Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
AND PHONOLOGY
Elena Buja
2013
Introduction
access to the internet as you will have to send your assignments by e-mail;
at the same time, you will be asked to access various sites that will help
you practice the sound of the English language on your own;
a good ear (to be able to identify various processes that occur in connected
speech and to identify differences in pronunciation among the varieties of
English as a mother-tongue).
the mark obtained for the two assignments: 40% (each assignment
Contents
2.2. Competences.........................................................................................................106
7.3. Phonetical and phonological definitions of the syllable ......................................107
7.4. The structure of the English syllable ....................................................................109
7.4.1. The initial segment ................................................................................................109
7.4.2. The final segment...............................................................................................110
7.4.3. The intervocalic segment ...................................................................................113
7.5. Summary ...............................................................................................................114
7.6. Evaluation .............................................................................................................114
Unit 8 The suprasegmental phonemes: word-stress. ............................................................115
8.1. Introduction .........................................................................................................115
8.2. Competences.........................................................................................................115
8.3. Features of word-stress ........................................................................................116
8.4. Levels of stress......................................................................................................117
8.5. Position of stress...................................................................................................118
8.5.1. Stress in simple words ...........................................................................................118
1.1. Introduction
In this unit we shall start our investigation by defining language, by
presenting its basic characteristics and by showing some types of languages. Next,
we shall make the distinction between language and speech, and we shall linger
for a while on the role of speech in communication. Little by little, we will
introduce some basic terms related to phonetics and phonology, such as phonemes,
allophones, minimal pairs, free variation, and commutation test. Finally, the
distinction between phonetics and phonology will be made.
1.2. Competences
After having covered this chapter, the students should be able to
distinguish between a phoneme and an allophone, should know what phonetics and
phonology deal with. At the same time, they will be able to do and to read
phonemic transcriptions.
10
11
explicitly taught to read and write sometime after they acquire a spoken language. On the
other hand, many cultures have never used writing systems.
1.4. The role of sound in communication
As mentioned earlier, one of the chief characteristics of human beings is their ability to
communicate with their fellows. A man possessing the normal human faculties achieves
this exchange of information mainly by means of two types of sensory stimulation:
- visual: writing, waving flags, sign language, flashing of a mirror;
- auditory: by foghorn, Morse-key, drum, by word of mouth (speech).
In all ages, the vast majority of messages have been SPOKEN, i.e. transmitted by means of
sounds generated by certain organs of the body, called articulators (or speech organs).
The SPOKEN WORD is, by far, the most frequent medium of communication between
people. But more important than HOW we communicate is WHAT we communicate, i.e.
the message.
The message is only one element of verbal communication. Any verbal communication
presupposes interaction between a SPEAKER (the sender of the message) and a
LISTENER (the receiver of the message). The simplified representation of the process of
communication is given below:
SPEAKER MESSAGE LISTENER
The act of communication can be described in terms of 5 successive operations:
SENDER
MESSAGE
RECEIVER
1. EACODIAG
5. DECODIAG
1.1. semantic SEMANTICS
5.3. semantic
1.2. grammatical
GRAMMAR
5.2. grammatical
1.3. phonological
PHONOLOGY
5.1. phonological
2. SEADIAG Articulatory phonetics
Auditory phonetics 4. RECEPTIOA
5. TRANSMISSION
Acoustic phonetics
1. Encoding: the message that the speaker wants to convey has to be encoded, i.e. has to
take a certain shape, in accordance with the CODE (the language used by the speaker and
listener for communication).
a. semantic encoding resides in the choice of the proper semantic unit(s) that the
languages possesses for the expression of the respective ideas, thoughts, and concepts.
Semantic encoding is revealed evidently when various languages are compared. Compare
the following:
English: to sit and to stand correspond to one unit in Romanian, i.e. a sta ; to know, used
to express such ideas as I know him and I know that... corresponds to the Romanian l
cunosc, tiu c...
The same lack of correspondence can be noticed in the case of whole utterances as well.
Thus, English uses Whats your name? to inquire about ones name, while Romanian
uses Cum te cheam?, which translates literally How (they) call you?.
12
Just like with semantic encoding, in the case of grammatical encoding, too, there will be
differences in the way languages use necessary distinctions. Thus, English uses two
separate forms to indicate that the action expressed by the verb is simultaneous with the
moment of speech (see (a) above) or habitual (see (b) above). In Romanian there is no
such distinction: Maria l srut pe Ion.
c. phonological encoding: the string of morphemes making up the words, phrases or
sentences is turned into a string of phonemes, i.e. phonological units. The speaker has
decided on the kind of sounds and on their arrangement.
The phonological units for each language are not numerous, but they can be combined into
many ways to represent various morphemes. For example, the English segments [Q], [s],
[t], [k] are used to represent various morphemes, e.g. stack [stQk], tact [tQkt], sat [sQt],
cat [kQt], tack [tQk]. Every combination of phonemes representing morphemes follows
well-defined rules. If the rules are not observed, the combinations become meaningless,
e.g. [tsQk], [ktsQ], [Qstk].
The encoding of the message was presented as a series of 3 successive stages: semantic,
grammatical and phonological. This separation of stages has been done for didactic reasons
only. In fact, the 3 operations are performed simultaneously.
2. Sending: once the phonological encoding is fulfilled, the speaker proceeds to the actual
production of the sounds. He sends instructions from the brain to the articulators to
perform certain movements in order to turn each phoneme into sounds. As a result, the
string of phonemes takes the material shape of a string of sounds. Although the speech
organs are anatomically and physiologically the same for the speakers of all languages, the
sounds differ from one language to another because each language has its phonological
code.
3. Transmission: the continuum of sounds resulting from the articulation is now
transmitted from the speaker to the listener under the form of sound waves.
4. Reception: the sound waves reach the listeners ear where they produce vibrations.
These are taken to the brain under the form of sensory innervations.
13
4. Decoding: the activities involved in the decoding of the message by the listener can be
presented as being identical with those of the speaker during the encoding stage, but
performed in reversed order.
- There are (at least) 2 persons involved in the process of communication:
1. the speaker (sender of the message); 2. the listener (receiver of the message).
- There are 5 stages involved in the process of oral communication:
1. encoding; 2. sending of the message; 3. transmission; 4. reception; 5 decoding.
We mentioned the fact that both the speaker and the listener should use the same code, i.e.
the same language, in the process of communication by means of sounds. But we have to
make a first distinction between:
- LAAGUAGE, as a body of internalized knowledge about sounds, meanings and
the way they can be related to one another, and
- SPEECH, as the concrete use of language, the actual production of specific
utterances.
Then, it is necessary to make a second distinction, namely between:
- SOUADS, defined as the result of vibrations of an elastic medium, transmitted in
the form of waves and received through air, and
- SPEECH SOUADS, defined as certain acoustic effects voluntarily produced by
the organs of speech; they are the result of definite actions performed by these organs; they
require that the speech organs shall be placed in certain definite positions or moved in
certain definite ways.
1.5. Phonemes vs. allophones
Every language is a system of signs and symbols conveying a certain message. Linguistics
is the science that analyzes this language system. The analysis takes place at 2 levels:
- the level of expression: the expression is the material support of a sign (word), its
concrete, observable manifestation:
- in vocal noises resulting from the use of speech organs;
- in letters on paper, blackboard, etc;
- the level of content: content represents the thing which is signified, what it stands for or
represents.
At each level a further distinction can be made between SUBSTANCE and FORM:
Example 2
EXPRESSION
form (phonemes) Phonology
substance Semantics
CONTENT
form Syntax
(For the sake of simplification we shall disregard the CONTENT- part of the linguistic
sign.)
14
At the level of EXPRESSION, speech sounds represent the substance; if they are not
organized according to a code, these speech sounds remain a sequence of vocal noises
which have no linguistic function. In order to discharge their linguistic function of
communication, speech sounds are organized at the level of form.
e.g. [t], [n], [i], [p] = substance
[tin], [tip], [pin], [nip], [nit] = form
Briefly, if [t], [n], [p], and [i] are described as separate and pure speech sounds (alveolar,
voiceless, plosive consonant, or alveolar, voiced, nasal consonant), the description is at the
level of substance and is said to be phonetic. A phonetic description is always a
physiological analysis of a given speech sound in terms of manner and point of
articulation. Such a speech sound has no linguistic function because it does not play any
role in the act of communication. It is independent of any context and it is studied by
PHONETICS.
If the same speech sounds [t], [n], [p], and [i] are placed in word-context tin vs. pin -, the
description is at the level of form. The analysis is phonological; [t] and [p] are called
phonemes and they have a linguistic function since they determine the meaning of words.
[t] and [p] represent two distinctive phonemes which do contrast significantly. If [t] and [p]
are replaced with each other, the meanings of the two words will change. Thus, we can say
that tin and pin make a minimally distinct pair (i.e. a pair of words differing in one
phoneme only).
On the other hand, the ts in tea, eighth and train do not contrast significantly; they belong
to the same phoneme [t]. The differences between them concern the place of articulation.
Being the realizations of one and the same t-phoneme in different word-contexts, they are
called its variants, members or allophones. Thus, we can distinguish a class of tsounds as making up the t-phoneme.
Example 1
/t/ = phoneme
[t1]
tea
[ t2]
eighth
[t3] = allophones
train
Allophones, or actually produced speech sounds can be very different. The question
arises: what is it that is common to all the allophones of the same phoneme? On what basis
are they considered to be the realizations of the same phoneme? Here is the answer:
speech sounds contain both phonologically relevant properties and phonologically
irrelevant ones. It is the former which characterize all the allophones of a given phoneme,
enabling them to be the realization of a particular phoneme.
The phonologically irrelevant properties are due to:
- linguistically conditioned environments, i.e. the actual word-context:
e.g. [t] [t1] in tea; [t2] in eighth; [t3] in train
15
16
[l] allophones
17
as more prominent: [:QbstrQkt] (noun, its meaning is that of a summary) and [Qb:strQkt]
(verb, its meaning being that of extract, remove).
The suprasegmental phonemes are stress, intonation and juncture. These are called
phonemes because they can change the meaning of identical strings of segments, and
suprasegmental because they operate on the segmental phonemes.
Stress has a phonemic status as it differentiates two words or two grammatical forms of
the same word, which have exactly the same sequence of sound segments.
e.g. import n. [:imp:t], vb. [im:p:t].
Intonation has a phonemic function as well, in that a different melody may differentiate
two utterances otherwise alike.
e.g. Who is going to teach phonetics next year?
Elena. (high-fall showing certainty)
Elena. (low-rise showing doubt)
^Elena (rise-fall; she is willing to do it).
Juncture (transition). Other contrasts can be established in English between linguistic
forms which are identical in sound but differ with respect to the manner in which the
transition from one given phoneme to another is carried out. Thus, we can speak of two
types of juncture, namely close (uninterrupted) and open (interrupted). For instance, the
string of phonemes [blQktai] can be interpreted either as a black tie or a blacked eye,
depending on where in the sequence we have a short pause in pronunciation.
The discussion of suprasegmental phonemes is a tentative one. It will be enlarged later on
in individual chapters (ch. 6, 8, 9).
Let's remember...
Phonemes are of two basic types:
-segmental
-suprasegmental (intonation, juncture, word-stress)
1.7. Phonetics vs. phonology
PHOAETICS - the science of speech sounds - is one of the best-known areas of language
study, and perhaps the oldest as well. Descriptions of the sounds of speech date from at
least the 5th century B.C., when Panini, a Sanskrit grammarian, wrote an extensive series of
rules describing the correct way to pronounce the Vedic hymns. In the twentieth century,
phonetics came to be regarded as the prime basis for any scientific study of language
(Graddol et all, 1994: 28). Apart from its intrinsic interest, phonetics is a field of language
study with immediate and obvious practical value. A knowledge of phonetics is generally
recognized as essential in foreign-language teaching and learning, in identifying and
correcting communication disorders such as certain kinds of aphasia (the loss of language
abilities) and stuttering, and in developing appropriate pedagogical and curricular materials
for elementary and secondary school English classes.
18
19
accurate, for in a transcription we write /k/ at the beginning of [ki:p] and also at the
beginning of [kuk], but the [k]s differ from each other. Apart from this, when we compare
one language with another or one dialect with another, we find that symbols often have to
be used with somewhat different values in each language or dialect. The conclusion is that
phonetic transcription is only a general term.
Within the general term of phonetic transcription we distinguish between two types of
transcription: phonemic transcription (also called broad transcription) and phonetic
transcription proper (or narrow transcription).
A) Phonemic transcription is a broad transcription using the smallest number of
symbols representing a given form of language without ambiguity. Every speech sound
must be identified as one of the phonemes that exist in a language and written with the
appropriate symbol. In a phonemic transcription only the phonemic symbols are used. This
has the advantage that it is comparatively quick and easy to learn and use and that it
combines simplicity with accuracy. The disadvantage is that as one continues to learn more
about phonetics he/she becomes able to hear a lot of sound differences not perceived
before. Students at this stage might find it frustrating not to be able to write down more
detailed information.
The phonemic system described for Received Pronunciation (RP, i.e. the Standard English
language) contains 44 phonemes. The following is the list of symbols used in the phonemic
transcription of the English sounds.
THE VOWEL SYSTEM OF RP
/i:/
as in sea, feet, me
/i/
as in him, village
/e/
as in get, head, Thames
/Q/
as in sat, hand, bad
//
as in sun, blood, does
/a:/
as in father, car, calm
//
as in dog, swan, cough
/:/
as in cord, saw, more
/u/
as in put, wolf, good
/u:/
as in soon, moon, shoe
/:/
//
/ei/
/ai/
/i/
/U/
/i/
/E/
/U/
/au/
/s/
/z/
/S /
/Z/
/h/
/m/
/n/
/N/
/l/
/r/
/w/
as in so
as in zoo
as in shoe
as in usual
as in high
as in money
as in nun
as in finger
as in alive
as in around
as in one
20
/D/
as in this
/j/
as in yellow
B) Phonetic transcription
As the same sound may not be produced in exactly the same way in all the contexts in
which it occurs or in all languages, various diacritics are used to show subtle differences.
For example, the sound [p] in park is slightly different from the [p] sound in tip. The first
[p] is produced with a slight puff of air (called aspiration), and thus the sound is said to
be aspirated, whereas the second one does not present this feature. This difference may be
captured by the phonetic (narrow/allophonic) transcription, which mirrors all that is
known about a sound in a given context/environment. Thus, the word park is transcribed
phonetically as [pHa:k].
The diacritics modify the phonemic symbol in some way. The diacritical marks are also
provided by the International Phonetic Alphabet. Here are some commonly used diacritics:
- o placed below the symbol of a voiced consonant shows devoicing (e.g. bad [bQd]);
- h placed higher, immediately after a voiceless plosive consonant indicates aspiration
(e.g. car [kHa:]);
- j placed higher, after a consonant indicates palatalization (e.g. tJ, kJ);
- w stands for a labialized pronunciation (e.g. tw, dw);
- placed after the phoneme symbol indicates a pharyngealized pronunciation (e.g. t, d);
- 9 placed below a consonant symbol shows a dental articulation (t, d).
The students are not asked to know all the diacritics used1, but someone who knows them
all could write a transcription that would be much more accurate in phonetic detail, and
contain more information than a phonemic transcription. By making use of phonemic
symbols and of the diacritical marks it is possible to represent the allophones of a phoneme
in a schematic manner.
The current practice in transcriptions is to enclose the symbols representing the allophones
in square brackets [ ], while those representing phonemes between slants / /. No capital
letters and no punctuation marks are used in transcriptions. A single vertical line ( ) is
used to separate clauses, and a double one () to separate sentences.
It is important to remember that the letters of the alphabet are used for spelling words,
while the phonetic symbols are used to indicate the sounds that make up the words.
For linguistic purposes, phonemic transcriptions are the most practical ones. They
represent one of the traditional exercises in pronunciation teaching. There are two different
kinds of transcription exercises:
a. transcription from a written text the student is given a passage of a text written in
orthography and must use phonemic symbols to represent how s/he thinks it would be
pronounced by a speaker of RP;
b. transcription from dictation the student must listen to a person or a tape-recorder and
write down what s/he hears.
For further diacritics, see the International Phonetic Alphabet (revised to 1993, updated 1996) in Radford et
al., 1999:137, or Clark, J. and Yallop, C, 1995:425.
21
Callary (1994:304) gives the following piece of advice: When doing phonetic
transcription, one of the most important things to remember is to transcribe the words as
you actually say them in normal conversational speech, not how you think they should be
pronounced or how they are written in the regular alphabet. After you have determined
your normal pronunciation, you must then select from the phonetic alphabet the symbols
that represent that pronunciation.
1.9. Summary
In this first unit we have introduced the students to the basic terminology of
the subject matter. We started by mentioning the participants and the main
stages in the process of communication, making the distinction between the
spoken and the written message. Based on this, further distinctions were
pointed out: speech vs. language, phoneme vs. allophone, phonetics vs.
phonology. Finally, the students were introduced to the phonemic and phonetic
transcriptions, an important tool that will help them improve their
pronunciation.
1.10.
Evaluation
1. What are the participants and the stages involved in the act of
communication by means of language?
2. What does grammatical encoding consist of?
3. By what means can a message be transmitted following its semantic and
grammatical encoding?
4. What does a speaker turn into sounds?
5. How are sounds perceived by a hearer?
6. What is a minimal pair?
7. Give the phonemic transcription of the following fragment:
Once there was a little girl who lived with her mother at the edge of the
forest. The little girl always wore a red cloak and hood that her grandmother
had made for her. Thats why everyone, even her mother, called her Little Red
Riding Hood.
One day, Little Red Riding Hoods mother said to her: Grandmother is
not feeling well. I have packed a basket with fruit and cake and honey. Will
you take it to her?
8. Here is the phonetic transcription of a conversational passage. Try to render
it in normal spelling.
22
23
2.2. Competences
Once the students have read the information in this unit, they will be able
to identify correctly the articulators involved in the production of each an every
sound. As future teachers of English, they will be capable of correcting the
pronunciation of their students by pointing out which articulators move and how
they move to produce speech sounds.
Speech sounds are produced by modifying the stream of air coming from the lungs. In
English, all speech sounds are made on the outgoing breath. Air is pushed by the lungs
through the trachea and into the oral/mouth or nasal cavity, or in some cases into both.
Different modifications of this flow of air cause different sounds to be articulated. The
simplest act of articulation requires the coordination of hundreds of muscles of various
organs of speech.
The totality of speech organs is referred to as the vocal tract or the speech mechanism.
The speech mechanism may be divided into three main parts according to the role they
have in the production of speech sounds:
- lungs, representing the sound source,
24
25
26
articulation of sounds, various parts of the tongue can come into contact with different
fixed or movable parts of the mouth cavity. Thus, the tip can touch the teeth (as in the
production of [T]), the alveolar ridge (in the production of [t], [d]), the front of the tongue
can touch the hard palate (as in the production of [S]), whereas the back of the tongue can
form a total obstruction by its contact with the soft palate, raised in the case of [k], [g];
- The LIPS are important in speech. They can be pressed together (when we produce the
sounds [p], [b]), brought into contact with the teeth (as in [f], [v]), or rounded to produce
the lip-shape for vowels like [u]. Sounds in which the lips are in contact with each other
are called bilabial, while those with lip-to-teeth contact are called labio-dental.
In producing vowel sounds the lips can assume different shapes, as seen below:
open rounding []
spread [i:]
neutral [e]
27
primary function is a biological one: they keep the human body alive. Second, the speech
organs are dealt with within articulatory phonetics, so called because it deals with the
ways in which the human vocal apparatus is manipulated as sounds are produced. The
basic assumption of articulatory phonetics is that different sounds result from, and are best
described in terms of, the different configurations of the vocal tract as different sounds are
uttered.
C. The nose is the third cavity that acts as a resonator. The airstream coming from the
pharynx is directed towards the nasal or oral cavity by the soft palate (velum). When the
soft palate is lowered, the air stream escapes through the nose. The sound produced in this
ways are the nasal sounds /m, n, /. When the soft palate is raised, the air is pushed out
through the mouth cavity, and the sounds produced in this manner are called oral sounds.
There are also situations in which the air stream escapes both through the nose and the
mouth. This results in the partial nasalization of sounds which are oral by nature
(Chitoran, 1977:34).
