Contrastive Linguistics - Module1 - Phonetics and Phonology

Phonetics and
Phonology
PID_00249319
Juli Cebrian Puyuelo
Recommended minimum reading time: 3 hours

© FUOC • PID_00249319 Phonetics and Phonology
Juli Cebrian Puyuelo
PhD in Linguistics (University of

Toronto), expert in Phonetics,
Pronunciation and Acquisition of
English as a Second Language.
Associate Professor. Departament de
Filologia Anglesa i de Germanística.
All rights reserved. Reproduction, copying, distribution or public communication of all

or part of the contents of this work are strictly prohibited without prior authorization
from the owners of the intellectual property rights.
© FUOC • PID_00249319 Phonetics and Phonology
Contents
Introduction............................................................................................... 5
Objectives..................................................................................................... 6
1. Segmental structure.......................................................................... 7
1.1. English consonants ..................................................................... 7
1.1.1. Consonant phoneme inventories .................................. 7
1.1.2. Main allophonic variants .............................................. 10
1.2. English vowels ............................................................................. 11
1.3. Phonotactics ................................................................................ 14
2. Suprasegmental structure............................................................... 16
2.1. Stress ............................................................................................ 16
2.1.1. Word stress ..................................................................... 16
2.1.2. Contrastive stress ........................................................... 18
2.2. Sentence stress and rhythm ........................................................ 18
2.2.1. English rhythm .............................................................. 19
2.2.2. Weak forms .................................................................... 20
2.3. Intonation ................................................................................... 22
2.3.1. Phrasing and tonality .................................................... 22
2.3.2. Focussing and tonicity .................................................. 23
2.3.3. Pitch movement and tone ............................................ 24
3. Connected speech processes............................................................. 26

3.1. Articulatory simplifications ........................................................ 26
3.2. Linking and word contact phenomena ...................................... 27
Summary...................................................................................................... 28
Activities...................................................................................................... 29
Self-evaluation............................................................................................ 29
Answer key.................................................................................................. 31
Glossary........................................................................................................ 32
Bibliography............................................................................................... 34
© FUOC • PID_00249319 5 Phonetics and Phonology
Introduction
Phonetics and phonology are the components of Linguistics that are

concerned with the sound structure of a language. Phonetics focuses on
the physical properties of speech sounds, and it has three main branches,
articulatory phonetics (the processes involved in the articulation of speech
sounds), acoustic phonetics (the properties of the resulting sound wave that
travels from the speaker to the listener) and auditory phonetics (the way the
sound wave is heard and perceived by the listener). The focus of this unit will
be on articulatory phonetics.
Phonology is concerned with the linguistic function of sounds, that is,

whether a given sound is distinctive in a language. The basic unit of analysis
in phonology is the phoneme.
Example
Both English and Catalan/Spanish have the phonemes /p/ and /b/, as illustrated by the
fact that in both languages there are pairs of words that are distinguished solely by the
opposition between these two consonants (e.g., pet and bet in English, pala and bala in
Catalan and Spanish).
However, as we will see, English and Catalan/Spanish differ in the specific

phonetic properties of /p/ and /b/. The different realizations or variants of a
given phoneme are called allophones.
Example
See also
English /p/ may be produced with or without aspiration, depending on the context. The
See the Section «Main
aspirated ([ph]) and unaspirated ([p]) variants are allophones of the phoneme /p/.
allophonic variants».
Notice that phonemes are typically represented between slashes ("/ /"),
while allophones are inserted between square brackets ("[ ]").
A language’s sound structure is not limited to the inventory of consonants

and vowels in the language (segmental� structure). Prosodic structure such
as stress, rhythm and intonation (suprasegmental�structure) is also a crucial
component of a given sound system. In this unit we will describe the main
characteristics of the English segmental and suprasegmental structures, and
we will compare them to the sound systems of Catalan and Spanish. The
segmental structure will be presented first, followed by an overview of the
suprasegmental structure. More in-depth descriptions of the English as well as
the Catalan and Spanish sound systems are provided in the bibliography.
Objectives
After having worked through this unit, students will be able to:
1. Understand basic and crucial notions in phonetics and phonology,

necessary to describe and compare different systems.
2. Describe the consonant and vowel systems of English, and contrast them
to the Catalan/Spanish systems.
3. Be familiar with the main differences in word stress, sentence stress,

rhythm and intonation between English and Catalan/Spanish.
4. Be aware of some of the most common phonotactic characteristics and

connected speech processes in English.
5. Identify differences and similarities between the English and the Catalan
and Spanish sound systems, illustrate them with examples, and take them
into account in their own pronunciation of English.
1. Segmental structure
The segmental structure of a language refers to the inventory of consonant and

vowel sounds. Consonants are produced with varying degrees of obstruction
of the air while vowels are produced without a major obstruction of the air
in the vocal tract.
Note
We use phonetic symbols to refer to the sounds of the language described. The
most common system of phonetic transcription, and the one used in this unit, is
the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), created in 1888 and revised on numerous
occasions, most recently in 2015. You can learn more about the IPA from the IPA
Association website.
Remember to distinguish letter from sound. In many languages

including English there is not a one-to-one correspondence between
letters and sounds. A single sound may be spelled in different ways
(e.g., /s/ as <s, c, ss, sc>). One letter may also represent different sounds
in different words (e.g. letter <a> in cat, cake, many, call, ago). Thus,
when describing vowels and consonants we will refer to the sounds,
and we will represent them with phonetic symbols, not letters.
1.1. English consonants
Many of the consonants of English have a counterpart in Catalan and Spanish.

Still, there are a number of differences involving the existence of certain
consonants in a given language and the specific variants of shared consonants.
We will first describe and compare the consonant phonemic inventories of all
three languages and afterwards we will focus on the most crucial allophonic
pronunciations.
1.1.1. Consonant phoneme inventories
A list of the 24 English consonant phonemes is presented in Table 1, with

examples of words that contain each of the consonants. Table 2 presents
the English phonemes alongside the consonant inventories of Catalan and
Spanish. As is customary, the consonants in Table 2 appear organized by
place of articulation (columns) and manner of articulation, that is, degree of
obstruction of the air in the production of the consonants (rows). Within
a cell, symbols on the left represent voiceless sounds, produced without
vibration of the vocal chords, and symbols on the right represent voiced
sounds, produced with vibration of the vocal chords.
Two words that differ only in one sound are referred to as a minimal
pair. They constitute evidence that the sounds in question belong to
different phonemes (e.g., /p/ and /b/ in pay-bay, /f/ and /v/ in fan-van).
Table 1. English consonants and examples
Consonant Example Consonant Example Consonant Example Consonant Example
/p/ pay /f/ fan sheep /m/ may
/b/ bay /v/ van measure /n/ now
/t/ tie /θ/ think chin /ŋ/ long
/d/ die /ð/ there gin /j/ yet
/k/ key /s/ sue /h/ hot /w/ wet
/g/ guy /z/ zoo /l/ lot row
The main differences between the English sound systems and the Spanish and
Catalan sounds systems are the following:
• English /t/ and /d/ are alveolar, articulated with the tip of the tongue
touching the alveolar ridge (the bump behind the upper teeth). By
contrast, in Spanish and Catalan /t/ and /d/ are dental, articulated at the
teeth.
• English and Catalan share a number of voiced and voiceless fricatives

