A course in the pronu.

nciation of Englisb

Mimi Ponsonby

Illustrated by Duncan

Prentice-Hall International English Language Teaching

HOW NOW,

BR WN

A course in the pronunciation of English, with exercises and dialogues

bV

Mimi Ponsonby

Illustrated bv Duncan

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1056010319

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING Prentice Hall

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New York London Toronto Sydney Tokyo Singapore

40. [ur] bark, barn Making a pass at Martha 84
4l. [;):J bought, board Fawns, horses and a tortoise 86
42. Elision A trip to Lapland 88
43. [uij loose , lose Where are you, Hugh? 90
44. [uj foot, good Miss Woodfull'll be furious 92
45. [3:] birth, girl How's my pert little turtledove? 94
46. Rhythm again (mixed) Looking for something pretty 96
47. [ou] coat, code No wonder the boat was low! 98
48. [au] about, aloud Howard's found an owl 100
49. [er, [ar], bIJ late, lazy; write, ride;
voice, boys James Doyle and the boilermakers' strike 102
50. [Id], red] pierce, beard; scarce, stairs It's eerie in here 104
[arc], [aoc], fire, tired; flower, our 105
51. Intonation 1: rise-fall pattern What time does the plane leave? 108
52. Intonation 2: fall-rise pattern Were you at home last night? 110
53. Intonation 3: combined patterns I'm afraid I think I'm lost 112
54. Intonation 4: tag questions Fish like a bit of silence, don't they? 114
55. Revision 1 A bit of beef at the picnic U6
56. Revision 2 Listening to the plants talking 118
57. Revision 3 Nobody wants a mermaid 120
58. Extra practice 122 VI

Introduction

THIS book was originally intended for people studying on their own-businessmen, scientists, would-be teachers-who have learnt their English from the printed page and then find on business trips or international conferences, or even just social occasions, that it is almost impossible to follow a lecture or conversation, and that nobody at all understands them; or students wanting to supplement their academic studies with something a little closer to active communication.

However, How Now, Brown Cow? is just as suitable for use in a classroom, especially if you have access to a language laboratory. It's not necessary to know a lot of English before you begin, though it helps to know a little. The trouble with many people is that they get into bad habits, very often pronouncing English words like sounds of their mother tongue, and the more fluently they speak, using all these incorrect sounds, the more difficult it is to get rid of them. So in a way, it will be easier for you if you don't know too much!

Why Pronunciation is necessary

Language is a means of communication. It has three components:

(a) Structures (the patterns that can be seen in these are usually called the grammar of the language).

(b) Words that convey meaning (vocabulary or lexis).

(c) Sound, stress, and intonation patterns, which combine to make up

'Pronunciation' .

If you communicate only through the written word, you will need only the first two of these components. If, on the other hand, you want to be able to understand the spoken language, and to be understood, you'll need all three components. Some people think that as long as you know the words, and perhaps a smattering of grammar, the way you say things doesn't really matter. Well, that's all right as long as all you want the language for is to point to something and say 'How much?', in which case there's not much purpose in your following this course. A child can get what it wants by pointing and saying 'Oa1 Da!', or screaming till it gets it. But a child soon learns that there are better ways of conveying its needs, and later, that the world and human thought and emotions are far too complex to be expressed merely by pointing or screammg.

Ideally, all three components of language should go hand in hand from the very beginning. If the unfamiliar sounds and pronunciation patterns are mastered early they become so natural that it seems unnatural to say them incorrectly. All that's left to learn is where the stress lies and how some of the more unusual words are said.

Communication is a two-way process-

1. Understanding other people when they speak.

2. Conveying what you want to say so that other people can understand you. vii

For the first, understanding, we need(a) Knowledge and

(b) Awareness, sensitivity.

For the second, conveying meaning, we need(a) Knowledge

(b) Awareness and (c) Control.

If you have no idea, for instance, that there's an important difference in English between's' and 'sh ' (phonetically written [s] and rn), and furthermore you can't distinguish between the two, you won't know how to react if someone asks you to 'bring in the sear-c-or was it sheet? This situation doesn't seem very serious, but it could be. There are hundreds of stories told of misunderstandings caused by mispronunciation. Sometimes there is laughter, sometimes people walk out in anger, and on at least one occasion there was very nearly an International Incident.

There may be only one, tiny difference between the word the speaker said and the word he thought he was saying. Suppose there were two or three 'mistakes' in your pronunciation? The consequences could be

(a) offence to the listener,

(b) misunderstanding by the listener,

(c) complete lack of comprehension by the listener,

(d) a listener so exhausted by the effort of trying to interpret what it is you're trying to say that he gives up and goes and talks to someone else.

Not a very happy prospect! How Now, Brown Cow? is designed to minimise the dangers.

How to use this book

The book is divided into fifty-eight units, each of which deals with either a single phoneme or a characteristic feature of British English pronunciation. Each unit begins with an explanation of how to produce a particular sound or handle a particular feature. This is followed by exercises, either for repetition and practice or for recognition and distinction of sounds. There are also exercises on syllable stress. With exercises for repetition and practice it is always best to listen first without looking at the text. The written word can so often interfere with one's perception of an unfamiliar sound. As you repeat, check constantly to make sure that you're carrying out carefully the instructions at the top of the page, and that your speech organs are all in the correct position. Listen very attentively to the sounds on the tape, and imitate these as exactly as you can, parrotwise, without, for the time being, worrying about meaning. Think initially only of sound. This requires discipline but is worth the effort. If you have a second tape recorder on which you can record your own voice, this is the best way to listen to yourself dispassionately, as if the voice belonged to someone else.

Remember, acquiring a complex skill like a language requires both awareness and control, and these can only be achieved through constant practice. To make this practice more varied, there are words in groups, as well as tongue-twisters, nursery rhymes and proverbs. Under the heading of 'Proverbs' I have included common idioms and an occasional quotation.

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Once you feel that you've mastered the sound, look at the words as they're written. You'll be surprised at the spelling-but remember the sound remains constant. Keep checking your pronunciation as you repeat the sounds, either in unison with or after the tape. Be aware all the time of your speech organs-the shape of your mouth, the position of your tongue, voicing or lack of it, and so on. Experiment with sounds. Practise combinations that make no sense, simply to exercise your muscles -'Waa wee waa wee' or 'Hoe go hoe gO'--that sort of thing. Never be afraid to exaggerate-you can always tone it down.

The exercises for discrimination are designed to encourage you to listen accurately and to refine your awareness of the differences between sounds which to the untrained ear appear indistinguishable. There is no reason why these exercises shouldn't be used for practice, too.

The same applies to the exercises on syllable stress. Use them first of all to sharpen your sensitivity to stress within words and later to rhythm in longer speech, and carry this sensitivity into real life so that you're also aware of these things in real conversation. Then practise them yourself, making the stressed syllables louder, longer and higher than the rest. Again, don't be afraid to exaggerate.

At the bottom of each left-hand page, printed upside down, are the answers to questions in which you have to make decisions. Do try not to look before you've made up your own mind what the answer should be. Even if you're wrong, you will have learnt something. And you can go back and listen again and try to discover why you were wrong.

Finally, we come to the dialogues, which all these exercises have been leading up to. Now we practise the particular sound or feature of pronunciation with which the unit is concerned. The situations are, perhaps, a little fantastic but the language is ordinary-at least, as ordinary as is possible if one's concentrating on one particular sound.

Each dialogue has been recorded like this:

1. The complete conversation with both parts read by native speakers.

2. The conversation repeated, but the second voice omitted.

3. The conversation repeated once more, with the first voice omitted.

Only enough time has been left on the tape for you to say the speech at the same speed as the original native speaker. If this is not long enough for you at first, switch off the machine each time it is your turn, but try to increase your speed and fluency so that eventually the conversation flows and you answer the first speaker and he or she answers you as naturally as if the other person was in the room with you. Practise if you possibly can until you feel you have made some improvement. But do not work anyone dialogue or speech to death. You can always return to a unit after you have worked on others. In fact, since, like driving a car or flying an aeroplane, speech demands controlling a number of diverse skills at the same time (it is not much usc saying 'I'm changing gear-how can I be expected to steer?'), and since each dialogue must obviously contain a great many features of speech other than the one it's primarily intended to practise, all the dialogues are useful for practising all aspects of pronunciation.

HN8C _ A·

IX

What you need to know before you begin

I have tried, as far as possible, to keep the explanations of so-called 'rules' simple and un technical. But there are one or two basic and very important concepts that appear again and again throughout the book and which it would be sensible to explain once and for all now so that instead of repeating the explanation I can simply usc the word or phrase that refers to it-this, after all, is the purpose of all specialised terminology.

The terms I want to explain are:

1. 'Phoneme'

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that makes a difference to meaning in any given language. The sounds of your 'target language' (the language you are trying to learn-in this case British English) may either (a) not exist or (b) exist but be replaceable without altering meaning by another, fairly close sound. In some languages [w] and [v] are interchangeable, both probably being pronounced somewhere between the two sounds as said in English. Or [1] and [rJ may not be phonemic. In Finnish and Estonian the lengths of vowels and consonants alter the meaning of otherwise similar words, but to an English person the difference between the lengths is at first both impossible to hear and impossible to reproduce. Each language has its own particular phonemic system. If you are going to be able to understand and make people understand you in English, it is obvious that you must (a) recognise the English phonemes and (b) pronounce them correctly yourself.

2. The terms 'voiced' and 'voiceless'

When you pronounce a sound, you can either vi-

brate your vocal cords (pro- \.),.,

ducing a 'voiced' sound) or -v push the air straight up from your lungs and out of your mouth (a 'voiceless' sound).

Many English consonant sounds can be grouped into pairs, both sounds of which are produced in exactly the same way except that one is voiced and the other is voiceless; [b) and [p], [vJ and [fJ are examples. Each sound in these pairs is phonemic, so it is very important to make the difference between them-this one feature of

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voicedness or voicelcssness--very clear, and also to be aware of it when you are listening. There are several ways to check whether you are pronouncing these sounds correctly. First, put your fingers on your Adam's apple and say Iv]' which is a voiced sound, and a good one to practise with because you can hold on to it. You should feel a strong vibration. If you say the voiceless equivalent, [f], you should feel no vibration at all. Better still, cover your ears with your hands and make the two sounds. With voiceless sounds, the air that you expel should come out at such a force that it blows a candle out or a feather off your hand. At least you should be able to feel the air if you hold your hand in front of your mouth. With the voiced sounds, there should be no more than a tiny explosion of air. All vowels are voiced.

3. The speech organs

These are all the parts of the head that you use to make sounds. They are:

nasal passage

hard palate

back of tongue

Teeth--top (or upper) and bottom (or lower). Tongue-tip, middle, back.

Alveolar ridge-the ridge of bone just behind the top teeth. Vocal cords-two parallel muscles like strings of a harp, which

vibrate to produce 'voiced' sounds.

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Adam's apple-the bump in the front of your throat which moves up and down when you swallow. This is just in front of the vocal cords.

top lip _--- top teeth

,,_ ..... ---- middle of the tongue

tip of the tongue

bottom lip ----Adam's apple

4. Minimal pairs

These are pairs of words which are almost exactly the same. Only one small thing differentiates them (pin.bin or pin:pan, for instance). Sometimes-as in the case of 'Batman' and 'bad man'-the difference between the pronunciation is so slight that you have to listen for the effect the change of consonants has on the rest of the utterance. With 'Batman' and 'bad man' it's the difference in the length of the vowel.

Because these tiny differences may not exist in your language, or may not be important, but are phonemic in English, you have to train yourself to listen very carefully.

Phonetic symbols

Do not, please, be afraid of these. They are merely a quick and accurate way of referring to particular sounds. If you make a mental note of them as they appear at the top of each unit you will very soon master them, or at least recognise them. If in doubt, look at the table of contents-they are all there, together with examples in ordinary script to act as a guide.

They are in square brackets [ ] to show that we are talking of sounds and not letters of the alphabet or units of grammar. Remember that in English, sound very often has no relation to spelling!

The system followed is Gimson's Revised Phonetic Alphabet.

Note that a mark (r) following a symbol means that the sound is long, e.g. [0:], [3:].

i: as in beat, bead or as in bought, board

I as in bit, bid u as in foot, good

e as in bet, bed u: as in loose, lose

ze as in bat, bad A as in cut, come

0: as in bark, barn 3: as in birth, girl

o as in boss, bomb d as in among, sofa

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er as in late, laid

co as in coat, code

ar as in write, ride

au as in about, aloud :)1 as in voice, boys

Id as in pierce, beard ec as in scarce, stairs

Ud as in sure (also pronounced [jo: D

8 as in think, month 6 as in then, breathe S as in ship, wash

3 as ill measure, rouge t] as in chin, watch

d3 as in jump, bridge IJ as in singer, thing

j as in yes, opinion

Now you're ready to begin. But just before you leave me and set off on your own, may I make one request? If you have problems that I have not dealt with in the book, or if you can find peculiar spelling that I haven't included, or you know other proverbs and funnier tongue-twisters, do let me know. I shall be delighted to receive them. They can always go into the next edition!

And now, off you go. Don't expect it all to be easy. And don't worry if occasionally you feel you'll never get it right. All learning is hard work. But at the same time it should always be fun!

Xlll

o Mew,

who pointed my nose in the right direction

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BR W C

1. [pJ pin

The first six sounds we are going to examine are called 'plosives because you build up a pressure of air and release it like a small explosion. To produce the first one, [p], press your lips together, let the air from the lungs build up behind them and then blow it out suddenly. You should be able to blowout a candle or a feather off your hand. Let the air come straight up from the lungs, as this is a voiceless sound. Keep blowing through the vowel that follows; e.g. 'park', 'pin'. Listen carefully to exercise A on the tape before you try. The speaker is exaggerating, but only a little. When you practise, exaggerate too.

Sometimes it helps to think there is an 'h' after the 'p '. As if you were saying 'p-hin' (often written [p-rnl).

----- --------~----------

--------------~--------

PRACTICE

A. Hold your hand upright in front of your mouth, so that your fingers are just touching your nose. Make sure that you feel a definite explosion of air each time you say lrl.

(a) Percy pass pet presume expensive
perfect put poor practical expect
purpose pot post pride explain
people pay pack pretty explore
Popplewell pound pun present explode
silent 'p'
porridge puce uphill (p )neumonia cu(p)board cou(p)
possible puny upheaval (p)salm ras(p )berry cor(ps)
parcel computer upholstery (p )sychology recei(p )t (b) Practice makes perfect.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Promises and piecrusts are made to be broken. Penny plain, twopence coloured.

To rob Peter to pay Paul.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper, where's the peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked?

B. Listen to the tape. Which is slhe saying? Underline the right word in each pair.

(a) pig/big (b) pill/fill (c) pen/ten

(d) pick/thick (e) pat/bat

(f) post/boast

(g) pan/can (h) pole/hole (i) pop/bop

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2

DIALOGUE 1, A present for Penelope

PETER: Pass the pepper, will you, please, Percy, old chap?

PERCY: Pepper? You're not proposing to put pepper on your porridge? PETER: Shut up, Percy! Why do you always presume that I'm stupid? PERCY: Well, stop snapping and explain the purpose of the pepper pot.

PETER: It's perfectly simple. I want to compare our pepper pot with the pepper pot I've bought as a present for Penelope Popplewell.

PERCY: A practical=-but pretty expensivc=-prcsent!

PETER: Well, she's a super person. I thought perhaps, if you happened to be passing the Post Office ... Could you possibly pop the parcel in the post?

PERCY: Am I expected to pay the postage on this pepper pot for Penelope Popplewell ?

PETER: Percy, you're impossible! I may be poor but I have my pride! Here's El for the postage.

3

2. [b] bin

Your mouth is in the same position as for [p], but this time the sound is voiced, that is, the vocal cords behind your Adam's apple are vibrated. Put your fingers on your throat or over your ears each time, to check that you really are making a difference between the voiced and voiceless sounds. Don't be afraid to exaggerate. Make sure there is only the smallest explosion of air.

PRACTICE

A.

(a) bit bat but

silent 'b' clim(b) com(b) thum(b)

de(b )t doufb)t su(b)tle

baby balcony bottle

blanket blades bless you

brother brandy breathe

trouble table problem

(b) Now practise lengthening the vowel before the [b] like this: tap (very short) : ta-a-ab (as long as you like).

tap/tab lope/lobe harp/harbour

sheep/Sheba Caple/cable baps/Babs

simple/symbol tripe/tribe

(c) His bark's worse than his bite.

The blind leading the blind.

Your eyes are bigger than your belly.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Beauty will buy no beef. Blind as a bat.

Bold as brass.

B. Which is the speaker saying? Remember, when there's a voiced consonant sound at the end of a syllable, the vowel before it is lengthened. If the consonant sound is voiceless, the vowel is short.

. peach!

(a) What a beautiful golden b h!

eac .

(pills

b) The bills are on the table.

(c) The mobP fell on him.

mo

(d) He threw off the robPe and ran away. ro e

C. Mixed voiced/voiceless. Say slowly, then faster and faster, but always thinking carefully whether you are saying [PJ or [bj.

(a) The butcher put the pork spareribs into a brown paper bag.

(b) Betty's prepared beautiful puff pastry for the blackberry and apple pie. (c) Peter's big pink pig's broken the tips of Bill's best rhubarb plants.

;lqOl (p) dow (J) smd (q) IpB;lq (B)·S: :SUMSUV

4

DIALOGUE 2. Brandy in the baby's bottle!

Telephone rings. Brr ... brr brr.

BOB: Bob Batterby.

BABS: Oh Bob, this is Babs. I'm baby-sitting for Betty and my brother Bill. I'm sorry to bother you but . . .

BOB: What's the trouble? No problem's too big when Bob's on the job!

BABS: Oh stop being stupid, Bob. It's baby. I put her on the balcony on a blanket

with a biscuit to bite on and I think a bit of biscuit ... She can't breathe.

BOB: Bang her on the back, between the shoulder blades. BABS: I've banged her till she's black and blue.

BOB: Try putting a bit of brandy in her bottle.

