English Phonetics and Phonology

Language

Bibliography
Chitoran, D., English Phonetics and Phonology, Bucuresti, 1978 Crystal, D., Prosodic Systems and Intonation in English, Cambridge University Press, 1969 Gogalniceanu, Calina, Introduction to Linguistics A Theoretical and Practical Approach to Sounds and Phonemes, Iasi, 2003 Pilch, H., Manual of English Phonetics, Munchen, 1994

Bibliography
Jones,D., An Outline of English Phonetics, Cambridge, 1918 Jones,D., The Phoneme: Its Nature and Use, Cambridge, 1950 Kingdon,R., The groundwork of English Intonation, London, 1959 OConnor,J.,D., Phonetics, Penguin, 1973 Pike,K., The Intonation of American English, Ann Arbor, 1958

Language: definition
A human system of communication which uses structured vocal sounds and can be embodied in other media such as writing, print and physical signs. (The Oxford Companion to the English Language)

Language Language an act of communication. Communication is the transmission of a message from a source to a receiver

Saussure, Durkheim, Freud Ferdinand de Saussure the founder of modern linguistics (born in 1857) Sigmund Freud the founder of modern psychology ( born 1858) Emile Durkheim founder of modern sociology (born 1856) Saussure work can be placed between psychology and sociology.

Ferdinand de Saussure
Langue (language) is a system of interdependent terms in which the value of each term results solely from the simultaneous presence of the others. Parole the actual manifestation of language in speech or writing.

The notion of system Language is a system for Saussure The psyche is and impersonal system for Freud The system of collective norms and beliefs for Durkheim They viewed society as a set of institutions or systems.

Language features
Vocal auditory channel Convertibility to other media Use of arbitrary symbols Duality Interdependence Open-endedness Displacement Continual change Turn-taking

Linguistics the scientific study of language

The term linguistics was used for the first time in the middle of the 19th century.

Phonetics phone = sound, voice

The science which studies the characteristics of human sound making especially those used in speech, and provides methods for their Description, Classification and Transcription (David Crystal)

Types of Phonetics
General Special Synchronic Diachronic Acoustic Auditory Instrumental Forensic

Phonetics - the basic branch of linguistics

Phonetics is concerned with the expression level of the language, but it must take into account the content level. Only meaningful sound sequences are regarded as speech. The structure of language can be understood relying on phonetics and phonetic analysis.

Phonetics and other Sciences

Although an independent science, phonetics is related to other sciences: Lexicology : pin pan pun Grammar : word stress }rebel re}bel intonation and types of clauses Stylistics: sp (wetness) spray, splash, sprinkle, splatter

Phonetics and other Sciences

Physiology - the production of speech Physics the acoustic features of sounds Psychology the formulation of message in the brain of the speaker. The decoding of the message in the interlocutors brain.

Phonetics and Phonology

Phonetics is the study of the physical aspects of speech: the acoustic bases of speech and the physiological bases. Phonology is concerned with the linguistic patterning of sounds in human languages. It is also concerned with those abstract patterns in the sound system of a language that have to be learned by anyone acquiring a language.

Phonetics and Phonology

A linguistic system is based of contrasts by selecting one sound instead of another one word is distinguished from another: /k / car, key /k/ /g/ cane gain

Importance of Phonetics
Phonetics is to the science of language generally what mathematics is to astronomy and the physical sciences (Henry Sweet) phonetics gathers raw material. Phonetics cooks it. Practical Phonetics provides a technique for describing sounds in terms of movements of the vocal apparatus, and for writing them in terms of articulatory formulas, i.e letters of the phonetic alphabet. (K.Pike)

Phonetics Importance
Teaching and learning the native language and a foreign language Therapy of speech and hearing In sound recordings It is connected with communication

Received Pronunciation RP
RP is spoken by the educated people of England, it is used of radio and TV announcers and newsreaders. It is considered to be the best and even the most beautiful English. received has the 19th century meaning of accepted by the best society.

Cockney
It is London speech which described as harsh and soft, with the characteristic of slackness. Cockneys avoid movement of the lips and jaw as far as possible (W. Matthews Cockneys Past and Present) Cockneys avoid, as far as possible, any unnecessary movements of the articulating organs (M. MacBride Londons Dialect)

Cockney Being harsh is explained by the fact that Cockneys have inhabited a noisy and harsh city where the need to be heard above the roar of unresting London is paramount. Cockney has represented an oral rather than a written culture.

Origins of the word Cockney Cokenay or cocks egg, that is an unnatural object or freak of nature. Does a cock neigh too? Is supposed to have been said by a Londoner on his first visit to the country. The Latin term coquina, or cookery, deriving from the time when London was considered the great centre of cook-shops.

Cockney In Celtic mythology London was Cockgaine, a place of milk and honey, of whom the Cockneys are the true inhabitants. In the 15th c. the term was synonymous with milksop or an effeminate fellow. In the 16th c. it was an appellation for a townsman as a type of effeminacy, in contrast to the hardier inhabitants of the country.

Cockney In the 19th c. Cockneys and Cockneyisms flourished. The rise of rhyming slang: Apples and pears = stairs Trouble and strife + wife Back slang : yob + boy The literature of Cockney in 19th c flourished too.

Cockney pronunciation Relytions = relations Toime = time Own = home Flahs = flowers Inselt = insult Arst = asked Gorn = gone

Cockney Among younger Londoners Cockney has become milder or more subdued; this may be due to a better formal education and to the general diminution of local dialects as a result of mass media communications. Nevertheless, it has survived and has retained its vitality. Cockney grew like London by assimilation.

