Diphthongs (2 vowel sounds in one syllable)

/eə/ as in “Pair”
/ɪə/ as in “Deer” last sound /Ə/
/ʊə/ as in “Sure”
/ɔɪ/ as in “Toy” oy
/aɪ/ as in “Light” ay
/eɪ/ as in “Play” ey
/aʊ/ as in “Town” aw
/oʊ/ as in “Slow” ow
The sound [ei] as in RAY
 rate – late – Kate – fate – race – base – place – same – name – take – ache – lake – rage –
age – wage – save – cave – wave;
 dictate – educate – decorate – celebrate
 cable – table – able – cradle – range – change – strange – taste – waste;
 baby – bacon – paper – April – danger – angel – stranger – basis – lazy – crazy;
 patient – racial – nation – nature – fatal – radio – vacant;
 ray – gray – play – lay – day – may – say – way – pray – stay – stray – delay;
 hey – prey – they – convey – obey;
 rain – main – aim – brain – drain – train – stain – remain – explain – complain;
The sound [ai] as in RIDE
 ride – nice – ice – life – file – smile – line – fine – quite – rise – wise – prize
– hi;
 polite – combine – arrive – surprise – despise
 private – library – final – minus – crisis – climate –horizon – item;
 idea – ideal – identity – identical – biology;
 find – kind – mind – blind – child – mild – wild – climb – rifle – title – idle;
 high – sigh – sign – right – fight – night – light – sight – height;
 lie – die – tie – dye – rye – bye – eye – buy – guy – alibi;
 cry – dry – fry – try – by – my – sky – style – type – hype;
 The sound [au] as in HOW
 how – cow – now – allow – owl – brown – down – town – clown – drown –
crown – crowd – powder – browse – browser;
 loud – proud – cloud – out – shout – about – doubt – foul – noun – house –
mouse – mouth – south – couch;
 found – ground – around – pound – sound – count – amount – mountain –
announce – bounce; allow
The sound [oi] as in BOY
 noise – voice – avoid – poison – join – coin – point – boil – foil – oil – spoil
– toil – exploit;
 joy – toy – boy – annoy – employ – destroy;
 employing – destroying – annoying;
 loyal – royal –oyster – destroyer – employer.

The /ʊə/ sound

 During, security, Cure, tour, secure, impure - manicure - neuron -
neurosis - pure - purity – mature, impure, tourist, conceptual
The sound [ou] as in NO

 role – bone – phone – stone – close – note – notice – lonely – home –

hope – open – ocean – remote – suppose;
 go – ago – no – so – toe – hero – zero – potato – tomato
 solar – polar – modal – total –moment – bonus – focus –social – soldier –
coworker;
 cold – gold – hold – old – bold – sold – told – roll – poll – control – bolt –
colt – folk – yolk –don't – won't;
 most – post – host – hostess – ghost – both;
Phonology
Phonology concerns itself with the ways in which languages
make use of sounds to distinguish words from each other, and
make meaningful units.

Phonology tells us what sounds are in a language, how they

do and can combine into words, and explains why certain
phonetic features are important to identifying a word
Phones vs. allophones
 Phonemes are not physical sounds. They are abstract mental
representations of the phonological units of a language.
 Phones are considered to be any single speech sound of which
phonemes are made. Phonemes are a family of phones regarded as
a single sound and represented by the same symbol. The different
phones that are the realization of a phoneme are called allophones
of that phoneme. The use of allophones is not random, but rule-
governed.
Example: [i] and [ĩ] are allophones of the phoneme /i/; [ɪ] and [ɪ̃]
are allophones of the phoneme /ɪ/.
Pronunciation vs. Enunciation

Pronunciation - how a particular word should sound when spoken aloud. It is the act of
saying a word correctly. Pronunciation focuses on the sounds a speaker should use for each
part of a word and how they should be put together. Pronunciation is related to the word
itself, focusing on which syllables should be emphasized and how certain letters (or
combinations of letters) should sound when spoken.

