Dear Colleagues,

Acoustic phonetics makes invaluable theoretical and practical contributions to the understanding of human speech. Theoretical advancements in acoustic phonetics provide insights into the physical properties and acoustic cues that underlie speech production and perception, allowing researchers to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying patterns, crosslinguistic variations, and subtle phonetic contrasts. These insights have profound theoretical implications, shedding light on the fundamental mechanisms of speech acquisition. Furthermore, the practical applications of acoustic phonetics are extensive. They inform effective speech therapy interventions, optimize language teaching and pronunciation training, enhance speech technology and human–computer interaction, facilitate forensic analysis and speaker identification, and contribute to the development of innovative assistive technologies. Acoustic phonetics thus unites theoretical exploration with practical advancements, ultimately improving communication, accessibility, and our grasp of the complexity of spoken language.

The thematic areas of the volume include but are not limited to the acoustic analysis of first or second language sounds or prosody (with a priority on underresearched varieties), crossdialectal comparison of acoustic features, acoustic analysis of speech in difficult listening conditions (e.g., noisy environments, reverberant environments, whispered speech, fast speech, etc.), acoustic characteristics of speech in atypical populations, role of acoustic cues in the perceptual categorization and discrimination of nonnative speech sounds, use of artificial intelligence for predicting speech perception patterns based on acoustic cues, factors that determine the acoustic characteristics of speech (e.g., linguistic, social, biological, cognitive, psychological, etc.), and developmental changes in the acoustic properties of speech (e.g., from early childhood to adulthood), among others.

Dr. Georgios P. Georgiou
Guest Editor

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• acoustic phonetics
• acoustic cues
• speech production
• speech perception
• speech sounds and prosody
• typical and atypical speech