Phonetics I - Producción Pedagógica (New) PDF

Instituto Superior de Educación Docente y Técnica Nº 9-001
“Gral. José de San Martín” - Profesorado de Inglés
PRODUCCIÓN PEDAGÓGICA
English Phonetics and

Phonology I:
Theory and Practice Booklet
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English Phonetics and Phonology I: Theory and Practice Booklet
Profesoras Verónica Gargantini - Adriana Gonzalez
Colaboración en Unidades IV y VI: Cecilia Gonzalez
I. IDENTIFICATION
Profesor: Prof. Verónica Gargantini - Prof. Adriana Gonzalez

Espacio: English Phonetics and Phonology I
Resolución de Carrera: Res. Nº 0575 / 010
Año de la Carrera: 1er año
Título del Trabajo: “English Phonetics and Phonology I: Theory and Practice Booklet”
II. ABSTRACT
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III. INTRODUCTION
From a philosophy of pronunciation teaching as an integral part of communication it is possible to

construct a dual-focus framework. The dual framework combines a micro level focus on speech
production (i.e., a focus on discrete elements of pronunciation in a bottom-up sense) and a macro level
focus on speech performance (i.e., a focus on general elements of communicability in a top-down sense).
Either the micro level or the macro level can be given priority attention at a given time, or they can share
the classroom focus.
At the micro level (or discrete level) the focus is on contextualized modification of vowel and consonant
sounds (and their reductions, combinations, elisions and assimilations, etc.); on the specific features
subsumed under the rubric of stress, rhythm, and intonation; and on features of rate, volume, and vocal
qualities.
Within communicative activities, specific attention is given to stabilizing a student’s emerging abilities to
adjust vowel and consonant pronunciation and to manipulate prosodic and vocal features at will with ease
and accuracy, to express intended meaning, and to increase intelligibility.
At the macro level (or global level) the focus is on the synthesis of many components of communicative
oral discourse. This encompasses a variety of elements including appropriate and expressive nonverbal
behaviors, increasingly facile communicative command of grammar and appropriate vocabulary,
enhanced ability to sustain speech (i.e., for fluent ongoing structuring and planning of speech as it
proceeds), as well as developing aspects of overall intelligibility, discourse-level vocal effectiveness, and
overall clarity of speech.
The preparation of this material aims at constructing this dual–focus framework by providing relevant
material to the completion of tasks which will be carried out in our classes at the institute as well as at
home.
IV. OBJECTIVES
a. To provide students with a variety of adequate theoretical information on the different topics
included in the syllabus.
b. To suggest visits to prestigious sites with appropriate extra material.
c. To provide progressive practice on these topics.
d. To present students guided practice to solve at home, in class or to prepare as an instance of
formal evaluation.
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e. To check students’ progress weekly by presenting them with activities related to the four macro
abilities.
V. EVALUATION
There are a number of activities related to listening, reading aloud, transcription, comparison and
recognition at the end of the theory section; these activities are presented to be solved individually at
home.
There are other activities based on the theory which will be evaluated with oral presentations or written
assignments during the class.
VI. FIELD OF RELEVANCE
English Phonology for Spanish speakers, the description and production of English Sounds individually
and in context. Contextualized activities related to speech recognition and production.
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UNIT I: THE STUDY OF

SOUNDS OF LANGUAGE AND
THEIR PRODUCTION
CONTENTS: Phonetics: definition, characteristics and branches.
Articulation. The speech act and the speech mechanism. Phonetics
notation. Segmentation. The IPA. Transcription. Phonology: definition.
What is LANGUAGE?
When people speak they make use of a series of conventional sounds which they combine according to
certain rules into an established system. In other words, they employ a sort of linguistic code. In order to
understand each other, people must share the same code or language. This aspect of language is purely
abstract. But when a message is actually transmitted it takes a substantial form. In the case of spoken language
the substance used is the phonic substance, or human vocal sounds. In the case of written language the
substance used is graphic substance, or marks in a piece of paper. There are other ways of conveying a
message, but we shall concern ourselves with the first one – spoken language.
When a message is transmitted it takes a substantial form:
Spoken language substance used phonic substance or human vocal noise
Written language substance used graphic substance or marks on a piece of paper

or other material.
Language: Definitions
Language is “human vocal noise or the graphic representation of this noise in writing, used
systematically and conventionally by a community mainly for purposes of communication”.
David Crystal, “Linguistics“1968.
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Systemic Functional Linguists claim about language: that language use is functional; that its
function is to make meanings; that these meanings are influenced by the social and cultural
context in which they are exchanged; and that the process of using language is a semiotic
process, a process of making meanings by choosing.
“A language is a system of conventional signals used for communication by a whole

community”
A.C. Gimson, “An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English”; 1980.
Language as a System
LEXIS: vocabulary choices available to users of English.
GRAMMAR: the fundamental structures and functions of English: the written word, spoken
utterances, sentences and texts.
PHONOLOGY: the contribution made by the voice to the phonetics communication of
meaning, including intonation, rhythm, pace, volume, word stress and pauses in spoken
English.
SEMANTICS: the ways in which meanings, implicit and explicit, are constructed and
understood in English both spoken and written.
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PRAGMATICS: the ways in which social conventions and implied meanings are encoded in
spoken and written language.
“The SOUND SYSTEM OF A LANGUAGE is one of these levels of organization”
The Speech Chain

As it has been mentioned before, language could be transmitted by means of two different kinds of substance.
The simplest and most common of the two is the spoken one, and the manifestation of this form of language is
“speech”.
The speech communication process is a complex series of events which take place at different levels and
stages. It is a chain between the speaker’s brain and the listener’s brain. The following diagram will illustrate the
matter and at the same time determine the areas of phonetics.
The whole process begins when the speaker has a message to transmit to a listener. This means activity in
the SPEAKER’S BRAIN. The speaker has an idea or thought and he chooses the correct words and sentences
in accordance with the grammatical rules, and the correct sounds in accordance with the phonological rules of
language. The message takes a linguistic form. The speaker ENCODES the message. For instance, it is a
PHYCHOLOGICAL activity.
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The next type of activity occurs at a PHYSIOLOGICAL level, which implies the action of nerves and muscles.
The motor nerves that link the speaker’s brain with his speech mechanism activate the corresponding muscles.
The next stage, takes place in the ORGANS OF SPEECH. Here, the organs produce the sounds. The
movements of the tongue, lips, vocal folds, etc. constitute the ARTICULATORY STAGE. It is a PHYSICAL
activity. The next activity takes place in the SOUND WAVES. The movement of the articulators produces
disturbances in the air pressure called sound waves, which are physical manifestations. This is the ACOUSTIC
STAGE, during which the sound waves travel towards the listener’s ear. The first kind of activity on the listener’s
part occurs at a PHYSIOLOGICAL level. The sound waves activate the listener’s ear-drum, and his sensory
nerves carry the message, in the form of nerve impulses, to the brain. The hearing process is the domain of
AUDITORY phonetics. The last stage of the chain is again a linguistic one, during which the hearer’s brain
DECODES the message in order to make it recognizable, which means PHYSIOLOGICAL activity.
The study of the sound structure of language is divided into two sciences:
PHONETICS PHONOLOGY
Phonetics and Phonology are indissolubly linked but whereas you can study phonetics without ever going into
phonology, phonology is closely dependent on phonetics for the data on which it relies to prosecute its
arguments. (Gussenhoven and Jacobs (2005))
Phonetics
PHONETICS has to do with the production and perception of speech sounds in general, that is of speech
sounds in all the languages of the world. It is the study of phonic substance. It is the science of human speech
sounds; it studies the defining characteristics of all human vocal noise, and concentrates its attention on those
sounds which occur in the world’s languages. It is by nature analytical, descriptive and classificatory. It deals
with the observation, measurement and description of a special kind of data: the sounds of human speech,
without any specific reference to their function in the sound system of a particular language.
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As we have already seen, Phonetics is divided into three main branches, corresponding to these three
distinctions:
 Articulatory Phonetics: deals with speech production, i.e. the production

of speech sounds by the organs of the vocal tract.
 Acoustic Phonetics deals with speech

transmission; it is the study of sound waves
travelling in the air.
 Auditory Phonetics deals with

speech reception; it is the study of
the vibrations of the hearing apparatus.
Until recently, we knew little about what is going on in the brain when people are speaking, and this is why the
science of phonetics has concentrated on the three central components of the speech chain, where observation
of what is going on is fairly straightforward. However, our understanding of how the brain works in speech
communications has grown enormously in recent years. One of the most significant advances in recent research
has been the development of safe and accurate brain-scanning techniques that can show us the activities of
different parts of the brain when someone is speaking or listening to speech.
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Phonology
Phonology describes the families of sounds which constitute phonological items, and the units, structures
and systems into which they are organized.
Language is not merely randomly articulated human noise; it is patterned noise, noise with organization. Out
of the total range of audibly distinct sounds a human being can produce, only a limited number are used in
anyone language. We refer to kinds of sounds which occur in a given language and the patterns of relationship
into which they fall as the sound system of that language; and the study of the properties of sound systems is
technically what we mean by Phonology.
What makes them different?

PHONETICS PHONOLOGY
 It has to do with the production and  Describes the families of sounds which
perception of speech sounds in general; constitute phonological items and the units,
structures and systems into which they are
organized;
 It studies sounds without any specific  It deals with sounds and contrasts between
reference to their function in a language’s sounds only within the context of some language
sound system; (a specific language);
 It is general, that is, concerned with speech  It is particular, having a particular language in
sounds as such without reference to their view;
function in a particular language;
 It is descriptive and classificatory.  It is functional, concerned with the working or

