Phonetics - Phonology

Introduction
1. Phonetics (Ngữ âm học) is the comparatively straightforward business of describing the
sounds that we use in speaking. In other words, phonetics deals with “actual” physical
sounds as they are manifested.
a. Articulatory phonetics /ɑːˌtɪkjələtəri/ (Ngữ âm học cấu âm) is concerned with the
articulation of speech: the position, shape, and movement of articulators or speech
organs, such as the lips, tongue, and vocal folds.
b. Acoustic phonetics /əˌkuːstɪk/(Ngữ âm học thính âm) is the study of the physics of the
speech signal: when sound travels through the air from the speaker’s mouth to the
hearer’s ear it does so in the form of vibrations in the air.
c. Auditory phonetics (Ngữ âm học thính giác) is concerned with speech perception: the
perception, categorization, and recognition of speech sounds and the role of the
auditory system and the brain.
2. Phonology (Âm vị học) is concerned with the component of a grammar that includes the
inventory of sounds and rules for their combination and pronunciation, how phonemes
function in language and the relationships among the different phonemes. In other words,
phonology deals with the abstract side of the sounds of language.
a. Segmental phonology (the study of the phonemic system)
b. Phoneme sequence and syllable structure
c. Suprasegmental phonology/ prosodic phonology / prosody:
 Stress (the relative strength of a syllable)
 Intonation (the use of the pitch of the voice to convey meaning)
3. Accent (Giọng địa phương)
Languages are pronounced differently by people from different geographical places,
from different social classes, of different ages and different educational backgrounds.
4. Dialect (Phương ngữ):
 A variety of a language is different from others not just in pronunciation but also in
such matters as vocabulary, grammar and word order.
 Accent is concerned only with pronunciation differences, while dialect refers to all
language variation including grammatical and lexical factors.

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 The model accent used in the course can be referred to as Received Pronunciation (RP),
BBC pronunciation, General British, Public School Pronunciation, Estuary English
(Thames estuary), etc.
5. Articulators or speech organs (Cơ quan phát âm) are the parts of the mouth and throat
area that we move when speaking. The principal articulators are the tongue, the lips, the
lower jaw and the teeth, the velum or soft palate, the uvula (/ˈjuː.vjə.lə/) and the larynx.
 Active articulators are those which can be moved into contact with other articulators,
such as the tongue.
 Passive articulators are those which are fixed in place, such as the teeth, the hard
palate and the alveolar ridge.
6. Segments are small pieces into which a continuous stream of sounds is divided.
7. Phonemes are sound units in an abstract set as the basis of our speech (44 vowel and
consonant phonemes).
8. Realizations /Allophones: different ways of making a phoneme.
9. Complementary distribution is the strict separation of places where particular
realizations can occur.
10. Transcription:
Transcription is the way we use special symbols in the chart of the International Phonetic
Association (IPA) to represent speech sounds.
a. Phonemic transcription:
A speech sound is transcribed phonemically when it is identified as one of the
phonemes and written with the appropriate symbol: /p/, /bʊk/.
b. Phonetic transcription:
It contains much more accurate phonetic information than a phonemic transcription
[ph] with the use of diacritics.
11. Diacritics are marks which modify the symbols in the IPA’s alphabet.

Exercise
I. List all of the consonant and vowel phonemes.

Vowels Consonants

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II. Transcribe the following words and decide how many phonemes there are in each
word.

1. advertise ………………. 16. questionnaire

2. agency ………………. ……………….
3. slogan ………………. 17. survey ……………….
4. billboard ………………. 18. commercial ……………….
5. brand ………………. 19. commision ……………….
6. awareness ………………. 20. profile ……………….
7. loyalty ………………. 21. endorse ……………….
8. campaign ………………. 22. launch ……………….
9. segment ………………. 23. consumer ……………….
10. strategy ………………. 24. protection ……………….
11. promotion ………………. 25. law ……………….
12. product ………………. 26. economic ……………….
13. feature ………………. 27. license ……………….
14. range ………………. 28. volatile ……………….
15. behaviour ………………. 29. labour ……………….
30. outsource ……………….

