ABSTRACT

Thank God we pray to the presence of God Almighty, because, thanks to His grace and
His grace, this paper can be solved well, just in time. This paper is to fulfill the task of
Pronunciation Practice, By making the task we are expected to be able to better understand
about Levels of Stress, Stress Timing and Syllabel Timing, Sentences Stress and Tonic
Syllabel, Volar plosives and Bilabial Plosives.
We do not forget to say thank you to all those who have helped in this paper and do not
forget to thank the lecturers of Pronounciation Practice, Mrs. Ekky Aryati Butsiany, S.Pd who
has guided us.
We realize that without the help of various parties, this paper will not materialize.
Therefore, with all due respect we expect advice and criticism for further improvement.
Hopefully this paper can be useful for the readers.

Jakarta, 4th of March 2019

Pronounciation Practice II 1
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………………. 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………………… 2

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Problem………………………………………………………...... 3
B. Formulation of the Problem………………………………………………………….. 3
C. Purpose of the Problem………………………………………………………………. 3

CHAPTER II. DISCUSSION

A. Levels of Stress......………………………………….…………………..…………… 4
B. Sentences: Stress Timing and Syllabel Timing……..…………………….………..... 5
C. Sentences Stress and Tonic Syllables.............................................................……....6-7
D. Velar Plosives and Bilabial Plosives..........................................................................8-9

CHAPTER III. CONCLUSION

A. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………...10

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………..... 11

Pronounciation Practice II 2
 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Problem

So far, we have looked at syllables in terms of being either sterssed or unstressed. In fact
within longer words syilables can have different degrees of stress. To be more theoretically
accurate, we should consider all syllables in terms of their level of stress, rather than its
presence or absence, particularly when dealing with words in isolation. It has been claimed
that certain languange (for example English, Arabic, and Russian) are stress-timed, or
isochronous / aīˈsäkrənəs/. In such languages stresses occur at regular intervals within
connected speech, it is claimed, and the duration of an utterance is more dependent upon the
number of stresses than the number of syllabels. The use stress in speech helps us both deliver
and understand meaning in longer utterances and it is closely linked with intonation. a plosive
is a consonant characterized by a complete obstruction of the outgoing airstream by the
articulators, a build up of air pressure in the mouth, and finally a release of that
pressure. A stop is merely the first part of this sound (the stopping of the airstream). In other
words, in producing these sounds, the air is stopped for a brief moment (say pop over and
over and pay attention to what’s happening).

B. Formulation of the Problem

1. What is Levels of Stress?
2. What is Stress Timing and Syllabel Timing?
3. What is Sentences Stress and Tonic Syllabel?
4. What is Velar Plosives and Bilabial Plosives?

C. Purpose of the Problem

1. To understand the definition of Levels of Stress
2. To know Stress Timing and Syllabel Timing
3. To understand Sentences Stress and Tonic Syllabel
4. To know Velar Plosives and Bilabial Plosives

Pronounciation Practice II 3
 CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION
A. Levels of Stress
So far, we have looked at syllables in terms of being either stressed of unstressed. In fact within
longer words syllables can have different degrees of stress. To be more theoretically accurate,
we should consider all syllables in terms of their level of stress, rather than its presence or
absence, particularly when dealing with words in isolation. Different commentators have
outlined up to five different levels of stress in a single word: Daniel Jones, in An. Outline of
English Phonetics cites the word opportunity, which has five levels of stress as seen below. ‘1’
indicates the greatest level of stress, and ‘5’ the least.

Jones qualified this, however, by saying that he thought that this viewpoint needed
‘modification’, and that here stress was affected by ‘subtle degrees of vowel and consonant
length, and by intonation’ (1960: 247). While Jones’ example seems somewhat excessive for
our purposes, the existence of different levels of stress is well documented and evidenced.
Many commentators settle on a three-level distinction between primary stress, secondary stress
and unstress, as seen in the following examples.

