本书是全国外语教材编审委员会推荐出版的大学英语专业高年级教材。本教材比较充分地吸收采纳吉姆森之后新一代学者的研究成果，也适当保留了吉姆森《英语发音导论》第3版的论述，帮助我国老中青年读者观察分析20世纪上半叶的琼斯发音、20世纪下半叶的吉姆森发音和世纪之交的现代英语发音之间的演变进程。在术语方面，本书注意跟随现代英语发音理论，有时弃旧从新。第一部分，语音学和音系学的基本概念及两者之间的溶合原则。第二部分，讲解普通型标准发音。

全国高校外语专业教材编审委员会推荐出版，四川大学重点资助教材，研究介绍现代英语“标准发音”语音语调及教学方法，依照牛津、剑桥、朗文系列辞书所使用的《英语发音词典》第15版注意，融合语音与音系学理论，改进英语语音语调教学。

第一版序（王宗炎）
第一版前言
修订版前言
第三版前言
List of Phonetic symbols and Signs
Symbols Used in Phonological Rules
Tone Marks
Symbols for Transcribing Standard Chinese Consonants and Their Values in IPA
PART ONE PRELIMINARIES
1 INTEGARTION OF PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
1.1 Phonetics
1.2 Phonology
1.3 The best way of teaching English Pronunciation
1.4 Other branches of linguistics
Questions and exercises
2 THE STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE
2.1 The linguistic hierarchy
2.2 Phonemes and their allophones
2.3 Distinctive feature
2.4 Phonetic transcription and phonemic transcription
2.5 Posodic phonology and suprasegmetal phonology
2.6 General principles of phonology
Questions and exercises
3 THE MECHANISM OF SPEECH PRODUCTION
3.1 The speech chain
3.2 The air-stream mechanism
3.3 The vocal folds
3.4 The vocal folds
3.5 The soft palate
3.6 The roof of the mouth
3.7 The tongue
3.8 The teeth
3.9 The lips
3.10 The active and passive ariculators
Questions and exercises
4 THE SYLLABLE:VOWEL AND CONSONANT
5 DESCRIPTION AND CLASSIFICATION OF CONSONANTS
6 CARDINAL VOWELS AND VOWEL TRANSCRIPITION
7 DESCRIPTION AND CLASSIFICATION OF VOWELS
8 GROUPING PHONES INTO PHONEMES
PART TWO BRITISH RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION
PART THREE ENGLISH INTONATION
APPENDIX I Answers to Exercises
APPENDIX II RP Dictation
APPENDIX III Abbreviations
REFERENCES
GLOSSARY AND INDEX
第一版后记（王宗炎）
第三版重印校订记