IPA

Transcription
Practice
trnskrpn prkts

Class materials
and exercises
for B2.2 classes
taught by Jonathan Lewis
and Konrad Szczeniak

Konrad Szczeniak
Universidade do Porto, Portugal
Uniwersytet lski, Poland

2010/2011

Instytut Jzyka Angielskiego

 Charts

Front Central Back

High i u
i u

Mid e


Low

Table 1. English vowels

The labels Front, Central, and Back refer to the part of the tongue. The terms High, Mid, and Low
describe the position the tongue assumes for a given vowel. For example, the vowels in hip, heap and hippy are high-
front vowels: /hp/ /hip/ /hpi/.

Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal

-V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V
Plosives p b t d k g
Fricatives f v s z h
Affricates t d
Nasals m n
l, r
Approximants

Liquids
Glides w j

Table 2. English consonants

The labels in the upper row (Bilabial, Labiodental, etc.) refer to the articulator, or part of the mouth involved in
the articulation of a consonant. The terms in the column on the left (Plosives, Fricatives, etc.) describe the
manner of articulation for a given consonant. Consonants on the right side in each column are voiced, and the ones to
the left are voiceless. For example, the consonant /p/ is a voiceless plosive bilabial.
 1. 1. Vowel symbols
i tree three feed
fish dished finished
cat mat rat
car star far
clock lock stop
horse fourth door
book pull full
u boot pool fool
computer doctor arrive
bird third person
e egg red very
up sun funny

1. Write these words next to the right phonetic symbol above.

dork, steam, start, week, lurk, spat, food, foot, lark, cool, corn, far, seat, stern, van, sport, scream, seem,
harsh, lurk, rude, born, dull, puke, psalm, rock

2. Odd man out. Eliminate the word whose vowel is different from those in the other three. In words
with more syllables, the vowel in question is in bold type.

(A) stick myth feet fit (F) lard father parent jar
(B) blood muck tar pub (G) done gun fall stub
(C) roll rot dot gosh (H) sat Nazi clap plaid
(D) son run fun butcher (I) set dead heat bet
(E) lock bottle shore stop (J) sieve leave meat Steve

3. Practice. Transcribe the vowels in the following sentences. You may ignore the consonants
(simply write their spelling letters), diphthongs and stresses.
Love thy neighbor as yourself, but choose your neighborhood.
/l_v a neb_r z js_lf bt t_z j neb_h_d/

If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.

/_f ju n_t kr_tsazd j me n_t bi du m_t/

Opportunity is missed by most people because its dressed in overalls and looks like work.
/pt_n_ti z m_st ba mst p_pl bikz ts dr_st n vr_lz n t l_ks lak w_k/

I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they're dead.
a dnt _k _nibdi d rat r n bagr_fi nt_l d_d
 2A. Vowels // and /u/
1. Patterns
The spelling is not a reliable indicator for which of the two is pronounced (idiosyncrasies, irregularities
and exceptions everywhere), but there are some soft regularities.

spelled u When the letter u is pronounced as a high-back vowel, it is usually the short //: bull,
// butcher, full, pull, push, sugar, wuss

u-e But when a syllable containing the /u/ sound is followed by the letter e in the spelling,
/u/ the sound will be /u/: absolute, cute, crude, dude, exude, immune, include, mute, nuke,
rude, use, etc.

spelled ew brew, chew, jewel, Jewish, lewd, Lewis, newt, shrewd, etc.
/u/
spelled oo bloom, boom, boost, boot, booth, booze, cool, doom, food, fool, gloom, goof, goose, hoot,
/u/ loop, loot, loose, mood, moon, moot, noose, ooze, pool, proof, school, shoot, smooth,
snoop, soon, spook, spoon, stool, swoon, swoop, tool, tooth, troop, zoom

spelled oo book, good, foot, hood, hook, look, nook, shook, stood, took, wood, wool
//
final Words usually end in the long /u/: argue, avenue, bamboo, boo, coo, loo, peekaboo,
/u/
shoo, taboo, tattoo, too, voodoo, Yahoo, zoo, etc.
both //&/u/ broom, groom, roof, room; in AmE also root, soot, whoop
idiosyncratic // woman, wolf
/u/ womb, tomb, fruit, group, soup, suit

