Beat Up

Bit Bar

Book Pot Terminology: Phonology, phonemes and phonemic.

Boot here

Bed pure
Phonemic Chart (Andrian Underhill) /iː/
Away hair

Sir play

Door boy /
ɔː//
Cat / man I

Go /e:/

Foul

Sounds in isolation:

 Phonemes (phonology): the smallest sound that can make a difference in meaning. If you
change one phonema for another, you change the word, e.g the /p/ for /t/: “pea” and “tea”. In
English (RP), there are fourty four such significant sounds.
 Allophones (phonetics): each phoneme has a variety of allophones, which are slightly
different and acceptable ways of saying the sound without changing the meaning. The
sound /p/ in “peel” and in “pool” are not excatly the same. Therefore, they are allophones of
the same phoneme. Consequently, allophones are not signficant.
 Tone unit: the combination of word strees and intonation. The former is relatevely fixed.
The stressed syllable in “considerable” is not optional. The latter, can be chosen by the
speaker.
 Anaylising sounds: there are three aspects to consider when characterising a sound.
 Voiced or unvoiced
 Place of articulation (where the sound is produced)
 Manner of articulation (how the sound is produced)
 Vowel sounds: they are all voiced (the vocal tract is open so that there is no obstruction to the
air flow escaping over the tongue). What changes is tongue position.
 Schwa sound: the smallest English vowel sound. It is by far the most frequent vowel sound in
continuous speech. It is by definition never stressed.
 Glottal stop (/?/): it cannot change the meaning of a word. Therefore, it is not a phoneme in
English. However, it is an important characteristic of fluent speech. “I have got a British
accent”.
 Check key to phonemic symbols in English: page xii
 Consonant sounds: contraty to vowels and the semi-vowels (/w/ and /j/), consonants are
made by restricting or blocking the air flow in some physical way.
 Plosives (explosion): consonant sounds that are mady by building up and releasing the
pressure, /p/ and /b/, for example. First row.
 Affricates: they are composed of two consonats merged together. They can be
sustained for a long time. First row.
 Fricatives: the air flow is not completely blocked, though it is restricted. They can
also be sustained for a long time. Second row.
  The nasals, /h:/, /l/ and /r/ sounds: third row
 The /w/ and /j/ sounds: third row. These are the semi-vowels. They function as
consonants in that they precede the main vowel of a syllable. Compare /ies/ and /jes/.

 Strees in words: it is the emphasis given to a particular syllable of a word, and it is more or
less invariable attribute of that word. Stress carries meaning, which means that a different
stress can sometimes generate a new word: export (verb) and export (noun), for example.
 Primary and secondary word stress: /,infor’mation/ or /,contro’versial/, for example.

Connected speech:

 Word stress (accent) and sentence stress (prominence): word stress belongs to the word;
sentence stress is chosen by the speaker to highlight the intended meaning.
 Careful colloquial speech: Words remain closer to their dictionary pronunciation. It should
be a useful target for leaners in speaking.
 Rapid colloquial speech: words may be further from their dictionary pronunciation. It should
be a useful target for leaners in listening.
 Simplifications in connected speech:
 Assimilation: a phoneme chages its quality due to the influence of a neighbouring
sound. Example: in bed = /im bed/
 Elision: a sound is omitted in connected speech. Example: next please = /neks pli:z/
 Vowel reduction (centralisation) : unnacented vowels suffer a reduction in length,
and change in quality towards a less distinc, more central vowel sound. Example: You
and me and I wish you would tell me.
 Liasion: the smooth linking or joining together of words in connected speech. The
term can be applied only when the letter /r/ occurs in the written form.
- Linking /r/: her English, for example.
- Intrusive /r/: the sound inserted between two words when the first ends in
schwa or the sound of “door” and the following sound begins with a vowel
sound. This is by no means obligatory. Example: law and order.
- Intrusive /w/: sound inserted between certain vowel-vowel combinations at
word junctions. Example: you are. Instrusive /w/ follows a final /u:/ or a
diphthong ending in /u/ where the next word begins with a vowel sound.
- Intrusive /j/: Example: he is. Intrusive /j/ follows a final /i:/ or a diphthong
ending in /i/, where the next word begins with a vowel sound.
- Juncture: number of features that can make two strings of words seem the
same: ice cream / I scream.

Intonation:

 Stress-timed language: stressed syllables occur at roughly equal intervals of time, regardless
of the number of unstressed syllables in between. The time taken to speak each utterance
depends on the number of stresses and not on the number of syllables. English, Dutch and
German are examples of stress-timed languages.
 Tonic syllable: the most important syllable, representing the focus on information.
Intonation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTuKCvK0RIQ):

 Falling

 Statements: I love going to the beach.

 Proclaiming tone: information not shared with the interlocutor.
 Open questions (wh-questions): What do you do?
 Tag questions: I told you, didn’t I? (Mum and daughter)
- This is not a real question. I am not expecting a real answer.

 Rising

 Close questions: Can he come?

 Tag questions: I told you, didn’t I? (Employee and manager)
- This is a real question. I want a conformation.

 Fall-rising

 Lists: we need a cake, snacks and drinks.

 Referring tone: information already shared with the interlocutor.