Cockney Cockney is
theatrical and cheerful.

Londoners are fond of proverbs and catchphrases, of harsh oaths which are a combination of comedy, aggression and cynicism. They are inclined to invent new words and phrases: immensikoff, its a naughty but its nice, see you later alligator. Television, cinema, popular music are sources of street slang

American English
The American character is bottomed upon the profound conviction that nothing in the world is beyond its power to accomplish. (Prof. A.M.Schlesinger) The American has an Elisabethan love for exuberant language and rejection of conservatism in language. America was born free (Tocqueville) On 9/11 Americans learnt that they were mortal.

American English characteristics

General uniformity:
In 1776 thirteen colonies were set up along the Atlantic coast. The main speech areas extended horizontally from east to west

Disregard for grammatical, syntactical and phonological rules Large capacity for taking in new words and phrases.

American dialects
Eastern accent non-rhotic speech of Boston and new England Southern non-rhotic speech of of the lowland south General American the majority of American accents. It is not marked by regional characteristics, being accepted by television networks all over the US.

American and British English

A common starting point It is not a matter of British versus American, but it is one of British and American.

American Spelling
The first guide to orthography was Samuel Johnson dictionary 1755 Noah Webster 1789 came with spelling proposals. His 1806 Dictionary contributed to some changes as:
U in our words was dropped: color The finale e in determine was dropped B in thumb and s in island and the redundant consonants in traveler and wagon were dropped R and e in many words ending in re were transposed: center, theater

The production Sounds The Organs of Speech

Lungs: the source of energy Windpipe/trachea Larynx with the vocal chords. Glottis Pharynx Mouth Nose

Glottis
Closed the glottal stop /? / Open leaving a narrow space /h/ Vocal cords are close together and vibrate voice Voiceless position - whisper

Mouth
Fixed parts/points of articulation: teeth, hard palate, pharyngeal wall Movable parts/articulators: lips, tongue, the soft palate, lower jaw

The roof of the mouth

The alveolar/teeth ridge The hard palate The soft palate/velum Sounds Dental Alveolar Palatal velar

The Tongue
The front: tip, blade = apex The back The centre The rims

The Lips
Tightly shut - complete obstruction /p b m/ Close together- friction / f v/ Close together- spread /i: / Relaxed, neutral position: /e/ Wide apart- open position: /a:/ Rounded /u:/ Slight rounding /O /

Classification of Vowels
The position of the tongue
Front v. /i: e / Back v. /u: O: O a:/ Central v. /: /

The position of the lips: Rounded v. :/ O: O u: / The degree of muscular tension: Tense v. /i: u:/ Lax v. /O /

Classification of Consonants
Criteria: The activity of the vocal cords: voiced consonants: /b d g z m n l r / and voiceless consonants /p t k s / The position of the soft palate: oral consonants and nasal consonants The place of articulation:

Consonant Classification
Bilabial: / p b m / Labio-dental: /f v / Dental :/Q D / Alveolar: / t d s z n l / Post alveolar /r / Retroflex /r / Palato-alveolar /S J tS dJ /

Consonant Classification
Palatal:/j/ Velar: /k g / Labio-velar /w/ Glottal : /h ?/

Consonant Classification
Manner of articulation: Plosives / p b t d k g ?/ Affricates / tS dJ/ Fricatives :/ f v s z S J h/ Continuants / m n / Intermitent closure /r/ Lateral /l/

Consonant Classification
Force of articulation: Fortis: /p t k s/ Lenis / b d g m n l r/ Semivowels or Approximants /w j/

The Phoneme
The Prague School N.S. Trubetzkoy
the phoneme was a psychical image of the sound (1929). Phonemes: sound intentions or sound concepts. A sound is for phonology a phonetic realisation of the phoneme, the material symbol of the phoneme.

The Phoneme
Principles of Phonology (Trubetzkoy): A phoneme is a phonological unit that cannot be analysed into still smaller distinctive units. A phoneme is the sum of of the phonologically relevant properties of a sound. He tried to define the phoneme on the basis of its function in the system of the language.

The Phoneme
A speech sound is the sum of all distinctive and non distinctive properties occurring at a specific point in the sound flow. A phoneme can be realised by several different speech sounds which are called variants.

Jakobson
Phonemes can be reduced to their elements by distributional analysis and by the concept of opposition

The London School - Daniel Jones

The phoneme: a group of related sounds of a given language used in connected speech that no one of them ever occurs in positions which any other can occupy.(1917) A family of sounds which are related in character, used in such a way that no member ever occurs in a word in the same phonetic context as any other member.

Leonard Bloomfield
The phoneme: The smallest unit which makes a difference in meaning. Phonology defines each phoneme by its role in the structure of speech forms.

Romanian Phonology
In the Romanian linguistics, phonetics and phonology have been treated as two interrelated disciplines.

Conclusion
The phoneme theory has been based all over the world on the notion of phonemic contrast that brings about a change of meaning in words.

The Segmental and Suprasegmental Phonemes of English

Sound inventory:
Sounds used contrastively Variants of contrastively used sounds Distinctive sound units capable of distinguishing words of different meanings are phonemes: Tap cap / t k/ Pit pat / / different phonemes /t/ plosive, alveolar, voiceless, fortis, cons. /k/ plosive, velar, voiceless, fortis, cons. The distinctive feature : place of articulation

Segmental Phonemes
/ / front, close, short, lax, unrounded vowel / / front, open, short, lax, unrounded vowel The distinctive feature: degree of opening of the mouth Distinctive feature = the choice between two polar qualities of the same category or between the presence or absence of a certain quality.

