ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION WORKSHOP

ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION WORKSHOP

Index

Introduction and the IPA

Vowels

Consonants

Linking words and ellipsis

Intonation

01

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Although we commonly talk about 'English pronunciation', obviously not all speakers of English pronounce it in the same way. Even between countries where English is the first language of the majority of the population there are considerable differences, and we can distinguish between the pronunciation of 'British English', 'American English', 'Australian English', 'South African English', and so on. Across these varieties of English, there may be differences in how vowels and consonants are pronounced, how words are stressed, and in intonation. We will focus on the (British) variety that has come to be known as 'BBC English': BBC English is the pronunciation used by speakers such as newsreaders and announcers on television and radio, including the World Service. There are 26 letters in English, but there are more than 40 vowel and consant sounds. For this reason, some difficulties may occur: sometimes the number of letters and sounds do not coincide (such as in green or bread, which have 5 letters but 4 sounds), sometimes two words have the same pronunciation but differeng spellings and meanings (such as no and know; write, rite and right) and sometimes two words have the same spelling but different pronunciation (such as read - infinitive and present tense - and read - past tense -). Because there are more sounds than letters, we use symbols for pronunciation. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is the alphabet that was developed in the 19th century to accurately represent the pronunciation of languages. One aim of the IPA was to provide a unique symbol for each distinctive sound in a language—that is, every sound, or phoneme, that serves to distinguish one word from another. It is the most common example of phonetic transcription. The sound system can be divided as follows: phonemes (the building blocks of the language); stress (a tool by which we give prominence to sounds); stress timing (the rhythm of the language) and intonation (how you say).

+ INFO

02

VOWELS

/i:/

/u:/

Examples:

• eat

• mean
• need
• please
• be
• key
• tea

Examples:

• food
• suit
• group
• through
• do
• shoe
• threw

/ʊ/

/ɪ/

Examples:

• cook
• shook
• good
• put
• wood
• woman
• cushion

Examples:

• if
• ink
• pin
• miss
• give
• minute
• issue

/ɑ:/

/ɔ:/

Examples:

• after
• ask
• start
• part
• largey
• arm
• argue
• car

Examples:

• bored
• caught
• fork
• talk
• taught
• war
• dawn
• sworn

/ɒ/

/ʌ/

Examples:

• cost
• bond
• clock
• sock
• foggy
• nod
• odd

Examples:

• fun
• drunk
• hut
• dumb
• must
• brush
• crush

/æ/

/ɜː/

Examples:

• bat
• match
• drank
• sang
• ankle
• badge
• bank
• pack

Examples:

• hurt
• heard
• firm
• burn
• dirty
• blur
• perched
• quirk

/e/

/ə/

Examples:

• well
• tell
• again
• many
• every
• end
• help

Examples:

• fun
• drunk
• hut
• dumb
• must
• brush
• crush

Strong and weak syllables

One of the most noticeable features of English pronunciation is that some of its syllables. are strong while many others are weak; this is also true of many other languages, but it is necessary to study how these weak syllables are pronounced and where they occur in English. A strong syllable has a long vowel, diphthong or short vowel - but not schwa - as its nucleus; but if the vowel is short, then it must be followed by a coda (a consonant sound which comes after the vowel). Weak syllables comprise a weak vowel, usually schwa, with or without a coda in final position, as in teacher (no coda) or open (with coda); other weak vowels are /i/ and the vowel (usually transcribed /u/) in the middle of the word influence.

+ INFO

/ɪə/

/eə/

Examples:

• real
• ear
• beard
• nearly
• year
• beer
• here

Examples:

• care
• square
• air
• chair
• hair
• wear
• where

/aɪ/

/eɪ/

Examples:

• like
• time
• die
• dry
• July
• night
• buy

Examples:

• age
• came
• plane
• table
• day
• great
• weight

/ɔɪ/

/ʊə/

Examples:

• coin
• point
• voice
• boy
• enjoy
• toy
• join

Examples:

• poor
• during
• hour
• furious
• power
• usually
• pure

/aʊ/

/əʊ/

Examples:

• how
• now
• vowel
• loud
• mouth
• sound
• down

Examples:

• no
• cold
• close
• drove
• home
• boat
• low

03

CONSONANTS

Consonants: voiced and voiceless

There are many types of consonant, but what all have in common is that they obstruct the flow of air through the vocal tract. Consonants are either voiced (sonant) or voiceless (surd). Voiced consonants are pronounced with the same vocal murmur that is heard in vowels (vocal chords are used); voiceless consonants lack this murmur (vocal chords are not used).

/p/ /b/

/t/ /d/

bay / pay • bear / pair • bet / pet • bill / pill • bin / pin

hit / hid • hurt / heard • mat / mad • meant / mend

/f/ /v/

/k/ /g/

fast / vast • fat / vat • fine / vine • foul / vowel

clock / clog • dock / dog • duck / dug

/θ/ /ð/

/s/ /z/

theme, thirst, think, through • though, this, mother, thus

close (adj) / close (v) • false / falls • piece / peas

/tʃ/ /dʒ/

/ʃ/ /ʒ/

cheap / jeep • cherry / jerry • chew / Jew

she, sure, shore, shock • measure, usual, vision

/m/ /n/ /ŋ/

/h/

beam, been • came, cane • game, gain || done, dung • fan, fang • gone, gong • kin, king

hall, all • harm, arm• hair, air

/w/ /j/

/l/ /r/

wedge, edge • weight, ate || jeer, year • juice, use

glass , grass • lace, race • lane, rain • law, raw • lead, read

04

LINKING WORDS AND ELLIPSIS

LINKING WORDS

Try to pronounce these words together: pets enter • pet centre || ice-cream • I scream || missed a night • Mr Knight. In speech, words are not separated; they join together. Sometimes it is difficult to know where one word finishes and the next word begins. For example, pets enter sounds the same as pet centre because the consonant /s/ could be at the end of the first word or at the start of the second word. The sound at the end of one word is linked to the sound at the beginning of the next so that there is a smooth connection between them.