BABS: Brandy in the baby's bottle! Oh Bob!

BOB: Sorry, Babs. Sounds bad. I'd better bicycle over. Be with you before you can say 'bread and butter'.

BABS: Bless you, Bob. 'Bye 'bye. Be quick!

5

3. [t] tie

Press the tip of your tongue against the ridge of bone behind and above your top teeth (the alveolar ridge) so that no air can get through. Build up the pressure of air behind this barrier, and then break the pressure by opening your mouth a little and removing your tongue from the ridge so that the air rushes out. Carryon the rush of air through the vowel sound that follows, as you did with [p], so that the word 'tin' sounds like 't-hin' or even 'tsin '. Exaggerate this aspiration to bcgin with as you practise.

PRACTICE

(a) time tell town

torn

taxi telephone

twelve twenty between

trousers tried transport

what latc night

after water empty

Ternpletons tempted extra vagant

(b) Past forms with '<ed' following a voiceless consonant sound (except Itl-see page 8).

hoped looked puffed missed wished fetched mixed

hopped asked laughed passed crashed watched boxed

(c) 'th' pronounced (rj.

Anthony, Thomas and Theresa Thompson live at No. 10 Chatham Street, Walton-onThames, next to Thyme Cottage.

(d) Silent 'r. chris(t)en lise t )en glis( t)en

cas(t)le wres(t)le whis(t)le

ches(tjnut Chris(t)mas exac(t)ly

sof(t)en of(t)en mus(t)n't

cabarc(t) balle(t) croque(t)

(e) Better late than dead on time. A storm in a teacup.

To fall between two stools. On the tip of your tongue.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again.

Temptations are like tramps=-Ier one in and he returns with his friends.

B. Listen to the tape and fill in the missing words. Then say the sentences aloud.

(a) These are Why you them?

(b) . . .. answer the _ I. _. you.

(c) The arrive _ a. . . . . _ , ,so you'd.

...... ' the .

(d) . . was.. a...... or. .. ., ...

. .. a

the ... _ ... was .....

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6

DIALOGUE 3. Waiting for Templetons

TESSA: What time did you tell Templetons to get here, Martin? MARTIN: Any time between 10 and 12.

TESSA: But it's after two! They're terribly late!

MARTIN: Why didn't you contact United Transport as I told you? TESSA: Peter Thompson said that Templetons were better.

MARTIN: Tessa! Peter Thompson's a director of Templetons. Oh! blast it! I've torn

my trousers on the radiator!

TESSA: Oh Martin, do take care! ... Hadn't we better telephone? MARTIN: I've tried. The telephone's not connected yet.

TESSA: And the water's still cut off. We can't just wait here all afternoon in an

empty fiat with no water and no telephone.

MARTIN: How uninviting an empty flat is.

TESSA: And it seems tiny, too, now, doesn't it?

MARTIN: I'm tempted to take a taxi straight into town and stay the night in a hotel. TESSA: How extravagant! But what a delightful thought!

7

4. [d] die

This is the voiced equivalent of [t], so the tongue starts in the same position, against the alveolar ridge, and the lower jaw is pulled down and the tongue withdrawn from the ridge to release the pressure. However, as this is a voiced sound, there will be no rush of air but only a tiny explosion. Don't forget to check on your vibration, either with your fingers on your Adam's apple, or by covering your cars. And don't forget to lengthen any vowel sound immediately before the [dJ.

PRACTICE

A.

(a) do day dog

dreary drab drive

long vowel bed

rode

afraid

date daughter don't

silent 'd' han(d)some han( d) kerchief han(d)cuff

gran( d )mother gran( d)father We(d)nesday

past tense '<ed'

after voiced consonant

lived called

sagged banged

seized waged

atter ':', 'd'/ld/

wanted patted

waited acted

added loaded

landed ended

(b) Don't forget to lengthen the vowel if it's followed by a voiced consonant.

tame mate time spite tram mat

dame . made dime spied dram mad

toll dole

coat code

(e) All dressed up like a dog's dinner.

Never say die until you're dead.

Between the devil and the deep blue sea.

Dull as ditch water. Dead as a door nail.

B. Which is slhe saying?

(a)

I, tent. h

ve put a d II1 t e car.

en!

. seed ..

TI1lS should be kept 1T1 the garden shed.

seat

(d) (e)

I, fraid h' heart

mara! e s a h d case.

ar

I think it's thirsty.

Thursday.

(b)

( ) I hi trunk. h . c saw two men pus mg a drunk into t c taxi.

C. One word in each sentence (3 words in (f)) makes the whole sentence into nonsense.

Which are the words? And what ought they to be?

(a) (b) (c)

(d) (e) (f)

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DIALOGUE 4. All dressed up for a date with David

DONALD: And what's my darling daughter doing all dressed up?

DEIRDRE: I've got a date with David, Daddy. We're going to a dance at Dudley Head, with Dan and Ada Dodd.

DONALD: David? Not that dreary lad who came to dinner on Friday and trod on the dog? Deirdre, he's dreadful!

DEIRDRE: Oh Daddy! He's divine! I adore him!

DONALD: I found him dreadfully dull, I'm afraid. You know, that dress doesn't do anything for you, my dear. Dark red! Darling, it's so deadening, so dreadfully drab!

DEIRDRE: Oh Daddy! Why is everything I do dreadful these days? (The front doorbell rings.) Oh, there's David! I must dash.

DONALD: Is he driving? Don't let him drink. And don't forget, you said you'd be in bed by midnight.

DEIRDRE: Oh Daddy!

9

5. [k J .cut

Raise the back of your tongue and press it against your soft palate at the back of your mouth cavity, completely blocking the passage of air. As with [p] and [t], as soon as this blockage is released the air rushes out and the voiceless-sound is produced. And as with [pI and [t], there is a great deal of aspiration, so practise saying [k-han] (can), [k-hirp] (keep), [k-hrt] (kit).

PRACTICE
A.
(a)
cash Mike market clock
case take taking neck
come park broken back
com keep baker duck
car kid crikey sick
[ksJ [kw] but [k]
taxi quick quay
SIX quite quarter
accent quiet conquer
mixed quality cheque
success question mosquito (b) Curiosity killed the cat.

To cut your coat according to your cloth. Cool as a cucumber.

The pot calling the kettle black.

'ch' (mostly from Greek)

ache stomach

school monarch

chaos mechanic

Christmas archaeology

echo archipelago

silent 'k' before 'n' (k)now

(k)nock

(k)nee

(k)nife

(k)new

A cat may look at a king. To come a cropper. Catch as catch can.

To kill a wife with kindness.

B. Question and answer (this is best done in pairs).

I. Can you talk in Cockney to a crowd in Connaught Square?

Of course I can talk in Cockney to a crowd in Connaught Square.

2. Can you coat a coffee cake with Cornish clotted cream?

Of course I can . . .

3. Can you quickly kick a crooked Coca-Cola can?

Of course I can . . .

4. Can you catch a cuckoo in a broken wicker cage?

Of course I can . . .

C. Which of these words are said twice?

(a) sack/sag (b) pick/pig

(c) cap/gap

(d) came/game

(e) coat/goat (f) card/guard

(g) peck/peg (h) class/glass

_._---_._---------------------------------

SSBF' (q) jhd (ll) pJen;J (J) 11lO;) [o dWB;) (p) dell (J) llid (q) )(JP.S (e) 'J :.I'.L.JMSUV 10

D

DIALOGUE 5. Cash in the ice-cream carton

COLIN: O.K., Mike. At six o'clock you take a taxi to the bank. Max will come out

with the cash in a cream-coloured case ...

MIKE: I'm to collect the cash?

COLIN: Of course. Don't ask questions. Just concentrate. MIKE: Colin, if they catch me I'll confess.

COLIN: Keep quiet, can't you? At a quarter to six Coco will be parked at the corner of the Market Square.

MIKE: I'll scream. I'm a coward. The kids at school ...

COLIN: Pack the cash in the ice-cream carton in the back of the car and make your way as quick as you can back to the cafe.

MIKE: Colin, I'm scared.

COLIN: Oh crikey, Mick! You do make me sick!

11

6. [g] gut

------------------------------ --------------_----- .--------

Like [p 1: [b 1 and [t]: [d], [k] and [g 1 are a pair, the only difference in the two sounds being that the first is voiceless, the second voiced. So place your tongue in the same position as for [k] but do not let the air rush out, and control the sound from your vocal cords, which should be vibrating. Until you are quite confident that you can make the correct sound every time, always check for this vibration. Remember to lengthen a preceding vowel.

-------- ._--

PRACTICE

A_

(a) go get good give gold

Gran great grey angry Greece

grumble Grandfather grocer telegram disgraceful

glass glove Gladys glade igloo

ago again begin together regatta

'<gue' plague league prologue dialogue synagogue

Remember to lengthen the

vowel (ba-a-ag}

bag bog target

flag fog organ

sag log eager

silent 'g' (g)naw (g)nat (g) nome

si(g)n campai(g)n forei(g)n

[nj] poignant cognac

(b) (i) Say each column downwards, taking care to make the initial sound exaggeratedly voiced or voiceless.

(ii) Repeat the words, but reading across the page, so that you have alternate voiced/

voiceless sounds. Again, make the difference very clear.

pm bin pan ban pay bay

tin din tan Dan Tay day

kin begin can began Kay gay

(c) To kill the goose that lays the golden egg. As good as gold.

All that glisters is not gold. To give as good as you get.

Go and teach your grandmother to suck eggs.

B. Which is s/he saying?

(a) Put this in the back, '11 ?

bag, WI you.

(b) I thought I caught a glimpse of the cOl astt-

g lOS .

( ) Y class.. h

c our I IS 10 t ere.

g ass

(d) I found a cap in the hedge. gap

ankle

(e) You haven't drawn that I very well. ang e

--------------

;;>[jlUB (;;» dEjl (p) 55U[J (o lSOljjl (q) )[:lBq (e) '8 :SlJMSUV

12

DIALOGUE 6. Eggs from the Greek grocer

GLADYS: Gran, I'm hungry. Can we go home?

GRANNY: Grumbling again, Gladys! A great big girl like you. Now take my grey bag and go and get some eggs from the grocer, there's a good girl.

GLADYS: But Gran ...

GRANNY: I'm going to send a telegram to your grandfather. Oh, give me my glasses

before you go. In the green and gold grosgrain case.

GLADYS: But Granny ...

GRANNY: Don't giggle, girl, I'm beginning to get angry. Go and get the eggs. GLADYS: But Gran, it's no good my going to the grocer. He's gone away. He goes

back to Greece every August. He's Greek.

GRANNY: Gone to Greece? How disgraceful!

13

7. Syllable stress

In words of more than one syllable, the syllables do not all have equal stress. There is usually one that has particularly strong stress. This means that on this syllable your voice is louder and usually pitched higher, and you hang on to the syllable considerably longer than on the other syllables of that word. Different stressing can change the meaning of a word or make it completely unrecognisable.

A few general rules

(a) Always stress the syllable before one that's pronounced (fn] -ssion.-tion, [Is] -cious/ -tious, (fI] -cial.-tial, etc., e.g. attention, spacious, artificial.

(b) In words ending '-ie', '-ical', '-ieally', the stress is on the syllable before '-ie', except Arabic, arithmetic, lunatic, heretic, politics, rhetoric (but adjectives: arithmetic,

heretical, political, rhetorical). .

(c) A great many words are stressed on the last syllable but two, e.g. illuminate, thermometer, geology, philosopher. Words ending in '<ology", '-onomy', '-6sophy', '-ologisf, etc., always follow this rule.

(d) Words ending in '-ese' have the stress on this syllable (Chinese, journalese).

(e) Do not stress the negative prefix attached to an adjective (possible, impossible; literate, illiterate) except: nowhere, nothing, nobody, nonsense.

PRACTICE

A. Exaggerate the stressing as much as you can=-i.e. make the stressed syllable louder, higher and longer than the unstressed ones.

(a) completion efficient invasion financial advantageous vivacious

(b) photogenic scientific materialistic geographical musical technical

(c ) psychology/psychologist meteorology/meteo rologist ideology/ideologist

(d) Chinese Japanese Portuguese Cantonese Balinese Viennese

(c) organised/disorganised complete/incomp lete attractive/unattractive

legal/illegal where/nowhere sense/nonsense

B. Practise shifting the stress.

photograph photographer photographic

politics political politician

competing competitor competition

analyse analysis analytical

C. Listen to the dialogue. Where are the stresses?

photography institute career

develop photographs technical

photographic possibility competition

amateurs politician distinguished

political competitive politics

S;)11119d / ;lA!1!19dwo:.J / IlD!lJlod / p;lljs!n8ujls!p / UB!J!l!IOd / srnonnne / uouuaduroo

/ A)lIN!Ssod / :l!ljd~18010ljd / rBJIUljJ91 / sqdarfioioud / dOl9AJp / l;l?ll?J / oimusuj / AljdBJil910ljd 'J :S.l3MSUV

14

DIALOGUE 1: Photography or politics?

DIANA: What have you decided to do after college, Jeremy?

JEREMY: I'm going to take up photography. Mr McKenzie's recommended the course at the Institute. He believes I could make a career as a photographer, DIANA: You'll have to develop your own photographs. That requires technical skill.

Jeremy, you're not a technician! And photographic materials are very expensive.

JEREMY: Well, Diana, Mr McKenzie thinks there's a possibility I might win the Observer competition. I sent in four entries. All the competitors are amateurs, like myself.

DIANA: I detest competitions. r never agree with the decision of the judges! I'm going to be a politician. I shall become the most distinguished woman on the political scene!

JEREMY: I thought you hated competing! Don't tell me politics isn't competitive I

15

This is an easy sound to make. Bite your bottom lip gently between your teeth. Build up pressure behind this wall of your top teeth and bottom lip, but don't puff out your cheeks, then open your mouth just enough to let air through, and blow, as you did with [p], [t] and [k J. You should be able to blow a feather off your hand. Remember to keep on the aspiration through the vowel that follows.

PRACTICE

A.

(a) fine fox fun far forest

fling fly flew float fluff

fry freeze frost Freddie Francis

awful thief off stiff puff

left

lift loft puffed after

[fj]

few fumes fuel future furious

'ph' (mainly from Greek) philosophy photograph telephone hyphen Philip

'-gh' laugh draught

enough rough

trough cough

silent 't' halfpenny [herpm]

(b) Now some threesomes to say very quickly:

fat fox father life

fit flocks feather leaf

foot frocks further loaf

lift loft left

gaffer duffer loofa

(c) Out of the frying pan into the fire.

Fine feathers make fine birds. Birds of a feather flock together. Enough is as good as a feast.

Fit as a fiddle.

Laugh and grow fat. Few and far between. The fat's in the fire.

B. Which is slhe saying? Put a circle round the right word.

(a) life/like (c) fail/sail (e) toughltouch

(b) foot/put (d) loft/lost (f) fuel/duel

(g) laughs/last (h) fry/try

C. Listen to the dialogue.

Daphne sofa Friday

Which are the stressed syllables?

afternoon fiftieth

forest awful

Fiona

furious

fabulous Felicity fancy

IiJLl~:j .\J1J)Pj snojnqnj

snounj lW91j .\epJl.:l

,nJM? 15;:)19J ejos

t(ld11J]J 1109Ll1dlle dLllld?O:J

.\11 (4) sll~nel (~) pnp (J) 411nOl (d) lJOI (p) pes (:J) ind (q) dJ!! (e) .s: :S13MSUV

16

DIAlGOUE 8. A fine, flashy fox fur

FELICITY: That's a fine, flashy fox fur you've flung on the sofa, Daphne. DAPHNE: Yes, I found it on Friday afternoon in Iffley Forest.

FELICITY: But, Daphne! That's Fiona's fox fur-her fiftieth birthday gift from Freddie. You are awful! Fiona will be furious.

DAPHNE: Well, if Fiona left her fur in the forest ...

FELICITY: Fiona leave her fabulous fox fur in the forest? Stuff and nonsense! You're a thief! Take it off!

DAPHNE: Felicity! What a fuss over a faded bit of fluff! Anyway, fancy Fiona in a fur!

She's far too fat!

HNBC _ B

17

s, [v] victory

The position of the mouth is the same as that for [f], but this is a voiced consonant. Remember to try saying it with your hands over your ears, or your fingers on your throat. There must be no vibration with [I] but lots of air; lots of vibrations with [v] but very little air. Some of the air can come out at the sides of your mouth. When you say [v], try to make your lips tingle.

PRACTICE

A. Exaggerate the vibration and hang on to the [v] as long as you can.

(a) Victor violet ever over approve

velvet vodka travel envious leave

vivid verse,. '.' university '. . 'advise wave

N . B. nephews, Stephen-both pronouficed [v].

(b) Now, as fast as you can:

- van vast

vain vest

vine voiced

five

. drove

, ._,

gIVe

vowel veil vole

live love leave

weave wave wove

( c) ffJl[ v J contrast.

fat/vat few/view Fife/five safe/save offer/hover leaf/leaves calf/calves half/halves thief/thieves off/of

(d} An iron hand in a velvet glove.

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. All's fair in love and war.

If I say it over and over and over again, eventually I'll improve.

Men were deceivers ever. Virtue is its own reward.

B. Which is .'1/ he saying?

Shaeffer?

(a) Is that your new h ?

saver.

(b) We'll meet at Ffiife. ve.

few

(c) We managed to get a. of the horses across the valley.

VIew

wife's. (d) Leave them alone-they're my .

WIves.

C. Listen to the dialogue. Which are the stressed syllables?
Liverpool marvellous approve advise overdo
invitation overcoat professors anniversary caviar
university enough disapproval Valentine believe
creative reversible November invasion envious snO~AU51 / ;}A;;lJpq / JB!AP I 9pl;JAO ! UO!S?AU! / ;;lUPU;JI?A / A1BSl51A!UUB / ;;lS!APB / l;}qUl5lAON / IBA91ddBS!P / SlOSS51JOld

! ;'JA(;uddB ! dlq!Sl5lAdJ ! 4~n9U;J / lBO;)JdA9 / snOn;JAJ?W / dAn?;)]::> / Al!Sl51A!Un / UOll?l!AU! / (OOdl;;lArI .J

S,dJ!M. (p) M.;;l!A (o dAy (q) ldJpB4S (R) .s: :.I'.l3MSUV

18

DIALOGUE 9. A visit to Vladivostok

OLIVER: Victor, have you ever visited Vladivostok?

