A Phonetic Conspectus Of Polish [antikvár]

Preface This phonetic conspectus of Polish, supplemented with an articulatory data base compiled by computer from the results of some related phonetic experiments, and presented here as Volume 18 of Hungarian Papers in Phonetics, summarizes the outcome of a recent stage in our general project for interlingual phonetic comparisons. As was reported earlier (MFF 9. 1981, p. 7), we are currently engaged in a major project for the complex phonetic investigation of several structurally related and unrelated languages (Hungarian, Finnish, Russian, Polish, British English, American English, German, and French) conducted in a unified framework and with constant methodology, in order to obtain a reliable basis for phonetic research both within and across languages. Our primary objective is a better understanding of the phonetic character and phonological system, of Hungarian, and we intend to get closer to that ultimate aim by confronting it with articulatory mechanisms and acoustic characteristics of a number of other languages. The data base obtained from such experimental phonetic analyses of seven or eight languages may also contribute, at a later stage, to typological studies of a more comprehensive sort. The information and materials gathered from interlingual phonetic research can also serve educational purposes: they can be put to good use in university courses in phonetics (in Hungarian and general phonetics courses as well as in those in the other languages involved), in speech cultivation, and other areas of applied phonetics. This conspectus describes Polish speech sounds, rather than the phonemes of Polish. We have investigated sound types occuring in various phonetic positions, taking the effects of phonetic environment on the quality of speech sounds into consideration. With regard to some controversial issues in the literature on the sound pattern of Polish, we have included e.g. two types of palatalized consonants, indicated in transcription by ' and " , respectively (C' palatalized consonant before [i ], C" = palatalized consonant 7