Lesson 1

CONSONANTS MANNER OF ARTICULATION

[A feature of the production of consonant sounds. It is specified principally in terms of the narrowness of the constriction for the production of a consonant. / When the airstream interfere in anumber of different ways (moa).]

Plosive: The airstream is completely blocked for a short time and the blockage is released rapidly so that the compressed air is blurt out of the vocal tract. OBSTRUENT / STOP Bilabial alveolar velar

Nasal: There is a complete closure in the oral cavity butthe soft palate is lowered and the air escapes through the nasal cavity. SONORANT / STOP Bilabial alveolar velar

Fricative: The vocal tract is narrowed, so when the air passes through this it becomes turbulent and produces friction noise. OBSTRUENT Labio-dental dental alveolar post-alveolar glottal

Affricate: There is a complete closure in the oral cavity. / The airstream is completely blocked, the the blockage is released more slowly than in plosives. There is friction noise. OBSTRUENT / STOP Postalveolar

Approximant : The vocal tract is narrowed, but not enough to cause turbulence, there is therefore no friction noise. SONORANT. MEDIAN APPROX: Labio-velar LATERAL APPROX: Lateral post-alveolar palata (The air escapes over the centre of the tongue)

(There is a blockage in the centre of the tongue, so the air escapes laterally)

VOICING
Voiced consonant: is one which is accompanied by vibration of the vocal folds. Eg /z/

Voiceless consonant: have no vocal fold vibration. Eg /s/

PLACE OF ARTICULATION
For all the sounds in English, the airstream travels up the windpipe (=trachea), through the voice-box (=the larynx) where the vocal folds are situated, through the parynx and then through the oral cavity or the nasal cavity (or both). By interfering with this stream of air, usually at some point within the oral cavity, is produced a speech sound. The exact point of this interference is known as the PLACE OF ARTICULATION (poa) of the sound.

BILABIAL: The two lips approach one another to interfere with the airstream. p - b - m LABIO-DENTAL: The lower lip approaches the upper front teeth. f - v DENTAL: The tip of the tongue approaches the back of the upper front teeth. -
ALVEOLAR: The tip of the tongue approaches the area just behind the upper front teeth: Alveolar ridge. t - d - n - s - z - l POST-ALVEOLAR: The tip or blade of the tongue approaches the rear part of the alveolar ridge.

- - -d -r

PALATAL: The middle part of the tongue approaches the roof of the oral cavity. j VELAR: The back part of the tongue approaches the soft palate or velum. k - g GLOTTAL: The two vocal folds in the larynx approach each other to interfere with the airstream. h There is another glottal sound known as [?]

SONORANT, OBSTRUENT AND STOP (Consonant sounds)

Refer to large classes of manners of articualtions. _ _ _ _ _ _ _: a class of sound comprising: (During the production of SONORANT sounds there is no rise of air within the vocal tract). SONORANT Nasals Approximants (both median and lateral). Vowels = (A rise in air pressure in the vocal tract). (complete closure in te oral cavity/oral vocal tract). OBSTRUENT Plosives Affricates Fricatives STOP Plosives Nasals Affricates

VOWELS monophthongs or simple vowel: a vowel sound which has a constant quality/no change of quality within the syllable. (12) (Monoththonging: the replacement of a diphthong with a monophthong. Eg tour /tu / /t /). dipthongs: a vowel sound which changes its quality. (8) 1 i: 2I 3e 4 5 6
7 8u 9 u: 10 11 3: 12

aI eI I au

I e u

VOWEL LENGHT LONG: all the diphthongs + 5 monophthongs / i: u: 3: / SHORT: the rest VOWEL FEATURES monophthongs may be classified in (1) Lip posture (2) Location (3) Height

(1) Lip posture:

ROUNDED: for the vowels / UNROUNDED: /i: I e 1 i: 2I 3e 4 5 6 7 8U 9 u: 10 11 3: 12 u u: / 3: /

ROUNDED

(2) Location:
FRONT: a vowel produced by raising the front of the tongue towards the hard palate. / I i: e / CENTRAL: the highest point of the tongue lies in an intermediate position at the junction of the hard and soft palate. / 3: / BACK: by raising the back of the tongue towards the soft palate. / u u: / 1 i: 2I 3e 4 5 6 7 8u 9 u: 10 11 3: 12