VICTOR: Never. In fact, I haven't travelled further than Liverpool.

OLIVER: I've had an invitation from the University of Vladivostok to give a survey of my own creative verse.

VICTOR: How marvellous!

OLIVER: Will my navy overcoat be heavy enough, I wonder? It's long-sleeved and reversible. And I've got a pair of velvet Levis-rather a vivid violet! Do you think they'll approve?

VICTOR: I should think the professors will view violet Levis with violent disapproval.

When do you leave?

OLIVER: On the 7th of November.

VICTOR: I don't advise you to travel on the 7th. It's the anniversary of the Valentine Invasion. And for heaven's sake, Oliver, don't overdo the caviar. Or the vodka.

OLIVER: Victor, I do believe you're envious!

19

10. [w] will

.----------~--------

To make this sound, hold your hand vertically in front of your face, nearly touching your nose. Now kiss your hand. Holding this position (you can take your hand away but keep your mouth pursed, looking as in the diagram on right if you look in the mirror)

give a long [Ul] sound. Keep making the sound but open your jaw about ~

half-way. This will pull your lips apart and change the quality of the sound. It is ~,

this sliding movement that makes up the [w] sound. You should be able to put ' • ,

your finger right into your mouth all the time. Remember we are talking of a

sound, not necessarily represented by the letter 'w'. Syllables ending in [ur], [oo] or [au], and followed by a vowel insert a [w] sound, whether this is written or not (fluent, poetical, ploughing). This is true even if the vowel is at the beginning of the next word (see Linking, p. 44), e.g. twor answers, gowaway.

Words likeflower, power, tower, bowel, towel are generally pronounced as one syllable, with no [w] sound in the middle-s-lflac], [paa], etc.

PRACTICE
A. 'wh'
(a) wind Edward what white wit twice
waves Rowena where whisper wet twin
water blowing why whip what twain
world Orwell when whining wait twelve
woods wonderful which whether white between quick one

quite once

queen

squash

squeeze

silent 'w'

t(w)o (w)hom (w)ho (w)hose

(w)hole s(w)ord

(w)rite (w)rong

Chis(w)ick ans(w)er

(b) {wJI{vJ contrast wet! vet

wow / vow west / vest

wine / vine

twl / {IJ contrast weed I feed white / fight wish I fish warm! form

(c) We weave well at 'The Wcavewell'. A well-woven 'Weavewell' weave wears well.

Oh , what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive. We never miss the water till the well runs dry.

Wine, women and song. Weak as water.

All the world and his wife were there. Waste not, want not.

B. Practise putting a [wj sound between a syllable ending in [ui], [;}ujlauj, followed by another vowel. Remember, this happens even when the two syllables are in separate words.

(a) doing do end go III The Plough and the Stars

going do up go out Slough and Windsor

poetical do answer go away thou art a fool

(b) Oh, I do admire your photo album. It's so organised.

Joe and Joanna were going to Amsterdam. Who agreed to answer the radio advertisement?

Now I wonder how on earth we're going to plough our way through all this!

20

DIALOGUE 10. Rowena" are you awake?

EDWAKD: Rowena! Are you awake?

ROWENA: What? Edward, what's wrong? What time is it? EDWARD: Oh, about two o'clock.

ROWENA: In the morning? Oh, go away! What are you doing?

EDWARD: Come to the window, Rowena. Look-the whole world's white, there's a wicked wind blowing through Orwell Wood, whispering in the willows, whipping the water into waves, while over in the West ...

ROWENA: Oh, waxing poetical! You are off your head! I always knew it! Why are you wearing your wellingtons?

EDWARD: I want to go out and wander in the woods. Come with me, Rowena! I can't wait to go walking in that wild and wonderful weather.

ROWENA: I wish you wouldn't wake me up at two in the morning to go on a wild-goose chase!

EDWARD: Oh, woman, woman! Stop whining! What a wet blanket you are!

21

11. [f] , [v], [w]

[w]

[ v]/[f]

Relative lip positions

PRACTICE

A. [w]/[v/lff] contrast

wail : veil : fail

worst : versed : first

wheel: veal : feel

wane : vem : feign

wend : vend : fend

WIre : Via : fire

while : vile : file

wine : vine : fine

worn : Vaughan : fawn

weird : veered : feared

B. Which is slhe saying?

( ) G d h 1, fast! a 00 ness, t at aerop ane S t! vas.

(b) That was the first t thing she said. wors

. veal

(c) Go and see If they've sent the hee 1 will you?

fi w ee ,

ne

(d) Is that the vine you were telling me about? wme

C. In each of the following groups, one word is more strongly stressed than the rest. Can you hear which it is? Is the word acting as a noun or an adjective? (Sometimes a noun takes the function of an adjective.)

Mark all the stressed syllables and then put a line under the strongest stress in each group.

foreign visitors Wednesday evening Swedish representatives

watercress soup white wine sauce wide variety

fresh fruit souffle vanilla wafers devilled soft roes

S;J9J lJ9S P;JIW'?P Al;J!JBA ;JPJM S;JA9B1U?SdJd;JJ qS!P?MS

SJ;JJYM ElUUEA ;J::mys ;JU!M ;JUllM ~U!U;JA? ABpS;JUP?M.

?lJJn9s l!!lJJ qS?l] dn9s SS;JJ::>JglYM SJ01!SJX U~!gJ9]

·(jS;JA!pgfpE ~U!dq lE ~uJAeld SdUO IOU mq) sunou ne gIll SSdJ1S lSgijuOJ1S ql!M SpJOM ;Jl{J_ .J

gU!M (p) IEdJ\ (o lSJOM (q) lse1 (a) ·S :S.l~MruV

22

o

I

~::-=~/

,. ,-

I \. '

--~-

-0~

I

'I

DIALOGUE 11. Twenty foreign visitors

EVELYN: What are you giving your foreign visitors on Wednesday evening, Winnie?

How many-twelve, is it?

WINNIE: Twenty. Twelve of William's Swedish representatives, eight of them with WIves.

EVELYN: And what will you feed them on?

WINNIE: Well, we'll start with watercress soup, then fish in a white wine sauce flavoured with fennel and chives, followed by stuffed veal served with cauliflower and ... oh, a: very wide variety of vegetables.

EVELYN: Mmm. My mouth's watering!

WINNIE: For sweet we'll have fresh fruit souffle covered with walnuts. A!1d lots of whipped cream, of course, and vanilla wafers. And we'll finish with devilled soft roes.

EVELYN: And finally coffee? What a feast! I wish I was going to be with you!

23

12~ [~] (Bshwaff-the only sound that has a name) among, sofa

----------------------

This is a very important sound in English; though you might actually call it a non-sound. It is fully relaxed and very short. In fact, it is so short that it sometimes hardly exists at all!

It is the sound you have been making when you make the consonant sounds, for instance [p] and [b], audible. It is the sound you use for all the weak forms (see Units 30-32) (~ boy, th~ girl, etc.) and for the unstressed syllables of so many words ~ice, contain, success). Try saying these words as if there were no vowel at all between the consonants of the unstressed syllable ([pH:s], [kntern], [skses D. With some combinations of consonants it is almost impossible not to make a slight sound, but if you concentrate [knnsntrert] on trying to eliminate the sound altogether, the most that will escape will be shwa and you will be overcoming the temptation to give the unstressed vowels their fullvalue. When the unstressed syllable is an open one, i.e. at the end of a word with no following consonant sound and no linking with the next word (actor [eektc], finger [fIIJgg], sofa [soutaj), it cannot, of course, be swallowed completely but is still very weak.

It is impossible in so short a space to give you all the spellings of syllables that are pronounced shwa [g]. But here are a few general principles:

Before and/or after a strongly stressed syllable, especially the following spellings:

(a) 'a' initial (about); final (china)

-acy (legacy) -and (husband) -ain (curtain)

-ard (vineyard) -graphy/-er (photography/-er)

-land (England) -rnan (Norman/human)

(b) 'e' in -el (parcel) -en (dozen) -ent (provident) -ence/-se (sixpence/nonsense) -er (after) -rnent (government)

(c) 'i' in -ir (confirmation)

(d) '0' especially in words ending in -ody (nobody)

-oly (monopoly) -omy (economy) -on (Devon)

-ophy (philosophy) -or (actor) -ory (hickory)

-sorne (handsome) -our (harbour) -ford (Oxford)

-don/-ton (Wimbledon/Brighton)

'0' beginning: po- (polite) pro- (provide) com- (complain) con- (contain)

and lots more two-syllable words in which the unstressed syllable contains the letter '0'.

(e) 'u': -um/-umn (maximum/autumn) -us (circus) -ur (Saturday)

(f) Syllables spelt: -tion (relation) -ssion (passion) -sion (vision)

-cian (magician) -ious (spacious) -ous (dangerous, ridiculous)

-ial (special, partial) -ure (nature, pressure, injure, leisure)

(g) Unstressed syllables on either side of a stressed one:

adventure America amusement forgotten permission

composer narrator performance vacation banana

(h) All the 'weak forms' that we shall come across in Units 30, 31 and 32.

(i) Sometimes the unstressed syllable disappears altogether, often for reasons of rhythm.

Try to be aware of these as you listen: comfort [kxmfot] but cornff or)table

careful [kegful] but careffujlly

vegetate [vedgrtert] but veg( e )table

ant/-ce (important.-ce) -harn (Twickenham)

-ogy (apology)

-ony (harmony)

-dom (kingdom)

-folk (Norfolk)

[kxmftobul] [keof lr]

[ vedgtobol]

Remember that 'shwa' is only used for unstressed syllables.

24

PRACTICE
A.
(a) about combine potato succession actor
among command police tradition doctor
ago confuse propose occasion motor
water theatre extra human postman
danger centre sofa woman Englishman
driver metre china German gentleman
husband England curtain dozen student
company Scotland certain written entertainment
servant Iceland Britain often intelligent
lesson adventure generous photographer apology
bacon future ridiculous stenographer philology
cotton pleasure nervous caligrapher biology
thorough Peterborough Sf. Joan Venus COUSlll
borough Edinburgh St. Ives asparagus basin
(b) The vanishing syllable.
comf( or )table caref( u) By Iist( e )ning rest( au )rant ord(i)nary
veg( e )table practic(a)lly lite e )rature cam(e)ra extr( a)ord(i)n( a )ry
adm(i)rable strawb( e )rry med(i)c(i)ne secret(a)ry diff( e )rent (c) A Doctor of Philosophy A command performance A picture of innocence

A baker's dozen

The Department of the Environment The Iron Curtain

The Listening Library The Garden of Eden

To bet your bottom dollar To harbour a grudge

To take your pleasures seriously

Nature is the best healer

Nothing succeeds like success Necessity is the mother of invention

A handsome husband--or ten thousand a year? An Englishman's home is his castle

Here today, gone tomorrow

Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today

Never do today what you can get someone else to do tomorrow!

B. Put a stress mark on the stressed syllables and underline those that are weakened to [:1] ('shwa').

Twickenham Bournemouth

Addlestone Edinburgh

Wimbledon Widecombe

Norfolk Chester

HN8C _ s"

Brighton Oxford

25

How many more towns in Great Britain do you know that end in -ton , -don , -harn , -ford, -combe, -burgh (or -borough), etc.?

And how many 'shires' (pronounced [Jd]), e.g. Devonshire? N.B. In Scotland 'shire' is pronounced [jara].

C. Now put stress marks on the stressed syllables and underline the 'shwa' syllables in the names of these countries, and in the adjectives derived from them:

Italy Jordan Brazil Morocco Japan Belgium Peru

Germany Hungary Canada Russia India Argentina Panama

D. A rhyme.

Rub-a-dub dub, Three men in tub.

The butcher, the baker, The candlestick -maker ,

They all jumped over a rotten potater!

. . . and a riddle

As I was going to St Ives ,

I met a man with seven wives. Each wife had seven sacks; Each sack had seven cats; Each cat had seven kittens. Kits, cats, sacks, wives-

How many were going to St Ives?

E. How many of the characters in the dialogues in this book have names that contain 'shwa'?

You'll have to listen to them to get the answers!

'UBW1:ll{Sf.:l ',(q'l:lSSBd 'UBW:l;)!l0d 'lUB;)~h;)S 'lJ:lqo"M 'SJ:lfd 'U01BV 'UBW;)!lU:lD 'pJBMOH Pl!S pUOJ;)S 'BS;)l;;i{u. 'P4;)e"H '(:lqBuuV 'Bl{lJBW ')J;)q41n:) 'iffi:iuna 'i!!p:) 'l:l){JBd 'm0"H 'seqBUJB8 'BU;U:lS 'q1;)qP.Z!EI 'UP.l{lBuof 'p.uUBH 'J:ll{lOW 'J;)l{lB.:l 'ml{llV 'Pllll{:l!"M 'BP~lBd 'iijpqS ',(UOl{lUV 'BIZ3 '1:l4dOlsllq:) 'BU:lM0"H 'PlIlMP::I 'lOP!A 'l:lAHO ',(l!;)!P.:l ',(W;U;)f 'BUE!a ';)lp.I!:la 'RsS;}.L 'J;)Pd '3

',(BM J;)l{lO ;)4) jJUlojj :ll;)M A;)l{)--51:lq1o :lql liB IiJIU 1 U:ll{M 5;).'\1 lS 01 jjU!ojj SBM I i:lUO AIuO 'a UB!UYWBUBd/yWEUBd UU!A9-lg,ffiU;}d

UR!UJlu;}llJV ~UJ1U;)jj1V U.!!PUJfB!P~J

ue!jj(~SfWn!jj(9S :ls;mEdEffUydE[

- -

UIl!ssl)"MfB!5SI)"M

UU:l;)910J\U0;):l9JDW

UE!r:YUE;>fEP1'.I:!.Y:) ut!~yjJunH/AJt!lluI)H UiiWJ9D/AURWJ9D

UE!lJZEl8/UZE1S UE!uypJOffU1'.PJ9f UIl!IY1I1AllilJ ':)

1;)lS9l{:) ';)qWO:l;)PJi\\.

'plOno 'l{ilmqufP:;I 'l{lnOW:lUlI)OS '){IOJJ9N 'UOP:l(qwJi\\. 'uolqllP8 ';m01S:lIPPV 'Wl'.qU;)){:lJM.L 'S :SJ3MSUV

26

DIALOGUE 12. Comfort, culture or adventure?

CHRISTOPHER: Going anywhere different for your vacation, Theresa?

THERESA: Ah, that's a million dollar question, Christopher. Perhaps you can provide us with the decision. Edward demands his creature comforts-proper heating, constant hot water, comfortable beds, colour television . . .

CHRISTOPHER: What about you, Theresa? Or aren't you too particular?

THERESA: Normally, yes. And usually we combine the open air and exercise with a bit of culture. Last year, for instance, we covered the Cheltenham Festival. The year before, it was Edinburgh. Edward adores Scotland.

CHRISTOPHER: You fortunate characters! Are you complaining?

THERESA: No, but I long to go further afield-something more dangerous-and where the temperature's hotter!

CHRISTOPHER: I wonder if this would interest you. It arrived today. 'A Specialised Tour of Southern America for Photographers. Canoeing up the Amazon. Alligators. And other hazardous adventures.'

THERESA: Christopher, how marvellous! It sounds wonderful.

CHRISTOPHER: No creature comforts for Edward!

THERESA:

Separate holidays are an excellent idea--occasionally! Edward can go to Scotland alone.

27

13. Sentence rhythm

In Unit 7 we discussed the stressing of certain syllables within individual words, ChinESE, cornpe'Tltion, POlitics, and so on. These stressed syllables are louder and higher and longer than the unstressed ones. In Unit 11 (Ex. C) we saw that both nouns and adjectives have stresses. Do all words have stress? Well, if you listen carefully to the dialogues you will notice that some words are swallowed almost completely. Which words? How does one know what to stress and what not to?

It's easiest to explain by imagining a situation: Jane has been invited to spend the weekend with Elizabeth in the depths of the country. She has to send a telegram to say when she is arriving, and she wants Elizabeth to meet her. Here's her telegram:

ARRIVING BANFORD STATION SATURDAY NOON. PLEASE MEET, LOVE JANE.

Both Jane and Elizabeth know the background, so the telegram contains all the necessary information. Originally Jane wrote a quick note, and then thought a telegram was safer. This is what she said in her note:

I shall be arriving at Banford Station on Saturday at noon. Please can you meet me? With love from Jane.

Now listen to the man in the Post Office reading the telegram, and then Jane reading the note she decided not to send.

Did you notice two things?

1. When Jane read her note, the only words you heard clearly were the informationcarrying words that she put into the telegram (the 'telegram words') and, within those words, only the syllables that were stressed.

2. When the Post Office clerk read the telegram, he spaced the words so that the stresses came in a very regular beat. And when Jane read her note, the stresses came in the same regular pattern so that, in fact, though the note was so much longer than the telegram, they both took the same amount of time to say out loud.

Now listen to Jane and the clerk as they read their bits of paper in unison:

But what about all those words that Jane had to fit in between the 'telegram words'? Let's take a look at them:

I shall be ... at . .. '" on ... at ... . .. can you ... me? With ... from ....

If we analyse them we find they are: (a) pronouns (I/you/me),

(b) auxiliary and modal verbs, i.e. not main verbs (shall/be/can), ( c) prepositions (atlon/With/from).

To these we must add: (d) articles (the/a/an),

(e) conjunctions (and/but, etc.).

So all these unimportant, non-'telegram words' have to be fitted in between the stresses, as well as the unstressed syllables of the 'telegram words' themselves.