Segmental Phonemes
A phoneme = a bundle of distinctive features, realised in the acoustic substances of its variants or allophones.

Segmental Phonemes
The phonemes of a language can be established by a process of communtation or the discovery of minimal pairs pairs of words that are different in only one segment : not nod The inventory of phonemes of a language is established by finding out the total oppositions in all position in the word or syllable. 20 vowel phonemes and 24 consonantal phonemes.

Segmental Phonemes Allophones

Cat keep Time stake bottom little twice tune eighth The phoneme /t / is realised as a number of different sounds depending on the phonological context in which it occurs. Such variants are called positional allophones; they do not occur in the same position, their characteristics are determined by the adjacent sounds. They are in complementary distribution

Allophones
Cat / / The variants of the phoneme /k/ are not conditioned by their position in the word, they are in free variation. The phoneme is a class of similar sounds all members of which are in complementary distribution or in free variation.

The Suprasegmental Phonemes

Stress: strong/primary secondary tertiary

weak
Console / }kOnsWl / noun /kOn}sWl / verb She was on the } missing list. (the list of persons who have disappeared) She was on the missing } list. (the list cannot be found)

Suprasegmental Phonemes
Juncture/Transition Close - unmarked between phonemes in a word Open - /+/ at word boundaries free+Danny freed+Annie That+stuff thats + tough I+love+you Isle+view

Suprasegmental Phonemes
Pitch Level and Terminal Contours Intonation tone groups or intonation units A tone group has a nucleus which bears the change in the direction of the voice which indicates the terminal contour of the utterance. Terminal contours indicate:
a fall /D/ in the pitch of the voice A rise /C/ in the pitch of the voice

A continuation // of a given pitch

The Suprasegmental Phonemes

Pitch levels 4 highest pitch phoneme 3 next to highest 2 next to lowest 1 lowest

Suprasegmental Phonemes
Intonation may express different meanings: 2Yes1 /D/ that is so 3Yes1 /D/ of course it is so 1Yes2 /C / I understand, please continue 3Yes4 /D / is it really so

Romanian Phonemes
Segmenal Phonemes: 7 vowels 20 consonants 4 semivowels Accent :primary and weak : co}pii }copii Intonation: 2Ion 3este 1roman./D / 1Ion 2este 3roman. /C /

The English Vowel Phonemes

The Front Vowels /i: e / /i:/ front, close, tense, unrounded Easter, gleam, free ee weed ea- - dream ie field ei receive i - machine

Vowels
Ea and oe in words of Greek or Latin origin: Aesop, Oedipus, Caesar, formulae Exceptional: quay, people, Beauchamp American English /i/

Practice
Did you see the bean?/bin? When did Morus live?/leave/ Did you feel/fill it? Do you like Jean?/gin? Did you catch the sheep?/ship?

Practice
Are you related to Mr. Mead? Indeed, but it is a distant relationship. In what way are you related to him? He is my brother. And you call that distant? Why? Well, there are eleven brothers between us.

Vowels
/i / front,(retracted) close, short, lax, unrounded In unstressed positions it is replaced by /W / ladies, goodness, believe in, hit, city i this ie - marries y gym a palace, cottage e ticket

Vowels
-ate verb /eit/ verb /it/ advocate, separate The suffix ain / / Exceptional: Sunday, women, build, busy, minute, England, money, pretty. American English / /. There is the tendency to diphthongise it to /W /

Vowels
/e/ front, mid-open, short, lax, unrounded egg, men, e pen ea head a- many, any, Thames, Pall Mall Exceptional says, said, friend, again, leopard, jeopardy, Leonard,, Leicester, ate, leisure, bury

Vowels
/ / front, open, short, lax, unrounded ant, lamp a talent Exceptional:plait, plaid, reveille American English / /. Diphthongisation to /W /

Practice The House that Jack Built

This is the house that Jack built. This is the malt That lay in the house that Jack built. This is the rat That ate the malt , That lay in the house that Jack built .

This is the cat That killed the rat, That ate the malt, That lay in the house that Jack built. This is the dog That worried the cat, That killed the rat, that ate the malt that lay in the house that jack built.

This is the cow with the crumpled horn, That tossed the dog, That worried the cat, That killed the rat, That ate the malt, That lay in the house that Jack built.

The Back Vowels /a: O O: u:/

/a:/ back, open, long, tense, unrounded When followed by / f Q s / there is free variation between /a:/ and / / or by a consonant followed by another consonant: transfer, telegraph, Atlantic. arm, harm, car

Back vowels
/a:/ Spelling ar - garden ear - heart er - clerk a +ss class a +ff -staff a+th -path a+ mute l half, calm

/a:/
French borrowings -oir: memoir, reservoir Words of foreign origin: banana, cantata, drama The suffix graph may be either /gra:f/ or /gr f /: photograph, telegraph The corresponding adjectives have only /grf/. The prefix trans- is normally pronounced /trns/

/a/
In American English the symbol is /a/. The letter a followed by ff, ss, f, s, n, or followed by another consonant or by th is normally pronounced / /: dance, staff, after, bath, rather, laugh, example

/a/
In American English the symbol is /a/. The letter a followed by ff, ss, f, s, n, or followed by another consonant or by th is normally pronounced / /: dance, staff, after, bath, rather, laugh, example

/O /
/O / back, open, short, lax, slightly rounded odd, dog Spelling: o not, pot a preceded by w want, wash Exceptional: ou, ow cough, Gloucester, knowledge au sausage, Austria ua quality, quarrel

Back Vowels
/O / in American English represents a sound between /a/ and /o/ The groups wa- and qua- have normally the pronunciation with /a:/

Practice Tongue Twister

There was a man, and his name was Dob. And he had a wife, and her name was Mob, And he had a dog, and he called it Cob, And she had a cat, called Citterabob. Cob, says Dob. Chitterabob, says Mob. Cob was Dobs dog, Chitterabob Mobs cat.

