English Phonetics 1: Theory -...

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English Phonetics 1: Theory

BA Course (British English) — SS 2009

Gunter LorenzThe LanguageCentre

FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg

English Phonetics − The Basics

1A The subject matter: phonetics ...

+ articulatory

+ contrastive

> How are the sounds of English produced?

> How do the target sounds differ fromthe learners' own language?

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1B The subject matter: ... and some phonology ...

> How are the speech sounds classifiedinto functional units of language?

> How does the target phoneme inventorydiffer from that of the native language?

... contrastive as well ...


1C The subject matter: ... from a learners' perspective

+ identifying the difficulties of the pronunciation of English

+ becoming aware of one's own pronunciation weaknesses

+ laying the foundation for individual accent therapy

+ becoming (more) familiar with the pronunciation model

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1D The task at hand: pronunciation difficulties

(1) Unfamiliar sounds — due to differences in sound inventory

(2) Rule-based differences

/ T D w Z dZ Q Œ˘ / [ ® … ] (lacking in Standard German)

but also e.g. / z / (lacking in southern German dialects)

E /s-/ vs G /z-/ (difference in the phonotactics of Eng and Ger)

Auslautverhärtung (Ger)vs

Word-final devoicing and pre-lenis lengthening (Eng)

— structural (E vs G)

2A Recapping homework: letters vs sounds (coursebook)

English Phonetics — Classifying English Sounds

Weak sound-graph-correspondence revisited: GHOTI

(1) What is wrong with: English has a lot of silent consonants ?

>> silent letters: coursebook 27-E1

(2) The pronunciation of <gh> (p. 28): /f/ /x/ Ø /gh/ plus: /p/

>> danger of spelling pronunciation: cf. also marriage, every

... and of <ou>: /Å/ /√/ /´U/ /aU/ /ç˘/

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2B Recapping Homework: sound functions (phonology)


(1) terminology: phone — phoneme — allophonesyntagmatic/paradigmatic fieldminimal pair

(2) complementary distribution vs. "free" variationphonology sociolinguistics

(cf. /l/-allophones) [t] — [/] — [t §] as in better>> allophones vs. stylistic (sociolinguistic) variants

2C Recapping Homework: consonants

Obstruents:>> defined by manner of articulation: obstruction / blockage of air flow>> plosives — fricatives — affricates


>> sounds you can feel !

Sonorants:>> defined by manner of articulation: obstruction bypassed (or incomplete)

>> nasals — approximants — lateral (approximant)

>> sounds which are not normally the nucleus of a syllable

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3A Overview: organs of articulation


BilabialLabio-dental

DentalAlveolar

Glottal

VelarPalatal

Post-alveolar

Plosive

Fricative

Affricate

Approximant

Lateral

Nasal

p b

m

w

f v T D

t d

s z

n

l

tS dZS Z

r j

k g

(x)

Nh

BilabialLabio-dental Dental Alveolar

Post-alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal

3B Overview: table of English consonants


PLACE

MANNER

Features of articulation (1) and (2): manner and place

(ç)

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4A Features of Articulation (3) and (4): voicing and intensity

Voiced sounds are produced with the vocal folds vibrating— opening and closing rapidly — producing voice.

Voiceless or unvoiced sounds are made with the vocal folds apart, allowing the air to pass freely between them.

The distinction "voiced/unvoiced" is only valid for consonants, as vowels are by definition voiced.


In the articulation of consonants, the feature of voicing usually coincides with that of intensity (fortis vs. lenis sounds):

fortis sounds are usually unvoiced — / p t k tS f T s S /lenis sounds are usually voiced — / b d g dZ v D z Z /

4B Plosives: best distinguished by "lenis vs. fortis"

Manner of articulation: the plosion — stopping and releasing air

fortis: more energy, more aspiration — cf. [tHi˘m] [pHi˘s] [kHi˘n]lenis: ... less energy, less aspiration — cf. [di˘m] [bi˘m] [gi˘k]

Note: (1) Aspiration of [t-] [p-] and [k-] is slightly stronger in E than in G.