How did Jane do it? Even before the first stress, the Post Office clerk had only one unstressed syllable; Jane had four:

I shall be arRIV-

The answer is that those four unstressed syllables came out as a rapid sort of mumble, like a 28

I

Ji.;

muffled machine gun. This meant that the stressed syllables were still evenly spaced as she spoke. And this gave a rhythm, a sort of music, to her speech.

In real life we don't keep a regular beat throughout the whole of what we're saying; we alter the speed and rhythm from phrase to phrase. However, to begin with it's best to work at sentences, or even whole dialogues, as if they were all one single phrase and therefore being said at the same speed. We'll read Jane's note as if it was all one phrase. The stresses will therefore come at regular intervals of time all the way through. How many unstressed syllables are there between the stresses? (Here - shows an unstressed syllable.)

1 shall be arRIving at BANford STAtion on SATufday at NOON. PLEASE can you MEET me, With LOVE from JANE

There is only one unstressed syllable between 'BAN-' and 'STA-' (,ford') and between 'LOVE' and 'JANE' ('from'), so let's take those to establish our speed-nice and slow to begin with-TUM ti TUM. There are two syllables between '-RI-' and 'BAN-', 'PLEASE' and 'MEET', 'MEET' and 'LOVE': so '<ving at', '<tion on', and 'me with' must fit into the same time space as the single syllables '-ford' and 'from'. They will therefore have to be said twice as fast. Remember, they must be regular, too-TUM ti ti TUM. Now '<turday at' has three syllables, so it will have to be said at three times the speed of '-ford', and 'from'. 'I shall be a- is four unstressed syllables in a row (you have to imagine that there was a stress immediately before them) so each of those syllables must be said at four times the speed of '<ford' and 'from', and twice the speed of each syllable in the two-syllable groups.

Finally, between 'PLEASE' and 'MEET' there are no unstressed syllables at all. Do not speed up! These two stresses must still keep their distance. So what we do is hang on to the first word till the rhythm tells us that it's time to say the next: ('ple-e-ease') (see Unit 25).

Try saying the whole of Jane's note as TUM ti TUMS, keeping your TUMS at strictly regular intervals of time:

ti ti ti ti TUM I ti ti TUM I ti TUM I ti ti TUM I ti ti ti TUM I TUM I ti ti TUM I ti ti TUM I ti TUM.

Practise it until you can do it at the same speed as the speaker on the tape, then try to put the words in on top of the TUM ti TUMS on the tape and finally see if you can say it with Jane as she reads the note out again.

Notice that in the dialogue, Chris speaks all the way through in a TUM ti TUM rhythm, Elise in a TUM ti ti TUM one. Until the whole thing comes naturally to you, try to keep the speed regular, even when the rhythms are different, as Chris and Elise do on the tape.

The rule to remember: 'Within each phrase, stresses come at regular intervals of time.'

29

PRACTICE

A.

(a) Two nursery rhymes with very different rhythm):

Jack and J Ill Went up the hill

To fetch a pail of wa-ter. Jack fell down

And broke his crown

And Jfll came tumbling af-ter.

(b) A farmerwent tr6tting upon his grey mare, Burnpety bumpety bump (pause)

With his daughter behind him so rosy and fair, Liimpety lurnpety lump.

B _ Here are three groups of numbers of different lengths on the paper, but which should take the same amount of time to say:

G-------.-------

(a) wo three

wenty thirty

wo hundred three hundred

--------J

four

forty

four hundred

(b) three groups of words of similar difficulty:

-a nice-- J~rfP;- pear

a love-ly juicy melon

e- 1~-ciOl~_and mouth-watt e )ring _pi~~apple

(c) and another three groups, rather more difficult:

- his new Jb~Ok~--

his latest novel's a dis-

an out- standing c~ntri- butio~ to con-

.:

quite good

tinct sue- cess temporary lit ( e )rature

-- ------

C. Which are the stressed syllables? When you've decided, read the passage aloud, exaggerating the stresses and trying to keep them at regular intervals of time. In real speech, as I have said, speed and rhythm vary from phrase to phrase. This exercise is just to get you into the habit of thinking in term) of rhythm and feeling it as you speak, so read the whole passage at the same speed and with strictly regular rhythm.

'Excuse me-c-er-e-haven't we met before? Yes, I'm certain we have, I recognise your face. I'm never wrong. I'm terribly bad at names, but I never forget a face. Aren't you a friend of the Joneses-James and Isabel Jones? No? Oh, have I made you miss your bus? I'm so sorry. But I'm sure we've met before. I never forget a face.'

- ~JYJ U l;J)llOJ l~A;JU I

-~l9J~q l;Jill ~A,~M ;Jl~S ill.! lng -A1l9S 9S illJ i.Sl)q moA ssuu noA opatu I ~AY4 '40 i.9N i.s~u9f pquSI pUB

S~lllH---S;)S~U9f ~I.:p J9 RU~JlJ U nOA 1,U;)lV -~;)~J B l51j310J l~o.;}U I mq 'S~lllyU H' peq Alq!ll;>l ui.] -)lu9l"'"

l~A;JU ill,I -~JYJ moA ;JSJU)lOJ,H I ';)o.B4 ;}M. U!Bll;JJ lll.I 'S?}, l.;}Jopq l;Jlll ~M 1,U~Ayq-l;}---;Jlll ;))n:lX3, -J :l;JMSUV

30

DIALOGUE 13: Elise's hair is green!

CHRIS: I like your hat, Elise.

ELISE: That isn't my hat, it's my hair.

CHRIS: Your hair? You can't have hair like that. Elise, it's brilliant green!

ELISE: Old women can dye their hair blue. There are plenty who paint their nails red. CHRIS: That's not the same at all. They only stress what nature meant. Green is ...

green is ... I cannot find the words.

ELISE: Unnatural-is that what you mean? An appendix operation is, too. And as for transplanting a heart ... ! And I love all my emerald hair!

CHRIS: What does Peter think? .

ELISE: Oh Christopher! Didn't you know? Why, his hair is purple and red!

31

This is a voiceless sound. Place the tip of your tongue between your teeth so that the teeth grip the sides of the tongue firmly. Now draw back the very tip and press it against the bottom teeth. There should now be a small passage over the top of the tongue through which air can pass straight from the lungs. Keep the lips spread and expel the air in a hissing sound.

PRACTICE
A.
(a) seem slow serious yes most
soft skin sensible miss waste
Sam sweet sister glass ask
fksl
perhaps nice bicycle scene box
looks city agency scent accent
wants cinema Cyprus science succeed
silent's'
ai(s)le i(s)land Gro(s)venor Carli(s)le chassi(s) (b) Better safe than sorry. Last but not least.

A lisping lass is good to kiss. One swallow doesn't make a summer.

It's a silly goose that comes to a fox's sermon.

He who sups with the devil must use a long spoon. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice-cream.

B. Which is slhe saying?

(a) I think Susie's rather ~~~~k.

(b) Is she going to ShOW those radishes? s Ow

(c) Did you say he'd made a patshs~ pa .

(d) I do believe I'm a little shi~ner. t mner.

(e) B understands what I'm saying, but Ch doesn't. s e

C. Mark the stresses on the following words before you listen to the tape:

secure literate sensible honest
insecure illiterate insensible dishonest
suitable possible successful sense
unsuitable impossible unsuccessful nonsense l.s;:mo ,DU, ~ql idooxo 'xy~ld ~A!lBil~u B UD SS~llS au roquramar nOA pra ~SU~SU9U InJsS?:J:msun ~lq!SS9dwr ::lIql!lITlsun

~SU?S InJss?:>:>ns ~yqrss¢ ::lIqelITlS

iscuoqstp rsouoq J (g)l::lUurql (p)

32

gl~::lSU! amoos OJ

:l{:>!S (R) '9 :.I'.ldMSUV

° gyqrSU?SUr gyqrSU?S sssd (o

gll!lglJIH ~lRl;}lJI MOqS (q)

DIALOGUE 14. A sweet Siamese student

SAM: That Siamese student seems a nice sort of person.

STAN: Yes, serious, sensible-a bit insecure, perhaps. Eldest of six-the rest still at

school.

SAM: I see her sister sometimes. I saw her yesterday.

STAN: Soft skin, silky voice, sleepy eyes, sort of slow, sexy smile. SAM: Sounds like Siew Sang.

STAN: Yes. That's it-Siew Sang. She's so sweet.

SAM: Waxing ecstatic, Stan? I must say, I strongly disapprove of senior staff taking fancies to innocent students. You're supposed to be embracing serious linguistic research, not soft-skinned students! Most unsuitable. And silly, when you're just starting to make a success of this place ...

STAN: For goodness' sake, Sam. Who says I'm smitten? The kid's sweet but still only 26. I shall be 60 in September!

33

15. [z] zoo

This, like its voiceless equivalent [s], is a continuous sound. There is no [d] or [t] before it. The lips and tongue are in the same position as for [s 1 but the vocal cords are vibrated, which will cause some tension in the tongue itself. The vibration should be very strongly felt.

PRACTICE

(a) zoo zebra zoology

crazy horizon puzzle

as was his

's' after long vowel

days revise

close windows

these Thursday

plural or 3rd sing. 's' after voiced consonant

things leaves

mouths adds

hands earns

A.

[IZI

'<es' after [s], [z],

{fl, [tJf, [ksl, [d3l

misses freezes washes watches fixes wages

'x' [9Z] names possessives [IZI
exams Charles Charles's
exact Wales Wales's
exaggerate James James's
exhausted Dickens the fox's
exist the Joneses Mr Hodge's
exhibit the Lyonses Alice's (b) Practise lengthening the vowel.

cats bus laps fierce

cads buzz labs fears

cast cased

Bruce bruise

(c) She's as old as the hills.

It never rains but it pours.

If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. To cut off one's nose to spite one's face.

A miss is as good as a mile. The end justifies the means.

B. Which is slhe saying?

Ice ." d

(a) There seemed to be all aroun us.

ace eyes

(b) Do you want pe , or don't you?

peas, .

( ) I 't tak ff mece.

c can t ta e my eyes 0 your pretty knees.

(d) We raced across the ffence.

ens.

(e) I'm afraid he pr~ces his produce too highly. pnzes

C. Without looking back at Unit 7, can you remember where the stress is on these words?

zoology theology logical physical examination

zoologist theologian illogical physician anxious

zoological theological logistics physicist revision

UOISJA:Jl snorxup UO!lj;lI!WIlX:J sooud (::J)

lS!J!S~4d ue!JJsA4d leJ!s~4d suoj (p)

34

SJ!lSJ~OI leJ!~9Iod41 leJ!~9J1! ue!~910d41

leJ!~91 .{~OI9d41

s::J;m)j (J) :JJedd (q)

leJ!~9100Z lS!~OI90Z A'30190z ":J

SdA:J (e) 'f{ :SJJMS1IV

DIALOGUE 15. The zoology exam's on Thursday

EZRA: How's things these days, Lizzie?

. LIZZIE: I'm exhausted. Revising for the zoology exam!

EZRA: You've got bags under your eyes, Lizzie. Take it easy!

LIZZIE: It's all very well for you to advise, Ezra, but I'm going crazy. One of those miserable Zeno boys, two houses down, plays his transistor as ifhe was as far away as Mars!

EZRA: Boys will be boys. These days everyone plays transistors. LIZZIE: But he refuses to close the windows!

EZRA: Then close your ears to the noise, Lizzie. One learns to ignore these things, as if they didn't exist.

LIZZIE: Please, Ezra. The exam's on Thursday.

EZRA: And today's Tuesday! That only leaves two days! You'd better get busy, Lizzie!

35

16. [f] ship, wash

For this sound the tongue is pulled further back than for [s] and the tip of the tongue is lifted to midway between the teeth. If you purse your lips as you did for [w], this will help initially, though later you may not find it necessary. Do it this way until you are sure that you hear and feel the difference between [s] and rJ]. Start with the tip of the tongue actually between your teeth. Draw it back slowly till you are saying [s], then further still. You should be able both to hear and to feel the change in the quality of the sound.

PRACTICE

A.

(a) show sheep shame shore share

splish splash splosh slush swoosh

sure insure sugar assurance pressure

'ch' (mainly from French)

chauffeur

cliche

machine champagne moustache

schedule Schweppes fuschia chef species

ci [d] Asia musician ancient
si [ on] Russia ocean conscience
ssi + [ens] Patricia tension patience
SCl [dnt] special expression precious
ti [ dl] partial pronunciation superstitious
ce [dS] (b) Share and share alike.

Ship to shore communication.

She sells sea shells on the sea shore.

Short and sweet-and the shorter the sweeter.

To manage on a shoestring.

Shear your sheep in May, You shear them all away.

B. What order is slhe saying these in?
(a) save (b) mess (c) sip (d) sock (e) crust
shave mesh ship shock crushed
(f) sea (g) puss (h) sort (i) person (j) fist
she push short Persian fished C. 'She speaks English and Danish and Polish and Flemish ... ' Can you go on?

(If you are in a whole class this can be done as a game, with each person repeating the whole list and adding one more language.)

P;)l.{sy UOS1;)d 110l.{S ssnd 11;)S
lSY (f) UP.lS1gd (!) 110S (I.{) qsnd (1I) ;)qs (J)
poqsruo )j:>os dIS qS;)W gA11S
isruo (;) )j:>ol.{s (p) d!l.{s (:» SS;)W (q) ;)A11qS (11) .s: :SJ;1MSUV
36 DIALOGUE 16. Are you sure you said sheep?

SHEILA: 'Tricia, come and I'll show you my sheep. PATRICIA: Your sheep? Sheila, what sheep?

SHEILA: My sheep.

PATRICIA: Are you sure you said sheep?

SHEILA: Shh, don't shout. Of course I'm sure I said sheep. She's here in the shed.

Isn't she sweet? She was washed up on the shore at Shale Marsh.

PATRICIA: What a shame! Is it unconscious?

SHEILA: She's a she. I shall call her Sheba. I should think she's suffering from shock.

PATRICIA: Do you think she was pushed off that Persian ship? Oh Sheila, she's shivering.

SHEILA: My precious! She shall have a soft cushion and my cashmere shawl! PATRICIA: She's rather special, isn't she? Sheila, I wish--:oh, I do wish we could share . her!

37

17. [3] measure, rouge

This is simply the voiced equivalent of [J]. Start off by making sure you are saying [f] correctly and, being careful not to move any of our speech organs, vibrate the vocal cords. This sound produces strong vibrations.

[sJ/[z] [J] 1[3]
_}
PRACTICE
(
A.
(a) pleasure decision intrusion occasion garage casual
treasure collision profusion mvasion massage casualty
measure revision exclusion Asian camouflage visual
leisure precision delusion evasion prestige usual
enclosure television confusion persuasIOn beige usually (b) Confusion worse confounded. Stolen pleasures are sweetest.

Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.

B. Which is slhe saying?

(a) I do admire your great composer. composure.

(b) Your bba!ze tablecloth's perfect for playing bridge.

elge _

( ) F . hi Aden? c .xcuse me, IS t IS A' ? sian.

( I) W lki b 0 nuclear fission?

( ere you ta mg a out the discovery of I 0 0 .,

new c ear VISIOn;

C. Listen to the dialogue. Mark the stressed syllables in these words.

decision pleasure revision

television conversation allusion

occasion leisure casually

intrusion unusual treasure

amsaan pmsnnn

Anensp UO!S!lne

~JnS!?1 UO!l?S.J~ft.UOJ

UO!S!A~l amseajd

UO!S!l11U! uorseooo UO!S!ft.~Pl UO!SP~p

(,(UO!ltJ.I'l~AUOJ) [u£] pue '(llmsn) [I£) '(UO!SI<1) [u£] '(::unS!3I) [e£] .arojaq ~lqEII.(s ;J41 uo Sne] sAeMI'~ SS~llS cqi reqi roqurourcr nOA P!O l,;)dEl ;')qlln041!M U;,)A;') 'I! 1,USEM 'ASE;,) SEM leq.l OJ

UO!ssy lE;')pnu (p) UEISV (o) ;')ii'!;')q (q) rosoduroo (E) 'g .. ·S.JJM·I'UV

38

L

DIALOGUE 17. The great decision

JACQUES: I have made a great decision, Jean. I have bought a television.

JEAN: You? Jacques, on how many occasions have you told me that television was an intrusion into the privacy of the house, that it destroyed the pleasures of conversation, that people no longer know how to make use of their leisure ...

JACQUES: I know, I know. And it's unusual for me to suffer a revision of thought, but on this occasion . . .

JEAN: Where is this treasure?

JXt~ciES: Hidden in the garage. Please make no allusion to it. Lshall tell the family casually, as if there were nothing unusual in my buying a television.

JEAN: After years of derision=-I hope you will not be disillusioned by your television.

39

18. [tf] clnn, watch

This is actually a combination of two sounds, but they are produced so close that they count as one. The [t] is not aspirated, but slides straight on to the [f]' after which the air is expelled. Because there are two sounds, however close, it is impossible to hang on to the sound as one can with [f] or [5], for example. You can hold on to the [1] part, but if you want to keep saying the whole phoneme, you have to break off and start again, rather like a steam engine: [tf-tf-tS] .

PRACTICE A.

(a) Make the sound of a train, 'TCHER tcher tcher tcher', in the rhythm 'ONE two three four' over and over again as many times as you like. Then change the vowel: 'TCHOO tchoo tchoo tchoo', 'TCHI tchi tchi tchi', 'TCHA tcha tcha tcha', etc., repeating each new set several times.

(b) Charles much butcher capture question 'cello
change switch teacher adventure suggestion concerto
choose watch merchant furniture indigestion righteous
chips branch kitchen future Christian fortunate
cheese lunch chicken century combustion mixture (c) Catch as catch can. Such a charming child!

Children are poor men's riches.

You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

Don't count your chickens before they're hatched.

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

B. One word in each of these sentences turns the whole sentence into nonsense. Which are the words? And what ought they to be?