functioning of speech sounds in the context of a
specific language.
One of the most important achievements in phonetics over the past century has been to arrive at a system of
phonetic symbols that anyone can learn to use and that can be used to represent the sounds of any language.
This is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
“In any language we can identify a small number of regularly used sounds (vowels and consonants) that we
call phonemes; for example, the vowels in the words 'pin' and 'pen' are different phonemes, and so are the
consonants at the beginning of the words 'pet' and 'bet.' Because of the notoriously confusing nature of
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English spelling, it is particularly important to learn to think of English pronunciation in terms of phonemes rather
than letters of the alphabet; one must be aware, for example, that the word 'enough' begins with the same vowel
phoneme as that at the beginning of 'inept' and ends with the same consonant as 'stuff.'”
Speech Mechanism
Here we will work on the second stage of the speech chain, that is, the
articulatory phonetics. The first point to consider is the functioning of what we
shall call the speech mechanism. This is not exclusively for the production of
speech sounds, but also for breathing and eating. Speech is only a secondary
activity and it is closely connected with breathing.
All the sounds we make when we speak are the result of muscles
contracting. The muscles in the chest that we use for breathing produce the
flow of the air that is needed for almost all speech sounds; muscles in the
larynx produce many different modifications in the flow of the air from the chest
to the mouth. After passing through the larynx, the air goes through what we
call VOCAL TRACT, which ends at the mouth and nostrils. Here the air from
the lungs escapes into the atmosphere. We have a large and complex set of
muscles that can produce changes in the shape of the vocal tract, and in order
to learn how the sounds of speech are produced, it is necessary to become
familiar with the different parts of the vocal tract. These different parts are
called ARTICULATORS, and the study of them is called ARTICULATORY
PHONETICS.
The following are the elements that we must consider:
i) The lungs have the consistency of two large sponges which are made to
expand to take the air (inhalation); and contract to let it out (exhalation). They are
situated within the rib cage or thorax. Below the lungs, and separating them from the
stomach, is a flat muscle called diaphragm. The lungs themselves are incapable of
any active movement; and expansion or contraction must be carried out by the
muscles that join them to the rib cage and/or by lowering the diaphragm. The function of the lungs is that of a
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motor or activator that sets the passage of air into the movements of inhalation and exhalation. When we speak,
exhaling is controlled; therefore, it normally takes longer than inhaling.
ii) The larynx is a rigid structure is situated at the top of the trachea
and below the pharynx. Externally, we can locate it with our fingers: the
thyroid cartilage that encloses the front part is the prominence known as
Adam’s Apple.
The important point about the larynx in speech is that it contains the
first valve or trap that can interfere with the passage of the air-stream:
the vocal folds.
Read Ch. 2 “A Course in English Phonetics for Spanish Speakers” by Finch and Ortiz Lira
iii) The Cavities or Resonators. Any hollow space containing air can act
as a resonator, that is, it can change the quality of an existing sound. The
human speech mechanism has three resonators – the pharynx, which can
change its shape slightly; the nasal cavity, which is constant in shape and
size; and the oral cavity, which is extremely variable.
The pharynx is the passage situated at the top of the larynx,
communicating with the oral and nasal cavities. Its front wall is formed by the
roof of the tongue. The nasal cavity extends from the pharynx to the nostrils,
and is separated from the oral cavity by the palate. The entrance to the
nasal cavity is controlled by the velum. The oral cavity is by far the most important resonator, due to the great
mobility of its organs and consequent changes of size and shape. The base of the oral cavity is occupied by
the tongue, and the front bounded by the lips.
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iv) The articulators are all situated in or surrounding the oral cavity. They are the tongue, palate, teeth
and lips.
The articulators are called active when they are capable of movement; and passive when they are
incapable of movement. The vocal folds can also act as articulators, as they are capable of producing two
consonant sounds.
The palate is a concave structure, separating the mouth from the nasal cavity. Although the palate is not
physically separated into parts, it is useful to divide it when describing speech into (i) alveolar ridge, the
prominence just behind the upper teeth; (ii) hard palate, the bony, immovable part that lies over the centre of
the mouth, and (iii) soft palate or velum, the moveable part at the back, which can be raise and lowered. The
tip of the velum is called uvula. When the velum is raised and pressed against the back wall of the pharynx, it
closes the entrance to the nasal cavity, and the air escapes through the mouth. When it is lowered it does not
completely close the passage into the oral cavity. If the air is to escape through the nose the closure must be
completed at some other point.
The tongue is the most agile speech organ, as it is principally made of muscle. It is useful to think of the
tongue as being divided in different parts, each of which coincides with a different part of the palate when in rest
position: (i) the tip, the extreme end; (ii) the blade, lying immediately under the alveolar ridge; (iii) the front, lying
under the hard palate; and (iv) the back, lying under the velum. The blade and tip can be moved independently
of the rest. The whole tongue moves backwards and forwards, and up and down. It can interfere with the air-
stream by coming into light contact with the palate causing friction, or it can make complete contact with the
palate producing a stop.
The upper teeth are used in speech to interfere with or stop the air-flow with the help of the tongue or the
lower tip. The lips constitute the very mobile outer edges of the mouth, and can adopt different shapes.
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This image represents the human head, seen from the side, displayed as though it had been cut in half.
i)The pharynx is a tube which begins just above the larynx. It is about 7 cm long in women and above 8 cm
in men, and at its top end its divided into two, one part being the back of the mouth and the other being the
beginning of the way through the nasal cavity. If you look in your mirror with your mouth open, you can see
the back of the pharynx.
ii) The velum or soft palate is seen in the diagram in a position that allows the air to pass through
the nose and through the mouth. Nevertheless, in speech it is often raised so that air cannot escape through
the nose. The other important thing about the velum is that it is one of the articulators that can be touched is in
contact with the lower side of the velum, and we call these velar consonants.
iii) The hard palate is often called “the roof of the mouth”. You can feel its smooth curved surface
with your tongue.
iv) The alveolar ridge is between the top front teeth and the hard palate. You can feel its shape with
your tongue. Its surface is really much rougher that it feels, and is covered with little ridges.
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v) The tongue is, of course, a very important articulator and it can be moved into many different
places and different shapes. It is usual to divide the tongue into different parts, though there are no clear
dividing lines within the tongue.
Here, you can see the tongue at a larger scale with these parts shown: tip, blade, front, back and root.
The tongue is in contact with the upper side teeth for many speech sounds.
vi) The lips are important in speech. They can be pressed together (when we produce the sounds p, b),
brought into contact with the teeth (as in f, v), or rounded to produce the lip-shape for vowels like /u:/, sounds
in which the lips are in contact with each other are called bilabial, while those with lip-to-teeth contact are
called labio-dental.
 Read pages 8 to 10 from “English Phonetics and Phonology” by Peter Roach.
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UNIT I: PRACTICE
The Study of Sounds of Language and their Production

ACTIVITY: Read and listen to the poems. Choose one of the poems presented and prepare it to be said aloud.
I TAKE IT YOU ALREADY KNOW
I take it you already know

Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough and through.
Well done! And now you wish perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word

That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead, it's said like bed, not bead-
for goodness' sake don't call it 'deed'!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(they rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother,

Nor both in bother, broth, or brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's doze and rose and lose
Just look them up- and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart-
Come, I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I'd learned to speak it when I was five!
And yet to write it, the more I sigh,
I'll not learn how 'til the day I die.
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THE CHAOS - Gerard Nolst Trenité

Dearest creature in creation One, anemone, Balmoral,
Studying English pronunciation, Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel.
I will teach you in my verse Gertrude, German, wind and wind,
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse. Beau, kind, kindred, queue, mankind,
I will keep you, Susy, busy, Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,

Make your head with heat grow dizzy; Reading, Reading, heathen, heather.
Tear in eye, your dress you'll tear; This phonetic labyrinth
Queer, fair seer, hear my prayer. Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth
.
Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it! Have you ever yet endeavoured
Just compare heart, hear and heard, To pronounce revered and severed,
Dies and diet, lord and word. Demon, lemon, ghoul, foul, soul,
Peter, petrol and patrol?
Sword and sward, retain and Britain
(Mind the latter how it's written). Billet does not end like ballet;
Made has not the sound of bade, Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Say-said, pay-paid, laid but plaid. Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague and ague, Banquet is not nearly parquet,
But be careful how you speak, Which exactly rhymes with khaki.
Say: gush, bush, steak, streak, break, bleak , Discount, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward,
Previous, precious, fuchsia, via
Recipe, pipe, studding-sail, choir; Ricocheted and crocheting, croquet?
Woven, oven, how and low, Right! Your pronunciation's OK.
Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe. Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Say, expecting fraud and trickery:
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore, Is your r correct in higher?
Branch, ranch, measles, topsails, aisles, Keats asserts it rhymes Thalia.
Missiles, similes, reviles. Hugh, but hug, and hood, but hoot,
Buoyant, minute, but minute.
Wholly, holly, signal, signing,
Same, examining, but mining, Say abscission with precision,
Scholar, vicar, and cigar, Now: position and transition;
Solar, mica, war and far. Would it tally with my rhyme
If I mentioned paradigm?
From "desire": desirable-admirable from
"admire", Twopence, threepence, tease are easy,
Lumber, plumber, bier, but brier, But cease, crease, grease and greasy?
Topsham, brougham, renown, but known, Cornice, nice, valise, revise,
Knowledge, done, lone, gone, none, tone, Rabies, but lullabies.
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Of such puzzling words as nauseous, "Solder, soldier! Blood is thicker",

Rhyming well with cautious, tortious, Quoth he, "than liqueur or liquor",
You'll envelop lists, I hope, Making, it is sad but true,
In a linen envelope. In bravado, much ado.
Would you like some more? You'll have it! Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Affidavit, David, davit. Neither does devour with clangour.
To abjure, to perjure. Sheik Pilot, pivot, gaunt, but aunt,
Does not sound like Czech but ache. Font, front, wont, want, grand and grant.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Arsenic, specific, scenic,

Rachel, loch, moustache, eleven. Relic, rhetoric, hygienic.
We say hallowed, but allowed, Gooseberry, goose, and close, but close,
People, leopard, towed but vowed. Paradise, rise, rose, and dose.
Mark the difference, moreover, Say inveigh, neigh, but inveigle,

Between mover, plover, Dover. Make the latter rhyme with eagle.
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, Mind! Meandering but mean,
Chalice, but police and lice, Valentine and magazine.
Camel, constable, unstable, And I bet you, dear, a penny,

Principle, disciple, label. You say mani-(fold) like many,
Petal, penal, and canal, Which is wrong. Say rapier, pier,
Wait, surmise, plait, promise, pal, Tier (one who ties), but tier.
Suit, suite, ruin. Circuit, conduit Arch, archangel; pray, does erring
Rhyme with "shirk it" and "beyond it", Rhyme with herring or with stirring?
But it is not hard to tell Prison, bison, treasure trove,
Why it's pall, mall, but Pall Mall. Treason, hover, cover, cove,
Muscle, muscular, gaol, iron, Perseverance, severance. Ribald

Timber, climber, bullion, lion, Rhymes (but piebald doesn't) with nibbled.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Phaeton, paean, gnat, ghat, gnaw,
Senator, spectator, mayor, Lien, psychic, shone, bone, pshaw.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour Don't be down, my own, but rough it,
Has the a of drachm and hammer. And distinguish buffet, buffet;
Pussy, hussy and possess, Brood, stood, roof, rook, school, wool, boon,
Desert, but desert, address. Worcester, Boleyn, to impugn.
Golf, wolf, countenance, lieutenants Say in sounds correct and sterling

Hoist in lieu of flags left pennants. Hearse, hear, hearken, year and yearling.
Courier, courtier, tomb, bomb, comb, Evil, devil, mezzotint,
Cow, but Cowper, some and home. Mind the z! (A gentle hint.)
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Now you need not pay attention The th will surely trouble you
To such sounds as I don't mention, More than r, ch or w.
Sounds like pores, pause, pours and paws, Say then these phonetic gems:
Rhyming with the pronoun yours; Thomas, thyme, Theresa, Thames.
Nor are proper names included, Thompson, Chatham, Waltham, Streatham,

Though I often heard, as you did, There are more but I forget 'em-
Funny rhymes to unicorn, Wait! I've got it: Anthony,
Yes, you know them, Vaughan and Strachan. Lighten your anxiety.
No, my maiden, coy and comely, The archaic word albeit

I don't want to speak of Cholmondeley. Does not rhyme with eight-you see it;
No. Yet Froude compared with proud With and forthwith, one has voice,
Is no better than McLeod. One has not, you make your choice.
But mind trivial and vial, Shoes, goes, does *. Now first say: finger;
Tripod, menial, denial, Then say: singer, ginger, linger.
Troll and trolley, realm and ream, Real, zeal, mauve, gauze and gauge,
Schedule, mischief, schism, and scheme. Marriage, foliage, mirage, age,
Argil, gill, Argyll, gill. Surely Hero, heron, query, very,

May be made to rhyme with Raleigh, Parry, tarry fury, bury,
But you're not supposed to say Dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loth,
Piquet rhymes with sobriquet. Job, Job, blossom, bosom, oath.
Had this invalid invalid Faugh, oppugnant, keen oppugners,

Worthless documents? How pallid, Bowing, bowing, banjo-tuners
How uncouth he, couchant, looked, Holm you know, but noes, canoes,
When for Portsmouth I had booked! Puisne, truism, use, to use?
Zeus, Thebes, Thales, Aphrodite, Though the difference seems little,

Paramour, enamoured, flighty, We say actual, but victual,
Episodes, antipodes, Seat, sweat, chaste, caste, Leigh, eight, height,
Acquiesce, and obsequies. Put, nut, granite, and unite.
Please don't monkey with the geyser, Reefer does not rhyme with deafer,
Don't peel 'taters with my razor, Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Rather say in accents pure: Dull, bull, Geoffrey, George, ate, late,
Nature, stature and mature. Hint, pint, senate, but sedate.
Pious, impious, limb, climb, glumly, Gaelic, Arabic, pacific,

Worsted, worsted, crumbly, dumbly, Science, conscience, scientific;
Conquer, conquest, vase, phase, fan, Tour, but our, dour, succour, four,
Wan, sedan and artisan. Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
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Say manoeuvre, yacht and vomit, Respite, spite, consent, resent.

Next omit, which differs from it Liable, but Parliament.
Bona fide, alibi
Gyrate, dowry and awry. Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen,
Sea, idea, guinea, area, Monkey, donkey, clerk and jerk,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria. Asp, grasp, wasp, demesne, cork, work.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean,
Doctrine, turpentine, marine. A of valour, vapid vapour,
S of news (compare newspaper),
Compare alien with Italian, G of gibbet, gibbon, gist,
Dandelion with battalion, I of antichrist and grist,
Rally with ally; yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay! Differ like diverse and divers,
Rivers, strivers, shivers, fivers.
Say aver, but ever, fever, Once, but nonce, toll, doll, but roll,
Neither, leisure, skein, receiver. Polish, Polish, poll and poll.
Never guess-it is not safe,
We say calves, valves, half, but Ralf. Pronunciation-think of Psyche!-
Is a paling, stout and spiky.
Starry, granary, canary, Won't it make you lose your wits
Crevice, but device, and eyrie, Writing groats and saying "grits"?
Face, but preface, then grimace,
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass. It's a dark abyss or tunnel
Strewn with stones like rowlock, gunwale,
Bass, large, target, gin, give, verging, Islington, and Isle of Wight,
Ought, oust, joust, and scour, but scourging; Housewife, verdict and indict.
Ear, but earn; and ere and tear
Do not rhyme with here but heir. Don't you think so, reader, rather,
Saying lather, bather, father?
Mind the o of off and often Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Which may be pronounced as orphan, Though, through, bough, cough, hough, sough,
With the sound of saw and sauce; tough??
Also soft, lost, cloth and cross.
Hiccough has the sound of sup...
Pudding, puddle, putting. Putting? My advice is: GIVE IT UP!
Yes: at golf it rhymes with shutting.
“The Chaos” is a poem which demonstrates the irregularity of English spelling and pronunciation, written by
Gerard Nolst Treneté (1870-1946), also known under the pseudonym Charivarius.
20
UNIT II: THE ENGLISH VOWEL

SYSTEM
CONTENTS: English vowel sounds: description and classification.