2.6. Summary
This unit has shown they way the speech organs, especially those above the larynx,
contribute to the production of speech sounds. The Latin denomination of the speech
organs proves to be of great importance once the sounds need to be defined, as the
latter get their names according to the articulators involved, as will be shown in the
following unit.
2.7. Evaluation
1. Define articulatory phonetics.
2. List the speech organs.
3. Is there any organ in the human body which is, in fact, a speech organ
proper?
4. What is the primary function of the so-called speech organs?
5. What is the role of the lungs in speech production?
6. How does the air escape from the lungs?
7. What is the role of the vocal folds?
8. Give the names of the supra-glottal cavities which act as resonators.
28
3.2. Competences
When the students have completed this unit, they will know the difference
between a vowel and a consonant, they will be able to describe, distribute and spell
the English monophthongs, as well as pronounce them correctly, without any trace
of interference of the vocalic sounds of their mother tongues. They will also know
that in English, unlike Romanian, vowel length has a phonemic status.
29
30
phonemes, but we can not disregard the fact that such consonants as [m], [n], [N], [l], [r]
are sounds of complete sonority as well and, hence, syllabic in certain situations. But while
vowels are always syllabic in any position, the above-mentioned consonants are syllabic
only in word-final position or in middle position:
e.g. hidden [:hi-dn], temporary [:tem-pr-ri], bottom [:b-tm], little [:li-tl].
e. The criterion of context as a basis for separating vowels from consonants must also be
mentioned here because it is very satisfactory for the English language. It consists in taking
a word which begins with the sound to be tested and using before it successively a/an, the
[D]/[Di] and to [t]/[tu]. If the sound to be tested accommodates itself to the pronunciation
[n], [Di], [tu], satisfying the sense of fitness of the English-trained hearer, it is a vowel. If
[], [D], [t] seem more appropriate, then the sound is a consonant.
e.g.
The shortcoming of this criterion consists in the fact that the consonants used as tests are
limited in English, since some sounds are not used initially. This is the case of [u] and [N].
f. The criterion of distribution of sounds is not so important for the purpose of this chapter,
but it is, nevertheless, worth mentioning. Study of sounds found at the beginning and end
of English words has shown that two groups of sounds with quite different patterns of
distribution can be identified, and these two groups are those of vowels and consonants. If
we look at the vowel - consonant distinction in this way, we must say that the most
important difference between a vowel and a consonant is not the way that they are made,
but their different distributions. Thus, in a word beginning with [h], the h-sound will be
followed by sounds we normally think of as vowels (e.g. hen, house, ham, hill, hut, hot),
but never by what we consider a consonant.
Let's remember...
We shall refer to the vowel as a speech sound produced by modifying a relatively
free-flowing air stream (Callary, 1994:313), the vocal cords vibrate, and the
muscular tension is spread over all organs of speech. A consonant, on the other
hand, is a speech sound in the production of which the air flow coming from the
lungs is obstructed in various degrees and places along the vocal tract.
There are many interesting theoretical problems connected with the vowel - consonant
distinction, but we will not return to this issue. For the rest of this course it will be assumed
that the sounds are clearly divided into vowels and consonants.
3. 4. The Principles of Classifying the English Vowels
We begin the study of English sounds by looking at vowels; in this respect, it is necessary
to say something about the ways vowels differ from each other.
31
d. Lip-rounding is an important variable of vowel quality. Although the lips can have
many different shapes and positions, we will, at this stage, consider only three possibilities.
These are:
The word diphthong comes from the Greek di meaning twice or double and phthongos meaning sound
or voice. So diphthongs are literally two sounds.
32
- rounded, where the corners of the lips are brought towards each other and the lips are
pushed forwards. This is most clearly seen in [u:];
- spread, where the corners of the lips move away from each other, as for a smile. This is
most clearly seen in [i:];
- neutral, where the lips are not noticeably rounded or spread. The noise most English
people make when they are hesitating (written er) has neutral lip position.
e. Duration (length). Vowels may be either long or short. But the actual length of vowels
varies considerably according to their position in word contexts. The long vowels are fully
long only when situated in final position or when followed by a voiced consonant.
e.g. bee [:bi:], been [:bi:n]
When followed by a voiceless consonant, long vowels are reduced (shortened).
e.g. beat vs. bead.
f. Degree of muscular tension. This principle is closely related to the previous one (i.e.
length). Long vowels require a tenseness of the muscles of the tongue and lips; therefore
they are called tense vowels. In the production of the short vowels the muscles do not make
such a great effort, they are lax. Consequently, the short vowels will be called lax vowels.
g. The position of the soft palate may affect the vowel quality. In the articulation of
normal vowels the soft palate is raised. The result is that no air can pass through the nose.
When vowels are pronounced with the soft palate lowered and the air can pass through the
nose as well as through the mouth, they are said to be nasalised. A vowel may be slightly
nasalised if it follows or precedes a nasal consonant within a word or at word boundaries:
e.g. man [mQn]. Nasal pronunciation is common in London dialectal speech and in
American English.
h. Distribution refers to the position(s) in which the respective vowel can or cannot
appear. Long vowels can be used in any position:
- initial: art [:a:t]
- medial: heart [:ha:t]
- final: car [:ka:].
Short vowels are restricted in their use to:
Let's remember...
The English vocalic sounds are classified/described according to a number of
principles, such as:
- stability of articulation;
- part of the tongue which is raised
- height to which the tongue is raised
- duration (length)
33
lip-rounding
degree of muscular tension
position of the soft palate
distribution
Close
Front
i
1
Close-mid
Open-mid
Open
Central
Back
U
8
o
5A
34
*
[i:] is the closest of the English front vowels, but not so close as cardinal vowel no.1. In its
production the lips are spread. It is long and tense. Its length differs, nevertheless,
according to different phonetic contexts:
- longest in word final position: me [mi:], sea [si:], bee [bi:];
- relatively shorter before voiced consonants: beam [:bi:m], mean [:mi:n], seal [:si:l];
- shortest before voiceless consonants: beat [:bi:t], feet [:fi:t]. This is due to the fact that
voiceless consonants require more energy for their production. By way of compensation,
the preceding vowel loses some of its length.
Distribution: [i:] can be used in all basic positions:
- initial position: ease [i:z], evil [i:vl];
- medial position: beast [bi:st], feet [fi:t];
- word-final position: me [mi:], tea [ti:].
Spelling:
-ee (in stressed position): feed [fi:d], tree [tri:], seem [si:m], absentee [Qbsn:ti:],
week [wi:k];
-e: me [mi:], evening [:i:vniN], scene [si:n], cathedral [kTi:drl];
-ea: leave [li:v], meat [mi:t], peak [pi:k], please [pli:z];
-ie: believe [bi:li:v], niece [ni:s], yield [ji:ld];
-ei/ey: ceiling [:si:liN], conceive [kn:si:v], key [ki:];
-i:
-in loan-words, esp. in stressed suffixes: -ine [i:n] as in marine [m:ri:n], ique [i:k] as in antique [Qn:ti:k];
-in native words: police [p:li:s], ski [ski:];
-oe, ae in words of Greek origin: Oedipus [:i:dips], Caesar [si:z], formulae
[f:muli:].
Exceptional spelling: quay [ki:], people [pi:pl], Beauchamp [bi: tSm]
[i]
35
[i] differs from cardinal vowel no. 1 in that it is more open and nearer to the centre. The
tongue is not so high as for [i:]. As compared to [i:], [i] is not so close it is almost halfclose). [i] is not on the line of front vowels, but near it, because for its production the front
of the tongue is retracted.
[i] is front-retracted, almost half-close; it is short and lax. In a special phonetic context
(when pronounced with complicated tone (rise-fall-rise)), [i] sounds longer than [i:]
pronounced with a simple tone.
Example
Compare:
I ~ live and lords do no more vs. I leave next week
But in similar phonetic contexts (in minimal pairs pronounced with the same intonation),
[i:] is longer than [i]. These two vowels function as different phonemes, thus distinguishing
one word from another otherwise alike.
e.g.
sheep [Si:p]
lead [li:d]
feet [fi:t]
Free variation (i.e. substitutability of one sound for another in a given environment, with
no consequent change in the words meaning): there is free variation between [i:] and [i] in
the following words: eleven [i:levn] or [i::levn], between [bi:twi:n] or [bi::twi:n]
Variants: a. [i] in word-final position is pronounced by some speakers as [i:]: pretty
[:priti:], Derby [:da:bi:]. This form is used by a number of educated people from the southeast of Britain and also by some Americans.
b. [i] in word-final position is pronounced by public speakers as a more open
vowel, moving it in the direction of [e]: city [:site], pretty [:prite].
Distribution: [i] can appear in any position:
- initial: it, ill, industry;
- medial: bit, sill, fin
- final: city, coffee
Spelling:
-i and y
36
- a (in weakly stressed affixes or words ending in ace, -ate, -ain): delicate
[delikit], affricate [Qfrikit], furnace [:f:nis], menace [menis], fountain [fauntin],
mountain [mauntin];
- e (in ed adjectivized participles): learned [l:nid], wicked [wikid]
- e (in word-final position in words of Greek origin): apostrophe [pstrfi],
catastrophe [ktQstrfi], syncope [siNkpi].
Exceptional spelling: England [:iNglnd], character [:kQrikt], busy [:bizi], lettuce [:letis],
minute [:minit], women [:wimin], sieve [:siv], breeches [:britSiz], Greenwich [:grinidZ],
forehead [:frid], pigeon [:pidZin], pretty [:priti].
Aote: the diphthong [ei] may be reduced to [i]: Wednesday [:wenzdei] or [:wenzdi],
yesterday [:jestdei] or [:jestdi].
1. Find as many minimal pairs as possible (in all basic position) for the
following vowel phonemes: [i:] vs. [i];
2. Read aloud the following minimal pairs based on the contrast between [i:]
and [i]:
feel - fill;
bead - bid;
read - rid;
scheme - skim;
steel still; been bin;
greed grid;
leap lip;
feet fit;
reap rip;
seal sill;
deep dip.
leave live; peel pill;
reach rich;
feast fist;
peach pitch; least list;
deal dill;
Gene/Jeangin.
eat it
cheap chip
cheek chick
peak pick
[e]
*
[e] is a front, half-open, lax vowel. In its production the lips are unrounded (they are in
neutral position).
Example
English [e] vs. Romanian [e]. Normally, there should be no difficulty for
Romanians in acquiring this English vowel sound, since the 2 types of [e] are
quite similar.
English
Romanian
set
set
check
cec
net
net
37
*
[Q] is a front vowel, but not quite as open as cardinal vowel no. 4 [a]. In its production the
lips are slightly spread. For practical reasons it can sound as long as [Q:], especially before
voiced consonants. The tendency of lengthening [Q] may be considered as an attempt to
keep the [Q]/[e] opposition clear (Chioran, 1978:159).
Distribution: This vowel sound can appear only in:
- initial position : ant, abstract, anchor;
- medial position: cat, shadow, fashion.
It generally appears in stressed syllables.
Variants
- in RP [Q] is closer to [e] than to [a]. As a result of the [e] [Q] proximity, the two vowel
phonemes are kept apart by lengthening the latter, i.e. [Q], or by diphthongizing it towards
[]: bad [bQd];
- when followed by [l], [Q] acquires an opener quality, quite close to [a:]: e.g. ballot,
ballet.
Spelling: a both in graphically closed syllables (mad, badly, jam) and in graphically open
ones, in words of non-Germanic origin (family [fQ -m li], cabin [kQ-bin].
38
Exceptional spelling: Balaam [:beilQm], Caedmon [kQdmn], Aelfred [Qlfrid] (the last
two examples are proper names that have retained their Old English spelling).
Find as many minimal pairs as possible (in all basic position) for the following
vowel phonemes: [e] vs. [Q];
Describe the simple front vowels in the following sentences and explain the
difficulties encountered by Romanians in acquiring their correct
pronunciation:
a. Maggies bag is easy to carry.
b. He felt extremely well after such a big meal.
Let's remember...
The English front vowels are: /i:/, /i/, /e/ and /Q/. The English /i/ and /e/ are
different from the Romanian counterparts in that they are much closer. The
English /Q/ does not have a Romanian counterpart, consequently Romanian
speakers of English need to keep their jaws open when producing it.
Describe the simple front vowels in the following sentences and explain the
difficulties encountered by Romanians in acquiring their correct
pronunciation:
a. Maggies bag is easy to carry.
b. He felt extremely well after such a big meal.
[a:] is a back, open, long, tense, unrounded vowel. It is not quite as back as cardinal vowel
no. 3 [a]; that is why we can say that it is back advanced.
If one compares the Romanian [a] to the English [a:] s/he will realize that the former is a
central vowel phoneme, while the latter is almost back. A good starting point for acquiring
the English [a:] could be provided by the Romanian [a] situated in a velar context: cal,
gal.
39
40
[
] is a pure back, almost open, short, lax, slightly rounded vowel.
Example
Romanian [o] vs. English [
]: there is no similar vowel in Romanian. Care
should be taken to pronounce this vowel with the mouth wide open and lips
slightly rounded. There is a dialectal form of the sound in Transylvania. This
is used to render the standard Romanian diphthong [oa] as in coad [:k(:)d],
toat [t(:)t], which is somewhat similar to this English sound, only that it is
much longer.
Distribution: this vowel phoneme may appear in
- initial position: on, odd, operate,
- medial position: got, fox, want, quality.
Variants. The realization of [] varies very little within RP. A small number of speakers
prefer [:] in refined RP, e.g. off, cloth, across [:kr:s]. This pronunciation is also typical
of Cockney.
In Scottish English almost all words with RP [] fall together with [:], the quality being
nearer to the latter RP vowel: thus cot, caught; not, naught; nod, gnawed, etc, will be
pronounced with [:].
One other variety tends to lose the lip rounding and thus becomes similar to [a]. This
variety is very common in the south-west of England and in General American. Here, the
distinction between [] and [a:] is made by the pronunciation of the [r], e.g. hot [ha:t] vs.
heart [ha:rt].
Spelling:
-o in graphically closed syllables: stop, cotton, lost, dock, dog, gone, and in
graphically open syllables (in very few words): sorry, holiday;
-a as in was, what, swan, want, watch, quality;
-ou, ow as in cough, trough, Gloucester [:glst], knowledge;
-au as in because, sausage, laurel, Austria, Australia, cauliflower.
Aote: short, back open vowels occurring in other languages often differ from the English
[] in that they are either somewhat closer or more centralized, or are pronounced with
stronger lip-rounding. The extremely open nature of the English vowel can be emphasized
by relating it to [a:].
[
:]
41
[
:] is described as a long, tense vowel. In its production the back of the tongue is raised
between the mid-open and mid-close positions, and the lips are rounded.
Distribution. Being a long vowel, [:] can appear in any position, i.e.
- initial position: orchard, order;
- medial position: form, board, torn, fought;
- final position: law, four, floor, core.
Free variation: The vowel phonemes [] and [:] are in free variation in the following
examples: cost [kst] or [k:st], frost [frst] or [fr:st]. These are alternative pronunciations
which reflect age differences: [] is used by younger people, while [:] by older ones.
Spelling:
-ar, or: orchard [::tSd], form [f:m], sort [s:t], war, horse;
-ore: shore, before, more, bore, core;
-aw: law, paw, dawn [d:n], saw, lawn, yawn, awesome [::sm];
-au/augh: cause, taught fault, daughter;
-ou + silent gh: fought, naught, ought;
-oar: roar, board, oar;
-our: pour, four, court;
-oor: door, floor;
-a + l +cons: all, call, talk, walk, halt, chalk;
Exceptional spelling: George, sword [s:d], Maugham [m:m].
[u]
*
[u] is a back (advanced), almost half-close, short, lax, rounded vowel. In comparison with
the Romanian counterpart, the English vowel sound is more open, more advanced and less
rounded.
Distribution. This vowel sound can appear in medial position only: butcher, sugar, full. In
final position it appears only exceptionally, in the strong form of the particle to, e.g. the
place he is going to [tu].
Variants. With some speakers of English there is a tendency to use less lip-rounding and a
lower tongue position. Thus we get an opener half-close vowel sound, the symbol of
which is [F_]: should, could, would [wF_d]. Throughout the north of England no contrast is
made between [u] and [], a vowel in the region of [u] occurring for both the RP vowels.
42
Free variation: [u] and [u:] are in free variation in words such as room [rum] or [ru:m],
groom, booth, tooth, broom, the commoner phoneme being [u:]. In other contexts they are
independent phonemes, as shown by the following minimal pairs: look Luke, full fool,
could cooed, should shooed.
Spelling:
-u: butcher, bush, put, pudding, cushion, sugar, full;
-oo + k/other cons.: book, cook, look, took, good, wood, wool, foot, hood;
-o: bosom [buz()m], wolf, woman, Boleyn [bulin], worsted [wustid], Worcester
[wust];
-ou: could, courier, should, would, bouquet.
[u:]
[u:] is back, close, long, tense, rounded vowel. It is not completely close, and it is slightly
advanced from fully back.
Example
Romanian [u] vs. English [u:]. The English sound is quite similar to the
Romanian one, although it is a little more open and less rounded, and, of
course, considerably longer.
Distribution: this sound can appear in all positions, i.e.
- initial (in very few words): ooze [u:z], oops [u:ps];
- medial: rude, ruby, usual, tomb;
- final: shoe, toe, crew, who, flew, chew.
Variants: there is some variation in the realization of this vowel within RP. Two variants
within General RP are:
- a more centralized vowel [u_], when preceded by the palatal semi-vowel [j]: usual, feudal,
duke, tulip.
- a short diphthong [Uu], particularly common in word-final position (do, shoe).
A diphthongized version also appears when [u] is followed by l, e.g. fool [fu:l].
Some other distributional variants are given below:
- a fully long variant in word-final position, or when followed by a voiced
consonant: shoe, too, move, lose;
- a reduced variant when [u:] is followed by a voiceless consonant: boot, fruit,
loose.
43
Spelling:
-u: June, duty, rule, humour, crucial;
-oo (not followed by k): food, soon, moon, spoon, cool, loose, fool;
-o: do, lose, tomb, who, move;
-ou: group, soup, wound, through:
-ew: crew, grew, few;
-eu: feud [fju:d], neuter [nju:t], rheumatism [ru:mtizm];
-ue, ui, oe: blue, clue, juice, fruit, shoe, canoe.
Exceptional spelling: view, two.
Let's remember...
The English back vowels are: /a:/, //, /:/ /u/, and /u:/. Of these, the //
sound is very different from the Romanian sound.
1. Find as many minimal pairs as possible (in all basic position) for the
following vowel phonemes:
[u:] vs. [u]; [] vs. [:];
2. Read aloud
and [u].
pool pull
suit
soot
Luke look
fool full
wooed would
whod hood
Cooed could
3. Read aloud the following minimal pairs based on the contrast between [:]
and []:
cord
cod
awed
odd
dawn
don
stalk
stock
pawned
pond
port
pot
naught
not
sport
spot
gnawed
nod
cork
cock
forks
fox
sworn
swan
wars
was
court
cot
roared
rod
Morse
moss
corpse
cops
born
Bonn (town in Germany)
44
*
[
] is one of the controversial English vowels with regard to its description and change. It
can be described as a central, open, short, lax, unrounded vowel.
Example
Romanian [a] vs. English []. The English sound is quite similar to the
Romanian [a], especially when situated in unstressed position, e.g. capac,
catan.
Distribution: being a short vowel, [] is restricted to initial (utter, usher, unable) and
middle position (luck, shut, mother, country).
Variants:
- sometimes we may hear a back-advanced, mid-open variant of the [] sound;
- a fully open and fully front vowel [a] may be heard in the London region;
- in the northern dialects of English a half-close, back vowel [u] is used, e.g. bus [bus],
truck [truk], husband [huzbnd], love [luv]. This sound may have been the starting point of
the central vowel sound [] some 400 years ago.
Spelling:
-u: study, mutton, sun, cut
-o: London, none, oven, constable [:knstb()l], monkey, tongue, colour;
-ou: country, couple, trouble, southern, enough.
Exceptional spelling: flood, blood, does, two pence [:tpns].
[
:]
45
RP [
:] is articulated with the centre of the tongue raised between close-mid and open-mid,
no firm contact being made between the tongue and the upper molars; the lips are neutrally
spread.
Romanian [] vs. English [
:]. The Romanian sound has much similarity with
the English vowel sound [:].
