1) Phonology

• Branch of linguistics classifying speech sounds

• Basic element = phoneme
• Sub-branches
a) Segmental phonology – phonemes
b) Suprasegmental phonology – elements higher than phonemes

Phonetics
• A branch of linguistics studying speech sounds
• Basic element = sound (phone)
• Sub-branches
a) Articulatory phonetics – production of speech
b) Acoustic phonetics – transmission of speech
c) Auditory phonetics – reception of speech

Phonic units
• Sound (phone) – real acoustic sound produced by a speaker
• Phoneme – abstract phonic unit
o existing in a language (44 in English = 20 vowels + 24 consonants)
o by changing it → changing the meaning of a word = DISTINCTIVE FUNCTION
▪ pin – pen, pet – bet

Transcription
• Spelling and pronunciation do not correspond in English
• Transcription = coding speech sounds (1 symbol = 1 sound)
• Types of transcription
o Phonetic (allophonic) – represents real speech sound
o Phonological (phonemic) – represents phonemes, used in books and dictionaries
• International Phonetic Alphabet IPA – system of transcription symbols established by
International Phonetic Association in 1886
• A. C. Gimson: introduction to the pronunciation of English

Accents
• Dialect isn't an accent (pronunciation variety only)
• Received Pronunciation = BBC pronunciation
o model of British English pronunciation recommended for learners
o used in British English dictionaries and textbooks, taught at schools in the UK
o regionally neutral
• subtypes
o conservative (older generation)
o general (middle age generation)
o advanced (younger generation)
• Estuary English – an accent associated with the area along the River Thames (London)
2) Production of speech
Speech – the result of muscles contracting and expelling the expiratory
airstream from the lungs through the vocal tract

I. Physiological aspect – phases of articulation

a. Respiration = Lungs → Bronchi →Trachea → Larynx
b. Phonation = – making sound from breath (voicing)
i. Larynx = cartilages – thyroid (Adam´s apple), cricoid
ii. Vocal folds – inside larynx; front = thyroid cartilage,
back = arytenoid cart.
• Glottis = space between vocal cords
• Vibration = the air passes through → vocal folds open/close
1. Wide apart – breathing, voiceless consonants (p, f, s)
2. Narrow glottis - /h/
3. Vibration – vowels, voiced consonants
4. Tightly closed – glottal stop / ʔ /, gentle coughing

c. Modification
1. Pharynx – tube above the larynx
2. Oral cavity – most important
• Passive articulators: maxilla (upper jaw), teeth, hard palate /j/, alveolar ridge
• Active articulators: tongue, mandible (lower jaw), lips, soft palate (velum) – k
3. Nasal cavity
• tongue – the most active articulator

II. Acoustic aspect – transmission of sound

• Vibration of vocal cords
a) Periodic → vowels = tones
b) Aperiodic →consonants = noises
III. Auditory aspect – perception of speech = Ear (outer, middle, inner) → brain
3) Vocalic phonemes

Vowels
• Acoustic characteristics – tones (voiced)
• Articulatory characteristics – no contact of articulators
• Phonological characteristics – centre of a syllable
• English vowels = 12 monophthongs (pure vowels), 8 diphthongs, 5 triphthongs
o 25 vocalic phonemes distinguished – 7 short + 5 long vowels, 3 + 2 closing
diphthongs, 3 centring diphthongs, 5 triphthongs
• Classification
o Vertically – distance btw the tongue and the palate
▪ close, mid, open
o Horizontally – which part of the tongue is raised highest
▪ front, central, back
o Lip position
▪ rounded, spread, neutral
• Cardinal vowels
o Standard reference system, extremes of vowel quality, primary and secondary
• Monophthongs
Short vowels Long vowels

• Diphthongs
o 8 English diphthongs, glides (slides) from one vowel to another
o Similar to long vowels, 1st part stronger + longer than the 2nd part

• Triphthongs
o = closing diphthongs + /ə/
o Glide from 1st to 2nd and 3rd vowel
4) Consonantal phonemes – Plosives
Consonants
• Acoustic characteristics – noises (voiced and voiceless)
• Articulatory characteristics – contact of articulators (partial/complete)
• 24 English consonants
• classification criteria:
1. place of articulation
❖ Bilabial /p, b, m/ ❖ Alveolar /t, d, s, z, l, n, r/ ❖ Velar /k, g, ŋ/
❖ Labio-dental /f, v/ ❖ Palate-alveolar /ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/ ❖ Glottal /h/
❖ Dental /θ, ð/ ❖ Palatal /j/ ❖ Labio-velar /w/
2. manner of articulation
❖ occlusives (closure) /p, t, k, b, d, g, m, n, ŋ, l, r, w, j/
o nasals /m, n, ŋ/ o approximants /r/
o laterals /l/ o semi-vowels /w, j/
❖ constrictives (narrowing) /f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h/
❖ semi-occlusives (closure + narrowing) /tʃ, dʒ/
3. acoustic impression
❖ plosives /p, t, k, b, d, g, m, n, ŋ, l, r, w, j/
❖ fricatives /f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h/
❖ affricatives /tʃ, dʒ/
4. position of velum
❖ oral /p, t, k, b, d, g, l, r, w, j, f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h, tʃ, dʒ/
❖ nasal /m, n, ŋ/
5. voice (tense)
❖ voiceless (fortis) /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /h/
❖ voiced (lenis) /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /ð/, /z/, /ʒ/, /dʒ/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /l/, /r/, /w/, /j/

