Berkeley PhonLab

Several regularly scheduled courses make use of the PhonLab.

Description, transcription, and analysis of human speech sounds in their linguistic, physiological, and acoustic aspects. The course focuses on phonetic mechanisms that might be involved in sound change and synchronic phonology. Students complete a preliminary phonetic and phonological sketch of a language based on original data they collect with a language consultant.

This course provides the student with hands-on experience in methods of experimental phonetic research, including acoustic analysis, speech synthesis, recording and interpreting aerodynamic parameters during speech (air flow, air pressure), and static palatography. Perception testing is also be covered, along with simple statistics and methods of presenting results graphically.

Students planning to apply for graduate school in Linguistics should also plan to write an honors thesis. Each year one or two students work with a committee of two faculty advisors to complete a thesis in the lab.

Advanced methods in experimental phonetics with alternating topics in articulatory, acoustic, auditory, and corpus phonetics. This course is reserved for graduate students and is project-based. Teaching rotates among faculty.