Enunciation - speaking clearly, stating each word fully and distinctly. It means making sure that
words are spoken in a way that is clear, concise, and easy to understand. This is a
function of how an individual speaks rather than how a word should be pronounced.
Common Enunciation Problems

Enunciation problems can take several forms. A few examples include:

1. Dropping “g” sounds: Saying things like “He’s goin’ to the store” instead of fully
forming the “g” sound at the end of the word “going”
2. Blending words improperly: Combining words in a manner that is not correct, such
as saying “gonna” instead of “going to”
3. Speaking too quickly : Talking so fast that words run together so that listeners can’t
be sure where one word ends and another begins
4. Muttering: Speaking softly, in a manner often referred to as “under your breath” so
that other people can’t tell what you are saying
5. Mumbling: Speaking indistinctly and in a low voice so that words run together and
can be difficult for a listener to distinguish
Minimal Pairs - Minimal pairs are words with different meanings that
have the same sounds except for one. These contrasting sounds can
either be consonants or vowels. Words with one contrastive sound
are minimal pairs.

Example:
 pin and bin; time and dime are minimal pairs because they are
exactly the same except for the first sound.
 bread and broad are also exactly the same except for the vowel
sound
Free Variation - Some words in English are pronounced
differently by different speakers.

Example: neither, either

 American English - [niðər] [iðər]
 British English - [naIðər] [aIðər]
 AmE – herb (without h) schedule -
 BriT – herb (pronounced h) schedule -
Phonological Rules

1. Sometimes certain phonemes are pronounced differently depending on their context

Example: the English plural morpheme (-s and -es) has three different pronunciations
depending on what noun you attach it to - [s], [z], or [əz]
 [z] for words like cab, bag, bar, bell
 [s] for words like cap, back, rat, laughs
 [əz] for words like bus, kiss, match, judge, bush

When forming past tenses of verbs, the -ed ending is pronounced as either [t], [d], [əd]
 [t] – wash, laugh, task, cough
 [d] – play, fill, jog, love
 [əd] – plant, hunt, seed
 /s/ - after voiceless consonants
/f/, /k/, /p/, /t/, /th/-(thin)

 /z/ - after voiced consonants and vowel sounds

/b/, /d/, /g/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /ng/, /r/
/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/

 /əz/ - after sibilants (a hissing or buzzing sound like or c, x, s, ss, z, ch, sh, ge as in
changes, and zh in vision)

 /t/ - after voiceless consonants

 /d/ - after voiced consonants
 /əd/ - after alveolar stops.
2. The “t” sounds

 Alveolar Flap (sometimes known as “tap”): When is the letter “t”

pronounced like an alveolar flap?

a. Between two vowel sounds.

Examples: batter, bitter, butter, caterpillar, city, hotter, latter, letter,
matter, meeting, meter, relative, sitter, sweater, water,
whateverb. After a “vowel + r” sound (sometimes called “r-
colored vowel’).
Examples: barter, charter, comforting, dirty, quarter, thirty,
daughter
Before syllabic /l/; in other words, before the unstressed “ul”
sound /əl/.
Examples: battle, bottle, capital, fatal, hospital, rattle,
metal, turtle

c. In a phrase or sentence, before the stressed vowel at the

start of the next word.
Examples: know it all, meet Alice, not on, get on, What
are you doing?
3. word pairs in English that sound exactly the same, even though
one is spelled with “t” and one with “d”.

atom = Adam betting = bedding

bitter = bidder coating = coding
greater = grader hearty = hardy
latter = ladder matter = madder
metal = medal petal = peddle
rated = raided seating = seeding
title = tidal traitor = trader
wetting = wedding writing = riding
4. Glottal Stop /ʔ/ - The glottal stop appears:

a. Before a syllabic nasal, spelled t + vowel + n. In other words, the glottal stop occurs
before an unstressed “un” which sounds /ən/.