Plosives (6 plosive consonants) - /p, t, k, b, d, g/ + glottal plosive /ʔ/

• Initial position
o P, T, K – aspiration (pen, cat, ten)
▪ /p, t, k/ preceded by “s” are not aspirated (scat, spin)
o B, D, G - Little voicing
o P, T, K + L, R, W, J - Devoicing of l, r, w, j (play, tray, quick)
• final position
o vowels preceding p, t, k are shorter (pre-fortis clipping) – (beat-bead)
o b, d, g – very little voicing
Fricatives
• Pre-fortis clipping – Ice /aɪs/ ≠ eyes /aɪz/
• 9 continuants /f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h/
• Place of articulation
o /f/, /v/ - labiodental (fan, van, safer, saver, half, halve)
o /θ/, /ð/ - dental (thumb, thus, ether, father, breath, breathe)
o /s/, /z/ - alveolar (sip, zip, facing, phasing, rice, rise)
o /ʃ/, /ʒ/ - post-alveolar (Russia, measure, Irish, garage, usual)
o /h/ - glottal (head, ahead, playhouse) – breathy voice

Affricatives /tʃ, dʒ/

• Begin as plosives and end as fricatives • /t/ and /ʃ/ = homorganic sounds

Nasals /m, n, ŋ/
• Voiced, air escapes through the nose, soft palate is lowered
• Place of articulation = /m/ - bilabial, /n/ - alveolar, /ŋ/ - velar
• Nasal /ŋ/ - never initial position, only in medial and final position
o “nk” – “k” always pronounced (thinking /θɪŋkɪŋ/)
o “ng” – only /ŋ/ (without /g/) pronounced at the end of a morpheme (singer /sɪŋə/)
o “ng” – /ŋɡ/ pronounced in the middle of a morpheme (anger /æŋɡə/; finger /fɪŋɡə/)
o Exception – comparative + superlative forms of adjectives “ng” as a single morpheme
▪ /ŋɡ/ pronounced – longer /lɒŋɡə/, longest /lɒŋɡɪst/

Laterals
• /l/ alveolar, voiced – lateral approximant
• The air escapes along the sides of the tongue
• Allophones (variants) – in complementary distribution
o Before vowels – clear “l” (lea, leak)
o Before consonants and in final positions – dark “l” (eel, eels)
o After /p, t, k/ - devoiced “l” (please, clear)

Approximant
• /r/ - voiced, post-alveolar
• Articulators approach (approximate) each other
• The tongue slightly curled backwards with the tip raised – retroflex
• Devoices when preceded by /p, t, k/ (cry, try)
• In BBC pronounced only before vowels – red, arrive, hearing
• In BBC not pronounced in final positions + before consonants = non-rhotic accent (car, here)
• American, Scottish and West of England accents = rhotic accents
Semi vowels
• /j, w/ voiced
• /j/ palatal (articulation similar to /i/), preceded by /p, t, k/ is devoiced (pure, queue)
• /w/ bilabial (articulation similar to /ʊ/), preceded by /p, t, k/ is devoiced (twin, twist)
• !!! play, tray, quick, cue ≠ lay, ray, wick, you!!!
5) Syllable
• a unit larger than a sound but smaller than a word
• consists of a centre with little or no obstruction to air flow (vowel or syllabic consonant)
• before and after the centre is greater obstruction to air flow and less loud sound (consonant)
o cat /kæt/ – /æ/ centre
o bottle /bɒtl/ – /ɒ/ and /l/ are the centres of syllables
• minimum syllable – a single vowel in isolation – are /ɑː/, or /ɔː/, err /ɜː/
Structure of syllable
1. Onset (before the centre) – 1, 2 or 3 consonants (bar |bɑː|, key |kiː|, more |mɔː|)
• 0-consonant: zero onset
• 1-consonant: any initial consonant except /ŋ/, /ʒ/ is rare
• 2-consonant: consonant cluster
a. Pre-initial /s/ + initial (sting, sway, smoke)

b. Initial + post-initial /l, r, w, j/ (play, try, quick, few)