(2) In /st-/, /sp-/ and /sk-/, the plosives are de-aspirated: there is no aspiration in start, sport or school : *[stHA˘t] *[spHç˘t] *[skHu˘l]


Practice: tale — stale — dale tan — Stan — Dan

wheat — weed lout — loud kit — kid plate — playedcart — card hurt — heard trite — tried fright — fried

cap — cab pup — pub lip — Lib peg — peckbag — back pluck — plug clock — clog pick — pig

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4C Articulation: pre-lenis lengthening (pre-fortis clipping)


Pre-fortis clipping is a phenomenon of the articulation of vowels before consonants. It can be shown that vowels are pronounced shorter ('clipped') if followed by fortis/voiceless consonants within the same morpheme.Conversely, we speak of pre-lenis lengthening, whereby a vowel is pronounced longer before lenis/ voiced consonants.

For German learners of English, conscious pre-lenis lengthening helps to overcome the pronunciation problems caused by Auslautverhärtung.

Cf. the length of /I/ in bit vs bid (lengthened)and of /i˘/ in bead vs beat (clipped).

5A Fricatives (1): /s / vs. /z/

Alveolar fricatives (vs. dental and vs. post-alveolar):

Practice voiceless [ TÌsÌS ]... adding voicing [ DÌzÌZ ]

Note that both (Standard) German and RP have / s / as well as / z /, but their distribution is different. Many speakers from the South of Germany have the added difficulty that / z / does not occur in their respective dialect.


Practice: The price of peace The price of peasThe prize of peace The prize of peas

(For more reading practice cf. pp. 58f.)

Note: Use [ju˘z] is a verb and use [ju˘s] is a noun.We used to [ju˘st´] use [ju˘z] tapes instead of mp3s.(Practise saying these two sentences aloud.)

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5B Fricatives (2): /S/ and /Z/

Post-alveolar fricatives

+ (voiced) /Z/ only in French loanwords in both languages — fairly rare;in Southern Ger hardly ever voiced: cf. Gendarme, Blamage, beige.

+ some French loanwords allow both /Z/ and /dZ/ pronunciation:garage, massage, prestige etc.


/Z/ vs. /S/ — words ending in <-sion> or <-sure>...

+ pronounced [-Z´n] and [-Z´] after vowels:decision, cohesion, elision, pleasure, closure, leisure.

+ pronounced [-S´n] and [-S´] after consonants:tension, expulsion, censure, tonsure.

+ both possible after <r>: cf. version, excursion.

5C Fricatives (3): /T/ and /D/

Inter-dental vs. post-dental ☺ fricatives

+ inter-dental variant is rare (and slower!)

+ German substitute /s/ for /T/ and /z/ for /D/ is unfortunate!

+ Note that some clusters of these sounds are subject to elision andassimilation, but not in: maths, deaths or this thing.


Practice: pp. 89, 91, 92, 93 and 95.

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6A Fricatives (4): /v/ and approximant /w/


tongue almost raisedto velum >> /u˘/

voiced between vowels and word-initially

glide: no frictionpermissible at all!

friction strongerthan in German!

rounded, protruding lipstop teeth on bottom lip

bilabial approximantlabio-dental fricative

/w//v/

Practice: pp. 71f.

6B Fricatives (4): /f/ and /v/


cf. off: always [Åf]cf. of: [´v] [Åv]

never voicedvoiced between vowels and word-initially

top teeth on bottom liptop teeth on bottom lip

labio-dental fricativelabio-dental fricative

/f//v/

Practice: pp. 73 and 75.

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6C Affricates: /tS/ and /dZ/

Post-alveolar affricates

+ (voiced) /dZ/ hardly occurs in German — substituted with /tS/ by mostspeakers: Dschungel, Maharadscha.

+ /dZ/ very frequent in English — cf. reading lists pp. 65-67.


Note that word-final /dZ/ deserves particularly intensive practice:

ridge — rich, edge — etch, badge — batch, large — larch.