FRONT

BACK

CENTRAL

(3) Height:

CLOSE OR HIGH: when the highest point of the tongue is close to the roof of the mouth. / i: u: / MID: when the highest point of the tongue is midway between close and open. /I e u 3: / Subdividied into close-mid/mid-high: / I u / open-mid/mid-low: / / mid: / e 3: / OPEN OR LOW: there is a considerable distance between the highest point of the tongue and the roof of the mouth. / / 1 i: close 2 I close 3 e mid (%mid) 4 mid(%open mid) 5 open 6 open 7 mid (%open-mid) 8 u mid (%close-mid) 9 u: close 10 mid (open-mid) 11 3: mid (%mid) 12 mid (%mid)

Lesson 2

NEUTRALIZATION SYMBOLS (high vowels)

NEUTRALIZATION SYMBOLS of /i:/-/I/ and /u:/-/u/ is always found in UNSTRESSED SYLLABLES /i/ & /u/ Many speakers use a vowel which is intermediate between /i:/ and /I/, neither .. or ... In some circunstances the difference is becoming blurred or neutralised. So, an extra symbol is employed. Eg. City /sIti/ (without the length mark). Eg. To a partu /tu p ti/ u insted of u: or u Before /bif /; remember /rimemb /

VOWEL MONOPHTHONGING /u /
is replaced by the long, back, rounded monophthonging

Eg. Poor, sure, tour. When the diphthongal pronounciation/u

/ is retained/kept:
/.

- The letter combination ewer . Eg. Brewer, sewer, ewer, fewer. These can t never be pronounced / - A word ending in /u:/ and is spelled with ue and has the ending r attached to ir. Eg. Truer, bluer.

Actually, for many speakers, the vowel quality at the beginning of a diphthong may be /u:/ rather than /u/, so it is better to use the neutralisation symbol /u/. /bru su ju fju tru blu /

PLURALS, POSSESSIVES AND PAST TENSES

(rules when an extra morpheme is added)

PLURAL MORPHEME
The pronounciation of the plural morpheme must agree in voicing with the last sound of the noun. NOUNS ending in voiced consonant vowel NOUNS ending in voiceless consonant + /z/ + /s/

Exeption: Irregular plural forms & semi-regular forms change. -Eg. Knife-knives /naIvz/; life-lives /laIvz/. -Some nouns look regular, but are in fact pronounced in an irregular way. Eg house -houses /haus/-/hauz z/; youth-youths /ju /-/ju:z/

SIBILANTS: a noun ending in /s

/ we add a vowel before the plural ending. These consonants are

called sibilants. / An alveolar or post-alveolar with an instense friction component. The vowel is /I/ for some speakers and / / for others. Eg. buses / / roses sashes garages batches ridges

POSSESSIVE MORPHEME
Is written s in the singular and s in the plural. The ending must agree in voicing with the last sound of the noun. If the last sound is a sibilant a vowel is inserted. John s / Pete s Greek s / Luisa s boss s George s

Nouns with irregular plurals have regular possessive forms. Wife s /waifs/ House s /haus z/

3rd PERSON SINGULAR PRESENT SIMPLE FORM

Must agree in vocing. s is added as a contraction of is or has. John s here John s come Dick s here Dick s come Rose s here Rose s come

ED ENDING SIMPLE PAST OR PAST PARTICIPLE

- ed is pronounced as an ALVEOLAR PLOSIVE (/t/ or /d/) which agrees in voicing with the last sound of the verbs. -If the verb ends in an alveolar plosive a vowel (/I/ or / /) is inserted and the ending is always /d/. loved laughed wanted agreed wished ended

/s/ can only follows a voiced sound in: bounce / OF THE WORD, it has not been added as a suffix.

/; toss /

/; else /

/. Because the /s/ is PART

SMOOTHING
When the diphthongs / eI aI aU U / are immediately followed by / / = phenomenon known as SMOOTHING may occur. The end target of the diphthong is left out and the resulting is: /e a a 3: / The smoothed version of /aI / and /au / are identical. The symbol /a / for a smoothed /aI / / / for a smoothed /au / player higher power lower showered tyre tower hours wiring grower

A word goup boundary / Potential pause: The beginning or end of a gropu of words which bear a complete intonation pattern. It can be thougth of a marking a brief pause. The symbol used is . for full stop. # at the end of a paragraph. * when the following word is a name. Inmmediately following a pause it is not usual to omit /h/ in RP English. c o q x y : are not used as symbols for transcribing. Silent letters: letters which don t correspond to any sound at all.