III. Transcribe the sentences phonemically.

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1. A particular problem of the boat was a leak.
2. Opening the bottle presented no difficulty.
3. There is no alternative to the government’s proposal.
4. We ought to make a collection to cover the expenses.
5. Finally they arrived at a harbour at the edge of the mountains.

Unit 1: The production of speech sounds

I. The larynx:

 4 positions of vocal folds / vocal cords / vocal reeds:

Vocal folds are
a. wide apart for normal breathing and usually during voiceless consonants like /p/,
/f/, /s/.
b. narrow glottis resulting in the voiceless glottal fricative sound /h/.
c. touching or nearly touching each other, causing vibration.
d. tightly closed causing a glottal stop or glottal plosive.
II. Respiration:
 Egressive pulmonic airstream is the movement of airflow out of the lungs
 The speech production mechanism comprises stages.
1. Initiation: The lungs, as an energy source, provide a pulmonic air flow.
2. Voicing / Phonation: The air flow is obstructed in the larynx, causing the vocal folds
to vibrate.
3. Articulation: The articulators and resonating cavities shape the sounds.
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III. Vowels and consonants
 Vowels are sounds articulated when there is no obstruction to the air as it passes from
the larynx to the lips.
 Consonants are sounds articulated when the vocal tract is partially or totally
obstructed.
 A lenis (voiced) sound is a weakly articulated one while fortis (voiceless) sounds are
produced with more force.
IV. Articulators above the larynx:
1. Vocal tract (Đường dẫn âm): The air passages above the larynx are known as the
vocal tract. The vocal tract can be divided into the oral tract (the mouth and
pharynx), and the nasal tract (within the nose)
2. Vocal apparatus are all parts of human anatomy that can be used to produce speech
sounds.

ORAL CAVITY

V. The production of vowel phonemes

Cardinal vowels are a standard reference system, including the range of vowels that the
human vocal apparatus can make and ways of describing, classifying and comparing
vowels.

 Tongue height: close – close-mid – open-mid – open

 Tongue shape: front – central – back
 Lip position: rounded – neutral – spread

ɑ
Monophthongs Diphthongs Triphthongs
ɑː ə aɪ eɪə
æ ʌ eɪ aɪə

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e ɜː ɔɪ ɔɪə
ɪ iː eə aʊə
ɒ ɔː ɪə əʊə
ʊ u: ʊə
əʊ
aʊ

A. Monophthongs
Exercise: Describe the twelve monophthongs using labels for vowel classifications.

1. ɑː ………………………………………………………………………………………

2. æ ………………………………………………………………………………………

3. e ………………………………………………………………………………………

4. ə ………………………………………………………………………………………

5. ʌ ………………………………………………………………………………………

6. ɜː ………………………………………………………………………………………

7. ɪ ………………………………………………………………………………………

8. ɒ ………………………………………………………………………………………

9. ʊ ………………………………………………………………………………………

10. iː ………………………………………………………………………………………

11. ɔː ………………………………………………………………………………………

12. u: ………………………………………………………………………………………

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B. Diphthongs:

C. Triphthongs:

Unit 2: The production of 24 consonant phonemes

Fortis (Voiceless) Lenis (Voiced)
/p/ /b/
/t/ /d/
/m/ /r/
/k/ /g/
/s/ /z/
/n/
/ʃ/ /ʒ/ /w/
/tʃ/ /dʒ/
/l/
/f/ /v/
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/θ/ /ð/ /ŋ/ /j/
/h/

