The status and progress of several studies dealing with the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation, and instrumentation for practical applications is reported on. The period of January 1 through June 30, 1969 is covered. Extended reports and manuscripts cover the following topics: programing for the Glace-Holmes synthesizer, computer-controlled preparation of dichotic test tapes, newborn infant cries and nonhuman-primate vocalizations, perception of liquid sounds, crico-thyroid muscular activity in intonation, reading aids for the blind, selective listening for dichotically presented stop consonants and vowels, and a unified phonetic theory. Several of the reports are supplemented by a bibliography. An appendix lists the manuscripts prepared for publication and the reports and oral papers which were delivered during the report period. (JY)