German speakers of English tend to pronounce this sound as a centralized front rounded
vowel, of the [O] or [] types. This is quite unacceptable in English because of the liprounding of the respective variants.
Distribution. Being a long sound, [:] can appear in any position, i.e.
- initial: earth, earl, urge;
- medial: bird, circle, burn, first, thirst, word, journey:
- final: fir, Sir, prefer.
Variants. There is some variation in the degree of opening of the vowel []. In British
English one can come across a closer variety (typical of certain regional dialects in the
Birmingham and Liverpool areas) and a more open variety (characteristic of Refined RP).
Such a pronunciation comes close to the usual RP position for [a:]; however, speakers of
Refined RP generally use a retracted variety of [a:] to ensure the vowels keep their
distance.
Aote: the phoneme [:] occurs only in stressed syllables
Spelling:
-er, err: her, herb, clergy, mercy, verse, serve, kernel, err;
-ir, yr: bird, thirsty, first, myrtle [m:tl];
-ur, urr: occur, turn, fur, church, nurse, purr;
-ear: earth, heard, earn, pearl, learn;
Exceptional spelling:
-our (in words of French origin): journey, courtesy, scourge
-w + or: work, worm, word;
The word colonel is pronounced as [k:n].
[
]
46
This particular vowel sound has a high degree of occurrence in unaccented syllables. It is
described as a central, mid-open, short and lax vowel. In its production the lips are in
neutral position. This vowel phoneme is also called the schwa/shwa (pronounced [Swa]),
from a similar vowel occurring in Hebrew3.
Romanian vs. English []. The English [] can be considered similar to the Romanian
sound in unstressed position. Compare the following English and Romanian words:
English
miller
sitter
colour
Romanian
mil
sit
cal
Distribution. This short vowel sound may appear in all three positions:
- initial: above, allow, attempt;
- medial: police, method, balloon;
- final: summer, better, theatre, sofa.
Aote: the vowel [] has the greatest frequency of occurrence of all English vowel
phonemes.
Variants:
- in non-final position [] has a closer value than the one described, e.g. effort, movement;
- preceded and followed by [k] and [g], the vowel is still closer and more retracted, e.g.
back again [bQk:gen], long ago [lN:gU];
- in final position it is much more open, being quite similar to [], e.g. never, mother,
China, Canada.
Aote: when in unstressed position, all English vowel sounds tend to reduce to [
].
Neither the phenomenon of reducing vowel sounds to an unstressed allophone nor the use
of weak forms in unstressed positions are encountered in Romanian, and that is why they
present difficulties for the Romanian speakers of English.
The vowel sound [] may be omitted altogether and yet not destroy the meaning of words
(especially in final syllables or in suffixes), e.g. physician [fi:ziSn]. The omission of [] is
not allowed in certain phonetic contexts, namely when it is both followed and preceded by
a nasal consonant, e.g. German [dZ:mn], lemon [lemn], woman [wumn], and when it
is preceded by a nasal and a plosive and followed by another nasal, e.g. London [lndn],
incumbent [inkmbnt].
Spelling: [] is spelt with all vowel letters of the English alphabet and combinations of
these letters.
-a: aloud, academic, alarm;
-e: audience, gentlemen;
3
47
Let's remember...
The English central vowels are: //, //, and /:/. The English // differs
from the Romanian one in that it can be dropped in unstressed syllables and in
that it can replace most of the other short vowels in such syllables.
48
Read aloud the following minimal pairs based on the contrast between [a:] and
[]:
lark
luck
cud
card
dark
duck
last
lust
barks
bucks
carp cup
March
much
barge budge
cart
cut
barn bun
psalm
sum
calm come
A final word on vowels would be in place at the end of this chapter. The characteristics of
the vowel phonemes mentioned so far can be presented in a diagram based on essentials.
This presentation is not a traditional one. Nevertheless, it is based on the general rules
governing pronunciation. It makes the description brief and avoids repetition.
CLOSE
HALF-CLOSE
OPEN
FRONT
i: i
e
Q
CENTRAL
:
BACK
u: u
:
a:
The diagram is a synoptic presentation of the English vowel phonemes and it must be read
in a different way. This presupposes the following situations to be cleared up:
- articulatory characteristics: when learning vowel pronunciation it is important to know
which part of the tongue articulates the sound and whether the vowel phoneme is long or
short, open or close. The degree of tenseness and lip-rounding are less important.
- distribution is insignificant from a practical point of view.
- variants: every sound is contextually dependent. The variant of a vowel phoneme is that
sound which under certain circumstances and in certain word contexts acquires a
pronunciation different from the RP patterns.
Natural variant. One type of variant, and the most important, is that which cannot be
avoided since it comes by itself according to some natural laws of phonation. We term it
natural variant. So, when a voiceless consonant follows a vowel phoneme, its length is
reduced. When followed by a voiced consonant or when in final position, the vowel is fully
long. The same variants are valid for Romanian as well as for any other languages in the
world. Such a natural rule is part of RP and must be taken as such.
Free variant. Another type of variant is that which depends upon individuals, social or
geographical surroundings. Such a variant is termed free variant, and it is not part of RP.
Though some of these free variants can be included in the category of natural variants,
because they cannot be generalized at the level of the whole pronunciation mechanism they
will be discussed in a special section of the course.
3.9. Summary
In this unit we have dealt with the way in which we can make the distinctions between
vowels and consonants, and then we focused on the descriptions of the simple vowels,
49
providing details concerning their distribution and spelling. Wherever the case, the
main differences between the English and the Romanian monophthongs were
highlighted with a view to acquiring the correct production of the English sounds.
3.10. Evaluation
1. Name some distinctive features of the English vowels.
2. Are deal and dill a minimal? Why?
3. Are deal and did a minimal pair? Why? Why not?
4. Match the words in the first column with those in the second one so as to
obtain minimal pairs:
Column I
catch
pip
cheap
sap
he
caught
lap
pal
say
Column II
zip
fought
lass
Sam
mink
cap
Paul
she
heap
sink
lay
50
4.2. Competences
Once the students have completed this unit, they will know the difference
between the structure of the English diphthongs and that of the Romanian ones.
The students will be able to identify in the speech of native speakers of English the
process of reduction of diphthongs/triphthongs and may attempt to use it in their
own pronunciation in order to sound more native-like.
51
[ai]
a
diphthong
i
nucleus
glide
Figure 1. Structure of the diphthong.
For example, most of the diphthong [ai] (which appears in words such as eye, I) consists of
the vowel [a], and only in about the last quarter of the diphthong does the glide to [i]
become noticeable. As the glide to [i] takes place, the loudness of the sound decreases. As
a result, the [i]-part is shorter and quieter. Foreign learners must, therefore, always
remember that the last part of the English diphthongs must not be made too strongly.
a
CLOSING
glides to [i]
ei ai i
glides to [u]
U aU
U
Consider the following examples: idea [ai-d] and idiom i-Idim]. In the first word, it is the first vowel
(i.e. i) which is stressed, consequently the diphthong [i] is falling, whereas in the second word, the stress
falls on the second vowel, i.e. the glide , and thus the diphthong is rising.
52
ei
U
a
i
i
aU
HALF-LOAG
paid [peid]
file [fail]
loud [laud]
SHORT
pate [peit]
fight [fait]
louse [laus]
c. From the point of view of their distribution, English diphthongs can be used in any
position (just like the long vowels). There is only one restriction in force, i.e. no
diphthong can be used before [N
N].
d. The diphthongs are the least stable of the English speech sounds and of the sounds of
Germanic languages in general.
4.3.3. Variants
a. Reduced values of diphthongs: VOWELS
If simple vowels are sometimes heard as diphthongs, diphthongs are sometimes heard as
vowels. In words like day, pay, the glide of [ei] is omitted and the nucleus becomes longer:
[dE:]. The reduction of diphthongs to monophthongs represents one of the differences in
pronunciation between British English and American English. While the British speakers
of English preserve the diphthongs in home and no, the Americans tend to reduce it to [],
especially in unstresse final position (in casual speech): potato, tomato, fellow.
b. Alternative pronunciation
-[oi] may be used instead of [i]; [oi] having a closer nucleus is used in popular London
speech, the open variety [i] being typical of RP;
-[ou] used instead of [U]; [ou] is typical of RP. It is used in such contexts as now [nou].
The same word can also be pronounced [nau] and even [nQu].
53
-In the case of the words ending in ine, some are pronounced with the diphthong [ai]
(columbine, serpentine, carmine), some others with the monophthong [i] (engine, feminine,
etc.).
c. r colouring
When the three centring diphthongs [i, E, U] are followed by r, a tendency for rcolouring is felt in the West and North-West, where r is sounded before consonants, e.g.
sure [Su:r], but also [SU].
d. When the closing diphthongs are followed by dark l, their glides are changed into a
sort of [], e.g. pale [peil] [pel].
e. Variants depending on the distribution of the diphthong
- when [i] and [E] appear in word-final position, their glide becomes [], e.g. idea
[ai:di][ai:di], fair [fE] [fE];
- when [i] and [U] occur in unstressed position, their nucleus is shorter and less sonorous
than the glide, e.g. idiom [:idim], influence [:inflVns]. In this case the diphthongs are
rising ones. When [U] appears in stressed position, the nucleus is longer. Consequently,
the diphthong is a falling one, e.g. poor [pU].
AOTE: [V
V] cannot be followed by a voiceless consonant!
- when diphthongs are followed by voiceless consonants, they suffer the same variations of
quantity as the long (pure) vowels, e.g. baize [beiz] base [beis]. The reduced forms show
a considerable shortening of the first element.
4.3.4. Spelling
[ei]
- a: tame, fame, brake, take;
-ai: aim, main, drain, waist;
-ay: day, may, lay, pay, hay;
-ei, ey; eight, veil, rein, vein, grey, they;
-ea: great, break, steak,
Exceptional spelling: goal [:dZeil], gauge [:geidZ], halfpenny [:heipni].
[ai]
54
1. Practice the following minimal pairs based on the contrast between [ai] and
[ei]:
white wait
lied
laid
rice
race
rise
raise
like lake
file
fail
2. Practice the diphthong [ei] in the following sentences:
- State your name.
- Taste makes waist.
- The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plane.
- They may stay in hay in April and May.
- They say they sleighed all day long.
3. Practice the diphthong [ai] in the following sentences:
- My child likes to fly a kite.
- I like Paris by night.
- Ill try to arrive on Friday night around nine.
- Never smile at the crocodile!
- Id like to buy some nylon tights.
4. Practice the diphthong [i] in the following sentences:
- Its a noisy noise that annoys an oyster.
- Many slave boys toiled in Troy.
- Loyd raised his voice to the naughty boys.
- The boys made noise with their toys.
- Bring the soy-beans oil to the boiling point.
[
U]
-o: note, so, old, bonus, home, dont, wont, folk [fUk];
-oa: oak, road, toast, soap;
-oe: toe, roe, foe, hoe;
-ou: shoulder, soul, mould
-ow: row, grow, flow
55
3. Read the following minimal pairs based on the contrast between the
diphthongs [u] and [au]:
no - now
hoe - how
phoned - found
known - noun
load - loud
oat - out
[i
]
-er: series
-eer: steer, beer, deer;
-ear: ear, tear, dear, fear, hear;
-ere: mere, here;
-eir, ier: weird, pier;
-ea: real, ideal;
-eo: theory, theological.
[u
]
[EE]
beer bear
ears airs
weary wary
56
57
The root is that part of a word that remains after removing all affixes.
58
shy shyer
sly slyer
buy buyable
lie liar
[au
]
This triphthong is pronounced as the diphthong [au] followed by []. The second element
in the combination being the weakest of the three, [au] tends to be reduced to [a:].
e.g. Gower [gau] [ga:]
Spelling:
-our: sour, flour, hour
-ower: tower, power, flower
-ow + vowel letter in unstressed position: towel, vowel
As mentioned before, both [ai] and [au] can be reduced to mere vowels a frontretracted [a:] and a back-advanced [a:], respectively. But even this phonemic opposition
- tyre [ta:] tower [ta:] - is very often levelled out. As a result, several homophones come
into being:
e.g.
shire, shower, shah will be pronounced as [Sa:]
tyre, tower, tar will be pronounced as [ta:].
The monophthongization of these two triphthongs to [a:] seems to be the most striking
sound change occurring in the southern British English in the 20th century.
Although the reduced forms are quite common among many educated speakers, foreign
learners should avoid them because, as pointed out by Gimson, the most changes of
pronunciation... are often condemned as vulgarisms frequently by those who use them
and are not aware of the fact (Gimson, 1994:131)
1. Read aloud the following words containing triphthongs. The [i] and [u] in
the sequences [ai +] and [au +] should not be made too strong.
[ai
]
[au
]
tyre
coward
trial
tower
quiet
flower
flyer
ours
buyer
shower
tired
bower
riot
towel
iron
powerful
2. The less common triphthongs [ei], [U], [i] should be pronounced with
the normal diphthong smoothly followed by []. The [i] and [u] need not be
weakened at all. Try pronouncing the following words:
greyer, grower, player, royal, followers, employer, thrower, betrayal, lawyers.
59
Let's remember...
The 5 triphthongs that exist in English are combinations of the closing
diphthongs and the central vowel //. There is a tendency among the native
speakers of English to reduce the triphthongs either to diphthongs or even to
monophthongs.
Romanian
English
Diphthongs
22
8
Triphthongs
10
5
Total
39
25
As seen above, though reduced in number compared to their English counterparts, the
Romanian simple vowels combinatorial spectrum is higher than in English. If this is added
to the higher vowel ratio of the Romanian language 49.4% (cf. Roceric, 1968), against
42.9% of the English (cf. Chitoran, 1977), the conclusion is that Romanian phonation is
richer than English in vowel sounds.
4.6. Summary
This unit has concluded the investigation of the English vocalic sounds by presenting
the diphthongs (or twin vowels) and triphthongs (combinations of three vowels
pronounced in the same syllable). We have seen that these English sounds differ from
their Romanian counterparts both in number and in structure. There is a general
tendency among the native speakers of English to reduce these vocalic sounds to
monophthongs, a phenomenon that may pose problems to the non-native users of the
language
4.7. Evaluation
1. Diphthongs have been described as sequences of two vocalic sounds. List
the vocalic sounds serving as diphthong nuclei and the vocalic sounds serving
as glides?
2. Do diphthongs have a general distribution?
3. Is there any functional difference between a diphthong and a vowel in the
following minimal pairs?
beat bite;
bee beer;
mouse mice;
mouth moth;
cord code; fee fear;
mouth myth;
tea tear.
60
61
5.2. Competences
Once the students have come to he end of this unit, they will be able to
describe, distribute and spell the English consonants, as well as pronounce them
correctly, especially the ones that have no counterparts in Romanian (i.e. the
interdental fricatives [T] and [D], and the velar nasal sound []).
62
63
- lateral consonant in its production the tongue forms a complete obstruction, just as it
does for plosives, but either one or both sides of it are lowered, making it possible for the
air-stream to escape through the mouth cavity. In English there is only one lateral
consonant: [l].
- semi-vowels (or semi-consonants) these are sounds that combine features of vowels
and consonants. The English language has two semivowels, [j, w].
B. According the PLACE (POIAT) OF ARTICULATIOA the English consonants are
classified into:
- bilabials articulated with the lips brought together, as in the case of [p, b, m]. In the
production of the bilabial semi-vowel [w] the lips are pushed forwards.
- labio-dentals articulated with the lower lip coming into contact with the upper teeth, as
in [f, v].
- interdentals produced with the tip of the tongue placed between the teeth, as in [P, D].
- alveolars produced with the tip of the tongue pressed against the teeth-ridge (the
alveoli): [t, d, s, z, l].
- post-alveolar the front part of the tongue is against the back part of the teeth-ridge: [r].
- palatal produced with the front of the tongue against the hard palate: [j, S, Z].
- palato-alveolar- the tip of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge, whereas the body of the
tongue is raised against the hard palate: [tS, dZ].
- velar - produced with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate: [k, g, N, ].
- glottal produced in the glottis: [h, /].
C. According to the PARTICIPATIOA vs. AOA-PARTICIPATIOA OF THE VOCAL
CORDS there are:
- voiced consonants produced with the vocal cords vibrating: [b, d, g, v, z, Z, D, dZ, m, n,
N, l, r, w, j];
- voiceless consonants not accompanied by the vibration of the vocal cords. The number
of voiceless consonant phonemes in English is smaller than that of their voiced
counterparts: [p, t. k. f, P, s, S, tS].
The best way to check up voicing and voicelessness is to rest ones palm on the throat (on
Adams apple) and produce the sound. If the palm senses some vibrations, it means that the
sound is voiced.
D. According to the DEGREE OF MUSCULAR TEASIOA involved in their production,
we speak about the English consonants in terms of:
64
- lenis (weak): voiced consonants need less energy for their production;
- fortis (strong): voiceless consonants require much more muscular effort for their
production.
E. According to the POSITIOA OF THE SOFT PALATE, we have:
- oral consonants - for their production the soft palate and the uvula are raised, allowing
the air-stream to escape through the mouth cavity;
- nasal consonants for their production the soft palate and the uvula are lowered and the
air-stream comes out through the nasal cavity, as in the case of [m, n, N].
5.4. The English plosives
A plosive (or stop) is a consonant the production of which is performed in 3 rapid stages:
a. During the first stage one articulator is moved against another in order to form a
stricture. We call this the closing stage.
b. After the stricture has been formed, the air coming from the lungs is compressed behind
it. This is called the hold (compressive) stage.
c. As the pressure of the air increases behind the obstacle, the articulators used to form it
part abruptly so as to allow the air to escape. The escape will produce a noise similar to
that of an explosion (hence the denomination plosive). This stage is called the release
stage.
The release is greatly influenced by the context in which the plosives appear. Thus:
- when a plosive is followed by a vowel/diphthong, an audible release is heard, e.g. park,
tall, bird.
- in word-final position, for example in ebb, fat, lid, there is no audible release, since the
compressed air escapes gently through an opening of the obstruction;
- when two plosives (or a plosive and an affricate) occur in succession, within a word or at
the boundary of two words, the first plosive has no audible release, since its explosive
stage is lost, e.g. fact, black cloud, good jam;
- when a plosive is followed by a nasal consonant [m, n, N] within the same word or at
word boundary, a nasal release takes place, e.g. bottom[btm], hidden [hidn], I can go
[aikNgU], bread and butter [bredmbt];
- when the plosive is followed by the lateral consonant [l] within the same word or at the
boundary of two words, a lateral release occurs, e.g. kettle [ketl], that lamp [DQtlQmp].
The plosives are the most important consonants because they exist in all languages and are
the first to emerge in infant speech. In English there are 6 oral plosive consonant phonemes
[p, b, t, d, k, g] and the glottal stop [/], which has no phonemic status of its own. It is
usually an alternative pronunciation of [p, t, k] in certain contexts.
A. According to the place of articulation, the English plosives are classified into:
- bilabials: [p, b];
- alveolars: [t, d];
- velars: [k, g];
- glottal: [/].
B. According to the participation/non-participation of the vocal cords there are:
- voiceless plosives: [p, t, k]
65
Glottal
Velar
Palatal
Alveolar
Interdental
Bilabial
Place of articulation
Labiodental
Manner of articulation
Plosives
Voiceless
p
t
k
(Stops)
Voiced
b
d
g
Fricatives
Voiceless
f
h
Voiced
v
z
Affricates
Voiceless
t
Voiced
d
Nasals
Voiceless
Voiced
m
n
Lateral
Voiceless
Voiced
l
Semivowels
Voiceless
Voiced
w
j
Figure 1: Diagram of consonant phonemes in English in terms of three physical
dimensions: place of articulation, manner of articulation, and voicing.
66
-p - spot, pill
-pp - apply, happen, support
-ph shepherd [:Sepd]
-pe ape, tape, ripe.
But we have the word concept [kspt], where the sound p is pronounced
67
- a nasally released variant, when [b] is followed by a nasal consonant, e.g. obnoxious,
abnormal, ribbon, submerge;
- a laterally exploded variant, when [b] is followed by [l], e.g. stable, cable, blow, bubble.