and affricates, but Standard Iberian Spanish lacks the fricative and the
voiced fricatives and affricates (/z, , ). Some varieties of Spanish have
a voiced palatal fricative ( ) corresponding to orthographic <ll> and <y>,
but this sound varies considerably from a glide /j/ to a fricative or even a
stop ( ) depending on the variety (Hualde, 2005). Still, voiced variants
of the voiceless fricatives may appear preceding a voiced consonant (e.g.,
mismo: mi[z]mo, desde: de[z]de).
• Spanish and most varieties of Catalan lack the phoneme /v/. Spanish has
the phoneme /x/ (e.g., the <j> in rojo), not found in English. English has
the glottal fricative /h/, not found in Catalan, but found in some varieties
of Spanish instead of /x/.
• The voiceless dental fricative /θ/ is found in English and Spanish, but
not in Catalan. The voiced dental fricative /ð/ is not found in Spanish
or Catalan as a separate phoneme. A similar sound, the voiced� dental
approximant [ ], is found in Catalan and Spanish as a variant, or
allophone, of /d/ in some contexts (e.g., between vowels as in vida: vi a).
In English, however, /ð/ is a separate phoneme, as illustrated by the

presence of minimal pairs like day-they or breeding-breathing.
• English does not have the palatal� consonants� and found in

Catalan (e.g. gall, Espanya) and standard Spanish (e.g. gallo, España).
Spanish does not have a velar nasal phoneme (/ŋ/) although this sound
is present as a variant of /n/ before a velar consonant (e.g., cinco:/θiŋko/)
and word finally in some varieties. Catalan has some minimal pairs
involving /ŋ/, like sant /san/ - sang /saŋ/.
• Catalan and Spanish have two rhotic� sounds, a rolled or trilled /r/ as
in mirra and a tap as in mira. In English, the rhotic is a retroflex
post-alveolar approximant, produced with the tip of the tongue curled
up and back towards the rear edge of the alveolar (see Rogers, 2000,
for further details). Notice that in some English varieties like Standard
Southern British English (SSBE), is not pronounced postvocalically,
unless another vowel follows. In other varieties referred to as rhotic
varieties, such as General American, Irish or Scottish English, is always
pronounced. Thus, nurse is pronounced in non-rhotic varieties like
SSBE, and in rhotic varieties like GA.
Note
Notice that some common sounds have very different spellings across languages. For
example, the English fricative (Catalan <j> or <g>, as in roja, Joan, gespa) usually
corresponds to a single <s> between vowels in words that end in -sion, -sure, such as
illusion, treasure, while the affricate (Catalan <tg> or <tj> as in metge, mitja) is
generally spelled with <g> or <j> as in jelly, gym, magic.
Table 2. English (E), Catalan (C) and Spanish (S) consonant phonemes (adapted from Finch &
Ortiz Lira, 1982; Recasens, 1984). Note
is an approximant, /r/ is a
Palato-alveolar
Post-alveolar
Labiodental
trill and is a tap (see main

Labial-velar
Alveolar
Bilabial
text).
Glottal
Palatal
Dental
Velar
Stop E p b t d k g
C p b t d k g
S p b t d k g
Affricate E
C
S
Fricative E f v θ ð s z h
C f s z
S f θ s ( ) x

Nasal E m n ŋ
C m n ŋ
S m n
Lateral E l
C l
S l
Rhotic E
C r
S r
Glides E j w
C j w
S j w
1.1.2. Main allophonic variants
One of the main differences between English and Spanish/Catalan involves

the different realizations of the stops (/p t k/ and /b d g/). One important
characteristic of English stops is aspiration. Aspiration affects voiceless stops
and involves a delay in the onset of voicing in the sound that follows the stop.
In Standard Spanish and Catalan, stops are never aspirated and the vowel or
approximant following a voiceless stop is fully voiced. By contrast, in English
a period of voicelessness follows the aspirated voiceless stop due to the delay
in the onset of vocal chord vibration. Aspiration is perceived as a puff of air
following the release of the stop. In phonetic transcription, aspiration can be
represented with a superscript h ([ph th kh]). English stops are aspirated when
they are found at the beginning of a stressed syllable, except when they follow
an /s/. Hence the p in pain is aspirated but the p in Spain is not.
Regarding the voiced� stops, Spanish and Catalan /b d g/ are articulated

with incomplete closure when they are found in intervocalic position (more
specifically, when found between continuant sounds), but with complete
closure after a pause or a nasal consonant. Thus, in the sequence la bomba,
the first /b/ is an approximant sound ([β]) and the second /b/ is a stop ([b]).
Similarly, the /g/ in llaga is an approximant while the /g/ in tango is a stop
([g]). In English, /b d g/ are always stops and are not weakened to approximants
(see the previous section for the opposition between English /d/ and /ð/).
In terms of voicing, the English�voiced�obstruents (that is, stops, affricates

and fricatives) are fully voiced only when found between voiced sounds,
otherwise they tend to be partially devoiced. In fact, an important cue to the
voicing nature of a final consonant is often the duration of the preceding

vowel, which is shorter before a voiceless consonant (e.g., in rip, bat, back, bus,
and rich) than before a voiced consonant (e.g., rib, bad, bag, buzz, and ridge).
In Catalan, the opposition between voiced and voiceless obstruents is lost

or neutralized in final position. Hence, final obstruents are voiceless before
a pause and before a voiceless consonant (do[s] cotxes, do[s] trens, en tinc
do[s]). On the other hand, all word-final obstruents are voiced before a voiced
consonant (do[z] dies, ca[b] dia), and word-final fricatives and affricates are
also voiced before a vowel (do[z] arbres). This is known as regressive�voicing
assimilation (RVA). In Spanish, RVA may also be found preceding a voiced
consonant (i[z]la) but word final consonants are uncommon and they tend
to undergo lenition or weakening processes, that is, they are produced with a
greater degree of opening or even disappear (e.g. ciudad: ciuda[ð], ciudá).
In English, syllable-final /l/ is velarized, also known as dark l, that is, produced Note
with the back of the tongue raised towards the velum or hard palate. This is
RVA should be avoided
also found in Catalan, but it is not common in Spanish. In fact, this is a typical when speaking English. For
trait of Catalan-accented Spanish, e.g., the pronunciation of the l in muy mal. example, This is true should
be pronounced Thi[s] is true,
not Thi[z] is true as this ends
in by contrast, These are
1.2. English vowels nice is pronounced with [z] as
these ends in [z].
English has between 10 and 12 vowel phonemes, depending on the variety.

