Ana María Fernández Planas facts for kids

Ana María Fernández Planas (born October 16, 1968 – died August 15, 2021) was a smart Spanish scientist from Catalonia. She was a philologist, which means she studied languages and their history. She was also a phonetician, someone who studies how people make speech sounds.

About Ana María Fernández Planas

Ana María Fernández Planas was born in a town called Blanes on October 16, 1968. She loved learning about languages. She earned a special degree called a doctorate in linguistics from the University of Barcelona (UB).

Her Work in Language Sounds

After finishing her studies, Ana María started her research. She focused on something called articulatory phonetics. This is the study of how our mouths, tongues, and lips move to make different sounds when we speak. She studied this in both Spanish and Catalan.

In 1984, she became a leader for a science magazine called Estudios de Fonética Experimental. She was also a professor who taught about languages at the University of Barcelona. In 1998, she became the technical manager of the university's Phonetics Laboratory. This lab is a special place where scientists study speech sounds.

Awards and Discoveries

Ana María was very good at sharing her knowledge. In 2018, she won the Antoni Caparrós Award. This award was given to her for a great project that helped share scientific ideas with others.

She was also one of the first people in Spain to use a special tool called electropalatography. This tool helps scientists see exactly where the tongue touches the roof of the mouth when someone speaks.

One of her most important discoveries was figuring out how people hear differences in speech. She calculated the exact values for how long a sound needs to be, or how high or low its pitch needs to be, for Spanish speakers to notice a change.

Books and Articles

Ana María Fernández Planas wrote many scientific papers. She published over 100 works. These included articles in important science magazines like Verba, Estudis Romànics, and the Journal of the International Phonetic Association. She also wrote several books about phonetics.

Ana María Fernández Planas passed away in Blanes on August 15, 2021.

Selected Books

Here are some of the books Ana María Fernández Planas wrote or helped write:

• Prácticas de transcripción fonética en castellano (2001), with Josefina Carrera i Sabaté
• Así se habla. Nociones fundamentales de fonética general y española (2005)
• Manual de fonética española (2007), with Eugenio Martínez Celdrán

See also

In Spanish: Ana María Fernández Planas para niños