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Professor Peter Roach

professor peter roach portrait
Emeritus Professor of Phonetics

Areas of interest

Peter's main interest is in the phonetics of English, where his publications include English Phonetics and Phonology and the Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, both published by Cambridge University Press. A more general book is Phonetics (Oxford University Press).

He also has research interests in speech perception and in the computer analysis of speech, and has held a number of research grants for work in automatic speech recognition and in large-scale computer-readable speech databases. On his retirement in September 2003, the University of Reading awarded him the position of Emeritus Professor of Phonetics.


Background

Peter went to school at the Priory Grammar School, Shrewsbury. He did his first degree at Oxford (Brasenose College), starting with Classics and going on to graduate in Psychology and Philosophy. This was followed by postgraduate courses in Teaching English Overseas (Manchester University) and in Phonetics (University College London).

He was appointed to the Linguistic Science Department of the University of Reading as a lecturer in 1968 and taught phonetics there until 1978, gaining his PhD while working there. He then moved to the University of Leeds to become Senior Lecturer in Phonetics in the Department of Linguistics & Phonetics. He was Secretary of the International Phonetic Association from 1986 to 1992.

Later, he moved to the Department of Psychology at Leeds University, where he was appointed Professor of Cognitive Psychology. He returned to Reading University in 1994 as Professor of Phonetics. 

Peter has also taught in other countries for shorter periods. In 1962 he worked for six months as an assistant language teacher (Assistant d'Anglais with officer rank) for the French Navy at their communications and radar establishment on the island of Porquerolles. For the academic year 1975-6 he taught (on leave from Reading University) in the Department of English at the University of Sevilla, Spain.

He has been a visiting speaker in many countries around the world, including Algeria, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia and USA.

