives as ‘two-stage’ consonants, unifying the stop and compression stages – unlike perhaps other descriptions, which mention three. A few allophones of the sounds are mentioned, such as what is called the ‘voiced /t/’ – differentiated from a flap-, and aspiration. However, the mention of /b/ as ‘being released with aspiration’ (p. 45) in some contexts begs the question as to whether ‘aspiration’ in this chapter does not, in fact, mean ‘release’ (audible/non-audible) instead. Even though it is made clear that aspiration is a feature of fortis plosives later in Chapter 15, this claim made for /b/ in this chapter appears slightly contradictory. At times the phonemic/allophonic separation – and within phonemic matters, the description of those processes which belong to possible citation forms and those which can be a result of connected speech – is not very clear-cut in a number of areas in the workbook, as for example, regarding the allophonic status conferred to epenthetic /t/.

Chapter 5 is called ‘Nasals and syllabics’, though it only discusses the production and transcription of nasal sounds in detail, with just a brief mention of /l/ towards the end of the chapter, and no acknowledgement of the possibility of /r/ also being syllabic. The presentation of syllabics integrates examples with cases of assimilation, e.g. open as /op / (p. 83), without a systematic introduction to the contexts for de-alveolar assimilation till Chapter 15. Nonetheless, the explanation of syllabicity and its connection to more casual speech is clear and didactic.

The presentation of the velar nasal perhaps requires further explanation of the use of /ŋ/ versus /ŋg/, especially since single was puzzlingly (and erroneously) transcribed as /sɪŋəl/ (p. 79). There is an interesting reference to the use of /ɪ/ before the velar nasal sound in ing, very useful for SAE native speakers who may wrongly associate the pre-velar raising of vowels (Wells Reference Wells1982) to the sound /iː/.

Chapter 6, ‘Fricatives’, introduces fricative phonemes, among which /hw/ is included. The presentation of /hw/ may constitute another blur between what is phonemic and what is allophonic in this workbook, particularly since it is associated with initial <wh> spellings, the usual location for [hw] (IPA [ʍ]), but also associated with contexts where a devoiced [ ] is produced, as in twelve (p. 121). On the plus side, the description of sounds which are highly relevant to speech therapists, such as /s/, is very detailed, for example, in the description of interdental and lateral lisps in the ‘Clinical information’ section.

At times, the lack of attention to allophonic variants may affect perception processes. The tasks aimed at helping learners distinguish /z/ from /s/ in final position perhaps drive the students to focus too much on the perception of final /z/, which will very likely be devoiced, instead of drawing attention to vowel duration, which is precisely what contributes more saliently to this difference between minimal pairs.

Chapter 7, ‘Affricates’, focuses on the defining features of English affricate sounds as different from other combinations, with the same familiar sequence of transcription and perception tasks.

Chapter 8: ‘Oral resonants’, favours the classification of /w l r j/ as resonants, with no mention perhaps of other popular terms, such as ‘approximants’. Interesting additions to the chapter include the discussion of ‘intrusive’ /j/, and the treatment of the effects of r-colouring on the preceding vowels.

The following five chapters focus on vowels and diphthongs. Chapter 9, ‘Vowels’, introduces vowels by describing the basic aspects of their production. Quite paradoxically, the vowel ‘quadrangle’ as it is drawn does not reveal much of a difference in the levels of tongue advancement or retractedness for SAE vowels, presented as produced with the same part of the tongue: all front vowels are equally placed along the vertical axis, in much the same way back vowels are lined up along the back axis, almost reminiscent of cardinal vowels instead. The central vowels are clustered in the central area, including a very high /ʌ/, aligned with schwa (a feature often noted for American English) (p. 172). There is no reference as to whether the quadrilateral as it stands has been retrieved from the work of other phoneticians or is thus simplified for pedagogical purposes. Chapter 10, ‘Front vowels’, presents the production and spelling distinction between the vowels in this group. In a similar fashion, Chapter 11, ‘Central vowels’, explains the distinction between the four vowels presented, /ə ɚ ɝ ʌ/, especially in terms of stress. Nonetheless, the key to the transcription activity on the difference between schwa and /ɚ/ shows the use of /ʌ/ in unstressed syllables where pronunciation dictionaries (Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (Wells Reference Wells2008), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (Jones et al. Reference Jones, Roach, Setter and Esling2011)) would use schwa – for example, in the words conform and occur (p. 299) – and this somehow appears to contradict the information in the systematisation sheets. The criterion for the choice of use of /ɚ/ and /ɝ/ at times is not very clear either, as in hamburger, or occur, where the choice of /ɚ/ for prominent syllables does not appear to match the description in the study pages either.

