Understanding how the human voice works at the level of the vocal folds is a fundamental part of speech science and linguistics more broadly. Sound Fieldwork is a hands-on training programme designed as part of an ongoing partnership between Brazil (São Paulo, Salvador) and Belgium (Ghent) and dedicated to electroglottography (EGG) and its application to phonetic fieldwork.
Electroglottography is a non-invasive technique that tracks vocal fold contact during speech, allowing for the study of phonation types such as breathy voice, creaky voice, modal voice, and other glottalisation phenomena with exceptional temporal precision. While the usefulness of EGG in phonetics is widely recognised, access to practical training with this method remains limited in many academic contexts. This programme is designed to close that gap.
Participants will learn how EGG works from the ground up: how the signal is generated, how electrodes are placed, how different phonation types appear in the waveform, and how to interpret measures such as open quotient, contact quotient, and fundamental frequency in relation to real speech. Training will combine live demonstrations with guided practical sessions in which participants themselves record, process, and analyse EGG data. Participants will learn how portable EGG systems can be used outside traditional lab environments, including in rural and low-infrastructure settings.
Alongside EGG, participants will also receive focused training in acoustic analysis using Praat, allowing them to integrate glottal data with the acoustic signal. They will learn how to annotate phonation events and derive meaningful measurements that connect articulation, acoustics, and phonology.
Throughout the programme, students will work with real speech data and participate in guided mini-projects that simulate real phonetic fieldwork. These activities will lead to the creation of small, fully documented EGG datasets that participants can later build on in their own academic work. Group sessions will also explore how EGG evidence reshapes current debates in phonation theory, glottalisation, and the phonetics-phonology interface.
Sound Fieldwork is designed for students and any other parties interested in linguistics, speech science, phonetics, language documentation, and related areas. No previous experience with EGG is required.