7A Approximants (2): /r/ and /j/


prone to assimilation in CC clusters

prone to assimilation in CC clusters

"intrusive /j/"linking /r/ & intrusive /r/

does not occur at the end of syllables in BE

does not occur at the end of syllables in BE

glidefrictionless continuant

palatal approximantpost-alveolar approximant

/j//r/

Practice: pp. 80f. and 85

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7B RP vs GenAm: the rhotic /r/

A rhotic /r/ is a type of [r]-realisation where orthographic <r> is not normally pronounced in standard British English (RP). This concerns non-prevocalic <r> (at the end of words or before consonants) as in caror cart. Whereas RP has /ka:/, /ka:t/, GA has a rhotic /r/ in /ka:r/, /ka:rt/. Other such accents — so-called rhotic accents — include Canadian, Irish and Scottish English, as well as the West Country of England.

8A Introduction to vowels: definition


>> sounds you cannot feel !

>> sounds which act as the nucleus of a syllable

+ there is only one vowel per syllable(diphthongs count as one vowel!)

+ they are produced with your vocal folds vibrating,but without any further obstruction of the airstream

>> Vs are susceptible to social and dialectal variation, andtherefore convey a lot of social and regional information!

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8B Introduction to vowels: quality vs quantity


>> vowels are defined by their quality (the "colouring")and their quantity (the "length")

>> quantity is determined...a) by definition: "short vowels" vs "long vowels"b) by its immediate environment (before lenis or fortis C)

>> quality is more difficult to pinpoint; it requires:a) (above all) a reliable imitation of the pronunciation modelb) a cognitive understanding of the parameters of articulation

+ front-to-back dimension: front — central — back vowels+ height of tongue: high — mid-height — low vowels+ lip-rounding: rounded vs unrounded vowels

8C The vowel quadrilateral: visualising vowel quality


The vowel quadrilateral is a graphic representation of the position of the tongue in the articulation of vowels. The two dimensions of the vowel quadrilateral chart the front-to-back part of the tongue in relation to the height of the tongue; its shape mirrors the range of positions which the tongue can assume. English vowels fall between /i˘/ in high front position and /A˘/ in low back position.

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8D The vowel quadrilateral: visualising vowel quality

rounded

unrounded

e bed set

ç˘ law north

Ikit bid

Qcat bad

√hut bud

´Œ˘

bird fur

Ågot odd

Uput good

u˘i˘see leave

alone comma

A˘ far start

High vowels

Mid-height vowels

Low vowels

Front vowels Central vowels Back vowels

food two


9A Vowels (2): diphthongs — introduction


>> defined as one vowel, in as much as they are part of one syllable

>> a little longer than long monophthongs / i˘ Œ˘ A˘ ç˘ u˘ /

>> falling diphthongs:+ more weight on the first element+ approaching, but not lingering on the second+ true for both Eng and Ger, but more so for English

>> practise and analyse:known — loud — fine — noise — fame

beer — tour — fair

>> realised as a glide from one vowel position towards another

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9B Vowels (2): diphthongs — inventory


>> closing diphthongs / ´U aU aI çI eI /

>> centring diphthongs / e´ I´ U´ /

±± ±

±± ±

>> cf. pp 149 and 168 for charts on English vs German varieties

>> read and compare:E loud G lautE fine G feinE joy G scheu

E mare G MeerE beer G BierE tour G Tour

>> For more examples see the relevant sections of the book!

10A Linking across word boundaries

English Phonetics — Connected Speech

Linking or liaison is a characteristic of connected English speech. Unlike in German, English words are linked 'seemlessly', with no separate onset at the beginning. A word starting with a vowel isattached to the preceding consonant (cf. notÌatÌall or farÌaway), or, if the preceding word ends in a vowel, a glide (/j/ or /w/) may be inserted (cf. beÌ[j]ÌitÌasÌit may or youÌ[w]Ìare).

Note that the phenomena of —> linking /r/ and —> intrusive /r/ are products of the feature of liaison.