I. Place of articulation:
1. Bilabial: (articulated with both lips) /p/, /b/, /m/, /w/ (4)
2. Labiodentals: (articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth) /f/, /v/ (2)
3. Dental: (articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth) /θ/, /ð/ (2)
4. Alveolar: (articulated with the tongue against or close to the alveolar ridge) /t/, /d/,
/s/, /z/, /n/, /l/ (6)
5. Post-alveolar: (articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar
ridge) /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /ʒ/, /dʒ/, /r/ (5)
6. Palatal: (articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate) /j/ (1)
7. Velar: (articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate /k/, /g/, /ŋ/
(3)
8. Glottal: (using the glottis as their primary articulation) /h/ (1)
II. Manner of articulation:
1. Plosives: (/p/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /d/, / ɡ /)
a. The closing phase: The articulators are moved against each other to form the
stricture for the plosive.
b. The compression phase: The compressed air is stopped from escaping.
c. The release phase: The articulator(s) are moved so as to allow air to escape.
d. The post-release phase: is what happens immediately after the release phase.
2. Fricatives: are articulated with the characteristics that air escapes through a narrow
passage and makes a hissing sound. They are also described as continuant consonants. (/f/,
/v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /h/)
3. Affricates: begin as plosives and end as fricatives. (/tʃ/, /dʒ/)
4. Nasals: are articulated with the air escaping through the nose (/m/, /n/, /ŋ/)
5. Lateral approximant /l/: Because there is complete closure between the centre of the
tongue and the part of the roof of the mouth where contact is made, the only way for the air
to escape is along the sides of the tongue.
6. Approximants: the articulators approach each other but do not get sufficiently close to
each other to produce a “complete” consonants (/r/, /j/, /w/)

PLACE OF ARTICULATION
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Bilabial Labiodent Denta Alveolar Post- Palatal Velar Glottal
al l alveola
Manner of articulation

r
Plosive p b t d k ɡ
Fricative f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h
Affricate tʃ dʒ
Nasal m n ŋ
Lateral l
approximant
Approximan w r j
t

III. Diacritics: marks which modify the symbols in some way

1. Devoicing: ˳
a. Lenis plosives at the initial position of a word (CV) are devoiced.

Word Phonemic transcription Phonetic transcription

bake
goat
doubt
bought
bough
bored
guard

b. Lenis plosives and fricatives are devoiced before a voiceless consonant or silence.

Word Phonemic transcription Phonetic transcription

tab
maze
bathe

c. The first part of a vowel is devoiced when it follows fortis plosives in a stressed
syllable.

Word Phonemic transcription Phonetic transcription

pit
pet
pat
putt
pot
put

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d. /l/, /r/, /j/, /w/ are devoiced when they follow fortis plosives at the beginning of a
stressed syllable.

Word Phonemic transcription Phonetic transcription

play
clean
tray
quick
cue
clean

Word Phonemic transcription Phonetic transcription

pay
spin
tea
stand
spring
squeak
scar
come
speak
tick
pea
3. Shortening vowels (Pre-fortis – clipping): Preceding vowels and some continuant
consonants (/m/, /n/, /l/ and /ŋ/) are shortened by a syllable-final fortis consonants  (ɑˑ;
ě; ěɪ).

Word Phonemic transcription Phonetic transcription

thick
kiss
safer
date
half
wish
deep
touch
earth
teeth

4. Glottalisation (ʔ): when some phonemes (fortis affricate and fortis plosives) at the end of a
stressed syllable are articulated with completely closed glottis

Word Phonemic transcription Phonetic transcription

nature
catching
riches
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actor
petrol
mat
football

5. Nasalisation (ñ): The preceding vowels are nasalized when a nasal is syllable final.

Word Phonemic transcription Phonetic transcription

hang
soon
man
ant
mom
sing
can
ten

6. Syllabic consonants (n̩ ): Consonants stand as the peak of the syllable instead of the vowel.
a. Syllabic /l/:

‘bottle’ _______ ‘struggle’ _______ ‘struggling’ _______ ‘Babel’ _______

‘tunnel’ _______ ‘knuckle’ _______ ‘panel’ _______ ‘pedal’ _______
‘wrestle’ _______ ‘bottling’ _______ ‘kernel’ _______ ‘papal’ _______
‘trouble’ _______ ‘muddling’ _______ ‘parcel’ _______ ‘ducal’ _______

b. Syllabic /n/:

‘threaten’ _______ ‘ribbon’ _______ ‘seven’ _______

‘eaten’ _______ ‘thicken’ _______ ‘heaven’ _______
‘happen’ _______ ‘waken’ _______ ‘often’ _______

c. Syllabic /m/, /ŋ/: only as a result of processes such as assimilation and elision

‘happen’ _______ ‘uppermost’ _______ ‘thicken’ _______ ‘broken key’ _______

d. Syllabic /r/: ‘Hungary’ _______

e. Combinations of syllabic consonants

‘national’ ______ ‘literal’ ______ ‘veteran’ ______

Word Phonemic transcription Phonetic transcription

button
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open
happening
sudden
couple
curtain
Britain
muddle
middle
petal
threatening
crippled
police
personally
scrambled
disabled
successfully
socialize 
chemicals
totally 
counseling
models
criminals
animals
penalty
dwindling
isolated 
journalism
complaints
 problem
from
american
important 
imagine
definitely
relationships
even
couldn't
urban
commission

7. Velarization:
 Clear /l/ ([l]): only occurs before vowels
 Dark /l/ ([ɫ]): occurs before consonants or before a pause

Word Phonemic transcription Phonetic transcription

eel
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lea
feel
field
pull
leaf
late
pal
plate
milk
Exercise: Transcribe the following words

Word Phonemic transcription Phonetic transcription

peat
speed
partake
book
goat
car
bad
appeared
toast
stalk
fishes
shaver
sixth
these
achieves
others
measure
ahead
figure
anger
singer
hanger
longer
longest
sofa
verse
steering
breadcrumb
square
anger
bought
nineteen
Unit 3: The syllables
I. The nature of the syllable
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A. Phonetically:
1. A minimum syllable: a single vowel in isolation.
‘are’ _______; ‘or’_______; ‘err’_______;
2. Onset: one or more consonants preceding the centre of the syllable
‘bar’_______; ‘key’_______; ‘more’_______;
3. Coda: one or more consonants following the centre of the syllable
‘am’_______; ‘ought’_______; ‘ease’_______;
4. Some syllables have both onset and coda:
‘ran’_______; ‘sat’_______; ‘fill’_______;
B. Phonologically:
Phonotactics: the study of the possible phoneme combinations of a language: what can occur
at the beginning of the first word and how a word ends when it is the last word spoken.
II. The structure of the English syllable:
A. Onset:
1. Zero onset: when the first syllable of the word begins with a vowel
2. Consonant cluster: when there are two or more consonants together
a. Pre-initial: /s/ ‘sting’ _______; ‘sway’ _______; ‘smoke’ _______;
b. Initial: about 15 consonants
c. Post-initial: /l/, /r/, /w/, /j/ ‘play’ _______;‘try’_______; ‘quick’_______;
‘few’_______;

‘split’ _______ ‘sue’ _______ ‘pray’ _______

‘stream’ _______ ‘syringe’ _______ ‘tray’ _______
‘square’ _______ ‘spin’ _______ ‘cry’_______
‘splay’ _______ ‘stick’ _______ ‘bring’ _______
‘spray’ _______ ‘skin’ _______ ‘drip’_______
‘string’ _______ ‘sphere’ _______ ‘grin’_______
‘stew’ _______ ‘smell’ _______ ‘fry’ _______
‘sclerosis’ _______ ‘snow’ _______ ‘throw’_______
‘screen’ _______ ‘clay’_______ ‘shrew’ _______
‘squeak’ _______ ‘black’_______ ‘twin’ _______
‘skewer’ _______ ‘glue’_______ ‘dwell’ _______
‘slip’ _______ ‘fly’_______ ‘thwart’ _______
‘swing’ _______ ‘slip’ _______ ‘swim’ _______
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‘tune’ _______ ‘huge’ _______ ‘news’ _______
‘cue’ _______ ‘view’ _______ ‘lured’ _______
‘beauty’ _______ ‘muse’ _______ ‘due’ _______