Lesson 3

STRESS, RHYTHM AND WEAK FORMS STRESS

CITATION FORM: When a word is pronounced in isolation. When a word has more than one syllable one of its syllables is more prominent and audible than the others. LEXICAL STRESS / ACCENT: reflects to the relative prominence of syllables / the most audible syllable within words bears the lexical stress when they are spoken in isolation. It s not predictable in English. The main lexical stress is preceded by . butter except seventy attention referee

SENTENCE STRESS / RHYTHMIC STRESS: The relative prominence of syllables found in the pronounciation of phrases or sentences. Sentence stress don t necessatily coincide with lexical stress.

-When words are put together into phrases or sentences, some words retain the lexical stress and others lose it. Eg. The fight between the cat and the dog. -A word may bear stress when it appears in connected speech on a different syllable from that which carries the main lexical stress when the word is said in isolation. (*connected speech: any stretch of speech consisiting of more than one word). citation form: afternoon connected speech form: afternoon tea

RHYTHM
Regular pattern / the periodic repetition of an event. Syllable-timed languages: those in which syllables are repeated PERIODICALLY, that is, all syllables take aproximately the same amount of time. / For each syllable there is a rhythmic beat which occurs at more or less equal time intervals. Eg. French & Spanish. Stress-timed languages: stresses may occur at approximately equal intervals, there is more or less the same amount of time between stresses. Eg. English. Stress-timing: David had seen helicopters at the airport. w x y z When there is no need to hurry over some words, it is mainly unstressed syllables that get shortened.

WEAK FORMS
-When words are isolated, ie out of context, we use citation form (all words have at least one stressed syllable) -Some words may not be stressed in connected speech and there are words which are rarely stressed Rarely stressed have little lexical meaning (GRAMMATICAL OR FORM WORDS) (Prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary and modal verbs, conjunction and articles) so their reduced or W pronunciations are very frequent.

Often keep the stress carry considerable semantic weight (LEXICAL OR CONTENT WORDS) (nouns, main verbs, adjectives and adverbs) the full or S/F is used. Sounds in unstressed syllables are frequently weakened, for instance, by shortenings, elisions, etc. Eg. / / for awful is no longer the usual pronunciation, its reduced form is / /. However, in some gramatical words, both the full and reduced pronounciation co-exist. The more centralised a vowel, the weaker it is. The greatest weakening for any sound is elision (occurs in weak forms).

VOWEL CHANGES

WEAK FORM: the pronunciation used for certain function words when they aren t stranded and don t bear sentence stress. Eg. W/F for /f /. STRONG FORM: the pronunciation used for certain function words when they bear sentence stress, when they are stranded or in citations. Eg S/F and / nd/. -In the case of gramatical words wich have the vowel / / in their citation form (could), they can stay unchanged when unstressed or may be further weakened to / /. By the same token, (do) or (you). could /k d/ /k d/ do /d / /d / you /j / /j /

CONSONANT CHANGES
Consonant changes can occur in lexical words, too, depending on the phonetic contexto r register. Nevertheless, grammatical words are more likely to face these changes. y /h/ may be elided if it is not at the very beginning of the utterance (following a potential pause): tell him / tel hIm/ / tel Im/ but not in he came /hi keim/ (when the grammatical word is initial, keep it!) y /d/ and /t/ may be elided when at the end of a word and preceded by another consonant: and / nd/ / n/ (Lesson 6 in detail!) strong form weak form word strong form weak form

word

USE OF WEAK FORMS IN RP

Grammatical words in connected speech are used in their W/F most of the time. Restrictions: (1) When the words is stressed because of emphasis or contrast, the S/F is compulsory: / nd/ / nd/ in I didn t say apples or pears, I said apples and pears. (2) When prepositions and auxiliary verbs appear in grammatical sructures they are used in S/F:

That s the picture I was looking at. You were later than I was this morning. He can sing well, but I can too. He s younger than I am. They were being looked for by the police.

..

(In That s the picture I was looking at. the preposition is usually followed by a noun or noun phrase, which is said to govern. The picture is the noun phrase which at governs. / In the 2nd an 3rd sentences, was and can aren t followed by an adj. or a verb, respectively.)