Chapter 12, ‘Back vowels’, discusses the spellings and production of back vowels, addressing the American cot–caught merger (Wells Reference Wells1982), albeit indirectly, except for an explicit mention of the instability of /ɔ/ in American English. Regarding the choice of /ɑ/ or /ɔ/, learners will perhaps need to trust their perception more than the spellings provided in order to make appropriate transcription choices, which is why the audio tracks provided prove most useful in the process. Finally, in Chapter 13, ‘Diphthongs’, the authors introduce vowel glides /aɪ aʊ ɔɪ/ and include /ju/ as diphthongal as well, joining the elements in the symbols with a ‘slur’ (IPA ‘linking’). The sound in bode is presented as monophthongal and, as such, it was introduced in the preceding chapter, on back vowels.

Chapter 14, ‘Word stress’, very briefly introduces the notion of word stress and defines it in phonetic terms. There are some accounts of amusing cases of misplacement of stresses, together with a presentation of the phonemic (grammatical) function of stress, which make a good addition to the chapter. However, the only rules presented for students to improve on their word stress skills have to do with morphological markers such as -(e)s and -(e)d, which happen to be stress-neutral in reality, when, possibly, it would have been more profitable to learn about compounding and polysyllabic word stress rules instead.

Chapter 15, ‘Dynamics of connected speech’, presents an interesting number of observations regarding connected speech, characterised as a process of accommodation, which may include cases of assimilation (progressive and regressive), omission, insertion, and co-articulation. This chapter marks the first explicit attempt at a systematisation of allophonic processes, referred to as processes of co-articulation, but this reference is mostly reduced to a table with selected allophonic variants, namely, aspiration, unreleased plosives, nasality, unvoiced /r/, syllabicity and prolongation. There is a mention of the sounds affected, but not of their phonetic contexts and rules. It is manifest that this late introduction of diacritics responds to the need for a gradual presentation of the IPA, but as there are a number of hints to the actual production of sounds in previous chapters, a more systematic reference to these processes of co-articulation would have possibly enriched the initial presentation of the sounds, even for the ‘Clinical information’ section. Since this book is mainly addressed to students of speech pathology, and the workbook presents a high amount of recorded material, speech perception would be greatly improved if students’ ear-training skills were enhanced by drawing learners’ attention to the way the phonemes are actually manifested in the speech stream (i.e. phonetically), and how they may vary in connected speech.

The final chapter, Chapter 16, ‘Dialect differences’, presents a basic overview of possible ‘dialect’ differences. The term dialect is used here where other materials prefer ‘accent’, and it is defined as ‘a speech or language variation’, versus ‘accent’, understood as ‘speech that has characteristics of a foreign dialect’ (p. 275). This chapter mostly introduces a group of tables of ‘accented speech’ of speakers of English from an African American, Spanish, Arabic and Asian language backgrounds, though for future speech professionals, it would have been interesting to also see a table comparing the different accents of US English, since these are mentioned in the introduction to the chapter.

The book contains a number of appendices, including the IPA (2005 revision) chart and the key to all exercises. A glossary of terms and a short list of references ensues. The last part of the workbook includes a cardboard set of ‘Phoneme study’ cards, with the symbol on one side, and the selected spellings and distribution on the other.

This Workbook, originally aimed at students of communication disorders but also open to students learning English, as stated in the Preface, is an introduction to the transcription of the sounds of Standard American English (SAE). As mentioned previously, there should be some improvement in the separation of boundaries between what is phonetic and phonological, and what is phonemic and allophonic. The authors should, possibly, anticipate some allophonic variants within the description of each sound so as to enable a better use of the audio material. Transcription tasks may be expanded to include phrases and short texts as well, in order to see how co-articulation functions. The ‘Clinical information’ section for each sound could be enhanced by a concurrent presentation of the acquisition order research facts – which now appear bundled early in the book – as well as of other common speech difficulties regarding the sounds in certain positions or clusters. Another omission that should be addressed for the benefit of future speech pathologists studying with this material is the reference to the existing IPA for atypical speech (Duckworth et al. Reference Duckworth, Allen, Hardcastle and Ball1990). The new section on word stress may perhaps be expanded and placed earlier in the sequence.

It cannot be easily determined if some of the debatable theoretical reductions, choices of symbols and inconsistencies mentioned in this review have been made by the workbook authors as a means of simplifying the comprehension and apprehension process for the student, or if they have been based on the work of other phoneticians. It is important that these should be revised, corrected, and clarified for a third edition.

Among the highlights of the Functional Phonetics Workbook, it could be mentioned that the units follow a gradual introduction to English sounds, with a really large number of recordings and tasks to enhance ear-training and transcription of the phonemes of SAE, something that many practical phonetics books lack. The approach is learner-centred, in that the student is provided with study cards and questions, as well as a recurrent sequence of tasks that may increase his/her confidence in the process of learning by reducing distractors and integrating previous knowledge. From a pedagogical point of view, it is a very valuable and creative resource with a carefully thought out teaching sequence, and it clearly shows that it has been tried and tested, as well as improved, following its use in real classrooms, with a particular audience in mind.