B. Coda:
1. Zero coda: when there is no final consonant at the end of a word.
2. Consonant cluster:
a. Pre-final: /m/, /n/, /l/, /ŋ/, /s/: ‘bump’ _______;‘bank’ _______; ‘belt’ _______; ‘ask’ _______;
b. Final: any consonant except /h/, /w/, /j/
c. Post-final:/s/, /z/, /t/, /d/, /θ/: ‘bets’ _______; ‘beds’ _______; ‘backed’ _______; ‘bagged’
_______; ‘eighth’ _______;

‘helped’ _______ ‘next’ _______ ‘texts’ _______

‘banks’ _______ ‘lapsed’ _______ ‘cramped’ _______
‘bonds’ _______ ‘twelfths’ _______ ‘squealed’ _______
‘twelfth’ _______ ‘prompts’ _______ ‘eighths’ _______
‘fifths’ _______ ‘sixths’ _______ ‘splash’_______

Pre- Initial Post- VOWEL Pre- Final Post- Post- Post-

initial initial final final 1 final 2 final 3
ONSET PEAK CODA
RHYME

Syllable
Rhyme
Onset Peak Coda
III. Weak syllables
A. The vowel /ə/ (“schwa”):

‘better’ _______ ‘influence’ _______ ‘molar’ _______ ‘tomorrow’ _______

‘open’ _______ ‘attend’ _______ ‘monarchy’ _______ ‘carrot’ _______
‘sharpen’ _______ ‘character’ _______ ‘intimate’ _______ ‘potato’ _______
‘photograph’ _______ ‘barracks’ _______ ‘accurate’ _______ ‘forget’ _______
‘radio’ _______ ‘particular’ _______ ‘desolate’ _______ ‘opportunity’ _______
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‘ambassador’ _______ ‘perhaps’ _______ ‘support’ _______ ‘gracious’ _______
‘settlement’ _______ ‘stronger’ _______ ‘halibut’ _______ ‘callous’ _______
‘postmen’ _______ ‘superman’ _______ ‘thorough’ _______
‘violet’ _______ ‘autumn’ _______ ‘borough’ _______

B. /i/: a close front unrounded vowel in the general area of /i:/, /ɪ/

‘happy’ _______ ‘easiest’ _______ ‘deodorant’ _______ ‘we’ _______

‘architect’ _______ ‘happier’ _______ ‘appreciate’_______ ‘me’ _______
‘easy’ _______ ‘hurrying’ _______ ‘hilarious’ _______ ‘the’ _______
‘busy’ _______ ‘react’ _______ ‘he’ _______
‘valley’ _______ ‘create’ _______ ‘she’ _______

C. /u/: a close back rounded vowel in the general area of /u:/, /ʊ/

‘thank you’ _______ ‘through’ _______ ‘influenza’ _______

‘to’ _______ ‘who’ _______
‘into’ _______ ‘evacuation’ _______

Unit 4: Stress
I. The nature of stress
Stressed syllables are more prominent than unstressed ones.
1. Loudness
2. Length
3. Pitch
4. Quality
II. Levels of stress: ‘indivisibility’ /ˌɪn.dɪ.vɪz.ɪˈbɪl.ɪ.ti/
1. Primary stress:
2. Secondary stress:
3. Tertiary stress:
4. Unstressed:
III. Placement of stress within the word

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1. Strong and weak syllables
a. A strong syllable has a rhyme with (i) a syllable peak which is a long vowel or
diphthong, with or without a coda or (ii) a syllable peak which is a short vowel followed
by at least one consonant.
b. A weak syllable has a weak vowel as the syllable peak. Syllabic consonants are also
weak.
2. Two-syllable words
a. Verbs, adjectives and adverbs:
- If the final syllable is weak or contains /əʊ/, then the first syllable is stressed.