/O:/
/O:/ back, half-open, long, tense, rounded In RP it replaces earlier /OW / in words spelt with ore (more), -oar (roar), -our (court), -oor (door) author, dawn, saw

/O:/
/O: / Spelling: or horse aw saw, awkward au caught, launch ou thought all all, ball al+cons. halt, malt Exceptional: water, broad, wrath

Back Vowels
American /o/ is a rounded, close vowel in words where /r/ is present: court, sport, torn In words where /r/ is not present /o/ is more open and less rounded: saw, sought, tall The initial group wa- may be pronounced /a:/, /o:/ or /O / : watch, wash, swan

/ /
// back/advanced, close, short, lax, rounded put, sugar Spelling: u full, butcher oo book, wood ou could, would Exceptional: bosom, bouquet, wolf, woman, Boleyn, Wolverhampton, Worcester

Back Vowels
In American English // before/r/ or /W/ in the same syllable replaces the long /u:/ as in poor /pW/.

/u:/
/u:/ back, close, long, tense, rounded ooze, moon, shoe Spelling: oo food, cool o move, tomb ou through, routine u rude, rule eu, eau feud, beautiful ew,ui,ue,oe chew, few, fruit, shoe

Practice Tongue Twister

A tutor who tooted the flute, Tried to tutor two tooters to toot; Said the two to the tutor: Is it harder to toot or To tutor two tooters to toot.

The Central Vowels /U W: W/

/U/ central, open, short, lax, unrounded under, mother Spelling: u cut, but o come, tongue ou country, southern Exceptional: oo flood, blood oe does

/U/
The American /U/ changes to /W/ in unaccented syllables: unable When this vowel is spelt o it may be changed to other vowels: /}dUNki / /}daNki/ /}dONki/ In words like : hurry, worry, courage there is free variation between /Ur / and /W:r/

/W:/ central, mid-open, long, tense, unrounded

earth, burn, her Spelling: er mercy, clergy ir first, bird ur fur, furnish er, err, ear her, err, earl yr myrtle ou courtesy w+or word eur in French borrowings amateur, connoisseur

/W:/
Exceptional: colonel In American English this vowel has /r/ colouring //, which is produced by raising the central portion of the tongue or by raising the tip of the tongue. In some parts of America where preconsonantal and final /r/ is pronounced, the vowel has a retroflex quality.

/W/ central, mid-open, short, lax, unrounded

/W1/ along, attempt, particularly; it is the vowel in the ; it is near to /W:/, but very short /W2/ has a higher and more retracted tongue position; it is heard in the vicinity of /k/ /g/: condemn, back again /W3/ is a more open sound, more like /U/; it occurs in final position: China, bitter

/W /
It occurs in unstressed syllables. It can replace almost all other vowels and diphthongs in unstressed positions. /b}li:v/ /bW}li:v/ /fa:st/ / }brekfWst/ come /kUm/ welcome / }welkWm/ mouth /mauQ/ Plymouth / }plimWQ/

/W /
Weak forms of grammatical words are used with /W /: and /Wnd/, must /mWst/.It is frequently omitted in certain unstressed words: condition /kWn}dWn/ /kWn}dn/ It should not be omitted between two nasal consonants> woman /}wmWn/ or when preceded by a nasal and followed by another nasal+plosive and followed by another nasal consonant: London /}lUndWn/, sentence/}sentWns/

Practice Advice
The more we study, the more we know, The more we know, the more we forget. The more we forget, the less we know. The less we know,the less we forget. The less we forget, the more we know. Why study?

The English Diphthongs/Glides

A diphthong is a glide from one vowel to another within one syllable. Diphthongs are equivalent of long vowels. Diphthongs can occur in all positions except before/N/. As the first element is longer and stronger, it is the nucleus. The English diphthongs have the nucleus on the first element and are called falling diphthongs.

Diphthongs
Wide diphthongs: there is a considerable movement of the speech organs from the position of the nucleus to that of the glide /ai a i/ Narrow diphthongs: the movement is less marked /ei W iW EW/ Closing diphthongs: the nucleus is more open than the vowel/ei ai i / Opening diphthongs: the nucleus is closer than the glide /iW EW W /

Glides to /i/ /ei ai i /

/ei/ narrow, closing, falling angel, made, bay Spelling: The letter a Ai, ay daisy, jail Ei, ey veil, grey

French borrowings ending in e caf, resume Some proper names: McCrea, Shea, Yeats Exceptional: bass, gauge, gaol, halfpenny, ah, dahlia

/ai/ wide, closing, falling ice, life, pie Spelling: e+cons. Fire, time i+ different vowels or consonants: lie, child, right, climb In American English in certain unaccented syllables /ai/ is replaced by /W / direct /dW}rekt/, finance /fW}nens/

/ai/ The ending ile of adjectives is pronounced with /i/ in American English and with /ai/ in British English agile /}dJail/ /}dJil/ fragile /}frdJail/ /}frdJil/

Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what Ive tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if I had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great and would suffice.