Phonemes. Function in the syllable. Allophones. Comparison with Spanish:
difficulties. Diphthongs: characteristics and classification. Levelling. Spelling and pronunciation.
What is a VOWEL sound?
“It is sound in the production of which the airstream coming from the lungs comes out freely, centrally
over the tongue, and meets a stricture of open approximation”
Hector Ortiz Lira
“They are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the
lips”
Peter Roach
Vowel sounds are produced in most cases without any kind of contact between the articulators. They can be
made different from each other mainly by raising a certain part of the tongue to different levels, by modifying the
shape of the lips and by raising and lowering the velum. Variations of this kind produced by changing the shape
of the mouth resonator are referred to as differences in vowel quality. Vowels are the class of sound which
makes the least obstruction to the flow of air. They are almost always found at the centre of a syllable, and it is
rare to find any sound other than a vowel which is able to stand alone as a whole syllable. All vowel sounds are
voiced, that is, they are produced with a vibration of the vocal cords.
The vowel sounds of English and Spanish have two characteristics in common. In the first place, they are
normally voiced sounds, for instance, they are produced with vibration of the vocal folds; in the second place,
and they are usually oral sounds, so when the vibrating column of air reaches the top of the pharynx it generally
escapes through the mouth only. Occasionally, there are devoiced and nasalized vowel sounds in English and
Spanish, but this is not a common characteristic.
21
Whereas Spanish has only five vowel sounds /English has a large number of
vowel sounds; on the one hand, English has seven short vowels / // and/. On
the other hand, it has five long vowels /and/.
Vowel sounds can be classified into three different categories:
BACK VOWELS: because the back of the tongue is the

highest point;
FRONT VOWELS: it is the front part of the tongue that is

raised;
CENTRAL VOWELS: The defining characteristic of a central

vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between
a front vowel and a back vowel.
 Read pages 10 to 14 from “English Phonetics and Phonology” by Peter Roach.
What is Schwa Sound?
Schwa is the most common vowel sound in English; it’s represented as /ə/ in the International Phonetic
Alphabet. Only words with two or more syllables may have a schwa.
The schwa represents a mid-central vowel in an unstressed syllable, such as the second syllable of woman
and the second syllable of “buses”. Any vowel letter can stand for the schwa sound. It is a weak, unstressed
sound and it occurs in many words. It is often the sound in grammar words such as articles and
prepositions. Getting the schwa sound correct is a good way of making your pronunciation more accurate and
natural.
 Read p. 14 to 19 from “English Phonetics and Phonology” by Peter Roach.
 Read p. 11 to 14 from “A Course in English Phonetics and Phonology” by Finch and Ortíz Lira.
22
RP English: Short and Long Vowels.
Phonetic features Phonological features

PART OF SHAPE
HEIGHT OF DISTRIBUTION IN THE
TONGUE OF LIPS LENGTH VARIANTS
TONGUE SYLLABLE
RAISED
 -This sound becomes
 Above the half
Initial position: is // neutralized when it occurs at
 close position Loosely
 front Medial position: pin // the end of unstressed syllables,
but very near to spread -
Final position: fussy / ‘i/ and is represented as   
the centre
- this sound suffers clipping
Between the Initial position: egg //
 half close and front Loosely - Medial position: set // this sound suffers clipping
half open spread Final position: it does not occur.

positions
Initial position: Ann //
Between half
 front Spread - Medial position: sad  this sound suffers clipping
open and open
Final position: it does not occur.
positions
Initial position: up 

Below the half
 centre Neutrally - Medial position: cut /  this sound suffers clipping
open position
open Final position: it does not occur.
Initial position: ox 
Above the open
 Slightly - Medial position: pot  this sound suffers clipping
position
back rounded Final position: it does not occur.
Initial position: it does not occur. This sound becomes
 Above the half back Rounded - Medial position: put  neutralized when it occurs at
close position Final position: into ’ the end of unstressed syllables,
It occurs in final position only in and is represented as 
unstressed syllables. - this sound suffers clipping
23
Phonetic features Phonological features

PART OF
HEIGHT OF TONGUE SHAPE OF LENGTH DISTRIBUTION IN THE NOTES
TONGUE RAISED LIPS SYLLABLE
Initial position: easy  ‘i
Below the front spread + Medial position: peace  this sound suffers clipping*

close position Final position: free 
Initial position: oose 

Below the close
rounded + this sound suffers clipping*
back Medial position: move 
position.
 Final position: two 
 Initial position: Austin
 Below the half back rounded + this sound suffers clipping*
/’

close position Medial position: mourn //
Final position: floor 
Neutrally open
with Initial position: art /
Just above the
back considerable + Medial position: park / this sound suffers clipping*
 open position
separation of Final position: car 
the jaws
Between the
Initial position: earn 
half close and centre Neutrally open + this sound suffers clipping*
Medial position: first 
half open
 Final position: fur 
positions
This vowel phoneme is
Between the
 centre Neutrally open _ Initial position: about ’ called schwa and is
half close and
Medial position: but  considered a weak vowel
half open
Final position: to  since it can only occur in
positions
unstressed (or weak)
syllables.
24
What is Clipping?
25
English Diphthongs
What are they?
RP has a large number of diphthongs. “They are sounds which consist of a movement or glide from one vowel
to another. There are two elements in each diphthong and the FIRST one is always pronounced as much
STRONGER and LONGER sound. The first element is the starting point of the glide”. A vowel which remains
constant and does not glide is called a pure vowel.
In terms of length, diphthongs are like long vowels. There are eight diphthongs in English. The easiest way to
remember them is in terms of three groups divided as in this diagram:
DIPHTHONG
CENTRING CLOSING
ending in  ending in  ending in 

The centring diphthongs glide towards the // vowel.
26
Phonological Characteristics:
o Distribution of CENTRING diphthongs:

INITIAL POSITION MEDIAL POSITION FINAL POSITION
Ian // beard  dear 

aired  Players /plez/ fare 

- moored  cure
Closing diphthongs have the characteristic that they all end with a glide towards a close vowel or 
Because the second part of the diphthong is weak, they often do not reach a position that could be called close.
The important thing is that the glide from a relatively more open towards a relatively closer vowel is produced.
27
o Distribution of CLOSING diphthongs:






















28

o Distribution of CLOSING diphthongs:


Diphthongs can also be classified according to the vowel towards which the glide / movement goes, or where
it ends. Finch and Ortiz Lira in A Course in English Phonetics for Spanish Speakers classify diphthongs
articulatory and auditorily:
- Front Diphthongs; these are called FRONT diphthongs because the glide or the direction of the tongue
movement is towards a front vowel . There are three front diphthongs: and 
Phonetic Characteristics of Front Diphthongs:
1) Depending on the direction of the MOVEMENT the tongue makes in producing diphthongs, the English set
can be articulatorily classified into CLOSING; because in their production, the tongue moves from an open
(in the case of ) or half-open (in the case of ) position, to a position that is closer to the palate.
2) According to the PROMINENCE of the elements, front diphthongs can be auditorily classified into FALLING
diphthongs, because the first element is stronger and it gets more muscular effort in the production, but on
the second element, muscular effort decreases, so the second element is weaker.
3) According to the DISTANCE they travel, they are WIDE diphthongs, because the movement of the tongue
is highly noticeable and the distance covered is wide.
29
- Back Diphthongs: They are diphthongs in which the glide goes towards a back vowel . There are two
back diphthongs: and 

Phonetic Characteristics of Back Diphthongs:
1) Depending on the direction of the MOVEMENT the tongue makes in producing diphthongs, they can be
articulatorily classified into CLOSING; because in their production, the tongue comes to a position that is
closer to the palate.
2) According to the PROMINENCE of the elements, back diphthongs can be auditorily classified into FALLING
diphthongs, because the first element is stronger and it gets more muscular effort in the production, but on
the second element, muscular effort decreases, so the second element is weaker.
3) According to the DISTANCE they travel,  is a WIDE diphthong, because there is a wide movement from
one vowel to another, while  is a NARROW diphthong, because the distance from one vowel to another
is short.
- Centring Diphthongs: In these diphthongs the glide goes towards a central vowel //. There are three
closing diphthongs in English:  and 
Phonetic Characteristics of Centring Diphthongs:
1) Depending on the direction of the MOVEMENT the tongue makes in producing diphthongs, they can be
articulatorily classified into CENTRING; because in their production, the tongue moves from a half-close or
half-open position to the CENTRAL position.
2) According to the PROMINENCE of the elements, back diphthongs can be auditorily classified into FALLING
diphthongs, because the first element is stronger but they may sound “rising” diphthong in unstressed
syllables, as in “period” .
3) According to the DISTANCE they travel, they are NARROW diphthongs, because the distance from one
vowel to another is short.
30
Differences between diphthongs and long vowels:
Diphthongs and long vowels differ from each other in a number of ways. We can differentiate them in the
following way:
o The basic difference between diphthongs and long vowels is that whereas a diphthong is a gliding vowel,
long vowels are pure vowels. During the articulation of long vowels the tongue stays at one fixed location in
the mouth. But in the case of diphthongs the tongue moves from one position to another.
o Diphthongs and long vowels can be distinguished from one another with regard to phonetic
representation. Though diphthongs are single speech sounds, they are usually represented, in a phonetic
transcription of speech, by means of a pair of characters indicating the initial and final configurations of the
vocal tract.
o Long vowels are independent. But diphthongs are dependent, because they do not have any individual
starting points; they always start either from a short or long vowel or vowels with similar qualities.
o Lastly, we can distinguish diphthongs from long vowels in relation to quantity. Whereas diphthongs are
eight in number, the long vowels are only five.
 Read p. 20 to 22 from “English Phonetics and Phonology” by Peter Roach

 Read p. 33 to 41 from “A Course in English Phonetics for Spanish Speakers” by Finch and Ortiz Lira.
31
RP English: Diphthongs
PHONETICAL FEATURES PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES

DISTANCE DIRECTION
THE IN WHICH PROMINENCE POSITION OF
TONGUE THE OF THE FIRST THE GLIDE LIPS DISTRIBUTION VARIANTS
TRAVELS TONGUE ELEMENT
GOES
It is a CLOSING: FALLING: the FRONT because The first element
NARROW the glide first element is the glide which It occurs in all experiments
//
diphthong moves more starts bellow the Loosely positions. clipping a process
because towards a prominent than half close spread to IP. eight  by means of which
the tongue narrower the second position is made spread MP. face  a variation in
makes a position. one. towards a front FP. pay quantity occurs.
short glide. vowel.
It is a CLOSING: FALLING: the FRONT because Open with a The first element
WIDE the glide first element is the glide which lowering It occurs in all experiments
/
diphthong moves more starts behind the separation positions. clipping a process
because towards a prominent than half open of jaw to a IP: item  by means of which
the tongue narrower the second position is made slightly MP: life  a variation in
makes a position. one. towards a front spread FP: bye  quantity occurs.
long glide. vowel. position
It is a CLOSING: FALLING: the FRONT because The first element
WIDE the glide first element is the glide which It occurs in all experiments
diphthong moves more starts between Rounded to positions. clipping a process
//
because towards a prominent than the half open or slightly IP: oyster  by means of which
the tongue narrower the second open back spread MP: noise  a variation in
makes a position. one. position is made FP: boy  quantity occurs.
long glide. towards a front
vowel.
32
FALLING: the CENTRING

