the pronunciation of english 1 (1)

7/27/2019 The Pronunciation of English 1 (1)

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UNIT 2

THE

PRONUNCIATION OFENGLISH


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POEM OF ENGLISH

Dearest creature in creation,Study English pronunciation.

I will teach you in my verseSounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.I will keep you, Suzy, busy,Make your head with heat grow dizzy.

Tear in eye, your dress will tear.So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.


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(follows)

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,Dies and diet, lord and word,Sword and sward, retain and Britain.(Mind the latter, how it's written.)

Now I surely will not plague youWith such words as plaque and ague.But be careful how you speak:Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;Cloven, oven, how and low,

Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.


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(follows)

Finally, which rhymes with enough

tough, through, plough, or dough,

or cough?Hiccough has the sound of cup.

My advice is to give up!


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GENERAL ISSUES COMPLEX NATURE OF THE ENGLISH

PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ENGLISH ANDITALIAN SOUNDS

VARIETY OF ENGLISH ACCENTStherefore

A KNOWLEDGE OF PHONETICS ANDPHONOLOGY IS EXPECTED FROM

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND WILL PROVETO BE BENEFICIAL TO THEIRPRONUNCIATION SKILLS


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ACCENTS OF ENGLISH:

NATIVE, NATIVESED, FOREIGN

Accent: the way in which a language is

pronounced in a specific geographical area

native: UK , Australia, New Zealand, USA

and Canada

nativised: where English is a second

language (e.g. India)

foreign: where English is a foreign language

(e.g. Europe, China)


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The British and the Americans are

divided by a common language

TWO STANDARDS OF PRONUNCIATION

(Compare the BBC and CNN News):

RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION, RP, OR

BBC ENGLISH

GENERAL AMERICAN


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Phonetics and phonology

Phonetics: studies the physical

characteristics of sounds

Phonology: describes the

organization of the sound systemof a language


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The articulators


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Graphemes and phonemes

grapheme: a letter of the alphabet (a

discrete mark in writing or print)

phoneme: a distinctive sound in a

language capable of creating a distinction

in meaning between two words /d/ dog/l/ log /f/ fog


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International Phonetic Alphabet

(IPA)

a set of symbols used for representing thephonemes and sounds of all languages

the phonetic transcription of words isprovided by bilingual and monolingualdictionaries

phoneme symbols are enclosed within

slant brackets // whereas the phonetictranscription of words is enclosed insquare brackets []


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TWO USEFUL WEBSITES

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningengli

sh/grammar/pron/sounds/

the website of the BBC World Service

http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/

The website of The International Phonetic

Association (IPA)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/


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No one-to-one correspondence

between graphemes and phonemes

e.g. cut, nice, ocean

/k/ in cut [] /s/ in nice [] // in ocean [] e.g. come , home

// in come [] // in home []


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Silent graphemes

castle, Christmas, often

know, knock

walk, talk, folk

in write, wrong

debt, bomb, doubt

psychology , psalm


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Homophones and homographs

aloud( ad alta voce) and allowed (consentito)[]

homophones: words orthographically

different but phonetically identical

- lead [] (condurre), lead [](piombo) - tear [] (lacrima), tear[](strappare)

homographs: words orthographicallyidentical but phonetically different


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English phonology

segmental: describes the phonemes

of a language and the way they

combine

suprasegmental: describes the units

larger than the phonemes(syllables, rhythm groups and

intonation phrases)


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Phonemes and minimal pairs

phoneme: a distinctive sound in a languagecapable of creating a distinction in meaningbetween two words

/s/ // and /t/ sit [sit] set [set] sat [st]

minimal pairs: a pair of words which differ onlyby one phoneme

kit [kt] cat [kt] cot [kt] caught[kt]pane [pane] cane [cane] rane[rane] vane[vane]


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PHONEMES AND ALLOPHONES

allophone: the different realisations of the samephoneme in different contexts e.g. /t/

- aspiration: top []- affrication: train []- Not fully audible: set []- clear /l/: lip []- dark [] (accompanied by back resonance) in

syllable final position as in hill [] or beforeanother consonant as in milk [

]


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THE GAP BETWEEN SPELLING ANDPRONUNCIATION IN ENGLISH

THE ENGLISH ALPHABET IS

MADE OF 26 LETTERS

THE ENGLISH PHONOLOGICAL

SYSTEM (in RP) IS MADE OF 43PHONEMES


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THE ENGLISH ALPHABET

26 LETTERS

a b c d e f g h i j k l mn o p q r s t u v w x y

z


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THE ENGLISH SOUNDS:

43 PHONEMES

Vowels: Diphthongs: ,,, Consonants: p b f v t d k g w


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THE ENGLISH SOUND SYSTEM:43 PHONEMES

Vowels: (bit) (meet) (test) (bad) (are) (but) (sorry) (walk) (book) (pool) (girl)

(=schwa)Diphthongs: (I) (day) (boy) ( house)u (go), (dear) , (chair), (poor)Consonants: p b f v

(both)

(this)t d

(show) (pleasure) (chicken) (jam) k g (ring)


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VOWELS AND CONSONANTS

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE

BETWEEN

VOWELS

and

CONSONANTS ?


