1

TEMA 7 :SISTEMA FONOLOGICO DE LA LENGUA INGLESA I : LAS VOCALES.

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1.

PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

1.2.

SPEECH PRODUCTION AND THE ORGANS .

2. THE ENGLISH VOWEL SYSTEM

2.1.

ENGLISH PURE VOWELS

2.2.

THE ENGLISH DIPHTONGS

2.3.

THE ENGLISH TRIPHTONGS

3. ENGLISH VS SPANISH AND CATALAN VOWEL SYSTEMS .

3.1.

DIFFICULTIES FOR SPANISH SPEAKERS

3.2.

DIFFICULTIES FOR CATALAN SPEAKERS

4. CONCLUSION
5. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Once the main topics of the unit have been exposed, let's start with the INTRODUCTION:
Every language is based on a finite number of sounds selected from all the possible sounds
that human beings can articulate. These sounds are called PHONEMES .

Many things have been said about phonemes, Jones, following a physical point of view,
regards a phoneme as a family of sounds which are related in character and determined by
neighbouring sounds in words. On the other hand, Bloomfield, following a functional theory,
affirms that the phoneme is the minimal sound unit by which we differentiate meanings. In
any case, there are two categories of sound: the segmental, that studies the basic sound
segments, vowels and consonants; and the suprasegmental or prosodic,

which are vocal

effects that take place over more than one sound segment; that is stress, rhythm, intonation.
In this unit, we will deal with the segmental one, and more concretely with the vowel system.
In order to develop all these facts regarding to the study of sound, we can find two different
but at the same time related sciences: PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY.

Phonetics, is the science concerned with the study of speech processes, including the
perception, transmission and reception of speech sounds, from both an acoustic and a
psychological point of view, but excluding linguistic considerations. By contrast, the main

2
aim of phonology is to discover the rules, which organise sounds into a language system. Or
using Pick's words.' Phonetics gathers raw material, phonology cooks it.'

Once we have defined these terms, let's move on to the study of the SPEECH PRODUCTION
AND THE ORGANS

that take place on it. The fact is that both, phonetics and phonology require

as their source data, a human being with an intact auditory mechanism and a functional
speech apparatus. As the most widely used description of speech sounds are articulatory, we
will study this more carefully.

I'd like to say that making a speech sound relies firstly on a mental impulse to do so and then
there are three physical stages involved in its production:
?

Initiation: this is the provision of air to make the sound

Phonation: that refers to the channelling of energy to make the sound (quality of voice)

Articulation: that refers to the shaping of the sound.

These physical stages need the help of what we call SPEECH ORGANS . In fact, The key to
understanding sounds lies in familiarity with these organs and how they function, so we will
now examine them individually. Let's start with the LUNGS . We use air from the lungs to
speak, we do it while we are breathing. In fact, most speech sounds are produce when we
breathe out.

Once the air has been expelled, we need CAVITIES OR RESONATORS in order to produce the
sounds inside and permit the articulation. These resonators are the PHARYNX, which contains
the vocal folds; the NOSE and the MOUTH. Although the mouth could be considered as one of
the most important cavities, we shouldn't forget that vowels are generally voiced and louder
than consonant sounds and they use both, the mouth and the nose for their articulation.

In order to finish with the speech production process we need some organs to give shape to
the sounds. These organs are what we call ARTICULATORS . The first articulator we find when
expelling the air from the lungs are THE VOCAL FOLDS . They are the two bands of elastic
tissue of coluch protected by the larynx. During speech they adopt three main positions:
?

Wide open and not vibrating: to produce unvoiced sounds

Close together and vibrating: to produce voiced sound

Tightly shut with air locked up behind them: preparatory to glottal stop production.

The following one is THE TONGUE. This is the most important and most active articulator. It
can adopt many positions to produce sounds, and it has 4 active parts: the back, the front, the
tip and the blade, with is just behind the tip. These parts of the tongue, shape different sounds
contacting to other articulators like the TEETH, that play a passive role, to form sounds such as
/t/ in term., the PALATE or the LIPS .

THE PALATE forms the roof of the mouth, separating the mouth cavity from the nose cavity.
The hard part, or hard palate, is used by the tongue to deflect the air stream through the
mouth. The soft part at the back, called the velum, can be lowered to allow air into nasal
cavity. The last step of the articulators will carry us to THE LIPS . These can be used together
to articula te sounds by themselves or the bottom lip can be in contact with the upper teeth to
produce sounds such as /f/ as in fact.

And that's all regarding to the speech production and the organs. Now it's time to go deeply
into the ENGLISH VOWEL SYSTEM , that ranges over the study of PURE VOWELS ,
DIPHTHONGS & TRIPHTHONGS .

Vowels differ from consonants in that there is no noticeable obstruction in the vocal tract
during their production. Air scapes in a relatively unimpeeded way through the mouth and or
nose. If you try saying aaaaaaaa eeeeeeee iiiiiiiiii to yourself, you should be able to feel that
although your tongue moves about your mouth, it never actually obstructs the airflow.You
should also be able to feel that the position of the tongue changes for each of those
vowels.Vowels are determined by changes in position of the lips, tongue and palate. These
changes can be very slightly and difficult to detect. Linguist in order to give light to this
matter, designed a vowel chart in which vowels are classified depending on the height of the
tongue , the part of the tongue raised and the lips position.

According to the HEIGHT OF THE TONGUE we distinguish among

?

Closed vowels : tongue as high as possible without touching the roof of the mouth: /i:/
/u:/ as in heed and shoe.

Half-closed : where the tongue is not held as high: / I / as in hid and /? / as in put

Half-open vowels, where the tongue is nearer the bottom of the mouth as in /? / (ash) :
had, and /? / (turned v) as in cut.

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?

Open vowels: where the tongue is held as low as possible. In this group we can find
/a:/ (long a) as in hard, and /? / (turned c) as in hod.

