Leigh Lisker (December 7, 1918 – March 24, 2006) was an eminent American

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and

phonetician Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...

. Most of his career was spent at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, where he was a professor and then emeritus professor of

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

. Dr. Lisker received his A.B. in 1941, with a major in German, his M.A. in 1946, and a Ph.D. in 1949 in linguistics. He was a major figure in

phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...

, working both at the

and at

Haskins Laboratories Haskins Laboratories, Inc. is an independent 501(c) non-profit corporation, founded in 1935 and located in New Haven, Connecticut, since 1970. Haskins has formal affiliation agreements with both Yale University and the University of Connecticut; ...

in New Haven, CT, where he was a senior scientist from 1951 until the end of his life. He collaborated with several phoneticians, principally Arthur S. Abramson

He is best known for his work, done mostly in conjunction with Abramson, on

voice onset time In phonetics, voice onset time (VOT) is a feature of the production of stop consonants. It is defined as the length of time that passes between the release of a stop consonant and the onset of voicing, the vibration of the vocal folds, or, accor ...

. Dr. Lisker also made important contributions to Dravidian linguistics, including the book ''Introduction to Spoken Telugu'' (

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

), and did research comparing

phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...

and

phonological Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often prefer ...

perceptions on the part of linguistically naive and linguistically sophisticated speakers of different native language backgrounds. He conducted such studies in collaboration with Dr. Abramson of the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

, Bh. Krishnamurt

of

University of Hyderabad The University of Hyderabad (UoH) is a prestigious public central research university located in Gachibowli, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Established in 1974, this mostly residential campus has more than 5,000 students and 400 faculty, from ...

, India, Adrian Fourci

of

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, and Mario Ross

of the Institut de Phonétique at the Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence.

External links

Haskins Leigh Lisker Tribute site

Selected publications

* Lisker, L. Minimal cues for separating /w,r,l,y/ in intervocalic position. ''Word'', 1957, 13, 257-267. * Lisker, L. Linguistic segments, acoustic segments and synthetic speech. ''Language'', 1957, 33, 370-374. * Lisker, L., Cooper, F.S., & Liberman, A.M. The uses of experiment in language description. ''Word'', 1962, 18, 82-106. * Lisker, L. & Abramson, A.S. A cross-language study of voicing in initial stops: acoustical measurements. ''Word'', 1964, 20, 384-422. * Lisker, L. & Abramson, A.S. Distinctive features and laryngeal control. ''Language'', 1971, 47, 767-785. * Lisker, L. On time and timing in speech. In T.A. Sebeok (Ed.), ''Current Trends in Linguistics'', Vol. 12, The Hague: Mouton, 1974, 2387-2418. * Lisker, L. The pursuit of invariance in speech signals. ''JASA'', 1985, 77, 1199-1202. * Lisker, L. "Voicing" in English: A catalogue of acoustic features signaling /b/ versus /p/ in trochees. ''Language and Speech'', 1986, 29, 3-11. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lisker, Leigh 1918 births 2006 deaths Haskins Laboratories scientists University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty 20th-century American linguists