For over 25 years,''The Speech Chain'' has been regarded as the classic, easy-to-read introduction to the complexities of spoken communication. The book has now been thoroughly revised and updated to give a state-of-the-art description of each link in the speech chain - from the speaker's production of words to the transmission of sound to the listener's perception. It provides a foundation for understanding the essential aspects of linguistics, acoustics and anatomy, and explores recent research developments, such as the digital processing of speech and the use of computers for the generation of artificial speech and for speech recognition. This interdisciplinary account should be accessible to persons with no previous exposure to the study of language.