Production:
1. Follow the steps for [p], but start to produce voice at the same time that your lips close.
2. Dont press the lips as firmly or hold them together as long as you did for [p].
Spelling:
1. Read the following list of words which illustrate the various phonetic values
of [p]:
aspirated
unaspirated unreleased
peel
pet
part
Paul
powder
speak
spend
span
Spartan
spot
adopt
prompt
kept
roped
keep track
laterally
released
play
uplift
apple
couple
simple
nasally
released
open
happen
hypnotic
stop news
shrapnel
2. Read the following list of words which illustrate the various phonetic values
of [b]:
partially
devoiced
bee
boat
bartender
Berlin
beam
bend
Boston
fully voiced
plosionless
lobby
above
Moby Dick
nabob
obey
about
abacus
subdued
object
grabbed
subpoena
web
snob
tube
laterally
released
blame
cable
bubble
probable
able
emblem
sublime
nasally
released
ribbon
submerge
crabmeat
submarine
obnoxious
abnormal
urban
3. Read the following minimal pairs containing the [p] and [b] sounds:
[p] and [b] in initial position
peak [pHi:k] beak [bi:k]
pack [pQk] back [bQk]
port [pH:t]
bought [b:t]
pride [praid] bride [braid]
pat [pQt]
bat [bQt]
pit [pit]
park [pHa:k]
pull [pul]
plays [pleiz]
pie [pai]
bit [bit]
bark [ba:k]
bull [bul]
blaze [bleiz]
buy/by [bai]
68
pen
Ben
rope [rUp]
tripe [traip]
wrap [rQp]
cap [kQp]
robe [rUb]
tribe [traib]
grab [grQb]
cab [kQb]
69
d hand, duty
dd - hidden, address
de rude, blade
-ed- loved, cured
unaspirated unreleased
time
tool
talk
tar
torch
tooth
tale
stop
stain
stool
disturb
astonish
still
steak
hot dog
night bar
cost price
night cap
smart
lost
scout
laterally
released
cattle
little
at last
settle
battle
parental
total
nasally
released
hot news
mutton
cotton
bottom
bitten
kitten
certain
70
Partially
devoiced
fully voiced
plosionless
laterally
released
nasally
released
double
day
deal
deer
date
duck
dust
damp
adore
ado
Teddy
lady
cider
soda
body
odor
sad
changed
amazed
under
made
code
wide
aid
saddle
riddle
cradle
handle
middle
paddle
dwindle
poodle
sadness
admission
hardness
cadmium
sudden
hidden
redness
shouldnt
6. Read the following minimal pairs based on the distinction between [t] and
[d]:
two
ten
do
den
torn
tie
dawn
die
rider
ladder
widish
kiddy
madder
bidder
wetting
water
putting
knotted
rated
shutter
wedding
warder
pudding
nodded
raided
shudder
bed
laid
said
feed
cod
heart
sight
brought
hit
shoot
hard
side
broad
hid
shooed
71
unaspirated unreleased
keep
call
kite
core
cane
cause
key
scrap
scale
school
scholastic
ascribe
escort
ski
action
contract
electricity
locked
chalk
smoke
stick
laterally
released
clover
climate
club
freckle
pickle
cluster
acclaim
nasally
released
reckon
bacon
acknowledge
thicken
8. Practise the sound [g] in the following words, trying to pronounce correctly
its variants:
72
partially
devoiced
go
guide
game
goose
guess
gown
fully voiced
plosionless
tiger
ago
logo
foggy
toga
begin
rugby
fig tree
plug
tango
vogue
mug
laterally
released
glory
glimmer
struggle
wriggle
igloo
single
nasally
released
organ
ignite
dignity
rigmarole
signature
fragment
9. Keep the [k] and [g] apart in the following minimal pairs:
cave
curl
cap
class
gave
girl
gap
glass
card
could
coal
crow
guard
good
goal
grow
pick
back
lack
pig
bag
lag
dock
lock
Dick
dog
log
dig
Let's remember...
There are 7 plosives in English: [p], [b], [t],[d], [k], [g], and [/]. The first 6
are not very different from the Romanian counterparts (except for [t], which in
American English may sound as [d] or as something close to [r]).
73
The forms with left-, lft- were used in the Army whereas in the Navy the alternative forms with lt-, let-,
lu:t- were current.
74
vast [va:st]
veal [vi:l]
vole [vUl]
very [veri]
van [vQn]
few [fju:]
fear [fi]
file [fail]
fat [fQt]
fail [feil]
view [vju:]
veer [vi]
vile [vail]
vat [vQt]
veil [veil]
prooving [:pru:viN]
savour [:seiv]
divide [di:vaid]
reviews [ri:vju:z]
75
benevolent.
-Did you receive a Valentine from your lover?
-They proved that the levels were even.
-Olivias fianc believed that her sylphlike figure was effectively featured in
her effervescent offering of flamenco.
-Vivienne vacations at Valetta the first fourteen days of February.
5.5.2. The interdental fricatives [T
T], [D
D]
The two interdental fricative sounds [T] and [D] are articulated by pressing the tip of the
tongue against the upper teeth. The tip of the tongue may actually be projected out between
the upper and lower teeth in the case of some speakers. Since the Romanian speakers of
English very frequently have problems in uttering these soundes, here are the stepts they
need to follow in order to get them right.
Open your mouth until your teeth are slightly apart.
Round the tip of your tongue; dont try to point it too sharply.
Place your tongue so that it protrudes very slightly between your upper and lower front
teeth.
Force the breathstream to come out between your tongue and teeth. Dont press too tightly;
you will end up forcing the sound.
For the [D] sound, add voice as soon as you feel your tongue touch your teeth.
The phoneme [T
T]
[T
T] is described as the interdental, voiceless, fortis fricative
Distribution: - initial: thief, thick
- medial: ethics, lethal, method
- final: earth, smith, path
Spelling: the sound is represented by the digraph 'th'
- when followed by r: three, through, throw;
- when it appears initially in nouns, verbs and adjectives: thirst, thought, to think, to thank,
thorough, thin, think;
- when it appears medially in words of non-Germanic origin: author, monophthong,
method.
The phoneme [D
D]
[D
D] is defined as an interdental, voiced, lenis, fricative
Distribution: - initial: there, though
- medial: leather, gather
- final: with, soothe
Spelling: th
- initially in adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions and articles: there, this, thus, though, the:
- medially in words of Germanic origin: father, mother, another, brother.
A change from [T] to [D] can take place in final position
- when it marks the change from noun to verb: bath [ba:T] - bathe [beiD]
76
- when a singular noun ending in [T] preceded by a long sound is turned into plural: bath
[ba:T] - baths [ba:Dz], path - paths.
12. Read aloud the following words, phrases and sentences in which the sound
[T] occurs frequently:
three
theory
thorough
thick
throw
thrush
throat
therapy
thistle
method
author
ethical
diphthong
lethal
healthy
atheist
toothpaste
lethargic
a thorough method
ethnic pathways
a thousand toothpicks
three bathrobes
both
death
wealth
mouth
depth
warmth
earth
growth
south
thick thumb
thought nothing
youthful theme
fourth birthday
pathetic thug
mammoth theft
third Thursday
thirsty throng
mother
although
together
other
worthy
leather
rhythm
wither
neither
breathe
with
bathe
loathe
clothe
soothe
teethe
seethe
scathe
their mother
father is there
77
gather together
farther and farther
other feather
either mother or father
78
Spelling: s (in the morphemes -(e)s which stand for the plural of nouns, the 3rd person
singular verbs, and the synthetical genitive) when the letter s is preceded by a voiced
sound: loves, goes, blows, smells, Doras; se hose; z: lazy, zoo, zone; ze: seize, ooze; zz:
jazz, dizzy; cz: czar /za;/; ss: dissolve, possess, scissors, x xylophone, xerox.
14. Read the following phrases and sentences containing the sound [s]. Adjust
your tongue to produce the clearest, strongest [s]:
set aside
kiss Sarah
safe and sound
sad sermon
solar system
-
silk suit
purchase price
Sweet Swan of Avon
tasteless lettuce
classic ceiling
sing a song
pass the salt
sexy Swiss hats
actress address
deceitful policy
15. Read the following words, phrases and sentences containing the [z] sound:
zero
zealous
zip
zombie
zone
zebra
zoo
zone
zinc
zipper
buzzing bees
noisy music
was it his
-
present
observe
prism
dosing
daisy
rosy
risen
music
easy
possess
loves
booze
rose
blouse
cause
falls
breeze
gaze
wise
because
zodiac zone
hazy days
amazing news
busy Tuesday
amazing design
Xerox disaster
79
80
From a phonetic point of view, the intrusive 'r' is also flapped. Its alternative pronunciation
is the glottal stop.
Spelling: r - rose, rain, ritual; rr - ferry, berry; wr - wrap, write, wrong; rh - rheumatism,
rhapsody, rhetoric, rhythm.
16. Read the following words, phrases and sentences containing the sound [r].
reef
rag
ring
right
rest
riddle
rheumatism
reverend
rare
grass
crowd
train
brand
bread
arrive
curious
surround
aggressive
Brooklyn Bridge
broken promises
his brothers bride
pouring rain
pride and prejudice
very direct
rake
write
wreck
rock
roam
raid
robber
wrong
ride
narrow
berry
hurry
carrot
worry
terrific
circular
direct
merry
Great Britain
broad protection
red herring
hurry around
red roses
narrow corridor
-Strawberries, raspberries and red-currants, with real cream are really very
refreshing.
-This train and its trucks are trapped by a tree-trunk across the track.
-Three hundred readers used the library reading room in the period from
February to April, reports the librarian.
-He roamed around the room to find the rake.
-The carrier was on the rural route.
-April gives us freedom from the trials of winter.
-Its rare to find a real pearl.
-The red ferry went in the wrong direction.
-Ralph has the list of rules for the raffle.
-The florist hurried across the road.
-I roamed around the room to find the rake.
-He worried that the tar would ruin the rug.
81
nation
fishmonger
intention
machine
cushion
usher
fashion
tissue
ocean
tension
bush
blush
splash
ambush
fresh
crush
moustache
Spanish
slash
foolish
ocean ships
short shower
fashion shoe
fish dish
spatial relations
shrill shriek
wash the dish
shine a shoe
-She shouldnt have mentioned her shameful mission in front of the bishop.
-She washes her hair with fresh shampoo.
-Its a sure sign of shock.
-Shall I wear my new fashionable shawl?
-She sells seashells by the seashore.
-She relished the thought of looking for shells at the shore.
82
Asian vision
visual mirage
beige garage
83
84
Spelling: ch: cheap, teacher, bachelor; tch: catch, butcher; t + ure, eous: nature,
furniture, righteous; t+ ion: suggestion, indigestion, question.
Rare spelling: cz as in Czech [tSek].
As a rule, medial [t] + [j] gives the assimilated [tS]:
mutual [:mju:tjul] or [:mju:tSul],
actual [:Qktjul] or [:QktSul]
literature [litr:tju]or [:lit()rtS]
The non-assimilated forms are regarded as pedantic.
The phoneme [dZ
Z]
[dZ
Z] is described as the voiced, lenis, palato-alveolar affricate.
Distribution: - initial: gin, jest, jar, Jew, jerk, joke
- medial: midget, margin, fragile, urgent, orgy, adjacent, major, danger
- final: ridge, edge, judge, sponge, change
Spelling: j: jug, jaw, jam, judge; g: general, gymnastics; dg: midget, judge; gg: suggest;
dj: adjective, adjacent.
Untypical spelling: gaol [dZeil], Greenwich [:gri:nidZ], Qorwich [:nridZ], soldier,
spinach [spinidZ].
The sound [dZ
Z] may result from the assimilated [d + j], as in did you [didju] [didZ],
would you [wudZ].
19. Keep the [tS[ and [dZ] apart in the following words:
[tSS ] and [dZ
Z] in initial position
chin [tSin]
gin [dZin]
cheer [tSi]
jeer [dZi]
choke [tSUk] joke [dZUk]
choice [tSis] Joyce [dZis]
chain [tSein]
chest [tSest]
chunk [tSN]
cheap [tSi:p]
Jane [dZein]
jest [dZest]
junk [dZN]
Jeep [dZi:p]
85
search
catch
H [eitS]
surge
cadge
age [eidZ]
86
Spelling: n: name, hunter; nn: annoy, inn, funny; ne: tune, phone; kn, gn, pn: know,
knight, gnat, gnaw, sign, pneumonia.
Silent n. In the final cluster -mn the letter n is not pronounced: solemn [:slm],
autumn [::tm], damn [dQm]. When adding verbal morphemes (e.g. ing, -ed) to such
words, the letter n remains silent: damning [dQmiN], damned [dQmd]. In the
corresponding derivative adjectives, adverbs and nouns, the letter n is pronounced:
autumnal [:tmnl], damnation [dQm:neiSn], solemnity [s:lemniti].
Syllabic [n] appears in such words as cotton [:k - tn], sudden, oven, southern, listen,
mission, vision.
The phoneme [N
N]
[N
N] is described as the velar, lenis, nasal consonant.
In Old English [N] was an allophone of the phoneme [n] in a velar context. In present-day
English [n] and [N] are in a relation of distinctive opposition to each other: sin vs. sing, kin
vs. king, robin vs. robbing.
Distribution: - medial: singer, finger, hanger, anxiety, angle, monkey, uncle
- final: sing, wrong, tongue
the sound NEVER appears in initial position:
the sound does not appear after long vowels or diphthongs.
Spelling: n + k: uncle [Nkl], monkey [mNki], conquer, wrinkle, ankle; n + g: finger
[fiNg], English [iNgliS], language, hungry.
AOTE: The cluster ng is pronounced as [Ng] a) medially in a word when it is not
immediately followed by a suffix: e.g. linger, mingle, singular, anger, language; b) when
it occurs at the end of a stem which is immediately followed by the comparative or
superlative suffixes er and est: e.g. longer, longest, stronger, strongest. Elsewhere, ng
is pronounced [N], i.e. word-finally: sing, long, tongue, thing, or medially, before suffixes
other than the comparative er and the superlative est: singer, hanger, longing.
The word-final letters nk are always pronounced as two sounds: link [liNk], monk
[mNk], drink [driNk].
20. Read aloud the following words, phrases and sentences in which [m]
appears frequently:
maid
milkman
mice
Mark
mastermind
mayday
mouse
mistake
metal
amount
summer
comfort
clumsy
thimble
lemon
demand
camera
woman
same
autumn
comb
phlegm
rhyme
rhythm
broom
synonym
crumb
87
amount of money
remember me
summer time
team name
time bomb
tempt me
annoy
union
pension
undertake
concept
antique
a thin man
nobody knocked
wounded knee
earn
burn
nun
loan
fun
happen
nine nuns
never naughty
annoying granny
nineteen needles
Nancys knitting
a tin can
-Naughty Nancy has bent the knitting needles and knotted Nannys knitting.
-Henry hands his nephew Nigel a brand-new pound-note on Sundays.
-Norman Brown signs his name again and again with a fine pen line.
-Jane needed a can-opener for the ninety-nine cans.
-She began knitting mittens in November.
-We used satin-finish varnish on the furniture.
22. Practise the sound [N] in the following words, phrases and sentences:
thing
herring
wrong
strong
gang
singer
longing
hanger
banking
finger
a ringed finger
strong hanger
asking the singer
staying among
doing wrong
amazing things
88
little Lucy
lonely lady
faulty link
lame lion
late lunch
smell of garlic
89
90
yet
yacht
yesterday
universe
unique
year
Utah
beauty
value
due
new
nephew
cupid
onion
music
tune
rescue
mutual
humour
popular
communicate
a new suit
a yelping yapping terrier
European University yellow onion
-Young Una is beautiful and alluring in her superb new yellow tunic.
-Unas tutor, Hugo, is an amusing humorous musician.
-Hugos tuneful duet for tube and euphonium is musically unique.
-The problem of uranium disposal has become universal.
-Some musicians use popular folk tunes to produce music which goes beyond
the usual.
-Onions grown in the yard usually produce yearnings for yeasty bullions.
25. Practise the semivowel [w] in the following words, phrases and sentences:
window
once
William
water
wave
windy weather
water waves
wine
one
waiter
Welsh
wishbone
twenty
always
dwindle
quit
tweed
weeping Wilma
twenty dwarves
twice
twinkle
quality
square
dwarf
watered-down wine
quiet waiter
91
5.10 Summary
This chapter is the last in our endeavour of presenting the sounds of the English
language (in this particular case the consonants) individually, out of any contexts. We
have seen the way in which these sounds how each consonant is produced (from the
point of view of the articulators involved, the involvement or non-involvement of the
vocal cords, and theway in which the obstruction produced by the articulators is
overcome). We have provided as many important details as possible concenring the
distribution and the spelling possibilities for each and every consonant. Moreover, we
insisted on those sounds that do not exist in Romanian and which we assume may
pose problems to the Romanian speakers of English.
5.11. Evaluation
92
4. For each group, identify the segment that differs in manner of articulation
from the other three.
a. /n/, /f/, /s/, /z/
b. /v/, /h/, /d/, //
c. //, /r/, /d/, /h/
5. For each group, identify the segment that differs in place of articulation
from the other three.
a. /s/, /t/, /t/, /n/
b. /k/, /n/, /g/, //
c. //, /p/, /b/, /m/
6. The transcription /ri t/ represents the word
a. reach
c. ridge
b. rich
d. reach
7. Give the English sounds corresponding to the following simplified
descriptions:
a. voiced, alveolar fricative;
b. voiceless, velar plosive;
c. voiceless, palatal fricative;
d. voiced, alveolar plosive.
e. voiced, labio-dental fricative;
f. voiceless, interdental fricative;
g. voiceless, glottal plosive.
8. Each of the following purports to be an articulatory description of English
consonantal sound. Which of these descriptions are representations of actual
English sounds, and which are impossible features?
a. voiceless, labio-dental fricative;
b. voiceless, apico-velar plosive;
c. voiceless, glottal fricative:
d. voiceless, bilabial fricative;
e. voiced, apico-dental (interdental) fricative;
f. voiceless, dorso-velar fricative.
9. Identify the words made up of the sounds corresponding to the following
articulatory descriptions:
a. voiceless, fortis, bilabial plosive; front, close, short, lax, unrounded
vowel; voiceless, fortis, velar plosive.
b. voiced, lenis, bilabial plosive; back, close, short, lax, rounded vowel;
voiceless, fortis, velar plosive.
c. alveolar, voiceless, fortis plosive; narrow, closing diphthong (glide
to [i]); voiceless, alveolar fricative; alveolar, voiceless, fortis plosive.
10. Give the articulatory description of the sounds which make up the
following words: front, nasal, velar.
11. Find minimal pairs (whenever possible in all basic positions - initial,
medial and final-) for the following English phonemes: [s : z], [p : b], [tS : dZ],
93
94
c. Is there any reason to state this rule as one in which // becomes /D/, rather
than a rule in which /D/ becomes //? Explain. (Parker & Riley, 2005:123).
95
6.3. Juncture
The articulation of any vowel or consonant pronounced in isolation is characterized by
three stages:
- the on-glide (initial stage) during which the speech organs take up the position
necessary for the production of the respective speech sound;
- the retention (medial stage), during which the articulators preserve this position
for a given period of time;
96
- the off-glide (final stage), during which the organs of speech move away to a
neutral position.
These articulatory stages are most obvious in the production of the plosives (stops).
Graphically, this could be represented in the following way:
Example
b2
b1
b3
b1 = initial stage
b2 = medial stage
b3 = final stage
Except for a few cases, when a given phoneme is also a word (e.g. eye, I [ai]), in actual
speech sounds are not produced in isolation, but merge and blend into one another. This
means that all the speech sounds within a given word (and very often at the boundaries of
words) are connected by the stages of their articulation. The transition from one speech
sound to the next is called juncture.
The way in which sounds are linked together (i.e. the manner in which the transition from
one sound to the next is carried out) in order to form syllables, words and longer stretches
of speech depends to a large extent on the similarity between the respective sounds, more
exactly on the amount of articulatory movements performed by the organs of speech to go
from one position they assumed for the production of a given sound to the position
required by the immediately following sound. Thus, we can speak of mainly two types of
juncture:
close (muddy) juncture
open (sharp) juncture
6.3.1. Close juncture is the normal, uninterrupted transition from one speech sound to the
next (as within a word). For instance, the sequence of sounds [b] and [a:] pronounced
separately, without any link, will not constitute a word.
b2
a:2
b1
b3
a:1
a:3
But the same sequence pronounced with a close connection between the elements will
make up the word bar [ba:]. This means that the off-glide or release stage of [b] will merge
with the on-glide of [a:]. Thus, the final stage of [b] and the first stage of [a:] will be
almost simultaneous. The transition from [b] to [a:] is close.
b1
b2
b3 a1
a:2
a3
The close type of juncture occurs between two sounds that are different enough from one
another to require a significant movement of the speech organs from one position to
97
another. Consequently, it is the typical kind of juncture that appears between a consonant
and a vowel or between two consonants or two vowels differing greatly in manner and
point of articulation.