It is a CENTRING: first element is because the
//
NARROW the glide more glide which It occurs in all The first element
diphthong moves prominent than starts above the From spread positions. experiments
because towards a the second half close to neutral. IP: ears  clipping a process
the tongue more centring one, but position is made MP: near  by means of which
makes a position. sometimes it towards a FP: fear  a variation in
short glide. can be raising central vowel. quantity occurs.
in unstressed
syllables.
It is a CENTRING: CENTRING
The first element
NARROW the glide FALLING: the because the It occurs in all
experiments
//
diphthong moves first element is glide which positions.
From spread clipping a process
because towards a more starts in half IP: air 
to neutral. by means of which
the tongue more centring prominent than open front MP: scarce
a variation in

makes a position. the second position is made
FP: bear  quantity occurs.
short glide. one. towards a
central vowel.
It is a CENTRING: FALLING: the CENTRING
NARROW the glide first element is because the
It DOESN’T occur The first element
diphthong moves more glide which From
//
in all positions. experiments
because towards a prominent than starts from a rounded to
MP. moored clipping a process
the tongue more centring the second half close neutral.
 by means of which
makes a position. one, but position is made
FP. tour 
a variation in
short glide. sometimes it towards a
quantity occurs.
can be rising central vowel.
in unstressed
syllables.
33
BACK because
It is a
CLOSING: FALLING: the the glide which From open It occurs in all The first element
WIDE
//
the glide first element is starts between with positions. experiments
diphthong
moves more the back and the separation IP. out  clipping a process
because
towards a prominent than front open of the jaws MP. by means of which
the tongue
narrower the second position is made to slightly house a variation in
makes a
position. one. towards a back rounded. FP. cow  quantity occurs.
long glide.
vowel.
BACK because
the glide which
It is a CLOSING: FALLING: the starts between From neutral It occurs in all The first element
//
NARROW the glide first element is the half close to slightly positions. experiments
diphthong moves more and half open rounded. IP. open  clipping a process
because towards a prominent than central position MP: by means of which
the tongue narrower the second is made towards home a variation in
makes a position. one. a back vowel. FP: go  quantity occurs.
short glide.
34
English Triphthongs
What are they?
“They are glides from one vowel to another (diphthong) and then, to a third one (triphthong); all
produced without interruption” There are five triphthongs in English, formed by adding /ə/ to front and back
diphthongs andThese triphthongs are found in the words Such as:,
‘player‘//, ‘layer’ ’liar’ , ‘layer’ , ‘power’ , ‘mower’ .
TRIPHTHONG = DIPHTHONG + VOWEL (schwa)
They can suffer a process called LEVELLING, which is a process that affects triphthongs due to economy of
effort in the production of glides. Leveling is a characteristic of rapid speech.
In this process the first element in the triphthong becomes longer and stronger, the second element is elided
(not produced) and the third element is the “schwa”, invariable; it doesn’t change.
 Read p. 23 to 24 from “English Phonetics and Phonology” by Peter Roach.
35
UNIT II: PRACTICE
The English Vowel System

Activities:
A. In this story, there are 12 incorrect words. The correct word is pronounced the same as the incorrect
one, but the spelling is different. Correct them using words from the box.
son – some – meat – way – threw – pears – sent – week – buy – piece – road – two
week
Last weak, I cent my sun Jamie to the
shops to bye sum food. He got a peace of
meet and too pairs. On the weigh home,
the bag broke. The food fell onto the rode
and got dirty. In the end, Jamie through
the food in the bin.
B. Short Vowel Sounds. Classify the words below according to their vowel sounds:
map – hand – cut – full - come – ill – bet - cat – food - men – sun – in – less – not – done – book - bag – kiss – bus –
ten - run – you -
     
36
C. Long Vowel Sounds. Classify the words below according to their vowel sounds:
car – door – shirt – far - earth – caught - world – arm – seize – learn – fought - feel – bored - boot - bought – bean
– see – scene – more – girl – foot – eagle -
    
D. Match the words with their pronunciation.
E. All five words in each group have the same vowel letter - a, e, i, o, u – but one has a different vowel
sound. Circle the word with the different vowel sound in each group.
37
F. Write words that rhyme. (The end part of the word sounds the same).
G. Find more practice on vowel sounds and diphthongs on English Pronunciation in Use – Elementary
by Jonathan Marks.
38
UNIT III: CHARACTERISTICS

OF CONSONANT SOUNDS
CONTENTS: English consonant sounds: description and classification
Phonemes and allophones. Function in the syllable. Clusters. Spelling-
pronunciation regularities. Syllabicity. Comparison with Spanish
consonants: difficulties.
The words vowel and consonant are very familiar ones, but when we study the sounds of speech
scientifically we find that it is not easy to define exactly what they mean. The most common view is that vowels
are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips. One problem
is that some English sounds that we think of as consonants, such as at the beginning of the words “hay” 
and “way” ; do not really obstruct the flow of air more than some vowels do. Another problem is that
different languages have different ways of dividing their sounds into vowel and consonant; for example, the usual
sound produced at the beginning of the word “red”  is felt to be a consonant by most English speakers, but
in some other languages the same sound is treated as a vowel sound.
If we say that the difference between vowels and consonants is a difference in the way they are produced,
there will inevitably be some cases of uncertainty or disagreement; this is a problem that cannot be avoided. It is
possible to establish two distinct groups of sounds (vowels and consonants) in another way. Consider English
words beginning with the sound . We find that most of the sounds that come after this  are what we
normally think of as vowels, but practically none of the sounds we class as consonants. Now think of English
words beginning with the two sounds ; we find many cases where a consonant can follow, but hardly any
case where a vowel follows. What we are doing here is looking at the different contexts and positions in which
particular sounds can occur; this is the study of the distribution of the sounds, and is of great importance in
phonology. Study of the sounds found at the beginning and end of English words has shown that two groups of
sounds with quite different patters of distribution can be identified, and these two groups are those of vowel and
consonant. If we look at the vowel-consonant distinction in this way, we must say that the most important
difference between vowel and consonant is not the way that they are made, but their different distributions. Of
course, the distribution of vowels and consonants is different for each language.
39
Consonant Sounds
“It is a sound in which the air stream needs either a stricture of complete oral closure (plosives,
affricates, nasals) or one of intermitted oral closure (/r/) or one of the partial oral closure (lateral), or a
stricture of close approximation (fricative)”
Consonants are made by producing an obstruction to the flow of air at some point in the vocal tract, and when
we classify consonants one of the most important things to establish is the place where this obstruction is made;
this is known as the PLACE OF ARTICULATION or POINT OF ARTICULATION, and in conventional phonetic
classification each place of articulation has an adjective that can be applied to a consonant. Sometimes it is
necessary to specify more than one place of articulation for a consonant, for one of two reasons: firstly, there
may be a secondary articulation - a less extreme obstruction to the airflow, but one which is thought to have a
significant effect; secondly, some languages have consonants that make two simultaneous constrictions, neither
of which could fairly be regarded as taking precedence over the other.
Voicing describes whether the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation of a vowel or a consonant. We
have already mentioned that all vowel sounds are voiced. If we consider consonant sounds, we can say that
some of them are lenis (voiced) and some others are fortis (voiceless). Some of the consonant sounds produced
in English are very similar. The difference between lenis and fortis (unvoiced) consonants lies in what is
happening with the vocal cords. Lenis consonants cause the vocal cords to vibrate, while voiceless ones do not.
Try this: Place two or three fingers on your throat and say "aah". Then with your fingers still on your throat, say
"ssss". With which sound do you feel a vibration?
40
According to the place/point of articulation, consonant sounds can be classified into:
 Bilabial: the lips are pressed together; (/p, b, m,/)
 Labio- dental: the lower lip is in contact with the upper-teeth; (/f, v/)
 Dental: the tongue is actually placed between the teeth; (/,  /)
 Alveolar: the tongue blade is pressed against the alveolar ridge; (/t,
d, s, z, n, l/)
 Palato-alveolar: their place of articulation is partly palatal, partly alveolar.

The tongue is in contact with the area slightly further back than that for
/s/ or /z/ (/,, , r/)
 Palatal: the front of the tongue articulates with the hard palate (/j/)
41
 Velar: the back of the tongue articulates with the soft palate (/k, g, /)
 Glottal: the narrowing that produces the friction noise is between

the vocal folds. (/h/)
 Retroflex: the tip of the tongue is curled up back to articulate with the
part of the hard palate immediately behind the alveolar ridge.
A different classification is according to the MANNER OF ARTICULATION of each consonant sound. It

describes how the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs are involved in making a sound. Often the concept
is only used for the production of consonants, even though the movement of the articulators will also greatly alter
the resonant properties of the vocal tract, thereby changing the formant structure of speech sounds that is
crucial for the identification of vowels.
Plosive or Stop
“They are a sound in the production of which the airstream coming from the lungs comes out
centrally over the tongue and meets a stricture of complete oral closure”.
They are produced by forming a complete obstruction to the flow of air out of the mouth and nose, and
normally this results in a build-up of compressed air inside the chamber formed by the closure. When the closure
is released, there is a small explosion that causes a sharp noise.
English has six plosive consonants /p, t, k, b, d, g/. The plosives have different places of articulation. /p/ and
/b/ are bilabial; the lips are pressed together. /t/ and /d/ are alveolar; the tongue blade is pressed against the
alveolar ridge. Normally the tongue does not touch the front teeth as it does in the dental plosives found in many
42
languages. /k/ and /g/ are velar; the back of the tongue is pressed against the area where the hard palate ends
and the soft palate begins. They can occur in all positions: initial, medial and final position.
/p/ bilabial – fortis /b/ bilabial - lenis

/t/ alveolar – fortis /d/ alveolar - lenis
/k/ velar – fortis /g/ velar - lenis
According to Peter Roach there are four stages in the production of a plosive:
 Closure phase: when the articulators move from the stricture for the plosive;
 Hold phase: when the compressed air is stopped from escaping;
 Release phase: when the articulators used to form the stricture, are moved so as to allow
air to escape;
 Post-release phase: is what happens immediately after.
ALLOPHONES of the fortis Plosives
Because the release stage is so abrupt, when we are producing English FORTIS PLOSIVES (/p/ /t/ k/) in
stressed or accented syllables, these sounds have a slight variation. They are ASPIRATED. Aspiration is a
voiceless interral or a puff of air between the release of the fortis plosives and the following sound.
 Fortis plosives /p/ /t/ /k/ in Initial Position in stressed/accented syllables are produced with
aspiration.
o complain //
o retain //
o decrease //
43
 Fortis plosives in UN-stressed/non-accented syllables can be unaspirated or weary aspirated.

o potato //
 Fortis plosives preceded by /s/ in a syllable, they are UNASPIRATED (produced without aspiration),
not even in stressed syllables.
o scream //
o Spain //
 All plosives in Final Position can be RELEASED or UNRELEASED, this means the air that was
compressed behind the complete oral closure can be liberated or not.
o tip // or //
o Meg // or //
o talk /or //
 When there are two plosives together in a cluster, the first is UNRELEASED and only the second is
RELEASED. If a consonant is UNRELEASED, it is articulated but not produced.
o stopped 
o marked /

 At word boundary(1), if there are two plosives that are articulated in the same place (we call them
homorganic), the first one is unreleased, and the second is produced like a longer sound (it is
lengthened)
o Good day! 

o First time 
44
 When plosives are in initial position in a word, or when they are between vowels, they are always
released.
o appear 
o stubborn 
Fricative
“It is a sound in the production of which two organs approximate to such an extent that the air-stream
passes through them with friction”
This type of consonant is made by forcing air though a narrow gap so that a hissing noise is generated. This
may be accompanied by voicing (in which case the sound is a lenis fricative, such as /z/) or it may be fortis (e.g.
/s/). The quality and intensity of fricative sounds varies greatly, but all are acoustically composed of energy at
relatively high frequency.
/f/ labio-dental - fortis // palato-alveolar - lenis