At the same time, and according to the PART OF THE TONGUE WE RAISE, we can find a new
division into:
?

Front vowels, where the front of the tongue moves towards the hard palate, as the /i:/
in heed or the /I / in hid.

Back vowels, where the back of the tongue performs this action as the /u:/ in shoe or
the /? :/ in saw.

Central vowels, where the central past of the tongue is raised as in /? :/, in bird and
/? / in the.

Finally, LIP POSITION, refers to the fact that, in some vowel production, lips can be protruded
accompanied by a rounding. In this case we find what we call rounded vowels. All the back
vowels belong to this group, in fact front round vowels do not exist in English. The rest, are
what we call unrounded vowels in which the lips are spread or in neutral position.

In order to finish with this point, we could say that other facts, like Chomskian tenseness and
laxness, nasalization or length could be also observed when talking about vowels
classification. Among them the most used would be LENGTH that divide vowels into long
vowels like /a:/ in bar, and short vowels, like /e/ in pet.

Let's move on to the study of the ENGLISH VOWEL SISTEM in detail. In order to analyse
the English vowel system, we will use the standard English or RP, that stands for Received
pronunciation. This is a variety of the language that is received through the mass media, that
originally referred to the neutral accent sound at the court and in public schools. Nowadays
this accent is not as important as it was, but all sounds in the phonological system are based
on it. These are the PURE VOWELS IN ENGLISH
?ENGLISH VOWEL NUMBER 1 /i:/

Closed front long unrounded

ee ?free

ea ?bear

ei/ey ?receive key

e ?even

ie ?siege

i?machine

ANOMALOUS SPELLINGS :

People, quay, precise, geyser

?ENGLISH VOWEL NUMBER 2 / I/ Half-closed front short unrounded

?

i ? miss

y ? city

e ? pretty

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?

ie ? ladies

ANOMALOUS SPELLINGS

a ? village

Build, Sunday, Women lettuce

?ENGLISH VOWEL NUMBER 3 /e/ half open front unrounded

?

e ?less

ANOMALOUS SPELLINGS

ea ? bread

a ? many

Says, Bury Geoffrey Leicester

?ENGLISH VOWEL NUMBER 4 /? / Open front short unrounded

?

a ?sat

ANOMALOUS SPELLINGS

Plait, plaid

?ENGLISH VOWEL NUMBER 5 /a:/ Open back long unrounded

?

a ? pass

ear ? heart

al ?calm

ar ? part

er ? clerk

au? aunt

ANOMALOUS SPELLINGS vase

?ENGLISH VOWEL NUMBER 6/? / Open back short rounded

?

o ? dock

ou? knowledge

a ? was

au?

because

?ENGLISH VOWEL NUMBER 7/? :/ Half-open back long rounded

?

or?horse

au?cause

oor ?door

aw? saw

a?all

oar ?boar

ou?bought

ore ? before

our ?four

?ENGLISH VOWEL NUMBER 8 /? / Half-closed back short rounded

?

u ? put

oo ? good

o ?wolf

ou?could

ANOMALOUS SPELLINGS

Worcester, worsted

?ENGLISH VOWEL NUMBER 9 /u:/ Closed, back, long, rounded

?

oo ?food

ou ?group

? do

u ?rude

ui ?juice

ew ?chew

oe

ue ?blue

?ENGLISH VOWEL NUMBER 10 /? /

u ? sun

ou ? country

o ? son

oo ? blood flood

?ENGLISH VOWEL NUMBER 11 /? :/

ir ? bird

yr ?myrtle

oe

Half-closed central long unrounded

?

shoe

Half open central short unrounded

er ? her

ear ? earth

ur ? turn

or ? word

?doe

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?

?journey

our

ANOMALOUS SPELLINGS

colonel

?ENGLISH VOWEL NUMBER 12 /? /

Central. This vowel can represent all the vowels

of the alphabet and many of its combinations when they occur in an unstressed position.
?

a ? woman

i ?possible

e ?gentlemen

o ? seldom

u ? subside

The fact is that the schwa /? /, that is the technical name that linguists have given to the
vowel 12, is very much in common to the point that follows: WEAK AND STRONG
FORMS.

As I have said in the beginning of this point, vowels are studied from the RP and in a stressed
pronunciation, which is with their STRONG FORM. Nevertheless, the sound schwa confirms the
existence of a lenis representation of the same word, or what we call WEAK FORMS . Then,
weak forms do not refer so much to vowels in them but to weak form of vowels when they
are found in unstressed position. Nevertheless, weak forms go beyond vowels to name those
words that are pronounced in an unstressed manner.

Many of the most common English words, including both, content words and structural
words , can appear in a strong or a weak form. Although it's true that nearly all are structural
such as conjunctions, articles, pronouns, prepositions, and the anomalous finites also called
defective verbs. Generally the strong forms of these words are used when they are being
directly quoted, when they are being contrasted or if they appear at the end of a sentence. The
pronunciation of a weak form can be so different from the strong one that is barely
recognisable as being the same word. If said in isolation, it would be all, but intelligible.
Usually it's the context that makes it understandable.

It is possible to use only strong forms in English, and some non-native speakers do exactly
this. However it sounds very unnatural to a native speaker and will also mean that a person,
who only uses strong form of English, will have trouble understanding native speakers of
English, who use the weak form all the time.

And that's all regarding to strong and weak forms. With this I have finished with pure vowels
in English. Let's move on now to the study of ENGLISH DIPHTHONGS AND

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TRIPHTONGS. I will start with the diphthongs.