>> linking of consonant + vowel across word boundaries (p 183)

>> special case: linking [r] (pp 184-5)

>> vowel-to-vowel linking: intrusive [r], intrusive glides [j w] (pp 185-6)

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10B Definitions: linking [r] and intrusive [r]


Linking [r] is a phenomenon in non-rhotic accents of English, whereby a non-prevocalic orthographic <r> is actually pronounced before another word starting with a vowel to achieve linking (liaison).Cf. for Ìa while or whereÌis Joe.

In a similar way to linking [r], the so-called intrusive [r] is a linking phenomenon, whereby a non-orthographic [r]-sound is inserted to facilitate fluent articulation. Intrusive [r] occurs between a word ending in / ç: ´ A: / and another beginning with a vowel.Cf. vanillaÌ[r]Ìice or lawÌ[r]Ìand order.

10C Weakening: a phonetic process in unstressed syllables


>> reduction of unstressed vowels to [´] (shwa) >> p. 145

>> concerns unstressed syllables in polysyllabic words ...cf. s´k»seSń (succession)

... as well as unstressed monosyllabic words in a sentencecf. wÅt w´z D´ fŒ˘st TIN D´t sprQN t´ maInd

Weak forms are the result of a very marked contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables in English. In naturally spoken English, unstressed short vowels are reduced to shwa /´/.Weak forms typically occur in monosyllabic function words (cf. and /ńd/) and in the unstressed syllables of polysyllabic words (cf. collection /k´:lekSń/). Monosyllabic content words always get the full vowel value, i.e. they are not reduced.

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10D Weakening: weak forms vs strong forms


>> many function words have more than one weak form (cf. pp 216f)

>> weakening can lead to vowel elision and contraction (cf. pp 219f)

>> the strong form of monosyllabic function words is used when itsignals grammatical or communicative prominence (cf. pp 220f)

>> monosyllabic function words are usually reducedwas strong form [wÅz] — weak form [w´z]that strong form [DQt] — weak form [D´t]to strong forms [tu tU] weak form [t´]

>> monosyllabic content words are not reducedfirst [fŒ˘st] thing [TIN]sprang [sprQN] mind [maInd]

11A Assimilation and elision


»k√mńd »getIt stQnd bQk aI kń du˘ It

In connected speech, the articulation of a sound is sometimesinfluenced by another sound nearby and adopts one of its features.In the above examples, /n/ changes to /N/ or /m/, thereby keeping itsmanner of articulation (nasal) and adopting place (velar and bilabial).

>> Practice (p 226)

Compare careful vs fluent pronunciation of the following exclamations:

Come and get it! Stand back! I can do it!

»k√mŃ »getIt stQm˘ bQk aI kN »du˘wIt

>> elision of /d/ elision of /d/ elision of /´/assimilation from ~ ~ ~ ~/n/ to /N/ /n/ to /m/ /n/ to /N/ (syllabic)

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11B Morphophonology: 'grammaticalised assimilation'


(1) Suffix {ED}

- after voiceless consonant- after voiced C and vowels- after / t d /

> realised as / t /> realised as / d /> realised as / Id /

apply to:play — help — add — tour — hum — roast — raise — pass — love

pleId ñ helpt ñ »QddId ñ tç˘d ñ h√md ñ »r´UstId ñ reIzd ñ pA˘st ñ l√vd

exceptions:

+ ed-adjectives, such as wretched /»retSId/ or beloved /bI»l√vId/+ archaic usage, such as blessed (are the meek) / »blesId/

11C Morphophonology: 'grammaticalised assimilation'


(2) Suffix {S}

- after voiceless consonant- after voiced C and vowels- after / s z S Z tS dZ /

> realised as / s /> realised as / z /> realised as / Iz /

apply to:twitch — help — pass — tour — love — blush — raise — cough — budge»twItSIz ñ helps ñ »pA˘sIz ñ tç˘z ñ l√vz ñ »bl√SIz ñ »reIzIz ñ kÅfs ñ »b√dZIz

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11D Morphophonology: final note


What is the difference?

singer — ringer — swinger — stingerversus

finger — linger — malinger

/-IN/ + {ER} > /-IN´/

one morpheme/-INg´/

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