Practice Fire and Ice Robert Frost

/i /
/i / wide, closing, falling oil, boil, toy oi noise, coin oy oyster, voyage Exceptional: buoy

Glides to /u/
/u / narrow, closing, falling own, foam, so In unaccented positions it may be replced by // November. o potato, hero Exceptional: dont, brooch, oa road, oak sew, flok, yolk oe toe, foe ou soul poultry ow grow, low

/au/
/au/ wide, closing, falling out, town, cow ou round, doubt ow owl, flower

Practice Philosophic Advice

He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, he is a fool,; shut him. He who knows not, and knows that he knows not; he is simple, teach him. He who knows, and knows not that he knows; he is asleep, wake him. He who knows, and knows that he knows; he is wise, follow him.

Practice Have you ever seen?

One old ox opening oysters, Two toads totally tired trotting to Tewksbury, Three tawny tigers taking tea, Four fat friars fishing for flounders, Five fussy fairies finding frogs, Six solid soldiers shooting snipe,

Seven silver salmon solemnly sailing Eight eager engineers eating excellent eggs, Nine neat noblemen nibbling nuts Ten tall tinkers taking turnips, Eleven elegant Englishmen eating early endive, Twelve tall tale-tellers talking till twilight.

Glides to / /
/i / narrow, opening, centring ear, period, here Exceptional: er hero museum, theological eer beer, career ear dear, tear ere here eir weird ier pier, fierce

/ /
/ / narrow, opening, centring air, cared, there air chair aer aeroplane aar bear, tear are care share Exceptional: mayor, prayer, layer, heir

/u /
/u /narrow, opening, centring tour, poor oor moor ure cure, pure ur during, curious, mural our tour ewe jewel ue cruel, fuel ua valuable, manual

Practice Poem by H.W. Longfellow

I shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, I know not where, For so swiftly it flew, the sight Could not follow it in its flight. I breathed a song into the air, It fell to earth, I know not where, For has sight so keen and strong, That it can follow the flight of a song?

 Long, long afterward, in an oak I found the arrow still unbroke, and the song from beginning to end I found in the heart of a friend.

Plosives general features Place of articulation: Bilabial /p b / Alveolar / t d / Velar /k g / Glottal / ? / Force of articulation: / p t k / are pronounced with greater muscular energy and stronger breath effort than / b d g/.

The English Consonant Phonemes

The Plosive consonants In the articulation of a plosive there are three stages: 1. the closing stage, the articulating organs are brought together forming an obstruction 2.the hold or compression stage, the air is compressed behind the obstacle due to the lung action 3.the release or explosion stage, the organs part rapidly and the air escapes with plosion or explosion

Plosives The former are called fortis the latter lenis. Aspiration : the fortis consonants are aspirated in initial accented position. When /l r w j / follow / p t k /, the aspiration is evident in devoicing / l r w j / as in light, price, climb, twist, pew. When /s/ precedes / p t k / aspiration does not occur.

The Bilabial Plosives / p b/ /p/ bilabial, fortis, voiceless, plosive Spelling: p, pp part, apple Exceptional hiccough /p/ is silent in pn, ps, pt pneumonia, pneumatic psychic, pseudo ptarmigan, receipt

Plosives /p/ is not pronounced in clusters between m and t: empty, prompt or in other clusters as in raspberry, cupboard.

Practice Tongue twister

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked; If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Wheres the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

Plosives /b/ /b/ bilabial, lenis, voiced, unaspirated, plosive Spelling: b, bb baby, rubber b is silent in final position when preceded by m comb, tomb Or followed in the same syllable by t debt, subtle, doubt

Plosives / t d/ /t/ alveolar, fortis, voiceless, plosive In initial stressed position it is aspirated time Spelling : t, tt tell, better th thyme, Thomas, Mathilda, Esther, Thames -ed after voiceless cons. asked It is silent in stle, sten, stm: Castle, listen, Christmas

/t/ It is not pronounced in compounds or in sequences when it is preceded by /s/ and followed by another consonant: postmaster, next door In Am E., in the middle of the word /t/ may be changed to a weakly articulated /d/, to a variety of /r/, or to a glottal stop. /}letW/ /}ledW/ /}lerW/ /}twen? / /ai wn?WgW /

/d/ alveolar, lenis, voiced, unaspirated plosive Spelling: d, dd dog, ladder There is the tendency not to pronounce it when preceded by /n/ and followed by another cons.: grandmother, handsome In Am.E ./d/ is often weakened or dropped, especially before /n/ or /l/: land, old, or in the vecinity of a second /d/candidate /knideit /

Give the phonetic transcription

happened handed proved typed breathed bruised checked amazed patched pasted

Plosives /k g/
/k/ velar, fortis, voiceless, plosive Spelling: c followed by a,o,u - car, call, cool cc followed by e, i - accent, accept k king, key ck lock ch - chemist qu liquor, antique x - mixed

/g/ velar, lenis, voiced, unaspirated, plosive Spelling: g, gg bag, struggle x example, exhibit It is silent before /n/: gnat, gnaw, gnash It is silent in the groups of letters: gh sigh, right, night

Glottal stop /? /
It is a sudden cessation of the preceding sound or it occurs with the sudden onset of the following sound. It is voiceless and fortis. It serves as a syllable boundary marker, when the second syllable begins with a vowel: co-operate, reaction. It occurs before initial vowels when people speak with hesitation. It may replace linking /r/ later on It may be a substitute of /t/ Tottenham.

