19 rue des Bernardins, a historic setting
As an affiliate of the Sorbonne Nouvelle University – Paris 3, the LPP was housed from its founding in 1973 until 2022 at the Institute of General and Applied Linguistics and Phonetics (ILPGA, Institut de Linguistique et de Phonétique Générales et Appliquées) at 19 rue des Bernardins, in Paris’s 5th district.
The ILPGA is the result of the fusion in 1966 of the Institute of Phonetics and the Institute of Linguistics, both part of the University of Paris. When the university split into multiple institutions, the ILPGA joined the Sorbonne Nouvelle University.
19 rue des Bernardins is a historic location for our field. Led by Ferdinand Brunot, the Institute of Phonetics and the Speech Archive were created at the Sorbonne in 1911, under the auspices of the University of Paris, the City of Paris, and the Pathé company. The Institute of Phonetics and the Speech Archive left the Sorbonne in 1928 and moved to 19 rue des Bernardins. For more information, see: Fougeron C., Amelot A., Rialland A. (2023) On the history of the Phonetic Institute of the Université de Paris from 1911 à 1950, Proceedings of ICPhS, Prague 2023. (article) (poster).
At the beginning of the 20th century, teaching was in three main areas: pronunciation training, especially for foreigners; phoniatrics, or re-education of the speech apparatus following illness, injury or surgery; and instruction in speech for the deaf.
Research took place mainly in the phonetics laboratory which had developed and expanded on the work done earlier by the Abbé J.P. Rousselot at the phonetics laboratories of the Institut Catholique and the Collège de France.
In addition to its founder Ferdinand Brunot, many prominent scholars have taught, studied or conducted research at the Institute of Phonetics. These include Pierre Fouché, Marguerite Durand, John C. ‘Ian’ Catford, P. Delattre, René Gsell, Iván Fónagy, Jacqueline Vaissière, Nick Clements, Annie Rialland, Jean Elie Boltanski..
All of them played an important role in the development of experimental phonetics, and more recently, of laboratory phonology.
If you are interested in working with us on historical aspects of phonetics (history of places, institutions, people or instrumentation), please contact the History group at the LPP: lpp-histoire@listes.univ-paris3.fr
Some of the most distinguished members in the history of our laboratory:
Proof that they earned their Diploma of General Phonetics at the Institut de Phonétique!
Listen to speeches at the inauguration of the Speech Archive on June 3, 1911.
Additional extracts can be found here.
The Speech Archive is preserved at the BNF.