DIPHTHONGS are those sounds that consist of a movement or glide from one vowel to
another. The first part of a diphthong is always longer and stronger than the second part; as
the sound glides into the second part of the diphthong the loudness of the sound decreases.
One of the most frequent errors made by language learners is to use pure vowels instead of
diphthongs. In English we have two kinds of diphthongs: the CLOSING DIPHTHONGS that are
/a?/ as in time, /e?/ as in ape, /? ?/ as in boy; /? ? / as in oak; and /? ? / as in house. And
receive this name due to the tongue's movement from a more opened to a more closed
position. And in the other hand we have what we call CENTRING DIPHTHONGS , that receive
this name because the movement of the tongue is towards the centre. These diphthongs are:
/?? /as in dear, /?? / as in care and /? ? / as in poor.

Besides of this, the English vowel system also have TRIPHTHONGS , that are
those sounds that consist of a movement or glide from one vowel to another
and then onto a third. They are very similar to diphthongs, but have an extra
schwa on the end of the diphthongs. There are said to be only five
Triphthongs, but there are a number of occasions when diphthongs meet
other vowels over word edge boundaries.

The five clear exa mples of

Triphthongs are as follows:

And that's all regarding to diphtongs and triphtongs, and with this I conclude the study of the
English vowel system. Now it's time to COMPARE THIS SYSTEM WITH THE
SPANISH AND THE VALENCIAN ONE.
The first striking difference is that there are 12 pure vowels in English, 7 in Valencian and
just 5 in Sp. Castillian. In any case there is no coincidence among any of the phonemes that is
Sp. Castillian vowels and Valencian vowels do not correspond exactly to the English ones.
Nevertheless this proportion is reversed with diphthongs where Valencian and Sp. Castillian
have more diphthongs than English.

Another important thing is the importance of central vowels in English, that do not exit in
Spanish and only have a little reference in Valencian with the /? / in pare /'p? ? ? / or mare
/'m? ? ? / in Barcelon. In any case it's not enough to solve this difficulty. The only

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advantage that valencian speakers can have over Sp. Castillian ones is that they are more used
to the concept of half-open and half-closed. Remember that in valencian we have the open
and close /e/ and open and close /o/. Due to these difficulties Spanish and Valencian speakers
at their first stages of learning use to assimilate english sounds into their own. Then, i.e. they
will pronounce /i/ as in hilo, both for this /? ? ?/ and these /? ??/. Making the same
pronunciation.When Spanish speakers deal with long vowels they tend to pronounce them
with a /r/ ending /k? ? / instead of /?? : / for car, and so on.

In order to solve these problems, teachers should aim their pupils to practice pronunciation
with specific exercises or other activities that could improve the speakers confidence, such as
listening, songs, videos etc.

And with this I've finished the body of this topic. Now, I would like to CONCLUDE by
saying that the knowledge of the English vowel system, its pronunciation and particularities
are essential in order to acquire a good level in English language, not only for understanding
but also or producing our own speech segments. That is why we should emphasise more on it,
when learning or teaching English as a target language. In my opinion, phonetics and
phonology may be the best tools to become a real English speaker.

As far as the BIBLIOGRAPHY is concerned, I have mainly used the next sources,
?

Gimson

An Introduction To The Pronunciation Of English

Arnold 1985

Jones

An Outline Of English Phoneticcs

Heffer 1960

Mott

A Course In Phonetics And Phonology For Spanish Learners Of English

PPU 1991

IPA (International Phonetics Association) : www.ipa.org

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ADDITIONAL MATERIALS

ENGLISH VOWEL CHART

COMPARATIVE CHART SPANISH - VALENCIAN -ENGLISH

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UNIT 8 : SISTEMA FONOLOGICO DE LA LENGUA INGLESA II

LAS CONSONANTES
6.

INTRODUCTION

7.

THE ENGLISH CONSONANT SOUNDS . TERMINOLOGY

8.

CONSONANT ARTICULATIO N

9.

8.1.

PLACE OF ARTICULATIO N

8.2.

MANNER OF ARTICULATION

THE PHONETIC TABLE

10. ENGLISH VS SPANISH AND CATALAN CONSONANT SYSTEMS .

11. CONCLUSION
12. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Once the main topics of the unit have been exposed, let's start with the INTRODUCTION:
Every language is based on a finite number of sounds selected from all the possible sounds
that human beings can articulate. These sounds are called PHONEMES . In order to develop all
these facts regarding to the study of sound and the phonemes, we can find two different but
at the same time related sciences: PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY. Phonetics, is the science
concerned with the study of speech processes, including the perception, transmission and
reception of speech sounds, from both an acoustic and a psychological point of view, but
excluding linguistic considerations. By contrast, the main aim of phonology is to discover
the rules, which organise sounds into a language system.

The fact is that both, phonetics and phono logy require as their source data, a human being
with an intact auditory mechanism and a functional speech apparatus. The SPEECH ORGANS
are: the LUNGS , to breath the air; CAVITIES OR RESONATORS to produce the sounds inside and
permit the articulation. These resonators are the PHARYNX, the NOSE and the MOUTH. And the
organs to give shape to the sounds: the ARTICULATORS . That are THE VOCAL FOLDS . , THE
TONGUE., PALATE and the LIPS .

Once the topic has been introduced, Let's move on now to the study of point number 2, THE
ENGLISH CONSONANT SYSTEM . Sound is produced by the interference of the flow of
air through the mouth (and nose). Consonants are created when that airflow is directly
restricted, or obstructed, so that air cannot escape without creating friction that can be heard.