(a) (d)

(b) (e)

(c) (f)

C. Syllable stress

Can you do these before you listen to the dialogue? Then listen and check before you look at the answers.

recapture suggest future another nature
direction childhood further chocolate adventure
different century arrival adjourn fortune
question channel actually departure kitchen
----- u:npU:l{ ;;un).Iydgp AIlp.np? puuyq:J uonsonb

;,JunP9J umotpn IP.AJJl"P' AlnlU?:J lU;}lgJJJP

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glnlYU 19q19UP. ornm; lS9a"ans glnldpgl'J

·U!BllP. osroq Am (ooqs) Mal{:J qlIms:l{:lP.Iq gqllgI l;;JAgU nuqs I (J) '(U!q:J) u!l{s :l{UgM. s!lj soprq PIUgq S!H (g) l,qS!uudS U! (q:llBM.) S]tJl{M u s,luqA\. (p) '(q:Jlum) SltJW llU!loq AlgA u SBM. lJ (:J) ·SlP.J gql posaqo pooqmoqqsrou gql U! (SlU:J) l{:JIV:J gql IIV (q)

·g)jP.1S ;;Jql lU (q:ll!M.) SlIM. xood gql nrrnq A;:}ql. (p.) -g :S.laMSUV

40

DIALOGUE 18. life is a question of choice-or chance?

CHARLES: If you could recapture your childhood, Richard, would you change much? RICHARD: Life is a sort of arch. Arrival to departure. You can't switch direction, Charles. Each century brings changes but actually, Nature doesn't

change.

CHARLES: But you can reach different decisions. With television, you can choose which channel to watch, switch to another picture. You could catch a different train. Given the chance, Richard, would you change trains?

RICHARD: Life is a rich adventure and largely a question of chance. You don't choose your future as you choose a chocolate or a piece of cheese.

CHARLES: But, Richard, you do choose. You forge your own fortune-a.butcher? a 'cellist? a teacher? a merchant? Each choice suggests a further choicewhich tree, which branch, which twig?

RICHARD: Let's adjourn to the kitchen for chicken and chips. No choice for lunch,

you see, Charles!

CHARLES: But you actually chose chicken and chips! Chops would have been much

cheaper!

41

19. [d3] jump, bridge

This is the voiced equivalent of [tf). Try-not to let any air escape on either sound. If anything, feel as if you are pushing the air back into your lungs. It is almost impossible to voice one sound without voicing the other, so make sure the [d] is properly pronounced and slide quickly on to the [3].

PRACTICE
A.
(a) jaw Jeans pyjamas gin George
jar just injection ginger edge
Joe job adjourn giraffe exchange
digestion village register N.B.: margarine
surgery cabbage religion procedure
gently cottage engine soldier (b) Change the subject.

The English language. Sister Susie sewing shirts for soldiers. Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager managing an imaginary menagerie.

Judge not, lest you be judged. Be just before you are generous.

B. Each of the following words contains one of the sounds [s], [z], lll, [31. [tff or {d3]. put the correct symbol by each word?

(a) chew [1 (b) major [J (c) east [ I

zoo [ J nature [I eased [ J

shoe {J laser [ J each [ J

(f) rich [] (g) leisure [1 (h) recent [ ]

ridge r] ledger [] reasoned f

(d) large [ ] marsh [ ] march [ ]

(i) Tricia [ ] treasure [

C. Which is slhe saying? cheered

(a) The crowd. d when he announced the results.

jeere

(b) English food makes people ~hkoke all the time.

10 e

(. chairman .

c) He 1S the only G who has managed to keep the meetmg short.

erman

. sheep

(d) That's a very fine-Iooking . you have there.

Jeep .

cash

(e) I shall have to d £5-1 haven't got a bean. ca ge

D. Mark the stress exchange PYjamas injuries register

religion sandwich adjusting
procedure orange juice engine
adjourn indigestion soldier
surgery generous imagine Can you

(e) sheep [ ] cheap I ] jeep [ ]

(j) vision [ ] pigeon [ ]

damaged suggest injection syringe

;}~U~~S u°!l:l?fu! lS?~~nS P;}~EWYP

;}u!8yw! snol;}u?8

1;}!PI9S uons?illPU!

;}U!~U? oom] ;}~UE19

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[£] [z]

III (!) {s] (q)

[Il] [Il]

[5J [z]

[£p) (p) Is] (:l)

42

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[£] (~) [z]

[Il] [£p] (q)

[£p]

[£] (D [£p]

[Ill

{f] (a)

l;}lS!fi?l sountur

sl1wYf~d ;}~uyq:lX;} ·0

p;}l;};}f (E) 'J [£p]

[flJ (J) [n

[z]

[Ill (ll) ·S :S.l3MSUV

- -_._-.-------------_.

DIALOGUE 19. George's jaw

DR JONES: Ah, George, jolly good. Just exchange your jacket and jeans for these pyjamas, while I jot down your injuries in my register. Age, religion, that's the usual procedure.

GEORGE: Well, Doctor Jones, I was just driving over the bridge on the edge of the village ...

DR JONES: Half a jiffy. Let's adjourn to the surgery. I've got a large sandwich and a

jar of orange juice in the fridge. Join me?

GEORGE: Jeepers! My indigestion ... and my jaw! I shan't manage ... DR JONES: A generous measure of gin-just the job!

GEORGE: It's my jaw, Doctor. I was on the bridge at the edge of the village.

I was just adjusting the engine when this soldier jumped out of the hedge ...

DR lONES: Imagine! He damaged your jaw, did he? I suggest an injection into the joint. lust a jiffy. I'll change the syringe.

GEORGE: Oh jeepers! Gently, Dr lanes!

43

20. linking

In English we talk, not in individual words, but in groups of words, or phrases. Thus 'Good afternoon' is said without a break, as if it were one word. Similarly, 'What's it all about'?' or 'I don't understand'. If you break the phrase-'I don't ... understand'<-this gives special emphasis to the word after the pause, because you have interrupted the rhythm and kept the listener in suspense.

There are a number of aids that help us maintain the fluency of the rhythm. One of these devices is Linking.

Within a phrase, and often between adjoining phrases, too, if a word begins with a vowel, the consonant at the end of the preceding word is joined to it (I'm talking of sound, not spelling):

Thi ~i bit A Lllapple Ful!_iolfink

When you practise, pause before the last sound in the first word and say this last sound as if it were the first sound of the next word:

thi si zit a napple fu 10 vink

or, hold on to the last sound of the first word till you're ready to start the next:

[OISSSIZZZIt] [onnruepul] [fulllovvrnk]

If the end of one word and the beginning of the next are both vowel sounds, you insert a consonant sounds as we saw in Unit 10. After [uJ, [ur], [au] you add [w], after [I], [ii] you add [n. [er], [01] and [;)1] already have the [j] sound, which simply has to be strengthened a little. Before a vowel sound, weak forms become strong, i.e. 'the' is pronounced [oi:], 'to' [tu:]. 'A' has a special form, 'an' [en].

In the short answers 'Yes, I am', 'No, I'm not', etc., you link across the comma as if it didn't exist: 'Yes, I am', 'No, I'm not'.

~ v

N.B. A vowel does not necessarily have a vowel sound. Words like 'union', 'university', etc., actually begin with a [j] sound; 'one' begins with a Iwl sound.

Note also that initial 'h ' is very often dropped so that you have to link with the vowel that follows.

PRACTICE

A.

(a) Plain linking size eight sit up

an apple stop it

(b) Adding [i I the animal silly idiot!

the answer pretty awful

(c) Adding [wj to explain you answer

two and a half I'm too upset

(d) Often after an 'a' you will hear an 'r' sound:

Anna' and the King Celia: and Chris

this orange tell Alfred

try it on

buy another

so empty No, I didn't

Sheila' and Patricia

B. Practice in sentences.

There's an elephant on top of the aeroplane!

John says he'll take out (h)is own appendix-s-it's such an easy operation. We ate a banana an(d) an orange. So did Eva an(d) I.

He wants to have (h)is cake an(d) eat it.

This exercise is absolutely impossible, isn't it?

44

don't ask

I can explain

say it again stay a while

go and see Oh , all right

DIALOGUE 20. A job In Abadan

ERIC: Hullo,_.Anthony. Got .... a job yet?

ANTHONY: Well,J've just beenup to ..... Aylesbury for ..... aninterview.

ERIC: Oh? Was)Unteresting?

ANTHONY: Yes. An international oil company with interests in most of the eastern coumrie;. Someone to~organise...,an""offic; the):"re,-,~pening~pjn._,Abadan.

ERIC: I....,imagine you'll have to brush up your ..... Arabic again.

ANTHONY: Oh,J can.._.express rnyselfjn Arabicjill right. AndJJ.mderstand most ...... other Middle ...... Eastern languages. It's._,an .... exciting .... ppportunity. They .... actually;

offeredjt to me, putright.

ERIC: IfJ may ...... express an ...... unbiased ...... opinion .

ANTHONY: Sorry ,,,..Eric.}'ve already accepted.

45

21. [9] think, month

----.--~.-----.---

Put your tongue between your teeth, open your mouth just a little, take a deep breath and blowout the air, being careful not to let your tongue move from its position. Listen to yourself carefully as you say it and be very careful never to substitute (t 1 or (z 1.

[oJ 1[8J

PRACTICE
A.
(a) thin thumb Thursday three throat
think thump theatre throw thrift
thing thud thousand through throttle
bath fifth healthy strength birthday
earth sixth wealthy length arithmetic
fourth eighth filthy month thirtieth (b) Words not to be confused. Make sure you are making the correct consonant sound in each word.

thin thank

tin tank
S10 sank
shin shank
thin thirst
fin first thick tick

pith pit

thigh tie sigh shy

sick chic

P1SS pish

three free

thought fought

(c) Through thick and thin.

Set a thief to catch a thief.

threat fret

Truth and roses have thorns. Thirty days hath September.

They're as thick as thieves.

'My feet had run through thrice a thousand years.' If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing well.

B. Pronounce aloud

3; 33; 333; 3,333; 33,333.

C. Stress in compound nouns.

In most of the 'noun-adjective' groups of words that we have looked at, both the noun and the adjective have stress, but the noun more than the adjective (foreign visitors, wide variety). There is, however, a group of words in which it may seem as if the adjective has the main stress (a dancing master, a greenfly), In fact, these are not adjective-noun combinations but compound nouns, often written with a hyphen or even as one word:

A dancing master - a master who is dancing (adjective-noun)

A dancing master - a master who teaches dancing (compound noun) Practise saying these compounds, exaggerating the stress on the first word:

tennis racquet police station bus conductor

writing paper walking stick pencil sharpener

Then practise making the distinction between these pairs:

A black bird : a blackbird a blue bottle : a bluebottle

a green fly a greenfly a leather jacket : a leatherjacket

46

DIALOGUE 21. My birthday's on Thursday

RUTH: It's my birthday on Thursday. My sixth birthday.

ARTHUR: My seventh birthday's on the 13th of next month, so I'm-let me think- 333 days older than you, Ruth.

RUTH: Do you always put your thumb in your mouth when you're doing arithmetic, Arthur?

ARTHUR: My tooth's loose, Ruth. See'? I like maths. I came fourth out of 33. My father's a mathematician.

RUTH: My father's an author. He writes for the theatre. We're very wealthy.

When I'm 30 I'll have a thousand pounds.

ARTHUR: I'm going to be an Olympic athlete. I may be thin but Mr Smith says I've got the strength of three. Watch me. I'll throw this thing the length of the path.

Rtrnr: Oh Arthur! You've thrown earth all over us both. I'm filthy! Now they'll make me have a bath!

47

22. [0] then, breathe

This is the voiced pair to [8]. You will find that the effort of voicing presses your tongue a little further forward, pushing it harder against the teeth.

PRACTICE

A.

(a) Notice (he different vowel sounds:

[A] brother [pI bother [e]

mother

other

another

heather weather leather feather

[i: ]

tether whether together

heathen breathing

[0:) father [er] bather [3;] gather

[at] either or [I:] either

rather

lathe

neither

neither

(b) (i) voicelessfinal 'th', voiced if followed by 'e',

teeth north mouth

teethe northern mouths

ly', 's'

wreath wreathes

worth worthy

(ii ) but both voiceless in these nouns and the adjectives formed from them

wealth health filth length tooth

we alrhv healthy filthy lengthy toothy

(iii) note (he changed vowel sound in the following:

[0:] bath [0] cloths [e] breath [au] south

[er 1 bathe [;:'lu] clothes [i:] breathe [A] southern

[0] moth [A] mother

(c) Bi rds of a feather flock together.

He that speaks. sows, and he that holds his peace, gathers.

'This above all-to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.'

B. Fill in the gaps.

(a) . and sisters have I none, but man's .... is my . , .. son.

(b) I'd 1D a sea , wear. . .. . and a .... be.

(c) My younger is .. , When he opens his YOll can see. . .. . .. , I

don't he's about. My don't .

gone off . , , . for a , , leaving my ... " to my younger .

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48

DIALOG U E 22. I'd rather be a mother than a father

FATHER: Where are the others?

MOTHER: They've gone bathing. Heather and her brother called for them. FATHER: Heather Feather?

MOTHER: No, the other Heather-Heather Mather. I told them to stay together, and

not to go further than Northern Cove.

FATHER: Why didn't you go with them?

MOTHER: I'd rather get on with the ironing without them.

FATHER: In this weather? There's a southerly breeze. One can hardly breathe

indoors.

MOTHER: Go and have a bathe, then.

FATHER: Another bathe? I can't be bothered. I'll go with you, though. MOTHER: But all these clothes ... who'd be a mother!

FATHER: I'd rather be a mother than a father! All those hungry mouths!

49

23. [h] him

This is a very easy sound to produce but one which a lot of people find very difficult to attach to other sounds, To make it, simply open your mouth and push air up and out straight from the lungs, To produce it several times in succession, imagine that you have been running and are out of breath, or you are a dog panting, The problem in ordinary speech is to have sufficient breath in your lungs to expel at every [h], Practise controlling the amount of air you expel so that you always have some in reserve,

Do not use this sound for linking,

PRACTICE
A,
(a) hip hill his hit hum
hop hell horse hut home
heap heel house heat harm
hoop hall Hess hate ham
silent 'h'
(b) perhaps coathanger who (h)eir r(h)ubarb fore(h)ead
behave upholstery whom (h)our r(h)yme shep(h)erd
behind disheartened whose (h)onest r(h)ythm sil(h)ouette
unhappy upheld whole (h)onour ex(h)aust Birming(h)am
inhuman penthouse whooping ve(h)icle ex(h)ibition Blen(h)eim
cough (c) Handsome is as handsome does,

He that has ears to hear let him hear. Heaven helps him who helps himself. He that has an ill name is half hanged,

In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen,

It's not the hopping over hedges that hurts the horses' hooves; it's the hammer, hammer, hammer on the hard high road,

Come hell or high water. Cold hands, warm heart.

B, One word in each of these sentences turns it into nonsense,

Which words are they? (e)

(f)

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

C. Can you remember the syllable stress in these words without looking back?

explain post office afternoon director
radiator hotel extravagant concentrate
concentration market square advise disapproval
Arabic Chinese materialistic phonology
unsuccessful exciting opportunity decision UO[SD;)D

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50

DIALOGUE 23. Happy honeymoon

HAZEL: Hullo, Hanna. Have you heard about Hilda and Harry?

HANNA: Hilda and Harry Hall? They're on their honeymoon in Honolulu. HAZEL: Yes, the Happy Holiday Hotel. But apparently they had the most hideous

row.

HANNA: Hilda and her husband? Handsome Harry?

HAZEL: My dear, haven't you heard? He held her by the hair and hit her on the head with a hammer.

HANNA: What inhuman behaviour! I hope she's not badly hurt?

HAZEL: Heavens, yes! Horribly! ~e hurried her to the hospital-s-you know how Hilda hates hospitals.

HANNA: But how did it happen?

HAZEL: He says it was the heat that went to his head!

51

24. [lJ] sinqer, thing

To make the [I)] sound, start with the mouth slightly open. Then breathe through the nose. If you have a mirror in front of you, you will see that the back of the tongue rises and the soft palate comes down to meet it, effectively blocking off the passage of air to the mouth. Now vibrate the vocal cords so that you produce a sound. That sound will be [D]. To produce [nk], you release the barrier at the back of the mouth immediately after the [I)] so that the air now escapes through the mouth in the [k] sound. losl is formed in the same way, only the second sound is voiced and hardly any air escapes through the mouth.

PRACTICE

A. [v! (no ls! sound)

(a) sing sang sung song

bring bang bung belong

ding nng ting young/among
dang rang tang
dung rung tongue harangue/meringue
dong wrong tong (b) All the present participles ('we're singing') and gerunds ('I like talking']

stretching sitting calling tinkling

winding watching darkening beginning

spreading weeping ringing getting

(c) These '<nger' words (N.B. all derived from verbs ending in '<ng']

singer ringer coathanger

bringer banger hanger-on

B. [Vk]

(a) Here are just afew of the many words that end in [tjk]. A good exercise is to go through the alphabet, thinking of all the possible combinations of letters and sounds, and then look them up in the dictionary to see if they exist, e.g. bink (no), brink and blink (yes).

ink pink bank sank bunk

drink think rank stank drunk

mink ZInC drank thank junk

monk punk trunk

(b) In the middle of a word. Despite spelling these are all pronounced [tjk].

ankle Manx anchor length gangster

uncle anxious conquer strength ([g 1 becomes [k] because

tinkle han( d)kerchief banquet amongst of following voiceless consonant)

c. loel

(a) before:

'a': kangaroo, nightingale, Hungary, Bengal, engage. '0': Mongolia, mango, tango, angostura.

'u': singular, angular, fungus, language, penguin.

'I' : England, English and words that end in '<le ': angle, single, jungle, etc. 'r": congratulate, hungry, angry, mongrel.

(b) some words before '-er' (N.B. not derived from verbs)

e.g. finger, linger, hunger, conger eel, fishmonger, ironmonger

(c) comparatives and superlatives of the three adjectives long, strong, young:

long strong young

longer stronger younger

longest strongest youngest

52

DIALOGUE 24. A king and a song

INGRID: There once was a kingMUNGO: King of England?

INGRID: No. This king's kingdom was far-flung, stretching along the banks of every winding river, spreading into all the angles of the world.