Examples: beaten, bitten, Britain, button, certain, cotton, curtain, eaten, forgotten,
fountain, gotten, important, kitten, Manhattan, mitten, rotten, written, partner, fitness
 Are you certain about that?
 I have a mountain of laundry to fold.
 Let's meet at the fountain at noon.
 I haven't gotten it yet.
 Don't press that button!
 Cotton: I think this is made of cotton.
 Curtain: Can you close the curtain?
b. When a word or syllable ends with a “t” just before a consonant
sound. This could be at the end of a syllable within a word (e.g.
“football”) or at the end of a word within a sentence/phrase (e.g. “I
can’t go”).

Examples: atlas, curtly, flightless, football, hate mail, greatness,

right now, settler, witless
5. Aspirated “t” - The aspirated “t” sound appears:

a. When the word starts with “t”.

Examples: table, take, talk, tango, tap, tea, teach, tear, teeth, tell, ten, tie, time, tongue, too,
took, top, touch, toy, traffic, train, tree, trend, triangle, trip, trouble, true, try, turn

b. At the beginning of a stressed syllable.

Examples: attack, attend, eternal, Italian, mistake, particular, participant, photography,
retire, return

c. After a consonant (except “n”).

Examples: actor, after, doctor, empty, lunchtime, starts, sting, stop, store
5. Held “t” (sometimes called Unreleased “t”
or Unaspirated “t”)

a. Held “t” appears at the end of a word.

Examples: amount, ancient, bat, boat, bet, bit, blunt,

bought, but, can’t, cat, coat, dent, don’t, elite, faint, font, goat,
hat, hot, it, lint, lot, mint, not, paint, pat, patient, pint, pot,
rat, rent, rote, sent, slant, sweet, tint, vent, won’t
6. Regular /t/ - The /t/ sound appears:

a. Before and after /s/.

Examples: bats, boats, cats, coats, fruits, meets

b. After /n/ (unless “t” is the last letter of the word).

Examples: central, enter, internet, international, magenta,
painting, printer, sentence
7. Omitted or drop /t/
Example: center, international, advantage, gentle, internet,
twenty , Toronto

a. The /t/ sound is often dropped when it is followed by a consonant.

The word ‘lightning’ is usually pronounced as ligh’ning.

b. /t/ is dropped when it’s followed by a word beginning with a

consonant.
Native speakers often delete the /t/ sound in left sideˌ to say
lefside, ‘next door’ as nexdoor; credit card,
c. /t/ is dropped when it follows the /n/ sound.
• I don’t understand becomes
I doʊn understand.
• I went outside for a walk becomes
I wɛn outside for a walk.
• I want to take a walk becomes
I wanna take a walk.
• It’s too cold here in the winner!
• Her painings are at the gallery.
• She has pleny of money in the bank.
3. The “x” sounds

a. x is pronounced ks whenever x is between a vowel and a consonant

Example: excuse, experience, excited, exhale, extra, extension,
mixture, axe, saxophone, Oxide, mixed, maximum, hexagon

Note: x followed by c
Example: excel , except,
b. When the stressed syllable begins immediately after the letter x and
the x is followed by a vowel sound, the x is pronounced as a g sound
plus z sound (gz)

Examples: ex-AM-ine, ex-EC-u-tive, ex-HAUST (there is no h

sound), anx-I-e-ty, ex-ACT, ex-OT-ic, example, Alexander, exile,
exert,
**** EX-it, ex-is-TEN-tial, EX-ile

Note: Not all “x” followed by a vowel sound is pronounced as (gz), “x”
is Not Followed by stressed syllable:
Examples: Taxi, Taxes, Texas, Execute, Exercise, Toxic, Oxygen
d. x as “ksh” and “sh”
Example: Obnoxious, Sexual, anxious

e. x as the first letter in a word sounds as “z”

Example: xanthan, xenophile, xerox, xenophobia,
xerosis