History of recording, playing and analysing speech
The department owns various pieces of equipment that were once used for pronunciation teaching and phonetic research. They are currently stored in the Phonetics Lab. It is likely that many were bought and used between the 1960s and 1980s, although the Department of Phonetics was established before then. In those days, functions that today can be done on a PC or phone required specialised machinery.
The aim of this project is to exhibit some of this equipment, with explanatory notes, in the display cases in the Linguistics Foyer which are currently full of books. Selected items should make a really nice exhibition on the general theme of the history of recording, playing and analysing speech in phonetics teaching and research.
A first step is to investigate what each item was used for, based on internet research, consulting an old Phonetics Laboratory inventory and trawling through old departmental reports in which then staff members wrote about their research. A second step is to select the most interesting items and construct a narrative around them. A third step is to decide how best to communicate the narrative in a visual display.
To contribute to this project, you do not need to know a lot about instrumental phonetic analysis. You do need to be interested in finding out what old machines do, in doing a bit of historical detective work, and in communicating scientific information in an accessible way.
Please read the further project specification below. If you would like to work on this project, please go to How To Apply.
Relevant fields of linguistics: phonetics.
Application deadline: 2 November 2026
Start date: Negotiable from 9 November 2026.
End date: 6 weeks later
Hours per week: 3
Activities to be undertaken by the LingRES student:
- Investigate the functions of items of legacy phonetics equipment.
- Write up the research results in language that can be understood by a general audience.
- Co-create an exhibition of some of the equipment.
Maximum number of students: 2
Skills outcomes: doing internet and documentary research, science communication, exhibition design.
Project leader: Dr Leendert Plug, [email protected]