Glossary of Phonetic Terms

Stress
Stress is a greater degree of force and loudness given to certain syllables in words.
Stressed syllables are strong, loud, and clear. Unstressed syllables are weak, short,
and less distinct. Stress is also called accent.

Accent
Accent is stress placed on a syllable in a word. Accent makes a syllable more
prominent in terms of loudness and pitch. (2) Accent is a mode of pronunciation
characteristic of a group of people in a certain locality (British accents; regional
accents; foreign accent)

Syllables
One vowel sound forms one syllable. A vowel sound may be represented by one
vowel letter in writing (sit, last, form) or by a combination of vowel letters (read,
law, group). A diphthong is one complex vowel sound consisting of two
components. A diphthong forms one syllable (rain, boat, crowd).

Word stress
Word stress is stress in individual words. In isolation, each word has its own stress.
Short words usually have one stress, and longer words usually have two stresses:
primary stress and secondary stress. Word stress is also called word accent.

Primary and secondary stress

Primary stress is the strongest stress that is given to a syllable in a word. Secondary
stress is weaker than primary stress but stronger than absence of stress.

Place of stress
The majority of English words have primary or secondary stress on the initial
syllable. There are certain typical patterns of word stress in English.

Shift of stress
Stress in derivative words may remain the same as in the words from which they
were derived (CUStom, CUStomary; obJECT, obJECtion), or it may shift to
another syllable (PERson, perSONify; preFER, PREFerence).

Content words (Key words)

Content words are important meaningful words: nouns, adjectives, main verbs,
adverbs, numerals. Content words are always stressed.

Function words (Structure words)

Function words are articles (a, the), conjunctions (and, but), prepositions (in, on),
auxiliary verbs (be, have) used in the formation of tenses. Function words are not
stressed.
Other stressed words
Other usually stressed words are demonstrative pronouns (these, those), reflexive
pronouns (myself, himself), absolute forms of possessive pronouns (mine, yours),
certain indefinite pronouns, interrogative words (what, how), postpositions (with
phrasal verbs), negative forms of auxiliary and modal verbs (isn't, can't).

Other unstressed words

Other usually unstressed words are personal pronouns (he, it), possessive pronouns
(his, her, its), the verb "be" as a main verb or linking verb (I am here; he is a
doctor), and modal verbs in the affirmative (I can go; he should stay).

Emphatic stress
Emphatic stress is a special stress that is given by the speaker to some word in a
sentence, usually to single out, compare, correct, or clarify things. Even a function
word may receive emphatic stress. (It's \in the table, not \on the table.) Emphatic
stress is also called contrastive stress or logical stress.

Sense groups (Thought groups)

A sense group consists of several content and function words united logically into
one part of a sentence according to grammatical and lexical norms. For example, in
the sentence "Four days ago she was in Greentown visiting her old aunt who lived
alone and needed some help", the following word groups are sense groups: four
days ago; she was in Greentown; visiting her old aunt; who lived alone; and
needed some help. Phonetically, sense groups are marked by pauses, stress, and
intonation to show the beginning and end of sense groups and the most important
words in them.

Pauses
Pauses mark the borders between parts of a sentence or between sentences. Pauses
are very short / barely noticeable between sense groups, a little longer where the
commas are, and quite clear where the full stops are.

Intonation
Intonation is a certain pattern of pitch changes in speech. Intonation organizes
words into sentences, distinguishes between different types of sentences
(statements, questions, commands, requests), and adds emotional coloring to
utterances. Intonation is based on several key components, such as pitch, sentence
stress, and rhythm. There are two basic kinds of intonation: falling intonation and
rising intonation.

Pitch
Pitch is the degree of height of our voice in speech; that is, how high or how low
the voice goes in speech. Normal pitch in American speech is mid-level pitch, with
strong stresses in the course of the sentence and a fall or a rise at the end of the
sentence. Intonation is formed by pitch changes; for example, the falling tone in
falling intonation is formed by pitch change from mid level to low level. Stressed
syllables are usually higher in pitch than unstressed syllables.

Tone
The tone is the terminal change in pitch at the end of a sentence or at the end of a
sense group (e.g., falling tone, or fall; rising tone, or rise; fall-rise). The tone is the
most significant change of pitch in a sentence. The components of intonation
always function together in order to distinguish types of sentences (statements,
questions, commands, requests), but it is the terminal tone at the end of the
sentence that conclusively determines the type of sentence.

Sentence stress
Sentence stress makes the utterance understandable to the listener by making the
important words in the sentence stressed, clear, and higher in pitch and by
shortening and obscuring the unstressed words. Sentence stress is the main means
of providing rhythm in connected speech. All words have one or two stresses in
isolation, but when they are connected into a sentence, important changes take
place: content words are stressed, and function words are not stressed; sense
groups are singled out phonetically; the unstressed syllables blend into a stream of
less distinct sounds between the stressed syllables; in words with two stresses, one
stress may be shifted or weakened to keep the rhythm; emphatic stress may be used
in the sentence to single out the most important word; the last stressed word in the
sentence gets the strongest stress with the help of the falling or rising tone.

Rhythm
English is a very rhythmical language, which means that stressed syllables occur at
regular intervals in speech. Rhythm is "stressed – unstressed – stressed –
unstressed" pattern, where "stressed" is one stressed syllable, and "unstressed" may
include several unstressed syllables that are usually shortened and run together in
the intervals between the stressed syllables. Phonetic rules of reduction and linking
are used to shorten the unstressed syllables and to join the words in the sentence
smoothly.

Reduction and linking

Reduction makes the sounds in the unstressed syllables shorter. For example, an
unstressed reduced vowel sound is often changed into the neutral sound. In some
cases, the neutral sound may be dropped. Linking is a way to connect the final
sound of one word to the first sound of the following word smoothly, without
breaking the rhythm in the sentence.

Speaking rate (Speech tempo)

Normal speed of speech in English is directly related to rhythm, and in this respect
"fast" does not necessarily mean "good". The best way to achieve normal English
speech rate is to practice repeating audio materials with the recorded speaker's rate
of 150–160 words per minute. Average speaking rate for American speakers in
everyday conversation is approximately 140–160 words per minute, and average
rate for oral reading is 150–170 words per minute. This includes stressed and
unstressed words, short words like "I, a, the, is, but", longer words, and normal
pauses. Speaking or oral reading rate below 100 words per minute is considered to
be too slow, and the rate above 200 wpm is considered to be too fast.