The vowels and diphthongs of Standard�Southern�British�English (SSBE) are
exemplified in Table 3, which includes examples of words containing each
vowel. Figure 1 shows the usual representation of the SSBE vowel system,
where vowels are organized in terms of position of the highest point of
the tongue (front, central and back) and degree of opening of the mouth
(from close to open). The Central or Eastern Catalan inventory has 7 vowel
phonemes, namely /i e a o u/ (nit, nét, net, nat, ós, os, us) and the unstressed
vowel (although it is a phoneme in Majorcan Catalan found in stressed
position). The Spanish vowel inventory consists of 5 vowels (/i e a o u/, as in
piso, peso, paso, poso, puso).
Figure 1. English vowel phonemes (Standard Southern British English)
Table 3. English vowels and diphthongs and examples
Vowel/ Example Vowel/ Example Vowel/ Example Vowel/ Example

Diphtong Diphtong Diphtong Diphtong
sea lot bird now
sit four ago, sofa boy
/e/ ( ) set put pay here
/æ/ map boot ( ) go care
farm fun pie cure
The symbols and in Table 3 are alternatives used for example to

describe General American English (GA). Other differences between SSBE and
GA are:
• The unrounding of (e.g., hot pronounced ).
• Rhoticity, that is, the pronunciation of post-vocalic in GA and its effect

on the preceding vowel.
• The loss of the glide in the sequence in some contexts (e.g., st[u]dent
vs. st[ju]dent).
• The pronunciation of specific lexical items, e.g., glass, ask, dance, bath,
laugh pronounced with in SSBE, /æ/ in GA.
The main differences between the English and the Spanish/Catalan vowel
systems are the following:
• Unlike Catalan and Spanish, English has long and short vowels.
Long vowels are indicated with the diacritic " ". Thus, the vowels
typically have a longer duration than eæ .
Notice however that the difference between these vowels is not simply a
matter of duration. For example, /i:/ and /u:/ are longer but also closer
and more peripheral in the vowel space than their shorter counterparts
and , which are produced with a greater opening of the mouth. It
is therefore more common to refer to this opposition as tense (e.g. /i: u:/)
and lax ( ) vowels. In addition, not all lax vowels are equally short.
For instance, vowel /æ/ tends to be longer than vowel . An additional
difference between tense and lax vowels is that stressed lax vowels are
always followed by a consonant (e.g., bit, bet, bat, but, put, hot). Only tense
vowels (and diphthongs) can be found in a stressed open syllable (e.g.,
bee, blue, spa, law), but they can also be followed by a consonant (e.g. beat,
boot, start, horse).
• While Catalan and Spanish have one low or open vowel (/a/: open central
unrounded vowel), English has three unrounded open�vowels ( ).
This difference poses a problem for Catalan/Spanish learners of English.
Notice that /æ/ is articulated at the front of the mouth, is articulated
at the back of the mouth, and is central and more close and it is
comparatively shorter.
• Like Catalan, English has a reduced vowel, often referred to as a neutral

vowel or schwa ( ), which is always found in unstressed position.
Vowel�reduction is in fact a key characteristic of English pronunciation
as unstressed syllables and function words are often pronounced with a
reduced vowel, e.g., the highlighted syllables in standard, accurate, reason,
actor, surprise, abandon, circus, famous, pattern. Unlike most Catalan
varieties (except Majorcan Catalan), English has a mid central vowel that
can be stressed ( ). This vowel is often followed by <r> as in the
following examples: sir, bird, hurt, occur, earth, serve, work. Spanish has
neither a stressed nor an unstressed mid central vowel and has no vowel
reduction process.
• The English diphthongs ( ) are relatively similar to their

Catalan and Spanish counterparts (e.g., / /, but notice the
more central starting point of SSBE ). Still, the pronunciation of
the English diphthongs varies considerably depending on the dialect (cf.
Cockney English, Australian English). In addition, English has centering
diphthongs that glide into namely as in care, here, poor,
not present in Spanish or Catalan.
• Recall from the previous section that the voicing nature of a final
consonant affects the duration of the preceding vowel in English. This
is known as pre-fortis� clipping, which means that a vowel is clipped,
or shortened, before a voiceless consonant. For example, the vowels and
diphthongs in leaf, kit, bet, duck, rope and rice, all ending in a voiceless
consonant, are shorter than the ones in leave, kid, bed, dug, robe and rise,
respectively, which end in a voiced consonant.
1.3. Phonotactics
Languages also differ in the possible combination of sounds that they allow.
This is known as phonotactics. For example, English allows more consonants
in a sequence (consonant� clusters) than Catalan, which in turn has more
clusters than Spanish. Hence, English can have up to three consonants in
word-initial position (pay, pray, spray), while Spanish and Catalan can have
a maximum of two (tren, placa). The English 3-consonant sequences always
start with /s/, e.g., scratch, splash, strange. In fact, this is one of the main
phonotactic differences between English and Catalan/Spanish, as sequences
of /s/+C (where C = consonant) are not possible in Catalan and Spanish,
which instead require the presence of a vowel before the s+C cluster (e.g.,
study vs. estudiar, special vs. especial). Notice that English borrowings involving
s+C clusters are adapted into Catalan and Spanish precisely by adding a
supporting vowel (eslang, esnob). Catalan/Spanish learners of English should
aim to produce the /s/+C clusters in English without adding an initial vowel.
Regarding final� clusters, English allows from one to four consonants in

final position (mad /d/, act /kt/, next /kst/, sculpt /lpt/, texts /ksts/, sixths
Many clusters result from the addition of an inflectional ending (e.g.,
lamps asks /sks/, sends /ndz/, passed /st/, lived /vd/, thanked /ŋkt/,
glimpsed Catalan allows a variety of CC clusters (e.g., porc, art, palc,
cost, serp, basc, triomf) and CCC clusters often involve a final plural s (e.g.,
amargs, cascs, forns, golfs; but text). Longer clusters are infrequent and may
be reduced or broken (e.g., texts-textos), and the pronunciation of the final
consonant is often omitted, for example after nasals or /l/ (e.g., alt, vent, camp).
There are no consonant clusters in final position in native Spanish words.
Note
The pronunciation of the regular past� tense or past� participle� morphemes, spelled
-ed, depends on the voicing nature of the last sound in the verb stem. Thus, -ed is
pronounced /d/ when the last sound in the stem is voiced (e.g., loved , killed
, lied , studied ), /t/ when it follows a voiceless sound (e.g., kissed
, talked , watched , attacked ) and or when the
last sound in the stem is a /t/ or a /d/ (waited , added , folded ,
attracted ).
In terms of the type of possible combinations, the structure of the syllables

in all three languages follows for the most part from the sonority�principle.
In general the more open the articulation of a sound, the more sonorous it is.
Thus, in terms of decreasing sonority, a sonority hierarchy can be established
as follows: vowels > glides > liquids (laterals and rhotics) > nasals > fricatives >
stops. According to this principle, elements in a syllable will be organized so
that the closer to the nucleus of the syllable the greater the sonority. Vowels are
thus the most common element in the nucleus of a syllable. Within consonant
clusters, nasals and approximants tend to be closer to the nucleus and stops
and fricatives tend to be closer to the syllable margin. This is the reason why
we have initial clusters like pl- and tr- but not lp- and rt-.
This principle accounts for most initial and final combinations in English,
Catalan and Spanish. There are some combinations, however, that are found
only in English, such as in shroud, shriek or in throw, thrive. Also,
while in Catalan and Spanish only vowels can be found in the nucleus of a
syllable, in English nasals and liquids can be in the nucleus, in which case
they are referred to as syllabic consonants (e.g., table / and sudden /
where / / and / / indicate syllabic l and syllabic n, respectively).
2. Suprasegmental structure
Suprasegmental phenomena are those aspects of the sound structure of a

language that extend over more than one sound or segment, such as stress,
rhythm, and intonation. These are commonly referred to as prosody.
2.1. Stress
Stress or accent is related to the perceived prominence of a syllable in relation