MUNGO: He must have been a very strong king. The strongest! Did everything belong to him?

INGRID: Almost everything. One evening he was sitting on the bank of his longest river, watching the sun sink behind the weeping willows-

MUNGO: And the nightingales calling from the darkening branches.

INGRID: Only they weren't nightingales. They were two monks ringing a tinkling bell, singing a sad lingering song in a strange tongue no longer known among the younger subjects of his far-flung kingdom.

MUNGO: It's beginning to be interesting. But I'm getting hungry. Can you bring me something to eat and drink, do you think, Ingrid?

53

25. More rhythm: consecutive stresses

Most of the time, in English speech, stressed syllables are separated by one or more unstressed ones. But every now and then there will be two stressed syllables, one straight after the other. There was a pair in Jane's telegram in Unit 13. 'PLEASE MEET', she wrote, and when the Post Office clerk read it, he had to hang on to the first word until it was time, strictly in accordance with the rhythm, to move on to the next. You will have done the same thing in the third and sixth lines of 'Jack and Jill':

... To fetch a pail of wa-ter. ... And Jill came tumbling af-ter.

In ordinary speech, 'water' and 'after' each have only one stressed syllable, but rhythm overrides everything, especially in nursery rhymes, and so we have to say: 'wa-a-a-ter'. [f, when you were doing Exercise B of Unit 13, you repeated the groups of phrases several times without a break, you will have found yourself saying 'a delicious and mouth-watering pineapple', followed immediately by 'a nice ripe pear'-·-in fact, doing exactly what we're going to concentrate on in this unit.

Note that if you are holding on to an open vowel ('a grey horse') or a vowel before a voiced consonant ('a beige carpet'), you can lengthen the vowel sound almost indefinitely. However, if the vowel is followed by a voiceless consonant sound and therefore must be short, either

(a) you will have to lengthen the consonant sound: 'a nice-ce-ce person',

or (b) if the consonant sound is not one of those that can be continued indefinitely ([ f], [s], [J], etc.) but a 'plosive.' ([p 1, [t 1, [k 1, etc.), you will get your speech organs in position to say the sound and only let go when the rhythm tells you to ('take two', 'top teeth').

PRACTICE

A. Two consecutive stresses.

long walk tall man

brown dog bright sun

blue sky main road

green grass fresh fruit

black cat whole cake

B. Now try the same pairs of words, this time in sentences. In each sentence there should be at least one stressed syllable, apart from the two consecutive ones. Before you begin, decide which syllables you are going to stress. Then repeat each sentence at least twice, slowly at first and then a little faster.

She went for a long walk. I've bought a brown dog. He's looking for a tall man. I love the bright sun.

What a wonderful blue sky.

We'll drive by the main road. Let's sit on the green grass. You must eat some fresh fruit. A pretty little black cat.

They finished the whole cake.

C. Go through the sentences again, stressing only the two consecutive stressed syllables:

We went for a long walk. I've bought a brown dog.

Unless you can say the unstressed words very fast you will probably have to slow the two stressed ones down quite a lot.

54

DIALOGUE 25. All dressed up like a dog's dinner

SAM: Jack, for Pete's sake! Who's that girl all dressed up like a dog's dinner-red hat, red dress, red gloves-ah1 but what's this'? Blue shoes!

JACK: Take that back, Sam Boyd. Dog's dinner indeed!

SAM: You're quite right! My dog hates raw meat! He'd have ten fits if 1 gave him a red mess like that for dinner!

JACK: It's her best dress. To impress you, you rude creature! She's sweet, rich, clever-dnd a good cook!

SAM: Lord save us, the man's mad! Don't say you're in love with the red maiden? JACK: Yes, Sam. f am. What's more-we're engaged. This time next week we'll be man and wife.

SAM: I did really put my big foot in it, didn't I? All I can say now is-s-good luck, old man!

HN8C ~ C."

55

26. [1] lace/sail

Lay the front part of your tongue along the alveolar ridge, with the tip of the tongue touching the gums just where the teeth join them. Contract the tongue, drawing in the sides so that air can pass on either side. If you suck in air, you will feel it on the sides of your tongue. Now push the air out of your mouth, at the same time vibrating your vocal cords so that you produce a voiced sound. There are, in fact, two [I] sounds in English, but they are not phonemic, i.e. it makes no difference to meaning which one you use. The [I] you have just made (the 'clear' [1]) occurs before a vowel (like, lost, sailing, hollow). The other [I] sound (the 'dark' [ID occurs before a consonant sound (called, build) or at the end of a word (full, middle, chapel). To make the dark [I], keep the front of your tongue against the alveolar ridge but try to say a long [u:]. You will feel the back of your tongue rising. Note that a great many words that end in dark [I] have an [u] sound immediately before (Mabel, unable, fatal).

PRACTICE
A.
(a) clear [1]
love laugh element
life leg eleven
look Lord alone
lots limp along
(b) dark [t]
all pool curl
full foal snarl
sell growl aisle
(c) silent 'l'
half calm
calf palm
halfpenny [hci-] almond (d) As large as life.

Every cloud has a silver lining. Let sleeping dogs lie.

sleep actually
slip yellow
slope silly
sloppy gorilla
table build
marvel field
careful gold talk chalk walk

could should would

folk yolk Suffolk

English ticklish quickly lonely

[Ii]

failure million

also wealthy although

colonel salmon

Live and let live.

Love me little, love me long. Little things please little minds.

B. (a) Do you really like living in a lighthouse all alone?

I absolutely love living in a lighthouse all alone.

(b) Do you lead a delightfully social life on Hollywood Boulevard?

Naturally, I lead ...

(c) Have you ever lain in a sleeping bag on a lonely island in a total eclipse?

I've frequently lain ..

(d) Does it look as if the long platform is actually parallel to the railway lines?

It certainly looks

C. Do you know where the stress comes in the names of these creatures?

monkey giraffe butterfly crocodile rhinoceros

leopard porcupme donkey tiger nightingale

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gorilla spider kangaroo mosquito canary

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56

lizard hippopotamus elephant tortoise chimpanzee

hyena squirrel peacock zebra alligator

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DIALOGUE 26. A lovely little lion

BILLY: I love wild life in its natural element. Look at all your lovely animals, Lucy.

Lots and lots.

Lucy: Eleven, actually.

BILLY: And look! Here's a lovely little lion-a real live black lion asleep on the lawn. Lucy: That's a leopard, actually.

BILLY: I don't believe it! Leopards are yellow. Look, Lucy, he's laughing! Do

animals understand the English language?

Lucy: Leave him alone, Billy. He's licking his lips. BILLY: Would you like a lettuce leaf, little lion? Lucy: Billy, be careful-Oh Lord!

BILLY: Let go! Help, Lucy, he's got my leg!

Lucy: Actually, that's how I lost my left leg. You wouldn't listen, you silly fool.

Well, let's limp over and look at the gorillas.

57

27. [r] run

Though in a number of languages [1] and [r] are not phonemic, in English they are, and it is important to distinguish clearly between them, both when listening and when speaking. When pronouncing [r] there is no gap on either side of the tongue. In fact, the tongue lies relaxed on the bottom of the mouth with only the tip raised towards the alveolar ridge. Now move the tip rapidly downwards so that it just brushes very briefly against the ridge and resumes its former position, at the same time expelling a little air and vibrating the vocal cords. This is a 'flapped' [r]. There is only one flap. Very often there is no flap at all (,fricative' [r]). The tongue lies still.

[r] is only pronounced before a vowel sound, not before a consonant nor at the end of a word: 'harm', 'bird', 'poor', 'there', 'later'.

---_ .. ----_._----

PRACTICE

A.

(a) roar run red

rare Rome rage

rubbish crying carry (w)rong
rabbit drowning worry (w)rite
nver Freddie mirror (w)rist
really angry tomorrow (w)rap r"~l\.f J.VV.l

nee

silent 'r'

final position before consonant before silent 'e'

car poor harm fierce there pure N. B. i(r)on

fur later bird short shore fire i(r)onmonger

ncar prefer turn pearl care here i(r)oning

(b) Round the rugged rock the ragged rascal rudely ran. Aurora Borealis.

The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. Red as a beetroot.

Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run. Ring--a-ring 0' roses.

Right as rain.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

B. [r]I(IJ contrast. Which is slhe saying?

( ) I b collect h b f

a must remern er to t t e papers e ore tomorrow.

correc

(b) Glamour. II h r f Grammar IS a selves or

(c) The p!lott signalled that he was coming alongside. plra e

(d) I'm afraid I didn't bring the li.ghht suitcase.

ng t

( ) M lodger's 1"

e y , a so icitor.

Roger s

C. Here are a few minimal pairs with II] and [r] for you to practise. There are lots and lots How many can you think up?

flog bleed belly laughed clash alive

frog breed berry raft crash arnve

long fly list glow glean led
wrong fry wrist grow green red
---_.
5.J;:>j'POl (;:1) 14:iJu (p) dllWd (J) reurunuf (q) ]JdllOJ (n) -0 :SJJMSUV
58 DIALOGUE 27. The respective merits of frogs and rabbits

ROGER: My rabbit can roar like a rhinoceros. BARRY; Rubbish! Rabbits don't roar, Roger.

ROGER: You're wrong, Barry. My rabbit's an Arabian rabbit. They're very rare.

When he's angry he races round and round his rabbit run. And if he's in a real rage he rushes on to the roof and roars.

BARRY: How horrid! Really, I prefer my frog. I've christened him Fred. ROGER; Freddie Frog! How ridiculous!

BARRY; An abbreviation for Frederick. Well, you remember when I rescued him from the river last February? He was crying like a canary. He was drowning.

ROGER: Really, Barry! Frogs don't drown.

59

28. Consonant sounds followed by [r]

Here we have some of the phonemes we have practised, followed immediately by [r]. Once you have mastered the individual sounds of these pairs, you should have no difficulty in pronouncing the two sounds together. Be careful not to roll your [r]-·pronounce it nearer to [w] than [rrrr].

When the first sound is voiceless, as in [tr], [Ir], [Or], etc., the air is expelled on the [r] and the following vowel, not on that first voiceless consonant itself.

PRACTICE

A.

(a) cram creek crew grove

gram Greek grew drove

tram freak true shrove

dram shriek through trove

pram treacle shrew throve

(b) Work your way through the consonant sounds, putting {rJ and the same vowel after each consonant (e.g, prat, brat, trat, drat, etc.} just for practice. You can look the words up in a dictionary to see if they actually exist!

thrift drift shrift

crumble grumble

(c) Some longer words miserable unfruitful incredible

unprofitable unshrinkable undrinkable

untraceable unbreakable ungrateful

unanswerable immeasurable unthreadable

B. (a) Which is slhe saying?

blessed goes cave
breast grows crave
chain quick blink
drain crick brink flows froze

cheese trees

Jack track

junk drunk

quest crest

Jaw draw

(b) What are the missing words?

1. Water is carried by the local ...

2. There's too much ... in the cities for my liking.

3. I'm afraid ... is not my favourite food.

4. Only ... men are allowed in the sanctuary.

5. Why don't we ... the figs for a change?

C. Mark the stressed syllables and underline the stronger stress in each word group.

train crash brick wall train driver huge great crate

dreadful dream breathe properly up front pretty frightened

fresh fruit incredibly brave windscreen broken crates

~A?lq Alq~P?l~U! AJl~d91i~lflB?iq

S;:!I?1J U;»)j91q P~U~llfSPJ ,(n?ld ;)1t;D lB?la' ;)Jr_Ul

Ud~DSPU!h\ lU91J dl'

) l~llJ lfS?ll WI!?lP InJpe?lp

l~APp ugUl 1I?h\ )Ppq lfS?lJ U!?l) .~)

Alp . <; oorj : P Uh\luq' [ ~UIlJa" z: U~!111' I (q)

h\!11P iso.io lfunf )juqq )j;)mb unup

)j:J!111 ~S;)dlP ~ZOlJ :JAB:J Sh\Ola' ISBd1q (I!) ·S :SJdM~'UV

60

DIALOGUE 28. A dreadful train crash

PRUE: Weren't you in that train crash on Friday, Fred? FRED: Oh Prue, it's like a dreadful dream.

PRUE: A tractor-isn't that right?-crossing a bridge with a trailer of fresh fruit crashed through the brick wall in front of the train?

FRED: Yes. The train driver's a friend of my brother's. I was travelling up front with him. I was thrown through the windscreen on to the grass, but he was trapped under a huge great crate. I could hear him groaning.

PRUE: Fred! How grim!

FRED: I was pretty frightened, Prue, I can promise you! I crawled through the broken crates and tried to drag him free. His throat was crushed. He couldn't breathe properly, but he managed a grin.

PRUE: How incredibly brave!

61

29. Consonant clusters

Now we have groups of two, three and sometimes four consecutive consonant sounds with no vowel sound in between, e.g. [str], [ksp].

These 'consonant clusters', as they are called, are not difficult. Remember that in all languages the tendency is to pronounce things with the least amount of effort. So keep your lips and tongue and jaw as relaxed as possible-in some cases only the smallest movement is needed to slip from one sound to the next.

With words beginning with r s] + a consonant, be careful not to put an [e) sound before the [s], Get the [s] right, hold on to it for a moment, then go on to the next sound.

PRACTICE
A.
extra exchange mixed mixture picture
c-..-v+rn~£l,. expect taxed fixture adventure
1r.,;Al-.lvJ.llv
extr(a)ordin( a)ry explode boxed texture Christian
smashed switched sergeant managed arranged
crashed watched agent salvaged exchanged
rushed hatched pageant damaged singed
strawb( e )rry Pebble Beach couldn't acknowledge Kingston
ras(p )b( e )rry probably wouldn't nickname amongst
blackb(e)rry veg( e) table oughtn't bacon B. Listen to the dialogue, How many syllables are there in each of the following words?

1. twenty-sixth

2. extremely

3. dangerous

4. extraordinarily

5. sergeant

6, strawberries 7, blackberry

8, headquarters 9, suspiciously

10. vegetables

11, emergency

12. transmitter

13. explosion

14. sufficient 15" shouldn't

C. Mark the stressed syllables and then underline the strongest stress in each group of words.

this extremely dangerous mission an extraordinarily stupid sergeant the village store

mashed potatoes

his emergency transmitter

a large blackberry and apple pie

---------------:---------'-

:Jja d(dd~ PUE AJldq){J~(q ;)jjl~( E 1;)HjUlSUE1l ,\JU;"lilJ?U1;) Sill SJol?lod P;)qsl;lUl Z '<;1 £ '8

;)J!}IS dilE!I!A ;)ql lllE;)'ill?S prdms A!!JRU!P19E11X;"l UE UOISSJUI snorofiuep APW;J1IXJ S!tll 'J r vr £'£! szr v'lT cor v'6

Z'L Z'9 Z '<; s 'v £ '£ £ 'z £ 'I 'S :S.J;lMSUV

62

DIALOGUE 29: Two tricky problems

PARKER: There we were, the 26th Division, on this extremely dangerous mission, with only an extraordinarily stupid sergeant in charge.

MRS PARKER: If I managed to reach the village store before closing time, I wonder if Mrs Pecksmith would exchange the strawberries for a blackberry and apple pie ... Just a sergeant, dear?

PARKER: The message came through from headquarters that we were to proceed to what we called Pebble Beach and examine a fishing boat that was behaving suspiciously.

MRS PARKER: That was a strange way for a fishing boat to behave ... I could make the stuffed chicken stretch further with masses of mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables.

PARKER: The sergeant couldn't remember which switch to switch on his emergency transmitter. There we were, approaching the suspicious boat and suddenly there was an explosion like a ... like a . . .

MRS PARKER: Like an earthquake, dear? ... Then with a large blackberry and apple pie and whipped cream-there should be sufficient.

PARKER: Strictly speaking, the sergeant shouldn't have been in charge. I remember, the explosion split my trousers.

MRS PARKER: Well, go and change them, dear. The children will be here any minute.

63

30. Weak forms (1)

As we saw in Unit 13, to maintain the rhythm of speech in English, stressed syllables must be spoken at regular intervals of time and the unstressed syllables fitted into the gaps between the stresses. How is this possible if you're speaking at a reasonable speed? Well, we saw in Unit 12 that the vowels in unstressed syllables are often reduced to a rapid 'shwa' and sometimes even vanish altogether. In Unit 13 we looked briefly at groups of words that are not 'telegram words' and therefore usually have no stress. Here and in the next 2 units we shall consider these in more detail.

Note that the normal pronunciation is [dl (the 'weak' form) and that the vowels in these words are only given their full value (the 'strong' form) if they are at the beginning or end of a sentence, or are being specially stressed (e.g. Are you coming, too? I hope you arc. You are kind).

A. Weak forms (shwa)

B. Strong forms (full value)

<1, an

I swallowed a fly.

An alligator bit him.

You say a book,a child. but an apple, an elephant.

am

[orn] ['rn]

What am I doing? I'm singing a song.

What am I to do?

Am I serious? Yes, I'm afraid I am!

and

[;,m] ['n] [ond]

Bread an(d) butter.

Over an(d) over an(d) over again.

Trifle or jelly') Trifle and jelly, please! And she's a gossip ...

Where are my glasses? Her cakes are awful!

They are mine, they are, they are! Are you alone?

as

[n]

I'm as happy as a king. Well, as far as I can see.

As I pour it on, you stir it.

As I was saying before you interrupted.

I got it at a cheap shop. We're here at last'

He is selling it-s-but at a price. What are you staring at?

'But me no "buts".'

But for me, you would all be dead.

I'm ugly but intelligent!

They say they are, but they're not.

can

[bnl [kn]

If you can do it, so can I. r can see a star.

Can I come too? Mother says I can.

could

[kod] [kd]

She said she could come. I'm so angry I could swear.

Could you possibly help me') There! I told you I could!

do

[d;)] [d']

When do we begin? D'you understand?

Do look at that funny man! What do you do all day long?

docs [doz] [dz]

What time does it arrive? What does 2 and 2 make?

Does it work? Of course it does! Oh, she does look nice!