THEY HAVE BEEN DELETED IN ORDER TO AVOID REPETITION. These words aren t likely to bear stress, but nevertheless appear in S/F. REASON: the underlined preposition or auxiliary verb has either been deleted or moved to some other position in the sentence, leaving the preposition or auxiliary behind. The auxiliary or preposition is said to be STRANDED. STRANDING: When a preposition is not immediately followed by the noun to which it refers OR When an auxiliary or modal verb is not immediately followed by a main verb. -This occur because of a movement of deletion process. Stranded prepositions and auxiliaries must have a S/F pronunciation even when they are not stressed. Eg What are you looking at? / t/. Ill do it as soon as I can /k n/. -Stranding often takes place at the end of the sentence, but not always (& when you have a pause, too). -Stranding doesn t apply to other words which have W/F, such as conjunctions or pronouns. Restriction: -The auxiliary verb have when it is immediately preceded by another auxiliary (can t, could, couldn t, must, mustn t, should, shouldn t, will, won t, would, wouldn t) is normally used in its W/F even if it is stranded. / v/ or /h v/ not /h v/ He left before he should have.

OR

I told them to do it, but they won t have unfortunately.

(3) A preposition preceding a pronoun can be used in S/F or W/F: I was looking for you . / / or / /.

(4) Some words can either function either as an auxiliary verb or as a main verb. (Eg. have, has, do, does). As an axuliary verb may be pronounced in the W/F. As a main verb (even unstressed) must be in the S/F. We have our holiday in August. .. We have to go. We have seen them. Exception to this rule: Verb to be in its various forms they can appear in W/F even if they are functioning as the main verb. They are happy. / / if unstressed We were friends. /w / if unstressed (5) For some words, the use of W/F or S/F is determined by their meaning or their function in the utterance.

her /h
/, /
/

As a possessive adj. /h/ is not usually dropped. Eg. This is her car. /h /. As a personal pronoun / / may be used. Eg. It belongs to her. / /

just /d st/ , /d s/
W/F only or simply I ll just telephone him. Just put it in my bag. S/F precisely or exactly I arrived just in time. (The word is usually stressed and therefore in its S/F) W/F or W/F a short time ago/before I ve just seen him or She d just written him a letter. (W/F is unstressed or S/F if stressed). This is usually found accompanying a verb in the Pres. Perf. or Past Perf. tense.

some /s m/, /s m/, /sm/

S/F When preceding [C] singular nouns & means a certain . ( Some animal was shot / Some idiot. / He was born in some village ) When preceding certain [U] nouns & means a considerable amount of . (I have seen you for some time.) As a pronoun (Some of the boys ran / I bought some.) part of the whole I met some [but not all] people at the party. W/F a few (part of a larger group) I met some [=a few] people at the party.

that / t/, / t/
S/F adjective, pronoun, demostrative That boy is sad. W/F relative pronoun or conjunction He s the man that I was talking about (pronoun); I know that you have a bike (conjunction).

there / e /, / /
S/F adverb I bought it there. W/F existential subject or construction There is a dog in the garden.

(6) The phonetic context determines some words with + than 1 W/F:

do
/d / or /d / before a vowel Do I know you? /d / before a consonant Do they want to? (casual/informal pronunciation).

the
/ I/ or / i/ before a vowel The apples were good. / / before a consonant The children left.

to
/t / or /t / before a vowel He spoke to everybody. /t / before a consonant I gave it to my neighbour.

you
/j / or /j / before a vowel You always say that. /j / before a consonant You can t be serious. (casual pronunciation).

and
The use of / nd/, / n/, /nd/ or /n/ is random. !