The speech sound being obstructed can be voiced or unvoiced. It can be obstructed in a
number of different places in the vocal tract. The nature of the obstruction can take a number
of forms, or manners. And all this will define the final sound. Defining characteristics of
consonants include:

VOICED AND VOICELES S :

The level of vibration of the vocal cords determines whether a

sound is voiced or unvoiced. If the vocal cords are apart, then air can escape unimpeded.
Sounds produced in this way are said to be voiceless. However, if the vocal cords are very
close together, the air will blow them apart as it forces its way through. This makes the cords
vibrate, producing a voiced sound.
Voiced consonants in English are: /b, d, g, v, ? , z, r, ? , ?? , l, m, n, ? ,j, w/
Voiceless consonants in English are : /p, t, k, f, ? , s, h, ? , ?? /
Nevertheless we can assist to a case of devoicing. Plosive, fricative and affricate consonants
that are voiced may become slightly devoiced when they are in final position. So that,
although sat will always be distinguished from sad a fortis -lenis oppositional classification
can aid in the study of phonetics.
FORTIS & LENIS

Fortis sounds are those that are made with strong muscular effort, originating

in the lungs. Lenis is the opposite. Try whispering /pig/ and then /big/. You can still
differentiate the two because the intensity of the burst of air is greater for /p/ than for /b/ In
English, the fortis/lenis distinction happens to duplicate the voiced/voiceless one found in
MINIMAL PAIRS .(pairs

of words that are pronounced the same less one phoneme pig/big) So

all the voiced sounds are lenis and all the voiceless sounds are fortis sounds.

ASPIRATION: the plosives /p/ /t/ /k/ are strongly aspirated in accented syllables e.g. come
/? ? ? ? / take /?? ???/ put /? ? ? ?/
ASSIMILATION:

Assimilation is when one sound is influenced and changed by a neighbouring

sound. Generally speaking, there are three types of assimilation that can be identified;
assimilation of place, manner or voice.
?

Assimilation of place can be demonstrated by /ratbag/ or /oatmeal/ where the /t/ sound is
replaced by a /p/ sound. This is because the alveolar plosive /t/ is simplified into the /p/
sound which is closer to the bilabial plosive /b/.

Assimilation of manner refers to when two different manners of articulation influence

each other to form a different type of manner of articulation. Examples of this are the
pronunciation of /indian/ as /inj? n/ or the pronunciation of /soldier/. This is because the
plosive /d/ combines with the approximant /j/ to form an affricate.

Assimilation of voice is illustrated by the pronunciation of /have to/ with an /f/ sound
rather than the /v/ as the voiced fricative is followed by a voiceless consonant.

NEUTRALIS ATION With some pairs of sounds, it is not always clear which of the two sounds
is being articulated. It is as if it lay between the two distinct sounds. This intermediate sound
is known as neutralisation. The most common examples of neutralisation in consonants are
/b/,/d/ and /g/ with their voiceless equivalents /p/,/t/ and /k/. Also it is sometimes difficult to
hear the contrast in the sounds /s/ and /z/.

With this, I've finished point number 2, let's move on now to the study of THE
CONSONANT ARTICULATION in depth. I will start by the PLACE OF ARTICULATION.
After the air has left the larynx, it passes into the vocal tract. Consonants are produced by
obstructing the airflow through the vocal tract. There are a number of places where these
obstructions can take place. These places are known as the ARTICULATORS .
They are:
?

BILABIAL : If both of the lips are used to articulate a sound, then it is said to be a bilabial
sound. Examples of bilabial sounds include: /p /,/b / and /m /.

LABIO- DENTAL : Two sounds use the lower lip together with the upper teeth and so are
called labio-dental consonants. These sounds are:/f / and /v /.

DENTAL: The

two 'th' sounds of English are formed by forcing air through the teeth. If you

say the /? / in /thin/ and then the /? / sound in /then/, you can feel the air being forced
through the teeth. The tongue tip and rims are articulating with the upper teeth.
?

ALVEOLAR:

An alveolar sound is when the tongue tip, or blade, touches the bony

prominence behind the top teeth. The following sounds are alveolar:/t/,/d/,/s/,/z/,/l/,/n/.
?

POST-ALVEOLAR :

the front of the tongue comes into contact with the rear part of the

alveolar ridge. /r/

?

PALATO -ALVEOLAR:

Four sounds are said to be palato-alveolar. This is partly because the

blade of the tongue straddles both the alveolar ridge and the front of the hard palate as air

is forced through to make The following sounds: The /? /in sheep. The /? /in genre. The
/?? / in cheap. And the /? ? /in jeep.
?

PALATAL:

This is the hard bit of the arched bony structure that forms the roof of the

mouth. The /j / sound in yes is the clearest example of a palatal sound in RP.
?

VELAR :

The soft palate is toward the back of the mouth. It is where the roof of the mouth

gives way to the soft area behind it. The velar sounds are usually made when the back of
the tongue is pressed against the soft palate. They include the /k/ in cat, the /g/ in girl and
the /? / in hang.
?

GLOTTAL:

Glottal sounds are those sounds that are made in the larynx through the closure

or narrowing of the glottis. /h/ as in Helen is an example of a glottal sound. It is physically

impossible to feel the process using your tongue. It is as far back as you can get in your
mouth. The glottal stop /?/ is becoming a more widespread part of British English, but is
still uncommon in R.P.

As you can see, depending on the place of articulation we will have one phoneme or another.
Nevertheless, sometimes, we can find ALTERATIONS IN THE PLACE OF ARTICULATION of a
phoneme depending on the adjacent sounds. These variations are called ALLOPHONES .
Allophones are just for phonemic transcription and are represented into brackets [] for
instance, phoneme /t/ has among others the following allophones[?? ] aspirated as in tea; [??]
with nasal release as in curtain [?? ] dental as in eighth.

As well as indicating the place of articulation, it is also necessary to determine the nature and
extent of the obstruction involved. The type of obstruction is known as the MANNER OF
ARTICULATION.