2. Exercises
Minimal pairs. The words below differ only in one sound (the /u/-//contrast). Complete the table.
wood /wd/- wooed /wud/ ____ /pl/ - ____ /pul/
____ /fl/- fool /ful/ ____ /nk/ - ____ /n(j)uk/
____ /lk/- ____ /luk/

Transcribe the following phrases.

true blue loose woman A Few Good Men
footloose groupie cool looking dude spoonful of sugar
hooked on books Fruit of the Loom shooting some bull
food and booze cute Susan crude tool
new tattoo useful fool wolf on the loose
astute conclusion groovy music lewd movie
 2B. Vowels // and /i/
1. Patterns

// is usually spelled as the letter i: bit, spin, zit, glib, etc.

/i/ is often pronounced when spelled as:
ee bee, greet, meet, leek, reek, see, etc.; employee, refugee, divorcee, etc.
ea bean, beat, heat, league, peace, sea, weave etc.
ie / ei achieve, believe, field, piece, ceiling, receive, conceive, etc.
e-CONSONANT-e athlete, complete, concrete, decent, Irene, obese, Pete, Portuguese, Steve,

But there are exceptions:

Looks like /i/ but is really pronounced as //: sieve, mischief, counterfeit, foreign

Looks like // but is really pronounced as /i/: liter, kilo, and -ique words antique,
physique, pique, technique
Plus, there are some tricky examples of Irish names: Sean /n/, Sinead /ned/

2. Exercises
2.1 Match and transcribe homophones piece sea
(words with different meanings and see weak
spellings, but pronounced the same). Not all beat beet
the words have a match! beech beach
meat bit
week meet
heel suite
sweet hill
pick heal
mitt peace
pique peek
peak

2.2 What problem do the words sheet, beach, and piece pose? Which words should they not be
confused with?

2.3 Transcribe the following

King and Queen kith and kin speed limit
freaking dimwit spitting image feeling of bliss

2.4 Decipher these minimal pairs

/fil/ /fl/ /stil/ /stl/ /bin/ /bn/
/rim/ /rm/ /dim/ /dm/ /lik/ /lk/
 2C. Vowels //, // and //
1. Position of the tongue
Front Central Back
High

Mid

Low

2. Patterns

// (the schwa) is the most frequent vowel in English. It usually appears in unstressed syllables, but
never in stressed syllables: about, afraid, confuse, etc. It is not associated with any specific letter in the
spelling (in fact, it can be spelled with any vowel letter: ability, seven, dinosaur, suppose), but there are
some useful patterns to remember. For example, if a word ends in -er or -or, this ending is 99% of the
time a schwa: mother, cooler, builder, editor, color (colour), etc. The indefinite article a/an is pronounced
with the schwa: / bed/, /n pl/.

// is usually spelled as the letter a: ban, cat, dab, hag, stack, tab, etc.
// is usually spelled as the letter u: bun, cut, dub, hug, stuck, tub, etc.
Some exceptional cases of // words to memorize:

//
ton, son, won, front;
one, done, none, come, love, glove, brother, mother, some, something, other, nothing,
money, monkey, cover, govern, color, does;
blood, flood;
enough, rough, tough;
touch, country, cousin, young, couple, double, trouble.