// dental - lenis // glottal
// dental - fortis // alveolar - fortis
// palato-alveolar – lenis // alveolar - lenis
With the exception of glottal /h/, each place of articulation has a pair of phonemes, one fortis (voiceless) and
one lenis (voiced). The fortis fricatives are said to be articulated with greater force than the lenis, and their
friction noise is louder. The lenis fricatives have very little or no voicing in initial and final positions, but may be
lenis when they occur between lenis sounds. The fortis fricatives have the effect of shortening a preceding
vowel, as do fortis fricatives have the effect of shortening a preceding vowel, as do fortis plosives.
We will now look at the fricatives separately, according to their place of articulation:
 /f, v/: These are labiodentals, that is, the lower lip is in contact with the upper teeth. The fricative
noise is never very strong and is barely audible in the case of /v/. They occur in Initial, Medial and
Final Position.
 in dental fricatives the tongue is normally placed inside the teeth, with the lip touching the
inside of the lower front teeth and the blade touching the inside of the upper teeth. The air escapes
45
through the gaps between the tongue and the teeth. As with /f/ and /v/, the fricative noise is weak.
and  can occur in all positions.
 /s, z/ these alveolar fricatives have with the same point of articulation as /t/ and /d/. The air escapes
through a narrow passage along the centre of the tongue, and the sound produced is comparatively
intense.
 these fricatives are called palate-alveolar, which can be taken to mean that their place of
articulation is partly palatal, partly alveolar. The tongue is in contact with an area slightly further back
than that for /s/ and /z/. The air escapes through a passage along the centre of the tongue, as in /s/
and /z/, but the passage is a little wider. is a common and widely-distributed phoneme, but
is not.  can occur in all position, while has a much more limited distribution, very few
words begin with  and not many end with this consonant. Only medially it is found at all
commonly.
 /h/ the place of articulation of this consonant is glottal. This means that the narrowing that produced
the friction noise is between the vocal fold. When we produce /h/ in speaking English, many different
things happen in different contexts. Phonologically /h/ is a consonant. It is usually found before
vowels. As well as being found in initial position it is found medially. It is noticeable that when /h/
occurs between voiced sounds, it is pronounced with voicing – not the normal voicing of vowels but a
weak, slightly fricative sound called breathy voice.
Affricative
It is a rather complex consonant. It begins as a plosive and ends as a fricative. It begins with an articulation
practically the same as the closure and hold phase, but instead of a rapid release with plosion and aspiration,
the tongue moves to the position for a fricative. So the plosive is followed immediately by fricative noise.
and  are the only two affricate phonemes in English. As with the plosives and most of the fricatives,
we have a fortis/lenis pair, and the voicing characteristics are the same as for these other consonants.  is
slightly aspirated in the positions where /p, t, k/ are aspirated, but not strongly enough for it to be necessary for
foreign learners to give much attention to it. The place of articulation is the same as for  and , that is,
palato-alveolar. This means that the /t/ component of  has a place of articulation rather further back in the
46
mouth than the  plosive usually has. When  is final in the syllable it has the effect of shortening a
preceding vowel, as do other fortis consonants.  and  often have rounded lips.
// palato-alveolar- lenis // palato-alveolar – fortis
 Read Chapter 6 (p. 52 to 55) from “English Phonetics and Phonology” by Peter Roach
Nasal
“It is a sound in the production of which the air escapes through the nose. The air doesn’t pass
through the mouth. It is prevented by a complete closure in the mouth at some point.”
For this to happen, two articulatory actions are necessary: firstly, the soft palate (or velum) must be lowered
to allow air to escape past it, and secondly, a closure must be made in the oral cavity to prevent air from
escaping through it. The closure may be at any place of articulation from bilabial at the front of the oral cavity to
uvular at the back (in the latter case there is contact between the tip of the lowered soft palate and the raised
back of the tongue). A closure any further back than this would prevent air from getting into the nasal cavity, so a
pharyngeal or glottal nasal is a physical impossibility.
English has three commonly found nasal consonants: bilabial , alveolar  and velar . In English we
find nasal release of plosive consonants: when a plosive is followed by a nasal consonant the usual articulation
is to release the compressed air by lowering the soft palate; this is particularly noticeable when the plosive and
the nasal are homorganic (share the same place of articulation), as for example in 'topmost'. The result is that
no plosive release is heard from the speaker's mouth before the nasal consonant.
/m/ bilabial – lenis /n/ alveolar – lenis // velar – lenis
Nasal consonants  and  can be found in all positions: Initial, Medial and Final. But it does not happen
the same with the velar nasal . It never occurs in initial position in the syllable, while Medially, it will occur in
two different contexts:
47
o When in spelling we find “nk” the /k/ will always be pronounced.

o When in spelling we find “ng” in the middle of a word there will be two different pronunciations.
 // or //
A B
finger // singer /
anger // hanger /h/
THE REASON FOR THIS DIFFERENCE IS MORPHOLOGY: THE WAY THE WORDS ARE
CONSTRUCTED.
Words in B can be divided in two different grammatical pieces: morphemes

• sing + er hang + er
Words in A cannot be divided in two different morphemes.
• finger anger
They consist of only one morpheme.
The comparative and superlative forms which add the suffixes -er and -est
COMPARATIVE SUPERLATIVE
LONG   
STRONG   
The velar nasal // never occurs after a diphthong or long vowel, only occurs
after /, , , , /
48
Lateral
“It is a sound in the production of which the passage of the air through the mouth doesn’t go in the
usual way along the centre of the tongue”.
There’s a complete closure between the centre of the tongue and the part of the roof of the mouth where the
contact is to be made. Because of this complete closure along the centre, the only way for the air to escape is
along the sides of the tongue.
/l/ alveolar – lenis
We find /l/ initially, medially and finally, and its distribution is therefore not particularly limited. In RP, the
consonant has one unusual characteristic: the realization of /l/ found before vowel sounds quite different from
that found in other contexts.
A consonant is lateral if there is obstruction to the passage of air in the centre of the air-passage and the air
flows to the side of the obstruction. In English the /l/ phoneme is lateral both in its “clear” and its “dark”
allophones: the blade of the tongue is in contact with the alveolar ridge as for a /t/, /d/ or /n/ but the sides of
the tongue are lowered to allow the passage of air. When an alveolar plosive precedes a lateral consonant in
English it is usual for it to be laterally released: this means that to go from /t/ or /d/ to /l/ we simply lower the
sides of the tongue to release the compressed air, rather than lowering and then raising the tongue blade.
ALLOPHONES of the /l/ phoneme
 Clear [l]: It resembles the close front vowel /i/, because when we produce it with the front of the tongue is
raised in the same shape as for /i/. This gives the l and /i/ -like sound, and the result is a “clear l”. This
sound is typically found in English when l occurs before a vowel sound as in “light”  or “look” .
It will never occur before a consonant or a pause.
 Dark []: If the back of the tongue is raised as for /u/ vowel, the quality is [u]-like and “dark”; this effect is
even more noticeable if the lips are rounded at the same time. This sound is typically found in English when l
49
occurs before a consonant as in “help” /help/ or before a pause as in “hill” . It never occurs before a
vowel sound.
 Devoiced [l]: A devoiced sound is one which would normally be expected to be voiced but which is
pronounced without voice in a particular context: for example, the /l/ in “blade” /is usually voiced,
but in “played” // the /l/ is usually voiceless because of the preceding voiceless plosive. Devoiced /l/
occurs when it follows /p/ or /k/ at the beginning of a stressed syllable. So it is produced without the voicing
normally found in most realisation of this phoneme.
Approximant
This is a phonetic term of comparatively recent origin. It is used to denote a consonant which makes very little
obstruction to the airflow. “It is a sound in the production of which the articulators approach each other but do not
get sufficiently close to each other to produce a “complete” consonant such as a plosive, nasal or fricative”
Traditionally these consonants have been divided into two groups: “semi vowels/semi consonants” such as
the /w/ in “wet” /wet/ and /j/ in “yet” From the PHONETIC point of view, they are like vowels sounds. The
articulation of /j/ is practically the same as /i:/, but it is very short. In the same way, /w/ is practically similar to
/u:/. And from the PHONOLOGICAL point of view, they are like consonants. If we consider distribution,  and
can occur initially and medially.
The second group is the “liquids”, sounds which have an identifiable constriction of the airflow but not one
that is sufficiently obstructive to produce fricative noise, compression or the diversion of airflow through another
part of the vocal tract as in nasals. This category includes laterals such as /l/ in “lead” and non-fricative
r in “read” /ri:d/. Approximants therefore are never fricative and never contain interruptions to the flow of air. /r/
sound can occur in all positions.
/w/ bilabial /j/ palatal /r/ palato-alveolar – voiced
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Most consonant sounds have a COUNTERPART. Because they share the same
characteristics (MANNER and POINT of articulation) except that one is fortis and the other
one is lenis (VOICING)
COUNTERPARTS
LENIS (vd) FORTIS (vl)

/b/ /p/
/d/ /t/
/g/ /k/
/z/ /s/
/d/ /t/
// //
/v/ /f/
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UNIT III: PRACTICE
Characteristics of Consonant Sounds
A. Decide which consonants are represented in the different diagrams:
.................................. .................................... .................................... ..................................
.................................. .................................... .................................... ..................................
52
B. Complete the table of English Consonants.
PLACE BILABIAL LABIO- DENTAL ALVEOLAR PALATO- PALATAL VELAR GLOTTAL RETROFLEX
DENTAL ALVEOLAR
MANNER
PLOSIVE
AFFRICATE
FRICATIVE
NASAL
LATERAL
APPROXIMANT
C. Find practice on English consonant sounds contrast in English Pronunciation in Use – Elementary
by Jonathan Marks.
53
UNIT IV: PHONEMES AND

THEIR VARIANTS
CONTENTS: The meaningful units. The phoneme theory. Minimal pairs.
Allophones. Syllable structure. Phonetic opposition in initial, medial and
final positions.
Phoneme and Allophone: Introduction

Linguistic units which cannot be substituted for each other without a change in meaning can be referred to as
linguistically contrastive or significant units. Such units may be phonological, morphological, syntactic,
semantic etc. Phonologically, this takes the form:
eg. of sound  in context gives meaning "cat", and if sound  in context gives meaning
"mat". Then sound  and sound 
belong to separate linguistic units.
Phonemes
Phonemes are the linguistically
contrastive or significant sounds (or sets of
“Minimal Pairs are words in
sounds) of a language. Such a contrast is which all the sounds or
usually demonstrated by the existence of phonemes are the same
except for one. They show
minimal pairs or contrast in identical that a change in a phoneme
environment (C.I.E.). Minimal pairs are implies a change in
meaning.”
pairs of words which vary only by the hat /ht/ heart /ht/
identity of the segment (another word for a bit /bt/ beat /bt/
single speech sound) at a single location in van  fan 
the word (eg.  and ). If two

segments contrast in identical environment
then they must belong to different
54
phonemes.
Allophones
Allophones are the linguistically non-significant variants of each phoneme. In other words a phoneme may be
realised by more than one speech sound and the selection of each variant is usually conditioned by the phonetic
environment of the phoneme. Occasionally, allophone selection is not conditioned but may vary from person to
person and occasion to occasion (i.e. free variation).
A phoneme is a set of allophones or individual non-contrastive speech segments. Allophones are sounds,
whilst a phoneme is a set of such sounds. Allophones are usually relatively similar sounds which are in mutually
exclusive or complementary distribution (C.D.). The C.D. of two phonemes means that the two phonemes
can never be found in the same environment (i.e. the same environment in the senses of position in the word
and the identity of adjacent phonemes). If two sounds are phonetically similar and they are in C.D. then they can
be assumed to be allophones of the same phoneme.
In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds (or phones) used to pronounce
a single phoneme. For example, [p] (as in pin) and [p] (as in spin) are allophones for the phoneme /p/ in the
English language. Although a phoneme's allophones are all alternative pronunciations for a phoneme, the
specific allophone selected in a given situation is often predictable. Changing the allophone used by native
speakers for a given phoneme in a specific context usually will not change the meaning of a word but the result
may sound non-native or unintelligible. Native speakers of a given language usually perceive one phoneme in
their language as a single distinctive sound in that language and are "both unaware of and even shocked by" the
allophone variations used to pronounce single phonemes.
55
Complementary and free-variant allophones
Every time a speech sound is produced for a given phoneme, it will be slightly different from other utterances,
even for the same speaker. This has led to some debate over how real, and how universal, phonemes really are.
Only some of the variation is significant (i.e., detectable or perceivable) to speakers. There are two types of
allophones, based on whether a phoneme must be pronounced using a specific allophone in a specific situation,
or whether the speaker has freedom to (unconsciously) choose which allophone he or she will use.
When a specific allophone (from a set of allophones that correspond to a phoneme) must be selected in a
given context (i.e. using a different allophone for a phoneme will cause confusion or make the speaker sound
non-native), the allophones are said to be complementary (i.e. the allophones complement each other, and one
is not used in a situation where the usage of another is standard). In the case of complementary allophones,
each allophone is used in a specific phonetic context and may be involved in a phonological process.
In other cases, the speaker is able to select freely from free variant allophones, based on personal habit or
preference.
Examples in English.
For example,  as in pin and  as in spin are allophones for the phoneme  in the English language
because they cannot distinguish words (in fact, they occur in complementary distribution). English speakers treat
them as the same sound, but they are different: the first is aspirated and the second is unaspirated (plain). Plain
 also occurs as the p in cap , or the second p in paper .
There are many other allophonic processes in English, like lack of plosion, nasal plosion, partial devoicing of
sonorants (1), complete devoicing of sonorants, partial devoicing of obstruents (2), lengthening and shortening
vowels, and retraction.
 Aspiration – strong explosion of breath. In English a voiceless plosive that is /p, t, k/ is

aspirated whenever it stands as the only consonant at the beginning of the stressed syllable
or of the first, stressed or unstressed, syllable in a word.
 Nasal plosion – In English a plosive (/p, t, k, b, d, /) has nasal plosion when it is
followed by a nasal, inside a word or across word boundary.
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 Partial devoicing of sonorants – In English sonorants (/j, w, l, r, m, n, ŋ/) are partially

