Manuale di fonetica. Fonetica naturale: Articolatoria, uditiva e funzionale (review)

This volume explores phonetics and expands its borders so as to better describe the world languages. After introducing his own phonetic theory, natural phonetics, Canepari provides the necessary extension of the International Phonetic Alphabet, paying particular attention to tones and intonation, which are often not included among the phonetic symbols. He also addresses the importance of having a more fine-grained classification of sounds. The book is divided into fourteen chapters, followed by a ‘Useful bibliography’, in which C mentions only the books he considers relevant for further research.

After a preface, where C lists the contents of the book and makes some observations on the terminology that will be used as compared to the traditional phonetic terminology, Ch. 2 offers a guide to the figures that are often used in the book and a guide to different types of transcriptions. .Ch. 3 is an introduction to phonetic science, and Ch. 4 offers an overview of the articulatory apparatus. Ch. 5 addresses the problem of the classification of sounds according to articulatory criteria. Ch. 6 introduces the main classes of sounds, utilizing the concepts of stress, tones, and intonation.

Ch. 7 discusses the validity of the IPA and underlines its flaws. In this chapter, C presents his own phonetic alphabet, the ^can IPA, which is much richer and more detailed than the ^off IPA, the official IPA. In Ch. 8 vowels and vocoids are considered and the issue of the mono- or bi-phonemic nature of diphthongs is debated. Chs. 9 and 10 are dedicated to consonants and contoids, while Ch. 11 is dedicated to other phonetic phenomena, such as nasalization, devoicing, coarticulation, and modification.

Ch. 12 is dedicated to what C calls microstructures, that is, to syllables. First, a definition of syllables is provided, and then syllables are situated in the speech chain. Syllable length and stress are also an issue in this chapter.

Ch. 13 represents a true innovation with respect to other phonetic manuals, as it addresses so-called macrostructures, that is, all of those suprasegmental elements that are not usually represented in the IPA. This chapter examines rhythm and pauses, pitch and intonation. It defines the phonetic category of intonemes, which define intonational contrasts in language. Ch. 14 offers an overview of paraphonics, and Ch. 15 introduces C’s phonetic classification of the world’s languages. Ch. 16 is dedicated to the languages and dialects of Italy, Ch. 17 to the languages spoken in Europe, Ch. 18 to African languages, Ch. 19 to Asian languages, Ch. 20 to Australian languages, and Ch. 21 to American languages. Interestingly, a chapter is also devoted to the reconstruction of the sounds of dead languages, based on comparative records between languages that are alive today and on the reflexes that these dead languages have in loanwords. The last chapter is dedicated to ‘extraterrestrial’. A detailed index and a language index close this valuable volume.