The transition becomes even closer when the adjacent sounds are of an identical or similar
character. For instance, in the so-called double-peaked consonants i.e. combinations in
which the same consonant appears twice in succession at the boundary of morphemes or
words a special act of inter-penetration takes place. As a result, the off-glide of the first
sound and the on-glide of the second sound will disappear. Here are some examples: short
time, part-time, stop pushing, big girl.
The double-peaked consonant [-t t-] in short time [S:ttaim] can be graphically represented
as follows:
t2
t2
t1
t3
In this representation there is one on-glide (t1), a prolonged retention (t2 t 2) and one offglide (t3). The sequence t2 t2 does not result in a longer t-sound, but in a change of the
tenseness of the articulation, decreasing with the first and increasing with the second
6.3.2. Open juncture (as before a pause) occurs when it is necessary to mark the
boundaries between words. So, there is a break at speech boundaries. If we take the
sequence [smdresiz], it may mean summer dresses, some addresses or some are dresses,
according to the different types of juncture:
Example
open j.
summer dresses [sm
dresiz]
open j.
some adresses [sm dresiz]
open j. open j.
some are dresses [sm
dresiz]
Some other examples of different types of juncture providing evidence in support of this
linguistic function are: [neim] an aim/a name, [naismQn] an iceman/a nice man,
[aiskri:m] ice-cream/I scream, [DQtstf] thats tough/that stuff, [DQtsp:t] that
sport/thats port. In all these examples, identical numbers of phonemes are arranged in
exactly the same order. Still, if we take a closer look we will identify some slight
differences in sound quality. Thus, the [p] sound in thats port is aspirated, as it appears in
98
initial position, followed by a long vowel in a stressed syllable. On the other hand, [p] in
that sport is unaspirated, being preceded by [s].
As far as the way in which the speakers pass from one sound to the other is concerned, we
can state that there are differences between English and Romanian. In Romanian the
transition between two sounds belonging to two adjoining syllables is fast and abrupt. In
English, the transition is slower and gradual. English speakers keep their tongue on the
move so that they anticipate the new sound faster, while continuing to preserve the quality
of the preceding sound over the following one. This phenomenon of anticipating and
continuation of sound feature results in more cases of assimilation and elision of sounds in
English than in Romanian.
Let's remember...
Juncture is defined as the transition from one sound to the next in connected
speech. There are two types of juncture, namely close (uninterrupted) and
open (interrupted). Due to the fact that identical strings of sounds may have
different interpretations depending on the types of juncture that appear
between certain segments in such strings, this phenomenon is considered to
be a suprasegmental phoneme.
6.4. Assimilation
In connected speech sounds are pronounced in a linked fashion as they are connected by
the stages of their articulation. As a result, the articulation of one sound may influence the
articulation of the neighbouring sounds in such a way as to make them similar to itself.
This process is called assimilation. The process can be explained in terms of economy of
articulation movement and of a change in the direction of least resistance and greater
simplicity.
Assimilation is something which varies in extent according to speaking rate and style: it is
more likely to be found in rapid, casual speech and less likely in slow, careful speech.
Sometimes, the difference caused by assimilation is very noticeable, and sometimes it is
hardly perceptible.
In the case of assimilation, we could speak of two types of sounds:
- the assimilating sound8 (A), i.e. the sound influencing the articulation of the
neighbouring one, and
- the assimilated sound9 (B), i.e. the sound whose articulation suffers a
modification under the influence of a neighbouring sound, or as Radford et al (2000:109)
put it, the sound that acquires a specification for some feature or a set of features from the
trigger.
6.4.1. If we take into account the direction in which assimilation works, we can classify
the assimilating process into three types:
a) progressive assimilation, working from left to right, in which a given phoneme
influences the immediately following one. This type of assimilation is based on the
continuation of some of the features of the respective sound after having started the
pronunciation of the next one10.
8
Radford et al (2000) name this sound the trigger for assimilation (p.109)
Radford et al (2000) name this sound the target of the assimilation (p.109)
10
This is why this type of assimilation is also known as perseverative (cf. Lass, 1995:171)
9
99
Example
loves [lvz] - -in this example the voiced sound [v] determines a voiced
realization of the morpheme s
A
B
[v]
[s]
[z]
- likes [laiks], liked [laikt]: -in these examples the voiceless sound [k]
determines a voiceless realization of the above-mentioned morphemes.
b) regressive assimilation in which a sound changes under the influence of the
immediately following one. Regressive assimilation is based on the anticipation of one or
more features of the second sound before completing the first one11.
Example
cupboard [kbbd] - in this example the voiced bilabial plosive [b] assimilates
the voiceless plosive [p] turning it into a similar sound, i.e. [b].
B
[p]
A
[b]
[b]
subpoena [sppin] - here the voiceless bilabial plosive [p] assimilates its
voiced counterpart [b], turning it into a p-sound.
c) reciprocal (bi-directional)12 assimilation, in which the phonemes involved in
an assimilation process influence each other to an equal extent. An example of reciprocal
assimilation is offered by the word train, where [r] is partially devoiced under the
influence of the voiceless [t], while [t] itself becomes post-alveolar (instead of alveolar)
under the influence of the post-alveolar [r].
A special case of reciprocal assimilation is coalescence in which two adjacent phonemes
mix so intimately that they give birth to a third one. Thus, the two phonemes [d] and [j]
may coalesce (fuse) and be realized as [dZ] in a rapid pronunciation of did you? [did j]
[didZ
Z], what you see [wtS si:]:
A
d
11
12
B
j
100
dZ
The output of a fusion is usually a compromise segment: in the example above, the
alveolarity of the first element ([d]) and the palatality of the second ([j]) meet halfway in a
retracted alveolar with a raised tongue-body.
6.4.2. If we consider the features that are assimilated, we come to another classification of
the process of assimilation. Generally speaking, the cases that have been described are
assimilations affecting consonants. In what way can a consonant change? We have seen
(chapter 5) that the main differences between consonants are of three types:
- in place of articulation;
- in manner of articulation;
- in voicing.
Parallel to this, we can identify:
a) Assimilation of place of articulation. Sounds may change their place of articulation
under the influence of a neighbouring sound; this change may be allophonic or phonetic. In
the latter situation, sounds assimilate to the place of articulation of the assimilating sound.
Consider the following examples: that person [DQp p:sn], that cake [DQk keik], bright
colour [braik kl], gone past [gm pa:st], this year [DiS ji].
Another example of assimilation of place is represented by the so-called homorganic nasal
assimilation (Katamba, 1989:88), i.e. a nasal sound shares the place of articulation of the
following consonant. Consider the following examples:
A
B
in [in] inappropriate
un[n] uninteresting
[im] inplausible (implausible)
[n] unpretentious
[in] indecent
[n] undeserving
[iN] ingratitude
[n] ungrateful
This kind of assimilation is not universal, as the prefix un-, which also ends in [n], does
not undergo assimilation.
So far we have presented examples assimilation occurring between consonants, i.e. one
consonant acquires the place features of another consonant. But this process can be seen in
terms of whether a vowel or a consonant acquires the vowel or consonant features,
respectively, of a neighbouring segment. Two sub-types of assimilation of place involving
the acquisition of vowel features by consonants are palatalisation and labialisation.
A. Palatalisation
Katamba (1986:88) gives the following examples:
key [kji:]13
car [ka:]
[ka: kji:z]
keep [kji:p] calm [ka:m]
[kji:p ka:m]
13
Katamba (1989:88) indicates the palatalised consonants by a subscript (+) under the consonant. I preferred
the traditional diacritic (j), placed at the top of the consonant symbol.
101
In each case, when a velar consonant is followed by a front vowel, there is a slight
anticipatory fronting of the part of the tongue that blocks the air. Thus, the obstacle is not
produced at the back of the mouth cavity, but in the palatal area. The effect of the fronting
is that the velar consonant is produced partly in the palatal region. This process is called
palatalisation.
B. Labialisation
Labialisation is another process by means of which a vowel feature can be acquired by
consonants. Consider the following examples:
peel [pi:l]
pool [pwu:l]
teal [ti:l]
tool [twu:l]
The words in the second column are pronounced with some lip rounding. Anticipating the
next segment, which is a rounded vowel, the speaker starts rounding the lips before the
articulation of the consonant is completed. The diacritical mark used in phonetic
transcriptions to render labialisation is a raised (w) after a consonant, i.e. [Cw].
b) Assimilation of manner of articulation appears in the case of the coalescence of the
plosives [t] and [d] and the semivowel [j], resulting in the affricates [tS] and [dZ] that have
a different manner of articulation (see 6.4).
The negative prefix in- mentioned above, can also be affected by assimilation of manner of
articulation, as shown below:
in - + logical
illogical
in- + licit
illicit
in- + rational
irrational
in- + resolute
irresolute.
What these examples show is that before that begin with /l/ or /r/, the nasal sound of the
prefix assimilates the manner of articulation features of the liquids, so that /n/ becomes [l]
before roots beginning with a /l/ and [r] before roots beginning with /r/. Just like in the case
of the assimilation of place of articulation related to this prefix, this alternation is not
conditioned purely phonetically, since [n] can be followed by [l] or [r] in words such as
unloved or unreasonable. Katamba (1986:92) points out that in fact, this is a historical
assimilation which took place in Latin, and is simply reflected in modern English through
Latin borrowings.
c) Assimilation affecting voicing is best illustrated by the examples of words marked by
the inflection of the plural/of the possessive genitive/of the 3rd person singular, present
tense: comes [kmz], Johns [dZnz], girls [g:lz], but sits [sits], Alecs [Qleks], cats
[kQts].
The alternation in the shape of the morpheme is phonologically conditioned. This means
that the allomorphs (i.e. alternative realisations of a morpheme) are determined by the
sounds found in adjacent morphemes. Thus, the allomorphs of the plural morpheme and
the third person singular being [-z, -s, -iz], the suffix agrees in voicing with the preceding
sound.
Out of these three types presented above, assimilation of place is most clearly observable.
Assimilation creates something of a problem for the phoneme theory; when, for example,
102
[d] in good becomes [g] in the context good girl [gugg:l] or [b] in the context good boy
[gubbi], should we say that one phoneme has been substituted for another? If we do this,
how do we describe assimilation in good thing where [d] becomes dental before the [T] of
thing, or in good food, where [d] becomes a labio-dental plosive phoneme before [f] in
food? English has no labio-dental or dental plosives, so in these cases although there is
clearly assimilation, we cannot say that there is substitution of a phoneme for another. The
alternative is to say that assimilation causes a phoneme to be realized by a different
allophone: this would mean that, in the case of [gug g:l] and [gub bi], the phoneme [d] of
good has velar and bilabial allophones. Traditionally, phonemes were supposed not to
overlap in their allophones, so that the only plosives that could have allophones with
bilabial place of articulation were [p], [b]. This restriction is no longer looked on as so
important.
The task of foreign learners of English with respect to assimilation is a very complex one.
If we want their pronunciation to be as native-like as possible, then they should use the
assimilated forms of the English sounds just like the English speakers do. But even if they
do not use certain non-obligatory assimilations, especially those of an extreme nature
which destroy the identity of words, e.g. [dZmeik] for did you make her?, they should
nevertheless be aware of their existence if they want to understand the familiar speech of
native speakers.
Let's remember...
Depending on the direction of the process, assimilation is of 3 types:
progressive, regressive and reciprocal (mutual). From the point of view of the
features that can change in rapid speech, we have assimilation of manner of
articulation, assimilation of place of articulation, and assimilation of voicing.
6.5. Elision
The nature of elision can be stated quite simply: under certain circumstances sounds
disappear, or are omitted altogether, especially in clusters when in unstressed position. As
with assimilation, elision is typical of rapid, casual speech. Producing elision is something
which foreign learners do not need to do, but it is important for them to be aware that when
native speakers of English talk to each other, quite a number of phonemes that the
foreigner might expect to hear are not actually pronounced.
Elision may affect both vowels and consonants.
a) Elision of vowels
The vowels that are elided most frequently are [i] and [], when they appear in unaccented
syllables.
-[
] may be lost:
- when preceded by a consonant and followed by [l] or [r]:
temporary [:temprri], police [pli:s], generous [dZenrs], secretary;
- when followed by linking r and the next word begins with
another []: neither of us [naiDrvs].
-[i] may be lost in such words as difficult [:difklt], university [ju:ni:v:sti], family
[fQmli].
103
b) Elision of consonants
In clusters, consonants were lost at an earlier date in the history of English. For instance,
[t], [s] and [l] were omitted in words like island, listen, calm. In clusters of three plosives
or two plosives and a fricative, the middle plosive may disappear, so that the following
pronunciation results: acts [Qks], looked back [lukbQk], scripts [skrips].
Example
The initial consonant is omitted in know, gnaw, wrinkle, psychiatry. The final [b] and [n]
are omitted when preceded by [m]: comb [km], autumn [::tm]. The digraph gh is lost
in words like caught [k:t], bought [b:t], whereas the final v-sound in of is lost before
consonants: lots of them [ltsDm], waste of money [weistmni].
It is difficult to know whether contractions of grammatical words should be regarded as
examples of elision or not. The fact that they are regularly represented with special spelling
forms makes them seem rather different from the above examples. The best known cases
are:
- had, would spelt d, pronounced [d] after vowels, [d] after consonants, e.g. hed
[hi:d/hid];
- is, has spelt s, pronounced [s] after fortis consonants, [z] after lenis consonants, except
that after [s, z, S, Z, t, d] is is pronounced [iz] and has is pronounced [z] in contracted
forms;
- will spelt ll, pronounced [l] after vowels, and [] after consonants;
- have spelt ve, pronounced [v] after vowels, and [v] after consonants;
- not spelt nt, pronounced [nt];
- are spelt re, pronounced [] after vowels, usually with some change in the preceding
vowels, e.g. you [ju:] youre [ju], they [Dei] theyre [DE]. Contracted are is also
pronounced as [] or [r] when following a consonant.
6.6. Summary
In this unit we have seen that the characteristic features of sounds as pronounced in
isolation change once we combine them into larger structures (syllables or words).
This is due to the fact that neighbouring sounds tend to influence each other. This
influence results mainly in two basic phenomena: assimilation and elision.
104
6.7. Evaluation
1. Is the individual quality of sounds as pronounced in isolation preserved
when they are used in connected speech?
2. What are the three stages distinguishable in the production of a given
sound?
3. How are sounds joined together in connected speech?
4. Which are the most important phonetic phenomena (processes) that occur in
connected speech?
5. How is the transition from one sound to the other fulfilled?
6. Give examples of close and open juncture.
7. What is the direction of the adjustments of the articulatory movements?
8. What is the name of the process consisting of a change in at least one
feature in the articulation of a sound in a word or at word boundaries, which is
due to the tendency of the speakers of a language to achieve a certain degree
of similarity in the pronunciation of contiguous sounds?
9. Describe and illustrate by examples the three types of assimilation:
progressive, regressive and reciprocal.
10. Give the phonetic transcription of the following phrases and sentences.
What kind of assimilation takes place in them?
right place
those shoes
hit you
gone past
plant carrots
kid you
that girl
this year
I miss you
11. Transcribe the following English joke and explain by what phonetic
process it has become a source of humour?
Mr. Smith: My wife has just left for the West Indies.
Mr. Brown: Jamaica?
Mr. Smith: No, of her own accord.
12. Listed below are several variants of one of the English prefixes meaning
'not'. Examine their distribution and explain the instances of assimilation:
Variant
Found in
[im] immature, imperfect, impartial, implausible, imbalance, immortal,
[in] inoperative, indecent, innocent, indedible, inaudible, interminable
[iN] incomplete, incapable, incorrigible, inglorious, ingratitude
[ir] irregular, irresponsible, irreversible, irresistable, irrespective
[il]
illegal, illegible, illogical, illiterate, illegitimate
13. Define elision and specify whether it affects: a) only vowels; b) only
105
106
7.2. Competences
Having covered the material in this unit, the students will be able to identify the
basic constituents of the English syllable; they will be also expected to identify wellformed onsets and codas of the English syllables. Moreover, they will able to divide the
English words into the appropriate syllables.
As we have seen in the previous chapter, the sounds of a language are not uttered in
isolation, but combine in order to form larger linguistic units. The first higher unit into
which sounds are combined is the syllable. The combination of the sounds in the syllable
does not occur at random, but in a certain manner determined by the phonological system
of each language. This system imposes certain restrictions on the combinatorial choice at
the beginning and end of a syllable. But what is a syllable?
107
tS
108
109
110
S+ initial cons.
splash
spring
spew
stream
stew
sclerosis
scream
squirrel skew
Of the following list of consonant clusters, find the ones that can appear in
word-initial position in English:
bl; kl; dl; pl; tl; ml; nl; sl; Sl, Tl; kr; br; tr; dr; gr, mr, nr, Dr, Zr, hr, dZr, tzr, st,
pt, bt, ft, zt, St, ht, pk, rk, sgl, sk, spr.
7.4.2. The final segment (coda)
As mentioned earlier, in the final segment we find the possibility of up to four consonants.
- If a syllable does not end in a consonant, e.g. sky [skai], we say that there is a zero coda.
- When the nucleus is followed by one consonant only, this is called the final consonant.
Any consonant may be a final consonant, except [h, r, w, j].
e.g. cub, hat, man, girl, king, kiss
- A syllable may end in two or more consonants. In this case we speak about final
consonant clusters.
Two-consonant clusters are of two types:
111
+ final consonant
e.g. lump [lmp], tent [tent], tank [tQNk], belt [belt], task [ta:sk]
b. final consonant + post-final consonant [s, z, t, d, T]
e.g. cats [kQts], heads [hedz], packed [pQkt], loved [lvd], fifth [fifT].
The post-final consonants can often be identified as separate morphemes, i.e. the plural
morpheme, the past tense morpheme and the ordinal numeral morpheme.
Final three-consonant clusters are also of two types:
a. clusters made up of a pre-final + final + post-final consonant.
Pre-final + final
+ post-final
milked [mi
t]
thanked [TQ
t]
golfs
[ g
twelfth [twe
l
l
f
f
s]
T]
b. The second type of three-consonant clusters is made up of one final consonant followed
by two post-final consonants:
fifths [fi
widths [wi
lapsed [lQ
final
f
d
p
+ post-final1 + post-final2
T
s]
T
s]
s
t]
+
p
k
p
final
+ post-final1 +post-final2
t
s]
t
s]
t
s]
112
sixths [si
pre-final
-
final
k
+post-final1
s
+post-final2
T
+post-final3
s]
From among the following, find the clusters that can appear in the final
segment of the English syllables.
fs, tk, pt, ps, kt, fT, sp, Ts, sl, ns, mz, lp, St, vz, pd, zd, kst, tSt, sts, lks, nzd,
ndz, lvz, lpt, gTs.
To sum up, we may describe the English syllable as having the following maximum
phonological structure:
Pre- initial post- VOWEL
Initial
initial
ONSET
NUCLEUS
prefinal
final
Recent work in phonology makes use of a rather more refined analysis of the syllable in
which the nucleus (vowel) and the coda (if there is one) are known as the rhyme. If you
know any rhyming English verse you will see that this works by matching just this part of
the last syllable in the line. Rhyme is divided into the peak/nucleus which is normally a
vowel sound) and the coda (but this is optional, as the rhyme may have no coda, as in a
word like sea [si:]).
Let us illustrate this on the basis of some lines from a well-known bedtime lullaby.
Hush little baby, dont say a word [w:d]
Mamas gonna buy you a mockingbird [b:d]
And if that mockingbird dont sing [siN]
Mamas gonna buy you a diamond ring [riN]
And if that diamond ring turns to brass [bra:s]
Mamas gonna buy you a looking-glass [gla:s].
As we have seen, the syllable may also have an onset, but this is not obligatory.
Consequently, the structure of the syllable looks as follows:
113
= syllable
O = onset
R = rhyme
N = nucleus
C = coda
Source: Wikipedia
114
sounds in these two parts. A bit of knowledge about the syllable is of great use,
especially in investigating word-stress, which is the topic of the following unit.