• 3-consonant: pre-initial /s/ + initial + post-initial /l, r, w, j/ (split, stram, square)

2. Coda (after the centre) – 1, 2, 3 or 4 consonants (am |æm|, ought |ɔːt|, ease |iːz|)
• 0-consonant: zero coda
• 1-consonant: any final consonant except /h, w, j, (r)/
• 2-consonant: consonant cluster
a. Pre-final /m, n, ŋ, l, s/ + final
b. Final + post-final /s, z, t, d, θ/
• 3-consonant:
a. Pre-final /m, n, ŋ, l, s/ + final + post-final 1 /s, z, t, d, θ/

b. Final + post-final 1 /s, z, t, d, θ/ + post-final 2 /s, z, t, d, θ/

 • 4-consonant:
a. Pre-final + final + post-final 1 + post-final 2

b. final + post-final 1 + post-final 2 + post-final 3

3. Onset + coda (ran |ræn|, sat |sæt|, fill |fɪl|)

• Phonotactics – the study of possible phoneme combinations in a language

Syllable division
Extra /ekstrə/
/e-kstrə/ /ek-strə/ /eks-trə/ /ekst-rə/ /ekstr-ə/
• Maximal onsets principle
• Ambisyllabic consonant (better, carry)
Strong and weak syllables
• Strong = stressed, weak = unstressed
• Vowels in weak syllables – shorter, lower intensity, different quality
o data /ˈdeɪtə/, bottle /ˈbɒtl/
• strong syllable centre – any vowel phoneme except /ə/
• weak syllable centre:
o vowel /ə/ “schwa” – better o close back vowel /u/ - thank u
o close front vowel /i/ - happy o syllabic consonant – bottle
/ə/ “schwa”
• /ə/ - the most frequent vowel in English, mid and central
• only in weak syllables: attend, character, particular, intimate, tomorrow, forget
close front and close back vowels

Syllabic consonants /l, r, n, m, ŋ/

• Syllabic /l/ - lateral release (bottle /bɒtl/, muddle /mʌdl/, tunnel /tʌnl/)
• Syllabic /n/ - nasal release (tonight /təˈnaɪt/ but threaten /’θrɛtn /, happen /ˈhæpən/)
• Syllabic /m, ŋ/
• Syllabic /r/
6) Word stress
• Stress in simple words – a small vertical line (´) high up before the stressed syllable

• Stress characteristics – production (depends on speaker) + perception

o Prominence → loudness + length + pitch + quality
• Levels of stress
o Primary – strongest, 1 in a word; around /əˈraʊnd/, photographic /,fəʊtəˈgræfɪk/
o Secondary – weaker, in polysyllabic words
▪ photographic /,fəʊtəˈgræfɪk/, anthropology /ˌænθrəˈpɒləʤi/
o no stress – photographic /,fəʊtəˈgræfɪk/
• Placement of stress
o English – free stress ≠ Czech/Slovak: fixed stress
▪ (any syllable) (1st syllable)
▪ Professor professor
o Stress placement factors:
▪ Word structure: simple or complex (derived or compound)
▪ Grammatical category
▪ Number of syllables
▪ Phonological structure of syllables
Strong syllable = stressed weak syllable = unstressed
(exception = dialect /ˈdaɪəlɛkt/)
o Two-syllable words – verbs

o Three-syllable words

Verbs nouns adjectives

• Complex words
o Polysyllabic words
▪ Care – care + ful – care + less – care + ful + ly – care + less + ness
▪ Per+/sub+/com+ mit = permit, submit, commit
a. Derived (stem + affix)
i. Prefix + stem – un+pleasant
ii. Stem + suffix – good+ness
b. Compound (stem + stem) – ice cream, armchair
• Affixes
1. Affix receives primary stress = ´circle - ´semicircle, ´person – person´ality
2. Affix does not influence primary stress = ´pleasant – un´pleasant, ´market - ´marketing
3. Stress is shifted within the stem = ´magnet – mag´netic
• Suffixes
o Audacity, personality = person+ality OR person+al+ity? root≠stem
1. Stress-carrying suffixes

2. Neutral suffixes

3. Stress-moving suffixes

• Compound words
o Armchair, open-minded, desk lamp
o Noun + noun = ´typewriter, ´car ferry, ´sunrise, ´suitcase, ´teacup
o Adj + 2nd element = bad-´tempered, half-´timbered, heavy-´handed
o Numeral + 2nd element = three-´wheeler, second-´class, five-´finger
o Adv + 2nd element = head´first, North-´East, down´stream, down´grade, back-´pedal
• Variable stress