C. Listen to the tape. The speakers are speaking very fast. What are they saying?

·Il:>"'. SE InEUOllSE UE ;u,noA pUE ineuo.nse UB ill,I ~U!PU:>I:>ld ill,I ':>~EJ E U! A1EUEJ E 5E Alld:>MS 5B ~lI!S lIEJ I i,IUEM :>UOAUB S;)OP lEqh\ i,IUEM nOA op IBljh\ 'lB:>d B pUB :>[ddB UB pUB BUEUBq B :JIB 3qS 'MOU'lj nOA 00 '~u!ppnd B pUB S:JOIElOd pUE IB:>ill ~U!ABq ;)1,:Jh\

'lj;)U;)l::1 IB ssorcdoq mq QSllilu3 IB rradxo UB Ul,I 'J :S.l<lMSUV

64

DIALOGUE 30. What a boring book you're reading!

JONATHAN: What are you doing, Elizabeth?

ELIZABETH: What am I doing? I'm reading. What does it look as though I'm doing? JONATHAN: What are you reading?

ELIZABETH: A book, silly. What do you think? You can see I'm reading a book. JONATHAN: I wish I could have a look at it. Do you think I could have a look at it,

Elizabeth? Elizabeth, is it an interesting book?

ELIZABETH: Yes, a very interesting book. But an adult book. O.K., come and have a look at it and then go away and leave me alone.

JONATHAN: But what an awful book! It looks as boring as anything. How can you look at a book like that? What does it say?

ELIZABETH: Jonathan! You're an awfully boring and annoying little boy! Go away!

65

31. Weak forms (2)

Here is the second batch of words that are pronounced with a 'shwa' sound instead of having the full value of their vowels. Notice that on the whole these words are:

(i) articles (a. an, the),

(ii) personal pronouns (us, them, etc.), (iii) prepositions (at, to, for, etc.),

(iv) auxiliary verbs (am, are, have, etc.),

(v) modal verbs (shall, should, must, can, etc.).

Notice also that in the case of some of them, particularly 'and' and 'must' and 'of', the final consonant is nearly always elided: 'and' is nearly always pronounced [an]; 'must' and 'of' are usually pronounced [IUdS] and [d] before a consonant.

