The Junta de Educação Nacional, Armando de Lacerda and the emergence of experimental phonetics in Portugal

Abstract

The work of the Junta de Educação Nacional from its creation in 1929 and the continuation of its work from 1936 by the body which replaced it, the Instituto para a Alta Cultura, meant that during the interwar period Portugal benefited from the existence of an institution for the planning and funding of science, similar to circumstances in other countries in Europe and North America. A number of Portuguese scientists were able to take advantage of scholarships granted by these bodies to study experimental phonetics at some of the most advanced research centres in Europe during the era, among them Armando de Lacerda, who in 1936, with the support of the Instituto para a Alta Cultura, set up the first experimental phonetics laboratory in Portugal, at the University of Coimbra – the Coimbra Phonetics Laboratory. The laboratory’s journal, the 'Revista do Laboratório de Fonética Experimental da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra', was published from 1952, and as its editor, Lacerda used it as a vehicle for disseminating the findings of the research carried out at the laboratory. The eight volumes of the 'Revista' which were published contain works by several prominent 20th-century phoneticians, such as Peter Ladefoged, Göran Hammarström and Peter Strevens. Their articles appeared in the journal at an early stage in their careers, indicating that they sought the recognition that the journal, the mouthpiece of the laboratory and its head, both of worldwide renown in the field of phonetics, conferred on them.