to neighbouring syllables. Stressed syllables are associated with at least some
of the following characteristics: a higher pitch or pitch change initiation, a
longer duration, a greater intensity or loudness and the presence of a full vowel
in the syllable nucleus. By contrast, unstressed syllables may tend to involve
lower pitch, shorter duration, lower intensity and the presence of reduced
vowels. Following IPA conventions, we will indicate stress with a high stroke
preceding the stressed syllable ( ). A lower stroke ( ) represents a secondary
stress, e.g. under stand.
Pitch
Pitch is a perceptual property of sound that allows us to perceive for instance the
difference between two notes on a musical scale. It is related to frequency, which is a
physical property of sound that, in speech, is determined by the rate of vibration of the
vocal chords: the faster the vibration, the greater the frequency.
2.1.1. Word stress
In English, Catalan and Spanish word stress is not fixed but may fall on
one of several syllables, which are usually either the last syllable (ultimate),
the one before last (penultimate) or two before last (antepenultimate).
Antepenultimate stress is more common in English than in Catalan/Spanish.
In fact, earlier syllables may also carry stress in English (e.g., in evitable,
helicopter, accuracy). This is uncommon in Spanish and Catalan, except in
sequences of verb + clitics such as porta-me-la or llévatelos. Further, in words
of 3 or more syllables, in English there is a greater tendency for stress to fall
early on in the word than in Catalan/Spanish, as illustrated by the following
cognate words:
–
It is not always possible to predict the stressed syllable in a word, but there are
some general tendencies. In English, most two-syllable nouns are stressed on
the penultimate syllable (e.g., pencil, velvet, elbow), and most two-syllable
verbs are stress-final (e.g., be gin, o bey, for get). Still, there are some stress-final
nouns (e.g., ma chine, be lief) and stress-initial verbs (e.g., conquer, sharpen).
Some words have more than one possible stress pattern, e.g., the word adult
can be pronounced a dult or adult. In some cases, this variation represents
the pronunciation of different varieties of English.
Example
SSBE: , , , ,
GA: , , , ,
There are different levels� of� prominence in English. Stressed syllables

may have primary stress or secondary stress, and unstressed syllables may
be completely unaccented (e.g., corner) or have some prominence (e.g.,
dynamite). Secondary stress ( ) is found in longer morphologically complex
words that have a prominent syllable in addition to the main stress (e.g.,
thir teen, un friendly, after noon, Japa nese) and stress may be shifted from
the primary to the secondary when followed by a stress-initial word ( thir teen
→ thirteen days, Japa nese → Japanese student).
While in Spanish and Catalan derivational suffixes are typically stressed (e.g.
na ció/na ción – nacio nal – nacionali tat/nacionali dad), only a few suffixes
are stressed in English (e.g., picture – pictu resque, refuge – refug ee, Ja pan -
Japa nese); most suffixes either have no effect on the stress pattern of the
original word ( nation – national, wonder – wonderful, lazy - laziness) or
they shift the stress within the original word (ad vantage – advan tageous,
photograph – pho tography – photo graphic).
There is a close relationship between stress and vowel quality in English.

Stressed syllables contain a full vowel or a diphthong (/ æ
), while unstressed syllables often have
a reduced vowel ( ), as in limit, pencil, accurate, corner. Nevertheless,
unstressed syllables may sometimes contain a full vowel (e.g., elbow, protein,
car toon, dynamite), and vowels and can be stressed ( limit, sugar).
Stress affects the pronunciation of the vowel sounds in multisyllabic words

to the extent that the same syllable may be pronounced with a full vowel
or a reduced vowel depending on the position of stress. Notice for instance
the pronunciation of the stressed and unstressed vowels in the following
pairs of related words: Canada - Canadian , photograph
- photography . This is related to the process of vowel
reduction in unstressed syllables explained in the Section «English vowels».

Vowel reduction is also found in Catalan (casa - caseta ), but
not in Spanish.
Remember that by definition the neutral vowel , commonly known

as schwa, is only found in unstressed syllables (e.g. the highlighted
vowels in a go, sofa, a nother, con fusion).
2.1.2. Contrastive stress
Stress in English can be contrastive at the lexical level, that is, stress can
distinguish words made up of the same sequence of sounds, as in reefer and
re fer in GA. This is not unique to English, as we can find some examples in
Spanish (célebre – celebre – celebré, hábito – habito – habitó) and Catalan (cosí
– cusi, ajupir – ajupi). In English, contrastive stress often involves verb-noun/
adjective pairs, where the verb pattern is stress-final and the noun or adjective
pattern is stress-initial: to in sult – an insult, to in crease – an increase, to
per mit – a permit, to ab stract – an abstract – abstract painting.
Other forms of contrastive stress are more specific to English. For instance,
long established compound�words tend to have a different stress pattern from
sequences of adjectives and nouns.
Example
In the sentence The White House is a white house, the compound is stressed only on
the first element ( White House) but the both words are stressed in the sequence white
house. Similar examples are blackboard and black board, greenhouse and green
house.
Notice also that phrasal� verbs are stressed on both the verb and the
preposition (to hand out, to take off), but in the corresponding nouns there
is only one stress (a hand-out, a take-off).
2.2. Sentence stress and rhythm
When we produce sentences in speech, some words stand out with respect
to others, that is, some words are stressed while others are unstressed.
The distribution of stresses in a sentence is not fixed, but it tends to
obey some general principles. Stress tends to fall on words that convey
important meaning. Typically, these words are content�words, that is, nouns,
main verbs, adjectives and adverbs. By contrast function� words tend to
be unstressed (e.g., determiners, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, pronouns,
conjunctions). For example:
A me for on to to the
by .
This general pattern may vary for several reasons. A few function words,
such as demonstratives, possessive pronouns, interrogatives and negative
auxiliaries, tend to be stressed. Some content words that do not carry much
meaning, such as thing, stuff, or place, are generally unaccented. In addition,
words that are generally unstressed may be stressed to indicate contrast or
emphasis, as discussed in the Section «Focussing and tonicity».
2.2.1. English rhythm
The distribution of stresses in a sentence or utterance is linked to the rhythm of

speech. Rhythm is related to the presence of beats at relatively regular intervals
of time. Depending on what constitutes the beats, languages are classified
as stress-timed or syllable-timed. In stressed-timed� languages rhythm is
determined by the alternation of stressed syllables, which act as rhythmic
beats and occur at regular intervals of time. In contrast, in syllable-timed
languages in principle all syllables contribute to the rhythm and syllables
occur at regular intervals of time. The main differences between stress-timed
and syllable-timed languages are outlined in Table 4:
Table 4. Characteristics of stress-timed and syllable-timed languages (based on Solé, 1991)
Stress timed Syllable timed
Vowel Strong Weak or not present

reduction
Syllable Complex, presence of C clusters Simple, preference for CV o CVC

structure structures
Secondary Crucial, prevents long sequences of Not crucial

stress unstressed syllables
Metrical Based on the position of stress and Based on the total number of syllables
system number of stressed syllables (stressed and unstressed)
Thus, English is described as a stress-timed language, while Spanish is classified Example

as a syllable timed language. Catalan has some of the characteristics of stressed
The difference in duration
timed languages (vowel reduction, more complex syllable structure) but to between stressed and
a lesser extent than English. Hence, Catalan is often classified as a syllable- unstressed syllables is much
greater in English than in
timed language. Catalan (Prieto et al., 2012).
English rhythm is based on the alternation between stressed and