(7) Contractive negative forms of auxiliary verbs (including the verbs to be) don t have W/F, so always S/F. aren t is always / nt/. can t /k nt/ don t /d nt/ won t /w nt/ (8) Possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs) are never used in W/F, so S/F. That hat is his /hIz/ (S/F), whereas That is his cake can be found with /Iz/ (9) Other words are deceptive and look as though they ought to have W/F, bc they are monosyllabic grammatical words. on, off & up don t have W/F in RP, so S/F or / :/ or / :r/ most of the time, except for very casual speech and close-knit structures such as one or two (in which it may be weakend to / /). Single-syllable grammatical words where the vowel is a diphthong (out, round, while) don t have W/F, so S/F

Lesson 4

SANDHI r
[Sandhi r: is a Sanskrit word meaning putting together. All what will be mentioned below will apply to nonrhotic English accents. Linking /r/ & Intrusive /r/ are known jontly as sandhi r.] English accents classified into 2 diff groups depending on WHERE the sound /r/ occurs. ACCENT: RHOTIC (Am, Irish & Scottish English): /r/ is pronounced whenever it appears in the spelling. They pronounce /r/ following the spelling so that thereis no occasion to consider sandhi /r/ a linking phenomenon. // Dialects having /r/ in positions other than before a vowel. NON-RHOTIC (in many British accents, RP & Australian English): the sound /r/ is only pronounced when it is followed by a vowel sound (inside or outside the word), not when followed by a consonant or a pause.

LINKING /r/: A form os sandhi r in which

r or re in the spelling of a word is pronounced as /r/, rather

than being silent, because the next sound is a vowel. // The pronounciation of a word.final orthographic r or re when followed by a vowel in the next morpheme or word. -When the spelling of a word ends in r or re , the /r/ is usually pronounced if the next word begins with a vowel sound. bar and pub /b r n p b/ bare it /be r It/ -If the orthographic r is in the middle of a word and followed by a vowel /r/ must be pronounced baring /b ari / NEVER /beaI / -In RP English the HIGH VOWELS or DIPHTHONGS ending in / i: I i u: u u / never followed by /r/

/ I ea ua / is immediately followed by a word beginning with a vowel, an /r/ may be inserted to break up the vowel sequence, even though there is no letter r in the spelling of the word. Eg. I saw it /aI s r It/. Intrusive /r/ may also occur word-internally as in drawing /dr :rI /. // The non-orthographic pronunciation of /r/. Intrusive /r/ is not possible after high wowels, since linking /r/ is not found in that position either. - Some speakers pronounce /r/ after certain vowels when the next word begins with a vowel, even though there s no r in the spelling. Known as INTRUSIVE /r/ draw it /dr :r It/ I saw it /aI s r It/

INTRUSIVE /r/: a form of sandhi r. When a word ending in a vowel in the set

Lesson 5

CONSONANT SYLLABICITY /n/ /l/

SYLLABIC CONSONANT FORMATION (SCF): The coalescence of a sonorant consonant with a preceding / / to form a syllabic consonant. Syllables have a nucleus . It may optionally be preceded by an ONSET (consisting in 1 or + consonants) and it may optionally be followed by a CODA (consisting in 1 or + consonants).
(Syllabicity is more a kind of fusion between two sounds (schwa and the following consonant) than an elision process. Syllabicity schwa doesn t disappear without leaving a trace since it transfers to the following consonant its ability of being the nucleus of a syllable -L6-).

SYLLABIC: a term describing a consonant which forms a syllable without the help of an accompanying vowel. The 2 most common syllabic consonants in RP are /n/ (button) and /l/ (bottle). In English: Vowels are syllabic & Consonants are generally not syllabic (cannot be syllable nuclei). But there is a process (CSF) which makes the consonants /n/ /l/ syllabic. / / + /n/ or /l/ merge & the vowel dissapears, but gives its syllabic characteristic to the consonant. Syllabic consonants are represented by the diacritic /,/ underneath.

/ / and /n/ or /l/ must be in the SAME SYLLABLE.

NASAL SYLLABICITY:
Alveolar nasal /n/ may become syllabic when: -Preceded by an OBSTRUENT CONSONANT (plosives-fricatives-affricates). More likely if the preceding consonant is an alveolar. listen /lIs n/ /lIsn/ pardons /p d nz/ /p dnz/ Golden /g uld n/ /g uldn/ -If the sequence is preceded by more than 1 consonant, it is not possible when one of the preceding consonants is a nasal.

NOT London /l nd n/ /l ndn/ If the sequence / n/ preceded the stressed syllable, syllabicity is not very frequent, so you may ignore it: /k n/dens/ or /kn dens/

LATERAL SYLLABICITY:
-Preceded by at least one CONSONANT, other than the approximants / w j r / parcel /p s l/ /p sl/ pistol /pIst l/ /pIstl/ handle /h nd l/ /h ndl/ panel /p n l/ /p nl /

the number of syllables. gardening /g dni / /g dn / listening /l sn / OR /l sn / rattling /r tl / OR /r tl / If a morpheme starting with a weak vowel is added after the syllabic nasal or lateral, syllabicity for the consonant is lost (de-syllabicity), since the consonant may become the onset of the following syllable. (We can retain the syllabic process or not).

