ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

The PHONLAB Project: Armando de Lacerda and the Coimbra Experimental Phonetics Laboratory (1930-1979)

• In Event: Listen: Sound Science Across Time 2

English Abstract

PHONLAB is an R&D project on the history of experimental phonetics, funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. It brings together researchers from the Universities of Évora (Portugal), Coimbra (Portugal), Porto (Portugal), Stockholm (Sweden), and Macau (China) and aims to recover the importance of the Coimbra Phonetics Laboratory (1936-1979) and its founder and director, Armando de Lacerda (1902-1984). In 1932, Lacerda invented the polychromograph, a type of inkjet oscillograph which overcame many of the limitations of kymography, the antiquated method which remained in use at experimental phonetics laboratories up until the mid-20th century. In 1933, in collaboration with the German phonetician Paul Menzerath, he developed the concept of coarticulation, which has played a major role in phonetic theory ever since. He went on to establish Portugal’s first phonetics laboratory, the Coimbra Experimental Phonetics Laboratory, which was regarded in the mid-twentieth century as the most advanced laboratory of its kind in Europe. Scientists from all over the world (e.g. Harvard, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Uppsala, the Sorbonne) worked at the laboratory carrying out research and receiving training in the use of the instruments and research methods developed by its head. In this talk we will present the work of Lacerda, a phonetician recently honoured by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Armando de Lacerda: A pioneer of Experimental Phonetics - Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien), as well as the results of the PHONLAB project.

Author

• Quintino Lopes, Institute of Contemporary History (University of Évora) | IN2PAST