unstressed syllables, and stressed syllables tend to occur at regular
intervals of time, what is referred to as isochrony. This implies that the
intervals between stressed syllables have a similar duration, regardless
of the number of unstressed syllables present.
For example, the sentences presented in (1) have the same number of
stressed syllables and the intervals between them have a similar duration, and
constitute the rhythmic beats of the sentence (three in 1a, two in 1b). By
contrast, rhythmic beats in Spanish and Catalan are not linked to the number
of stressed syllables but to the number of syllables in general (2):
(1) a) Cats eat fish. b) The man is old.
The cats have eaten some fish. The manner is old.
The manager is old.
1 2 3 1 2
(2) Los gatos se han co mido todo el pes cado.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
As a consequence of isochrony, there are adjustments in the duration of

stressed syllables depending on the number of unstressed syllables that follow.
Thus, in the sentences in (1b) the duration of the syllable man is shortest in
manager, a bit longer in manner and longest in man. The need to maintain
regular intervals also results in reduction processes, such as the loss of the
unstressed vowel in the following words: interesting, comfortable, mystery.
While these processes are not present in Spanish, weak vowels in Catalan
may also be elided, although to a lesser extent than in English (e.g., the
pronunciation of Teresa and carabassa as ‘Tresa’ and ‘carbassa’).
Other strategies that contribute to maintaining a regular rhythm include

stress dropping (loss of stresses to avoid long sequences of stressed syllables),
stress addition (stressing usually unstressed words to avoid long sequences of
unstressed syllables), and stress shift (moving the main stress to an otherwise
secondary stressed syllable to avoid sequences of stressed syllables). Another
crucial phenomenon related to English rhythm is the presence of weak and
strong forms of some words, as explained in the next section.
2.2.2. Weak forms
There are a number of function words in English, about 40, that can be Bibliographical
pronounced in two ways. They have a strong�form, which may or may not reference
be stressed and is pronounced with a full vowel, and a weak�form, which is See Ortiz Lira (2008), Estebas
always unstressed, contains a reduced vowel and may have lost some of the (2009) for more complete
descriptions.
consonants present in the strong form.
Table 5. Examples of strong and weak forms
Word Strong form Weak form Weak form in context
a They have a boy and a girl.
and ænd n I’ll bring some wine and grapes.
the The hospital is next to the church.

Word Strong form Weak form Weak form in context
her Her husband is looking for her.
that (conjunction / relative pronoun) ðæt I think that the one that you got is better.
there There was nobody around.
at æt Look at this picture.
for I’m waiting for the bus.
from They just came back from Paris.
of Have a piece of cake.
to She wanted to tell you.
do (auxiliary) What do you want to do?
am æm m I’m not interested.
is z He’s standing outside.
are These are mine.
was She was asking about you.
were There were.
will l I’ll see you later
can kæn Let me know what I can do.
have (auxiliary) hæv v They must have missed the train.
has (auxiliary) hæz z He has been in London before.
had (auxiliary) hæd d We had already told you.
would d I would like some tea, please.
A single strong form may have one or more weak forms, like have or and. The
function words involved in this strong-weak alternation include prepositions,
auxiliary verbs, determiners, conjunctions and pronouns. Notice that while
the contractions used in orthography reflect weak form pronunciations (e.g.,
‘ll, ‘ve, ‘d, ‘s), very often the use of weak forms is not reflected in the spelling.
The strong forms are used in the following cases:
• Citation form: How do you say “at” in German?
• In cases of stranding, when a preposition or an auxiliary is at the end of

a phrase: Is this what you are looking for? Yes, it is.
• When contrasted with another word: I didn’t see her, but I saw him.
• When stressed for emphasis: You must tell me the truth.
In addition, the strong form is used with negative auxiliaries in contractions

with not (e.g., aren’t, mustn’t, can’t, haven’t).
The usual�pronunciation of most function words is the weak�form.

This is not an optional pronunciation but the correct pronunciation
when none of the conditions of the use of strong forms is met. Learners
should thus avoid pronouncing a strong form in place of a weak form.
Function words like determiners, prepositions and pronouns tend to be

unstressed in Catalan and Spanish, may have a reduced vowel in Catalan, and
are typically contracted next to a vowel in Catalan (l’àvia vs. la nena, mira’m
vs. mirar-me). Still, there is not generally a strong and weak version of each
word in Catalan/Spanish, except some cases of emphatic pronouns, such as
the unaccented me and the accented mí, e.g., Spanish dámelo a mí.
2.3. Intonation
Intonation has been described as the melody of speech and it is determined Bibliographical
by pitch changes, that is, the rises and falls of the pitch of the voice reference
over time in an utterance. Speakers use this variation in pitch to convey J.�C.�Wells (2006). English
linguistic information (delimiting grammatical structures, distinguishing Intonation: An Introduction.
Cambridge: Cambridge
between statements and questions) and pragmatic information (expressing University Press.
attitudes or emotions like surprise, fear, anger or excitement). Some of
functions of intonation are shared by English, Catalan and Spanish, although
they are not always used in the same fashion.
We will focus on three aspects of intonation, known as the three Ts:
• Tonality. How an utterance is divided into word groups.
• Tonicity. Where the most prominent pitch change or accent occurs in an

utterance.
• Tone. What the direction of the pitch change is.
2.3.1. Phrasing and tonality
An utterance can be divided into smaller units referred to as tone� units or

thought groups by means of pauses or changes in intonation. This phrasing
function of intonation is often, though not always, reflected by punctuation
in writing.
Example
The presence of pauses in the examples indicates how words are grouped together and
what the intended meaning is:
• The speaker has several sisters and the relative clause defines what sister he or she is
referring to: || My sister who works for the government | has not had a salary increase
in several years. ||.
• The speaker has one sister and the relative clause is non-defining: || My sister, | who
works for the government, | has not had a salary increase in several years. ||
Note: || means utterance boundary; | means pause.
Example
In this example the presence or absence of a pause before and determines the
interpretation of the sentence:
• || She had a toast (|) with butter and cheese. ||
• || She had a toast with butter | and cheese. ||
Note: || means utterance boundary; | means pause.
2.3.2. Focussing and tonicity
Intonation is also used to highlight the most important information in a

sentence or an utterance. When all the utterance is new information, focus,
implemented as pitch prominence or change, falls on the last stressed word,
which corresponds to the last content word. Notice that English sentences
often end in a grammatical word, while in Spanish and Catalan it is more
common for sentences to have a content word as the last word. Hence,
Catalan/Spanish learners should avoid stressing function words even if they
are in sentence final position (recall that many function words are only
prominent in cases of emphasis or contrast). This is illustrated in the example,
where the focus is in bold. Further, some content words are also often
deaccented, such as time and place adverbs like there, unless they involve new
information or contrast:
Example
I can’t find my watch. I’ve spent hours looking for it. (not ... for it).
I’ve seen beautiful pictures of Wales. I’d love to go there. (not ... go there).
The unmarked pattern having focus on the last content word is in fact
often modified for different purposes, for example to indicate what is new
information, agreement or disagreement, and emphasis or contrast:
Example
The same sentence may show different patterns depending on what constitutes crucial
information:
• Alan is moving to Seattle in May. (When is Alan moving to Seattle?)
• Alan is moving to Seattle in May. (Where is Alan moving to in May?)
• Alan is moving to Seattle in May. (Who is moving to Seattle in May?)