An example of this can be found by looking at the following words: nine

dine line. They all begin with voiced, alveolar consonants. Yet, they are all clearly different
in both sound and meaning. The kinds of constriction made by the articulators are what make
up this further dimension of classification. :

PLOSIVE: Plosive sounds are made by forming a complete obstruction to the flow of air
through the mouth and nose. The first stage is that a closure occurs. Then the flow of air
builds up and finally the closure is released, making an explosion of air that causes a sharp
noise. Note that a plosive cannot be prolonged or maintained. Once the air has been
released, the sound has escaped. The plosive sounds in RP are: /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/

FRICATIVE:

A fricative is the type of consonant that is formed by forcing air through a

narrow gap so that a hissing sound is created. Typically air is forced between the tongue
and the place of articulation for the particular sound. Try it yourself. Say the /f / in fin, the
/? / in thin and the /? / in shin. You should be able to feel the turbulence created by the
sounds. It is possible to maintain a fricative sound for as long as your breath holds out.
This is very different from a plosive sound. Other fricatives include the /v / in van, the /s /
in sin, the /h / in hat, the /? / in that, the /z / in zoo and the /? ? / sound in genre.
?

AFFRICATES :

An affricate is a plosive immediately followed by a fricative in the same

place of articulation. The /?? / in chap and the /? ? / in jeep are the two clear affricates in
English. If you think about it, the /?? / sound is made up from the plosive /t / and the
fricative /? / sounds.
?

NASAL:

A nasal consonant is a consonant in which air escapes only through the nose. For

this to happen, the soft palate is lowered to allow air to pass it, whilst a closure is made in
the oral cavity to stop air escaping through the mouth. You can feel if a sound is a nasal
sound or not by placing your hand in front of your mouth and feeling if any air is escaping
or not. There are three nasal sounds in English. The /m / in mat, the/n / in nasal and the
/? / in sing.
?

LATERAL :

To produce a lateral, air is obstructed by the tongue at a point along the centre

of the mouth but the sides of the tongue are left low so that air can escape over its sides. /l/
is the clearest example of a lateral sound in English. Both the clear and dark allophones of
/l/ are lateral sounds. When an alveolar plosive is followed by the lateral /l/, then what
happens is that we simply lower the sides of the tongue to release the compressed air,
rather than raising and lowering the blade of the tongue. If you say /bottle/ to yourself you
can feel the sides of the tongue lower to let out the air.
?

APPROXIMANTS : these may be called frictionless continuants. The organs of speech are
not brought close enough together to cause turbulence and audible friction. There are 4
approximants in English: /l/, which is also lateral. /r/, and the semivowels /w/ and /j/. We
have three different phenomena Regarding to the /r/, in English:
Silent r: in RP, before consonants or in final position it is not pronounced, but serves
to make the previous vowel long
Pronounced r : in RP it's pronounced in final position when the next word begins
with a vowel. E.g. near /? ?? / ? near enough /? ?? ? ?? ?? ? /. This is also called
linking r.

Intrusive r: this sound does not represent a letter, but it's inserted into a sequence, e.g.
I saw it, /? ? '? ? ????/

And that's all regarding to point number three. In order to facilitate the comprehension of the
explained above please observe the following PHONETIC TABLE according to Mott's
theories:
PLOSIVE
VOICELESS/VOICED

BILABIAL

VCLS

VCLS

VCD

?
?
?

?
?
?

LABIO -DENTAL
DENTAL
ALVEOLAR

FRICATIVE

VCD

AFFRICATE
VCLS

VCD

NASAL
VCLS

APPROXIMANT

VCD

VCLS

POST-ALVEOLAR
PALATO -ALVEOLAR

??

??

PALATAL
VELAR

GLOTTAL

VCD

?
?
?
?

Once we know how the English consonant system works it's time to study the
COMPARISON AMONG THE ENGLISH CONSONANT SYSTEM, THE SPANISH
AND THE VALENCIAN ONE. If sounds in a target language are physically similar to
those in the source language, and they combine and are distributed similarly, the learner won't
have any problem. Problems arise when there are no similar phonemes or that these phonemes
are found in different combinations. That is why in order to develop this point I am going to
analyse the consonant systems of the three languages: English, Spanish and Catalan.

The English consonant system has 24 phonemes; the Spanish 20 and the Valencian has 23.
Unfortunately not every phoneme as an identical correspondence in the other two languages,
and this fact can create some difficulties to students. Besides of this the consonant clusters,
groups of consonants together in the speech are no t always the same. In this point I will try to
clarify these difficulties.

If we have a look to the PLOSIVES , we will see that the three languages have identical
phonemes. The difference between them is that Spanish and Valencian do not have /b/ /d/or
/g/ in word final position. And /p/ /t/ /k/ are not aspirated before a stress vowel as it occurs in
English. /t/ and /d/ are alveolar in English, but Dental in Spanish and Valencian.

The FRICATIVES AND AFFRICATES are better understandable for Valencians than for Spanish
Castillian.. Valencian recognises phoneme /v/ as in canviar or veure. Also the /z/ in rosa or
the affricates /? / /? / / ?? / / ? ? /: xocolata , joc, jordi, potser dotze... Main problems Spanish
speakers have with these consonants are in the realisation of the /? / /? /, as this phoneme does
not exist in Spanish, students tend to do it as an /s/, or in general words, SpC. Speakers
pronounce the unvoiced equivalent of the English affricates.

The phonemes /h/ and /? / are also problematic for these languages inter-comprehension.
Spanish and Valencian do hot have the aspirated h, (unvoiced glottal fricative) and they use to
pronounce it with the most similar phoneme they have that is the unvoiced velar fricative /? /.
So English students of Spanish in caja would pronounce / kaha/ instead of /ka? a/. And the
other way round, SpC. And Vlc, would pronounce /? i/ instead of /hI/ when pronouncing the
personal pronoun he.

NASALS , LATERALS AND APPROXIMANTS do not represent very big problems, because Both
Spanish Castillian and Valencian are very similar to English. The most problematic features
would be the /? ? / in rosa or carro has more friction that the /r/ in rose.

Let's go now to analyse the CONSONANT CLUSTERS . In order to do this we will differentiate
among INITIAL CLUSTERS , if they are at the beginning of a word, MEDIAL CLUSTERS , if they
appear in the middle and FINAL CLUSTERS , when they are produced in the end of a word.