sound change

sounds disappear

/r/

/w/, /j/

When one word ends with a consonant sound and the next word begins with a consonant sound, the first consonant sound is often changed. For example, greet guests sounds the same as Greek guests because the T in greet and the K in Greek are both pronounced like /g/. This is because of the influence of the /g/ in the following word, guests.

In standard British English (RP) the letter 'r' after a vowel sound at the end of word is often not pronounced. However, when the following word begins with a vowel the /r/ sound is pronounced to make a smooth link. Also, some speakers pronounce what is called an "intrusive 'r'" when a word ending with a vowel sound is followed by one beginning with a vowel sound.

When one word ends with a vowel sound and the next word begins with a vowel, another sound, a /w/ or /j/ can be added depending on the particular sounds to make a smooth transition. The choice depends on the vowel sound that ends the first word.

When the sounds /t/ or /d/ occur between two consonant sounds, they will often disappear completely from the pronunciation.

Leaving out consonant sounds

Some consonant sounds tend to be left out in conversation. It is not necessary to leave these out in your own speech in order to be understood, but leaving them out can make your speech sound more fluent and natural, and being aware of these changes can help you understand fast speech.

+ INFO

05

INTONATION

What is intonation?

+ INFO

Play

An old saying goes 'it's not what you say, but how you say it', referring to the fact that meaning in speech can be conveyed not just through words, and their interplay with syntax, but also the manner in which they are spoken. In fact, it has been estimated that most of the meaning in communicative interaction (although this is difficult to quantify) is conveyed not by the lexis, but by intonation and paralinguistic features. Intonation refers to the movement of pitch in speech (in scientific terms the fundamental frequency, or speed of vibration of the vocal chords). As a general rule, this movement can be upwards (rising tone) or downwards (falling tone). Lack of variation of pitch (level tone) is unusual, and would be, literally, monotonous. Even the shortest tone units, such as the monosyllabic word yes, may have tone movement. In standard English, falling tones are commonly used in statements, imperatives and exclamations, and convey an element of finality. Both falling and rising tones are used in questions, and it is interesting to compare the falling tone in a tag question such as It's Sunday today, isn't it? which suggests that the speaker is sure the interlocutor will agree (the 'hidden message' of which may be: 'and so the shops will be closed'), and a rising tone at the end of the same tag, which makes the utterance more of a genuine question, and suggests the speaker isn't sure which day of the week it is. But what are the functions of intonation? How can we classify the different ways in which intonation conveys meaning? Traditionally it is said to have four functions: to reflect speaker attitude, to signal a grammatical function, to accentuate the most important stressed syllable in a tone unit, and as a discourse feature.

Web links

References

IPA chart

Bibliography

English Phonetics and Phonology

Roach, P. (2009). English phonetics and phonology: A practical course. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press

English Pronunciation Made Simple

Dale, P., & Poms, L. (2005). English pronunciation made simple. Pearson.

English Pronunciation in Use

Marks, J. (2007). English Pronunciation in Use: Elementary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hewings, M. (2007). English Pronunciation in Use: Advanced. Camrbidge: Cambridge University Press.

Questions?

Thank you!

Transcribing stress

We will mark a stressed syllable in transcription by placing a small vertical line (') high up, just before the syllable it relates to. For instance:

• camera: /ˈkæmrə/
• about: /əˈbaʊt/
• receive: /rɪˈsiːv/

THE ENGLISH PHONETIC CHART

Vowel: speech sound produced with vibrating vocal cords and continuous unrestrictied flow of air. Dipththong: a combination of two vowel sounds. Voiced consonant: a sound produced when the vocal cords are vibrating. Voiceless consonant: a sound made with no vibration of the vocal cords.

Ellipsis of /t/ and /d/

Examples:

• I'm going nex(t) week
• That was the wors(t) job I ever had!
• Jus(t) one person came to the party!
• I can'(t) swim

/s/ + /j/ = /ʃj/

/n/ + /p/, /b/, /w/, /m/ = /n/ -> /m/

/t/ + /d, p/ = no /t/

/d/ + /g/, /k/ = /d/ -> /g/

/t/ + /j/ = /ʧ/

/d/ + /b/ = /d/ -> /b/

Lorem ipsum dolor

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit

• Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
• Consectetur adipiscing elit.
• Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut.
• Labore et dolore magna aliqua.

A syllable is a part of a word that contains a single vowel sound and that is pronounced as a unit. So, for example, ' book' has one syllable, and ' reading' has two syllables.

Simple cases

• A consonant sound at the end of a word is linked smoothly to a vowel sound at the beginning of the next. e.g. one evening || exact opposite

• When a word ending with a consonant sound is followed by a word beginning with another consonant sound there is no break between them, although the first consonant sound may change its pronunciation a little to make it easier to move to the next consonant sound (see: sound change)

• When a word ending with a consonant sound is followed by a word beginning with the same consonant sound, one lengthened consonant sound is made: e.g. some milk || glorious sunshine