devoiced when they follow a voiceless sound within the same syllable.
 Complete devoicing of sonorants – In English a sonorant is completely devoiced when it
follows an aspirated plosive (/p, t, k/).
 Partial devoicing of obstruents – In English, a voiced obstruent is partially devoiced next
to a pause or next to a voiceless sound, inside a word or across its boundary.
 Retraction – in English /t, d, n, l/ are retracted before /r/.
Because the choice of allophone is seldom under conscious control, people may not realize they exist.
English speakers may be unaware of the differences among six allophones of the phoneme /t/, namely
unreleased  as in cat, aspirated  as in top, glottalized  as in button, flapped  as in American
English water, nasalized flapped as in winter, and none of the above [t] as in stop.
Allophones of English /l/ may be noticed if the 'light' or clear [l] of leaf  is contrasted with the 'dark'
 of feel 
(1) a sonorant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the
manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels are sonorants, as are consonants
like /m/ and /l/: approximants, nasals, taps, and trills. In the sonority hierarchy, all sounds higher than fricatives are
sonorants. They can therefore form the nucleus of a syllable in languages that place that distinction at that level of
sonority.
(2) An obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing airflow, causing increased air pressure in the vocal tract, such
as [k], [dʒ], and [f]. Obstruents are those articulations in which there is closure of the vocal tract, stopping or interfering
with airflow. They are subdivided into stops p, t, k, b, d, g, with complete occlusion of the vocal tract, often followed by a
release burst; fricatives, with limited closure, not stopping airflow but interfering with it and making it turbulent,
called frication; and affricates, which begin with complete occlusion but then release into a fricative-like release.
Obstruents are prototypically voiceless, though voiced obstruents are common. This contrasts with sonorants, which are
much more rarely voiceless.
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The English Syllable
The syllable is a very important unit. Most people seem to believe that, even if they cannot define what a
syllable is they can count how many syllables there are in a given word or sentence. If they are asked to do this
they often tap their finger as they count, which illustrates the syllable’s importance in the rhythm of speech. As a
matter of fact, if one tries the experiment of asking English speakers to count the syllables in a tape recorded-
sentence , there is often a cansiderable amount of disagreement.
The nature of syllable
Syllables may be defined both, phonetically and phonologically. Phonetically ( in relation to the way we
produce them and the way they sound). Syllables are usually described as consisting of a centre which has little
or no obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud; before and after this centre (that is, at the
beginning and end of the syllable), there will be greater obstruction to airflow and/or less loud sound. For
example:
a) A minimal syllable would be a single vowel in asolation, e.g. “are” /:/, “or” /:/. These are
preceded and followed by a silence. Isolated sounds such as // to ask for silence must also
be regarded as a syllable.
b) Some syllables have an onset (they have more then just silence preceding the centre of the
syllable) e.g. “bar” /b:/, “key” /k:/. “more” /m:/
c) Syllables may have no onset but have a coda; e.g. “am” /æm/, “ought” /:t/, “ease” /:z/
d) Some syllables have onset and coda, e.g. “run” /rn/, “sat” /sæt/, “fill” /f/.
58
The syllable structure may be represented graphically by means of a “tree diagram”
ENGLISH SYLLABLE
RHYME
ONSET PEAK CODA

(O) (nucleus) (Co)

In the monosyllable (one-syllable word) “cat” , the vowel  is the “centre” at which little obstruction
takes place, whereas we have complete obstruction to the airflow by the surrounding plosives /k/and /t/.
There are problems with the phonetics description of the syllable, particularly in the matter of deciding on the
division between syllables. We will look at two words that are good examples of this difficulty. Most English
speakers feel that the word going /consists of two syllables, presumably we can decide that the // in the
middle is the dividing point between the two syllables, since the articulation is slightly closer to obstracting airflow
than the vowel next to it. This still leaves uanswered the question of whether the // belongs to the first or to the
second syllable, of course we know the // is part of the // diphthong phoneme but this is a part of phonology,
not of phonetic structure of the syllable. Another difficult case is the word extra /e/. One problem is that by
same definitions, the /s/ in the middle, between /k/ and /t/ would be counted as a syllable, which most English
speakers would reject. They feel that the word has two syllables. The opinions usually differ as to whether the
two syllables are to be divided; the possibilities are:


Usually, the second or third possibilities are chosen.
59
Looking at the syllables from the phonological point of view is quite different. What this involves is looking at
the possible combinations of English phonemes. It is simplest to start by looking at what can occur in initial
position, that is to say what can occur at the beginning of the first word when we begin to speak after a pause.
We find that a word can begin with a vowel, or with one, two ar three consonants. In the same way, we can look
at how a word ends when it is the last word spoken before a pause; it can end with a vowel, or with one, two or
three or (in a small number of cases) four consonants.
Ex.
Spry Texts 
C3 C4
Each syllable contains exactly one vowel. This vowel may be preceded or followed by one or more
consonants. The vowel itself may be a short vowel, a long vowel, or a diphthong. Nevertheless, in certain
circumstances in English, a consonant can constitute the centre (or peak) of a syllable instead of a vowel. In this
case, either /l/, /r/ or a nasal (), stand as the centre of the syllable instead of a vowel. A consonant
that stands as the centre of the syllable instead of a vowel is called SYLLABIC CONSONANT. The IPA provides
a special diacritic ( ) to show syllabicity.
Examples:
o Suddenly  

o Distant  
o Middle  
The structure of the syllable in English
If the first element of a syllable of a word begins with a vowel (// is rare) we say that this initial syllable has
zero onset. If the syllable begins with one consonant, that initial consonant may be any consonant phoneme
except //, //. When we have two or more consonants together we call them cluster. Sometimes we can find
several consonant phonemes in a sequence, with no vowel sound between them for example, the word ‘stray’
 begins with three consonants, and ‘sixths’  ends with four. Sequences of two or more
consonants within the same syllable are often called consonant clusters. It is not usual to refer to sequences of
vowels as vowel clusters.
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Initial two-consonant clusters are of two sorts in English. One sort of composed of /s/ followed by one of a
small set of consonants, e.g. sting /st/, sway /swe/, smoke /smk/. The /s/ in this clusters is called the
pre-initial consonant, and the other consonant t, w, m the initial consonants. Look at table 1 for this clusters.
TABLE 1
The other sort begins with a set of fifteen consonants, followed by one of the set of  for example play
, try , quick , few . We call the first consonant in these clusters the initial consonant ant the
second consonant the post-initial. There are some restrictions thst are shown on table 2.
TABLE 2
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When we look at three-consonant clusters, we can recognise a clear relationship between them and the two
sorts of two-consonant clusters described above. Examples of three consonant initial clusters are split /splt/,
stream /str:m/, square /skwea/. The s is the pre-initial consonant, the p, t and k that follow s in the three
examples above are the initial consonant and the l, r and w are post-initial. The number of possible initial three
consonant clusters is small and they can be set up in full ( words given in spelling form):
Studying the final consonant clusters we find the possibility of up to four consonant at the end of a word. If
there is no final consonant we say that there is a zero coda. When there is one consonant only, this is called the
final consonant. Any consonant may be a final consonant except h, r, w,j. There are two sorts of two-consonant
final cluster. One being a final consonant preceded by a pre-final consonant, and the other a final consonant
followed by a post- final consonant. The pre-final consonant form a small set m, n, ŋ, l, s. We can see this in
bump /bmp/, bent /bent/, bank /bæk/, belt /belt/, ask /:sk/. The post final consonant also form a small set : s,
z, t, d, ; e.g. bets /bets/, beds /bedz/, backed /bækt/, bagged /bægd/, eighth /et/. These post-final consonant
can often be identified as separate morphemes.
There are two types of final three-consonant cluster; the first is pre-final plus final plus post-final. A clear
example of this can be seen in the following chart:
The second type shows that more than one post-final consonant can occur in a final cluster: final plus post
final 1 plus post final 2. Post final 2 is one of s, z, t, d, .
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Most four-consonant clusters can be analysed as consisting of a final consonant preceded by a pre-inal and
followed by a post final 1 and post final 2:
A small number of cases seem to require a different analysis, as consisting of a final consonant with no pre-
final, but three post-finals:
To sum up we may describe the English syllable as having the following maximum Phonological structure:
There must be a vowel in the centre of the syllable. There is a special case that of syllabic consonant, that is
not going to be analysed now.
Exercises
A. Using the structure of the example given bellow, analyse the structure of the following one-syllable English
words.
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UNIT V: PROCESSES OF
CONNECTED SPEECH
CONTENTS: Connected speech. Features of spoken English: linking
features, assimilation, elision, compression, neutralization. Gradation: weak
and strong forms.
Processes of Connected Speech

Speech would be much easier to understand if it was spoken with a gap between every word. Babies and
profoundly deaf people are often spoken to in this way, and until recently computers that can recognise speech
also required this. But in natural speech there are few gaps, and we can observe many processes that result in
differences between isolated words and the same words occurring in connected speech.
The study of connected speech also involves looking at the process of reduction in weak syllables, at rhythm
and at prosodic phenomena such as intonation and stress. When we speak naturally we do not pronounce a
word, stop, and then say the next word in the sentence. Fluent speech flows with a rhythm and the words bump
into each other. To make speech flow smoothly the way we pronounce the end and beginning of some words
can change depending on the sounds at the beginning and end of those words. These changes that affect the
quality of sounds are described as features of connected speech.
Assimilation
Assimilation is a common phonological process by which one sound is influenced by a neighbouring sound.
This can occur either within a word or between words. Assimilation is something that varies in extent according
to speaking rate and style; it is more likely to be found in rapid, casual speech and less likely in slow, careful
speech. Sometimes the difference caused by assimilation is very noticeable, and sometimes it is very slight.
Generally speaking, the cases that have most often been described are assimilations affecting consonants.
Assimilation can be divided into progressive or regressive. On the one hand, assimilation is said to be
progressive when a sound influences the voicing of its following phoneme.
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 Realization of Plural Morpheme:
 If the noun ends in a voiceless sound, the plural form is realised as a voiceless sound
too.
o students/stju:dnts/
 If the noun ends in a voiced sound, the plural form is realised as a voiced sound too.
o days/de/
 Although it is not considered assimilation, for cases in which we form

the plural adding “-es” in spelling: -x, -ch, -sh, -ss; +-es (plural). The
plural is always realized as .
o coach 
o edge 
o mix 
But if the noun ends in “-o” in spelling, the plural is always realized as /z/
 Realization of Past Morpheme (regular verbs):
 If the verb ends in a voiced sound, the past morpheme is realised as a voiced sound too
/d/
o listened /
 If the verb ends in a voiceless sound, the past morpheme is realised as a voiceless
sound too /t/
o watched /
 Although it is not considered assimilation, for cases in which the word

ends in an alveolar sound /t/ or /d/, we add an extra syllable 
o load  - loaded 
o want  - wanted
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 Realization of the Genitive Morpheme (possessive case)
 If the noun ends in a voiced sound, the genitive morpheme is realised as a voiced sound
too.
o Ann’s house //
 If the noun ends in a voiceless sound, the genitive morpheme is realised as a voiceless
sound too.
o Matt’s car //
Although it is not considered assimilation, for cases in which the last

phoneme of the noun ends in  or , we add an extra syllable 
o Marge’s not going with us 
o George's house is next to mine /
 Realization of the Weakest for of “IS” and “HAS”
 If the noun ends in a voiced sound, the weakest form of the verb “is” or “has” is realised as
a voiced sound too.
o Mum’s been here//
 If the noun ends in a voiceless sound, the weakest form of the verb “is” or “has” is realised
as a voiceless sound too.
o Matt’s a student /stju:dnt/
 Assimilation of voice is also found, but only in a limited way. This kind of assimilation is restricted to
some obligatory or established cases. In these cases, assimilation is said to be regressive or anticipatory
because a sound influences a preceding sound or phoneme.
o Newspaper  becomes 
o Of course  becomes 
o Used to  becomes /
o Have to  becomes 
66
The feature which is borrowed is voiceless. Thus /v/ becomes /f/ or /z/
becomes /s/ because the following sound is a voiceless plosive (/p, t, k/) or
a sibilant consonant. This sort of voicing assimilation only affects /v/ and
/z/. Assimilation of voiceless to voiced sounds does not occur in present
day RP English.
 Coalescent Assimilation or Yod Coalescence. Yod is the name of the smallest letter in the Hebrew
alphabet, it stands for the vowel /i:/ or the semi-vowel /j/. In English phonetics Yod coalescence is a form of
assimilation. It is a process in which two phonemes merge into one and a new phoneme is formed. The
alveolar plosive /t/ or /d/ may merge with a following palatal approximant /j/ to become post-alveolar
affricates,  and respectively.
o Did you becomes

o would youbecomes


o don’t youbecomes
o about youbecomes
In a similar way /s/ + /j/, and /z/ + /j/ can sometimes be pronounced as /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ respectively, but this is
less common and not of great interest to the foreign student of English.
Yod coalescence is common in colloquial speech and is becoming ever more so. Note that it can occur within
words, for example “tube” =  and between word boundaries. The fact that two extremely
recurrent words in English, you and your, start with /j/ means that understanding of this simple mechanism is
vital to the understanding of spoken English. Do you is often pronounced as or most commonly

