Explains the complex manner in which the "human noises" we call speech are produced by the vocal organs, transmitted from mouth to ear and processed between ear and brain, which are the three stages which define the spheres of articulatory, acoustic and auditory phonetics.

The reader is then introduced to the symbols used in the description and classification of speech sounds and shown how the latter are organized into patterns describable in terms of phonemens and other abstract concepts.

Although this book takes most of its examples from English, the author devotes two chapters to a comparative study of the varied sounds and vocal features of other languages and discusses the application of phonetics in the analysis and teaching of languages, in speech therapy and in the whole field of communications.