Selected publications

  • Roach, P.J. `Phonetics in pronunciation teaching', Audio-Visual Language Journal, 10.1, pp. 34-40. (1971)
  • Roach, P.J. `Glottalisation of English /p,t,k,tS/ - a re-examination', Journal of the International Phonetic Association ,3, 10-21. (1973)
  • Roach, P.J. and Hardcastle, W.J. `A computer system for the processing of electropalatographic and other data', in M.Tatham (ed.) Proceedings of the Vth. Phonetics Symposium , pp. 127-142, University of Essex (1976).
  • Roach, P.J. `Laryngeal-oral coarticulation in glottalised English plosives', Journal of the International Phonetic Association , 9, pp. 1-6. (1979)
  • Roach, P.J. and Hardcastle, W.J. `Instrumental measurement of phonation types' in H.H. and P.Hollien (eds.) Current Issues in the Phonetic Sciences , pp. 210-211, Amsterdam, John Benjamins. (1979)
  • Hardcastle, W.J. and Roach, P.J. `An instrumental investigation of coarticulation in stop consonant sequences' in H.H. and P. Hollien (eds.) Current Issues in the Phonetic Sciences, pp. 533-550, Amsterdam, John Benjamins. (1979)
  • Roach, P.J. `Reaction time measurement of laryngeal closure', Journal of Phonetics, 8, pp. 305-315. (1980)
  • Wells, C. and Roach, P.J. `An experimental investigation of some aspects of tone in Punjabi', Journal of Phonetics , 8, pp. 85-9. (1980)
  • Roach, P.J. `Phonetic analysis of Gozitan dialectal Maltese', in J.Aquilina and B.S.J.Isserlin (eds.) A Survey of Contemporary Dialectal Maltese , vol.1, pp. 64-104, Leeds University (1981).
  • Roach, P.J. `On the distinction between "stress-timed" and "syllable-timed" languages', in D.Crystal (ed.) Linguistic Controversies ,pp. 73-79, London, Edward Arnold. (1982)
  • Roach, Peter　 English Phonetics and Phonology , Student's Book pp. x+212; Tutor's Book pp.45; Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (1983). (Second Edition, pp. 262, 1991; Third Edition 2000)
  • Roach, P.J. `Errors and standards in applied phonetics', in J.Morley (ed.) Spoken Discourse, pp. 5-16, Camerino, University of Camerino Press. (1986)
  • Roach, P.J. `Listening and speaking with a computer', in A.Shivtiel (ed.) Teaching Arabic with the Computer , pp. 9-16, Leeds University (1986).
  • Roach, P.J., Roach, H.N. and Dew, A.M. `Assessing accuracy in automatic identification of phonetic segments', in Proceedings of the International Conference on Speech Input-Output, pp.216-219, London, Institution of Electrical Engineers (1986).
  • Roach, P.J. `Rethinking phonetic taxonomy', Transactions of the Philological Society, pp.24-37. (1987)
  • Roach, P.J., Dew, A.M. and Rowlands, P. `Automatic assessment of machine transcriptions' in Proceedings of the XIth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, pp. 217-220, Tallinn, Academy of Sciences of the Estonian S.S.R. (1987)
  • Roach, P.J., Rowlands, P. and Dew, A.M. `Assessment of accuracy in automatic phonetic analysis' in J.Laver and M.A.Jack (eds.) Proceedings of the European Conference on Speech Technology, pp.158-160, Edinburgh, C.E.P. (1987)
  • Ladefoged, P. and Roach, P.J. `The future of the I.P.A.', Journal of the International Phonetic Association, vol.16, pp. 5-14. (1987)
  • Moftah, A.F. and Roach, P.J. `Language recognition from distorted speech: comparison of techniques', Journal of the International Phonetic Association, vol.18.1, pp. 50-52 (1988).
  • Dew, A.M., Glaister, N. and Roach, P.J. `Combining displays of EPG and automatic segmentation of speech for clinical purposes', Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, vol.3, pp.71-80. (1989)
  • Roach, P.J., Roach, H.N., Dew, A.M. and Rowlands, P. `Phonetic feature extraction by automatic segmentation and labelling', Journal of the International Phonetic Association, vol. 20.1, pp. 8-15 (1990)
  • Cid Uribe, M. and Roach, P.J. `Spanish intonation: design and implementation of a machine-readable corpus', Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20.2, pp. 1-8 (1990).
  • Green, P.D., Simons, A.J. and Roach, P.J. `The SYLK Project: foundations and overview', Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics, Vol.14, pp 482-486 (1990).
  • Roach, P.J., Dew, A.M., Bonsall, P.W. and Kirby, H.R. `Evaluation of speech recognition in transport engineering', Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics, vol.12.10, pp. 453-7 (1990).
  • Roach, P.J. `Phonetic transcription', Oxford International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, (1991).
  • Roach, P.J. and Miller, D. `Syllabic consonants at different speaking rates', Proceedings of the ESCA Workshop on the Phonetics and Phonology of Speaking Styles, pp. 451-455, Barcelona (1991).
  • Roach, P.J., Miller, D., Green, P.D. and Simons, A.J. `The SYLK Project: syllable structures as a basis for evidential reasoning with phonetic knowledge', Proceedings of the XII International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Aix-en-Provence, Vol.4, pp.482-486 (1991).
  • Miller, D. and Roach, P.J. `Comparative experiments in recognition of sub-word units by Hidden Markov Models', Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics, vol.13.2, pp. 469-475 (1991).
  • Roach, Peter Introducing Phonetics, pp 135, Penguin (1992).
  • Roach, Peter (ed.) Computing in Linguistics and Phonetics, pp. 115, Academic Press (1992).
  • Roach, P.J. `Fundamental concepts', in P.Roach (ed.) Computing in Linguistics & Phonetics, pp. 1-4 (1992).
  • Roach, P.J. `Fundamental concepts', in P.Roach (ed.) Computing in Linguistics & Phonetics, pp. 1-4 (1992).
  • Roach, P.J., Miller, D. and Emslie, J. `Speech analysis and recognition' in P.Roach (ed.) Computing in Linguistics & Phonetics, pp.35-49 (1992).
  • Roach, P.J., Miller, D. and Emslie, J. `Speech analysis and recognition' in P.Roach (ed.) Computing in Linguistics & Phonetics, pp.35-49 (1992).
  • Roach, P., Miller, D. and Sergeant, P. `Syllabic consonants at different speaking rates: A problem for automatic speech recognition', Speech Communication, 11, pp. 475-479 (1992).
  • Ghali, N., Arnfield, S. and Roach, P. `Statistical relationships between auditory and acoustic records of intonation: design of a database' Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics, vol.14.6, pp.207-215 (1992).