2. Exercises
2.1 Homophones
What homophones do the words son, won, and none, have?

2.2 Transcribe the following

an ugly cover-up son-of-a-gun happy go // lucky
a ton of /v/ money bloodbath country cousin
a stunning comeback an unloved son number one
black color front man bad blood
troubled young lad stuck in the // mud funny monkey
 3. Past /d/, /t/, or /d/ and plural /z/, /s/, or /z/
1. Transcription. Decipher the following transcription. Underline: all plural suffixes and all
regular verb inflections (-ed forms, and -ing forms)

/ivn z hu dnt knsd mselvz fnz v led zepln gri t ts wn v gretst bndz
v l tam/ /fju grups v ivn km kls tu tiv sem levlz/
/ bgnz v led zepln kn bi trest bk tu bluz nflunst rk bnd jdbdz/
/dmi ped dnd jdbdz n nantin sksti sks /
/hi rplest besst pl sm hu hd dsadd t liv grup/
/tli ft ped swtt frm bes t lid gt kriet dul lid gt lanp w def bek/
/fl dptr v bek frm grup n sksti sks jdbdz w tad frm knstnt
tr n rkd n d bgn t wand dan/
/ped wntd t fm supgrup w hmself n bek n gtz n huz rm sekn drm
ki mun n besst dn entwsl/
/vklsts stiv wnwd n wl stivnz wr ls knsdd f prdekt/
/ grup nev fmd l ped bek n mun rkdd s tge beks bler wt z fitd
n beks nantin sksti et lbm tru/
/ rkd sen ls nkludd besst kibdst dn pl dnz hu tld ped t i wd bi
ntrstd in klbret n fjut prdekts/
Text copied under GNU Free Documentation License

2. The past suffix ed. /d/, /t/, or /d/ (=/d/ in some transcriptions)
Write the transcription for the following verbs in the past tense form.
collaborated, agreed, achieved, traced, joined, replaced, switched, created, followed,

3. The plural suffix s. /z/, /s/, or /z/ (=/z/)

Write the transcription for the following nouns in the plural form.
pages, guitars, lineups, times, recordings, sections, projects, moons, albums

4. The 3rd person sing suffix s. /z/, /s/, or /z/ (=/z/)

Write the transcription for the following verbs in the 3rd pers form.
decides, considers, acts, begins, features, collaborates,

5. Sentences
Consonants.
Transcribe these sentences.
The jam session lasted a few hours. sheep ip measure me
John strummed a couple of songs. church judge
The man in red shorts sings well. thing mother m
He who laughs last laughs best.
j York jk thing
 4. Diphthongs
1. Diphthong symbols. Study the following diphthongs symbols. Think of other examples of words
that are pronounced with these diphthongs.
e bay, hey boy, boil a now, how e bear, dare
a bye, lie (=o) glow, go ear, cheer sure, lure

2. Practice. Supply the missing diphthong symbols in the following transcriptions.

/s___v pr___vt r____n/
/lst n trnzl___n/
/eksp____r n lv/
/mdnat k___b___/
/ grin m___l/ /slmdg mljn___r/
/br___kbk m___ntn/ /n___ kntri fr ___ld men/
/gldi___t /r
/ kr___ gem/
/d___ndrs lieznz/

3. Practice. Transcribe the following words (each one contains a diphthong), and put them in the
following lines.
make finds no my lives close James Brown closer White baby I(x2)

/ ma nem z bnd __________ bnd/ Which two of the following are

not pronounced with a diphthong?
/am gn __________ m n fr (h)i knt rfjuz/ (The Godfather) arrange change orange
grange range strange
/s t l vis t __________/ (Terminator 2)
anger danger manger stranger
/t __________ sgnl nli hel/ (Gladiator)

/bkz __________ mn kn bi frendz w wmn t i __________ trktv/ (When Harry Met Sally)

/e me tek __________ bt el nev tek fridm/ (Braveheart)

/kip j frendz __________ bt jr enmiz __________/ (The Godfather)

/z f bk z __________ kn rmemb __________ lwez wntd t bi gst/ (The Goodfellas)

/hr j nemz mstr __________ mstr __________ mst blnd mst blu mstr rnd n mst
pk/ (Reservoir Dogs)

4. Practice. Now you should be ready to transcribe the following sentences (ignore the stresses).
Scientists might be quite mistaken about many things, but they always try to find out how much they dont
know. | Cambridge Chamber of Commerce | Id only like to know if you can die from piercing your own
ear.