When you're practising sentences or phrases, give the stresses exaggerated emphasis. This will make the unstressed words seem weak by comparison even if you're speaking fairly slowly and not weakening as much as a native speaker would. Keep the rhythm in mind all the time.

~~~---.---- -----------------~

tor

I fJ] [Ir]

from

[Irorn] [frm]

had

[hod] [dd] [d]

have

[hJVI [Jv! [v]

has

[hoz] [s] [LI

is

[L] [sl

must

[mos] [most ]

not

[not] [nt]

of

[av] [J] [v]

shall

[Jul] [Jl] (II

should

[Jd]

some [somj lsm]

A. Weak forms (shwa)

B. Strong forms (full value)

I'm doing it for fun. He's training for a race,

What did you do that for? For he's a jolly good fellow!

I wonder where they came from? Guess where I got it from,

Had I finished this one last week? Yes, I think you had,

Have you two met before?

No, I don't think we have,

Has it stopped raining yet?

He has got it, I know he has.

Is this what you're looking for') She says she isn't, but she is,

Must you make so much noise') I must say, it's not bad!

Oh, not again! I told you not to ' Raining? I hope not!

What's it all in aid of?

Of the examples he gave, not one.

Shall I say you're out?

If you don't, I shall!

Should we call a doctor?

I think we should,

Some people have all the luck!

I made these myself. Do have some.

They came from Africa,

I'm speaking from experience.

You'd better put it back,

Tell me, what had they done?

We've put a frog in his bed! Why have you got a coat on')

Charles has bought a car. What's he done now?

Fhats Concorde going over. She's a very good secretary,

I must go and buy a paper. Everyone must have a present

I don't believe a word of it. They haven't finished yet

I bought a pound of apples. Lots of people do it.

What shall we do if it rains') I'll tell your mother I

You should look where you're going. [ should think that's all right.

They stole some money. We ate some chocolate.

C. Listen to the tape. What are the speakers saying?

poustuu JII.,nOA arojoq )j:){~q ;)q IU 'UBJ I SB )j:J!nh SB aq ll.I 'i!U!41 rood 'ny, pEl] \JlJS ,\r.PIJ1SJA Juoi! JII.El[ pjnoqs I ·uo i!U!UJ;) s,ljl:lqBz!l3 M.oq cos pUB 0;) isnf ILl (:» 'EJ110J JlUOl[ SPU;)llJ 1[;)l[1 JO JUlOS ;)m;)uuq :llB UJlPlllj:l :lljl ·SJlPlM.PUI?S JlUOS J)jBUl pUB 0;) )SIlIIl I (q)

'\OOlPS If? ,{ddr.l[ l,USI dq p1E1J!? Ul,I inq os AES 1,US;)OP JH 'Ul?qlBuor uro.ij J;)lPI E peq ;)11..1 (I?) 'J :SJilMSUV

66

nll!l()GIU: ":l1l \A/h'!::ll+ h~u!O\ vO •• ...I .............. A.: ... L I\II_LeI7

_ • ..-.. "" .... I. lII'W HUll. IIUY<[;i V lUI YUlle VV.I. .. IVlau .

SERENA: Barnabas, what have you done with that packet of biscuits?

BARNABAS: Well, there's a sort of an alligator in a cage over there. He looked sort of hungry.

SERENA: Barnabas, you didn't ... ? But you must never feed an animal in a cage.

I should think you've given it a bit of a stomach ache.

BARNABAS: He's been brought here from America.

SERENA: And anyway, I bought those biscuits for tea. What shall I tell Mother? BARNABAS: I wish I'd got some cake for him as well, Serena. He's a nice alligator. SERENA: But, my goodness, what have you done with little Mabel? Where's she

gone?

BARNABAS: Well, she's ... sort of ... gone. He did look so sad so far from America, and very hungry.

67

32. Weak forms (3)

Here is the third and last group of words that have their normal pronunciation with a 'shwa' [~J sound. Remember that the purpose of weakening the vowel sound is to make it possible for the word to be said more rapidly. Try to keep the unstressed syllables in each group exactly the same length as you speak, e.g.:

The: one that was at the top

5d ! WAn I 5d' I WdZ I d' I Od ! top

~ ~

(longer) (longest)

(louder) (loudest)

(higher) (highest)

Practise saying all the words with weakened vowels with the centre of your lips together, to prevent yourself from being led astray by the spelling. Listen to yourself and make sure that all the weakened vowel sounds are the same-d, on, am, cz, ot, etc-and all of them 'shwa'!

A. Weak forms (shwa)

B. Strong forms (full value)

than [5;;mJ

My sister's prettier than yours:

It's easier than I expected"

(not really possible)

that

[5;}t] [5;)']

He said that I could have it. Tell her that I shan't be coming.

That's the man who shot him.

That book belongs to me. I know that.

the [Og]

The tiger ate the hunter.

They dragged the body into the house.

Are you the William Shakespeare?

My dear, they had the most awful row.

them [l5gmj (5m]

Tell them I'm just coming. She gave them each a pound.

Don't give it to us, give it to them.

'Them as asks no questions, hears no lies!'

there [()gj [5;)rj

Is there a party tonight?

There's a burglar in my bedroom!

Look, there he is, over there! There goes my last penny.

to

[ta]

I went to London to see the Queen. I wanted to go to the cinema.

Who are you giving those flowers to? They got up to all kinds of mischief.

us

[;)s]

He told us to come back later. What do you want us to do?

So you told the Joneses, but not us!

He's not going with you, he's coming with us.

was

[woz]

It was a dark and stormy night. I looked, but no one was there.

Was there any left in the bottle? I told you there was.

They were telling us about it. Hundreds of people were drowned.

Were you talking to me?

I didn't know where you were.

would

[wd] [wod]

I'd like to have a word with you. Well, what would you have done?

Would you mind controlling your dog? Yes, I jolly well would!

Where are you going?

What have you done with it?

You think you know everything. No one was talking to you.

your U;)j

Could you buy one on your way home? Don't put your hands in your pockets.

68

Your apples are rather small, -

I wouldn't like to be in your shoes!

DIALOGUE 32. There's nowhere to go in the jungle

CHRIS: Hi, Pete. All set for the final scene? Hey, what's the matter? You look as pale as a glass of vodka!

PETE: Barry and John have gone. Just upped and gone. While you were looking for the lake. I tried to stop them but there was nothing at all I could do-nothing that any of us could do.

CHRIS: What do you mean, gone? There's nowhere to go. In the middle of a Bolivian jungle? How would they get out?

PETE: They said there was a man who'd take them to the river--for an enormous fee-and that anything was better than dying of heat and mosquito bites in a South American jungle.

CHRIS: The miserable bastards! Well, go and get your camera, Pete. And the rest of the crew. We can survive without them. And I hope there's an alligator waiting for them at the river!

69

33. [I] bit, bid

This is a very relaxed sound. The tongue lies with no tension on the bottom of the mouth, the lips are relaxed, slightly spread. It's probably best to close your mouth, make sure that there is no tension anywhere, then open your lips until you can just get one finger between them, open the teeth a fraction so that you can't get much more than a finger nail between them and then, without tensing up, say the sound you hear on the tape. To make doubly sure that you aren't tensing up at all, keep your fingers on your throat, just above your Adam's apple. Keep the vowel sound short.

PRACTICE

A.

(a) big pig fig

(b) primitive ministry antiquity distinguishing Mississippi

dig ng wig

din S111 wm

You can go through all the consonant sounds just .0 practise. It doesn't matter if you're not making actual words.

six sinking ships

bin pm thin

thick -skinned twin sisters stinking rich unsolicited gift British history

Isn't it a little bit thin?

a picnic in the hills

the Sicilian Fishing Industry fish and chips

(c) There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.

If the cap fits, wear it. As pretty as a picture.

As fit as a fiddle. Little pitchers have big ears.

B. Some deceptive spellings
misses watches wanted added sacred aged
freezes fixes fitted faded crooked learned
washes wages waited weeded wicked beloved
believe kitchen poet silliness mischief anemone
before women perfect mattress handkerchief recipe
refuse English earnest limitless sieve catastrophe
private pnvacy cottage cabbage college passenger
fortunate palace village damage privilege messenger
deliberate purchase marnagc courage orange
busy biscuit hymn Monday vineyard pretty
minute building idyllic birthday sovereign
lettuce circuit physics holiday \

C. Here are some British place names that contain the [IJ sound. Some are fairly straightforward, but some of them are deceptive. You will have to listen carefully.

Hitchen Denbigh Hadleigh Wensleydale

Chiswick Uist Bicester King's Lynn

Ipswich Salisbury Gullane Inverbervie

Edinburgh Bideford Chipstead Manchester

Lewes Dorset Plymouth Kirkcudbright

Lincoln Swansea Inverary Merthyr Tydfil

70

DIALOGUE 33. Busy in the kitchen

BILLY: Mummy! Are you busy?

MOTHER: Yes. I'm in the kitchen.

BILLY: Can I go swimming in Chichester with Jim this morning?

MOTHER: Jim?

BILLY: Jim English. He's living with Mr and Mrs Willis in the village-Spring

Cottage.

MOTHER: Isn't it a bit chilly to go swimming?

BILLY: What's this? Can I pinch a bit of it?

MOTHER: Oh, Billy, you little pig! It's figgy pudding. Get your fingers out of it!

BILLY: Women are so silly! I only dipped a little finger in.

MOTHER: Well, it's a filthy little finger. Here, tip this chicken skin into the bin and I'll give you a biscuit.

71

34. [i.] beat, bead

In contrast to [ I], this is a tense vowel. Start with your mouth and other speech organs in the right position to say [I] and then tense all the muscles, spreading and firming the lips, raising the back of the tongue and tensing the muscles under the chin.

The other important feature of this vowel is that it is long-far longer than [I]. [11 before a voiced consonant sound is roughly the same length as [i:] before a voiceless consonant sound.

-~---
PRACTICE
A.
(a) he tree weed sea beans extreme
she see leek pea leave complete
me ftee sweep tea heap evening
legal completion secret create machine police
equal obedient cathedral trio magazine antique
evil comedian metre psychiatric sardine mosquito
Achilles chief deceive phoenix key
Ulysses field ceiling Phoebe quay
cnses niece receipt people geyser
Aesop Caesar Leigh Beauchamp (b) 'the' before a vowel--the animal, the end, the answer

words ending in '-y' before a vowel~a lovely antique, you silly idiot!

(c) short and long (d) N B. No difference in pronunciation between:
beat:bead seat:sea key-quay seize-seas
leaf:leaves teach.tea beet--beat week-s-weak
wheat:weed feet: fee see-sea ceiling-scaling
(c) minimal pairs
bit hill hip still fit sit gnn SIl1
beat heel heap steel feet seat green seen (f) It's all Greek to me. New brooms sweep clean.

A friend in need is a friend indeed. Easy come, easy go.

B. Which is slhe saying?

(a) Shall we Sllip in here? seep

mill .

(b) We had a wonderful I by the nver.

mea

(c) I've never seen a shhip move so fast!

seep

(d) W ' . live h

e re gomg to I ere very soon.

eave

(e) Don't tell me you ~~at your brother!

le;}q (a) ;}A![ (p) docqs (o [e;}UI (q) d!ls (e) . H : S'.L;)MSUV 72

DIALOGUE 34. Weeding's not for me!

PETER: This is the season for weeds. We'll each weed three metres before tea, easily. CELIA: Do we kneel? My knees are weak. Do you mean all these?

PETER: Celia, my sweet, those aren't weeds, those are seedlings. Beans, peas and leeks. Can't you see?

CELIA: If they're green they're weeds to me. But I agree, Peter-weeding's not for me!

PETER: Well, let me see. May be we'll leave the weeds. You see these leaves'? If you sweep them into a heap under that tree I'll see to the tea.

CELIA: Pete, my feet are freezing. You sweep the leaves. I'll see to the tea!

73

35. [e] bet, bed

This is a relaxed sound, like [I]. The mouth is just a little more open than for [I]; you should be able to put a finger between your teeth, and the lips are a little wider apart than that. Keep the sound short. And be careful not to open your mouth too much or you will find that you are saying the next sound [reI.

PRACTICE
A.
(a) Ken bend west seven direction head
ten send chest clever reckon heavy
when mend dressed never adventure treasure
very medal berry heather leisure said
merit petal terror weather Leicester again also [ogem]
heron lemon errand death Reynolds against
says any leopard friend haemorrhage bury
ate many Leonard friendly
Thames Geoffrey (b) Least said, soonest mended.

All's well that ends well.

Better late than never.

The thin end of the wedge, Marry in haste, repent at leisure.

Rain before seven, fine before eleven, There's a remedy to everything but death. God defend me from my friends; from my enemies I can defend myself. Every day and in every way, I get better and better and better.

B.

Which is slhe saying?

to Hell, (a) Orpheus went down the hill.

( ) U h" hi well e rte put everyt mg In IS '11' WI .

'b) , pen

( Old you get back the . you lent him')

"" pin .

Many were Minnie.

(f) M" rescued but penshed.

mme was many

(c) Did you finish the hhem then? ymn

( ) . Belle Bill?

g What did Bill tell Belle?

(d) I said I felt the ~f: was too high.

C. Listen to the dialogue. Mark the stressed syllables.

heaven desperate direction bury

treasure remember sunset yesterday

eleven reckon adventure again

IlIS 'dIPS (1l)

U!Y~B Aepl;)lS51A A:lllq

AlIBW 'd!UU!W (J) II!M. (;)

l;)SlI1)S raqurourar

uOP:>,U!P ;'llP.l;'lds?p

paq (p) UWAlj (J) uod (q)

74

UO)j:>511

U;)A51P ;)lflSP.?ll U;'lAB51lj "J

II;)H 01 (e) ·S :S.l3MSUV

DIALOGUE 35. The end of the adventure

KEN: Ted! Thank heaven! I was getting desperate.

TED: Hello there, Ken. Where are Jeff and the rest of the men?

KEN: They left me in the tent with some eggs and some bread, and off they went. TED: Where were they heading?

KEN: West. In that direction. They said they'd bury the treasure under the dead

elm-you remember, by the bend in the fence-and get back by sunset.

TED: All ten of them went?

KEN: They said the chest was heavy. TED: They left-when?

KEN: Yesterday, between ten and eleven. TED: And you let them?

KEN: There were ten of them . . .

TED: Well, my friend, I reckon that's the end of the adventure. We'll never see the treasure chest or any of those ten men again.

75

36. [a ] bat, bad

----_._-----------._--------_. ------- -----

This is another short vowel, but the mouth is wider open than for [e]. Press the tip of your tongue hard against your lower teeth, bunch the tongue up behind it, open your lips so that the corners of your mouth are not pressed together, and then make a bleating sound, like a lamb. The sound you are trying to achieve is very like that which a lamb makes, but perhaps it would be wise to practise in private to begin with!

PRACTICE
A_
(a) Jack gang
crackle sang
racket sprang
apple album
cattle animal
handle asthma
Spanish palace
radish Alice
Adam camel
madam enamel
(b) girls' names
Janet Ann
Marion Annabel
Miranda Caroline (c) Flat as a pancake.

A matter of fact. Mad as a hatter.

cash crash splash

clarity charity personality

granite Janet

travel gravel

Sally Hanna Joanna

ham Jam Sam

man Gran fantastic

grand sandwich understand

static ecstatic dramatic

short and long vowels mat:mad

back:bag

catch:cadge

acid rapid

cabin Latin

balance salad

examine imagine

shadow gather

cavern tavern

boys' names

Jack Daniel

Harry Anthony

Alec Sam

Nathaniel Basil Alan

Catch as catch can.

A hungry man is an angry man.

Mayas well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.

B. Which is slhe saying?

Hal (a) I said he could go to Hell.

Jam

(b) Look at that fabulous .

gem.

(c) When did Adam tell you he'd sandd the paving stones? sen

I '] (d) Did you remember to bring back the ~:~~I:?

gnats

(e) There are too many ts about. ne s

C. Listen to the dialogue. Mark the stressed syllables.

piano album fantastic absolute

practising racket galactic Grandad

talent sandwich

understand static

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SlEUll (d) dIll!?;) (p) PUdS (o ure] (q) lPH (E) 'g :S.l3MSU\>,-

76

DIALOGUE 36. Crackle, crackle, Galactic Static

GRAN: Jack, do you have to bang and slam on that piano like that? JACK: I'm practising for our new album. It's smashing.

GRAN: An album? You mean that racket you and your gang bash out?

JACK: We're not a gang, we're a fantastic jazz band. Sally and Janet, me on the

piano, Alec on the sax-the Galactic Static. It'll be an absolute smash hit.

GRAN: The Galactic Racket, if you ask me. And all you'll smash is Grandad's piano. JACK: Gran, we have talent. We're cool cats, man. Crackle, crackle, Galactic Static! GRAN: The young man's mad. Here. I've made you a fat ham sandwich and a crab-

apple jam flan. _

JACK: Ah, Gran, you may not understand jazz but your flans are fab.

HN8C _ 0

77

37 a [A] cut, come

This is a relaxed, short sound. The lips and teeth are a little more open than for [ej=-which, if you remember, was slightly more open than for [1]_ Get your mouth and tongue ready to say [1) (hit, him, hip), nicely relaxed. Now open your mouth till you can just slip the tips of two half-crossed fingers between your teeth. The bottom finger should be able to feel the tip of your tongue still lying relaxed behind your bottom teeth.

Don't draw back your lips or tense your muscles-you will be saying [:.e] again. And don't raise the back of your tongue too much or you will be saying sound No. 38, [01J. Keep the sound short.

PRACTICE

A.

(a) fun sun begun

rgg swum stung

crum(b) thum(b) dum(b)

IUGk· duck stuck

jU_11lp trust shut

cut shut butter

(b) In each of these words, the stressed syllable contains the sound! AJ even though you may not think
so from the spelling.
son one onion London among constable
ton done honey Monday tongue front
won once money wonder mongrel sponge
come comfort above shovel govern
some company dove cover oven
stomach compass glove discover slovenly
other nothing double rough
mother thorough couple tough
brother month country enough
blood does cousin touch twopence worry
flood doesn't dozen young colour wonder
(c) Lucky in cards, unlucky in love. Not in a month of Sundays.
What's done cannot be undone. Well begun is half done. The rain it raineth on the just and unjust fella,

But more upon the just, because the unjust's got the just's umbrella.

B. Listen to the tape and fill in the missing words

'. . . . , . . . . . Are you . . . . . to . . . . on ? . . . and have . . . .

at my ' '~ to. I've been .... in the .... for ..

'I was - what had of you.'

, ... a of .. " "" A bit. . . . . I shall ..... '

. "'" I . . .. ...., . . . See you at the . . . . on . . . . at . . . . .'

c " •• My . , .. to your , .. , .'

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78

DIALOGUE 37. The bungalow's flooded

DUNCAN: Jump up, Cuthbert! The bungalow's flooded! CUTHBERT: The bungalow? Flooded?

DUNCAN: Come on, hurry up.

CUTHBERT: Just our luck! We're comfortably in London for a month, come down to the country on Sunday-and on Monday we're flooded! Trust us!

DUNCAN: Shut up! Come on, double up the rugs and stuff them above the cupboard. Chuck me that shovel. There's a ton of rubble that I dug out of the rubbish dump. I'll shove it under the front door-it seems to be coming from the front.

CUTHBERT: Duncan! I'm stuck!

DUNCAN: Oh, brother! You're as much use as a bloody duck!

CUTHBERT: If I'd been a duck, I could have swum! Oh crumbs! The mud's coming in under the other one! We're done for! We'll be sucked into the disgusting stuff!

DUNCAN: Hush! How wonderful! The current's suddenly swung. It's not going to touch us ... unless ... I wonder ...

79

38. The Tonic

In previous units we have looked at stress within words, in noun-adjective groups and in compound nouns. The main stress usually comes on the last stressed word of a sentence. Now we shall see how you can alter the whole meaning of a sentence simply by shifting the point of main stress-the TONIC, as it is called.

In the sentence 'John didn't speak to Mavis', the main stress will normally be on 'Mavis', holding the listener's attention right to the end of the sentence. But if you alter the stress you can imply all sorts of different things:

John didn't speak to Mavis (Peter did)

John didn't speak to Mavis (you've got it all wrong) John didn't speak to Mavis (he wrote to her)

or exaggerated stress on Mavis:

John didn't speak to Mavis (he spoke to Anna).

Notice how after the Tonic, what's left of the sentence stays at the same pitch, with very little stress even on normally stressed syllables.

PRACTICE

A. Listen to the tape. Where is the Tonic in these sentences? (a) We didn't mean to arrive just in time for lunch.

(b) Is this the book you were looking for?

(c) But you told me I could come round tonight. (d) I haven't seen Elizabeth for ages.

(e) No, dear. He broke his leg in a skiing accident. (f) Are all nine of the Joneses coming to dinner?

B. Now practise shifting the Tonic yourself:

(a) Are you coming to Majorca with us this summer?

Are you coming to Majorca with us this summer? Are you coming to Majorca with us this summer? Are you coming to Majorca with us this summer? Are you coming to Majorca with us this summer? Are you corning to Majorca with us this summer?

(b) My wife doesn't look like a sack of potatoes.

My wife doesn't look like a sack of potatoes. My wife doesn't look like a sack of potatoes. My wife doesn't look like a sack of potatoes. My wife doesn't look like a sack of potatoes. My wife doesn't look like a sack of potatoes.

C. Can you add something to each sentence to explain the implication of the change of stress in the sentences in Question B?

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outu (J) ilu!!lfS (d) S;)~B (p) PIOI (:1) S!lfl (q) UB;)ID (B) '\1 :S..tJMSUV

80

DIALOGUE 38. I've won a prize!

MICHAEL: Jennifer! Guess what! I've won a prize! JENNIFER: A prize? What sort of prize?

MICHAEL: A super prize. Dinner for two at Maxime's!

JENNIFER: You are clever! What was the prize for? I mean, what did you do to win a dinner for two at Maxime's?

MICHAEL: Well, you're not to laugh-I went in for a competition at the Adult Education Centre-a cooking contest.

JENNIFER: You won-a prize in a cooking contest! I've got to laugh. Michael, you can't even boil an egg!

MICHAEL: I can boil an egg. I can scramble one, too. Most deliciously. Of course, I'm not a Cordon Bleu cook, like you ...

JENNIFER: Well, why haven't I ever won a cooking competition?

MICHAEL: Probably because you never go in for competitions. I'm glad you didn't go in for this one. You might have won, and then you would have had to invite me to dinner at Maxime'sl

81

39~ [D] boss, bomb

This is another short sound. But this time it is tense. The teeth should be about the width of a thumb apart, with the lips pushed forward and held stiffly about the same distance apart as the teeth. The back of the tongue is drawn right up towards the roof of the mouth and the tip of the tongue lies on the bottom of the mouth as far back as it will go. Imagine that you have a very hot potato in your mouth, just behind your bottom teeth!

PRACTICE

A.

(a) chop flop stop

box cost
crocks frost
knocks hostel
doctor body
blonde promise
problem holiday song off toffee
wrong cough robber
belong trough copper
model what because
proper squat sausage
Roger swat cauliflower
quantity Australia
quality Austria bottle topple jostle

cloth knowledge

bother acknowledge

(b) Honesty is the best policy.

A watched pot never boils.

When sorrow is asleep, wake it not.

lorrocks jollity

'Once upon a time there were three little foxes

Who didn't wear stockings, and they didn't wear sockses . But they all had handkerchiefs to blow their noses,

And they kept their handkerchiefs in cardboard boxes.'

B. Try to say these with a regular rhythm, like a chant:

What we want is Watneys.

What we want is Top of the Pops, What we want is to stop the rot.

What we want is a holiday in Scotland. What we want's a proper copper on the job.

C. Listen to the tape. Which word in each of these place names has the main stress?

Onslow Square Notting Hill Gate Sollihul Circus

Cromarty Gardens Connemara Crescent Gossip's Row

Hot Cross Lane Horse Trough Road Pocklington Place

Bosworth Terrace Cauliflower Green Oxford Street

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82

DIALOGUE 39. What's wrong with the blonde popsv?

BOB: Sorry, Tom. I wasn't gone long, was I? My God! What's wrong with the blonde popsy? She looks odd-sort of floppy.

TOM: No longer a blonde popsy, old cock-a body.

BOB: Oh my God! You gone off your rocker? I just pop off to the shop for a spot of ...

TOM: Stop your slobbering, you clot! So we got a spot of bother. Come on, we got to squash the blonde into this box and then I want lots of cloths and a pot of water-hot-and probably a mop--to wash off all these spots.

BOB: Clobbering a blonde! It's not on, Tom!

TOM: Put a sock in it, Bob, or I'll knock your block off! (Knock, knock.)

BOB: Oh my God! What's that knocking? Tom, Tom, it's a copper!

83

40. [ClI] bark, barn

This is a long sound (as you can tell from the length mark r). The tongue posinon is almost the same as for [A] but pulled a little further back. The lips are relaxed and slightly more open. If in doubt, tip your head back and gargle without spreading your lips any wider.

PRACTICE
A.
(a) car dance past ask gasp plant bath
starved chance last mask clasp can't path
darling France nasty basket ras(p )berry shan't father
pass ah mama drama garage autograph bazaar
class Shah papa PYjama massage paragraph bizarre
grass hurrah! Panama banana espionage telegraph catarrh
moustache transform command Derby clerk ca(l)m ha(l)f
tomato translate demand Hertford sergeant pa(l)m ha(I)ves
Yugoslavia transplant slander Berkshire (p)salm ca(l)f
a(1)mond ca(1)ves
example staff branch laughed heart aunt after
sample giraffe avalanche draught hearth aren't answer
(b) Marble Arch a hard bargain Charlie is my darling
draught lager a heart transplant a c1erk in Berkeley Castle
half mast the Star and Garter from Derby to Clerkenwell
(c) He who laughs last laughs longest. Cold hands, warm heart.
One is nearer God's heart in a garden. Part and parcel. B. [D] is always shorter than [as] even when [o:J is followed by a voiceless consonant sound.

Try saying these words, first in columns, keeping the words in the first column really short, in the second a little bit longer and so on. Then read them across, increasing the length of the vowel as you move from left to right.

hot hod heart hard

cot pot lock off

cod pod log of

cart part lark half

card pard Largs halves

C. Listen to the dialogue and mark the stressed syllables, then underline the Tonic in each group of words.

(a) Ah, here we are.

(b) Your father's car's draughty.

(c) Your moustache is all nasty and sharp. (d) It's only Sergeant Barker.

(e) You can't start making a pass till after the dance.

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84

DIALOGUE 40. Making a pass at Martha

CHARLIE: The dance doesn't start till half past, Martha. Let's park the car under the arch by Farmer Palmer's barn. It's not far. Ah, here we are. There's the farm cart.

MARTHA: Ooh, Charlie, it's dark!

CHARLIE: The stars are sparkling. My heart is enchanted. Martha you are-marvel-

lous!

MARTHA: Your father's car's draughty, Charlie. Pass me my scarf. CHARLIE: Rather let me clasp you in my arms, Martha, my darling.

MARTHA: Ah, Charlie! Your moustache is all nasty and sharp. I can't help laughing.

Aren't you starved? Here, have half a Mars Bar. Ssh! There's a car passmg.

CHARLIE: Keep calm, can't you? It's only Sergeant Barker. He plays darts in the bar of the Star and Garter. Martha . . . darling . . .

MARTHA: Don't be daft, Charlie! You can't start making a pass till after the dance!

85

41. [J:] bought, board

---_----------_--_-

Another long sound, and an easy one to move on to once you have mastered [a:]. Say [a:], then, keeping your tongue and teeth absolutely rigid, move your lips together and forward so that they form an '0' about the same distance apart as your teeth. Did you keep these, and your tongue, just as they were for [a: 1? If you hold your thumb sideways and then bite it, the inside of your lips should just touch it. If you're making too small an '0', you'll find that you're saying [u:]. Like [0:], [J:] comes from very far back, almost in the nasal passage.

PRACTICE A_

(a) or for nor

more storm oral four
store corn glory your
before tortoise chorus course
boar ought all bald
roar thought call salt
soar bought stan Malia
lawn autumn toward taught
crawl August reward caught
awful aural warder daughter
board cha(l)k sta(l)k sward
hoard ta(I)k wa(l)k s(w)ord
Montreal shore altar poor
Nepal sure alter pour poor door floor

awe jaW thaw

hoarse coarse

water launder

Paul - Pauline George - Georgina Norman - Norma

(b) Any port in a storm. Pride comes before a fall.

The calm before the storm. To put the cart before the horse.

New Lords, new laws. A tall order.

You can take a horse to the water, but you can't make it drink.

B _ Which is slhe saying?

( ) Th _ collar, I

a IS colour won t stay on proper y.

shock'

(b) What a horrible h k "

s ar .

(c) I think he's been ~~~~ in the chest.

(d) What have you done with the cups? ? corpse.

chord.

(e) You played the wrong card Just then.

(f) What's that filthy markk on your jeans? rnuc

(g) I cooked the pears in father's port. pot.

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86

~ .,.
.. ;1'r
.,.... -6
~ i'
,. ,
.$
I r
,
~ §I
-li!2 ~ _,
_, DIALOGUE 41. Fawns, horses and a tortoise

PAUL: Any more of these awful autumn storms, George, and we'll be short of corn. I ought to have bought some more in Northport.

GEORGE: This morning, just before dawn, I thought I saw signs of a thaw. I was sure-

Ssh! Behind that door there are four fawns that were born in the storm.

PAUL:

They're all warm in the straw now.

GEORGE: Poor little fawns! Paul, what's that snorting next door?

PAUL: Those are the horses' stalls. They're snorting at my daughter's tortoise. It always crawls around in the straw.

GEORGE: If Claud saw us walking across his lawn ... He's an awful bore about his lawn. Oh, Lord, we're caught! There is Claud! Now we're for i"t!

87

42. Elision

Rhythm, it cannot be emphasised enough, is all important. In order to keep the rhythm flowing, consonant sounds are sometimes dropped altogether; for instance, in words like cu(p )board, ras{p )berry, gran(d)mother, han(d)kerchief. This is known as ELISION.

When the same sound occurs at the end of one word and at the beginning of the next, they are not produced as two separate sounds, but held on to without a break for a little longer than a single sound. In the English phrases 'Don't talk', 'I want to', the first [t] is not aspirated at all. Your speech organs are all in the correct position but you don't let go of the sound until the rhythm dictates that it is time to start the second word.

When one of the first six sounds we looked at (the 'plosives') occurs at the end of a word, with a different consonant sound at the beginning of the next word ('good thing', 'take time'), your speech organs prepare to say the first sound, hesitate on it, and then move on to the second consonant sound. This blocking of the first sound is known as a 'Glottal Stop'.

If this first consonant sound is suppressed, how can one know what it was meant to be? The answer is that something of the sound you were preparing to say attaches itself to the sound you do say; and the context and the meaning of the sentence as a whole help the listener to understand; and the length of the preceding vowel indicates whether the suppressed consonant was voiced or voiceless. The only way we can really tell the difference between 'Batman' and 'bad man' is that in the first, the first syllable is short, in the second, long. Some sounds such as [s1 and [h] are so easy to slide on to after a plosive that you simply run them together as if the second sound were part of the aspiration of the first.

PRACTICE

A. (a) Same consonant sound

good_dog don'ttalk Arab, boy coughfirst

stop.pushing we I Ileft jammaking the fourthThursday

askKate thosezoos Italiannavy withthis

thissausage biggame I loveVenice low.water

[tfJ and [d31 are two-sound combinations. Both sounds have to be repeated [tJ-tfJ, [d3-d3]).

Dutch cheese Judge Jones a rich journalist

fetch Charles large gin the village champion

(b) Plosive followed by a different consonant

lo(g) cabin nigh(t) boat sudde(n) glimpse

straigh(t) road thic(k) dark reed) log

Arcti( c) trip dee(p) moss brillian( t) yellow

u(p) north

aprico( t )-coloured ta(k)e pictures

B. Which is slhe saying? (a) We step d down. steppe

like

(b) I liked Don.

long

(c) We went for a I walk.

onger

I look

(d) I'll look carefully.

, nIce

(e) It sa. song.

nicer

kick

(f) I always kicked Kate.

C. Changing the position of the stress in a word can alter its meaning or its function. There is a whole group of two-syllable words that have the stress on the first syllable when a word is being used as a noun, and on the second when it's a verb,

e.g. progress n. Now you are making good progress.

v. You will never progress until you learn to listen. export n. Are all your goods for export?

v. Nearly all. We export 90% of our total production.

Now you try changing the stress on the following words, making up sentences if you can:

import record contract object permit convert

present produce desert insult protest transport

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DIALOGUE 42. A trip to Lapland

TOM: Well, Louise! I was just talking about you! When did you get back from your Arctic trip?

LOUISE: Last night, Tom, about twelve. We caught the night boat from Malmo. los said it was a bit late to telephone neighbours.

TOM: Did you have a good time? What's Lapland like? I've never been there.

LOUISE: It's just beautiful, Tom, I can't tell you. Great rocks of pink granite. Thick dark forests carpeted with deep moss and wild strawberries and lily of the valley. Sudden glimpses of red log cabins and bright blue water. Fields of brilliant yellow.

TOM: I thought Lapland would be quite different-wilder, more rugged? And is it true, all that talk of the Midnight Sun?

LOUISE: Right up north, yes. I couldn't get used to the light nights at first. But, Tom, magic isn't the word! That glowing apricot-coloured sky. And the marvellous silence-absolute peace.

TOM: What about the mosquitoes? I've been told they can be quite nasty.

LOUISE: Ugh! Great big fat things! Every time we stopped to take pictures or pick cloudberries, we were just devoured.

89