INITIAL CLUSTERS of two consonants are similar among the three languages, except in the
case op /s/ + consonant; which is not present in Spanish nor Valencian and causes an
epenthetic /e/ to be inserted in e.g. speak /es'pik/, instead of /'spIk/. This epenthetic /e/ also
appears in the combination of /? , ? , ?, ? / + /r/ . The first two sounds do not exist in Spanish
and /t/ and /d/ are dental instead of alveolar, then is quite difficult for them to produce theses
sounds correctly. Epenthetic /e/ also appears in initial three-consonant clusters, because
Neither Spanish nor Valencian ha ve this combination: spray /es'pre I/.

Concerning M EDIAL CLUSTERS , we have to say that although the English and the Valencian
system are very similar, there are several differences wit the Castillian Spanish clusters..

Spanish tends to assimilate the final consonant of a syllable with the first consonant o the
following syllable, this is the case of submarino, examen, Israel etc.

FINAL CLUSTERS of consonants are common in English and Valencian. Valencian has several
final clusters of 3 and even 4 syllables, e.g. Alps, llests triomfs, texsts. Nevertheless Spanish
do not have that kind of combination, then Spanish speakers will find many problems to
pronounce e.g. sprinkled. Surely they will drop final d and would pronounce something
simmilar to /es'prinkel/.

After developing all these facts it seems that Valencian speakers, due to the particularities of
their language would have less difficulty than Spanish speakers to pronounce English
correctly. Nevertheless, we as teachers must help our students teaching them how to
pronounce correctly helping them with pronunciation techniques, listening, speech etc.

Finally I would like to CONCLUDE by saying that the knowledge of the English consonant
system, its pronunciation and particularities are essential in order to acquire a good level in
English language, not only for understanding but also or producing our own speech segments.
That is why we should emphasise more on it, when learning or teaching English as a target
language. In my opinion, phonetics and phonology may be the best tools to become a real
English speaker.

As far as the BIBLIOGRAPHY is concerned, I have mainly used the next sources,
?

Gimson

An Introduction To The Pronunciation Of English

Arnold 1985

Jones

An Outline Of English Phoneticcs

Heffer 1960

Mott

A Course In Phonetics And Phonology For Spanish Learners Of English

PPU 1991

IPA (International Phonetics Association) : www.ipa.org

Guia De Fonemes I Al.lofons Del Valenci www.geocities.com/soho/caf/9308/afi.htm

UNIT 9 SISTEMA FONOLGICO DE LA LENGUA INGLESA III.

ACENTO, RITMO Y ENTONACIN

1. INTRODUCTION.

2. SUPRASEGMENTAL FEATURES . STRESS RHYTHM AND INTONATION

3. STRESS
3.1.
Word Stress in English
3.2.
Sentence Stress or Accent
4. RHYTHM
4.1.
Weak Forms
5. INTONATION
5.1.
The Functions of Intonation
5.2.
The Meanings of the Tunes
6. ENGLISH VS SPANISH & CATALAN S UPRASEGMENTAL S YSTEM.
7. CONCLUSION
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Once the main topics of the unit have been exposed, let's start with the INTRODUCTION:
there are two categories devoted to the study of sound: the segmental, that studies the basic
sound segments of the spoken language, vowels and consonants. And the suprasegmental or
prosodic, which are vocal effects that take place over more than one sound segment; that is
stress, rhythm, intonation. In this unit, we will deal with the suprasegmental one. Regarding
to the suprasegmental features of sound, we have to say that stress, rhythm and intonation are
not separate ideas, but facets of connected speech.

Let's go now to analyse the SUPRASEGMENTAL FEATURES: STRESS RYTHM AND

INTONATION. At the same time we pronounce the segments of spoken language, our
speech is altered in some other ways. The voice force may change producing a whole range of
effects. The basic psychoacustic properties of sound are the source of the main linguistic
effects: pitch and loudness.

These effects combine with those arising out of the distinctive use of speed and rhythm and
are called prosodic or suprasegmental features. When we speak we give more prominence to
some parts of an utterance than to other. Stress, rhythm and intonation have to do with the
perception of this emphasis.

Physiologically speaking, STRESS is increased air pressure from the lungs. In general we can
see it as a linked with emphasis. Some syllables are more prominent than others e.g. father is
stressed on the first syllable and in I like it the word like is stressed. Stress is very important in
English. In fact, English is considered a stress-timed language, because stress marks the step
of its sentences. This differentiates English from Spanish, which is a syllable-timed language,
as we will see onwards.

RHYTHM is the regularity of the prominent syllables in speech. Or using more technical
words the pattern formed by peaks of prominence as they are distributed in an utterance. The
basis of rhythm in English speech is the loudness.

Finally, INTONATION is the association of the relative prominence to a series of factors such
as pitch movement, loudness and tempo. Thus stress rhythm and intonation are closely
connected.

Let's move now to pint number 3 in which I'm going to analyse the STRESS in depth.
According to Jones, Stress is the force with which a sound or syllable is uttered; then it is
essential in order to create a rhythm and even the correct comprehension of a word or
sentence. In English then, we differentiate among stressed syllables, unstressed syllables
and even a secondary stress.

Mott observed that In English, STRESSED S YLLABLES are longer than unstressed ones. The
vowels are more voiced and even short vowels are pronounced with more weight, as if they
were longer. Although stress is not marked in the English spelling system, it can be
transcribed phonetically with an upper mark placed before the stressed syllable e.g. syllable
/'sI l? bl/. In long words there may be a less emphatic stress, called SECONDARY STRESS. It is
transcribed by a lower case mark before the syllable affected.

UNSTRESSED SYLLABLES suffer the other way round, that is a weakening effect that provokes
a little shortening and neutrality in vowels as in gentleman /'? ? ?? ?? ? ? ? / and a devoicing in
consonants.