5. Separated by the Great Vowel Shift differences in pairs of words

know - knowledge wild - wilderness wise - wisdom nature - natural
nation - national Christ - Christmas south - southern wide - width
grade - gradual fable - fabulous sane - sanity sincere - sincerity
 5. Consonants eth // and theta //

1. Eth // and theta //

Spelled the same; difference in voicing: // is voiced, // is voiceless).
Which one is pronounced - most often to be memorized. But there are some rules-of-thumb:
1.1 Rules-of-thumb
position rule-of-thumb
initial In initial positions, foreign or unfamiliar words are never pronounced with the eth //.
middle In middle positions, between vowels, usually // (e.g. rather, mother, bother, together,
wither), but of course, there are exceptions (ether). In middle positions, preceded by a
consonant, most often // (anthem, menthol, panther, synthetic, filthy, stealthy, wealthy).
final In final positions, most often //: (birth, both, breadth, death, wealth, seventh, truth, wealth).
One common exception is smooth. Words like bequeath or betroth are pronounced with // or
// depending on the speaker.

1.2 Regular alternations

bath bathe breath breathe cloth clothe loath - loathe
sooth soothe swath swathe teeth teethe scathe
seethe wreath wreathe writhe

1.3 Tricky words

Esther, Thailand, Thames, Thomas, thyme

1.4 Voiced plurals

baths, booths, cloths, oaths, paths, sheathes, truths, wreaths

1.5 th suffixes
noun forming -th: warmth, width, ordinal th: ordinal eth:
length,breadth, dearth, depth, growth, mirth sixth, tenth twentieth, thirtieth

2. Exercises
1. What is the difference (in use) between the two ordinal suffixes?
2. The longest cluster of consonants in the final position in English is found in the words /skss/ and
/aznds/. In what expressions are these forms used?
3. Fill in the blanks in the following expressions and transcribe them.
Better dead . red through . and thin two . up!
4. Transcribe the following phrases.
path to truth death threat thousandths place
holier than thou from north to south worth their salt
seething with wrath healthy, wealthy and wise in the thrall of death
a thirty something dearth rather than wealth in the altogether
go through the contract with a fine-tooth comb on the strength of
 6. Nasals
1. The velar nasal // (ring tailed n symbol, A.K.A. engma)
In which of the words below is the consonant following the // mute?
sing - sink sting - stink think - thing banger - bunker
single - twinkle Washington - plankton ringer - drinker monger - bonkers
bunker - hunger prankster - gangster angle - ankle

Observation #1: After //, the consonant ____ is often deleted, while ____ never is.
Observation #2: In final positions, ______ after // is always deleted.

What happens when a // is followed by suffixes -er, -ing, -ly, -able?

singer singing swimmingly singable
hanger hangover hangout
Observation #3: When // is followed by morphemes, the /g/ remains _______.

Can you guess the reason why /g/ is mute in the words on the left, but not in those on the right?
singer, swinger, bringer, hanger, malinger, linger, hunger, finger,
wringer warmonger, hatemonger, fishmonger, etc.

For the same reason as above, in the following words, the /g/ is pronounced. Transcribe the remaining
three words.
spangle /spgl/ shingle jungle
dangle /dgl/ tingle

Observation #4 : In the comparative and superlative form, the /g/ is always pronounced.
longer /lgr/ stronger younger
longest /lgst/ strongest youngest

Which ones are not pronounced with the velar nasal?

binger bringer tinge singer singe hinge ginger

2. The cluster /mb/ How are the following words pronounced?

aplomb bomb numb climb comb crumb lamb
limb thumb womb
amber bomber number climber bimbo chamber ember
timber somber remember Bambi