• I did. (Who completed the report?)
• I did. (Did you finish the report?)
Focus can also be used to show agreement or disagreement by another person in the
conversation:
• The concert was very good.

– It was good. (agreement)
– It wasn’t good. (disagreement)
Focus can also indicate emphasis or contrast:
• Jamie kissed Tara on the cheek. (not on the lips)
• Jamie kissed Tara on the cheek. (not Sarah)
• Jamie kissed Tara on the cheek. (not hit)
• Jamie kissed Tara on the cheek. (not Lee)
Finally, these examples illustrate cases where the last content word (the verb) does not
convey essential information and focus is moved to the noun:
• The phone is ringing.
• The kettle is boiling.
One crucial difference between English and Spanish/Catalan is that English

often resorts to intonation to highlight new information in the utterance,
while Catalan and Spanish move the highlighted information to the end of
the sentence. The greater use of intonation in the case of English is related to
the fact that English has a much stricter word order than Catalan and Spanish.
Example
• These cookies are delicious. Laura made them.
• Aquestes galetes són boníssimes. Les ha fet la Laura.
• Estas galletas están buenísimas. Las ha hecho Laura.
2.3.3. Pitch movement and tone
Tone has to do with the nature and the direction of the pitch contour. The
most common types of tone are rising and falling�tones, which are found
in all three languages. However, the use of tones and the types of intonation
melodies vary from one language to another and even from one dialect to
another. For the sake of brevity we will focus on the most general tendencies.
In broad terms, we can say that falling tones (F) are used when the information
given is complete or conclusive, while rising tones (R) indicate the opposite,
that is, inconclusive, incomplete information. Tones can also be complex (e.g.,
rise-fall, fall-rise), which tend to be more emotive.
Therefore, statements have falling intonation whereas questions usually have

rising intonation. Wh-questions, however, tend to have a falling intonation
in English, and a rising intonation is used when the speaker is asking for
clarification:
Where do you come from? (F) = usual intonation
Where do you come from? (R) = where did you say you came from?
Rising and falling tones are also used in question�tags to indicate if the speaker
is simply asking for confirmation (F) or is actually expressing doubt (R):
You don’t like peppers, do�you? (F) = I am quite sure you don’t like them.
You don’t like peppers, do�you? (R) = I am not sure I remember correctly.
English and Catalan/Spanish also differ in amount of pitch displacement Bibliographical

or pitch range, which tends to be broader (more varied, less monotonous) references
in English than in Catalan/Spanish (Estebas, 2009). Intonation is a rather For more in-depth
complex component of a language and what we have covered here is very descriptions see Wells (2006)
and other works in the
limited and introductory. bibliography.
3. Connected speech processes
Individual sounds and words are usually not uttered in isolation. Speech is
a continuous flow of sounds and the pronunciation of individual segments
varies depending on the environment. This is true of all languages, including
English, Catalan and Spanish. The specific processes that affect sounds and
words in context are referred to as connected�speech�processes. While some
of these are language-specific, many are found in all three languages.
3.1. Articulatory simplifications
Some processes have to do with articulatory simplifications, that is, the

articulation of a given sound is modified so that it is more similar to
a neighbouring sound (assimilation), less complex (weakening) or even
disappear completely (deletion).
A sound may assimilate to a neighbouring sound in place of articulation,

manner of articulation or in voicing. Thus, in colloquial or rapid speech,
the alveolar n in ten is pronounced as a labial before a labial consonant
(te[m] boys), or as a velar preceding a velar consonant (te[ ] cars). Similarly,
alveolar fricatives may become palato-alveolar preceding a palatal sound (nice
shoes [ This is type of assimilation is also found in Spanish (e[m]
Portugal, e[ ] Canadá) and Catalan (u[m] parc, u[ ] cotxe, xais). As we
saw in the Section «Main allophonic variants», the type of regressive voicing
assimilation found in Catalan and Spanish is not found in English. English
has some cases of progressive voicing assimilation, such as the process behind
the pronunciation of the plural, genitive or third person singular morphemes
(cat[s], dog[z], Jack’[s], Bill’[z], talk[s], dig[z]).
A specific type of assimilatory process is what is known as coalescence. In this

case, a sequence of an alveolar stop or fricative followed by the palatal glide
merge into a palatoalveolar affricate or fricative.
Example
/t/+/j/ → Tuesday: ~ , issue: ~ , don’t�you:

ju] ~
/d/+/j/ → schedule: ~ , due: ~ , would�you:

ju] ~
Notice that this process accounts for the present-day pronunciation of many
words that used to be pronounced as a sequence of C + /j/ (e.g., [sj] → :
tension, special; [zj] → : confusion, vision; [tj] → : culture, nature;
[dj] → : soldier).
Weakening involves the production of a sound with a lower degree of

obstruction than usual. A well-known case of weakening common in some
varieties of English, such as GA (but also in frequent words in SSBE) is
flapping. Flapping involves the pronunciation of the stop /t/ (and possibly
) as a flap (similar to the r in Catalan/Spanish pera) in between vowels
(matter, city). In contrast to Catalan and Spanish, recall that English /b
d g/ are not weakened (not pronounced as fricatives or approximants) in
medial position, they remain stops (la[d]y, ba[b]y, la[g]er). A stop may also be
glottalized or replaced with a glottal stop, as in the pronunciation of button
as [ ] or what as
A sound may also be completely deleted. As we have seen, this happens to Note
schwa in long words (interesting) and to medial consonants in sequences of
Connected speech processes
three or more consonants (next door, wind mill). This is known as consonant are responsible for the
deletion and is also found in Catalan with sequences of several consonants. colloquial or informal
pronunciations of sequences
While there are no final C clusters in native Spanish words, weakening or like want to and going to as
wanna and gonna (deletion
deletion of single final consonants is also attested in Spanish (Madrid → and reduction) and got you
as gotcha (coalescence and
Madri[ð]/[θ] or Madrí). reduction).
3.2. Linking and word contact phenomena
Precisely because speech flows continuously, word final consonants are often
pronounced together with a following vowel-initial word. In fact, post-vocalic
, which is not pronounced in non-rhotic varieties like SSBE, is pronounced
when followed by a vowel. This is known as linking�r:
Sir�Elton John (cf. Sir Paul McCartney)
more�apples (cf. more coffee)
By analogy, SSBE speakers often add an to break a sequence of two vowels

even if there is actually no in the original word. This is referred to as
intrusive�r:
law and order
my idea is good
Final consonants may also be linked to a following vowel. In fact, a good