However, in practical terms a two-level division (stressed or unstressed) is usually adequate

for teaching purposes. Many people (including many teachers) will have difficulty in
perceiving more than two levels of stress with any confidence. Two levels of stress are enough
to attune learners' ears and attention to how stress acts within words and utterances .This is not,
of course, to discourage teachers from further investigations into the nature of stress at a deeper
level. The deeper one's understanding of the subject matter, the better one's teaching of it is
likely to be. Teachers needs to be as informed as possible in order to be better able to make the
decision as to what to include in lessons. If students notice or enquire about more than two
levels of stress, then of course this should be acknowledged and discussed in class. The teacher
must feel confident in making informed decisions about the method and content of these
discussions, backed up by professional knowledge.

Pronounciation Practice II 4
 B. Sentences: Stress Timing and Syllable Timing

It has been claimed that certain languages (for example English, Arabic and Russian) are
stress-timed, or isochronous /aīˈsäkrənəs/. In such languages stresses occur at regular
intervals within connected speech, it is claimed, and the duration of an utterance is more
dependent upon the number of stresses than the number of syllables. To achieve the regular
stress intervals, unstressed syllables are made shorter,and the vowels often lose their ‘pure’
quality, with many tending towards /ə/, and other words /ı/ and /Ʊ/.
Other languages (such as Japanese, French and Spanish) are said to be syllabel-timed. In these
languages there is no strong pattern of stress; syllables maintain their length, and vowels
maintain their quality. Certain syllables are still stressed, of course, but not according to a
regular pattern.
Isochronicity might be shown as in the following example. We start with a simple sentence,
we add syllables to iton each line, but the time it takes to say the utterance remains the same.
They LIVE in an OLD HOUSE
They LIVE In a NICE OLD HOUSE
They LIVE In a LOVEly OLD HOUSE
They’ve been LIVing In a deLIGHTful OLD HOUSE
They’ve been LIVing In a deLIGHTful OLD COTTage
They’ve been LIVing In a deLIGHTful vicTORian COTTage

The occurence of stresses remains regular, and unstressed syllables are aquashed in between
the stressed ones, being shorter and losing some purity of the vowel sound. If you simply tap
out the rhythm it is easy to be persuaded og the validity of this idea. One can indeed say this
sequence of sentences with a regular rhythm, which seems to be preserved as one adds more
syllables. There is also a strong contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables.
However, consider also the speed at which you are talking by the time you get to the last
utterance in the group. From slowly and deliberately in the first sentence, one moves by stages
to far more rapid speech in the last line. The persuasiveness of the idea makes the evidence fit
the theory, rather than the theory being supported by the evidence.
It makes more sense to imagine English described in terms of a continuum which has
tendencies towards stress-timing at one end and syllable-timing at the other. A language like
English has more of a tendency than some other languages to reduce vowel length and quality
in unstressed syllables, and so tends towards the stress-timing end of continuum.
So-called-syllable-timed language also reduce the length of the vowel in and unstressed
syllable, though to a lesser extent, but they tend to preserve the quality of the vowel sound.

Pronounciation Practice II 5
 C. Sentence Stress and Tonic Syllables
The use of stress in speech helps us both deliver and understand meaning in longer
utterances and it is closely linked with intonation. Although we will inevitable mention
intonation,we will look further at how intonation contributes to the meaning of the meaning of
what of what we say :
He LIVES in the HOUSE on the CORner
[Capitals have not been used where they would usually {i,e, on, he} in order to preserve the
distinction between stressed and unstressed syllable]
This gives us three content words [lives, house, and corner], which convey the most
important ideas in the sentence. The rest of the utterance consists of function words, which
we need in order to make our language hold together.
The example is rather stylised, however, and glosses over what actually happens when the
sentece is said in context. In order to arrive at an understanding of this, we need initially to go
back to word stress.
The word corner has two syllable, the first one being stressed, and the second one
unstressed, as follow : CORner.
The first syllable of corner in this sentences is the tonic syllable. It is indicated by
underlining. Corner is the most important word in the sentences as it effectively answers the
question where? The tonic syllable is the most stressed syllable in an utterance - it is generally
longer, louder, and carries the main pitch movement in an utterance [in this example, the pitch
of the voice falls on it]

Has LIVES in the house on the CORner

Here, lives is given some stress, and so it is written in capitals. Lives in this sentences is
the onset syllable, in that it establishes a pitch that stays more or less level right through to cor-
[ which is still our tonic syllable], on which it droops. That the word house is not stressed here
tells us that this is shared knowledge between the speakers, and it is not necessary to point this
out. It is possible to detect a small degree of stress on house, but relative to lives and cor-, it is
noticeably less prominent
NO, he LIVES in the HOUSE on the corner