67
As we have studied, the main differences between consonants are of three types: differences in place of
articulation; manner of articulation and voicing. In parallel with this, we can also identify assimilation of place,
and manner of articulation.
 Assimilation of place is most clearly observable in some cases where the final consonant with alveolar
place of articulation (/t, d/) is followed by an initial consonant with a place of articulation that is not alveolar.
For example:
o The final consonant in “that” // is alveolar /t/. In rapid, casual speech the /t/ will become /p/
before a bilabial consonant, as in “that person” //; “light blue” ; “meat
pie” 
o Before a dental consonant, /t/ will change to a dental plosive, for which the symbol is //, as in
“that thing” /; get those ; cut through 
o Before a velar consonant, the /t/ will become /k/, as in “that case” ; “bright colour”
; quite good . In similar contexts /d/ would become and
 respectively, and would become / and However, the same is not true of the
other alveolar consonants and behave differently, the only noticeable change being that
/s/ becomes //, and /z/ becomes // when followed by // or /j/, as in “this shop” /ðɪʃ ʃɒp /;
“those years” 
It is important to note that the consonants that have undergone assimilation have not disappeared; in the
above examples, the duration of the consonants remains more or less what one would expect for a two-
consonant cluster. Assimilation of place is only noticeable in this regressive assimilation of alveolar consonants.
 Assimilation of manner of articulation is much less noticeable, and is only found in the most rapid and
casual speech; generally speaking, the tendency is again for regressive assimilation and the change in
manner is most likely to be towards an “easier” consonant – one which makes less obstruction to the airflow.
It is thus possible to find cases where a final plosive becomes a fricative or nasal. For example;
o “that side” 

o “good night” 
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But most unlikely that a final fricative or nasal would become a plosive. In one particular case we find
progressive assimilation of manner, when a word-initial // follows a plosive or nasal at the end of a
preceding word: it is very common to find that the initial consonant becomes identical in manner to the final
consonant but with dental place of articulation. For example;
o “in the”  becomes 

o “get them”  becomes 
o “read these”  becomes 
Elision
Some of the sounds that are heard if words

are pronounced slowly and clearly appear not to
be pronounced when the same words are “It is a process in which a
produced in a rapid, colloquial style, or when phoneme is omitted or realized as
the words occur in a different context; these zero in specific contexts”
"missing sounds" are said to have been elided.

It is easy to find examples of elision, but very
difficult to state rules that govern which sounds
may be elided and which may not.
Elision of vowels in English usually happens
when a short, unstressed vowel occurs between voiceless consonants, e.g. in the first syllable of 'perhaps',
'potato', the second syllable of 'bicycle', or the third syllable of 'philosophy'. In some cases we find a weak
voiceless sound in place of the normally voiced vowel that would have been expected. Elision also occurs when
a vowel occurs between an obstruent consonant and a sonorant consonant such as a nasal or a lateral: this
process leads to syllabic consonants, as in 'sudden' , 'awful' / (where a vowel is only heard in the
second syllable in slow, careful speech).
Elision of consonants in English happens most commonly when a speaker "simplifies" a complex consonant
cluster: 'acts' becomes  rather than , 'twelfth night' becomes  or  rather than
It seems much less likely that any of the other consonants could be left out: the  and the 
seem to be unelidable.
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It is very important to note that sounds do not simply "disappear" like a light being switched off. A transcription
such as  for 'acts' implies that the  phoneme has dropped out altogether, but detailed examination of
speech shows that such effects are more gradual: in slow speech the  may be fully pronounced, with an
audible transition from the preceding and to the following while in a more rapid style it may be articulated
but not given any audible realisation, and in very rapid speech it may be observable, if at all, only as a rather
early movement of the tongue blade towards the /s/ position. Much more research in this area is needed (not
only on English) for us to understand what processes are involved when speech is "reduced" in rapid
articulation.
o Written //
o Terrible /l/
o about him//
Linking “r”
"Linking" or "joining together" sounds is

The phoneme // can not occur in final position in a syllable in
what the French word “liaison” refers to.
RP; but when a word’s spelling contains a final “r” and a word
In general, this is not something that beginning with a vowel follows; the usual pronunciation for RP
speakers need to do anything active about speakers is to pronounce // to link the two words.
- we produce the phonemes that belong to Examples:
the words we are using in a more or less • for a few days //
continuous stream, and the listener • a year ago 
recognises them (or most of them) and

receives the message. However, phoneticians have felt it necessary in some cases to draw attention to the
way the end of one word is joined on to the beginning of the following word. In English the best-known case of
liaison is the "linking r": there are many words in English (e.g. 'car', 'here', 'tyre') which in a rhotic accent such
as General American or Scots would be pronounced with a final /r/ but which in BBC pronunciation end in a
vowel when they are pronounced before a pause or before a consonant. When they are followed by a vowel,
BBC speakers pronounce /r/ at the end (e.g. 'the car is' //) - it is said that this is done to link the
words without sliding the two vowels together (though it is difficult to see how such a statement could stand as
an explanation of the phenomenon - lots of languages do run vowels together). Another aspect of liaison in
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English is the movement of a single consonant at the end of an unstressed word to the beginning of the next if
that is strongly stressed: a well-known example is 'not at all', where the /t/ of 'at' becomes initial (and
therefore strongly aspirated) in the final syllable for many speakers.
 Read “English Phonetics and Phonology” by Peter Roach (Chapter 14: Assimilation, Elision and Linking)
Compression
1. Sometimes a sequence of sounds has two possible pronunciations: either as two separate syllables, or
compressed into a single syllable. Possible compressions are shown in dictionaries by the symbol 
between the syllables affected.
 diagram two pronunciations are possible: a slower one with three syllables
, and a faster one with two syllables ;
 maddening  two pronunciations are possible: a slower one with three syllables,
, and a faster one with two syllables, 

2. Generally the uncompressed version is more usual
 in rare words,
 in slow or deliberate speech,
 the first time a word in a given discourse.
The compressed version is more usual

 In frequently used words,
 In fast or casual speech,
 If the word has already been used in the discourse.
3. When a syllable is compressed, one of the following phonetic changes takes place:
A weak vowel /i/ or /u/ is changed into the corresponding semivowel, /j/ and /w/, producing a combination
with the following vowel a crescendo DIPHTHONG.
o influence (=  or )
 A syllabic consonant is changed into a plain non-syllabic consonant.

o doubling  (=  or )
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 A long vowel or diphthong changed: /i:/ becomes , becomes , and a diphthong loses
its second element, so that  and  become .
o Agreeable (=  or )
o Scientist  (= or )
o Nowadays  (= or )
4. In the case of two potential syllabic consonants, it is always the one before the mark  that can lose its
syllabicity through compression.
 national  (= or )
 liberal  (= or )
5. Sometimes a pronunciation that was originally the result of compression has become the only possibility.
For example, the comparative of simple  might be expected to be simpler 
(three syllables). In fact it is always (two syllables). There are also words where
speakers differ: most people always pronounce factory  with two syllables. But few may
sometimes say it with three, .
Neutralization

In its simple form, the theory of the phoneme implies that two sounds that are in opposition to each other (e.g.
/t/ and /d/ in English) are in this relationship in all contexts throughout the language. Closer study of phonemes
has, however, shown that there are some contexts where the opposition no longer functions: for example, in a
word like 'still' /stl/, the /t/ is in a position (following /s/ and preceding a vowel) where voiced (lenis) plosives
do not occur. There is no possibility in English of the existence of a pair of words such as /stl/ and /sdl/, so in
this context the opposition between /t/ and /d/ is neutralised. One consequence of this is that one could equally
well claim that the plosive in this word is a /d/, not a /t/.
 Read Neutralization, read “Gimson’s Pronunciation of English”
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UNIT V: PRACTICE
Processes of Connected Speech

Transcription Practice:
A. Read and transcribe the sentences them applying all the processes you have studied.
1. A is an Astronaut, who flies to the moon.

2. B is Big Ben, about to strike noon.
3. C is a Century, just one hundred years.
4. D is a Doctor, who examines my ears.
5. E is an Emu, the largest of birds.
6. F is a Farmer, who keeps flocks and herds.
7. G is a Grounds man, in charge of the pitch.
8. H is an Heiress, whose father’s quite rich.
9. I is an Island, New Zealand’s got two.
10. J is a Jaguar, that’s seen in the Zoo.
11. K is a King, the first in the land.
12. L is a Lion whose mane’s long and grand.
13. M is a Miser, who hoards all his money.
14. N is a Nephew, who eats his aunt’s honey.
15. O is an Orphan, whose parents are dead.
16. P is a Pilot, in the plane overhead.
17. Q is a Quack, or doctor unskilled
18. R is a River, which the rain has now filled
19. S is a Soldier, who’s gallant and loyal.
20. T is a Tanker, which brings us our oil.
21. U is an Urchin, a mischievous boy.
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22. V is a Vandal, who likes to destroy.

23. W is a Wind, that blows open the door.
24. X is Expensive, and now we’re poor.
25. Y is a Question, meaning also “What for?”
26. Z is a Zero, so expect nothing more.
B. Read the following passages and transcribe them applying all the processes you have studied.
PASSAGE Nº 1:
“I saw Fred the other day. I must say he’s gained a lot of weight, hasn’t he? He looks so different from the last time I
saw him a year ago that I hardly recognised him. Have you seen him recently? Well, apart from looking fat, he
seems quite well.”
PASSAGE Nº 2:
“In cities throughout the country, there is a new direction in local campaign coverage. Frequently in local elections,
journalists are not giving voters enough information to understand the issues and evaluate the candidates. The local
news media devotes too much time to scandal and not enough time to policy.”
PASSAGE Nº 3:
“Before you begin to compose a business letter, sit down and think about your purpose in writing the letter. Do you
want to request information, order a product, register a complaint, or apply for something? Do some brainstorming
and gather information before you begin writing. Always keep your objective in mind.”
C. Transcribe applying the process of liaison.
o far The house is far away 
o near ____________ She is near enough so as to see us _________________________________

o there ____________ There on the floor ____________________________________________
o floor ____________ next floor up ______________________________________________
o car ____________ The car is at the police station ____________________________________
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o ever ____________ They lived happily ever after ______________________________________

o more ____________ There are more examples in the book _____________________________
D. Transcribe the following sentences using coalescent assimilation, then listen and check.
1. What you need? _____________________________

2. The ball that you brought. _____________________________
3. But use your head! _____________________________
4. Last year _____________________________
5. Could you help me? _____________________________
6. Would yours work? _____________________________
7. She had university students _____________________________
8. Do you live here? _____________________________
9. What you need is a good job! _____________________________
10. You told me that you had your homework done. _____________________________
11. She didn’t go to France that year. _____________________________
12. Could you open the window please? _____________________________
13. You’ve already had yours! _____________________________
Go into the website and listen to the sentences from exercise D:

http://davidbrett.uniss.it/phonology/notes%20and%20exercises/yod%20coal/yod_coalescence.htm
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1. Listen to the song “Fix You” by Coldplay.

2. Listen again and try to identify the processes of Coalescent Assimilation and
Levelling that the singer has applied.
FIX YOU by Coldplay

COLDPLAY
When you try your best, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need Coldplay is a British alternative
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep rock band formed in 1996 by lead
Stuck in reverse vocalist Chris Martin and lead
When the tears come streaming down your face guitarist Jonny Buckland at University
When you lose something you can't replace College London. They achieved worldwide
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
fame with the release of the single "Yellow"
Could it be worse?
in 2000, followed by their debut album
Lights will guide you home released in the same year, Parachutes. The
And ignite your bones
band has won a number of music
And I will try to fix you
awards throughout their career, including
And high up above or down below eight Brit Awards—winning Best British
When you're too in love to let it go
Group three times, five MTV Video Music
If you never try, then you'll never know
Just what you're worth Awards, and seven Grammy Awards from
twenty five nominations. Coldplay have been
Lights will guide you home
an active supporter of various social and
And I will try to fix you political causes.
Tears stream down your face

When you lose something you cannot replace
And I...

