The document discusses pronunciation in English, including phonetics, phonemes, and suprasegmental features. It defines phonemes as the smallest units of speech that distinguish words, and describes consonants and vowels. It also covers suprasegmental features such as linking, intonation, and stress.
The document discusses pronunciation in English, including phonetics, phonemes, and suprasegmental features. It defines phonemes as the smallest units of speech that distinguish words, and describes consonants and vowels. It also covers suprasegmental features such as linking, intonation, and stress.
The document discusses pronunciation in English, including phonetics, phonemes, and suprasegmental features. It defines phonemes as the smallest units of speech that distinguish words, and describes consonants and vowels. It also covers suprasegmental features such as linking, intonation, and stress.
The document discusses pronunciation in English, including phonetics, phonemes, and suprasegmental features. It defines phonemes as the smallest units of speech that distinguish words, and describes consonants and vowels. It also covers suprasegmental features such as linking, intonation, and stress.
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Sara Khaled Muhammed
MTD Research
Pronunciation is the act or manner of speaking a word.
For a variety of reasons, many words in English are not pronounced the way they are spelled, and some sounds can be represented by more than one combination of letters. Consider, for instance, that the words does, was, and fuzz all rhyme with one another.
Etymology From the Latin, "to announce"
Phonetics and phonology encompass segmental and
suprasegmental information. Segments consist of vowels and consonants that are central to conveying the meanings of words. Suprasegmental are speech attributes that can accompany singular segments and extend over syllables, words, or phrases. Suprasegmental features include features such as tone, intonation, and stress.
Segmental features:
Phonemes:in linguistics, smallest unit of speech distinguishing one word (or
word element) from another, as the element p in “tap,” which separates that word from “tab,” “tag,” and “tan.” A phoneme may have more than one variant, called an allophone , which functions as a single sound; for example, the p’s of “pat,” “spat,” and “tap” differ slightly phonetically, but that difference, determined by context, has no significance in English
Phonemes are based on spoken language and may be recorded with special symbols, such as those of the International Phonetic Alphabet. In transcription, linguists conventionally place symbols for phonemes between slash marks: /p/. The term phoneme is usually restricted to vowels and consonants, but some linguists extend its application to cover phonologically relevant differences of pitch, stress, and rhythm. Nowadays the phoneme often has a less central place in phonological theory than it used to have, especially in American linguistics. Many linguists regard the phoneme as a set of simultaneous distinctive features rather than as an unanalyzable unit.
Phonemes divided into: consonants and vowels.
First, ‘Consonants’ consists of two types: voiced and unvoiced.
*Voiced consonants means your vocal cords, which are actually
mucous membranes, stretch across the larynx at the back of the throat. By tightening and relaxing as you speak, the vocal cords modulate the flow of breath expelled from the lungs
*Unvoiced consonants do not use the vocal cords to produce their hard, percussive sounds. Instead, they're slack, allowing air to flow freely from the lungs to the mouth, where the tongue, teeth, and lips engage to modulate the sound.ed from the lungs.
Voiced Voiceless Consonants Consonants Examples Examples (Vocal cords (Vocal cords moving) not moving) /b/ back, above /p/ pencil, drop /d/ day, need /t/ two, wait /g/ gold, rug /k/ candy, awake /v/ very, give /f/ find, before /ð/ the, this /ɵ/ thin, with /z/ zone, has /s/ see, city measure, /ʒ/ /ʃ/ she, dish beige /dʒ/ jeans, enjoy /tʃ/ change, rich /m/ make, same /n/, no, town
/ŋ/ sing, pink
/l/ look, believe /r/ red, car Second, vowels; vowels in English consists of three types:
Single, diphthongs, triphthongs.
Single vowels divided into: short and long.
First:
Single:
_Short vowels are:
/ɪ/ – fit /fiːt/, pick /piːk/, difficult /ˈdɪ.fɪ.kəlt/
/e/ – pet /pet/, sent /sent/, attention /əˈten.ʃən/
/æ/ – pat /pæt/, flat /flæt/, family /ˈfæ.mə.li/
/ʌ/ – cut /kʌt/ jump /dʒʌmp/, cover /ˈkʌ.vər/
/ʊ/ – put /pʊt/, book /bʊk/, cushion /ˈkʊ.ʃən/
/ɒ/ – pot /pɒt/, dog /dɒg/, hospital /ˈhɒs.pɪ.təl/
/ə/ – about /əˈbaʊt/, system /ˈsɪs.təm/, complete /kəmˈpliːt/.
_Long vowels are:
/i:/ week /wi:k/, feet /fi:t/, media /ˈmiː.di.jə/
/ɑ:/ hard /ha:/, park /pa:k/, article /ɑː.tɪ.kəl/
/ɔ:/ fork /fɔ:k/, walk /wɔ:k/, August /ɔːˈɡʌst/
/ɜ:/ heard /hɜ:d/, word /wɜ:d/, surface /ˈsɜː.fɪs/
/u:/ boot /bu:t/, group /gru:p/, beautiful /ˈbjuː.tɪ.fəl/
Second: _Diphthongs are:
Diphthongs represent the sound of two vowels together. In
the English language there are 8 different diphtongs.
/eɪ/ place /pleɪs/, late /leɪt/, dangerous /ˈdeɪn.dʒə.rəs/
/oʊ/ home /hoʊm/, phone /foʊn/, global /ˈɡloʊ.bəl/
/aʊ/ mouse /maʊs/, brown /braʊn/, accountant /əˈkaʊn.t̬ ənt/
/ɪə/ clear /klɪə/, fear /fɪə/, career /kəˈrɪə/
/eə/ care /keə/, wear /weə/, declare /dɪˈkleə/
/ɔɪ/ boy /bɔɪ/, toy /tɔɪ/, enjoyable /ɪnˈdʒɔɪ.jə.bəl/
/aɪ/ find /faɪnd/, bite /baɪt/, tiger /ˈtaɪ.ɡə/
/ʊə/ tour /tʊə/, pure /pʊə/, mature /məˈtʃʊə/
Third:
_Triphthongs are:
Triphthongs are three vowel sounds that occur consecutively and can be separated in different syllables.