Read the proverbs and give their Romanian equivalents

Cut your coat according to your cloth. Appetite comes with eating. Better to treat with God than with Saints.

The Affricate Consonants /tS dJ tr dr ts dz / Affricates are plosives whose release stage is accompanied by friction. /tS / palato-alveolar, fortis, voiceless, affricate Spelling: ch chair, church ture lecture, picture tion preceded by /s/ question, suggestion

/dJ / palato-alveolar, lenis, voiced, affricate Spelling ; j job, jump g followed by e,I,y gender, giant, gym gg, dg,, dj, di exaggerate, bridge, adjacent, soldier ch spinach, Greenwich, Norwich Exceptional: -gaol

Affricates in AmE These affricates are articulated with less lip rounding. /tS / occurs in words like: actual, situation. /dJ / occurs in words where BrE has /dj/: education, adulation

The Fricatives /f v s z S J h / The fricatives are articulated by a narrowing of the passage of the air at some point so that the outgoing air escapes with friction.

/f v/ /f/ labio-dental, fortis, voiceless, fricative Spelling: f, ff fine, buffalo ph philosophy, diphthong gh enough, cough, draught Exceptional: lieutenant

/v/ labio-dental, lenis, voiced, fricative Spelling: v ever, have ph nephew, Stephen f only in of A number of nouns ending in f or ef in the singular have v in the plural: leaf leaves life - lives

/ /
/ / dental, fortis, voiceless, fricative In spelling both / / are rendered by th Plurals of words ending in th have /s /: - if a short vowel precedes breaths - if a consonant precedes healths - if the letter r precedes - births - in heaths, faiths, growths, sloths In other cases the pronunciation is / z / - baths, mouths

/ / / / occurs in initial position in nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs: thing, thick, thank, thoroughly; In all words beginning with thr- : three, In medial position in words of non-Germanic origin: author, method, through / / occurs in functional words : the, that, this, there, they; in words of Germanic origin: gather, whether

// dental, voiced, lenis, fricative th is pronounced // initially in pronouns this, that, these, those and in than medially in Germanic words: father, northern in plurals of nouns ending in th not preceded by r, containing a long vowel or diphthong: paths, mouths finally when there is a mute e : bathe, breathe and in bequeath, booth, smooth

/s z/ /s/ alveolar, fortis, voiceless, fricative Spelling: s, ss see asset S sc science, scythe c + e, I, y ice, cycle, city It is silent in : isle, island, corps, demesne, viscount

Pronunciation The letter s may be pronounced either /s/ or /z/: absurd /Wb}sW:d/ absolve /Wb}zOlv/ cease /si:s/ please /pli:z/ When s represents the plural morpheme or the third person sg. in verbs it is pronounced /z/ after vowels and voiced cons. and /s/ after voiceless consonants: plays, lemons, roofs, cups; he reads, he speaks

Pronunciation
In sive, -sity it is pronounced /s/ : conclusive, curiosity When s is preceded by a,i,v,u,y it is pronounced /s/: gas, crisis, us, genius, Gladys Nouns and adjectives ending in se are pronounced with /s/: base, loose, morose, geese, concise, obese Words ending in lese, -nse, -pse, -rse are pronounced with /s/: pulse, dense, glimpse, course

Pronunciation Words ending in se are pronounced with /s/ when they are nouns and with /z/ when they are verbs: Noun Verb use/ju:s/ use /ju:z/ Abuse /W}bju:s/ abuse/W}bju:z/ Excuse/ik}skju:s/ excuse/ik}skju:z/

Pronunciation The same rule applies to the pair adjective close /klWus/ and verb close /klWuz/. The following noun/verb pairs are exceptions to the above rule as they have the same pronunciation: increase, decease, promise ss always /s/: fussy, miss Exceptions: dessert, possess, dissolve, scissors

/z/alveolar, lenis, voiced, fricative Spelling: z, zz zebra, fizz es buses, bushes x xylophone, example

/z/ The letter s is pronounced /z/; When it represents the plural morpheme or the third pers. sg. in verbs after vowels or lenis consonants: days, he gives, dogs, she says Nouns ending in s, ss, x, sh, ch where the plural ending is es: gases, glasses,, watches Greek proper names ending in es: Euripides, Sophocles, Hades

/z/ Latin nouns in the plural: axis axes, index indices Greek nouns in the plural: analysis analyses, basis - bases

Give the phonetic transcription

bushes zebra fuzzy buses xenophobia axes exert xylophone species dessert zero bosses crises hesitate dissolve

/S J/
/S/ palato-alveolar, fortis, voiceless, fricative Spelling: sh ship, wish s+ai mansion, Persia s+ei musician, special sci conscious, gracious ti nation, partial su sugar, censure ce ocean ss assure ch machine, moustache

/J/ palato-alveolar, lenis, voiced, fricative It occurs in final position only in French borrowings: beige, rouge Spelling: sure leisure, pleasure zure azure, seizure si occasion s usual, treasure

Practice
The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part of a day I had rued.
Robert Frost

/h/ glottal, fortis, voiceless, fricative Spelling: h house, behind wh whole, whose It is silent initially in four words: hour, honour, honest, heir It is silent medially in : vehement, vehicle, nihilism, shepherd It is silent in proper names ending in ham: Balham, Fulham

/h/ It is silent after ex-: exhaust, exhibit It is not pronounced when preceded by r: rheumatism, rhapsody It is not pronounced in the auxiliaries: have, has, had, or in pronouns and pronominal adjectives in unaccented positions: he, him In Cockney it is not pronounced in initial position.

