This textbook has been carefully designed to provide a thorough introduction to the study of speech. It assumes no technical background, and students from a wide variety of disciplines contributing to this new and exciting field will find the exposition fully accessible. Each chapter progresses from simple examples to more detailed discussions of recent primary research and concludes with stimulating problem sets. All topics essential for a basic understanding of the field are included: the physiological, biological, and neurological bases of speech; the physics of sound; the source-filter theory of speech production; and the underlying principles of electrical and computer models of speech production.