3. The cluster /mn/ How are the following words pronounced?

autumn column condemn damn hymn solemn
autumnal columnist condemnation damnation hymnal solemnity

Transcribe the following:

engineering, Hong Kong, jingle, monkey, changeling, ranging, spelunker, clingingly, ding-dong, inkling,
dangling, long-lasting, wrongdoing, donkey, youngster
 7. Affricates /t/ and /d/; fricatives // and //

1. The voiceless affricate /t/ and fricative //

Spelled ch (chin, lecher, much), tch (butcher, stretch) or t (mature, nature)

But careful with:

/k/ chasm, chorus, chemist, schism, scheme, schism, scholar, technology
// chaise, chagrin, machine, chivalry, chandelier, chef, parachute, chute.
schmooze, schmuck, schm in jocular reduplications, as in santa-schmanta, school-schmool, etc.
? yacht, Crichton

What tricky words are transcribed below?

/lktnstin/ /skt sfrini / /mpen/ /fr, fr/ /kwa/

In words ending in -pture (eg. capture, sculpture, scripture) and cture (picture, lecture, structure), the t
can be pronounced as either /t/ or //.

Transcribe the following phrases.

childish selfishness fish and chips English teacher
charming and chivalrous the shorts match the shirt cherries in a dish
watch the show Portuguese ship national chess championships
cash a check Chinese washing machine

2. The voiceled post-alveolar affricate /d/

Spelled j (jeans, Jones), dg (dodge, wedge), often g before i or e (gin, ginger, gem, range)

Frequent errors. Careful with:

/g/ Carnegie, gill, Gilbert, gismo
// genre, beige, rouge, mirage

Minimal pairs. The words below differ only in one sound (the /t/-/d/contrast). Complete the table.
cheer /t/- jeer /d/ ____ /tel/ - ____ /del/
chew /tu/ - Jew _________ cheap /tip/ - ____ /dip/
cinch /snt/- ____ _________ badge _______- batch _______
rich _______- ridge _______ ____ /teri/- ____ _______

Transcribe the following phrases.

eschew junk food change your shirt just a conjecture
rich imagination Virginia Beach Winchester College Chapel Choir
foolish jealousy huge motion picture social age structure
 8. Suffixes
1. Nominal suffixes.
1.1 What words are transcribed next to each suffix?
-age d /bgd/ -al l /wdrl/ -ance ns /ksep tns/ -ant nt /p l knt/
-ee i /n t vjui/ -ence ns /kr ns/ -escence esns /d les ns/ -er /titr/
-hood hd /fls hd/ -ism zm / ktvzm/ -ment mnt /enkr d mnt/ -ess1 s / la ns/
-ness ns /dk ns/ -sion n /sen n/ -ure /klo r/ -tion n /gn n/
n /kohi n/

1.2 Transcribe these words by consulting the above list of nominal suffixes.
childhood departure divorcee creature refusal livelihood erasure
capitalism evacuee absentee management judgment adjustment
nationhood marriage senescence denture highness servant
fluorescence firmness marker princess worker actress

1.3 Transcribe a few other nouns with some of the above suffixes.

2. Adjectival suffixes.
2.1 What words are transcribed next to each suffix?
-able bl /lek t bl/ -al l /n ml/ -er /nit/ -est st /klinst/
-ese iz /mltiz/ -ette et /koket/ -let lt /pg lt/ -ful fl /jus fl/
is /mltis/
-ible bl /dms bl/ -ic k /runk/ -ish /tal d/ -ive v /rpres v/
-less ls /mand ls/ -ous s /d s/ -some sm /trb l sm/ -worthy w i /trstw i/

2.2 Transcribe these words by consulting the above list of nominal suffixes.
likeable natural ruthless biggish compatible impressive
Portuguese starlet fastest careless foolish
tasteful abysmal countless ironic handsome brunette cautious
awesome awful droplet

3. Double category suffixes.

Suffixes like -ful /fl/ can be both adjectival and nominal. What common meaning element do these nouns express?
/fst fl/ /bg fl/ /hnd fl/ /has fl/ /lp fl/ /rm fl/ /spun fl/ /tk fl/
 9. Stress
1. Factors responsible for stress. Can you arrange the factors below in terms of
importance?
loudness pitch length quality

stress relative perceived prominence of a linguistic unit. A stressed syllable is characterized

phonetically by greater intensity than is found in adjacent unstressed syllables.