7.6. Evaluation
1. An English word may begin with a maximum of three consonants. List as
many examples of different three-consonant clusters as you can, then answer
the following questions:
a. What must the first consonant be?
b. What two phonetic features must the second member of the cluster
have?
c. What phonetic features must the third member have?
2. What does the nucleus of the syllable correspond to?
3. Grammar mistakes are sometimes the result of not hearing the number of
syllables. For example:
a. Theyve rent(ed) a house.
b. There are two dish(es).
A. Which of the following
syllables:
painted
rented
walked
worked
landed
closed
What is the rule?
B.
causes
dishes
rules
files
mixes
changes
What is the rule?
caused
started
laughed
watches
misses
loves
cakes
pieces
prices
115
8.2. Competences
After reading the material in this unit, the students will hopefully be able to place
the stress correctly in the English words, both when the words occur in isolation, but more
importantly when they are used in discourse.
116
117
relatively greater breath effort and muscular energy used in the articulation of a sound by
the speaker.
Loud syllables are not equal in quality: they may be stronger or weaker. In English we
distinguish 3 degrees of loudness (stress): strong (primary stress), medial (secondary
stress), weak (no stress).
It is important to realise that it is very difficult for a speaker to make a syllable louder
without changing some other of its characteristics, such as pitch, quality and quantity.
(3) Quality and quantity. While accent is mainly achieved by pitch change, sometimes
accompanied by extra loudness, among unaccented syllables some will be more prominent
than others, owing to the quality and quantity of the vowels at their centre. Long vowels
and diphthongs are more prominent than short vowels, while among the short vowels
themselves [i, u, ] (when unstressed) are the least prominent and are often referred to as
REDUCED vowels as opposed to other FULL vowels.
Quantity and quality act together in producing a special type of prominence to the syllable.
Generally, all the 4 factors work together in combination, though syllables may sometimes
be made more prominent by means of only one or two of them. Experimental work has
shown that these factors are not equally important; the strongest effect is produced by
pitch.
Let's remember...
Word-stress is the result of a number of factors, such as:
-pitch change;
-degree of loudness of the syllable
118
In some other words, we can notice a type of stress that is weaker than the primary stress,
but stronger than that of the first syllable of around, e.g. photographic [fut :grQfik].
This stress is called secondary stress, and is sometimes represented in transcriptions with
a low mark ( )
We have identified two levels of stress: primary and secondary, as well as a 3rd level which
can be called unstressed and regarded as being the absence of any recognizable amount of
prominence.
8.5. The position of stress
One of the major difficulties posed by the English pronunciation refers to the position of
the accent, especially in the polysyllabic words.
The accentual pattern of English words is fixed, in the sense that the main accent always
falls on a particular syllable of any given word, but free, in that the main accent is not tied
to any particular situation in the chain of the syllables constituting a word, as it is in some
languages (e.g. to the penultimate syllable in Polish, to the first in Czech and Hungarian,
and to the last in French). Thus, the primary stress falls regularly on the first syllable in
such words as :finish, :answer, :afterwards; on the second syllable in be:hind, re:sult,
to:gether, im:possible; on the third syllable in under:stand, edu:cation; or later in
articu:lation, palatali:zation, etc.
In order to decide on stress placement, it is necessary to recognize some relevant factors in
connection to each word:
a) the origin of the word (i.e. whether it is of Greek or Latin origin). The English words of
Latin origin tend to follow the Latin rules of stress;
b) whether the word is morphologically simple, or whether it is complex as a result of
either affixation (the attachment of prefixes and suffixes) or of compounding (the
combination of two or more simple words).
c) the lexical category to which the word belongs (noun, verb, adjective);
d) the number of syllables in the word;
e) the phonological structure of the syllables (whether it contains certain kinds of vowel
and consonant combinations).
8.5.1. Stress in simple words
A. Single-syllable words do not present any problems with respect to stress: if they are
pronounced in isolation, they bear primary stress.
B. Two-syllable words: here the choice is still simple: either the first or the second syllable
will be stressed.
a.) Verbs and adjectives. The basic rule is the following: if the second syllalbe of the
word contains a long vowel or a diphthong, or if it ends in more than one consonant, that
second syllable is stressed:
119
Example
Verbs
apply [:plai]
attract [:trQkt]
become [bi:km]
Adjectives
divine [di:vain]
correct [k:rekt]
alive [:laiv]
If the final syllable does not meet the above-mentioned conditions, i.e. if it contains a short
vowel and one (or no) final consonant, then the first syllable will be stressed.
Example
Verbs
enter [:ent]
open [:upn]
hover [:hv]
Adjectives
lovely [:lvli]
even [:i:vn]
happy ['hQpi]
The verbs also receive stress on the first syllable if the second one contains the diphthong
[u], e.g. 'follow.
b) Adverbs and prepositions behave like verbs and adjectives: behind [bi:haind],
upon [:pn].
c) Aouns. If the second syllable contains a short vowel, the stress will usually come
on the first syllable. Otherwise, it will be on the second syllable:
Example
This accentual pattern covers by far the greatest part of disyllabic nouns. This is explained
by the fact that it agrees with the general tendency in English of placing accent on the
initial syllable.
If we have words containing identical letter sequences, the placement of stress will indicate
whether they are nouns or verbs.
Example
Verbs
trans:fer
per:mit
ac:cent
pro:gress
in: sult
in:crease
Youns
: transfer
:permit
: accent
: progress
:insult
:increase
120
a :ffix
:affix
This is paralleled by a similar opposition between some verbs and adjectives, on the one
hand, where the verb is again characterized by its pattern [ _ _$ ], and by some adjectives
and nouns, on the other hand, where the adjective takes either the noun or the verbal
structure:
Example
Verb
ab:sent
di:lute
di:rect
fre:quent
Adjective
:absent
:dilute
:direct
:frequent
Youn
:August
:minute
[:minit]
Adjective
au:gust
mi:nute
[mai:nju:t]
State which of the following words display two accentual patterns associated
with two different syntactic functions (sometimes unrelated semantically), and
which preserve the accentual pattern while still discharging the two distinct
syntactic functions. Point out those instances in which a shift in accent is
accompanied by a change in the quality of the vowels in the unaccented
syllables:
abandon, absent, addict, address, amend, collect, combine, comfort, comment,
compress, test, content, contest, correct, corrupt, decease, degrease, deject,
demand, deposit, digest, discharge, discount, discourse, display, effect, escort,
extract, exact, import, incline, insult, insert, object, perfume, permit, present,
prefix, produce, progress, protest, rebound, record, refill, refund
C. Three-syllable words.
Here we find a more complicated picture.
a) Verbs. If the last syllable contains a short vowel and ends with no more than one
consonant, that syllable will be unstressed, and the stress will be placed on the preceding
(penultimate) syllable, e.g. encounter [in- :kaun-t], determine [di - :t- min], inhabit [in :hQ - bit].
If the final syllable contains a long vowel or a diphthong, or ends with more than one
consonant, the final syllable will be stressed, e.g. resurrect [re - z - :rekt], entertain [en t - :tein].
b) Aouns. If the final syllable contains a short vowel or [u], it is unstressed; if the
syllable preceding this final syllable contains a long vowel or a diphthong, or if it ends
with more than one consonant, that middle syllable will be stressed, e.g. mimosa [mi- :mu
- z], potatoe [p - :tei - tu].
121
If both the final and the penultimate syllables contain a short vowel, they will be
unstressed, the accent falling on the first syllable, as in quantity [:kwn ti ti], cinema [:si
- n - m].
Most of the above rules show that stress tends to go on syllables containing long vowels
or diphthongs and/or ending with more than one consonant. However, three-syllable
simple nouns are different. If the final syllable is of this type, the stress will usually be
placed on the first syllable. The last syllable being quite prominent, it can receive
secondary stress, e.g. stalactite [:stQ -lk tait], intellect [:in - t - lekt], consequence
[:kn si - kwns].
c). Adjectives seem to need the same rules to produce stress patterns such as:
opportune [: - p - tju:n], insolent [:in sl- nt] , anthropoid [:Qn-Pr-poid].
The rules above do not, of course, cover all English words. They apply only to major
categories of lexical words. The statements indicate tendencies rather than absolute rules
(that is why the term rules has been placed between inverted commas.
Let's remember...
The position of stress in simple words depends, first and foremost, on the
structure of the syllable, secondly on the lexical class the words belong to (i.e.
whether they are nouns, verbs or adjectives), and thirdly on the number of
syllables the words have.
122
is no longer felt as a derivative. In some other cases, the root to which the prefix is added is
no longer used as a meaningful word in English and, consequently, the meaning of the
derived word is not decomposable into the meaning of its component elements.
Example
1. depress, derail => completely fused derivatives; their component
morphemes are quite easily identifiable, since they are also used individually:
{de-} = deprive of, do the reverse of; {press}, {rail} = roots which are
obviously quite meaningful.
2. :hypocrite, :dedicate, :prejudice, pa:ralysis => these are not looked upon as
prefixed words by the ordinary English speaker, because there are no such free
morphemes (forms) as {crite}, {dicate}, {judice}, {lysis}, though he may
possibly know that hypo- = under, below, pre- = before, para- = beside,
beyond.
The importance of these considerations from the point of view of accent is that whenever a
word belongs to one of these two categories above, or to both, it is accented as if it were
not a derivative, but a simple word. This means that the prefix does not take any secondary
stress.
(c) A third category contains prefixes that almost always have a distinct meaning of their
own and are highly productive. They behave like the prefixes in the second category (see
(b) above), i.e. when their fusion with the root is complete, they bear no influence on the
accentual pattern of the formation (the derivative behaves as if it had not been derived).
But when the prefix adds an important meaning to the root, it must bear secondary stress.
Such prefixes are: mis-, non-, out-, over-, re-, under-.
Example
MIS (= badly)
accented
,misad'venture
,mis:believe
,mis:inform
,mis:place
AOA- (=not)
accented
(secondary stress)
,non a:ttendance
,non- e:ssential
,non-ob:servance
,non-:stop
,non-con:formist
accented
(primary stress)
:nonsense
: nondescript
unaccented
non:entity
123
OUT- Though highly productive, out- is never accented like an independent normative,
but the whole formation observes the general stressing rules of English as if the word had
not been prefixed at all, irrespective whether the derivative is new or a long-established
word, or whether out- is meaningful or meaningless;
:outbreak (n) ,out:live (v)
:outcome
,out:brave
:outdoor (adj) ,out:number
:outline
:outfit
out:doors (adv)
Accented
(secondary stress) (V)
re:bound = spring back, re:bound = bound again
re:count =relate
,re:count = count again
re:fund = pay back
,re:fund = fund again
re:fuse = say no
,re:fuse = fuse again
UADERAccented (when meaning is preserved)
,underde:veloped
,under:estimate
,under:graduate
Accented)
(primary stress) (A)
:re,bound = act of rebounding
:re,count = story
:re,fund = repayment
:re,fuse = waste material
Unaccented (meaning is lost)
under:take
under:go
under:stand
124
B) SUFFIXES
Suffixes raise more difficulties than prefixes, as here the exceptions are more numerous.
There are so many suffixes that it will be only possible to examine a small proportion of
them, and we shall concentrate on those which are common and productive (i.e. are applied
to a considerable number of stems to make new English words).
(a) Suffixes carrying primary stress themselves
In the examples given below, which seem to be the most common, the primary stress is on
the first syllable of the suffix. If the stem consists of more than one syllable, there will be a
secondary stress on one of the syllables of the stem. This cannot fall on the last syllable of
the stem, and is, if necessary, moved to an earlier syllable, e.g. Ja:pan => ,Japa:nese
Example
125
Let's remember...
The position of stress in prefixed words depends very much on whether
the prefix preserves it meaning or not in combination with the root. When
the meaning of the prefix is preserved, then this receives secondary stress,
while the primary stress falls on a syllable in the root of the lexical item. If
the prefix is not perceived to have a meaning in combination with a root,
then it is not stressed.
In the case of suffixed words, the position of stress is influenced by the
type of suffix: there are suffixes which do not seem to affect the original
stress in the root; then there are suffixes that attract stress on the syllable
containing them, and finally, some suffixes tend to change the position of
stress from one syllable to another within the root.
8.5.2.2. Stress in compound words
Compounds are composed of more than one root morpheme but function grammatically
and/or semantically as a single word: sunflower, easy-going, chatterbox, hot-water-bottle.
In most cases the two roots are free morphemes themselves.
A combination category is grammatically unitary when it functions as a grammatical
constituent which is normally composed of a sequence of word classes. Thus, daybreak is
composed of the noun day plus the verb break, but such a noun verb combination does
normally constitute a noun phrase functioning as the subject of a sentence as in Daybreak
comes early in summer.
A compound is semantically unitary because it has a meaning representing a specialized
conjugation of the meaning of its components.
Compounds are written in various ways:
- as one (solid) word: armchair, sweetheart, pickpocket;
- with the components separated by a hyphen: gear-change, fruit-cake, merry-go-round;
- with the component elements separated by space: desk lamp, battery charger.
In the last case there would be no indication to the foreign learner that the pair of words is
to be treated as a compound. There is no clear dividing line between two-word compounds
and pairs of words that simply happen to occur together quite frequently.
The accentual pattern of compounds depends both on their morphemic structure (i.e.
number and arrangement of constituent morphemes) and on semantic unity. One element
of a compound word carries primary accent, while the other(s) will carry one (or more)
secondary accent(s). In most cases it is the first syllable in a compound which carries the
126
primary accent, a fact which corresponds to the general tendency in English of placing the
main accent towards the beginning of words rather than towards their end.
A few rules can be given though these are not completely reliable.
a. Stress on the first element. The most familiar type of compound is the one which
combines two nouns, and normally has the stress on the first element, e.g. :typewriter,
:sunrise, :headache, :honeymoon,: word-stress, :newspaper.
b. Primary stress on the final element. In this category there are a number of possible
combinations:
Compounds with an adjectival first element and the ed morpheme at the end
e.g. bad:tempered, half-:opened, left-:handed.
Compounds in which the first element is a numeral:
e.g. three-:wheeler, second-:hand
Compounds that function as adverbs:
e.g. Qorth-:West, down-:stream
Compounds that function as verbs and have an adverbial first element:
e.g. toill-:treat, to up:grade.
As Pyles and Algeo (1992:263) point out, this primary-secondary type of stress in
compounds marks the close connection between the constituents that give the compound
its special meaning. In effect, it welds together the elements and thus makes the difference
between the members of the following pairs:
Example
Give the accentual pattern of the following compounds: greenhouse, hot dog,
briefcase, blackboard and then switch it with the accentual patterns of the free
combinations corresponding to them. Analyse the resulting changes in
meaning as well.
8.6. Variable stress
It would be wrong to imagine that the stress pattern is always fixed and unchanging in
English words. The accentual patterns of words are liable to change. Considerable changes
of this kind have taken place within the last hundred years.
127
Hesitancy and variation of accentual pattern occurring at present are the result of rhythmic
and analogical pressures, both of which entail in addition considerable changes of sound
pattern in words.
A. Rhythmic changes. In some words containing more than two syllables there appears to
be a tendency to avoid a succession of weak syllables, especially if these have [] or [i].
Thus, in words of three syllables there is variation between [:_ _] and [_ :_] patterns, e.g.
exquisite [:ekskwizit] or *[iks:kwizit], integral *[:intigrl] or [in:tgrl], sonorous
*[:snrs] or [s:n:rs].
Primary stress is also unstable in some compounds, e.g. camp-fire, lacklustre, life-size
[laif:saiz] or [:laifsaiz], overcast [:Uvka:st] or [Uv:ka:st[. However, the number of
truly unstable compounds is relatively small. Although many may be subject to accentual
shift determined by connected speech, the main effect is that stress on a final element of a
compound tends to move to the preceding element/syllable if the following word begins
with a strongly stressed syllable.
Example
B. Analogical changes refer to derived forms, which tend to preserve the accentual pattern
of the stem, e.g. com:pare [km:pE]com:parable [km:Erbl] instead of :comparable
[:kmprbl], ad:mire [d:mai] ad:mirable [d:mairbl] instead of :admirable
[:Qdmirbl].
C. A third type of stress changes is due to the variety of English considered. Several
patterns distinguish British and American English pronunciation. Thus, stress patterns may
differ, resulting in a different pattern of full and reduced (//) vowels. This pattern is
evident in the following pairs.
laboratory
garage
massage
cervical
American English
/:lb()rtri/
/g:ra:/
/m:sa:/
/:svikl/
British English
/:lbrtri/
/:gra:/
/:msa:/
/sr:vaikl/
(Parker&Riley, 2005:145)
8.7. Summary
In this unit we have investigated the second supra-segmental phoneme, namely
word-stress, considering the factors that contribute to the production and
perception of a certain prominent syllable in words. The position of word
stress was dealt with in details, showing that this depends on a number of
factors, among which the type of words (simple or complex), the lexical class
of the words in question (i.e. verbs, nouns, adjectives), the structure of
syllables, and the number of syllables the words contain. Moreover, we have
shown that accent is not stable: it varies according to the rhythm of the clause,
128
129
product
beautify
converse
nominate
photograph
object
subject
person
production
beautification
conversational
nomination
photography
objective
subjective
personify
nominee
photographic
objectification
subjectification
personification
130
Unit 9. IATOAATIOA
Contents
9.1. Introduction...........................................................................................................130
9.2. Competences.........................................................................................................130
9.3. Form of intonation................................................................................................131
9.3.1. Primary accent ..................................................................................................131
9.3.2. The tone-unit......................................................................................................133
9.3.3. The structure of the tone-unit ............................................................................134
9.4. Pitch possibilities in tone-units ............................................................................135
9.5. Graphical representation of English intonation .........................................................136
9.6. Functions of intonation.........................................................................................137
9.7. The use of the main tones in English ....................................................................139
9.8. Final word on intonation......................................................................................140
9.9. Summary ...............................................................................................................140
9.10. Evaluation ...........................................................................................................141
9.1. Introduction
The aim of this unit is to discuss some central issues directly concerned with the third
supra-segmental phoneme, namely intonation. The aspects tackled relate to the form and
functions of intonation, as well as the use of the two basic tones (falling and rising) in
English discourse.
9.2. Competences
Having covered the material in this unit, the students will be able to intone
correctly shorter and longer stretches of speech. They will also be able to use intonation
for the purpose of showing their mood or their attitude towards the interlocutors.
131
When we started/ early in the morning / the weather was beautiful; / the sun
was shining, / the sky was blue / and there were no clouds at all/
Often, as an alternative to pause, speakers may lengthen the final syllable before the
boundary.
These external cues are supported by internal factors: (i) if one of the pitch patterns
associated with the nuclear tone is completed at a certain point, this in itself may indicate a
boundary, and (ii) rapid change of the pitch height of unaccented syllables will generally
only occur at boundaries.
9.3.1. Primary accent.
The pronunciations of single words and of longer intonational phrases are both described
in terms of an obligatory PRIMARY ACCEAT and an optional SECOADARY
ACCEAT. In the realization of primary accent in single words, the final pitch accent in a
word or intonational phrase is usually the most prominent (and hence is referred to as the
primary accent), while a pitch accent on an earlier syllable is referred to as the secondary
14
An intonational phrase is a phonological unit with the following properties: (i) it is the largest
phonological unit into which an utterance can be divided, (ii) it has a specifiable intonational structure
including a single most prominent point (the nucleus), and it matches up in some way with syntactic and
discourse structure. Synonymous terms for it are: phonemic clause, tone group/unit or breath group.
132
accent. The final pitch accent identifies the syllable which is called the NUCLEUS, and
begins one of a number of pitch patterns known as NUCLEAR TONES. In other words, an
accented syllable which carries a change in pitch direction is called a nuclear or tonic
syllable. Its accent is similarly called a primary accent, or a nuclear (tonic) accent.
a. Simple tones
We will begin by looking at intonation in the shortest piece of speech we can find the
single syllable. At this point a new term will be introduced: we need a name for a
continuous piece of speech beginning and ending with a clear pause, and we will call this
an utterance. We are going to look at the intonation of one-syllable utterances, as these are
quite common, and give us a comparatively easy introduction to the subject.