Give the phonetic transcription

honest hour heir honour vehicle exhibit exhaust Durham Balham annihilate Hugh

The nasal consonants /m n N/ There is a complete closure in the mouth, but the soft palate is lowered and the air escapes through the nose. The vocal cords vibrate, so they are voiced sounds. They are continuants.

/m/ bilabial, voiced, nasal Spelling: m, mm mother, summer mb comb, tomb, womb Initial m followed by n is silent: mnemonic

/n/ alveolar, voiced, lenis, nasal Spelling: n, nn nine, dinner It is silent when preceded by m: autumn, damn. It is pronounced in in the derivatives of such words: autumnal, damnation. But not in the verb damned

/N/ velar, voiced, lenis, nasal Spelling: ng sing, king nk ink, thank In medial position ng is pronounced /N/ when it stands for the ending of the verb + the noun suffix er or the present participle ing: singer, singing The prefix con- has /N/ if it occurs in an accented syllable: congress, conquer

The Lateral Consonant /l/ There is a partial closure, on one or both sides of which the air escapes from the mouth. /l/ alveolar, voiced, lenis lateral The main allophones: Clear [l] has the resonance of a front vowel. It occurs before vowels and /j/: leave, million Voiceless [l] when preceded by voiceless cons., mostly /p k/:plea, climb

/l/ Dark [l] the back of the tongue is raised towards the soft palate. It has a back vowel resonance. It occurs in final position, before a cons. And after a cons. It has syllabic function :leap, fill, help Spelling: l, ll lake, cellar

/l/ is silent -alf calf, half -ould could, would - alk chalk, talk -olk folk, yolk -alm calm, salmon colonel, halve, holm, Falkner, Lincoln, Malmesbury

/r/
The voiced post-alveolar fricative lingual /r/ is the most usual in English. It is articulated with the tip of the tongue against the back part of the teeth-ridge, the main body of the tongue is low in the mouth. The voiced post alveolar frictionless continuant /r/ is also common in English. It is articulated with the tip of the tongue held near but not touching the rear part of the teeth ridge. The back rims of the tongue touch the upper teeth. This allophone is vowel-like but has a marginal position in the syllable. It occurs before a vowel, following a lenis cons. Except /d/ or it ia linking /r/:road, across, far away.

/r/ When /r/ is preceded by /d/ it is fricative: drive, bedroom. When it is preceded by /p t k/ it is completely devoiced and fricative // : pray, tray, cry. Alveolar tap /r/ occurs in unstressed intervocalic position. It is articulated with a single tap made by the tip of the tongue on the teeth ridge; the contact has a short duration : very, period.

/r/
The lingual roll /r/ consists of a rapid succession of taps made by the tip of the tongue on the alveolar ridge. It is used on the stage and in Scottish E. and Northern E. Linking /r/ the word final / r/ is pronounced when the following word begins with a vowel: near it, far away. Intrusive /r/ occurs by analogy with linking /r/ in the case of /W/ endings: the idea of it, the Shah of Persia.

/r/ Spelling: r, rr road, merry In Am E. there is retroflex /r/ produced with the middle of the tongue lower than the sides; the tip of the tongue is curled backwards. In initial position /r/ is less fricative, and some phoneticians consider it to be a semi-vowel.

Tongue Twister
Robert Rowley rolled a round roll round, A round roll Robert Rowley rolled round; Where rolled the round roll Robert Rowley rolled round?

The semi-vowels /w j/ They have the acoustic characteristics of vowel but are grouped with consonants because they function as cons., i.e., they cannot be the nucleus of a syllable

/j/ unrounded, palatal, voiced, frictionless In words spelt with u, ue, in, ew, eu representing /u:/, /j/ may be inserted before /u:/ according to the following rules: /j/ is not inserted after /tS dJ r l/ preceded in turn by a consonant: chew, June, rule, blue /j/ is regularly inserted after / p b t k g m n f v h/ :pew, beauty, tune, due, queue, argue, music, new, few, view, huge

/j/ /j/ is regularly inserted after /l/ preceded by a vowel when that vowel is stressed: value When /l/ is initial or preceded by an unstressed vowel, /j/ may be inserted or not: lute /lu:t/ /lju:t/, . The form with /j/ is considered to be more common. After /s z Q/ there are two pronunciations with or without /j/: suit, presume, enthusiasm.

/j/ Spelling: y yes, yacht i, e opinion, hideous u+cons+vowel university, Luke eu, ew eulogy, feud, few eau (rare) beauty

/w/ rounded, labio-velar, non-fricative Spelling: w were, want w after cons. Sweet, twenty u (especially when preceded by q or g) quick, language, acquaint oir - memoir, reservoir Exceptional: one, once, persuade, assuage, suite

Tongue Twister
Swan swam over the sea Swim swan swim; Swan swam back again, Well, swum swan.

The Romanian Phonemes

The Vowel Phonemes There are 7 vowels in Romanian. Front /i e/ Central / a / Back / u o / Close /i u/ Half-close / e u / Open /a/ Rounded /o u/ Unrounded /a e i/

The Romanian Diphthongs and Triphthongs A diphthong is made up of a vowel and a semivowel falling- cai, copii, august,tau, greu, erou a semivowel and a vowel rising- iad, ieftin, seara, broasca. A triphthong is made up of two semivowles and a vowel

The Romanian Consonants There are 20 consonants /p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r / and / k g / Voiced / b d g/ Voiceless /p t k/ Plosives /p b t d k g m n / Fricatives /f v s z h / Affricates / /

Place of articulation Bilabial / p b m / Labio-dental / f v / Dental / t d n s z l r / Prepalatal / / Palatal / k g / Velar / k g / Laryngal /h/

 / m n/ are nasal consonants /l/ is lateral /r/ is dental

The Romanian semivowels The front vowels /i e/ and the back vowels / o u / have the function of semivowels when used with another vowel.