strategy for Catalan/Spanish learners of English to pronounce final endings
accurately is to link them with a following vowel, whenever possible. Here
follow some examples. Notice that the final consonant can be resyllabified
and produced together with the vowel, as indicated in the last transcription:
He stopped�and looked�around.
|hi t� t� → |hi �t �t
Summary
This unit has provided a general description of the sound system of English
and compared it to the sound systems of Catalan and Spanish.
First we have looked at the segmental� structure and seen that there are
some differences between the English and the Catalan/Spanish consonant
inventories, particularly the aspiration of the stop consonants, the
distribution of fricatives and affricates, and the pronunciation of the rhotics.
English maintains voicing�distinctions in final position, unlike Spanish and
Catalan, and has a greater number of possible consonant�clusters, including
initial /s/+C clusters, not found in Catalan/Spanish.
English has a larger vowel system than Catalan and Spanish, involving
oppositions such as the tense-lax distinction and low vowel contrasts that
have no counterpart in Catalan/Spanish. Like Catalan, English has vowel
reduction, but to a greater extent.
As for suprasegmental or prosodic structure, we have seen that while all three
languages have free�stress, English has a greater tendency for stress to fall early
on in the word than Catalan/Spanish. In terms of rhythm, English rhythm
is stressed-timed, while Catalan and particularly Spanish are syllable-timed.
The nature of English rhythm has consequences for the pronunciation of
unstressed syllables and function words, as we have seen with the case of the
weak�forms.
Both English and Catalan/Spanish use intonation to convey grammatical

and pragmatic meaning, with some differences in the grammatical use of
intonation. Connected�speech�processes are common in colloquial English.
Some of these processes, like assimilation and deletion, are also found in
Catalan and Spanish.
Activities
1) Find minimal pairs involving the pairs of English phonemes listed below. Try to find
examples involving different word positions, as is done in the example. If you need help,
you can check dictionaries or available resources on the Internet.
Example: /s/ and /z/: sue – zoo, rice – rise, racing – raising, bus – buzz
• and /v/
• and
• and
• and
• and
2) English orthography has a number of regularities but also a lot of exceptions. For
example, many words contain silent letters, such as the <gh> in the word night. Consider
the words listed below and circle the letters that are silent. If in doubt, you can check their
pronunciation in a regular or a pronouncing dictionary, in print or online.
answer, climber, debt, doubt, friend, half, hour, island, knock, listen, psychology, sign, thought,
through, walk, wrong.
3) Think of words that have the same root or origin in English and Catalan/Spanish and
that are spelled with <v>. Then practice pronouncing the English words focusing on the
pronunciation of the voiced labiodental /v/. A few examples are already provided below:
English Catalan/Spanish
vowel vocal
valley vall/valle
divide dividir
vocabulary vocabulari/vocubulario
4. Practice English rhythm reading the following passage paying attention to the stressed
syllables and beats ( ). This passage is adapted from the website associated to Peter
Ladefoged’s textbook A Course in Phonetics. In fact, you can listen to an example of a British
English speaker (P. Ladefoged himself) or an American English speaker reading this passage
on the Berkeley’s website:
in to at of . ( ) It’s
to on the in with a .
( ) The can be to the of the between
. ( ) An can be in the , ( ) as by the
the .( )
5) Look for examples of connected speech processes in the lyrics of popular songs by British
or American singers. You could start with Shania Twain’s famous 2002 hit «I’m Gonna Getcha
Good». Can you detect any examples of coalescence and reduction?
Self-evaluation
1) Explain why the sounds /s/ and /z/ are two different phonemes in English and in Catalan
but they are not two separate phonemes in Spanish (they are allophones of the same
phoneme).
2) Indicate at least three differences between the English and the Catalan or Spanish
segmental systems.
3) Indicate whether the pronunciation of the past tense ending in the following verbs is
, /d/ or : asked, attracted, changed, expected, fixed, folded, launched, lied, loved, missed,
painted, stopped, studied, talked, turned, wasted.
4) Underline the stressed syllable in the following words: accurate, afternoon, category, catholic,
chocolate, develop, elbow, international, laboratory, literature, maintain, realise, shampoo, society,
vegetable, vocabulary.
5) Consider the pronunciation of the following words and underline the vowels that are
pronounced as a neutral vowel or schwa. For example: corner, reason, ago:
album, allow, appear, balloon, condition, difficult, doctor, escape, favour, focus, manner, melon,
memory, nation, normal, northern, parrot, precious, problem, serious, suggest, understand, wizard
6) Underline the stressed syllables in the following words and phrases. Then match the long
words on the left with the phrases on the right that have the same rhythmic pattern. For
example, the word in (a) has the same rhythmic pattern as the phrase in (ii): understanding
(secondary stress on <un>) = Ask your father:
a) understanding i) Talk to me.
b) development ii) Ask your father.
c) constitutional iii) Forget them.
d) impression iv) John will bring you one.
e) melody v) Give it to me.
f) category vi) She mentioned it.

Answer key
Self-evaluation
1.�Both in English and in Catalan we can find minimal pairs involving /s/ and /z/, such as
race (/s/) – raise (/z/) in English and caça (/s/) – casa (/z/) in Catalan. There are no minimal
pairs in Spanish. In Spanish the sound [z] is only found as a variant or allophone of the
phoneme /s/ preceding a voiced consonant, as in mi[z]mo or de[z]de.
2.�Examples may include the following: a) /t/ and /d/ are alveolar in English and dental in
Catalan/Spanish; b) English has a glottal fricative (/h/) not found in Catalan or in Standard
Iberian Spanish; c) Catalan and Spanish have a palatal nasal phoneme ( in any/año) not
found in English; d) English has a voiced labiodental fricative (/v/) which is not part of
the phoneme inventory of most varieties of Catalan/Spanish; e) In English /ð/ is a separate
phoneme, while [ð] is an allophone of /d/ in Catalan/Spanish, e.g., in intervocalic position;
f) Catalan and Spanish have two rhotics, the trill /r/ and the tap while in English the
rhotic sound is a retroflex post-alveolar approximant .
3.�/t/: asked, fixed, launched, missed, stopped, talked.
/d/: changed, lied, loved, studied, turned.
: attracted, expected, folded, painted, wasted.
4.� accurate, afternoon (and secondary stress on the first syllable), category, catholic,
chocolate, develop, elbow, international, laboratory (SSBE) / laboratory (GA), literature,
maintain, realise, shampoo, society, vegetable, vocabulary
5.�album, allow, appear, balloon, condition, difficult, doctor, escape, favour, focus, manner,
melon, memory, nation, normal, northern, parrot, precious, problem, serious, suggest,
understand, wizard
6.
a) understanding ii) Ask your father.
b) development vi) She mentioned it.
c) constitutional iv) John will bring you one.
d) impression iii) Forget them.
e) melody i) Talk to me.
f) category v) Give it to me.

Glossary
affricate Consonant articulated with complete obstruction of the air followed by a narrow
opening of the oral tract.
allophone A possible phonetic realization or variant of a phoneme.
approximant Consonant articulated with a relatively open oral tract, resulting in little
obstruction to the airflow.
aspiration Delay in the onset of vocal chord vibration (voicing) relative to the stop closure.
assimilation Connected speech process by which a given sound becomes more similar to
a neighbouring sound.
connected speech processes Phonetic processes that affect individual segments and
words in context.
deletion The loss of a segment in a word. Also referred to as elision.
fricative Consonant articulated with a narrow opening in the oral tract, causing the air
to produce turbulence or friction.
GA General American English, variety of English representing standard American English.
glottal Articulated at the glottis, that is, the opening between the vocal chords.
intonation Variations in pitch, that is, the rises and falls of the pitch of the voice over
time in an utterance.
lax vowel Vowels that are comparatively short and cannot be found in stressed open
syllables.
minimal pair Two words that are distinguished by only one sound.
neutral vowel Mid central vowel that is always found in an unstressed syllable and is
articulated without a specific articulatory target.
sin schwa
obstruent Consonants that are produced with substantial obstruction to the airflow, that
is, plosives, affricates and fricatives.
phoneme The smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language.
phonetics The study of the physical properties of speech sounds.
phonology The study of the function and organization of sounds in a language.
phonotactics The study of the possible sound sequences in a language.
rhotic/non-rhotic variety In rhotic varieties of English the is pronounced in all