DE-SYLLABICITY: a process where the syllabic nature of a consonant is removed and there is a reduction in

Lesson 6

ELISION / DELITION
Making a string of sounds easier to articulate is by omitting one of them. Elision of / / in triphthongs (Lesson 2); in W/F (Lesson 3) & in syllabicity (Lesson 5)

ALVEOLAR PLOSIVE ELISION /t - d/ Characteristics: -They are quite unstable in English, they often undergo phonological processes. -The only OBSTRUENTS which can be elided. - Does not result in the loss of a syllable. Conditions: (I) The alveolar plosive must be in the CODA of the syllable, not in the onset. (II) It must be preceded by a CONSONANT of the SAME VOCING. Thus /t/ by a V consonant and /d/ by a +V one. (III) The following sound must be a consonant other than /h/. -Alveolar plosive elision may be word-internal and it often affects the regular past tense suffix. Eg / I luk bd/ could mean They look bad or They looked bad . -Therefore, the alveolar plosives may be elided when in the middle of a sequence of 3 consonants. Last night / l st naIt/ / l s naIt/ Locked door / l kt d / / l k d / Send them / send em/ / sen em/

bold man / b uld mn/ / b ul mn/ exactly /Ig zktli/ /Ig zktli/

Exception to the rule: -/d/ in the W/F of and may be elided whatever the following sound. -In NEGATIVE CONTRACTIONS (don t, didn t & can t) /t/ may be elided, although the preceding sound /n/ is voiced or if the next word begins with a vowel or /h/. NOT if the negative contraction is followed by a pause. don t shout / d unt aut/ / d un aut/ didn t dare / dIdnt de / / dIdn de / can t thin / k nt k/ / k n k/ woudn t answer /wudnt ns / /wudn ns / needn t hurry / ni:dnt h ri/ / ni:dn h ri/ BUT NOT in: I don t /aI d unt/ because /t/ is followed by a pause.

SCHWA ELISION / DELETION

(Results in the loss of 1 syllable (not the case in syllabicity)). IN SCHWA ELISION: history / hIst ri/ 3 syllables / hIstri/ 2 syllables IN SYLLABICITY: cotton / k t n/ 2 syllables /k tn/ 2 syllables .. history travelling interesting

schwa may be elided without making the following consonant syllabic. It is simply dropped.

Conditions: -Schwa must be preceded by a consonant, NOT other than an approximant. -Schwa must be followed by /n/ or a liquid, /r/ or /l/, after which there must be an unstressed syllable. history . travelling.. federal counselor gardening

EXCEPTIONAL SCHWA ELISIONS / /

-When / / preceded the stressed syllable. police /p li:s/ /pli:s/ optional -When the following consonant is sth other than /r l n/. suppose /s p uz/ /sp uz/ - gardening /g dnI / & travelling" / trvlI / may be seen as / / ELISION or DE-SYLLABICITY. -/ / may only be elided if it is an independent vowel. Exception: - Polite cannot lose its schwa and is pronounced /p laIt/ not /plaIt/ -The initial schwa in apart can never be elided. -The / / component of diphthongs / I e u / cannot be elided.

Lesson 7

ASSIMILATION
ASSIMILATION: A feature of connected speech where one sound becomes more similar to an adjacent sound. 2 (or more) sounds become more similar to each other. One of the sounds takes characteristics from the other one. Eg. RP one book /w n b k/ /w m b k/. classified according to: y the direction it takes features from: REGRESSIVE or ANTICIPATORY ASS: when a sound takes features from the sound following it, since the features move backwards or are anticipated. A B PROGRESSIVE or PERSEVERATIVE ASS: when a sound takes features from the sound preceding it, since the features move forward. A B

the type of feature which is borrowed. PLACE OF ARTICULATION features and a few cases of voice assimilation. Place assimilation ALVEOLAR STOPS which change their place of articulation to BILABIAL or VELAR. ALVEOLAR FRICATIVES which change their place of articulation to POST-ALVEOLAR when followed by a post-alveolar or palatal consonant. y