• Word-class pairs
Strong and weak forms

• Weak forms ≠contracted forms (it is → it´s, we have → we´ve)

• Function words – usually in weak form (WF), rarely in strong form (SF)

Weak forms
7)

Rhythm = regular repeated pattern

• English rhythm = stress-timed / Czech/Slovak = syllable-timed
• Foot – a unit of rhythm (begins with a stressed syllable + all following unstressed syllables)

• Stress shift

o Rhythmical (public speaking) + arhythmical speech (without rhythm – nervous)

Assimilation
• Change of 1 phoneme to another under the influence of a sound near to it
• in rapid, casual speech
• affects mostly consonants; within a word or between words
• Direction of assimilation
o Regressive – green boat is pronounced greem boat
o Progressive – a preceding sound has an effect on a following one, as in shortening
captain to cap'm rather than cap'n
• Types
1. Place of articulation – alveolar consonant before non-alveolar (regressive assimilation)

2. Manner of articulation
o Regressive assimilation o Progressive assimilation

3. Voice
o Regressive assimilation o Progressive assimilation
Aspects of connected speech
Elision (in rapid casual speech)
• Disappearance of sounds (zero realization):
o Loss of weak vowels after p, t, k
o Weak vowel + n, l, r = syllabic consonant
o Avoidance of complex consonant clusters
o Loss of final v in of before consonants
• Contractions
o Had, would → ´d o Will → ´ll
o Is, has → ´s o Have → ´ve
o Not → n´t (can – can´t, do – don´t, shall – shan´t)
o Are → ´re (you – you´re, we – we´re, they – they´re)

Linking
❖ Linking r
❖ Intrusive r

o Juncture
My turn – might earn Pea stalks – peace talks
Might rain – my train I scream – ice cream
Keep sticking – keeps ticking
8) Intonation
• Segmental phonology
– suprasegmental (prosodic phonology)
• Pitch = high – low
• Subjective sensation + objective measurement of
fundamental frequency
• Form and function of intonation
o Utterance – continuous piece of speech beginning and ending with a pause
o Tone – behaviour of the pitch
▪ Level tone
▪ Moving tone – falling, rising
• Complex tones
o Simple tones – level, fall, rise
o Complex tones – fall-rise
Rise-fall
o Pitch range
• Functions of tones
o Fall – neutral, finality
o Rise – something more is to follow
o Fall-rise – limited agreement, response with reservation

o Rise-fall – approval, disapproval, surprise

o Level – routine, uninteresting, boring
• Tones
 • Tone unit
o English, Czech/Slovak – intonation languages
o Tone-unit – the basic unit of intonation analysis (min. 1 syllable)

o Tonic syllable – prominent syllable carrying a tone and tonic stress

▪ (Tonic syllable = nucleus / tonic stress = nuclear stress)

Tone-unit 1 Tone-unit 2

o Hierarchy of phonological units

▪ speech → utterance → tone-unit → foot →syllable → phoneme
• structure of tone-unit
o simple tone unit = one tonic syllable
o head – from the first stressed syllable up to the tonic syllable

o pre-head – all unstressed syllables preceding the first stressed syllable

o tail – syllables between the tonic syllable and the end of the tone-unit

o (pre-head) + (head) + tonic syllable + (tail) = (PH) + (H) + TS + (T)

• Pitch in a tone unit

Complex tones High head and low head

declination = gradual dropping down of pitch

9) Functions of intonation
1) attitudinal function
• to express emotions and attitudes
I want to buy a new car.
➢ pitch range (narrow-wide)
➢ key (high, mid, low)
➢ facial expressions
a) gestures sequential variables
• Elements occurring one after another
o Pre-heads, heads, tonic syllables, tails
o Pauses o Tone-unit boundaries
b) prosodic variables
• constant characteristics of speech
o width of pitch range o loudness o voice quality
o key o speed
c) paralinguistic variables – body language
2) accentual function – To focus attention on particular items
• Word stress - independent of intonation
• tonic stress - function of intonation
• position of tonic stress = focus of intonation
o neutral position - last lexical word in a tone-unit
3) grammatical function - to recognise the grammatical structure

4) discourse function - to signal new information

• the functions overlap with each other

• Intonational subordination

➢ A drop to a lower part of the pitch range (low key)

➢ increased speed ➢ reduced loudness
➢ Narrower range of pitch
• regulation of conversational behaviour

10) Varieties of English pronunciation

• Pronunciation variety
o phonetic differences – identical inventories, different realisations
o phonological differences – segmental and subsegmental, different inventory
o examples = luck, look (pronounced identically)
• Geographical variation
o Dialectology = geographical differences of languages
o sociolinguistics = social differences in languages