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VOWELS, DYPHTHONGS,

CONSONANTSVOWELS are oral, voiced and egressive soundsproduced without any obstruction to theairstream coming from the lungs

DIPHTHONGS are oral, voiced, egressiveglides from one vowel to another vowel utteredwith the same emission of sound

CONSONANTS are sounds produced with anegressive flow of air coming out of the mouth orthe nose accompanied by obstruction or frictionin the articulators


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Vowels

/

[]= schwa/


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Short vowels

rich, English, live, busy, women, build test, bread, friend, says, bury, guest bad, have, January, thank, marry spot, what, orange, holiday, sorry, wash must, done, love, sun, son, month, London,

country, blood, enough

bush, butcher, pudding, woman, wolf,book, could


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Long vowels

after, father, are, party church, girl, early, work, world, journal meet, dream, please, ski, people wall, caught, daughter, bought, law,

walk

pool, who, move, tomb, through, fruit


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THE ENGLISH VOWELS

The distance betweenthe tongue and the

palate: open, half-open, close

The part of the tonguethat is raised: front,central, back

The length: long (

tense), short ( lax) The position of thelips: rounded, neutral,spread


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Minimal pairs with vowels

fit slip sin feet sleep seen pan sad sat pen said set pot spot cot port sport caught


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Diphthongs

a diphthong is an oral, voiced, egressive glide fromone vowel to another vowel uttered with the sameemission of sound

the first element is normally more audible than thesecond

closing diphthongs: centring diphthongs: ,, triphthongs: , , , ,


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Closing diphthongs

late, baby, rain, reign, they,great

life, I, night, die, eye, buy boy, joy, coin, choice, moist house, shout, about, down go, so, dont, home, road, soul


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Minimal pairs with diphthongs

ball saw call bornbowl so coal bonewere fur bur birdwhere fair bear bared


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Non-phonemic symbols

schwa [] central, short soundit occurs only in unstressed syllables

It is a word of Hebrew origin, referring to a weak

or missing vowel sound

[i] and [u] represent the long phonemes // and// in unstressed position

e.g. happy [], react []you [], situation []


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Group these words according to the pronunciation of

the grapheme : car, all, radio, lake, map, again,

final, start, today, hand, small

[][] ..[] ..[] []


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answers

[] map, hand[] car, start[] radio, lake, today[] all, small[] again, final


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CONSONANTS

ORAL ( the air through the mouth)

most consonants are oral

but three areNASAL ( the air through the nose) i.e

/m/ mouse/n/ no

/

/ sing

Consonants can be classified


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Consonants can be classified

according to

PLACE OF ARTICULATION e.g. Bilabial/p/ pen, /b/, bull, /m/ man

MANNER OF ARTICULATION e.g. Plosives

/t/ top, /k/ cat, /d/ do, /g/ get

VOICING consonants can be voiced or voiceless

depending on the vibration or otherwise of the

vocal cords e.g. /s/ versus /z/


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UNUSUAL IPA SYMBOLS

(FOR ITALIANS)both , father

// // dental fricativesshop, pleasure,

// // palato-alveolar fricativesChina, John

// // palato-alveolar affricatesSing, playing

// velar nasalhall, hell

/h/ glottal fricative


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Manner of articulation

plosives: p b t d k g fricatives: f v nasals: affricates: liquids: semi-vowels (or approximants):


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Place of articulation

bilabial: p b labiodental: f v

dental:

alveolar: t d palato-alveolar:

palatal:

velar: k g glottal:


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Consonant minimal pairs

tin taught trill thin thought thrill sip niece ice zip knees eyes sin ban ran sing bang rang


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Syllabic consonants

a syllabic consonant occurs as the nucleus of

syllables

e.g. //couple [], middle [],able [],//listen [], rotten [],sudden []


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The semivowels /w/ and /j/

They are phonetically similar to vowels, butphonologically they behave like consonantsbecause they precede vowels in syllables andrequire the indefinite article a rather thanan.