2. Primary and secondary stress. Placement often depends on the suffix. For now, use your
intuition as to how primary and secondary stress is placed in the following words.
extramural horticulture retrospective microcosm
situation supermarket superintendent stratosphere
extraterrestrial biohazard counterproductive
paramedic humanism homicidal
What do the affixes do to the bases?
hybrid hybridism hybridist hybridize hybridizable hybridity hybridization
graph biograph biography biographic biographical biographer

3. Compounds and phrases

farm hand locker room shit list bonehead
left hand big room long list butthead
shorthand darkroom black list bruised head
Quite a few exceptions: apple pie, morning paper, school choir, summer night.
How about apple pie recipe, school choir conductor?

4. Weak Forms

Weak form - one of two possible

pronunciation variants for a word
articulated in connected speech. Weak
forms are usually unstressed
grammatical (function) words. For
example, the preposition of in lots of
money is normally pronounced as /v/,
not /v/. Some words in English have
more than one weak form, e.g. have
/hv/ can be /hv/, /v/, or //.

Exercise 1
In the cartoon caption, mark weak and strong
jes wel ledblti n krekt pktuen mat forms.
nt bi strit bt ts ha a rl mrfkr
Used by permission of Phil Selby (Dec. 2010)
http://bigeyedeer.wordpress.com/
Exercise 2 Complete the vowels in the table
word strong weak word strong weak word strong weak
a e from frm frm that t t
am m ()m have hv (h)v, the ____ i,
an n ()n he h____ (h)i them em ()m
and nd ()n(d) him, his hm hz (h)m -z there e(r) (r)
are (r) (r) is z zs to tu tu, t
as z z me mi mi us s s
at ____t t must mst ms(t) was wz wz
be bi bi not nt nt we wi wi
because bkz (b)kz of v v, v, were w(r) w(r)
been bin bn shall l l who hu hu,
but bt bt she i i will wl ()l
can k____n kn should ____d d would w____d (w)d, d
could kd k____d so s s you ju ju, j
do du du, d some sm sm your j____(r) j(r)
does d____z dz such s____t st
for f(r) f____(r) than n ()n

Notes
1. The pronoun that is pronounced in its strong form, except when used as a relative pronoun (this is the
kind of thing that I meant) or a conjunction (I thought that you knew).
2. Some is pronounced in its strong form when it is a pronoun meaning unidentified persons (Some
prefer it on the rocks) or a quantifying determiner with the meaning some, but not all (Only some
members voted for him). Weak form is pronounced in the unspecified quantity sense (Would you like
some candy?).
3. The weak forms of he, his, her, have, has, and had often drop the initial /h/, except at the beginning of a
sentence.
4. The weak forms of do, the, and to behave similarly. Before a consonant, they are pronounced with a
schwa, and before a vowel as /du/, /i/, and /tu/ respectively (Do I?, the apple, and to and fro)

Exercise 3
Transcribe the following sentences using weak forms where necessary.
- The more you try to avoid thinking about them, the more you do than if you didnt.
- I dont expect an essay or anything, but I think that she could give me at least a sentence, a
hello or something like that.
- Would you believe that they have been married for seventy years?

Exercise 4
Can you explain why of is written (instead of have) in the following line?
Somebody should of gone with him, said Mack. (John Steinbeck, Cannery Row)
 10. Allophonic Processes
1. Phoneme vs. allophone
phoneme minimal contrastive sound unit. Contrastive = replacing a phoneme with another results in a
change of meaning, as in pet and bet.
allophone non-contrastive variant of a phoneme. Replacing it with another allophone does not result in
meaning contrasts.