ALVEOLAR STOP REGRESSIVE PLACE ASSIMILATION A

ALVEOLAR STOPS /t d n/ (very unstable in Eng.) may become BILABIAL when followed by bilabial consonants (/p b m/) may become VELAR STOPS when followed by velars (/k g/) without altering their voicing. Thus, /t/ may become /p/ or /k/ /d/ may become /b/ or /g/ /n/ may become /m/ or / / that man .. that car bad boy bad girl ten pens ten keys This process can also affect an entire sequence of 2 or 3 alveolar stops. Both alveolar stops are affected, not 1. Thus, /nt/ can become /mp/ or / k/ front garden .. couldn t be In some cases, an alveolar plosive may either be DELETED or it may ASSIMILATE to the following sound. couldn t be .. cold cream (in couldn t be , previous alveolars assimilate both when /t/ is deleted and when it suffers assimilation too).

ALVEOLAR FRICATIVE REGRESSIVE PLACE ASSIMILATION A ALVEOLAR FRICATIVES /s - z/

may become POST-ALVEOLAR FRICATIVES when followed by a PALATAL APPROXIMANT (/j/) or a a POST-ALVEOLAR FRICATIVE (/ /) without altering their voicing. Thus, /s/ may become / / /z/ may become / / Is she dress shop (In RP, the alveolar fricatives don t become post-alveolars by assimilation when the following sound is a post-alveolar affricate (/ /)).

ALVEOLAR SYLLABIC NASAL PROGRESSIVE PLACE ASSIMILATION A

ALVEOLAR SYLLABIC NASAL /n/ may become BILABIAL (/m/) or VELAR (/ /) when preceded by a BILABIAL or VELAR PLOSIVE in the same word and followed by a consonant in the same/next word or by a pause. open bacon

COALESCENCE
COALESCENCE: a type of assimilation where 2 adjacent sounds merge to form a single sound which shares characteristics from the two original ones. (bi-directional assimilation). RP this may occur with the sequences /t/ + /j/ & /d/ & /j/, resulting in / / & / / respectively. but you / / don t you / / did you / / would you / /

VOICE ASSILIMATION
VOICE ASSIMILATION: it s stricted to some close-knit structures (have to, of course). Assimilation is REGRESSIVE and the feature which is borrowed is VOICELESSNESS. Thus, /v/ becomes /f/ because the following sound (/t/ /k/) is voiceless. Have to .. of course newspaper

Lesson 8

GLOTTALING
/t/ is affected by a process known as GLOTTALING (=glottal replacement). The replacement of /t/ by a glottal stop, which is symbolized /?/. Not now /n ? nau/. -A glottal stop is formed by a brief closure of the vocal folds which blocks the air coming up from the lungs = a brief period of silence. -It may reinforce the articulation of a vowel. -A glottal stop may also be introduced before a voiceless plosive to reinforce its articulation. Right /raI?t/ Out! /?aut/ (shout loudly and angrily).The replacement of the voiceless stops /p/ & /k/ is not usual in RP (not be disscused) -The replacement of /t/ with /?/ is very frequent. -Glottal stop is written in slanted bars as with any phoneme. However, this doesn t mean we re considering it a phoneme. -/d/ is never glottaled in RP English. -Just discussed when /?/ replaces a VOICELESS ALVEOLAR PLOSIVE.

/t/ can be glottaled:

Conditions: must be preceded by a sonorant sound. must be followed by a consonant other than /h/. must be in the CODA of the syllable, not in the onset. not now at last eight books tent pole atlas don t delay what reason button -Glottaling often interacts with syllabic consonant formation. The final consonant of button is syllabic so glottalig can take place. If / n/ isn t merged into a syllabic consonant then glottaling is impossible, because /t/ is followed by a vowel. Glottaling is not usual in RP before a syllabic /l/, so we shall not glottal /t/ in bottle /b tl/ or settle /setl/. .. -Word-internal in mattress . Try to avoid /t/ glottaling in the middle of a word when the next consonant is /r/. /t/ followed by a BILABIAL or VELAR CONSONANT, we can: change: /t/ into a /p/ OR /k/ glottal the /t/. hot potato .. right kind

-In NEGATIVE CONTRACTIONS glottal the /t/ of the n t elide it. (Where one can do glottaling, elision is impossible and vice versa).