e.g. Ayoung man /j/

awet carpet /w/


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/r/: rhoticity and r-linking

in RP only pre-vocalic /r/ is pronounced,whereas post-vocalic /r/ is silent:

red [], arrive []car [], hard []

r-linking: in RP if a word ending with silent /r/is followed by another word beginning with avowel, the /r/ is pronounced to link the twowords

e.g. the car is parked in the street[ ] in American English the [r] is always

pronounced


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English / Italian phonemes in

contrast

long/short vowels opposition

leave [] vs live []

I want to leave and I want to live laxness: the pronunciation of the six short vowel

with little tension in the articulators /,,,

aspiration: in plosives

pain []tea [], [h] hotel []

E li h / I li h i


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contrast non-voicing of syllable initial [] + consonant

e.g. small [], slim [], snail [], swim[] [*, *, *, *]

inflections: [] after a voiceless consonant, [] after avowel or a voiced consonant, [] after a fricative oraffricate sounde.g. books [], claps []

trees [], pens [penz], needs //buses //, washes //

Failing to aspirate /h/ at the beginning of stressedsyllables

e.g. art should non be confused with heart

E li h / I li h i


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contrast dental fricatives, which are very frequent in English, e.g

definite articles and demonstratieves /, / thriller [*]

non-voicing of syllable initial [] + consonante.g. small [], slim [], snail [], swim[] [*, *, *, *]

inflections: [] after a voiceless consonant, [] after avowel or a voiced consonant, [] after a fricative oraffricate sound

e.g. books [], claps []trees [], pens [penz], needs //buses //, washes //

P i i f h l


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Pronunciation of the regular past

tense.-ed

e.g. liked ]lived []needed []wanted []

regular past tense and past participleinflections []after avoiceless consonant, [] after a vowelor a voiced consonant, [] after [t]and [d]


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Sentences in phonetic transcription

[]Id like to take up French next year

[]We liked the atmosphere in that club

[]Our flight was very late

[


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The syllable

a phonological unit made up of one or morephonemes. A minimum syllable is made of avowel (V). The most common syllable in English

is made by Consonant+Vowel+Consonant

V are []

CV tea []

VC arm []

CVC did []


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Stress

The prominence given to a syllable

in phonetic transcription stress is indicated by avertical line (stress mark) preceding thestressed syllable. Polysyllabic words may have aprimary and a secondary stress

happiness [] newspaper []


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Stress patterns 2 syllables

TYPE

(strong + weak)e.g. money []

river []

breakfast []

TYPE (strong + strong)

e.g. background []

phoneme [],

pillow []


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TYPE (weak + strong)e.g. result []

report []

believe []

TYPE (strong + strong)

e.g. although []

myself []

tycoon []


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Stress shift

predicative

my son is fourteen

[] attributive

I lost fourteen pounds

[] digest [] to digest

[]


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TYPE (strong + weak + weak)e.g.family[], manager[]

TYPE (strong+weak+strong)

e.g. telephone[], summertime

[]

the suffix -ateis always strong in verbs but weak in

adjectives and nouns

Stress pattern 3 syllables


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Stress pattern 3 syllables

TYPE (strong + strong + weak)

e.g. newspaper[] grandmother[]

TYPE

(weak + strong + weak)e.g. remember[] agreement[]

TYPE (strong + strong + weak)e.g. sensation[] unhealthy[]

TYPE stron + weak + stron


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Stress and suffixes

Germanic rule: stress on the first syllable

answer[] vsRomance rule: stress

on the penultimate or final syllable reply[]

suffixes carrying stress-ee addressee[]


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U d li th d hi h d t h th t


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Underline the word which does not have the same stress

pattern in the lists below.

trouble Britain cigar jingle poker

alone perhaps respect Turkey deny

colleague outline someone control Monday

upstairs divert goodbye thirteen freedom

president dictation Arabic diplomat visitor

imitate photograph glorify wonderful obedient

newsreader important grandfather homecoming headhunter

vacation sincerely suspicion professor library

vibration lefthanded dangerous unlikely organic


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ANSWERS.

trouble Britain cigar jingle poker

alone perhaps respect Turkey deny

colleague outline someone control Monday

upstairs divert goodbye thirteen freedom

president dictation Arabic diplomat visitor

imitate photograph glorify wonderful obedient

newsreader important grandfather homecoming headhunter

vacation sincerely suspicion professor library

vibration lefthanded dangerous unlikely organic

the pronunciation of english 1 (1)

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