Phonetics & Phonology Course: Learn Sound Systems with Prof. Shakuntala Mahanta
Course Details
| Exam Registration | 89 |
|---|---|
| Course Status | Ongoing |
| Course Type | Elective |
| Language | English |
| Duration | 8 weeks |
| Categories | Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit Points | 2 |
| Level | Undergraduate |
| Start Date | 19 Jan 2026 |
| End Date | 13 Mar 2026 |
| Enrollment Ends | 02 Feb 2026 |
| Exam Registration Ends | 16 Feb 2026 |
| Exam Date | 29 Mar 2026 IST |
| NCrF Level | 4.5 — 8.0 |
Phonetics And Phonology: A Broad Overview – Your Gateway to the Science of Speech
Have you ever wondered how we produce the intricate sounds of language? Or how our brains organize these sounds into the complex systems that allow us to communicate? The answers lie in the fascinating fields of phonetics and phonology. This 8-week undergraduate course, instructed by the renowned Prof. Shakuntala Mahanta of IIT Guwahati, offers a deep and structured dive into these core areas of linguistics.
About the Course Instructor: Prof. Shakuntala Mahanta
Prof. Shakuntala Mahanta is a leading expert in phonology—the study of how sound systems are organized in the human mind. Her extensive research portfolio includes:
- Theoretical approaches to vowel harmony
- Stress and intonation in South Asian languages
- Tone and Intonation in Tibeto-Burman languages
- Problems in Grapheme to Phoneme mapping in Indian languages
- Documentation of endangered languages of Northeast India
An author and Fulbright fellow (FNAPE 2015-2016), Prof. Mahanta brings a wealth of specialized knowledge and a focus on Indian linguistic data to this course, making the material highly relevant and accessible.
Who Is This Course For?
This course is meticulously designed for a broad audience:
- Undergraduate Students in any discipline with a curiosity about language and speech.
- Engineering Undergraduates interested in the foundational linguistics crucial for fields like speech recognition and synthesis.
- Anyone aiming to build a strong conceptual foundation in the scientific study of speech sounds.
Industries Supported: The course provides essential knowledge for the Speech Technology industry, where understanding language and speech input is paramount.
What Will You Learn? A Detailed 8-Week Journey
The course layout is structured to build your knowledge from the ground up, moving from sound production to complex phonological patterns.
Week 1-2: Foundations & The World's Sounds
We begin with the human speech apparatus, learning how vowels and consonants are articulated and represented. The course immediately contextualizes this by exploring the sounds of the world's languages, touching on critical issues like language endangerment and linguistic diversity.
Week 3-4: The Physics and Perception of Speech
Delve into the acoustic properties of sound. You'll be introduced to concepts like Fourier transform, source-filter theory, and learn to read spectrograms. This leads naturally to speech perception, where you'll explore how our brains categorize continuous sound into discrete linguistic units, covering categorical perception and Voice Onset Time (VOT).
Week 5-6: Identifying and Organizing Sound Units
Here, we enter core phonological analysis. Learn to identify phonemes and allophones—the abstract sound units of a language and their context-dependent variations. We then explore how sounds are grouped into natural classes using distinctive features, and introduce concepts like markedness and phonological rules.
Week 7-8: Patterns, Rules, and Beyond the Segment
Discover systematic phonological alternations and processes like assimilation and vowel harmony. The course culminates with suprasegmentals—features like pitch, intensity, and duration that span multiple sounds. You'll learn about tone languages, pitch accents, and the intonation patterns that shape sentence-level meaning.
Course Features & Learning Approach
- Data-Driven Learning: Emphasizes problem-solving and analysis of real linguistic data.
- Indian Language Examples: Makes theoretical concepts tangible and relevant.
- Comprehensive Coverage: From articulatory phonetics to intonational phonology.
- Foundation for Technology: Provides the linguistic groundwork essential for speech technology applications.
Recommended Textbooks
| Book Title | Author(s) | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Introductory Phonology | Bruce Hayes | Wiley Blackwell |
| Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics | Keith Johnson | Wiley Blackwell |
| A Course in Phonetics | Ladefoged & Johnson | Wadsworth Publishing |
| The Sounds of the World's Languages | Ladefoged & Maddieson | Blackwell |
| Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction | O’Grady et al. | Pearson Education |
Embark on this 8-week journey to unravel the systematic beauty of human speech sounds. Whether you're a future linguist, engineer, or simply a language enthusiast, "Phonetics and Phonology: A Broad Overview" will fundamentally change how you listen to and understand the spoken word.
Enroll Now →