Comparison 7 vowels in Romanian 12 vowels in English Duration is not a distinctive feature in Romanian. Nevertheless, vowels can be lengthened in the following instances: When a vowel is the result of the contraction of two other vowels clasa a doua - clasaadoua For the sake of emphasis

 Accented vowels followed by voiced consonants are slightly longer than the same vowel followed by a voiceless consonant drag drac Romanian /i/ is used for both English /i/ and /i:/. /i/ does not exit in Romanian. D. Jones said that speakers of Romance languages produce a sound that is too tense. / / does not exist in Romanian /O/ is made too rounded

 /a:/ is made too short and central Romanian /o/ is often used for both /O/ and /O :/ /u/ and /u:/ are replaced by the Romanian /u/, which has too much lip rounding and the length of the English long vowel is not observed / :/ has usually lip rounding in an attempt to maintain its length.

Comparison
// is rendered in spelling by different letters and D. Jones remarked that the chief difficulty for foreigners lies not in making the sound, but in knowing when to use it. It occurs only in unstressed syllables and can replace almost all other vowels and diphthongs in unstressed positions. The weak forms of almost 60 words in English have this vowel. Romanians should pay attention to the use of strong and weak forms.

Comparison // resembles the Romanian /a/ in capac. Lip rounding should be avoided. It should be shorter and closer than the Romanian vowel.

Comparison - Diphthongs In English there are only falling diphthongs, while in Romanian there are rising diphthongs too. Care should be taken to acquire the correct pronunciation of the exceptional cases. In /Oi / care should be taken to produce a correct nucleus, avoiding lip rounding. /u/ -Romanians should not replace it bu /ou/

Comparison Diphthongs The glides to // /i E u/ do not exist in Romanian. In final position // has an open quality, but it should not be replaced by //

Comparison - Consonants There are 22 consonants in Romanian and 24 in English. The distinction fortis lenis does not operate in Romanian. The fortis plosives are aspirated in initial accented position. Romanian plosives are not aspirated. They have a slight aspiration in final position cap, pot, tac.

Comparison Consonants /t d/ are alveolar in English and dental in Romanian. The pronunciation of ed maybe faulty /k g/ should not be palatalised when followed by e,i. // does not exist in Romanian, but Romanians may pronounce it without being aware of it, especially in the middle of the word before a stressed vowel: create, whereas

Comparison
The Romanian / / can be followed only by e i; they are palatalised, which should be avoided in English. /Q D/ do not exist in Romanian. They may be replaced by /f v/ or /s z/. It is more difficult to pronounce these consonants especially when they are followed by fricatives. /s z/ are alveolar in English and dental in Romanian. Since the letter s may be pronounced both /s/ and /z/ and since a wide variety of spellings represent these sounds, learners of English should know which sound any particular spelling represents.

Comparison /h/ is glottal in English, while in Romanian it is articulated with the back of the tongue raised to the soft palate, the friction occurring in the mouth. Romanian should elide /h/ in the weak forms of words in unstressed position: he, him, his, her.

Comparison Nasal Consonants /n/ is dental in Romanian, so Romanians should produce it with alveolar articulation. // does not exist in Romanian as an independent phoneme, although it occurs in words like Anca, linga.

Comparison Lateral Consonant Clear /l/ is quite similar to the Romanian /l/. Dark /l/ does not exist in Romanian, but it can be produced by trying to say /u/ without lip rounding.

/r/ In English /r/ is vibrated sound. To achieve the correct pronunciation of this sound Romanians Can start by pronouncing /J/ , then retract the tongue, lower it slightly, with the jaws apart and the lips rounded. One can also start by pronouncing /:/ with exaggerated length, a weak breath effort, with rounded lips and retracted tongue.

/r/ Post vocalic /r/ must not be pronounced in words like : arm, horse, bird.

Semivowels /w j/ /j/ occurs in Romanian words like ea, esire /w/ must not be replaced by /v

Sources of mistakes Spelling pronunciation Exceptional spellings Plural morpheme

Words ending in /Q D/ in the plural

Past tense ed Silent letters /s z/ Intrusive /r/

Sources of mistakes Combination of sounds in the syllable structure. Some clusters are difficult to be pronounced by Romanians. The transition between sounds is quite clear cut in Romanian while in English it is slow, sounds are pronounced linked together. Romanians may have difficulties not only in rendering the correct Englsih words but also in understanding the continuum of speech.

Sources of mistakes Romanians may make allophonic substitutions of the English phonemes: unaspirated fortis consonants, plural morphemes etc. Slight mispronunciations : /e/ too open, // too rounded. Phonemic substitutions : Roamanian /i/ for the English /i/

Sounds in Connected Speech Sound Change

English, like all living languages, changes from generation to generation: slight and imperceptible as the differences in the pronunciation of father and son may appear to be, there is always some change under ordinary normal conditions. Hence pronunciations which are vulgar in one century may become fashionable in the next, sounds which are distinct in one generation may be confounded in another, and new distinctions