‘enter’ _______ ‘open’ _______ ‘lovely’ _______ ‘hollow’ _______

‘envy’ _______ ‘equal’ _______ ‘even’ _______

- If the final syllable is strong, then that syllable is stressed even if the first syllable is
also strong.

‘apply’ _______ ‘assist’ _______ ‘divine’ _______

‘arrive’ _______ ‘rotate’ _______ ‘correct’ _______
‘attract’ _______ ‘maintain’ _______ ‘alive’ _______

b. Nouns: stress will fall on the first syllable unless the first syllable is weak and the
second syllable is strong.

‘money’ _______ ‘divan’ _______

‘product’ _______ ‘balloon’ _______
‘larynx’ _______ ‘design’ _______

3. Three-syllable words
a. Verbs:
- If the final syllable is strong, then it will receive primary stress.

‘entertain’ _______ ‘resurrect’ _______

- If the last syllable is weak, then it will be unstressed, and stress will be placed on the
preceding syllable that is strong.

‘encounter’ _______ ‘determine’ _______ ‘parody’ _______ ‘monitor’ _______

b. Nouns and adjectives:

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- Stress will fall on the first syllable unless it is weak.

‘quantity’ _______ ‘emperor’ _______ ‘opportune’ _______ ‘insolent’ _______

‘custody’ _______ ‘enmity’ _______ ‘derelict’ _______ ‘anthropoid’ ______

- In words with a weak first syllable the stress comes on the next syllable.

‘mimosa’ _______ ‘potato’ _______ ‘disaster’ _______ ‘synopsis’ _______

- When a three-syllable noun has a strong final syllable, that syllable will not usually
receive the main stress.

‘intellect’ _______ ‘alkali’ _______ ‘marigold’ _______ ‘stalactite’ _______

Exercise: Mark the stress on the following words:

1. Verbs

protect ______ festoon ______ bellow ______ disconnect______

clamber ______ detest ______ menace ______ enter ______

2. Nouns

language ______ career ______ event ______ injury ______

captain ______ paper ______ jonquil ______ connection ______

IV. Complex words

1. Words made from a stem with the addition of an affix: unpleasant; goodness
a. The affix itself receives the primary stress: semicircle, personality

 ‘-ee’: refugee, evacuee, trainee,  ‘-ese’: Portuguese, journalese

interviewee  ‘-ette’: cigarette, launderette
 ‘-eer’: mountaineer, volunteer  ‘-esque’: picturesque

b. The word is stressed as if the affix were not there: unpleasant, marketing

 ‘-able’: comfortable  ‘-ing’: amazing  ‘-ness’: yellowness

 ‘-age’: anchorage  ‘-like’: birdlike  ‘-ous’: poinsonous
 ‘-al’: refusal  ‘-less’: powerless  ‘-fy’: glorify
 ‘-en’: widen  ‘-ly’: hurriedly  ‘-wise’: otherwise
 ‘-ful’: wonderful  ‘-ment’: punishment  ‘-y’: funny

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 ‘-ish’ (adj): devilish

c. The stress remains on the stem but is shifted to a different syllable: magnet 
magnetic

 ‘-eous’: advantageous  ‘-ial’: proverbial  ‘-ious’: injurious

 ‘-graphy’:  ‘-ic’: climatic  ‘-ty’: tranquillity
photography  ‘-ion’: perfection  ‘-ive’: reflexive

d. Prefixes: stress in words with prefixes is governed by the same rules as those for
polysyllabic words without prefixes.
2. Compound words (made of two or more independent English words): armchair, ice
cream
a. Two nouns: The stress in on the first element: typewriter, car ferry, sunrise, suitcase,
teacup
b. Compounds functioning as adjectives (Adj – Noun-ed; Number – Noun), adverbs, and
verbs with an adverbial first element: The stress is on the second element while the first
element has secondary stress.
 bad-tempered, half-timbered, heavy-handed
 three-wheeler, second-class, five-finger
 head first, North-East, down stream
 down grade, back-pedal, ill-treat
3. Variable stress: The stress on a final-stressed compound tends to move to a preceding
syllable and change to secondary stress if the following word begins with a strongly stressed
syllable.
bad-tempered – a bad-tempered teacher; half-timbered – a half-timbered
house;
heavy-handed – aheavy-handed sentence;
4. Word-class pairs: the stress is placed on first syllable of a noun or an adjective but on
the second syllable of the verb.

