A BRIEF HISOTRY OF OUR ASSOCIATION

A number of us held meetings between 1970 and 1972; our purpose was to consider the possibility of forming a national society. These discussions were lively with many individuals outlining the unmet needs of phoneticians here in America and the success of a number of nationally or regionally organized groups abroad. Others argued the converse, suggesting that the International Society of Phonetic Sciences, the International Phonetics Association, the Acoustical Society of America, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and the Linguistic Society of America could meet our needs and provide us with a venue for relevant activities. The problem faced, however, was that the first two of these societies were international in nature and the primary focus of the other three was on disciplines other than phonetics. For example, phoneticians were bunched into a speech communication section in ASA and with the “speech and voice scientists” in ASHA. Since the preponderance of the opinions favored incorporation, a working group was formed. It consisted of Sam Brown, Harry Hollien, Leigh Lisker, Bob McGlone, John Michel, and Tom Shipp. This committee established the association, wrote a set of by-laws, held elections, initiated a newsletter and scheduled the first annyal meeting which was held in 1973.

The initial set of officers were President: Harry Hollien, Vice President: Leigh Lisker, Secretary: Kathleen Harris, Treasurer: Sam Brown, Councilors: Peter Denes, Peter Ladefoged, Peter MacNiclage; committee chairs were Membership: Ilse Lehistge, Nominating: NDRE Malecot, Program: Peter MacNielage, Consititution: Author Bronstein and Publications: John Michel. Since that time, nearly 100 American Phoneticians have served as officers and/or chairs of various committees/functions; they have done so for these many years of AAPS’s existence.

The primary role of AAPS has been that of a clearing house for phoneticians residing in America. From its inception, it has supported three principal functions: 1) annual meetings, 2) a newsletter, and 3) group/individual services. The first of these – the annual meetings – originated during the formation year of the Association; for convenience, t is usually held in conjunction with the fall meetings of the Acoustical Society or with the annual ASHA convention. By this means, AAPS members can attend, and participate in our program plus the activities of a second organization. Our program has varied from a single evening to two days in length that has included scientific papers on phonetics, laboratory reports and especially presentations on the nature, problems of, and future of phonetics. The annual AAPS program is followed by a social hour, one who can interface directly with your colleagues.

One of the more important AAPS activities has been, and still is, the publication of a Newsletter. As such, it is aptly named for it provides us with current information about many facets of our field. The AAPS Newsletter also is variously a repository of 1) abstracts of relevant papers; 2) programs at a number of laboratories and universities (with reports on both research and teaching), 3) information about new equipment, books and relevant computer programs, 4) necrology, 5) data-bases of references of interest, and 6) lists of meetings. While very few scientific articles have been published int eh AAPS newsletter, a number of essays about phonetics can be found among its pages. The debate about the nature and importance of the phonetic sciences was initiated by Harry Hollien in only the second issure. This effort was exzpanded greatly in the early and mid 1980s by position papers authored by Mac Pickett, Ray Kent, and Ken Stevens. The excitement was soon intensified by a lively exchange about the need for major phonetics units and university departments in the U.S. The primary interchange took place between Peter Ladeged (who said departments are not needed) and Jim Flege (who argued that departments are badly needed). This debate has continued on from there. The publication of essays provided by members has continued over the years. Some involved the State-of-the-Science as did Ray Kent’s reviews of those speech processing systems available in 1990; other efforts focused on the future of phonetics (John Folkins: Exploding/Imploding or Harry Hollien: Phonetics 2000). Published twice a year, the Newsletter also provides cross-discipline contacts for the AAPS membership.

The general services AAPS has provided you have been a little limited but still are of importance. A modest amount of phonetics research has been supported (mostly by use of facilities) and a number of phonetic conferences have received support (for example, the IPS series – held in 1977, 1978, 1998) at least when they were held in the United States. One of the more important services our association provides is an open forum—one where you can exchange ideas with other phoneticians, speech scientists, and relevant engineers. Philosophy can be argued here and relationships may be negotiated either on a face-to-face basis or via the Internet. Jim Mashie was instrumental in creating the AAPS list server. Jim, working with Tim Brunnel also created the AAPS home page.

Our association now looks to its second quarter century of service. It is hoped that during the next millennium it can continue to meaningfully assist in our research, teaching, and service.

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