Note that Incorrect stress on syllables is an obstacle to communication. For example in

Spanish if a foreign learner mis-stresses cenicero placing the stress on the second syllable the
listener may mis-hear and mentally substitute by plumifero or centimetro or any other word
with the same stress pattern. In English we have the same thing, if we as students of English
as target language pronounced effort stressing the second syllable instead of the first one, it
could be confused with afford or any other word with the same pattern.

Let's study now the WORD STRESS IN ENGLISH. In words of more than one syllable, one
at least of those syllables wont be stressed, and one of them will receive primary stress. In
Spanish and Valencian, the rules are simple, and exceptions are marked in orthography. In
English the rules are complex because this syllable is not marked and not constant; e.g. not all
three syllable words are stressed on the same syllable: follower, discover, afternoon. In any
case I am going to provide a generic rule to facilitate the comprehension of English Stress,
depending on the number of syllables, the effect of the affixes, functional variations, and the
compound words.
?

TWO-SYLLABLE WORDS : In general, a short vowel or light syllable (a short vowel

followed by one consonant) is not stressed. So, if a word has a long vowel or a heavy
syllable (a short vowel followed by two consonants), then this will receive primary
stress. E.g. mother, panic, famous, elect, canoe, parade. Exceptions are found to this
general rule in some nouns and adjectives: e.g. yellow, female, honest

THREE-SYLLABLE WORDS : as above, the final syllable with a long vowel or heavy, will
get the stress (and secondary stress often falls on the first syllable). E.g. persevere,
comprehend. Again nouns and adjectives provide exceptions:

attention. If the final

syllable is not heavy, the antepenultimate one is stressed, e.g. communist, industry.
?

POLYSYLLABIC WORDS : stress on the final syllable is uncommon in these words. As

above, penultimate syllable stress is normal if it's heavy and antepenultimate if it is not.
E.g. combination, America. Polysyllabic words are often composed of a root and one or
more affixes, so that is more useful to classify them according to these rather than as
separate groups.

THE EFFECT OF THE AFFIXES : PREFIXES

do not generally affect the word they are

attached to, although they may take a secondary stress if the primary one isn't adjacent e.g.
'legal / 'ilegal (no secondary stress) ; em'ployed/'unem,ployed (secondary stress). Prefixes,
which have primary stress on them, are: re- pre- post- pro- anti- ex- and those that have
a clear meaning. Talking about SUFFIXES we have to say that some of them do not affect
the stress of the root, this is the case of -(e)s -(e)d -ing -er -able -less or -ly among others.
Other suffixes move the primary stress onto themselves; this is the case of -ee -eer -ette, oon -ain (verbs) among others. Finally there are suffixes that move the primary stress
towards them. This is the case of
politics/political; illustrate/illustration.

-ic, -al or -ion; e.g. economy/economic;

FUNCTIONAL VARIATIONS :

some words vary according to their function as nouns, verbs

and adjectives. The normal rule says that these words when they are nouns or adjectives
have the stress on the penultimate syllable. When they work as verbs the stress is on the
final syllable: abstract/abstract; contrast/contrast present/present .

COMPOUND WORDS : these

are words made up of more than one morpheme e.g. bed+room;

ash+tray. They normally have only one primary stress, and this stress is fixed in the root
that gives the main meaning to the word.

That's all regarding to word stress in English, let's analyse now the SENTENCE STRESS or
ACCENT. When words are put together to form phrases and sentences, the concept of
rhythm becomes more important, and words normally stressed may become unstressed, less
stressed or even stress may move onto another syllable. Normally however it can be asserted
that there are two classes of words: CONTENT ALSO CALLED LEXICAL, and FORM OR
GRAMMATICAL WORDS .

The formers, which receive stress in a phrase or sentence, are verbs, adverbs, nouns,
adjectives and the demonstrative pronouns. The latter are auxiliary verbs, conjunctions,
prepositions, pronouns and articles. These are normally not stressed. Note that the verb to be
is not stressed unless it's the last word e.g. here we are. Nevertheless stress in a sentence does
not work that way, e.g. in a sentence such as the big young man, hit that small weak child,
every word should be stressed except the .
The fact is that here rhythm intervenes and instead we would hear: the big young man, hit that
small weak child because 2 strong syllables together is uncommon in rapid speech .

Other point to take into account when studying sentence stress is the EMPHATIC AND
CONTRASTIVE STRESS.

Content words, normally convey the important information in a

sentence. Sometimes, this important information resides in a form word. In these cases, form
words receive the stress. E.g : Mother to a child "I said stand up , not sit down".

And that's all regarding to the study of stress let's move now to the development of point
number 4 RHYTHM. Rhythm is the regular succession of strong and weak stresses in
utterance. In English, the intervals between strong stresses are equal. The effect of this
tendency is to shorten or lengthen syllables in articulation to fit the rhythm pattern. Obviously

the concept of the rhythmic group is based on stress in connected speech, so that any given
group may consist of an alternation of weak and strong syllables. E.g. What's the date today?.

Rhythm and the alternation of stressed and unstressed words links with the strong and WEAK
FORMS .

Except in cases where a form word is emphasised or contrasted for semantic

purposes, it is not stressed and often even weakened. This weak form is the regular
pronunciation and the strong form is not often used. Generally the strong forms of these
words are used when they are being directly quoted, when they are being contrasted or if they
appear at the end of a sentence. Weak forms are a manifestation of stress & rhythm in English
and must not be avoided in teaching or the learner will sound unnatural in connected speech.

Having finished with rhythm, it's time to analyse the INTONATION. The messages that we
convey to one another depends just as much on how we say something as on what it is that we
actually say. Phonetics and phonology study the mechanics of articulating sounds. However,
it is possible to use the same words to convey a huge variety of meanings, moods or
intentions. The way we do this is by using intonation.