Pronounciation Practice II 6
 Here, lives is again an onset syllable, but the tonic syllable is now house, reflecting
the importance of this word within the utterance. No is also a tonic syllable, and is followed
by a pause. While the first syllable of corner is stressed when the word is said on its own,
here it is not given any stress, as it is knowledge already shared between the speakers

he ALready LIVES in the house on the on the corner

Within utterances, therefore, we emphasise tonic syllables in order to highlight the

most significant new information, we use onset syllables to initiate a pitch which continues
up to the syllable.

With regard to sentence stress we can outline a three-stage process which enables us
to say the same thing in different ways :

1. When we say word of more than one syllable in isolation we will stress one of the
syllable
2. When words are arranged together in a sentence or utterance, certain syllables will
be stressed in order to convey the most Important new information. This may cancel out
normal word stress.
3. Intonation is used to give further subtleties of meaning to meaning to the syllables
we have chosen to stress

Speakers make certain assumption with regard to what is old and new information,
and express these by means of stress {and intonation} patterns. Hearers confirm or spoken
or deny these assumption through their reactions.

Remember also that our spoken language is not tied to sentences. When conversing, we often
use incomplete sentences, phrases which would be considered ungrammatical if written down,
interrupt each other, backtrack and so on. However, a study of stress within complete sentences
provides a user-friendly way of drawing attention to the main aspects of how we use stress in
speech.

Pronounciation Practice II 7
 D. Velar Plosives and Bilabial Plosives

Velar Plosives
A lingua-velar (from lingua tongue and velar the velum or soft palate) plosive is a sound in
which the flow of air out of the body is interrupted by touching the back of the tongue to the
velum — the soft part of the roof of the mouth farthest from the front teeth; it’s about as far
back in the mouth as can be reached with the tip of the tongue. English has two lingua-velar
plosives — voiceless /k/ as in cook and ask, and /g/ which is voiced as in dog and good.

Characteristics
Velar sounds. Closure is made by the back of the tongue against the soft palate. /k/ is unvoiced
and fortis. /g/ is voiced and lenis. /g/ is devoiced at the end of a word.
As in...cot/got, pick/pig, packet, forget, queue.

Bilabial Plosives
A bilabial (from bi- two and labia lip) plosive is a sound in which the flow of air out of the
body is interrupted by closing the lips together. English has two bilabial plosives — /p/ in
which the vocal chords are not used (voiceless) as in pizza and pepper, and /b/ in which they
are used as in boy and trouble.

Pronounciation Practice II 8
Characteristics
Bilabial sounds: total closure is made using both lips. The soft palate is raised. /p/ is unvoiced
and fortis. /b/ is voiced and lenis. /b/ is devoiced at the end of a word.
As in.... pin/bin, cap/cab, happen, cabbage.

Pronounciation Practice II 9
 CONCLUSION
To be more theoretically accurate, we should consider all syllables in terms of their level of
stress, rather than its presence or absence, particularly when dealing with words in isolation.
So-called-syllable-timed language also reduce the length of the vowel in and unstressed
syllable, though to a lesser extent, but they tend to preserve the quality of the vowel sound.
A lingua-velar (from lingua tongue and velar the velum or soft palate) plosive is a sound in
which the flow of air out of the body is interrupted by touching the back of the tongue to the
velum — the soft part of the roof of the mouth farthest from the front teeth; it’s about as far
back in the mouth as can be reached with the tip of the tongue. English has two lingua-velar
plosives — voiceless /k/ as in cook and ask, and /g/ which is voiced as in dog and good.
A bilabial (from bi- two and labia lip) plosive is a sound in which the flow of air out of the
body is interrupted by closing the lips together. English has two bilabial plosives — /p/ in
which the vocal chords are not used (voiceless) as in pizza and pepper, and /b/ in which they
are used as in boy and trouble.

Pronounciation Practice II 10
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://calleteach.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/sounds-of-english-plosives/
How To Teach Pronounciation by Gerald Kelly

Pronounciation Practice II 11