Two common one-syllable utterances are yes and no. The first thing we notice is that
we have a choice of saying these with the pitch remaining at a constant level, or with the
pitch changing from one level to another. The word we use for the overall behaviour of the
pitch in these examples is TONE; a one-syllable word can be said with either a level tone
or a moving tone. If you try saying yes or no with a level tone you may find the result
does not sound natural, and indeed English speakers do not use level tones on one-syllable
utterances very frequently. Moving tones are more common; if English speakers want to
say yes or no in a definite, final manner they will probably use a falling tone one
which descends from a higher to a lower pitch. If they want to say yes? or no? in a
questioning manner they may say it with a rising tone a movement from a lower pitch to
a higher one.
In talking about different tones, some idea of function has been introduced; speakers are
said to select from a choice of tones according to how they want the utterance to be heard,
and it is implied that the listener will hear one-syllable utterances said with different tones
as sounding different in some way.
In order to represent the three tones we introduced, we will use some marks placed before
the syllable in the following way:
Level tone: =yes =no
Falling tone: \ yes \ no
Rising tone: / yes / no
Obviously, this simple system for tone transcription could be extended to cover a greater
number of possibilities. For example, if we need to distinguish between a high level and
low level tone, we could represent this in the following way:
High level tone: #yes #no
Low level tone: =yes =no
b. Complex tones
Apart from the three simple tones that can be used on one-syllable utterances (level, fall
and rise), other more complex tones are also used. One that is quite frequently encountered
is the fall-rise tone, where the pitch falls and then rises again; another complex tone, which
is less frequently used, is the rise-fall in which the pitch follows the opposite movement.
These could be represented in the following way:
Fall-rise:
yes no
133
Rise-fall:
9yes
9no
Let's remember...
In English (just like in most of the other languages) there are two types of
tones, simple and complex. The simple tones are of 3 types: level, falling, and
rising. The complex tones are also of various kinds: rise-fall, fall-rise, risefall-rise, or fall-rise-fall.
9.3.2. The tone-unit.
For the purpose of analysing intonation, a unit generally greater in size than the syllable is
needed, and this unit is called the tone-unit; in its smallest form the tone-unit may consist
of only one syllable, so it would in fact be wrong to say that it is always composed of more
than one syllable. The tone-unit is difficult to define, and a couple of examples may help to
make it easier to understand the concept.
a) Let us begin with a one-syllable utterance:
/ you (syllables carrying a tone will be underlined).
b) In a three-syllable utterance:
is it / you,
the third syllable is more prominent than the other two and carries a rising tone. The other
two syllables will normally be much less prominent, and be said on a level pitch.
The above-given utterance is made up of three syllables, and composed of one tone-unit;
the only syllable that carries a tone is the third one. From now on, a syllable that carries a
tone will be called a tonic syllable. The tonic syllables have a high degree of prominence,
which is a property of stressed syllables, and a tonic syllable not only carries tone (which is
sometimes related to intonation, but also a type of stress that will be called tonic stress.
(Some linguists use the terms nucleus and nuclear stress for tonic syllable and tonic
stress).
c) The example can be extended to:
John is it /you
If there is a clear pause (silence) between John and is it you, then according to the
definition of an utterance given before, there are two utterances; however, it is quite likely
that a speaker would say John is it you with no pause, so that the four syllables would
make up a single utterance. In spite of the absence of any pause, the utterance would
normally be regarded as divided into two tone-units: John and is it you. Since it is very
difficult to lay down the conditions for deciding where the boundaries between tone-units
exist, the discussion of this matter will be postponed for a little later.
It should be possible to see now that the tone-unit has a place in a range of phonological
units that are in a hierarchical relationship: speech consists of a number of utterances
(the largest unit we shall consider); each utterance consists of one or more tone-units; each
tone-unit consists of one or more feet; each foot consists of one or more syllables; and
each syllable consists of one or more phonemes.
134
135
/what
Let's remember...
The tone unit may contain 4 elements: a pre-head, a head, the nucleus/tonic
syllable, and a tail. Of all these, the nuclear syllable (i.e. the stressed syllable
which is also characterised by pitch movement) is absolutely necessary.
136
However, if there are other syllables following the tonic syllable (i.e. if there is a tail), we
find that the pitch movement of the tone is not completed on the tonic syllable. If a tail
follows a tonic syllable that has a rising tone, it will almost always be found that the
syllable or syllables of the tail will continue to move upwards from the pitch of the rising
syllable. For example, if the word what is said on a rising tone, e.g. /what?, it might
have a pitch movement that could be diagrammed as follows:
/
The four syllables in /what did you say might be said like this:
with the pitch of the syllables in the tail getting progressively higher. In such cases, the
tonic syllable is the syllable on which the pitch movement of the tone begins, but that pitch
movement is completed over the rest of the tone unit (i.e. the tail). If, in rising
progressively higher, the pitch reaches the highest part of the speakers normal pitch range,
subsequent syllables will continue at that level. The situation is similar with the falling
tone, only in opposite direction.
9.5. Graphical representation of english intonation
For the sake of analysis we shall have to record English intonation graphically. In doing so,
we shall use of the following set of symbols:
a) - a dot () for an unstressed syllable;
- a dash (-) for a stressed syllable;
- an upward curve ( ) for a stressed syllable pronounced with a rise in pitch within that
syllable;
- a downward curve ( ) for a stressed syllable pronounced with a fall in pitch within
that syllable;
- a vertical line ( | ) for a pause marking the end of a syntagm or that of a sentence.
These symbols will be inserted between two horizontal lines, representing the range, i.e.
the distance between two pitch levels.
b) Dots and arrows
- the tonic syllable is marked by a large dot followed by a curve indicating the pitch
movement:
- the syllables carrying a secondary accent are represented by a larger dot [] and the
unaccented ones by a small dot []. The following example illustrates this:
Theres nothing I can do
.
. . .
137
138
When she left / the baby started crying (main clause separated from the
subordinate clause).
Mark and Jane or Helen / went to the party (noun phrase separated
from the verb phrase).
Old /men and women / like going to the opera (determiner separated
from the noun phrase).
d) Discourse function. When we talk, we rarely produce isolated utterances. Usually,
utterances are strung together, and in conversation the speaker and the listener often swop
their role. Intonation plays an important role in structuring and gluing together the
discourse.
Looking at the act of speaking in a broader way, we can see that intonation can signal to
the listener what is to be taken as new information (which the speaker assumes that the
listener is not familiar with) and what is already given (i.e. the information known or
assumed to be already known to the addressee). Given information is kept in the
background, while new information is foregrounded, or brought into focus. Imagine the
teacher taking the attendance and asking:
Who is \absent to'day? (absent = new information)
One of the students answers:
\John is 'absent today. (John = new information, absent = old information)
Furthermore, intonation can suggest when the speaker is indicating some sort of contrast or
link with material in another tone-unit, as in:
Would you like /one or \two lumps of sugar?
In conversation, intonation can mark turn-taking: a falling intonation usually indicates a
completed turn, without the expectation of ones interlocutor replying. A rising intonation
gives a strong indication that the speaker intends to continue, or that a response from the
interlocutor is expected.
We shall not go into details with respect to the functions of intonation, but rather will try to
demonstrate how the same sequence of words may represent different communicative
sentence-types and have different connotations when intoned differently.
1) a. :Has her com:plexion become more or less :beautiful after she has :had a baby?
b. :Has her com:plexion become more or less beautiful after she has had a baby?
2). a. :Will you :have one or two :boxes of chocolate?
b. Will you have one or two boxes of chocolate?
3) a. There was a :tough compe:tition. I thought he would be beaten (and he was).
b. I :thought he would be beaten (but he wasnt).
139
140
141
142
143
144
I, but not so polite as Tune II with emphasis. A sentence which with Tune I is
a command becomes a request if Tune II is used.
Read the following requests with the appropriate intonation:
:Let me :know how you get /on.
:Dont go :back just /yet!
:May I :fetch your /coat?
:Come and :see me /soon!
:Dont :trouble to /answer it!
:Let me :know how you /get there!
Ex:cuse me one /moment!
:Mind what you are /doing!
:Dont be /silly!
:Dont :tease your :little /sister!
:Lets :try /again!
11. Question-tags
If the tag is spoken on the rising pattern of Tune II, we understand that the
speaker is less certain of his remark; it is presented more as a true question.
The speaker suggests: I believe that this is so, but please correct me if I am
wrong. By using this rising tag he is asking the listeners opinion, and would
not be very surprised if he were contradicted.
Read the following sentences using Tune II for the tags.
It :isnt sold, is it?
You can :drive a car, cant you?
You were :late this morning, werent you?
We :last :met in March, didnt we?
I :ought to :give it back, oughtnt I?
Its a :long :way fromhere, isnt it?
He was :top of his class, wasnt he?
You :do smoke, dont you?
We could :find :out tomorrow, couldnt we?
12. Shift the position of the nucleus in the following sentences and analyse the
resulting modifications in the structure of their intonation patterns:
-I dont think he knows (+2)
-Im going home at six (+2)
-George is a fraud (+2)
-What can you see? (+2)
-I dont think he ought to go (+3)
-How do you know its wrong? (+1)
-I dont want the money (+1).
13. Choose appropriate intonation patterns for the following sentences. Pay
attention to the possibility of choosing several intonation patterns for each
sentence and specify the change in meaning. Notice the deliberate omission of
145
the comas.
- I asked the captain Mr. Brown.
- Janet my wife and John have left.
- Would you like one or two lumps of sugar.
- I thought it would rain.
- I want more experienced people.
- John my brother who lives in Oxford loves fishing.
14. Commands and requests are also distinguished by means of intonation.
Transform the commands in the first column into requests in the second
column:
I
II
:Ring me :up at \twelve!
Ring me up at twelve!
:Will you :pass the \sugar, please?
Will you pass the sugar, please?
Alter it!
\Alter it!
Ex\cuse me one moment!
Excuse me one moment!
Come in!
:Come \in!
:Dont :trouble to \answer it!
Dont trouble to answer it.
15. The following sentences are given with intonation marks. Sketch the pitch
within the lines below, leaving a gap between each syllable.
a) :Which was the cheap one did you say
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------b) I :only :want to taste it
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------c) She would have thought it was /\obvious
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------d) There :wasnt :even a :piece of bread in the house
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------e) Now will you believe me
--------------------------------------------------------------------16. In the following bits of conversation, you are supplied with an opening
line and a response that you must imagine saying. You are given an indication
in brackets of the feeling or attitude expressed, and you must mark on the text
the intonation you think is appropriate (mark only the response). Punctuation
has been left out, since it can cause confusion.
Its rather cold (doubtful)
a) It looks nice for a swim.
146
a) (he wrote the letter in a sad way) he wrote the letter sadly
b) (its regrettable that he wrote the letter) he wrote the letter sadly
c) four plus six divided by two equals five
d) four plus six divided by two equals seven
e) we broke one thing after another fell down
f) we broke one thing after another that night.
147
10.2. Competences
Once the students have covered the material in this unit they will be more aware
of and also capable of identifying the differences in pronunciation between one variety
of English and another. Due to the fact that they are exposed mainly to British and
American English, it is assumed that these will not pose any problems. The students are
expected to name the most striking characteristics of the less known varieties of
English, such as Canadian, Australian or New Zealand English. They will also be
capable of identifying whether a speaker of a certain variety belongs to the higher or
lower social scale or whether s/he is young or old.
148
In English the number of pronunciations is very great. These different pronunciations are
determined by a number of factors, such as region, social status, and age of speakers.
10.3. Regional aspects
English has inherited a lot of regional pronunciations because during the period of
feudalism the isolation of localities and the poor intercourse between them encouraged the
existence of a number of dialects. Since the Industrial Revolution there have been greater
facilities for the increased mobility of the population and, consequently, improved
communication between people speaking different dialects. It is also true that there is a
general tendency towards levelling out local (or regional) dialects, which is reinforced by
the introduction of universal and compulsory education and the promotion of a particular
form of English through news broadcasts. Thus, rural traditional dialects are dying out.
However, the number of dialects is still great.
An example of a regional British dialect is Northern English. This dialect developed in the
northern part of England. At its core there is the rural component: Qorth associates
farming, pastures, and beautiful landscape in the Lake District or in the Yorkshire Moors.
() It has been e region characterized by mining and the demanding conditions of life that
came with it, by early industrialization and consequently urbanization, hard labor and
poverty (Schneider, 2010:69). From among the main features that characterize this dialect,
the following are worth mentioning:
- The RP // sound is replaced in NE by /u/: cut /kut/, shut /ut/, come /kum/, somebody
/sumbdi/;
- The /a:/ sound which elsewhere tends to be long is short in the north: passed /past/; fast
/fast/;
- Diphthongs are usually monophthongized:
/ou/ to /o:/: go /go:/, groan /gro:n/
/ei/ to /e:/: face /fe:s/, came /ke:m/
/ai/ to /i:/: frightening /fri:tnin/.
- Sometimes monophthongs are diphthongized: lean /lin/, feet /fit/.
10.4. Social differences (class dialects)
Within the same region there is a hierarchy of class dialects, representing differences
between educated and uneducated speech. In England, class differences have often been
more prominent than those of age or place. It is true that in the twentieth century England
was much democratized, but the language differences are far from having disappeared.
One can still tell much about a persons family, his school background, his general position
in life by the way he speaks. Social lines are hard to cross, and language is perhaps the
greatest barrier. One may make a million pounds and own several cars and a place in the
country, but his vowels and consonants (and nouns and verbs and sentence patterns) will
still show that he is not a part of the upper crust.
Consider the following contrast between educated and uneducated speech.
Example
Tuesday
looking
better
Educated speech
[:tju:zdi]
[:lukiN]
[:bet]
Uneducated speech
[tSu:zdi]
[:lukin]
[:bed] or [:ber]
149
house
take
[haus]
[tHeik]
[aus/Qus]
[taik]
The number of pronunciations being so great, the learners of English might ask themselves
the question: Which of the various forms of pronunciation should we acquire?
English phoneticians recommend one kind of pronunciation that has come to stand out
above all others, conveying associations of respectable social standing and good education.
This prestige pronunciation is known as Received Pronunciation, or RP.
The term received shows that although this form of pronunciation had not been imposed
on people by any higher authority, it is received or accepted by the majority of native
speakers because:
- it is most widely understood not only in Great Britain, but also in the USA, South
Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada;
- it is free of dialectal peculiarities.
10.6. Received Pronunciation (Standard British pronunciation)
The ancestral form of RP developed in the late Middle Ages, in London and the south-east
as the accent of the court and the upper classes. During the 19th century, RP became the
accent of public schools, and was soon the main sign that people had received a good
education. When the radio broadcasting began in 1920s, the RP having few regional
overtones and being more widely understood than any regional accent, it came to be
adopted by the BBC. During World War II, the accent became associated in many peoples
minds with the voice of freedom. The terms RP and BBC English became synonymous.
These days, with the breakdown of rigid divisions between social classes and the
development of mass media, RP is no longer the preserve of social elite. It is now best
described as an educated accent (or accents) as now there are several varieties. The most
widely used variety is the one heard on the BBC.
Early BBC recordings show the remarkable extent to which RP has altered over just a few
decades, and they make the point that no accent is immune to change, not even the best. In
addition, RP is no longer as widely used as about 50 years ago. Only about 3% of British
people speak it in a pure form now. Most other educated people have developed an accent
which is a mixture of RP and various regional characteristics. This kind of accent is known
as modified RP.
150
But on the other hand, it is not uncommon these days to find educated people expressing
hostility towards RP, both within and outside Britain, because of its traditional association
with conservative values.
Nonetheless, RP continues to be the most widely used accent in the Court, Parliament, the
Church of England, the legal profession and in other national institutions. It has received
more linguistic research than any other accent. It is the accent taught to foreigners who
want to learn a British model, and it is thus widely used abroad. In fact, today there are far
more foreign speakers of RP in other countries than mother-tongue users in Britain.
10.7. American English
The American language, as a name for the English spoken by Americans is as much a
misnomer as is the Mexican language for the Spanish spoken by Mexicans. There is no
essential difference between the English of America and that of Great Britain or that of
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, or various other countries of the
world to which the speech of the small northern European tribe of the English has spread.
The English language in all of its national varieties throughout the world is remarkably
uniform. There are, nevertheless, variations between national varieties, just as there are
variations within them.
Since language undergoes no changes as a result of crossing an ocean, the first Englishspeaking colonists in America continued to speak as they had done in England. The
Englishs first attempts to colonize North America took place at the end of the 16th century,
but those settlements quickly disappeared. The first viable colony was settled in Virginia in
1607 and it was called Jamestown, after King James I. Then, in 1620 the first group of
puritan settlers - the Pilgrim Fathers - arrived on the Mayflower searching for a land
where they could found a new religious kingdom. They landed at Cape Cod, in Plymouth,
Massachusetts, and established a settlement there.
It is important to appreciate that these two patterns of settlement resulted in different
linguistic consequences.
The southern explorers came mainly from the West Country, and brought with them the
characteristic west-country accent, with the voicing of the s-sound (i.e. [s] is pronounced
as [z]) and the r pronounced after vowels. Strong hints of this accent can still be heard in
the speech communities living in some of the isolated villages in the area. These varieties
(called tiedwater accents) are said to be closest to the sound of Shakespearean English.
In contrast, the Puritans came mainly from East Anglia and the surrounding countries, and
their accent was quite different notably lacking the r after vowels (as in present day
Standard English). This tendency not to pronounce the r-sound is still a main feature of
the speech of people from the New England area today.
Other features of the dialects of the 17th century England can be identified in modern
American speech, such as the short flat [Q] vowel where British RP later developed the [a:]
151
British English
Staff /sta:f/
Bath /ba: /
Ask /a:sk/
Dance /da:ns/
American English
/stf/
/b/
/sk/
/dns/
Very often the British // sound is replaced by the Americans by //. Thus, a word like
cotton is pronounced as /kt()n/ by the Brits and as /ktn/ by the Americans.
B. DIPHTHOAGS
- Although in most parts of the U.S. the diphthong [ai] is realized as a central, open,
unrounded vowel followed by a glide to a half-close or fully close, front, unrounded vowel
[ae] or [ai], there are at least two important regional variants. The first variant can be
encountered in the Southern States where the glide element of the diphthong may be
152
partially or totally lost as in five [fa:v]/[fav], time [ta:m]/[taim]/[tam]. The other variant of
[ai] appears in eastern Virginia and the extreme north-eastern part of the U.S where [ai] has
the variant [i] or [i] before voiceless consonants as in ripe, light, rice, wife. We should
also mention the fact that throughout America this diphthong has the monophthongal
variant [a] or [A:] in contracted words such as Ill, Ive, Id.
- The centring diphthongs [i], [E] and [u] of RP are the result of the loss of the postvocalic [r] in this variety of English. Since Standard AmE has not lost post-vocalic [r],
centring diphthongs resulting from its loss do not occur. Centring diphthongs occasionally
occur in RP before [l] as in ideal [ai:dil], realistic [rilistik], jewel [dZul]. In such words
in American English we find either two separate vowel phonemes as in ideal [ai:di:l] or a
single long vowel phoneme as in jewel [dZu:l].
C. COASOAAATS
American English has exactly the same consonant phonemes as RP, but it is the
distribution of these phonemes and their phonetic variants that differ in American English.
We will focus only on those consonants that vary in AmE.
- The alveolar phoneme [t] is, for most part, the same as in RP. Nevertheless, there is one
important difference. When this phoneme appears word-medially preceded by a vowel or
[r] or [l], and is followed by an unstressed vowel, [r] or [l] it is very rapidly and weakly
pronounced resulting in a sound which is similar to the Romanian r in pere. For [t] this
variant is partially or fully voiced. This allophone is symbolized [R] and can be
encountered in words such as butter, letter, etc. As a result of this we find that in many
areas of America words such as writer and rider, letter and ladder sound almost the same.
In post-nasal position, the sound /t/ is dropped altogether: winter /win/, twenty /tweni/.
- The AmE [r] is difficult to describe. As compared to the RP [r], which was described as a
voiced, post-alveolar fricative, the American English [r] is a retroflex, voiced frictionless
continuant. Besides, the AmE [r] differs from its RP counterpart in being slightly
lateralized. This is explained by the fact that the tongue being drawn towards the hard
palate, the air stream from the lungs finds an easier passage along the side of the tongue.
Thus, AmE [r] is close to [l]. Moreover, by drawing back the tip of the tongue, the back
part will raise towards the soft palate. This results in the AmE [r] being slightly velarized.