  • Moore, J. and Roach, P. `The role of context in the automatic recognition of stressed syllables', Proceedings of Eurospeech, Vol.2, pp.767-770, Berlin (1993).
  • Roach, P.J., Knowles, G.O., Varadi, T. and Arnfield, S.C. 'MARSEC: A MAchine-Readable Spoken English Corpus', Journal of the International Phonetic Association, vol.23.2, pp. 47-54. (1994)
  • Stromberg, K. and Roach, P. 'The representation of stress-patterns in pronunciation dictionaries: "Morse Code" vs. orthographic marking', Journal of the International Phonetic Association, vol.23.2, pp. 55-8 (1994).
  • Roach, P.J. 'Conversion between prosodic transcription systems: "Standard British" and ToBI', Speech Communication, vol.15, pp. 91-99, (1994).
  • Roach, P.J. and Arnfield, S.C. 'Linking prosodic transcription to the time dimension', in G.Leech, G.Myers and J.Thomas (eds.) Spoken English on Computer, Longman, pp.149-160 (1995)
  • Roach, P.J. and Iivonen, A. 'Descriptive Phonetics', in G.Bloothoft et al (eds) European Studies in Phonetics and Speech Communication, Utrecht, OTS Publications, pp. 31-42. (1995)
  • Greasley, P., Setter, J., Waterman, M., Sherrard, C., Roach, P. Arnfield, S. and Horton, D. 'Representation of prosodic and emotional features in a spoken language database', Proceedings of the XIII International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Stockholm, vol.1, pp. 242-245 (1995).
  • Arnfield, S., Roach, P., Setter, J., Greasley, P. and Horton, D. 'Emotional stress and speech tempo variation', Proceedings of the ESCA-NATO Workshop on Speech under Stress, Lisbon, pp.13-15 (1995)
  • Misheva, A., Dimitrova, S., Filipov, V., Grigorova, E., Nikov, M., Roach, P. and Arnfield, S. 'Bulgarian Speech Database: a pilot study', Proceedings of Eurospeech '95, Madrid, vol. 1, pp.859-862 (1995).
  • Roach, P., Arnfield, S., Barry, W., Baltova, J., Boldea, M., Fourcin, A., Gonet, W., Gubrynowicz, R., Hallum, E., Lamel, L., Marasek, K., Marchal, A., Meister, E. and Vicsi, K. 'BABEL: An Eastern European Multi-Language Database', Proceedings of ICSLP-96, Philadelphia. (1996)
  • Roach, P., Arnfield, S. and Hallum, E., 'BABEL: A Multi-Language Speech Database', Proceedings of the SST-96 Speech Science and Technology Conference, Adelaide, pp.351-4. (1996)
  • Roach, P. and Hartman, J. The English Pronouncing Dictionary, 15th Edition, Cambridge University Press (1997)
  • Roach, P. 'Speech Technology - a Look to the Future', Recent Advances in Language Technology, eds. D. Tufis and P. Andersen, Romanian Academy, pp. 179-188. (1997)　　　　　　　
  • Roach, P. 'What future is there for pronunciation dictionaries?', Proceedings of the ELT Links Symposium, Vienna, IATEFL, pp.79-82. (1997)
  • Roach, P. and Arnfield, S. 'Variation Information in Pronunciation Dictionaries', Proceedings of the ESCA Workshop on Modeling Pronunciation Variation for Automatic Speech Recognition, eds. H. Strik, J. Kessens and M. Wester, pp. 121-4. (1998)
  • Roach, P.,　 S.Arnfield, W.Barry, S.Dimitrova, M.Boldea, A.Fourcin, W.Gonet, R.Gubrynowicz, E.Hallum, L.Lamel, K.Marasek, A.Marchal, E.Meister, K.Vicsi 'BABEL: A Database Of Central And Eastern European Languages', Proceedings of the First International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, eds. A. Rubio et al, Granada, Vol. 1, pp. 371-4 (1998).
  • Roach, P., Stibbard, R., Osborne, J., Arnfield, S. and Setter, J. (1998) Transcription of Prosodic and Paralinguistic Features of Emotional Speech, Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 28: pp.83-94.
  • Roach, P. (1998) 'Some languages are spoken more quickly than others', in L. Bauer and P. Trudgill (eds) Language Myths, Penguin, pp.150-9.
  • Roach, P. (1999) 'Developments in speech science curricula', Proceedings of the MATISSE Conference, University College London, pp. 97-100.
  • Vicsi, K., Roach, P., Oster, A., Kacic, Z. and Barczikay, P. (1999) 'SPECO: a multimedia multilingual teaching and training system for speech handicapped children', Proceedings of the XIV International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, San Francisco.
  • Roach, P. (2000) 'Prosodic Information and the Recognition of English Words', in P. Busuttil (ed.) Points d'Interrogation: Phonetique and Phonologie de l'Anglais, Universite de Pau, pp. 21-6.
  • Roach, P. (2000) 'Speech Under the Microscope', in P. Busuttil (ed.) Points d'Interrogation: Phonetique and Phonologie de l'Anglais, Universite de Pau, pp. 28-37.
  • Roach, P. (2000) 'Techniques for the description of emotional speech', Proceedings of the ISCA Workshop on Speech and Emotion, (eds. R.Cowie, E. Douglas-Cowie and M. Schroeder), pp.53-59.
  • Roach, P. (2000) English Phonetics and Phonology, Third Edition, Cambridge University Press.
  • Ofuka, E., McKeown, D., Waterman, M. and Roach, P. (2000), 'Prosodic cues for rated politeness in Japanese': Speech Communication, Vol. 32.3, pp. 199-217
  • Roach, P. (2001) Phonetics, Oxford University Press.
  • Douglas-Cowie, E., Campbell, N., Cowie, R. and Roach, P. (2003) 'Emotional speech: towards a new generation of databases', Speech Communication 40, 33-60.
  • Roach, P., Hartman, J. and Setter, J. (2003) The Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, Sixteenth Edition. Cambridge University Press.
  • Roach, P.J. (2004) 'Illustrations of the IPA. British English: Received Pronunciation', Journal of the IPA, vol. 34.2, pp.239-245.
  • Roach, P.J. (2004) 'Representing the English Model', in K. Dzubialska and J. Przedlacka (eds) English Pronunciation Models: A Changing Scene, Peter Lang, pp. 393-399.
  • Roach, P., Hartman, J. and Setter, J. (2006) The Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, Seventeenth Edition. Cambridge University Press.
  • Roach, P. (2009) English Phonetics and Phonology, Fourth Edition, Cambridge University Press
  • Roach, P., Setter J. and Esling, J. (2011) The Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, Eighteenth Edition. Cambridge University Press.

Publications

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