abstract escort object produce

conduct export perfect protest
contract import permit rebel
desert insult present record
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subject

Exercise: Write the words in phonemic transcription, including the stress marks.

shopkeeper ______ anti-clockwise ______ defective ______

open-ended ______ confirmation ______ roof timber ______
Javanese ______ eight-sided ______
birthmark ______ fruitcake ______

Unit 5: Aspects of connected speech

I. Rhythm:

Stress-timed rhythm: Stressed syllables will tend to occur at relatively regular intervals
whether they are separated by unstressed syllables or not.

1 2 3 4 5
ˈWalk ˈdown the ˈpath to the ˈend of the ˈnal
ca
Syllable-timed rhythm: All syllables, whether stressed or unstressed, tend to occur at
regular time intervals and the time between stressed syllables will be shorter or longer in
proportion to the number of unstressed syllables.

The foot: begins with a stressed syllable and includes all following unstressed syllables up to
(but not including) the following stressed syllable.

1 2 3 4 5
ˈWalk ˈdown the ˈpath to the ˈend of the ˈnal
ca

s w s w w s w s
twen ty pla ces
s w s w w s w s
twen ty pla ces
s w s w s w
twen ty pla ces pla ces back
Exercise:

A. Divide the following sentences up into feet.

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1. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
2. Over a quarter of a century has elapsed since his death.
3. Computers consume a considerable amount of money and time.
4. Most of them have arrived on the bus.
5. Newspaper editors are invariably underworked.
B. Draw tree diagrams of the rhythmical structure of the following phrases.

1. Christmas present 3. pet-food dealer

2. Rolls-Royce 4. Rolls-Royce rally event

II. Assimilation:
A significant difference in natural connected speech is the way that sounds belonging to one
word can cause changes in sounds belonging to neighbouring words.
1. Regressive: Cf changes to become like Ci in some way
2. Progressive: Ci changes to become like Cf in some way. Coalescence / Coalescent
assimilation: not yet, could you
 Assimilation of place: that person, that man, meat pie, that thing, get those, cut
through, that case, bright colour, quite good, good boy, bad thing, card game, green paper,
fine thought, ten girls, this shoe, those yeas
 Assimilation of manner: that side, good night, in the, get them, read these
 Assimilation of voice: I have to, cheese cake, cats, dogs, jumps, runs, Pat’s, Pam’s
III. Elision: Under certain circumstances sounds may be realized as zero, or have realization
or be deleted.
1. Loss of weak vowel: potato, tomato, canary, perhaps, today, tonight, police, correct
2. Avoidance of complex consonants clusters: acts, looked back, scripts, George the Sixth’s
throne
3. Loss of final v in ‘of’ before consonants:lots of them, waste of money, all of mine, best of
three
IV. Linking:
1. Linking r: here are, four eggs
2. Intrusive r: Formula A, Australia all out, media event
3. The significance of juncture:

- my turn – might earn - might rain – my train

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- all that I’m after today – all the time after - tray lending – trail ending
today - keep sticking – keeps ticking

