This paper sets out from a global definition of phonetics as ‘the study of the spoken medium of language’ in the broadest sense, whose goal is the description, modelling and explanation of speech communication in the languages of the world. Within this overall scientific frame, three general perspectives are distinguished — ‘speech signal analysis’, ‘historical linguistics and sound change’, ‘phonetics of the languages of the world’ — under which a wide array of specific questions, including applications, e.g. in language teaching, speech therapy and speech technology, may be subsumed. The three perspectives are outlined individually and in relation to each other, also with regard to their separate historical developments in the study of language and speech. The modem integration of the three perspectives into the unified paradigm of ‘phonetic or experimental phonology’ is then illustrated with reference to recent research at some leading phonetics labs around the world. From this examination of past history and present-day state-of-the-art of what is considered to be the core paradigm for phonetic study, conclusions are drawn for future research and teaching on the basis of this paradigm. In the shaping of phonetics as a scientific discipline, a strong plea is put forward for scientific, explanatory integration rather than modular, taxonomic diversification of the subject.

Klaus Kohler has presented a thoughtful account of the history of the development of phonetics and proposals for the consolidation of phonetics pedagogy (Kohler 2001). As a student of the history of phonetics (Ohala 1992; Ohala, Bronstein, Busa, Lewis, & Weigel 1999) I very much appreciate his contributions.

In ‘The Future of Phonetics’, Klaus Kohler sets out his personal view of modern phonetics as an integrated subject. He sets his vision of the future of phonetics, seen broadly as the study of the spoken medium of language, in a historical perspective. He is concerned to argue that modern phonetics is not the juxtaposition of subjects dealing with the spoken medium, but should be considered to be an autonomous subject. His argument is both academic and political, in that he suggests that independent departments of phonetics, with their own budgets, would thereby be protected from the loss of staff, funds, research and teaching activities that he describes as happening in several cases after amalgamation with linguistics.

This study looks at the relative importance of phonation type in identifying tones in languages with a ‘mixed’ pitch/phonation tone system. Green Mong is a tone language with an inventory of 7 contrastive tones and a tonal system that incorporates both fundamental frequency (FO) and phonation type distinctions. The study examines 3 Green Mong tones, which have similar FO contours and are characterized by the distinctive use of breathy, creaky and modal phonation. Acoustic analyses of 3 male and 3 female speakers' productions indicate that the tones are distinguished by their FO, relative amplitude of lower and higher harmonics (H1-H2), vowel duration, vowel quality and voice onset times. Discriminant analyses, used to estimate the relative value of these different cues, indicate that H1-H2 is the best predictor of tone category membership. This is the case for both high and low vowels, although the magnitude of the H1-H2 difference is substantially smaller for high vowels. The 2 predictor variables which are next most strongly correlated with the discriminant functions also relate to phonation type. However, FO does continue to play a role in classification of tokens into tone categories.

In this paper we analyse the extent to which an adult's vowel space is affected by vowel changes to the community using a database of nine Christmas broadcasts made by Queen Elizabeth II spanning three time periods (the 1950's; the late 1960's/early 70's; the 1980's). An analysis of the monophthongal formant space showed that the first formant frequency was generally higher for open vowels, and lower for mid-high vowels in the 1960's and 1980's data than in the 1950's data, which we interpret as an expansion of phonetic height from earlier to later years. The second formant frequency showed a more modest compression in later, compared with earlier years: in general, front vowels had a decreased F2 in later years, while F2 of the back vowels was unchanged except for [u] which had a higher F2 in the 1960's and 1980's data. We also show that the majority of these Fl and F2 changes were in the direction of the vowel positions of 1980's Standard Southern British speakers reported in Deterding (1997). Our general conclusion is that there is evidence of accent change within the same individual over time and that the Queen's vowels in the Christmas broadcasts have shifted in the direction of a more mainstream form of Received Pronunciation.

Spokane and Kalispel (NpoqÉ ånišcn, Qalispé), both located in eastern Washington State, and Montana Salish (Flathead), are nearly identical dialects of an Interior Salish language now spoken by only a handful of elders. Grammatical sketches are available for Spokane (Carlson 1972) and Kalispel (Vogt 1940). There is no modern grammar of Montana Salish; Black (1996) uses both Spokane and Montana Salish material in her doctoral dissertation. Thompson (1973) and Czaykowska-Higgins & Kinkade (1998) provide general Salish research summaries.