This allophone appears most often when [r] is in initial position, and is symbolised by [].
- The phonemes [T], [D] are both interdental fricatives. Still, in many regional varieties
these two phonemes may be pronounced as dental or alveolar stops instead of fricatives,
i.e. [t9], [d9], or [t], [d]. Thus, a sentence like This is what I think will be pronounced as [d9is
is wt ai t9iNk].
- The phoneme [N] is identical to the RP phoneme, i.e. it is a voiced, velar nasal consonant.
In AmE it has one allophone which appears in the ing morpheme, marking the present
participle and the gerund of the verbs. Thus, in large areas of the US [N] is replaced by [n]
in this particular morpheme in words such as reading [ri:din], dreaming [dri:min], but sing,
long, thing are pronounced with a final [N], since these words do not contain the aforementioned morpheme.
153
Below are a couple of words that have different pronunciations in RP and AmE.
Example
either
ate
nephew
fragile
process
leisure
quinine
squirrel
tomato
RP
[aiD]
[eit]
[nefju:]
[frQdZil]
[pruses]
[leZ]
[kwini:n]
[skwirl]
[tma:tu]
AmE
[i:D]
[et]
[nevju]
[frQdZail]
[proses]
[liZ]
[kwainain]
[skwrl]
[tmeitu]
D. WORD STRESS
British English long ago lost its secondary stress on the penultimate syllable of
polysyllabic words ending in - ary, -ery, and ory (for example, military, millinery,
obligatory). This subordinate stress is regularly retained in American English, as in
m@onastery, s@ecretary, t@erritory.
Some other differences between these two varieties of English at the level of stress are
illustrated below:
Example
British English
address
research
resource
perfume
American English
E. IATOAATIOA
Intonational characteristics risings and fallings in pitch distinguish British English from
American English far more than pronunciations of individual words. The intonational
differences are most noticeable in questions and requests. Contrast the intonational patterns
of the following sentences, very roughly indicated as they would customarily be spoken in
British and American English:
Give the phonemic transcription of the following words, as you assume they
are pronounced by an American speaker of English; mark the stress on your
transcription: kilometre, aluminum, advertisement, potato, data, and process.
Compare the American with the British pronunciation and state your
conclusions.
154
155
geographical distance between these two communities and the source community in Great
Britain which caused the English language transplanted from Britain to develop itself in an
entirely new environment, and on the other hand, the marked difference in education and
linguistic background of the immigrants.
Australia was discovered by James Cook in 1770 and within 20 years Britain had
established its first penal colony at Sydney, thus relieving the pressure on the overcrowded
gaols of England. The immigrants were very few in the beginning, but later the number
increased. In New Zealand, the story started later and moved more slowly. A few
Europeans settled in the country in the 1790s, but the official colony was not established
until 1840.
The main source of settlers, and thus the main influence on the language, was Britain.
Many of the convicts came from London and Ireland, and features of Cockney and Irish
English can be traced in the characteristic pronunciation patterns still heard today.
In relation to pronunciation, Australians and New Zealanders can tell each other apart,
though the differences are not readily apparent to outsiders, nor are they very great (mainly
a matter of slight changes in vowel quality). But within each country, few regional
dialectal differences have been noted.
The absence of dialectal differences within Australian English and New Zealand English
may be more apparent than real, since very little detailed regional study has taken place. In
spite of this, factors to do with the social prestige are important. In particular, RP continues
to exert a considerable influence. The variety known as cultivated (educated) Australian
English, used by about 10% of the population, shows this most strongly. At the opposite
extreme there is the broad Australian accent, used by 30%, and most clearly identified as
Australian in the popular mind abroad. In between there is a continuum of accents often
called simply general Australian used by the majority of the population.
A similar situation exists in New Zealand, though the country tends to be rather more
conservative in speech style, with RP-influenced accents more dominant, and it lacks the
extremely broad accent found in Australia.
A. VOWELS
- A characteristic of Australian English and New Zealand English is the tendency to
diphthongize the [i:], its nucleus shifting over a wide area and its glide being [i] or [j].
Consequently, sea is pronounced [sij], whereas tea is [ti].
- The [i] sound approaches the value of [], so no distinction can be made between affect
and effect. In final position [i] is systematically replaced by [i:] or [ei], e.g. pitty [piti:],
Billy [bilei].
- [e] is much closer than the RP counterpart and sometimes it is diphthongized, e.g. bed
[bid], very [vEri]. This diphthongization makes the New Zealand yes sound as [jis].
- [Q
Q] is close in both Australian and New Zealand, being raised to the cardinal vowel no. 3
[E], e.g. man [mEn]. This vowel can also be diphthongized as [Q] or [E]. Thus, minimal
pairs such as pad paired become homophonous.
- [a:] is fronter than its RP counterpart, approaching the value of cardinal [a]. It may be
diphthongized to [], as in darling [dliN], or replaced by [Q] as in AmE. This tendency
is not felt in New Zealand.
156
The RP [u] is heard under two variants in Australian English, one identical to [:], the
other a slightly lowered and centralized [u:] followed by [], something like [u:]. The
phoneme corresponding to RP [u] is not a very common one in Australia. The word
poor is normally pronounced as [p:], and youre as [j:].
Give the phonemic transcription of the following words, as you assume they
are pronounced by an Australian speaker of English: sure, endure, beer, peer,
find, kinds, take it easy, mate, broom, room.
157
Let's remember...
As far as the distinctive differences between Standard English and Australian
English with respect to vowels are concerned, the following can be noticed:
a. Australian English front vowels tend to be closer than in RP, i.e. the body
of the tongue is close to the palate;
b. There is a tendency in Australian English to diphthongize any long vowel
with a glide towards the central [];
c. There is also a tendency to move back vowels frontwards ;
d. Some of the diphthongs are wider than in RP, i.e. the difference between
the open first element and the close second element is greater in
Australian English than in RP.
C. COASOAAATS
There is much greater correspondence in consonant phonemes between Standard English
and Australian English. A description of the norms and allophones of most RP consonants
applies equally well to Australian English. Nevertheless, a few current deviations from the
RP of consonants may be noticed:
- the [w] sound. In RP the words what watt, where wear are not always distinguished,
but if they are, the wh-spelling is pronounced with a sound resembling that of [hw], the [w]
being devoiced. This distinction is more frequent in New Zealand.
On the other hand, Australians lack [w] in words such as quarter or quart, making these
homophonous with caught her or caught.
- the [r] sound is pronounced in words such as dark, work, while in RP it is omitted;
- the [t] sound often sounds more like [d] in intervocalic position, especially in
Waynespeak, the language of young Australians (Wayne is a boys name).
- it has been claimed that Australians use [s] rather than [z] for the possessive singular
ending on agent nouns with the suffix er, making teachers [ti:tSs] distinct from the
plural teachers [ti:tSz].
Listen to a less encountered variety of English (say Indian English) and try to
jot down some differences between this variety and Standard British English
in terms of the pronunciation of the vocalic and consonantal sounds. A good
opportunity for this would be watching documentaries about India (or any
other country where English is spoken as L1 or L2).
10.10. Interference
Those persons who speak two languages are considered to be bilingual. The two languages
can be acquired simultaneously, if the person receives input in both languages until the age
of 3. This is the case of the children born in mixed families where one of the parents
speaks to the child in one language (say Spanish) and the other parent in the second
language (say English). A second possibility would be the successive acquisition of the
158
two languages, when a person learns the mother tongue (L1) at home, and the second
language (L2) with the play mates or school mates. This usually happens after the age of 3
(Owens, 2008).
Irrespective of the way in which a second language is acquired, in the case of bilingual
persons we encounter a phenomenon according to which the mother tongue influences the
second language (in our case the English language). This phenomenon has been given
various denominations. Thus, Weinreich, 1968 (quoted in S. Romaine, 1995:51) calls it
interference; Chyne, 1967 (quoted in S. Romaine, 1995:52), on the other hand, prefers the
term transference. Sherwood-Smith & Kellerman, 1986 (quoted in S. Romaine, 1995:52
and in Ellis, 1994:299) suggested a neutral, more encompassing term, namely crosslinguistic influence. The two linguists state that the term cross-linguistic influence
() is theory-neutral, allowing one to subsume under one heading such phenomena as
transfer, interference, avoidance, borrowing and L2-related aspects of language loss
and thus permitting discussion of the similarities and differences between these
phenomena (Sherwood-Smith & Kellerman, 1986, quoted in Ellis, 1994:299) An even
more encompassing definition was suggested by Odlin, 1989 (quoted in R. Ellis, 1994:301)
who is of the opinion that the linguistic transfer represents an influence that results from
the similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that
has been previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired.
The linguistic transfer between the mother tongue and a second/ foreign language
manifests itself in a number of forms, the most common of them being the errors. The
errors produced by those people who speak two or more languages occur due to the
negative transfer of some patterns of L1 onto L2. Lado (1957:2) considers that a peson
who comes in touch with another language will find some of its features simpler, and some
others more difficult than in his mother tongue. Those features that are similar to his
mother tongue will be acquired more easily, whereas those that are different will be more
difficult to acquire. The basic idea is that the difficulties in acquiring a certain aspect of
L2 will bring about errors. An error is produced when a deviation from L2 occurs due to
the lack of knowledge of a certain aspect of this language. As Ellis (1994:306) puts it, it
represents a lack of competence on behalf of the speaker.
There is a widespread recognition that linguistic transfer (or interference) is more
pronounced at the level of the sound system than at any other level of a language. The
existence of foreign accent in L2 learning is so well attested that it hardly requires any
documenting. In general, native speakers have little difficulty in distinguishing the
language background of different learners.
Weinreich, 1968 (quoted in Romaine, 1995) gives a detailed analysis of what happens
when the phonological systems of the bilingual individual are in contact. Interference
arises when bilinguals identify a phoneme of the secondary system (L2) with one in the
primary system (L1). When they reproduce it, they subject it to the phonetic rules of their
primary language. For example, when the weaker, or secondary, language has two
phonemes, and the stronger, or primary, language has only one, the bilingual may fail to
distinguish the two phonemes and may use a sound from the stronger language to replace
both of them. Grosjean (1982:300) points out that French has only one /i/ sound as in
petit, whereas English as two: /i:/ as in seat and /i/ as in sit. This may lead the FrenchEnglish bilingual to under-differentiate between the two sounds and replace both with the
French /i/, producing phrases such as
159
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g) herikoputaa (helicopter)
h) purezento
i) firumu (film)
j) hambaagaa (handbag)
k) sukaafu (scarf)
l) gureepufuruutsu (grapefruit)
Prosody may also be affected by interference. Thus, the differences in stress and intonation
between two languages may lead to transfer of patterns from one language to the other.
Hungarian speakers of English tend to stress the initial syllables in all words, by analogy
with the stress pattern in their mother tongue. The French people, on the other hand, tend
to stress the last syllables in the English words, following the stress rules applying to the
French language. Thus, a word like library may be pronounced by French-English
speakers as li-bra-RY instead of LI-bra-ri.
Try to listen to an Italian or a German speaker of English. Note the
pronunciation features which you find interesting in their pronunciation of
English. At what level is interference of the mother tongue stronger: at the
level of vowel sounds or consonantal sounds?
160
Failure to use the right stress pattern in English often leads to unintelligibility for the native
speaker, as reported by Grosjean (1982:301): when a rather fluent French-English
bilingual told an English friend that she had visited Edinburgh, she stressed the second
syllable and reduced the first to the schwa, giving e-DIN-burgh /dinbr/, making the
name totally unintelligible. Only repeated and altered pronunciation of the word finally
made it comprehensible to the listener.
10.11. Summary
In this unit we have seen that although nowadays English is employed as a
mother tongue by a number of peoples, its pronunciation differs from one
country to another. The differences are more obvious in what concerns the
vocalic sounds and less in connection with the consonants and the
suprasegmental phonemes (word-stress and intonation). These differences are
first and foremost due to the dialect of English spoken by the first settlers of
the new territories where English became the official language, and then they
are the result of the influences of the languages spoken by the natives of the
respective territories. One variety relates to non-native speakers of English;
this is greatly influenced by the pronunciation of the mother tongues (L1) of
these persons.
161
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Armstrong, L & Ward, I. (1959), A Handbook of English Intonation, 2nd edition, W.
Heffer & Sons Ltd, Cambridge
2. Buck, T. (1973), Modern Phonetic Texts for Foreign Students of English, Max Hueber
Verlag, Mnchen.
3. Chioran, D. & Petri, L, (1977), Workbook in English Phonetics and Phonology, Ed.
Didactic i pedagogic, Bucureti
4. Chioran, D. (1978), English Phonetics and Phonology, Ed. Didactic i pedagogic,
Bucureti.
5. Callary, E. Phonetics, in Clark, V. P. Eschholz, P. A, Rosa, A. F. (eds.) (1994),
Language: Introductory Readings, St. Martins Press, New York
6. Clark, J. and Yallop, C. (1995), An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology, 2nd
edition, Blackwell, Oxford, UK and ambridge, USA
7. Couper-Kuhlen, E. (1986), An Introduction to English Prosody, Max Niemeyer
Verlag: Tubingen
8. Cruttenden, A. (1986), Intonation, Cambridge University Press
9. Cruttendenc A. (1994), Gimsons Pronunciation of English, 5th edition, Arnold,
London, New York
10. Crystal, D. (1975), The English tone of voice. Essays in intonation, prosody and
paralanguage, Edward Arnold,
11. Crystal, D. (1992), A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 3rd edition, Blackwell
reference
12. Cunningham, S. & Bowler, B. (1993), Headway. Intermediate Pronunciation,
Oxford University Press
13. Ellis, R. (1994), The Study of Second Language Acquisition, Oxford University Press,
Oxford
14. Graddol, D., Cheshire, J. , Swann, J. (1994), Describing Language, 2nd edition,
Open University Press: Buckingham, Philadelphia
15. Grosjean, F. (1982), Life with Two Languages. An Introduction to Bilingualism,
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachussetts and London, England
16. Hahner, J.C., Sokoloff, M.A., Salisch, S.L. (1997), Speaking Clearly. Improving
Voice and Diction, 5th edition, McGraw Hill: Boston, New York
17. Jones, D. (1964), An Outline of English Phonetics, 9th edition, Hefer, Cambridge
162
163
164
165
he - she
lap -lass
say - lay
caught - fought
pal - Paul
sink mink
5.
6. /ri t/ - rich
7.
a. voiced, alveolar fricative; /z/
b. voiceless, velar plosive; /k/
c. voiceless, palatal fricative; //
d. voiced, alveolar plosive. /d/
166
9.
a. /pik/ pick.
b. /buk/ book
c. /teist/ taste
12. Voiceless consonants shorten a preceding long vowel or a diphthong
13.
a. tea [ti:]
d. dark [da:k]
g. egg [eg]
b. meat [mi:t]
e. card [ka:d]
h. oak [uk]
c. toad [tud]
f. lip [lip]
i. kite [kait]
14. peak aspirated [p],
blame laterally realeased [b],
ribbon nasally released [b],
adore fully voiced [d],
climate laterally released [k]
15. Syllabic /m/, /n/, /N/ and /l/ in the following lines are bolded:
a. I have found some of the best reasons I ever had for remaining at the bottom
simply by looking at the man at the top (Frank Moore Colby, Essays)
b. In the grave, dust and bones jostle not for the wall. (Proverb)
c. What you say is nothing but a truism.
d. A spasm of coughing made her stop laughing.
e. This is the spray the Bird clung to/Making it blossom with pleasure (R.
Browning, Misconceptions)
16. intrusive r (italicised) and linking r (bolded)
a. Granadar is famous for its monuments. But thererer a lot of interesting places
outside Granadar itself.
b. The arear of a room of 10 feet by 15 feet is 150 square feet.
c. My grandpar is ill.
d. Fancy Sarahr asking Adar out! The idear of it makes me laugh.
e. When Fredar attended her first speech class in her dramar academy the tutor said
she did not keep her jawr open.
f. Australiar and New Zealand are twor English speaking countries.
g. New Zealand has other islands far out.
17. a. When the interdental fricative appears between two vocalic sounds.
b. Trans-categorial assimilation (transfer of [+voice] from the vocalic sounds onto the
voiceless interdental fricative //).
c. The process of assimilation the [+voice] feature is more natural and frequent than
that of assimilation of [-voice].
167
Unit 6.
1. No.
2. The on-glide, the retention, and the off-glide.
3. The off-glide stage of a sound partially overlaps with the on-glide of the next sound.
4. Juncture, assimilation, and elision.
5. In some situations the transition is smooth/uninterrupted, in some others it is interrupted
(there is a short break between one sound and the next).
6. /kleim/ -if we have close junctures between all the sounds in this stretch of speech, then
this would be interpreted as acclaim. If, on the other hand, there is an open juncture
between the sound // and /k/ and if all the other sounds after /k/ are linked by close
junctures, then the string would be interpreted as a claim.
7. Anticipation of features of the following sound or transfer of features from a preceding
sound onto the next.
8. Assimilation.
10. right place /rait pleis/ /raip pleis/ = regressive assimilation of place of articulation
gone past /gn pa:st/ / gm pa:st/ = regressive assimilation of place of articulation
those shoes / uz u:z/ / u u:z/ = regressive assimilation of place of articulation
plant carrots /pla:nt krts/ /pla:n krts/ (elision) /pla: krts/ regressive
assimilation of place of articulation
11. /didjumeikh/ /didjumeik/ (h dropping) /didjmeik/ (reduction of /u/ to // in
an unstressed syllable) /didmeik/ (reciprocal assimilation between /d/ and /j/
resulting in /d/) /ddmeik/ (elision of /i/ in an unstressed syllable + dubble peaked
/d/).
13. Define elision and specify whether it affects: a) only vowels; b) only consonants; c)
both vowels and consonants.
Unit 7.
1. a) s; b) it must be [+plosive] & [-voiced]; c) it must be [-plosive] & [+voiced].
2. Usually, the nucleus of a syllable is represented by a vocalic sound (monophthong,
diphthong or triphthong), but there are situations in English (not in Romanian) when the
nucleus of the syllable is a voiced consonant (a so-called syllabic consonant m, n, , l,
and r).
3.
A. two-syllable words:
painted /pein-tid/ rented /ren-tid/ added /-did/ started /sta: -tid/ landed /ln-did/
folded/foul-did/
All the other words have one syllable only.
Rule: if the final sound of the verb is an alveolar plosive (i.e. /t/ or /d/), by adding the past
tense marker ed, a second syllable is created.
B. two-syllable words:
Causes, dishes, watches, misses, pieces, prices, mixes, changes
One-syllable words:
Cakes, rules, files, loves
Rule: if the final sound of the word is a sibilant (s, z, , , t, or d), by adding the suffix s
a second syllable is created.
168
4.
chocolate
vegetable
comfortable
interesting
secretary
library
Expected number
3
4
4
4
4
3
Actual number
2
3
3
3
3
2
Unit 8.
1. a) over the syllable
b) more muscular effort on the part of the speaker, change of pitch of the voice.
2. Change of pitch, lengthening of the syllable, loudness.
3. it makes the difference between verbs and nouns or nouns and adjectives that have
almost the same pronunciation;
- it makes the difference in meaning between identical stretches of speech.
4.
affix = noun
affix = verb
increase = noun
increase = verb
abstract = noun, adjective abstract = verb
import = noun
import = verb
insult = noun
insult = verb
contest = noun
contest = verb,
contrast = noun
contrast = verb
replay = noun
replay = verb
survey = noun
sur vey = verb.
5. For this exercise, consult a monolingual or a pronunciation dictionary.
6. 1. a. He spoke with no trace of accent. (noun)
b. The way you accent these words tells me you were not born in England. (verb)
2. a. Thats very abstract. (adjective)
b. One can abstract several general rules from the examination of these facts.(verb)
3. a. He was not on the missing list. (list of missing persons)
b. He couldnt find the missing list; its been missing for several days. (list that is
missing)
4. a. You will need a permit to visit the place. (noun)
d. This job does not permit of any delay. (verb)
7. Syllables carrying primary stress are underlined.
major
majority
sacrifice
sacrificial
reference
referee
incident
incidental
continent
continental
simplify
simplification
occupy
occupation
product
production
beautify
beautification
conversational
converse
nominate
nomination
nominee
photograph photography
photographic
169
object
subject
person
objective
subjective
personify
objectification
subjectification
personification