2. Clear vs. dark l

The sound /l/ is pronounced differently in the initial and final positions. In the phrase look cool, the l in
look is pronounced with the tip of your tongue up behind the top front teeth, while the l in cool has the
tongue raised further back. See what happens when you swap the two. Do the meanings of the words
change?

These allophonic distinctions are not marked in the (broad) phonetic transcription. But there exist special
symbols to distinguish allophones and these are used in the more detailed narrow, allophonic transcription.

broad transcription narrow transcription

kilt /klt/ kilt [k t ]

In which of the following words will the clear [l] and dark [] be realized? clean, belt, hell, ruled, lilt,
lull, level, label, finale, final

3. Aspiration
Plosives also come in allophonic variants, one of which is pronounced with a puff of air. Aspirated
allophones are marked with a superscript []. Can you figure out the rule?
kit [k]t get [g]et skit s[k]t
tick [t]k deck [d]ek stick s[t]k
pit [p]t bit [b]t spit s[p]t

Aspiration occurs even if the stops are followed by some consonants. Consult the table of English
consonants at the beginning to find out what these consonants have in common.
In Table 2, why are the last examples in each column not aspirated?
phort chot, chut atthack
h h
p lay c ream thrick
h h h
p rint q ueen, eq uip thick
h h
P uerto Rico c lean thwin
Table 1. Aspirated stops

sport Scott stack

splay scream strap
sprint squint motor
deeper sector,Tucker
Table 2. Non-aspirated stops
3.2 Shifting aspiration
Some word-formation processes result in stress shift, which in turn affects aspiration. For example, the
word atom is pronounced without aspirating the /t/, but the adjectival form athomic takes stress on the
second syllable following the /t/, which selects the aspirated version of the /t/. Transcribe the following
pairs, marking aspiration where appropriate.

retake (n) / retake (v)
economy / economic
apply / application
convict (n) / convict (v)
photograph / photography
congress / congressional
suppose / supposition
progress / progression
acclaim / acclamation
parent / parental
present (n, adj) / present (v)
contest (n) / contest (v)
politics / political
accuse / accusation

4. Shortening of vowels
Vowels can be shortened if they are followed by voiceless consonants. Compare the following pairs.

feed / feet dug / duck cob / cop

bed / bet rig / Rick robe / rope

Will the vowels in the following words get shortened?

help hulk belt
harsh warp harp

The shortening of vowels is marked in narrow transcription with two symbols. The single dot [] is used
for long vowels, e.g. , which becomes []. Short vowels get shortened with [ ], so for example,
becomes [ ]:
cart [kt] leak [lik] rack [r k]

card [k d] league [li g] rag [rg]

5. Exercise
Transcribe the following words. Use the diacritic symbols for aspiration, shorter vowels and the two
variants of the phoneme /l/.

Lisbon lisp crab crap

feed feet pull bull
roll rope robe code
god got cot clot
because beacon wilt willed
 11. Tricky words
1. Letter-vowel correspondence.
The following words come from Gerard Nolst Trenits poem The Chaos.
Look them up in your pronunciation dictionary and copy their transcriptions.
corpse, corps, horse and worse beau, queue
sword and sward retain and Britain
recipe, pipe soil, choir
plague, vague, ague shoe, poem, toe
Woven, oven signal, signing
script, receipt examining, but mining
missiles, similes, reviles endeavoured, revered and severed
wholly, holly blood, flood, food
lumber, plumber discount, viscount
laid but plaid, made, bade load and broad
bier, but brier toward, forward, reward
moss, gross renown, but known
brook, brooch knowledge, done, lone, gone, none, tone
ninth, plinth kitchen, lichen
kind, kindle, kindred, mankind banquet, parquet
reading, Reading, heathen, heather grieve, believe, sieve
demon, lemon make my coat look new, dear, sew it
ghoul, foul, soul mould is NOT like should and would
petrol and patrol billet does not end like ballet
Satan, satanist, satanic Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet

2. Suffix -able
How are these two words stressed? desirable - admirable
What happens to verbs ending in -ate when they take the suffix able? alienable, alternable, articulable,
discriminable, duplicable, violable,

3. Homographs
Same spelling; different pronunciation and different meaning. What are the two meanings in each case?
bass bow close dove invalid lead
number row sow tear wound wind

4. Tricky Greek words

catastrophe, epitome, Penelope, hyperbole, apostrophe,

5. Odd man out

Which of the following do you think is NOT an existing collocation?
a. heathen temple b. to convert the heathen c. heathen rice d. heathen slaves
a. lichen-crusted rocks b. lichen habitat c. lichen removal d. lichen shirt
a. stimulated plinth b. to erect a plinth c. to adorn a plinth d. Trafalgar Square plinth
a. Swiss chalet b. chalet homes c. mountain chalet d. chalet bullet
a. flower-decorated bier b. wooden bier c. to drink bier d. popes bier
 12. Technical terminology
1. Science suffixes and semi-suffixes. Decipher the examples.
ary pertaining to, connected with ism ________ /dwfzm/
dietary AmE/dateri/ BrE/datri/
gen something that produces or lysis destruction, separation
induces ________/hadrdn/ ________/dalss/
cyte cell ________luksat lukst logy ________/baldi/
itis inflammation ________ osis state or condition ________
/dndvats/ /hpnss/
cide agent that kills ________ pathy feeling disease ________ /pi/
(ec)tomy removal, cutting ________ philia attraction for ________ /pidfli/
iac ________/kdik/ phobia fear of ________ /k rf bi /
gram something written or drawn in, ine (in some substance names)
graph ________/kdigrm/ ________ /meltnn/
graphy ________ /digrfi/ rrhoea flow ________ /lgri/

2. Stress
/ba + ldi/ > /baldi/
In which of the following suffixes does a similar effect occur? Transcribe the following patterns.
lobe + tomy geo + graphy
national + ism discipline + ary
amnesia + ac insect + cide
3. More examples. Decipher the following expressions.
/wez t kntrkt gnri/ /tu dke n hltss/ /ksdn msk/
/hjumn ntmi lesn/ /strldi n l k mi/ /smpi kd/

4. Transcription practice
antipathy psychopathy telepathy
lymphocyte thrombocyte binary
hereditary biography topography
analysis paralysis necrophilia
laryngitis meningitis antigen
estrogen diarrhea penicillin
fungicide neurectomy cirrhosis
insomniac amnesiac
5. Transcription practice
Early diagnosis of acute bronchitis may help reduce the risk of long-term problems.
Lobotomy was at first used as a primary procedure for a range of psychiatric conditions.
Oxytocin is important for cervical dilation and contractions of the uterus during labor.
Oxytocin is also used in veterinary medicine to induce birth and stimulate milk release.
An individual analysis of the speech of aphasiacs suggests that obscene vocabulary is stored differently
and separately from other vocabulary in the brain.
Astronomy is not to be confused with astrology.
 13. Final exercises
1. Match the words with their correct pronunciation
law l Shaw o crow kro
low show craw
lo kr

here h bear b dare d

hair beer dear
he be de

done dn when wn ton tn

den one ten
den wen ten
colour kl wonder wnd luck lk
collar wander lock
kl wnd lk
click klik bean bin chick tik
clique been cheak
klk bn tk

2. Homophones. In each group, cross out the word that does not fit the others. Then
transcribe the two pronunciations for each group.

yew you ewe youth broke break brake

noon knew new idle idol dill

cue queue coo prey pry pray

peas piece peace wait weight white

none noun nun cent send sent scent

selling sealing ceiling die dye day

whore hoar hour flower flour floor

fir fur fair heal hill heel

mail mall male sight site cite side

ride write right knead need neat