Unit 6: Intonation
I. Form and function in intonation:
1. An utterance is a continuous piece of speech beginning and ending with a clear pause.
2. A level tone: _yes _no
3. A moving tone:
A falling tone descends from a higher to a lower pitch. (Speakers want to speak in a
definite, final manner): \yes \no
A rising tone moves from a lower to a higher pitch. (Speakers want to speak in a
questioning manner): /yes /no
II. Tone and tone languages:
- High level ͞ yes ͞ no
- Low level _yes _no
- Tone languages: Substituting one distinctive tone for another on a particular word or
morpheme can cause change in the dictionary meaning of that word or morpheme, or in
some aspect of its grammatical categorization. (Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, etc.)
- Intonation languages: The main suprasegmental contrastive unit is the tone, which is
usually linked to the syllable.
- Pitch range: the top level and the bottom level of the speaker’s pitch.
III. Some functions of English tones:
- Fall: gives an impression of ‘finality. \yes, \no, \stop, \eighty, a\gain
- Rise: conveys an impression that something more is to follow. /sure, /really, to/night

You can have it in /red, /blue, /green or \black

A: Excuse me. B: /yes;

A: You start off on the ring road… B: /yes

A: turn left at the first roundabout… B: /yes
A: and ours is the third house on the left. B: …yes
Have you seen Ann?
Do you know what the longest balloon flight was?

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- Fall–rise: could be described as ‘limited agreement’ or ‘response with reservations’.
˅yes, ˅no, ˅some, ˅nearly, per˅haps

A: I’ve heard that it’s a good school. A: It’s not really an expensive book, is it?
B: ˅yes B: ˅no

- Rise-fall: convey rather strong feelings of approval, disapproval or surprise.

˄yes, ˄no, ˄oh, ˄lovely, i˄mmense

A: Isn’t the view lovely! A: I think you said it was the best so far.
B: ˄yes A: ˄yes

A: You wouldn’t do an awful thing like that, would you?

B: ˄no
- Level _yes _no: conveys a feeling of saying something routine, uninteresting or boring.
A: Have you ever been in prison? B:_no
A: Do you suffer from any serious illness? B: _no
A: Is your eyesight defective? B: _no
Exercise: Write a tone mark just in front of the underlined syllable.
1. This train is for Leeds, York, and Hull.
2. A: Can you give me a lift? B: Possibly. Where to?
3. No! Certainly not! Go away!
4. A: Did you know he’d been convicted of drunken driving? B: No!
5. If I give him money he goes and spends it.
If I lend him the bike he loses it.
He’s completely unreliable.
IV. Tone-unit / tonic syllable: the syllable that carries a tone (nucleus) and a tonic stress
(nuclear stress).
‘Is it /you?’ (1 tone-unit); ˅John is it /you (2 tone-units)
1. Hierarchical relationship: Speech consists of a number of utterances. Each utterance
consists of one or more tone-units. Each tone-unit consists of one or more feet. Each foot
consists of one or more syllables. Each syllable consists of one or more phonemes.
2. The structure of the tone-unit:
Simple tone-units: Each simple tone-unit has one and only one tonic syllable.

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 The head: is all of that part of a tone-unit that extends from the first stressed syllable
up to (but not including) the tonic syllable. If there is no stressed syllable before the tonic
syllable, there cannot be a head.

ˈgive me \those ˈBill ˈcalled to ˈgive me \these In an \hour

Head Head Pre-head
 The pre-head: is composed of all the unstressed syllables in a tone-unit preceding the
first stressed syllable.

in a ˈlittle ˈless than an \hour

Pre-head Head
 The tail: refers to any syllables between the tonic syllable and the end of the tone-unit.

\look at it /what did you say \both of them were here

tail tail tail

(pre-head) (head) tonic syllable tail

(PH) (H) (TS) (T)

and then ˈnearer to the ˅front on the /left theres a ˈbit of \for
PH H TS PH TS PH H TS

est ˈcoming ˈdown to \wa terside and then a ˈbit of a /bay

the
T PH TS T PH H TS
‫ ׀׀‬and then ˈnearer to the ˅front ‫ ׀׀‬on the /left ‫ ׀‬theres a ˈbit of \forest ‫ˈ ׀‬coming ˈdown to
the \waterside ‫׀׀‬

and then a ˈbit of a /bay ‫׀׀‬

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