As we are talking about sounds, the addition of /ə/ is only on speech, as there is no form to put across the sound in a written word. The words with triphthongs have a consonant written somewhere in the clustering.
1- Linking: means the merging of multiple words together until they sound as if they are only one word. Native speakers of English all do this naturally. Linking is an advanced topic for non-native speakers, but learning to correctly link words can result in significantly more fluid and fluent sounding English speech. Failing to link words naturally results in spoken English which may have awkward pauses, extra, unnecessary sounds, and which will sound very foreign to native speakers.
Examples:
Blending sounds is smoothly transitioning from the pronunciation of one
sound into the next sound. Blending works well for linking from one continuous consonant--a fricative, approximant, or nasal sound--to another different continuous consonant.
In the phrase "this month," the 's sound' /s/ blends smoothly into the 'm sound' /m/.
Coarticulation: overlapping sounds
Coarticulation occurs when adjacent sounds overlap one another, causing a
change in one or both sounds' pronunciation. Two examples of coarticulation include nasal aspiration and lateral aspiration.
Nasal aspiration occurs when the 'd sound' /d/ links into the 'n sound' /n/. The tongue moves into the position of the /d/, but the sound is not completed with the typical aspiration (release of air). Instead, the stopped air is released as an /n/. The International Phonetic Alphabet symbol for nasal aspiration is [d̚ n].
An example of nasal aspiration occurs in the phrase "good news": the air is stopped as a /d/, but released as an /n/.
Assimilation: changing sounds
Assimilation is a more drastic type of co-articulation. Instead of "sharing" part
of a sound, the merged sounds are pronounced as an entirely different sound. Two examples of assimilation occur when the 't sound' /t/ or /d/ precede the 'y sound' /y/.
When the /t/ and /y/ assimilate, the sounds merge into the 'ch sound' /ʧ/. This causes the phrase "don't you" /doʊntyu/ to be pronounced as "donchou" /doʊnʧu/.
Intrusion: Adding sounds
Intrusion is placing an additional sound between other sounds. For instance,
adding a slight 'w sound' /w/ or /y/ between vowel sounds is a helpful technique for pronouncing both vowels clearly.
In the phrase "he asked," a small /y/ is added between the 'long e' /i/ and 'short a' /æ/. This allows both vowel sounds to be pronounced fully and separately without pausing between words.
Elision: Omitting sounds
Elision occurs when a sound is removed from a word. For example, when a /t/ or /d/ is between two other consonant sounds (but not the first sound of a word), the /t/ or /d/ can be omitted.
In the phrase "kept going," the /t/ is between two consonant sounds and can be omitted.
Geminates: Double sounds
Geminates occur when one word ends with and the next word begins with the same consonant sound. Continuous consonants link to each other differently than stops and affricates. Identical double continuous consonants link by pronouncing one, single sound for an extended period of time. In the phrase, "social life," the 'l sound' /l/ is produced for more time than if the sound occurred alone.
2- Intonation describes how the voice rises and falls in speech. The three main patterns of intonation in English are: falling intonation, rising intonation and fall-rise intonation.
Falling intonation
Falling intonation describes how the voice falls on the final stressed syllable of a phrase or a group of words. A falling intonation is very common in wh- questions. Where’s the nearest p↘ost-office? What time does the film f↘inish? We also use falling intonation when we say something definite, or when we want to be very clear about something: I think we are completely l↘ost.
Rising intonation
Rising intonation describes how the voice rises at the end of a sentence. Rising intonation is common in yes-no questions: I hear the Health Centre is expanding. So, is that the new d↗ octor?
Fall-rise intonation
Fall-rise intonation describes how the voice falls and then rises. We use fall- rise intonation at the end of statements when we want to say that we are not sure, or when we may have more to add: I do↘n’t support any football team at the m↘om↗ent. (but I may change my mind in future). We use fall-rise intonation with questions, especially when we request information or invite somebody to do or to have something. The intonation pattern makes the questions sound more polite: Is this your cam↘er↗a? 3- Stress: word stress and sentence stress.
Word Stress: is like a golden key to speaking and understanding
English.
If you do not already know about word stress, you can try to learn about it. This is one of the best ways for you to understand spoken English - especially English spoken fast.
What is word stress?
Take 3 words: photograph, photographer and photographic. Do they
sound the same when spoken? No. Because ONE syllable in each word is STRESSED (stronger than the others).
PHOtograph phoTOgrapher photoGRAPHic
This happens in ALL words with 2 or more syllables: TEACHer,
The syllables that are not stressed are "weak" or "small" or "quiet". Native speakers of English listen for the STRESSED syllables, not the weak syllables. If you use word stress in your speech, you will instantly and automatically improve your pronunciation and your comprehension.
Two important rules about word stress:
1. One word, one stress
2. The stress is always on a vowel.
Sentence Stress:
s another golden key for speaking and understanding English. With
sentence stress, some words in a sentence are STRESSED (loud) and other words are weak (quiet). Look at the following sentence:
We want to go. Do we say every word with the same stress or force? No. We make the important words BIG and the unimportant words small. What are the important words in this sentence? Yes, that's right: WANT and GO.
We WANT to GO. We WANT to GO to WORK. We DON'T WANT to GO to WORK. We DON'T WANT to GO to WORK at NIGHT.