In the study of intonation, pitch, loudness and length are the most important factors. They
work together to give certain syllables prominence over the others. The concepts of intonation
are very closely related to those in stress, the difference being that stress is concerned with
individual words, whereas intonation extends over a phrase or utterance.

Pitch is an auditory sensation that places sounds on a scale from high to low. Every syllable
has pitch, however, any syllable that is articulated with a noticeably different pitch will be
deemed to carry stress. This can go either way: if all the syllables are said in a low pitch
except one, then that higher pitch syllable will be deemed to carry the stress of the word.

In order to talk about Intonation there are some terms used in describing the melodies or tunes
of intonation:
?

FALL/RISE:

these describe where the pitch change goes to: fall? ; rise?

HIGH / LOW :

these describe where the tune starts, thus a high- rise tune will start high and

go higher.
?

THE INTONATION UNIT:

PRE- HEAD:

In brief we should consider the following divisions:

this is the unstressed syllables before the head. These are often low in pitch.

HEAD:

this is all stressed syllables before the nucleus. They often move down in steps

until the nucleus.

NUCLEUS :
TAIL :

this is the accented syllable.

this is the unstressed syllables after the nucleus. In a falling tune, they stay low, and

in a rising one they continue to rise.

Let's analyse now THE FUNCTIONS OF INTONATION. The importance of intonation in

communication of meaning is basic and unquestionable. It can convey not only a difference
between question and statement, purely by a change in pitch but it's used to communicate the
type and strength of an emotion using melody and range.
?

ATTITUDINAL FUNCTION : this function reflects the attitude or emotional state of a person
along with speed of talking, loudness, paralinguistic gestures etc. If we consider the range
of responses possible to the statement "she's going to have a baby" a short answer such as
is she? Can convey a lack of interest with low fall; polite interest with a low rise;
surprising with a high rise, and disbelief or fascination with a high fall.

GRAMMATICAL FUNCTION : Here intonation is used as a type of oral punctuation that may
or may not coincide with the actual graphemes. Pauses and rises mean that the utterance is
not completed, and thus we can divide up:

Clauses: when we arrived it was snowing.

Subject & predicate: my teacher is British.

Relative non-defining clauses: the mirror, which was antique, was broken.

ACCENTUAL FUNCTION : highlights the most important words in an utterance, with the
help of stress and the nucleus or accented syllable. The nucleus comes with a change of
pitch: e.g. Jhn likes fish... (although his wife doesn't); John lkes fish.. (so why didn't he
eat)

DISCOURSE FUNCTION : this function tells us about what's new on information and what's
not, and again it's tied to stress. Brazil (1980) states that a rise indicates new information
while a fall refers back. E.g. this is my sister. She is a friendly person. (Person refers to
sister so is an old information and it is de-stressed; the stress in now in friendly that is a
new information about my sister.)

That's all regarding to the functions of intonation. Now and in order to finish with this point
we will analyse THE MEANINGS OF THE TUNES :
?

THE FALL:

this tune is the most neutral tone. It's used for

a) Statements : he's English

b) Wh-questions : What's the time?

FALL

c) Commands: come here!

d) Exclamations: What an idiot!
e) Question tags: you don't like him, do you?

THE RISE: the high rise is commonly used to elicit repetition, e.g. when did I go, or
where?. The low rise is used for:
a) Yes/no questions: are you Spanish?

RISE

b) Wh-quest to show politeness: Where's your mummy?

c) Expressing reassurance : he won't bite you.
d) Dissagreeing: no, it isn't.

THE FALL-RISE: this is extremely common in English, indicating pauses, reservation,

hesitation etc. It is also used for:
a) Apologising: I'm sorry

FALL- RISE

b) Expressing dif of opinion: I like whisky, Well, I don't.

c) Irony: do you like her? I like him.
?

THE RISE- FALL: this is very rare in English, but may be used to show complacency or
criticism
RISE - FALL

With this I've finished the development of stress rhythm and

intonation. Now it's time to COMPARE THE ENGLISH
SYSTEM WITH THE CASTILLIAN SPANISH AND THE VALENCIAN SYSTEM .
Regarding to stress & rhythm, the first striking consideration is that Spanish and Valencian, as
most Romance languages, are Syllable-timed languages, and English is a stress-timed one.
Spanish learners of English make every syllable count, and thus cannot find the typical
English rhythm, whereas English students of Spanish suffer the other way round.
Spanish word stress is not regular, that means that not all words of three syllables, for
example, will always have the stress on the same syllable. However, Spanish and Valencian
have three types of word stress: aguda llana/plana and esdrujula/esdruixola depending if the

stressed syllable is the final, the penultimate or the antepenultimate. And both Spanish and
Valencian have rules for graphic stress or tilde. English language lacks both, a ruled
classification and the graphic accent. The most difficult for Spanish students of English are
trying to accommodate the stress English pattern into the Spanish one.

In order to finish with this point, I would like to clarify that by means of Intonation, I would
like to say that in general, Spanish uses the rising tune mush more than English does in
questions. In addition, the fall rise pattern is rarely used both in Spanish and Valencian.

I'd like to CONCLUDE saying that although it is important to know and produce correctly the
segments of speech, it is useless if we are not able of giving sense and feeling to our
utterances. This can be reached by means of the stress the rhythm and the intonation. Because
language, is not just a union of phonemes to form words and sentences. A language is also
feeling and expression.

As far as the BIBLIOGRAPHY is concerned, I have mainly used the next sources,
?

Gimson

An Introduction To The Pronunciation Of English

Arnold 1985

Jones

An Outline Of English Phoneticcs

Heffer 1960

Mott

A Course In Phonetics And Phonology For Spanish Learners Of English

PPU 1991

IPA (International Phonetics Association) : www.ipa.org

Guia De Fonemes I Al.lofons Del Valenci www.geocities.com/soho/caf/9308/afi.htm