positions. In non-rhotic varieties is only pronounced if followed by a vowel.
rhythm Rhythm is related to the presence of beats at relatively regular intervals of time.
SSBE Standard Southern British English, variety of English representing standard British
English.
segmental structure The consonant and vowel sounds or segments of a language.
sonorant Sounds produced without substantial obstruction to the airflow in the oral or
nasal cavities, that is, approximants, nasals and vowels.
stop Consonant articulated with complete obstruction of the air at some point in the oral
tract.
sin plosive
stress The perceived prominence of a syllable in relation to neighbouring syllables. Syllables

can be stressed or unstressed, also referred as accented or unaccented.
suprasegmental structure Aspects of the sound structure that span over more than one
segment, such as stress, rhythm or intonation.
sin prosodic structure
syllabic consonant Consonant that can occupy the nucleus of a syllable.
tense vowel Vowels that are inherently long and can be found both in open and close
syllables.
voiced Sounds produced with voicing, that is, with vibration of the vocal chords.
voiceless Sounds produced without voicing, that is, without vibration of the vocal chords.
vowel reduction The process by which vowels in unstressed syllables tend to be

articulated as less peripheral, closer to the neutral vowel position.
Bibliography
Basic works
Estebas, E. (2009/2014). Teach Yourself English pronunciation. A Coruña: Netbiblo/Madrid:

UNED.
This book, which is mostly practical in nature, provides an overview of the English sound
system with numerous audio examples and exercises, highlighting the main sources of
difficulty for Spanish and Catalan learners of English.
Finch, D. F.; Ortiz Lira, H. (1982). A Course in English Phonetics for Spanish Speakers.
Heinemann Educational Books.
A detailed description of the sound system of British English particularly addressed to

Spanish learners of English. It includes a series of exercises.
Mott, B. (2000). English Phonetics and Phonology for Spanish Speakers. Barcelona: Edicions
Universitat de Barcelona.
Another thorough description of the sound system of British English addressed to Spanish
learners of English with many examples and practice exercises.
Recasens, R. (1984). Estudi comparatiu de la fonètica segmental del català i de l’anglès.

Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona/Institut de Ciències de l’Educació.
This is a contrastive comparison between the English and the Catalan segmental systems.
Further Reading
Cruttenden, A. (2001). Gimson’s pronunciation of English [6th edition]. London: Edward

Arnold.
Gómez González, M. A.; Sánchez Roura, T. (2016). English Pronunciation for Speakers of
Spanish. From Theory to Practice. Mouton de Gruyter.
Hualde, J. I. (2005). The Sounds of Spanish / Los sonidos del español. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Kreidler, C. W. (1997). Describing Spoken English. An Introduction. London: Routledge.
Ladefoged, P. (1993, 2005). A Course in Phonetics. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich/
Thomson Wadsworth. [Reedited as Ladefoged, P. & Johnson, K. (2015) A Course in Phonetics
7th edition. Cengage Learning.]
Ortiz Lira, H. (2008). The 37 essential weak-form words. UMCE, USACH. 1–16.
Prieto, P. (2004). Els sons del català. Fonètica i fonologia. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.
Prieto, P.; Vanrell, M. M.; Astruc, L.; Payne, E.; Post, B. (2012). «Phonotactic and
phrasal properties of speech rhythm. Evidence from Catalan, English, and Spanish». Speech
Communication (vol. 54, issue 6, p. 681-702).
Prieto, P.; Sifré Gómez, M; Todolí Cervera, J. (2011). Llengua catalana: fonètica, fonologia
i morfologia. Barcelona: UOC.
Recasens, D. (1993). Fonètica i fonologia. Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana.
Roach, P. (1983, 2009). English Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge: CUP.
Rogers, H. (2000). The Sounds of Language. An Introduction to Phonetics. London: Pearson

Education Ltd.
Solé, M. J. (1991). «Stress and rhythm in English». Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses (vol.
4, p. 145-162).
Wells, J. C. (2006). English Intonation: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.
Bibliographies and other online resources

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona «Contrastive phonetics Spanish-English».
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona «Contrastive phonetics Catalan-English».
University of Iowa «The sounds of American English, German and Spanish».
Universitat de Barcelona «Els sons del català».

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Phonetics and

Juli Cebrian Puyuelo

Recommended minimum reading time: 3 hours

Juli Cebrian Puyuelo

PhD in Linguistics (University of

All rights reserved. Reproduction, copying, distribution or public communication of all

3. Connected speech processes............................................................. 26

Phonetics and phonology are the components of Linguistics that are

Phonology is concerned with the linguistic function of sounds, that is,

However, as we will see, English and Catalan/Spanish differ in the specific

A language’s sound structure is not limited to the inventory of consonants

1. Understand basic and crucial notions in phonetics and phonology,

3. Be familiar with the main differences in word stress, sentence stress,

4. Be aware of some of the most common phonotactic characteristics and

The segmental structure of a language refers to the inventory of consonant and

Remember to distinguish letter from sound. In many languages

1.1. English consonants

Many of the consonants of English have a counterpart in Catalan and Spanish.

1.1.1. Consonant phoneme inventories

A list of the 24 English consonant phonemes is presented in Table 1, with

Table 1. English consonants and examples

Consonant Example Consonant Example Consonant Example Consonant Example

/p/ pay /f/ fan sheep /m/ may

/b/ bay /v/ van measure /n/ now

/t/ tie /θ/ think chin /ŋ/ long

/d/ die /ð/ there gin /j/ yet

/k/ key /s/ sue /h/ hot /w/ wet

/g/ guy /z/ zoo /l/ lot row

• English and Catalan share a number of voiced and voiceless fricatives

In English, however, /ð/ is a separate phoneme, as illustrated by the

• English does not have the palatal� consonants� and found in

trill and is a tap (see main

Stop E p b t d k g

C p b t d k g

S p b t d k g

Fricative E f v θ ð s z h

S f θ s ( ) x

Nasal E m n ŋ

C m n ŋ

S m n

Glides E j w

1.1.2. Main allophonic variants

One of the main differences between English and Spanish/Catalan involves

Regarding the voiced� stops, Spanish and Catalan /b d g/ are articulated

In terms of voicing, the English�voiced�obstruents (that is, stops, affricates

voicing nature of a final consonant is often the duration of the preceding

In Catalan, the opposition between voiced and voiceless obstruents is lost

English has between 10 and 12 vowel phonemes, depending on the variety.

Figure 1. English vowel phonemes (Standard Southern British English)

Table 3. English vowels and diphthongs and examples

Vowel/ Example Vowel/ Example Vowel/ Example Vowel/ Example

sea lot bird now

sit four ago, sofa boy

/e/ ( ) set put pay here

/æ/ map boot ( ) go care

farm fun pie cure

The symbols and in Table 3 are alternatives used for example to

• The unrounding of (e.g., hot pronounced ).

• Rhoticity, that is, the pronunciation of post-vocalic in GA and its effect