I promise you that I'll learn from my mistakes
And I...
Lights will guide you home

And I will try to fix you
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Read “An Ode of English Plurals” and do the suggested activities in class.
An Ode of English Plurals
We begin with a box, and the plural is boxes, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes. Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese, but not one amend.
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese. If you have a bunch of odds and ends and
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice, get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If the plural of man is always called men, If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen? humanitarian eat?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet, Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet? speaking English
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth, should be committed to an asylum for the verbally
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth? insane.
Then one may be that, and three would be those, In what other language do people recite at a play
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose, and play at a recital?
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose. We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren, We have noses that run and feet that smell.
But though we say mother, we never say methren. We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him, And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim! the same,
Let's face it - English is a crazy language. while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple. You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a
English muffins weren't invented in England. language
We take English for granted, but if we explore its in which your house can burn up as it burns down,
paradoxes, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and
we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing in which an alarm goes off by going on.
rings are square,
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a And in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother's
pig. not Mop?
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
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UNIT VI: WORD STRESS AND SENTENCE

ACCENT
CONTENTS: Prominence and word stress. Sentences stress:
general principles. Brief concept of rhythm. Basic intonation
patterns.
Stress
When we speak, we give more emphasis to some parts of an utterance than to others. We can make a
syllable stand out with respect to its neighbouring syllables in a word, and some words stand out with respect to
the rest of the words in an utterance. Let us consider those elements that produce prominence at syllable level:
pitch, quality, quantity and stress.
Everyone would agree that the first syllable in “father”, “open”, “camera” is stressed that the middle syllable is
stressed in “potato”, “apartment”, “relation”; and the final syllable is stressed in “about”, “receive”, “perhaps”; and
most people feel they have some sort of idea of what the difference is between stressed and unstressed
syllable. We will mark a stress in a transcription by placing a small vertical line ‘high up, just before the syllable it
relates to; the words quoted above will be transcribed as follow:
/f:/ /p’tet/ /’bt/
/pn/ /’p:tmnt/ /r’s:v/
/kmr/ /r’len/ /p’hps/
Characteristics of a stress syllable
There are two different ways of explaining this: one being to consider what the speaker does in producing
stress syllables, and the other being to consider what characteristics of sound make a syllable seem to a listener
to be stressed. The production of stress is generally believed to depend on the speaker using more muscular
energy than is used for unstressed syllables. There are many sound characteristics important in making a
syllable recognisably stressed. From the perceptual point of view, all stressed syllables have one characteristic
78
in common, and that is prominence; stressed syllables are recognised as stressed because they are more
prominent than unstressed syllables. At least four different factors make a syllable prominent:
- Stressed syllable are louder than unstressed syllables

- The length of a syllable has an important role in prominence. If a syllable in a word is made longer than the
others, there is a tendency to be perceived as prominent.
- If a syllable in word is said with a pitch different from the others, this will have the strong tendency to produce
the effect of prominence.
- A syllable tends to be prominent if it contains a vowel different in quality from neighbouring vowels.
 Read “English Phonetics and Phonology” by Peter Roach (Chapter 10: Stress in Simple Words)
Rhythm
The notion of rhythm involves some noticeable event happening at regular intervals of time; one can detect
the rhythm of a heart-beat, of a flashing light or of a piece of music. It has often been claimed that English
speech is rhythmical, and that the rhythm is detectable in the regular occurrence of stressed syllables; of course,
it is not suggested that the timing is as regular as a clock – the regularity of occurrence is only relative. The
theory that English has stress-timed rhythm implies that stressed syllables will tend to occur at relatively
regular intervals whether they are separated by unstressed syllables or not; this would not be the case in
“mechanical speech”. In the example below, the stressed syllables are given numbers syllables 1 and 2 are not
separated by any unstressed syllables, 2 and 3 are separated by one unstressed syllable, 3 and 4 by two and 4
and 5 by three.
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Intonation
What is Intonation?
There is confusion about intonation caused by the fact that the word is used with two different meanings: in its
more restricted sense, ‘intonation’ refers simply to the variations in the pitch of a speaker’s voice used to convey
or alter meaning, but in its broader and more popular sense it is used to cover much the same field as ‘prosody’,
where variations in such things as voice quality, tempo and loudness are included. It is, regrettably, common to
find in pronunciation teaching materials accounts of intonation that describe only pitch movements and levels,
and then claim that a wide range of emotions and attitudes are signalled by means of these pitch phenomena.
There is in fact very little evidence that pitch movements alone are effective in doing signalling of this type.
It is certainly possible to analyse pitch movements (or their acoustic counterpart, fundamental frequency) and
find regular patterns that can be described and tabulated. Many attempts have been made at establishing
descriptive frameworks for stating these regularities. Some analysts look for an underlying basic pitch melody (or
for a small number of them) and then describe the factors that cause deviations from these basic melodies;
others have tried to break down pitch patterns into small constituent units such as “pitch phonemes” and “pitch
morphemes”, while the approach most widely used in Britain takes the tone-unit as its basic unit and looks at the
different pitch possibilities of the various components of the tone unit (the pre-head, head, tonic syllable/nucleus
and tail).
As mentioned above, intonation is said to convey emotions and attitudes. Other linguistic functions have also
been claimed: interesting relationships exist in English between intonation and grammar, for example: in a few
extreme cases a perceived difference in grammatical meaning may depend on the pitch movement, as in the
following example:
She didn’t go because of her  timetable and She didn’t go ¦ because of her timetable
(she did go, but it was not because of her timetable) (she didn’t go, the reason being her timetable).
Basic intonation patterns
Stress on important words.
Stressed words convey most of the information. Stressed syllables occur at regular intervals, with unstressed
syllables fitting in between. Stress and intonation are closely linked.
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Statements: ()
We use a falling tone on complete, definite statements. The pitch of the voice goes down. Falling tone is the
most common intonation pattern in English.
- I’ve gone to Paris. - She left the party early
Wh-Questions: ()
The voice often falls in questions beginning with “When, Where, Why, What, Which and How”.
- Where have you been? - Why didn’t she go to grandma’s?
Yes/No Questions: ()

The voice usually rises in questions to which the answer is “yes” or “no”
- Is she a good student? - Is there a computer?
Alternative Questions:
The speaker mentions two possible answers. The voice rises on the first alternative, and falls on the
second. The two possible answers may be single words, as above, or longer phrases.
- Does John come from Leeds or Manchester?
Question Tags ()

The speaker is certain of what he/she says. He/she expects the other person to agree with him/her. The voice
falls () on the question tag.
- It’s a nice day, isn’t it?
Question Tags ()
The speaker is not certain. He/She is asking for confirmation. The voice rises on the question tag.
- It’s Tuesday today, isn’t it?
Echo Questions ()
The speaker repeats something said by another person:
1. While he/she thinks what to reply.
A: Have we got any postcards?

B: Postcards? Yes, they are in the drawer with the envelopes.
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2. To query what the other person said, ask for further explanation.
A: Every cook should have a computer.

B: A computer?
A: Yes, to keep a record of menus and recipes.
3. Because he/she did not hear or understand or believe what was said.
A: The new manager is coming tomorrow. His name is Steve.
B: What’s his name?
Correcting ()
1. The voice falls on the correct word, to emphasise it.
A: Her birthday is on the tenth of December.

B No, it’s on the fifth of December.
2. The voice falls and rises on the incorrect information, then falls on the correct information, to emphasise it.
- Her birthday isn’t the tenth of December. It’s the fifth.
Listing
The voice rises on each item of the list, until the final one, where it falls.
- She bought some potatoes, some peas, and some peaches.
Polite rise ()
Because a rise sounds less definite than a fall, it can be used to sound polite, especially when beginning a
conversation. It is common when answering the phone.
- Cavendish Manufacturing Company.
Yes/No short answers ()
The voice often falls on “yes”, which could be a complete answer, and also on “it was”, which is also a
complete, definite statement. The speaker often goes on to give a more detailed answer, also with a fall.
Yes, it was
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USEFUL WEB-SITES:
o English Phonetics and Phonology I wiki:

http://englishphoneticsandphonologyi.pbworks.com
o Practice for vowel and consonant sounds:

http://www.englishaccentcoach.com/tour.aspx?sp=4
o Peter Roach’s Glossary:

http://www.cambridge.org/other_files/cms/PeterRoach/PeterRoach_Glossary.html
o Listening Practice:
http://www.examenglish.com/FCE/fcelistening.htm
http://www.esl-lab.com/
o John Wells’ Phonetic Blog:

http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com.ar/
o English with Jennifer:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0A0C8CFFE9712B76
83
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Most of the explanations and examples have been compiled from the following sources;
 O’Connor, J. D. 1999, Better English Pronunciation. New Edition. Cambridge University Press, U.K.
 Arnold, G.F. and A. C. Gimson, English Pronunciation Practice. University of London Press Limited,
London, 1968.
 Finch Diana y Ortiz Lira, Hector.1982, A Course in Phonetics for Spanish Speakers. Heinemann.
London.
 Roach, Peter, 1998. English Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
 Gimson, A.C.1980, An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English. Third Edition. Edward Arnold.,
USA.
 Baker, Ann, 1980, Ship or Sheep? Introducing English Pronunciation. Cambridge English Language
Learning. Cambridge.
 Hancock, Mark.1999, English Pronunciation in Use. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
 Marks, Jonathan. English Pronunciation in Use, Elementary. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
 Hewings, Martin, 2004. Pronunciation Practice Activities. CUP. Cambridge.
 Katamba, Francis, 1989. An Introduction to Phonology. Longman Group UK Limited.
 Wells, J. C. Pronunciation Dictionary. Longman. England. 2007.
 Roach, Peter. A Little Encyclopaedia of Phonetics.
 Ashby, Patricia. Understanding Phonetics. Series Editors: Bernard Comrie and Greville Corbett
 R.L. Trask, 1996. A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology. Routledge.
 M. Luisa Garcia Lecumberri & John A. Maidment, English Transcription Course: A Practical Course.
Hodder Arnold.
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English Phonetics and Phonology I:

Theory and Practice Booklet
Profesoras: Verónica Gargantini – Adriana Gonzalez

Equipo de Cátedra de Fonética y Fonología Inglesa

 GARGANTINI, Verónica;
 GONZALEZ, Adriana;
 GONZALEZ, Cecilia;
 NUÑEZ, Leticia;
 SOTO, Laura.
85

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Instituto Superior de Educación Docente y Técnica Nº 9-001

“Gral. José de San Martín” - Profesorado de Inglés

English Phonetics and

Profesor: Prof. Verónica Gargantini - Prof. Adriana Gonzalez

From a philosophy of pronunciation teaching as an integral part of communication it is possible to

VI. FIELD OF RELEVANCE

UNIT I: THE STUDY OF

When a message is transmitted it takes a substantial form:

Spoken language substance used phonic substance or human vocal noise

Written language substance used graphic substance or marks on a piece of paper

“A language is a system of conventional signals used for communication by a whole

“The SOUND SYSTEM OF A LANGUAGE is one of these levels of organization”

The Speech Chain

 Articulatory Phonetics: deals with speech production, i.e. the production

 Acoustic Phonetics deals with speech

 Auditory Phonetics deals with

What makes them different?

 It is descriptive and classificatory.  It is functional, concerned with the working or

The following are the elements that we must consider:

 Read pages 8 to 10 from “English Phonetics and Phonology” by Peter Roach.

The Study of Sounds of Language and their Production

I TAKE IT YOU ALREADY KNOW

I take it you already know

Beware of heard, a dreadful word

A moth is not a moth in mother,

THE CHAOS - Gerard Nolst Trenité

I will keep you, Susy, busy, Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,

Of such puzzling words as nauseous, "Solder, soldier! Blood is thicker",

Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Arsenic, specific, scenic,

Mark the difference, moreover, Say inveigh, neigh, but inveigle,

Camel, constable, unstable, And I bet you, dear, a penny,

Muscle, muscular, gaol, iron, Perseverance, severance. Ribald

Golf, wolf, countenance, lieutenants Say in sounds correct and sterling

Nor are proper names included, Thompson, Chatham, Waltham, Streatham,

No, my maiden, coy and comely, The archaic word albeit

Argil, gill, Argyll, gill. Surely Hero, heron, query, very,

Had this invalid invalid Faugh, oppugnant, keen oppugners,

Zeus, Thebes, Thales, Aphrodite, Though the difference seems little,

Pious, impious, limb, climb, glumly, Gaelic, Arabic, pacific,

Say manoeuvre, yacht and vomit, Respite, spite, consent, resent.

UNIT II: THE ENGLISH VOWEL

CONTENTS: English vowel sounds: description and classification.

What is a VOWEL sound?

the other hand, it has five long vowels /and/.

Vowel sounds can be classified into three different categories:

BACK VOWELS: because the back of the tongue is the

FRONT VOWELS: it is the front part of the tongue that is

CENTRAL VOWELS: The defining characteristic of a central

 Read pages 10 to 14 from “English Phonetics and Phonology” by Peter Roach.

What is Schwa Sound?

RP English: Short and Long Vowels.

Phonetic features Phonological features

Between the Initial position: egg //

half open spread Final position: it does not occur.

Initial position: up 

Phonetic features Phonological features

Initial position: oose 

ending in  ending in  ending in 

The centring diphthongs glide towards the // vowel.

o Distribution of CLOSING diphthongs:

Phonetic Characteristics of Front Diphthongs:

Phonetic Characteristics of Centring Diphthongs:

Differences between diphthongs and long vowels: