ENGLISH PHONETICS

AND PHONOLOGY I

Anthology 2015-16

Fonètica i Fonologia Angleses I

(Codi: 362720 / 203108)
Notes and exercises 2015-16

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 Teachers: Cristina Aliaga, Eva Cerviño, Marc Miret, Joan Carles Mora,
Brian Mott, Mireia Ortega, Aaron Ventura

Contents
Page

Introduction ........................................................................................................... 3
Assessment of students’ performance .................................................................... 3
Model exams ......................................................................................................... 4
Phonetics I Exam. Part 1, Question 3 ..................................................................... 6
The levels of language (Phonetics, Phonology and linguistics) ............................... 7
Phonetic symbols for the transcription of English .................................................. 9
The English vowels: contrasts................................................................................ 11
The English vowels and diphthongs: words for transcription ................................. 12
English Vowel no. 12: schwa ................................................................................. 14
Passages for phonetic transcription ........................................................................ 15
Phonetic dictations ................................................................................................ 16
The Speech Organs ................................................................................................ 20
Phonetics websites ................................................................................................. 21
Exercises on the Speech Organs............................................................................. 22
Characteristics of vowels and consonants .............................................................. 23
Exercises on the classification of speech sounds .................................................... 24
Exercises on the classification of English speech sounds ....................................... 25
Phonetics and Phonology ....................................................................................... 26
The Phoneme ......................................................................................................... 27
The Phoneme: Daniel Jones’ Propositions ............................................................. 28
Distinctive Feature Theory .................................................................................... 29
Distinctive Feature charts ...................................................................................... 31
Distinctive Features: exercises ............................................................................... 32
Assimilation .......................................................................................................... 34
Weak forms ........................................................................................................... 36
Transcription practice with weak forms ................................................................. 37
Weak forms: additional exercises .......................................................................... 38
The sound systems of English, Spanish and Catalan .............................................. 41
The consonants of English, Spanish and Catalan .................................................... 43
Phonetic transcription ............................................................................................ 45
Some notes to help you with English phonetic transcription ................................... 46
Texts for phonetic transcription ............................................................................. 50
Transcriptions of the texts...................................................................................... 54

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 INTRODUCTION

Fonètica i Fonologia Anglesa I is intended to provide both practice in the phonetics of

English and an introduction to the essential theoretical foundations of the discipline. Like all
technical subjects, it has its own terminology and language associated with it. To acquire the
technical vocabulary of the field, you are advised to write down terms like phoneme,
allophone, complementary distribution, etc. with a definition and at least one example.
After each topic has been covered in class, you should read the relevant chapter of English
Phonetics and Phonology for Spanish Speakers (2nd ed. 2011) by Brian Mott.
Some transcription practice will be given in class, but this will never be enough for
students to reach the required standard without work outside class. For this purpose, texts
have been provided for private study in this anthology (pp. 50-64). Further recorded texts will
be found in the textbook, pp. 359-361, transcriptions pp. 413-415 (CD tracks 43-52).

Useful bibliography
ASHBY, Patricia. 2005. Speech Sounds. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.
CARR, Philip. 2013. English Phonetics and Phonology: An Introduction. 2nd ed. Oxford:
Wiley-Blackwell.
CRUTTENDEN, Alan. 2008. Gimson’s Pronunciation of English. 7th ed. London: Hodder.
LILLO, Antonio. 2009. Transcribing English. Albolote (Granada): Comares.
MCMAHON, April. 2002. An Introduction to English Phonology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press.
ROACH, Peter. 2009. English Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge: CUP.
TATHAM, Mark, & MORTON, Katherine. 2011. Speech Production and Perception.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
TENCH, Paul. 2011. Transcribing the Sound of English. Cambridge: CUP.

ASSESSMENT OF STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE

Continuous assessment (“avaluació contínua”) is the general norm. In this subject, the final exam will constitute
60% of the final grade, and other components 40%. The pass mark will be 50%. The final exam will consist of:
1. 100 word phonetic dictation (10 marks; at least 2.5/10 is required) (first half hour of exam).
2. Two and a half hour written paper (50 marks: 20 + 20 + 10): see model exams, anthology, pp. 4-5.
The remaining 40% of the mark will be distributed as follows (each item is worth 10%, detailed instructions to
be given in due course):
1. March 19th: Phonetic transcription of words in isolation (10%)
2. April 14th: Perception task (5%)
3. April 30th: Mid-term multiple-choice test (20 questions) (10%).
4. May 7th: Phonetic dictation of sentences (10%).
5. May 24th: Production task (5%)

Students unable to submit to continuous assessment are required to fill in a form within the first 30 days of the
beginning of the course (http://www.ub.edu/filologia/tauler/canvis_avaluacio.htm). These students will be
required to do a final exam worth 80% of the final mark and will be asked to hand in tasks 2 and 5 (10%) on the
day of the final exam. The final exam for these students will include an additional section with 10 multiple-
choice items (10%). The 2nd sitting (“re-avaluació”) will consist of a final exam worth 80% of the final mark
that will include an additional section with 10 multiple-choice items (10%) and students will be asked to hand in
tasks 2 and 5 (10%) on the day of the final exam.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Students must attend class with and do the exam of the group in which they are matriculated.
Failure to comply with this requirement may lead to students not having their final mark transferred to the “acta”. Any
student wishing to change group must do so officially and inform the teachers involved.

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 UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
DEPARTAMENT DE FILOLOGIA ANGLESA I ALEMANYA
FONÈTICA I FONOLOGIA ANGLESA I

Lay out your answers as tidily as possible. Label all the questions clearly and use only
relevant material in your answers. ALWAYS GIVE EXAMPLES.

Part I. Answer the following questions: (20 marks)

1. Classify the following English vowels: (a) // (b) //
2. Classify the following English consonants: (a) // (b) //
3. Describe fully how English /s/ is produced.
4. Explain the main difference in the way Spanish and English listeners perceptually
distinguish voiced from voiceless oral stops in word-initial pre-tonic position.
5. Define the term co-articulation.
6. What distinctive feature distinguishes labials from velars?
7. Illustrate the difference between velar and velic closure.
8. Describe the morphophonemic alternations of the simple past / past participle suffix.
9. Why are /w / and /j/ described as being [-vocalic] and [-consonantal]?
10. What are the main pronunciation differences between Southern British English (SSB)
and General American (GA) in the following words: beer, tune.

Part II. Write in detail on FOUR of the following: (25 marks)

1. Describe the main differences between vowels and consonants.
2. The phonetic form of grammatical words varies according to context, whereas the form of
lexical words is invariant. Discuss and illustrate with examples from English.
3. What is a diphthong? How are diphthongs classified in English?
4. Explain the usefulness of the features [sonorant], [continuant] and [nasal] in the description
and classification of the sounds of English.
5. Explain the distribution and articulatory features of the allophonic variants of the English
voiceless alveolar plosive. Illustrate with examples.
6. Explain the role of the velum in speech production. Assess its importance as regards the
English phonological system.

Part III. Phonetic and phonological processes and phenomena (10 marks)
Identify and explain the type of connected speech process or phenomena in the following
examples from English. Identify clearly in each case the sounds you are referring to.

1. Pete  > . 6. attic /t/ > [].

2. buttler [] > []. 7. one month /wʌn mʌnθ/>[wʌn mʌnθ].
3. library pronounced as ]. 8. I let you /aɪ ˈlet ju/ > [aɪ ˈletʃu].
4. it’s small /ɪts smɔːl/ > [ɪts smɔːɫ]. 9. tabs /tæbz/ > [tæbz̥].
5. table /teɪbl/ [teɪbɫ̩]. 10. clear it /klɪr ɪt/

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 UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
DEPARTAMENT DE FILOLOGIA ANGLESA I ALEMANYA
FONÈTICA I FONOLOGIA ANGLESA I

Lay out your answers as tidily as possible. Label all the questions clearly and use only
relevant material in your answers. ALWAYS GIVE EXAMPLES.

Part I. Answer the following questions: (20 marks)

1. Classify the following English vowels: (a) æ (b) ʊ
2. Classify the following English consonants: (a)  (b) ʒ
3. Describe fully how English  is produced.
4. What do you understand by the term DEVOICING?
5. What is the role of the LARYNX and why is it important in the production of English
speech sounds?
6. What is the difference between a long monophthong and a diphthong?
7. What English vowel phonemes can never occur word-finally?
8. Describe the position of the tongue in the articulation of a vowel with a low first formant
and a high second formant.
9. What distinctive features can be used to identify vowel-like consonantal sounds such as
glides and liquids?
10. Which of the following pronunciations of the word singing is correct: /sɪŋgɪŋ/ or /sɪŋɪŋ/?
Why?

Part II. Write on FOUR of the following: (25 marks)

1. Explain the distribution of the weak and strong forms of grammatical words according to
(a) phonetic context (b) stress
2. Describe the process of articulation in the production of speech sounds.
3. Explain the differences and similarities between vowels and sonorant consonants.
4. To what extent are English vowels and consonants different in terms of the position they
occupy in syllable structure?
5. Compare the realizations and allophonic distribution of the plosive consonants of English
and Spanish.
6. Allophonic variants of phonemes may occur in complementary distribution, parallel
distribution and free variation. Explain the main characteristics and differences between
these different types of sound distribution.

Part III. Phonetic and phonological processes and phenomena (10 marks)
Identify comment on the following examples of connected speech phenomena (there might be
more than one process in the each example).
1. English packed /pækt/. 6. English play /pleɪ/ is realized as [pl ̥eɪ].
2. RP biting /ˈbaɪtɪŋ/, Cockney [ˈbaɪʔɪn]. 7. English piano /piˈænəʊ/ > /ˈpjænəʊ/.
3. Eng.share /ʃeə/; but share it /ʃeər ɪt/ 8. Eng. contain kn͙teɪn
4. ten cars /ten kɑːz/ is pronounced [teŋ kɑːz] 9. Eng. city BrE sɪti AmE sɪi
5. Balearic Catalan les set /ləs sɛt/ > [lət sɛt]. 10. Spanish cabo /ˈkabo/ is pronounced [ˈkaβo]

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 Phonetics I Exam. Part 1, Question 3

Study the following model answers:

In the articulation of /b/, the air expelled from the lungs makes the vocal cords vibrate. The
velum is raised, so that the air passes into the mouth, where it is momentarily blocked by the
lips. When the lips open, a slight explosion is heard. /b/ is therefore a VOICED BILABIAL
PLOSIVE.

In the articulation of /k/, the vocal cords are held apart, so that there is no vibration. The
velum is raised, so that the air passes into the mouth, where it is momentarily blocked by the
back of the tongue touching the velum. When this contact is released, a slight explosion is
heard. /k/ is therefore an UNVOICED VELAR PLOSIVE.

In the articulation of /n/, the air expelled from the lungs makes the vocal cords vibrate. The
velum is lowered, so that the air passes into the nasal cavity. In the mouth, the tongue makes
contact with the alveolar ridge. /n/ is therefore a VOICED ALVEOLAR NASAL.

In the articulation of /l/, the air expelled from the lungs makes the vocal cords vibrate. The
velum is raised, so that the air passes into the mouth. The tip of the tongue touches the
alveolar ridge, but the sides are raised, so that the air escapes laterally. /l/ is therefore a
VOICED ALVEOLAR LATERAL (APPROXIMANT).

In the articulation of /t/, the air expelled from the lungs passes freely through the glottis, so
there is no vocal cord vibration. The velum is raised, so that the air passes into the mouth,
where it meets an obstruction formed by the tongue tip and alveolar ridge. When this contact
is released, a slight explosion is heard. /t/ is therefore an UNVOICED ALVEOLAR
PLOSIVE.

In the articulation of /v/, the air expelled from the lungs produces vocal cord vibration. The
velum is raised, so that the air passes into the mouth. A partial obstruction is formed by the
lower lip and upper teeth. The air passing through the narrow gap creates audible friction. /v/
is therefore a VOICED LABIO-DENTAL FRICATIVE.

In the articulation of /dʒ/, the air expelled from the lungs makes the vocal cords vibrate. The
velum is raised, so that the air passes into the mouth, where an occlusion is made in the post-
alveolar region. With slow release of the contact of the articulators, friction is heard. /dʒ/ is
therefore a VOICED POST-ALVEOLAR AFFRICATE.

In the articulation of /h/, the air expelled from the lungs creates turbulence in the glottis, but
there is no vocal cord vibration. /h/ is therefore an UNVOICED GLOTTAL FRICATIVE.

NOW WRITE A DESCRIPTION OF SOME OTHER ENGLISH CONSONANTS.

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 THE LEVELS OF LANGUAGE
(Phonetics, Phonology and linguistics)

Language is made up of several different interacting levels:

LANGUAGE

PRONUNCIATION GRAMMAR SEMANTICS

phonetics phonology morphology syntax lexicon discourse

pragmatics

Although we can concentrate on any one of these levels largely to the exclusion of the others, as is often
done in language teaching or for the purpose of linguistic analysis in order to see particular patterns of
organization like combinations of vowels and consonants, verb paradigms or lexical fields more clearly, these
different facets of the structure of language are in fact inextricably interrelated.

The fact that the different levels of language come into play simultaneously might be represented by the
following model of language structure proposed by David Crystal (The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language,
p. 82), which is rather like a space station, and shows that entering the system at any one level provides access to
all the other levels:

P1
M = Morphology

S1 P P = Phonetics

P1 = Phonology

S = Syntax
M S
S1 = Semantics

O O = Other levels

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1. The levels of language

Phonetics deals with the (1) articulation of sounds, (2) their transmission from speaker to hearer, and (3)
audition or perception of these sounds by the hearer. It is not considered to be part of linguistics.
Phonology is a branch of linguistics that studies (1) the sound systems of languages (sounds and sound
combinations) and (2) which sounds are most commonly used in the world’s languages (and whether the
existence of one sound implies the existence of any other(s)).
Morphology is the study of word structure. Words are composed of morphemes. A word may consist of
only one morpheme, like manage, or two or more, like manage-(e)d and un-manage-able.
The field of morphology is divided into Inflectional Morphology and Derivational Morphology.
Derivational morphology tends to be much less predictable than inflectional morphology.
Syntax studies the way words combine to form larger units like phrases, clauses and sentences.
Lexicon refers to the words of a language or language variety, especially the way they are organized in
the mind. A unit of vocabulary is called a lexical item or a lexeme. The words in the mental lexicon are
organized into an indeterminate numer of lexical (semantic) fields, such as COLOUR, ANIMALS, FOOD,
COOKING, MEMORY, PERCEPTION, CLOTHING, SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, SCIENCE, etc., just like a
thesaurus. Thus they are not listed in alphabetical order as in a dictionary, but rather as superordinates and
hyponyms, or in groups of synonyms and antonyms. Languages do not manifest symmetrical patterns of
superordinates and hyponyms owing to the many gaps in the lexis of individual languages.
Discourse is the study of larger patterns of meaning, i.e. stretches of speech or writing longer than the
sentence, such as stories, conversations, jokes and letters, and is concerned with such aspects of language as
inter-sentence connectivity.
Pragmatics deals with the speaker’s intended meaning.
The simplest formulation of meaning would be to say that it equals semantics + pragmatics.

2. The interaction of the levels of language

Phonology and grammar. -(e)s = third person singular present tense, or plural
Phonology and syntax: don’t with final [-nt] in isolation or in careful speech, but this pronunciation may
alter in connected speech: Don’t be silly [ˈdəʊm bi ˈsɪli]; don’t you think it’s time [ˈdəʊntʃə ˈθɪŋk ɪts ˈtaɪm].
Phonology and semantics: seat v. sheet.
Semantics and morphology: -ness = noun, -ing = gerund, -hood = state.
Semantics and syntax: nothing doing v. doing nothing.
Syntax and pragmatics: Geoff and I v. Me and Geoff.

3. Generation and interpretation of language

The human brain contains a mental dictionary, i.e. a lexicon of words and the concepts that they stand for,
and a set of rules (a grammar) which combines the words to relate the concepts to one another. Any act of
communication begins with the intention to convey a message, a gathering together of the concepts to be
expressed, and a search for the words with which to translate those concepts into speech.
The words are accessed in the lexicon and then grammatical rules like addition of –s to form the plural in
English will be applied by the syntactic component. There is still some discussion as to whether words are stored
in the lexicon as wholes (FULL LISTING HYPOTHESIS) or whether it is their component morphs which are
stored separately and then assembled.
Apart from producing subject-verb concord like The boy is eating, The boys are eating, the syntactic
component makes questions and determines the correct output for word and phrase order.
The phonological component ensures the correct phonological form for each word and for the utterance
as a whole
Comprehension, roughly speaking, involves a reversal of this process. There are two main tasks involved:
(1) decoding the speech signal, (2) attaching meanings to what is heard. The recognition of words is a
fundamental and indispensable stage in language comprehension.
Misinterpretation of messages may occur through factors like structural ambiguity, garden-path sentences
and misanalysis of word boundaries.

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 PHONETIC SYMBOLS FOR THE TRANSCRIPTION OF ENGLISH

THE VOWELS OF ENGLISH

1 /i/ FLEECE, even, see, sea, field, seize, machine; key, quay, people. Unstressed
final or prevocalic: [i], very, áviary, serious. Also found in the unstressed
prefixes be-, de-, e-, pre-, re-: begin, decide, elect, prevent, receive
2 /ɪ/ KIT, ship, symbol, seduce, horses, ticket, village, private, fetid; minute,
women, pretty, lettuce, England, busy
3 /e/ DRESS, bed, head, breath; any, many, Thames /temz/, ate /et/
4 /æ/ TRAP, man, that, and, Paris, can, Spanish; plait
5 /ɑ/ START, PALM, BATH, are, garden, half, staff, class, after, fast, can’t, bath;
moustache, drama, tomato, vase; aunt, draught, clerk, example, heart, father,
memoir /memwɑ/, barrage
6 // LOT, CLOTH, wash, quality, Australia; gone, because, knowledge, Gloucester,
yacht
7 // THOUGHT, NORTH, FORCE, small, lawn, author, course, coarse, board, swarm,
bought; for, before, door, oar, ore (some accents use // in open syllables);
broad, water
8 /ʊ/ FOOT, full, look, good; could, wolf, woman, Worcester
9 /u/ GOOSE, too, to, two, who, move, blue, June, route, feud, new, suit; beauty
/bjuti/, shoe, canoe, manoeuvre. Unstressed pre-vocalic, [u]: vírtuous
10 // STRUT, much, sun, son, some, London, country; does, blood, flood
11 // NURSE, fern, Thursday, third, myrtle, worth, heard, journey; colonel,
connoisseur
12 // LETTER, COMMA, under, father, address, possible, tomato, suppose, Saturday,
furniture, author, dangerous, famous, cupboard, Oxford, occasion; select,
serene (before a liquid, /ə/ is more usual than /ɪ/). Note the use of this vowel
in weak forms of words like at, to, for, and, them
THE DIPHTHONGS OF ENGLISH
1 /eɪ/ FACE, play, waiter, weigh, great, baby, plate, bass; gauge
2 /ʊ/ GOAT, only, Poland, road, know, though; brooch, sew, bureau
/ʊ/ old, cold, soldier (in some accents before [ɫ])
3 /aɪ/ PRICE, try, side, ice, pie, tried, cries, height; buy, eye, choir
4 /aʊ/ MOUTH, cow, count, hour, MacLeod
5 /ɪ/ CHOICE, employ, boil, voice, noise
6 /ɪ/ NEAR, deer, dear, hear, here, weird, pierce, idea
7 /e/ SQUARE, chair, there, their, care, prayer; scarce, aeroplane
8 /ʊ/ CURE, moor, poor, secure

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THE CONSONANTS OF ENGLISH
/p/ pay, people, help; shepherd, hiccough.
/b/ baby, husband, club.
/t/ tooth, better, sit, liked; Thames, thyme.
/d/ do, Friday, sad.
/k/ kick, cat, back, queen; chemist, character, Christmas.
/ɡ/ gold, bag, girl, dog, egg.
/f/ fine, safe, photo, physics, nephew, laugh; lieutenant /lefˈtenənt/.
/v/ voice, never, save, of, nephew.
/θ/ thank, nothing, author, method, bath, twentieth.
/ð/ that, then, weather, with, bathe.
/s/ sit, thinks, mass, missing, place, cigarette.
/z/ zoo, dizzy, fizzy, has, comes, knives, noise, resist.
/ʃ/ sheep, fish, Persia, ancient, ocean, conscious, nation; moustache, machine,
chandelier.
/ʒ/ leisure, measure, occasion, usual, seizure; rouge, garage (some speakers).
/h/ his, happy, behind, who, whole.
/tʃ/ cheap, Richard, each, catch, fetch, furniture, question.
/dʒ/ judge, age, religion, garage, bridge; soldier, Greenwich, sandwich.
/m/ make, ham, hammer, autumn, climb, comb.
/n/ near, send, dinner, can, pneumatic, pneumonia.
/ŋ/ thing, English, singer, ink.
/l/ little, miller, while, full, greatly.
/r/ room, around, very, current, far away.
/j/ yet, yacht, year, you, young.
/w/ walk, will, when, away.

DIVIDE THE ABOVE CONSONANTS INTO CLASSES

First of all, make sure you know which ones are voiced, and which unvoiced.
Now identify the plosives, fricatives, affricates, nasals, liquids and semi-vowels (glides).
Now identify the approximants.
Now separate the obstruents from the sonorants. (Note that vowels are also sonorants.)
Which consonants are called sibilants?
Which consonants only occur before vowels?
Which consonants only occur after vowels?
What do you know about the pronunciation of final /r/ and /l/ in SSB (Standard Southern British) (also called
RP: Received Pronunciation)?

The words in small caps under Vowels and Diphthongs are J. C. Wells’s keywords, intended to be
unmistakeable in whatever accent they are pronounced (see Accents of English 1, CUP, 1982, p. xviii).

10
 THE ENGLISH VOWELS: CONTRASTS

/i/, /ɪ/ The sea, green and deep,

Seems like a beast asleep.
The beach and seaweed gleam,
And the sea breathes, heaves, sleepily,
In its deep green dream.

Winter winds
Freeze the trees.
Winter winds chill the knees.
Bitter, shrill,
They whistle, shriek,
Nip and whip
Chin and cheek.
Shiver, shiver, bird on tree,
Shiver, shiver, fish in sea.
Stream and river, frozen be.
Soon will spring
Bring the sun,
Linnets sing,
Winter done.

/u/, /ʊ/
1) Who could do it sooner than you?
2) He shook Luke’s football boots to empty them of soot.
3) There’s a new book out called The Good Food Guide.
4) The musicians flew off to New York as soon as they could.
5) There’s no room in here for that rude, uncouth youth.
6) “The moon is too beautiful to be true,” said Ruth.
7) You should put your new shoes on – you would look good.
8) You wouldn’t want to shoot yourself in the foot, Woody.
9) Stop fooling around with your foot – you’ll make the wound worse.
10) She took a spoonful of pudding and wolfed it down.

//, //, //

1) The drinking water was luke-warm, so they didn’t serve it.
2) What on earth are you working on?
3) We ought to walk a bit further – at least to the corner.
4) We saw a brightly burning ball of fire above the earth.
5) It’s a lost cause; we’ve burnt our boats.

/æ/, //, /ɑ/

1) He has a gap between his teeth and a massive cut on his left hand.
2) Mash the large potatoes up and mix them with some butter and parsley.
3) The shutters on the farmhouse windows were shattered by a strong gust of wind.
4) The barrister always carried large sums of money in his jacket.
5) We had a lovely crusty buttered bun for supper.
6) Cut the cackle and start wrapping up the presents!

11
 THE ENGLISH VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS: words for transcription

Vowel no. 1

be/bee, tea, plead, please, marine, serene, sleep, league, refugee, evening, feel, grief,
conceive, Odyssey, jelly, Ely, toffee, museum, freedom, delete, aesthetic, encyclopaedia.

Vowel no. 2

fit, lift, district, edifice, malice, return, depend, elicit, depict, Wallace/Wallis, forest, mallet,
bracket, illogical, furnace, tenderness, wicked, belated, fascist, savage, Stevenage, catches,
washes, marries, married, promise, symptom, syntax.

Vowel no. 3

left, get, cretin, press, peasant, lemon, shed, meant, leant, healthy, Leonard, friend, end, many,
any, ate, zealous, bread.

Vowel no. 4

lap, ash, fan, ban, placid, drastic, plastic, have, can, strand, crass, transmit, stenograph,
Patrick, parrot, Sadam, acceed.

Vowel no. 5

dart, spa, char, Charles, harm, heart, last, craft, promenade, photograph, raft, balm, lager,
serenata, boudoir, prance, blast.

Vowel no. 6

shot, wander, Warwick, squat, quarantine, loss, resolve, swap.

Vowel no. 7

ball/bawl, stall, form, hawk, audible, dawn, prawn, broad, swarthy, ward, fought/fort, assault,
afford, malt, distraught, nor, door, saw/sore/soar, floor, straw, tore, chore, glory.

Vowel no. 8

hook, shook, wooden, woman, should, pudding, hood, bosom, push.

Vowel no. 9

spoon, balloon, swoop, chew, prune, recruit, flute, duty, swoon, cool, stew, eunuch, Ulysses,
salute, boon, improve, move.

Vowel no. 10

punch, flunk, junk, punk, shove, dove, gutter, seductive, country, fun, bunch, come, company,
rough, constable, honey.

12
Vowel no. 11

prefer, slur, fir/fur, earnest, worthy, shirt, concur, jersey, Ferdinand, journalese, spurt, urgent,
mercy, firm, bird, turkey.

Vowel no. 12

alert, utter, humour, attend, commit, confuse, surrender, support, holiday, focus,
memorandum, clueless, clement, nervous.

....................................................................................................

Diphthong no. 1

late, crate, praise, tray, stranger, main, paint, rape.

Diphthong no. 2

hose, doze, hole, most, ghost, chosen, hello, poach, coach, yolk.

Diphthong no. 3

pine, benign, despise, reply, biology, science, either, bright.

Diphthong no. 4

mouse, proud, crowd, spout, loud, drown, outside, crown, shout.

Diphthong no. 5

soil, embroil, coil, annoy, destroyed, Freud, Boyd, foil, joyous.

Diphthong no. 6

sheer, appear, steer, near, pier/peer, cheers, beard, serial.

Diphthong no. 7

spare, dare, parents, bear/bare, dairy, Mary, prayer, air.

Diphthong no. 8

poor, sure, Bourbon, touring, manure, Europe, bureau, jury.

DIPHTHONGS + SCHWA

lower, inquire, layer, dowry, coyer, desire, coward, Howard.

13
 SCHWA

1) TRANSCRIBE THE FOLLOWING WORDS (omit schwa if possible):

across, America, among, apology, asparagus, banana, bargain, bottom, Brazil, camouflage,
Canada, certain, circus, complain, composer, coward, cupboard, Devon, fibre, figure,
handsome, harbour, harmony, human, innocence, Japan, kingdom, legacy, manoevre,
metre, Morocco, motor, murmur, narrator, nervous, Norman, Peru, parliament,
particular, photographer, potato, propose, provide, spacious, standard, surgeon, the
Garden of Eden, the Iron Curtain, tortoise, Venus, villain, vineyard.
2) Loss of schwa: common in -ary, -ery, -ory, -ury: secretary, adultery, nursery, delivery,
history, factory, memory, century.
Every, decorative, medicine, aspirin, comparable, considerable, comfortable, definitely,
generally, generous, literature, moderate, opening, reasonable, temperature, vegetable,
police.
No reduction in forgery and burglary to avoid offending clusters.
3) Syllabic [n]: cotton, sudden, often, fasten, oven, listen, dozen, doesn’t, ocean, visión,
open, broken.
Syllabic [l] apple, trouble, travel, cattle, medal, buckle, struggle, trifle, oval, Ethel,
castle, hazel, camel, final.
Homophones: principle - principal, gambol - gamble, medal - meddle, idol - idle,
counsel - council, navel - naval.
4) No reduction between /l/ and /n/ or /m/, /n/ and /n/: woman, cannon, sullen, stolen, swollen,
venom, lemon, gammon (cured or smoked ham, Sp. jamón fresco salado), woollen, salmón,
pollen, fallen, Alan/Allen.
5) No reduction in other less common words: acc(e)nt, activity, adult, Afghan, ajax,
asphalt, cannot, canton, carnation, cartoon, chaos, comment, contract, convert, electrode,
electron, epoch, ferment, grandson, handicap, hotel, housework, hubbub, insect, knapsack,
mosquito, muscology, Norwegian, omen, prestige; record, semen, statute, torment, Zodiac.
Compounds: blackboard, bum bag, shepherd (BUT cow-herd).
6) Reduction of -ow is a vulgarism: yellow, shallow, narrow, marrow (‘calabacín, médula’
[soft, fatty substance in the centre of bones]), window. NOTE ALSO photo, potato.
7) Schwa taking over from //: possible, responsible, mistake, elect, family, familiarity,
angrily, primarily, begin, between, favourite, accident, Elizabeth, enough, despair. BUT
illusion v. allusion, effect v. affect, boxes v. boxers, chatted v. chattered, it v. at, ’im v.
’em.
Other Vs: September, November, nobody, cellotape, photograph, obscene, legislature,
maintain, hurricane, income, until, phonetic, omission, romance, consequences, Soviet,
Greenland (BUT wonderland, hinterland), Frenchman (BUT snowman, Batman, business
man), secretariat, accelerate (BUT homophone, photogenic, photosensitive).
Note vacillation in -ness and -less endings: homeless, useless, waitress, tenderness, BUT
goddess, manageréss.
BUT not in -es and -ed in Standard BrE. AmE may not distinguish between Lennon and
Lenin, conquered and Concord.
Schwa taking over from other Vs for special groups of people: Australia, Manhattan,
trombone.
8) Schwa in place names: Newbury, Farnborough, Edinburgh, Norfolk, Suffolk, Bedford,
Bradford, Immingham, Ireland, Plymouth, Yorkshire, Maidestone.

14
 PASSAGES FOR PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION

1) The weather today is terrible. It’s very cold and it’s snowing. Last night there was ice on
the roads, so I had to be careful driving home. I can’t understand why people enjoy winter so
much. These months are boring. At this time of the year, I usually stay at home and watch
television or listen to the radio. I have big breakfasts with lots of toast, butter and jam.

2) John is a farmer. He has a farm in the country. It is on the side of a hill. He has worked on
this farm for fifteen years. He keeps cows and sheep, and grows corn and potatoes. He usually
has his lunch at home, but today is his wife’s birthday, so they are going to a restaurant in the
town. John is driving carefully, but there is a lot of traffic and they are late. When they arrive
at the restaurant, they cannot find a table, so they must look for another. John thinks that life
is better on his farm because it is quieter.

3) The Majestic Hotel, one of Spain’s finest, is close to the sea and only minutes from the
small town of Panar. This holiday centre has a lot to offer the tourist. There are shops full of
leather goods and Mediterranean fruit, together with interesting restaurants serving good food.
If you like nightlife, there are clubs, bars and discos. If you enjoy exploring during the day,
the countryside and beaches are beautiful. Believe me – I’ve been there several times.

4) Death and injury from motor-vehicle accidents are reaching epidemic proportions in
developing countries around the world, according to the World Health Organization. Traffic
accidents in the young nations of Africa are giving cause for great concern, and all too often
the victims are young, educated Africans who earn enough money to buy a motorcycle or a
car. Statistics from three Latin American countries reveal that traffic accidents are now the
main cause of death among young adults.

5) We have an electric cooker in our kitchen, and it is quite easy to cook on and to bake things
in. I make chocolate cake best, my mother says. I put flour, butter, sugar, eggs and chocolate
in it. I mix them well in a bowl, and then put them in a baking tin. I put the tin in the oven and
leave it for an hour and a half. In summer and autumn, when fruit is cheap, I also make jam.

6) There were some unwritten laws around in my earlier years in the trade. A worker would,
in the course of time, have his own tools. Some would buy them if they had to be bought;
some were made roughly by the worker himself. However, it was not considered correct to
borrow another man’s tools without first asking. Nobody liked lending them, and borrowing
without permission could lead to unpleasantness. Tools could be obtained by the fact that a
person had died and his family had no further use for them. Another law was that one should
never criticize or handle another person’s work. Whatever the condition of that work was,
right or wrong, it was entirely his business and not for others to pass judgement.

7) We thought that Nick must have gone home as he usually did, but to our surprise he kept
appearing like a ghost at the little glass window of whatever room we happened to be in. He
must have seen the music teacher leave the room while we were listening to a Classical
record. He burst in, accompanied by two other teenagers, took a knife from his pocket and
started to destroy the revolving disc of black plastic, scratching and stabbing it alternately. We
sat attentively and watched him as if it were a demonstration of a new art form. Nick and his
accomplices departed, leaving the music teacher to bemoan the fact that the record that once
sounded so clear now sounded like someone sawing wood.

15
 PHONETIC DICTATIONS ˈ= primary stress. No intonation is given.

1. / ɪn ðə ˈmɪdl əv ˈpærɪs / ð wz  restrənt / wɪtʃ wəz ˈfeɪməs əz ə ˈmiːtɪŋ pleɪs / fə ˈpəʊɪts
ən ˈraɪtəz // bɪˈkɒz əv ɪts feɪm / ɪt bɪˈkeɪm ˈmɔːr ɪkˈspensɪv / ən ˈpʊər ɔːθəz bɪˈkeɪm ɪkˈskluːdɪd /
waɪl ˈrɪtʃ ˈbɪznɪsmen wə ˈwelkmd // ðə ˈpraɪsɪz went ˈʌp ən ˈʌp // bɪˈtwiːn ðə ˈwɔːz / ɪt wəz ˈðiː
pleɪs tə ˈɡəʊ / ɪf ju ˈwɒntɪd tu ɪmˈpres jɔː ˈɡests // ðə ˈmenjuː wəz əˈmʌŋ ðə ˈtɒp ˈfaɪv / ɪn ðə
ˈhəʊl əv ˈfrɑːns / ən ˈprɒbəbli ˈwʌn əv ðə ˈbest ɪn ˈjʊərəp // ʌnˈfɔːtʃənətli / ðər ə ˈnəʊ ˈpəʊɪts
ˈeni ˈmɔː / ən ði ˈəʊnli ˈpiːpl huː ˈiːt ðeə / ə ðə ˈveri ˈrɪtʃ /

2. / ə ˈpliːsmən ɪn ˈnjuː ˈmeksɪkəʊ / wəz ˈtʃeɪsɪŋ ə ˈspiːdɪŋ ˈməʊtərɪst ˈaʊt əv ˈtaʊn // ˈsʌdnli /
ðə ˈpliːsmənz əˈtenʃn wəz kɔːt / baɪ ˈsʌm ˈkaɪnd əv ˈflaɪɪŋ θɪŋ / dɪˈsendɪŋ frm ði ˈeə // hi ˈlɒst
ˈsaɪt əv ði ɒbdʒɪkt / bɪˈhaɪnd sm ˈnɪəbaɪ ˈhɪlz / bət ˈwen i drəʊv ˈraʊnd ə ˈkɔːnə / ət ə ˈhaɪə levl
/ hi ˈwʌns əˈɡen sɔː ðə streɪndʒ məʃiːn / ɪn ə ˈsmɔːl ˈvæli // hi kəd ˈklɪəli ˈsiː / ðət ɪt wəz ˈʃeɪpt
laɪk ən ˈeɡ / ən wəz ˈrestɪŋ ɒn ˈfɔː ˈleɡs // hi ˈɔːlsəʊ nəʊtɪd ðə fækt / ðət ðə wə ˈtuː ˈfɪɡəz /
ˈstændɪŋ ˈkləʊs tu ɪt // ɪt dɪsəˈpɪəd ˈʃɔːtli ˈɑːftəwədz /

3. / æz ðə ˈdeɪ went ˈɒn / ən ˈdɑːknɪs fel ɪn ðə ˈstriːts aʊtˈsaɪd / ðə ˈnʌmbər əv ˈkrɪsməs ˈʃɒpəz
/ ˈsiːmd tu ɪnˈkriːs // ˈθaʊnz ən ˈθaʊnz əv ˈpiːpl / rʌʃt ˈɪn ən ˈaʊt əv ðə ˈʃɒps / ən ˈlɑːdʒ
dɪˈpɑːtmənt stɔːz // ðə ˈseɪlz ɡɜːlz wə ˈsəʊ ˈbɪzi / ðət ðeɪ ˈdɪdnt hæv ˈtaɪm / tə ˈtɔːk tə ðeə ˈfrenz
/ əz ðeɪ əˈtendɪd / tə ðə ˈnevərendɪŋ ˈstriːm əv ˈkʌstəməz // ðeɪ ˈdremt əv ðə ˈməʊmənt / wen
ðə ˈdɔːz wəd kləʊz / ən ðeɪ kəd ˈhæv ə sɪɡəˈret / bɪfɔː ˈkætʃɪŋ ðə ˈbʌs ˈhəʊm // ət ˈhəʊm ðeɪd bi
eɪbl ət ˈlɑːst / tə ˈpʊt ðeə ˈfiːt ʌp / ən ˈhæv ə ɡʊd ˈrest /

4. / ɪt əd biːn ə ˈtaɪərɪŋ ˈdeɪ fɔː hɪm / ən i wəz ˈlʊkɪŋ ˈfɔːwəd / tə hɪz ˈɪːvnɪŋ ˈaʊt // fər ə
ˈməʊmənt / hi ˈstɒpt aʊtˈsaɪd ðə ˈdɔː / tə ˈmeɪk ˈʃʊə hid ˈkʌm / tə ðə ˈraɪt ˈpleɪs // hi ˈpʊʃt ˈəʊpn
ðə ˈswɪŋ ˈdɔːz / ən ˈstept ɪnˈsaɪd / tə ðə ˈwɔːm ˈætməsfɪə // ðə ˈruːm wəz ˈkraʊdɪd wɪð ˈdaɪnəz //
ə ˈkwɪk ˈɡlɑːns ˈraʊnd ðə ruːm / ˈtəʊld ɪm ɪz ˈfrend / wəz ɔːlˈredi ˈðeə // ˈɡriːtɪŋ ə wɪð ə ˈweɪv
əv ðə ˈhænd / hi ˈmeɪd ɪz ˈweɪ bɪˈtwiːn ðə ˈteɪblz / tə ˈweə ʃi wəz ˈsɪtɪŋ // əz ˈsuːn əz ðə ˈmenjuː
əraɪvd / ðeɪ ˈɔːdəd ə ˈmiːl wɪð ˈwaɪn /

5. / ˈlɪvəpuːl / wɪtʃ ˈjuːʒjuəli hæz ə ˈveri ˈlɪbərəl ˈætɪtjuːd / ɪz ˈɡrəʊɪŋ ˈwʌrɪd əbaʊt ˈvaɪələns /
ən ðə ˈsɪtiz ˈbæd ˈɪmɪdʒ // ˈvaɪələnt ˈkraɪm həz ɪnˈkriːst səʊ ˈmʌtʃ / ɪn ˈriːsnt ˈmʌnθs / ðət ðə
ˈsɪtiz həʊˈtel əʊnəz ˈkleɪm / ðət ˈmɔː ðn ˈθriː ˈmɪljən ˈpaʊnz ə ˈjɪə / ɪz ˈlɒst bɪkɒz ˈbɪznɪsmen ər
əˈfreɪd / tə ˈsteɪ əʊvəˈnaɪt ðeə // ˈpiːpl ər ˈɔːlsəʊ əˈfreɪd / əv ˈhævɪŋ ðeə ˈkɑːz stəʊlən // ðə ˈpliːs
ˈrekn / ðət əbaʊt ˈsevnti ˈkɑːz ə ˈdeɪ ə stəʊlən / əbaʊt ˈwʌn evri ˈtwenti ˈmɪnɪts // ˈməʊst əv ðə
ˈkʌlprɪts ə ˈjʌŋ ˈtiːneɪdʒəz / huː ˈteɪk ðm fə ˈdʒɔɪraɪdz / ən ˈleɪtər əˈbændn ðm /

6. / ðə ˈtaʊn ˈkaʊnsl həz ˈriːsntli dɪˈsaɪdɪd / tə bæn ˈɔːl ˈkɑːz ˈvænz ən ˈlɒriz / frm ðə ˈtaʊn

16
ˈsentə / wɪtʃ ðeɪ ˈplæn tə tɜːn ˈɪntu / ə ˈlɑːdʒ pəˈdestriən priːsɪŋkt / ˈfriː frm pəˈluːʃn // ˈplænz
ɪnˈkluːd ðə ˈbɪldɪŋ əv ˈhjuːdʒ ˈkɑːpɑːks / ɒn ði ˈedʒɪz əv ðə taʊn / frm wɪtʃ ˈbʌsɪz ən ˈtæksiz wɪl
bi əˈveɪləbl / tə ˈteɪk piːpl ˈɪntə ðə ˈsentə // ðər ər ˈɔːlsəʊ plænz / tə ˈplɑːnt ə ˈlɑːdʒ ˈnʌmbər əv
ˈtriːz ən ˈbʊʃɪz / ən tə ˈmeɪk ðə taʊn sentə / ə ˈmɔːr əˈtræktɪv pleɪs ɪn ˈdʒenərəl // ˈmiːtɪŋz tə
dɪˈskʌs ðiːz prəpəʊzd tʃeɪndʒɪz / wɪl bi ˈɔːɡənaɪzd ˈsuːn /

7. / ðə ˈɡrəʊθ əv ˈfemɪnɪzm / əʊvə ðə ˈlɑːs ˈθɜːti ˈjɪəz / həz dʌn ə ˈlɒt tə ˈtʃeɪndʒ piːplz
ˈætɪtjuːdz / tə ðə ˈdɪfrnt ˈrəʊlz / ˈmen ən ˈwɪmɪn ˈpleɪ ɪn səˈsaiəti / ən ɪn ðeə rɪˈleɪʃnʃɪps wɪð ˈiːtʃ
ˈʌðə // bət ˈnəʊ ˈmætə ˈhaʊ ɪnˈlaɪtnd ˈðiːz ˈætɪtjuːdz meɪ ˈsiːm / ˈmeni piːpl meɪ ˈstɪl knˈsɪdər ɪt
ˈstreɪndʒ / ðət ə ˈwʊmən kn ˈriːtʃ ə ˈθɜːtiz / wɪðˈaʊt ə ˈhʌzbnd ən ˈtʃɪldrən // ˈðɪs ɪz ðə ˈkeɪs wɪð
ˈsɑːndrə // ˈwen ʃi ˈɡəʊz ˈhəʊm tə ˈsiː hə ˈmʌðə / ˈevri ˈtuː ˈmʌnθs / ðə ˈpiːpl ɪn ðə ˈvɪlɪdʒ ˈpɪti
hə // ˈʃiːz ðə ˈpʊə ˈɡɜːl ðət ˈnevə ɡɒt ˈmærid /

8. / ði ˈʌðə ˈdeɪ aɪ wəz ˈɑːst tə dɪˈskraɪb maɪself / bət ˈhaʊ ɪz ɪt ˈpɒsəbl / tu ɒfər ə dɪˈskrɪpʃn
əv wʌnself // ɪt ˈsəʊ ˈɒftn ˈhæpnz / ðət ðəz ən ɪˈnɔːməs dɪfrns / bɪtwiːn ˈhaʊ ʌðə ˈpiːpl siː ju /
ən ˈwɒt jɔː ˈrɪəli laɪk // ˈæz fə ˈmiː / aɪv ˈɔːlweɪz ˈθɔːt əv maɪself / əz ə ˈʃaɪ rɪˈzɜːvd pɜːsn / bət
maɪ ˈfrenz tel mi / aɪm ˈkwaɪt ˈaʊtɡəʊɪŋ // ˈmʌtʃ ˈmɔː səʊ ðn aɪd ˈθɔːt // ˈwɒt ʃəd aɪ ˈduː // ˈʃæl
aɪ dɪˈskraɪb maɪself / əz aɪ ˈθɪŋk aɪ æm / ɔːr ˈæz aɪ əˈpɪə tu ˈʌðəz // pəˈhæps ɪt əd bi ˈbetə / ˈnɒt
tə ˈliːv ɪt tə maɪ ˈəʊn ˈdʒʌdʒmənt /

9. / ˈduːɪŋ ðə ˈhaʊswɜːk ɪz ˈnəʊbɒdiz feɪvrɪt dʒɒb // bət ɪtl bi ˈjɔː tɜːn ˈsʌm deɪ // ˈswiːpɪŋ ðə
ˈflɔːz / ˈdʌstɪŋ ðə ˈfɜːnɪtʃə / ˈkliːnɪŋ ðə ˈwɪndəʊz / ˈmeɪkɪŋ ðə ˈbedz // ˈɔːl ðiːz ˈhaʊshəʊld ˈdʒɒbz
/ ðət ˈhæf tə bi ˈdʌn // ən ɪts ˈbetə tə ˈduː ðm wɪð ə ˈsmaɪl / ðn ɪn ə ˈbæd ˈmuːd // ˈmeni əv əs
wɪl ˈwʌn deɪ / hæv ə ˈpleɪs əv aʊər ˈəʊn / tə lʊk ɑːftə // ˈðen wil siː / wɒt ə ˈlɒt ðər ɪz tə ˈduː /
tə ˈkiːp ə haʊs ˈɡəʊɪŋ // haʊˈevə / ˈθɪŋz ə ˈnɒt əz ˈbæd əz ðeɪ ˈwɜː // ˈnaʊ wi hæv ˈmɒdn
əˈplaɪənsɪz tə ˈhelp əs /

10. / ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒɪz ə ðə ˈkiː tə kəmjuːnɪˈkeɪʃn // wɪðˈaʊt ðm / ðə ˈmiːdiə / ˈreɪdiəʊ / ˈtelɪvɪʒn /

ˈnjuːzpeɪpəz / ən ˈbʊks / ə ˈjuːsləs // ˈnaʊədeɪz / ˈnɒlɪdʒ əv læŋɡwɪdʒɪz / həz bɪkʌm ˈsəʊ
ɪmˈpɔːtnt / ðət ˈməʊs dʒɒbz / ɪkˈspekt ju tə bi ˈfluːənt / ɪn ət ˈliːst ˈwʌn ˈʌðə læŋɡwɪdʒ / bɪˈsaɪdz
jɔː ˈneɪtɪv wʌn // ət ˈskuːl / wi ˈjuːstə ˈstʌdi ˈəʊnli ˈwʌn fɒrən læŋɡwɪdʒ / ˈfrentʃ // bət ˈnaʊ ju
kn ˈteɪk ˈsevrəl ˈdɪfrənt læŋɡwɪdʒɪz // əˈpɑːt frm frentʃ / ðər ə ˈdʒɜːmən ən ˈspænɪʃ ˈtuː //
haʊˈevə / ɔːlˈðəʊ ju niːd tə ˈɡəʊ tə ˈklɑːs tə lɜːn ˈɡræmə / ðəz ˈnʌθɪŋ ˈbetə ðn ə ˈsteɪ / ɪn ðə
ˈkʌntri weə ðə læŋɡwɪdʒ jɔː ˈstʌdiɪŋ ɪz ˈspəʊkn /

11. / ðə ˈməʊst ɪmˈmbærɪsɪŋ ɪkˈspɪəriəns / aɪv ˈevə ˈhæd / hæpnd ˈtuː ˈjɪəz əɡəʊ // maɪ ˈwaɪf ən
aɪ həd ˈdrɪvn ɪntə ˈtaʊn / tə ˈduː sm ˈʃɒpɪŋ // ˈsʌdnli / maɪ ˈwaɪf sɔː ə ˈdres ðət si laɪkt / ɪn ə
ˈʃɒp ˈwɪndəʊ / ən ˈstɒpt // ˈaɪ stɑːtɪd ˈlʊkɪŋ ət sm ˈreɪdiəʊz / ɪn ðə ˈnekst wɪndəʊ // ˈɑːftər ə

17
ˈmɪnɪt ɔː tuː / aɪ ˈriːtʃt fə maɪ ˈwaɪfs ˈhænd // ðə wəz ə ˈlaʊd ˈskriːm / ən ə ˈwʊmən ˈhɪt maɪ ˈfeɪs
// aɪ ˈhædnt ˈteɪkn maɪ ˈwaɪfs hænd // aɪd ˈteɪkn ðə ˈhænd əv ə kmˈpliːt ˈstreɪndʒə /

12. / ˈwʌns ə ˈjɪə / ɪn ˈevri ˈbrɪtɪʃ juːnɪˈvɜːsɪti / ˈstjuːdnts ˈselɪbreɪt ə ˈspeʃl ˈwiːk / kɔːld ˈræɡ wiːk
// djʊərɪŋ ðɪs wiːk / ɪt ɪz trəˈdɪʃnl fə ðə stjuːdnts / tu ˈɔːɡənaɪz ʌnˈjuːʒjuəl ækˈtɪvɪtiz / ət ðə
juːnɪˈvɜːsɪti ən ɪn ðə ˈtaʊn // ˈɡruːps əv stjuːdnts / pʊt ɒn ˈfænsi ˈdres / meɪk ˈdʒəʊks / ən ˈhəʊld
ˈpɑːtiz // ði ˈaɪdɪə ˈɪz / tə kəlekt ˈmʌni / wɪtʃ ˈðen ˈɡəʊz tə ˈtʃærɪtiz / ˈəʊld ˈpiːplz ˈhəʊmz / ɔː
ˈhɒspɪtlz // wen ˈræɡ wiːk ɪz ˈəʊvə / ðə ˈfʌn ˈfɪnɪʃɪz / ən bəʊθ ˈstjuːdnts ən ðə ˈrest əv ðə
juːnɪˈvɜːsɪti / rɪˈtɜːn tə nɔːˈmælɪti /

13. / ˈbɪl ˈrædfəd hæz ə ˈdʒɒb / ɪn ə ˈsmɔːl ˈfæktri // hi ˈdznt ˈlaɪk ðə wɜːk veri ˈmtʃ / bət i
ɪnˈdʒɔɪz ðə rɪˈleɪʃnʃɪp / wɪð ðə ˈðə wɜːkəz / ən i ˈɡets ɒn ˈwel wɪð ðə ˈbɒs // hɪz ˈwaɪf əz biːn
nɪmˈplɔɪd / fə ðə ˈlɑːs tuː ˈjɪəz // ʃi ˈsteɪz ət ˈhəʊm / ən lʊks ˈɑːftə ðə ˈhaʊs // ət wiːkˈenz / ðeɪ
ˈtraɪ tə ˈspend sm ˈtaɪm aʊtˈdɔːz // ðeɪ ˈɒftn ɡəʊ ˈwɔːkɪŋ ɪn ðə ˈkntri / ɔː ˈteɪk ðeə ˈdɔːtər ɒn
ˈtrɪps / tə ˈpleɪsɪz laɪk ðə ˈzuː / ɔː ðə ˈsiːsaɪd /

14. / ˈdʒeɪn ˈstɒpt aʊtˈsaɪd ðə ˈʃuː ʃɒp / ən lʊkt ˈɪntə ðə ˈwɪndəʊ // fə ˈsm ˈtaɪm / ʃi ˈsteəd ət ə
ˈpeər əv ˈleðə ˈbuːts / ən ˈrɪəlaɪzd ðət ðeɪ wər ɪɡˈzækli / ˈwɒt ʃid bɪn ˈlʊkɪŋ fɔː // ðə ˈpraɪs
wɒznt ˈmɑːkt ɒn ðm / səʊ ˈdʒeɪn went ˈɪntə ðə ˈʃɒp / tə ˈfaɪnd aʊt ˈhaʊ mtʃ ðeɪ ˈwɜː // ʃi wəz
ˈpliːzd tə ˈlɜːn / ðət ðeɪ wə ˈtʃiːp / bət ˈnɒt ət ˈɔːl pliːzd tə dɪskvə / ðət ɪn ˈhɜː saɪz / ðə wə ˈnn
ˈleft // ˈfɔːtʃənətli / ðə wəz əˈnðə peə ʃi fænsid / səʊ ʃi wəz ˈeɪbl tə baɪ ˈðəʊz / ɪn ðə ˈklə ʃi
wɒntɪd /

15. / ðə ˈbrɪtɪʃ ə ˈfeɪməs / fə ðeə rɪˈspekt fə trəˈdɪʃn // ˈvɪzɪtəz ˈkm frm ˈðə ˈkntriz / tə siː
ˈserəməniz / laɪk ðə ˈtʃeɪndʒɪŋ əv ðə ˈɡɑːd / wɪtʃ ˈteɪks ˈpleɪs ɪn ˈlndən / ən ətrækts ðə ˈjŋ ən
ði ˈəʊld // ˈwns / ən əˈmerikn leɪdi / ˈwɒntɪd tə ˈfəʊtəɡræf ə ˈsəʊldʒə / huː wəz ˈaʊtsaɪd
ˈbkɪŋəm ˈpælɪs // ɪt wəz ˈhɒt / ən ðə ˈsəʊldʒə wəz ˈtaɪəd / ɑːftə ˈsevrəl ˈaʊəz ɪn ðə ˈsn //
ˈsmtaɪmz / ˈsəʊldʒəz luːz ˈpeɪʃns wɪð ˈtʊərɪsts // ˈwen ðə ˈleɪdi ˈtəʊld ɪm tə ˈstænd ˈstɪl / hi
ˈstʊd ɒn hə ˈfʊt // ði ˈɪnsɪdnt wəz rɪˈpɔːtɪd / ɪn ðə ˈnjuːzpeɪpəz ðə ˈfɒləʊɪŋ ˈdeɪ /

16. / ˈwn smər ˈiːvnɪŋ / ˈdʒɒn rɪˈtɜːnd ˈhəʊm əz ˈjuːʒjuəl / ət ˈfaɪv ˈmɪnɪts tə ˈsevn prɪˈsaɪsli //
ˈwen i ˈəʊpnd ðə ˈfrnt ˈɡeɪt / hi ɪˈmiːdjətli ˈnəʊtɪst ˈsmθɪŋ ˈstreɪndʒ // ðə wəz ə ˈhevi ˈfʊtprɪnt
ɪn ðə ˈɡɑːdn // ˈdʒɒn ˈθɔːt / ɪt ˈmaɪt əv bɪn ðə ˈpəʊsmən / bət ˈðen i nəʊtɪst / ðət ˈwn əv ðə
ˈwaɪt ˈkɜːtnz / ɪn ðə ˈfrnt ˈruːm daʊnˈsteəz / wəz ˈaʊt əv ˈpleɪs // ˈdʒɒn ˈnevə left ˈeniθɪŋ aʊt əv
pleɪs // hi wɔːkt ˈp tə ˈfrnt ˈdɔː / ən ˈəʊpnd ɪt ˈkwaɪətli // hi ˈlɪsnd ˈkeəfəli / bət kəd ˈhɪə
ˈnθɪŋ /

17. / ˈevə sɪns ˈdʒɒnəθən / muːvd ˈɪntə hɪz ˈnjuː ˈhaʊs / hi həz lʊkt ˈɑːftər ɪt / ˈveri ˈkeəfəli // hi

18
wɜːks ˈhɑːd ɪn ðə ˈɡɑːdn ˈevri ˈsndi / ən ɪz ˈneɪbəz ə ˈveri ɪmˈprest / baɪ ðə ˈwaɪd vəˈraɪəti əv
ˈflaʊəz ðət ɡrəʊ ðeə // bɪˈfɔː ˈdʒɒnəθən ˈliːvz ðə haʊs / ɪn ðə ˈmɔːnɪŋz / hi ˈkeəfəli ˈkləʊzɪz / ˈɔːl
ðə ˈdɔːz daʊnˈsteəz / ˈəʊpnz ðə ˈwɪndəʊz ˈpsteəz / tə ˈlet ðə ˈfreʃ ˈeər ɪn / ən ˈðen ˈlɒks ðə
ˈfrnt ˈdɔː // ˈevriθɪŋ ˈdʒɒnəθən ˈdz / ɪz ˈtaɪdi ən sɪstəˈmætɪk /

18. / əz ˈɪf frm ˈnəʊweə / ə ˈmæn əpɪəd / ən ˈsæt ˈdaʊn bɪˈsaɪd redfəd / ˈpleɪsɪŋ ɪz ˈnjuːzpeɪpər
ɒn ðə ˈsiːt bɪˈtwiːn ðm // hi wəz ˈθɪn ən ˈmɪdlˈeɪdʒd / ən ˈsiːmd ɪn ˈniːd / əv ə ˈɡʊd ˈmiːl // tə
ˈlʊk ət ɪm / ju wəd ˈnevə ˈɡes / ðət i wəz ə səkˈsesfl ˈspaɪ // hɪz kɒnvəˈseɪʃn / əˈbaʊt ðə ˈweðə /
wəz ˈterɪbli nˈɪntərestɪŋ // ə ˈfjuː mɪnɪts ˈleɪtə / hi ɡɒt ˈp / ən knˈtɪnjuːd ɒn ɪz ˈweɪ // ˈredfəd
ˈpɪkt p ðə peɪpə / wɪtʃ ˈleɪ ɒn ðə ˈbentʃ / əz ɪf i ˈwɒntɪd tə ˈriːd ðə ˈnjuːz // hɪz ˈhænz ˈʃʊk / əz
i ˈtɜːnd tə ˈpeɪdʒ fɔːˈtiːn /

19. / aʊə səˈpraɪz wəz ˈɡreɪt / wen wi ˈhɜːd / ðət ðə ˈhaʊs həd ˈfaɪnəli biːn ˈsəʊld // ðə ˈnjuː
əʊnə ˈplænd / tə knˈvɜːt ɪt ˈɪntu ə həʊˈtel // ˈʃɔːtli ˈɑːftəwədz / ə ˈsmɔːl ˈɑːmi əv ˈwɜːkmən əpɪəd
/ ən ɪn ˈrekɔːd ˈtaɪm / trænsˈfɔːmd ði əʊld ruːɪn // bət ˈɔːl ðɪs ˈɜːdʒnt ækˈtɪvɪti / ˈkeɪm tu ən
əˈbrpt ˈend / wen ə ˈfaɪə brəʊk aʊt wn naɪt / ən knˈsɪdərəbli ˈdæmɪdʒd / ðə nɪəli kmpliːtɪd
həʊtel // nˈfɔːtʃənətli / ðə ˈbɪldɪŋ ˈhædnt bɪn ɪnˈʃʊəd / səʊ ˈwɜːk ˈstɒpt /

20. / ˈlɑːs ˈsndi ˈnaɪt / aɪ wəz ˈveri ˈləʊnli ɪnˈdiːd // aɪ wəz ət ə ˈveri naɪs ˈspə pɑːti // aɪ ˈdɪdnt
hæv ˈmtʃ tə ˈdrɪŋk / bɪˈkɒz aɪ wəz ˈdraɪvɪŋ // ˈwen aɪ əˈraɪvd ˈhəʊm / ɪt wəz ˈveri ˈleɪt / bət aɪ
ˈdʒs ˈdɪdnt ˈfiːl laɪk / ˈɡəʊɪŋ tə ˈbed / səʊ aɪ ˈsæt ən ˈhæd ə ˈɡlɑːs əv ˈwaɪn / ən ˈlɪsnd tə
ˈmjuːzɪk / fər ə ˈkpl əv ˈaʊəz // aɪ ˈθɔːt haʊ ˈmtʃ / aɪd ˈlaɪk tə ˈhæv / ˈsmwn aɪ ˈtrstɪd /
ˈsmwn wɪð ðə ˈseɪm ˈsens əv ˈhjuːmə / ðət aɪ kəd ˈsɪt wɪð / ən ˈtɔːk tuː // aɪ felt ˈveri ˈləʊnli /
bət ˈðen aɪ rɪˈmembəd / ðət ˈhɑːdli ˈeniwn hæz ˈsmwn / wɪð ɪɡˈzækli ðə ˈseɪm riˈækʃnz / ən
ˈɪf ðeɪ ˈhæv / ɪt ˈdznt wɜːk ˈɔːl ðə taɪm /

21. / ˈwɒt wɪl ðə ˈfjuːtʃə bi laɪk // wɪl kmˈpjuːtəz teɪk əˈweɪ / ˈɔːl aʊə ˈdʒɒbz // ə ˈrædɪkl ˈsəʊʃl
ˈtʃeɪndʒ ɪz ˈnesəseri / ˈɪf wi ə tə səˈvaɪv / ði ɔːtəˈmeɪʃn revəluːʃn // ɪf ˈlɑːdʒ ˈɡruːps ɪn səˈsaɪəti /
ə dɪsˈsætɪsfaɪd ən ˈresləs / ən ˈɪŋkriːs ɪn ˈkraɪm ɪz ɪnevɪtəbl // ɪt ɪz ðə rɪspɒnsəˈbɪlɪti əv
pɒlɪˈtɪʃnz / tə ˈdiːl wɪð ðɪs prɒbləm // ən ˈɒbviəs səluːʃn / ɪz ə ˈʃɔːtə ˈwɜːkɪŋ wiːk // ˈles taɪm ət
ˈwɜːk / wʊd miːn ˈmɔː taɪm əveɪləbl / tə teɪk p ˈnjuː æktɪvɪtiz / ən ˈmɔːr ɒpətjuːnɪtiz / fə
ˈfɜːðər edjuˈkeɪʃn /

22. / ɪn nəʊˈvembə ˈnaɪntiːn ˈsɪksti ˈsɪks / ɑːftər ɪkˈstriːmli ˈhevi ˈreɪn / ðə ˈrɪvər ˈɑːnəʊ / ɪn
ˈnɔːðn ˈɪtəli / ˈəʊvəˈfləʊd ɪts ˈbæŋks / ən ˈkɔːzd ˈɡreɪt ˈlɒs əv ˈlaɪf / ən dɪˈstrkʃn əv ˈhəʊmz / əz
ˈwel əz ɪkˈstensɪv ˈdæmɪdʒ / tə ˈmeni ˈwəːks əv ˈɑːt / wɪtʃ ðə ˈsɪti əv ˈflɒrns / knteɪnd // ɪt wəz
ˈnɒt ˈəʊnli / ˈwn əv ðə ˈkntriz məʊs ˈsɪəriəs ˈnætʃərəl dɪˈzɑːstəz // ɪt wəz ˈɔːlsəʊ ən ɪˈvent / əv
ˈtrædʒɪk prəˈpɔːʃnz / fə ˈpiːpl ˈɔːl ˈəʊvə ðə ˈwɜːld /

19
 PHYSIOLOGY: THE SPEECH ORGANS

The so-called speech organs were not initially speech organs but developed first to cope
with the primary biological functions of breathing, coughing, chewing and swallowing, etc.
There are three stages in the production of speech sounds:

1. Initiation: Use of an air-stream mechanism to initiate the production of speech

sounds (pulmonic, glottalic, velaric/mouth; egressive v. ingressive).
2. Phonation: Use of the larynx, aided by an airstream, to produce speech sounds.
3. Articulation: Use of the speech organs in the supralaryngeal or supraglottal vocal
tract to produce speech sounds.

Thus the speech organs can be divided into 3 parts:

1. The respiratory apparatus: the lungs

2. The larynx (rough equivalents: Adam’s apple, thyroid cartilage)
3. The supraglottal cavities: the oral cavity/mouth, nasal cavity, pharynx

1. The lungs: 2 spongy masses enclosed in an airtight sack (pleura) inside the ribcage. The
lungs are like bellows. When they expand, they can take in 2-3 litres of air. We breathe in
much faster when speaking and let the air out more slowly.

2. The larynx: the hard casing round vocal cords/folds, 2 bands of elastic tissue, which open
in a triangular shape with the apex at the front. The opening between the cords is the glottis.
The cords prevent entry of foreign bodies into the windpipe and assist in any muscular effort
of the arms and abdomen. Positions in speech:

1. Wide open: unvoiced sounds.

2. Close together and vibrating: voiced sounds. Note the following important factors
in vibration:
i. frequency of vibration - the faster the vibration, the higher the pitch
ii. mode of vibration
A. normal voice (modal voice)
B. creaky voice (“glottal fry”)
C. breathy voice (“bedroom voice”)
D. whisper (Ladefoged: murmur) (“library voice”)
E. harsh voice (creak + whisper, concomitant action of false vocal folds)
iii. amplitude of vibration - related to loudness.
3. Tightly shut.

3. The supraglottal cavities: They act as resonators for the laryngeal tone, rather like the
body of a guitar. Note the importance of the tongue, lips and velum.

Co-articulation: voice quality/phonetic settings. Features may not merely be characteristic of

particular segments, but pervade or “colour” the speech of individuals or whole communities.
1. Laryngeal settings: (as above).
2. Supralaryngeal settings: 1. lip-rounding 2. nasalization 3. raised larynx 4. lowered larynx
5. retroflex articulation 6. dentalized voice 7. palatalized voice 8. velarized voice.
IMPROVING A SMALL NUMBER OF FEATURES CAN INFLUENCE A LARGE
NUMBER OF SEGMENTS.

20
Phonetics Websites

1. www.phon.ucl.ac.uk
Website for the Department of Phonetics, University College London. For the homepage of
Professor John Wells, add /home/wells/. For information on the Summer Course in English
Phonetics, add /home/scep/.

2. www.yek.me.uk
Homepage of Jack Windsor Lewis, former lecturer in English Phonetics, University of Leeds.
Tutor and lecturer at SCEP (see 1).

3. http://hctv.humnet.ucla.edu/departments/linguistics/VowelsandConsonants/
This is the website for Peter Ladefoged’s book Vowels and Consonants (Blackwell 2001). Visit it
to listen to the sounds of the IPA and see a video of the vocal cords or the tongue, etc.

4. www.ctlwmp.cityu.edu.hk/lingintro/english/sounds/phonology/index-analysis.htm
For an explanation of phoneme and allophone.

5. http://www.phon.ox.ac.uk/~jcoleman/phonation.htm
The vocal tract, the larynx, the vocal folds and the glottis. Read about phonation.

6. http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~danhall/phonetics/sammy.html
Interactive sagittal section. Voicing, place and manner in the articulation of consonants.
Use the buttons to change voicing, nasality, lip position, and tongue position. To move the
tongue, you need to specify both manner and place of articulation. Not all of the possible
combinations of tongue and lip positions are used in speech; for example, if the tongue is making
a stop, positioning the lips for a fricative will have no effect on the resulting sound. Try to obtain
the following IPA sounds: [p, b, m, w, l, d, j, s, h, etc.].

7. www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/
The University of Iowa’s Sounds of Languages page.

8. www. cambridge.org/0521004969
The website for the book Introducing Phonetic Science by Ashby and Maidment (CUP 2005).

9. www.cambridge.org/elt/peterroach/resources.htm
Material accompanying the 4th edition (2009) of English Phonetics and Phonology by Peter
Roach.

10. www.speechinaction.com
Richard Cauldwell’s site for his Streaming Speech materials.

21
EXERCISES ON THE SPEECH ORGANS

Read Mott, A Course ..., ch. 2, then do the following exercises:

1. Complete the following sentences:

1. The three major parts of the speech apparatus are ________________.

2. The most important organ in the mouth is the___________ because of its mobility.
3. If the glottis is almost closed and the vocal folds vibrate, we produce a
___________sound.
4. Velic closure is raising of the __________to touch______________.
5. Velar closure is raising of the ___________to touch_____________.
6. The palate is a _______________articulator.
7. The resonances set up in the vocal tract are called _____________.
8. The opening between the vocal cords is called the _____________.
9. Clicks are produced by the _________________mechanism.
10. The appendage attached to the soft palate is called the __________.
11. The supraglottal cavities are_____________________________.
12. The lips and the vocal cords are ______________ articulators.
13. The roof of the mouth is divided into __________________________.
14. Most speech sounds are produced by using air expelled from the lungs and are
therefore called ______________.
15. If there is a groove down the middle of the tongue, we say that it is______________.

Adapted from: Mott, B. A Course in Phonetics and Phonology for Spanish Learners of
English.

2. True or false? If false, say why.

1. __The function of the the epiglottis is to prevent air from going into the trachea.

2. __We use breathy voice when we speak at the same time as we are making an effort.

3. __A glottal stop is often produced before voiceless plosives in English.

4. __We have clicks as phonemes in English and they are rarely used.

5. __The thyroid and arytenoid cartilages are found in the pharynx.

6. __Amplitude of vibration is related to loudness.

7. __We find considerable opening towards the front of the vocal cords when we
whisper.

8. __When the glottis is tightly shut and opens suddenly, a glottal stop can be produced.

9. __The oral cavity acts as a resonator but not the nasal cavity.

10. __When we produce a nasalized vowel, the air escapes only through the nose.

22
 CHARACTERISTICS OF VOWELS and CONSONANTS

VOWELS CONSONANTS

… can be well described in auditory terms. … can be well described in articulatory terms.

… are produced on an unobstructed flow of

… are produced on an obstructed flow of air.
air.

… constitutes the peak of stress. They forms

… are marginal in the syllable.
the nucleus of a syllable.

… are relatively long. … are relatively short.

… are voiced. … can be both voiced and unvoiced.

… are more audible than consonants, i.e. they

have greater carrying-power (relative … are less audible than vowels.
sonority).

… are less vital to understanding than

… are more vital to understanding than
consonants. (Note Arabic, in which vowels
vowels.
are not written.)

… are always less numerous than consonants

… are always more numerous than vowels in
in a phonological system, and there are
a phonological system.
always fewer nasal vowels than oral vowels.

… bear pitch change, and the frequency of

vibration of the vocal cords is higher than in
consonants.
… can form a syllable without the support of
consonants.
… have vocal cord vibration if voiced, but
this is lower than in vowels.
… cannot usually form a syllable on their
own, but in some languages lateral and nasal
consonants may be syllabic and therefore
vocoid.

The glides /j/ and /w/ are classified as vowels or consonants according to the language in
question, but very often their classification is phonological and is not based on their phonetic
properties. For example, in English, the fact that they can be followed by any vowel or
diphthong, like all consonants, justifies classifying them as consonants.

23
 EXERCISES ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF SPEECH SOUNDS

1. True or False?

1. Consonants are less audible than vowels.

2. /p/ and /b/ can be considered approximants in some contexts.
3. All English vowels are voiced.
4. There are physiological differences in the production of vowels and consonants.
5. In a vowel system, there may be more labialized than non-labialized vowels.
6. Liquids and nasals can constitute the nucleus of a syllable.
7. Vowels are shorter than consonants.
8. Consonants are less vital to understanding than vowels.
9. Vowels are more sonorous than consonants and liquids are less sonorous than
vowels.
10. Cardinal vowels are always unrounded and non-nasalized.
11. We can find vowel systems of two vowels if at least one of the vowels can be
nasalized.
12. We can define a diphthong as a kind of vowel-glide or gliding vowel.
13. In a rising diphthong, the end is more prominent than the beginning.
14. The diphthong in /klaɪm/ (climb) is falling, closing and narrow.
15. The diphthong in /rəʊd/ (road) is falling, centring and narrow.

2. Answer the following questions:

a) Why are the terms VOCOID and CONTOID useful when classifying speech sounds?

b) What are syllabic [l] and [n]? When do we find them? Give some examples.

24
 EXERCISES ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH SPEECH SOUNDS

CIRCLE THE WORDS THAT:

1) ... begin with a bilabial consonant: man, gnaw, saw, bone, write, pill.

2) ... begin with a velar consonant: knit, knee, give, gem, jealous, gear, heel.

3) ... begin with a labio-dental consonant: tap, van, photo, think, those, file.

4) ... begin with an alveolar consonant: too, name, thick, zoo, light, pneumonia.

5) ... begin with a dental consonant: tea, deep, this, five, vote, give, then, shake.

6) ... begin with a palato-alveolar consonant: soon, jealous, zoom, day, sugar, joke.

7) ... end with a fricative: rough, allow, though, less, much, nose, will, hiccough.

8) ... end with a nasal: ham, womb, kneel, whip, behind, climb.

9) ... end with a stop: pack, hope, graph, club, comb, send.

10) ... begin with a lateral: road, clean, lay, Lloyd, meet, roar.

11) ... begin with an approximant: rope, mean, nut, break, lose, use, once.

12) ... end with an affricate: choose, pull, seeds, sledge, which, high.

13) ... have a voiced consonant in the middle: easy, bother, dressing, cupboard, letter.

CIRCLE THE WORDS THAT:

1) ... contain a high vowel: wet, sweet, mood, blood, come, blot, feud.
2) ... contain a low vowel: sack, suck, shark, shoe, soup, what.
3) ... contain a front vowel: late, plant, calm, bet, will, wool.
4) ... contain a back vowel: cough, some, like, pot, want, wake.
5) ... contain a rounded vowel: work, got, let, learn, horn, shoot.

FILL IN THE FOLLOWING TABLE:

English consonant voiced/unvoiced place of articulation manner of articulation

/d/ voiced alveolar plosive
/dʒ/
/f/
/ʃ/
/h/
/ŋ/
/l/
25
 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

PHONETICS: “The science which studies the characteristics of human sound-making,

especially those sounds used in speech, and provides methods for their DESCRIPTION,
CLASSIFICATION and TRANSCRIPTION”. (D. Crystal, A Dictionary of Linguistics and
Phonetics. 6th ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2008, p. 363)

There are three main branches:

(1) ARTICULATORY PHONETICS – which studies the way speech sounds are made;
(2) ACOUSTIC PHONETICS – which studies the physical properties of speech sounds, as
transmitted between mouth and ear;
(3) AUDITORY PHONETICS – which studies the perceptual response to speech sounds, as
mediated by ear, auditory nerve and brain.

Phonetics is a pure science and need not be studied in relation to any particular language.

PHONOLOGY: If Phonetics provides descriptions and classifications of speech sounds,

Phonology employs these to study the SOUND SYSTEMS OF LANGUAGES. “Out of the
very wide range of sounds the human vocal apparatus can produce, and which are studied by
Phonetics, only a relatively small number are used distinctively in any one language. The
sounds are organized into a system of contrasts, which are analysed in terms of phonemes,
distinctive features, or other such phonological units, according to the theory used” (Crystal,
2008, p. 365).

Phonology has two goals:

(1) To write descriptions of the sound patterns of particular languages.

(2) To make general statements about the nature of the sound systems of the languages of the
world and establish universals.

For example, a language does not usually have voiced stops without voiceless ones. A
language does not have /ei/ unless it has /i/. Vowel systems tend to be predominantly
symmetrical, with the vowels distributed fairly evenly between back and front, and open and
close. A three-vowel system, for example, will not consist entirely of front vowels, or entirely
of close vowels.
Large sound systems are orderly expansions of smaller ones.

In Phonology, the expression DISTINCTIVE FEATURES is used to refer to any features of

speech which enable a contrast to be made between phonological units. Such features might
also be labelled RELEVANT, FUNCTIONAL or SIGNIFICANT.
“Distinctive features may be seen either as part of the definition of phonemes, or as an
alternative to the notion of the phoneme. The first of these views is found in the approach of
the Prague School, where the phoneme is seen as a BUNDLE of phonetic distinctive features:
the English phoneme /p/, for example, can be seen as the result of the combination of the
features BILABIAL, VOICELESS, PLOSIVE, etc. Other phonemes will differ from /p/ in
respect of at least one of these features.” (Crystal, 2008, p. 151)

26
 THE PHONEME

Languages differ as to which units they use distinctively. What is distinctive in one language
may not be so in another. The minimal distinctive units of language are what we call
phonemes, which are not sounds, but linguistic abstractions. However, the degree of
abstraction varies according to the concept of different linguists.
According to the American survey known as UPSID (The University of California, Los
Angeles Phonological Segment Inventory Database), the number of phonemes in the world’s
languages ranges between 11 and 141; the consonant range is 6-95 segments, and the vowel
range is 3-46 segments; 70% of the world’s languages have between 20 and 37 segments; a
typical language has over twice as many consonants as vowels.
Owing to the different number of phonemes in different languages, languages use different
PHONETIC SPACE. For example, Tagalog, with its three-vowel system, needs less precision
for /i/ than English does in this area with the / – // opposition. Cf. also Japanese /l ~ r/:
Japanese has only one phoneme in this articulatory area, and this phoneme therefore has
greater latitude.

The terms PHONEME, ALLOPHONE and PHONE

PHONE = any speech sound; a phoneme-token – a single instance of the utterance of a

phoneme on a particular occasion by a particular speaker.
ALLOPHONE = a phoneme sub-type – one of the members of a phoneme “family”; a
particular way of realizing a phoneme in a particular phonetic environment; a positional
variant of a phoneme which occurs in a specific environment and does not serve to
distinguish meaning.
PHONEME = the minimal distinctive unit of phonology which serves to distinguish
meaning.

Problems of segmentation

Sometimes problems of segmentation arise. Are /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ one phoneme or two? Or putting
it more technically, are they monophonematic or biphonematic? As regards /tʃ/in Spanish
there is no great problem. Spanish has no independent phoneme /ʃ/ so we classify /tʃ/ as a
separate phoneme. The unitary interpretation is preferred in English because we do not split
/tʃ/ and /dʒ/:a grey chip is distinguishable from a great ship. Note also that Cheese and apple
can be fumbled as Eese and chapple, but would never come out as *Sheese and tapple.

Daniel Jones “physical” view of the phoneme

The phoneme is regarded as a “family” of sounds satisfying certain conditions, notably:

(a) The various members of the “family” must show phonetic similarity to one another, in
other words be “related in character” (Jones, 1950: 10).
(b) No member of the “family” may occur in the same phonetic context as any other; this
condition is often referred to as the requirement of complementary distribution.

Differentiation of meaning is considered a corollary of the definition, not the basis (Jones,
1950: 13-15). Jakobson refers to this view as the “generic” view. Phoneme is opposed to
sound as class is to specimen.
27
THE PHONEME: DANIEL JONES’ PROPOSITIONS

1) The theory of the phoneme can only be based on the speech of one particular person.
Different speakers can have different phoneme inventories.
2) The theory can only apply if based on one consistent style used in one dialect. Slow
speech and fast speech produce different pronunciations; Northerners may say /lʊk/ or
/luːk/ depending on whom they are addressing; in Standard English horse and hoarse are
homophones, but not in every dialect.
3) The theory can only apply to isolate words, not connected speech; sequences like [ɡʊɡ
ɡl] and [ɡʊb bɪ] present problems of phonemic analysis (see Roach, section entitled
“Aspects of Connected Speech”). If phonemic grouping were based on connected speech,
[y] and [] would be different phonemes in French because of oppositions like tu es [tyɛ]
and tuait [tɛ]. Note also the problem of German [x] and [ç]. The latter allophone is used
after front vowels, and the former after back vowels. On the basis of pairs like tauchen
[tauxn] ‘to dive’ and Tauchen [tauçn] ‘little rope’, it looks as if we have to treat them as
phonemes. However, as [-çn] in Tauchen is an invariable diminutive ending, it can be
treated as if it were a separate word, i.e. dealt with on a morphophonological level.
4) The theory of the phoneme should not include prosodic features.
5) A sound cannot belong to more than one phoneme. We cannot say that in English [n] and
[ŋ] are usually distinct, but that in ink the [ŋ] belongs to the /n/ phoneme. For then we
could say that [m] belongs to /n/ in lamp as *[lænp] does not exist.
EXCEPTIONS TO (5):
(i) Overlapping. Example: the retracted variety of French // sounds much like the
advanced variety of //.
(ii) In a hypothetical language in which [d] and [z] occurred in the same environment
and [dz] in a different one, [dz] could be assigned equally well to either /d/ or /z/.
6) The members of a phoneme must be phonetically similar. English /ŋ/ and /h/ are in
complementary distribution, but they are not phonetically similar and therefore cannot
reasonably be assigned to a single phoneme.
However phonetic similarity should not be thought of in purely articulatory terms.
Sounds may differ greatly in place and manner of articulation and yet share certain
auditory properties which justify regarding them as similar. Japanese has a phoneme
consisting of the allophones:
[] bilabial fricative before [u] as in [uku] ‘luck’
[ç] palatal fricative before [i] as in [çito] ‘man’
[h] glottal fricative before [e, o, a] as in [hana] ‘nose’.
Study definitions of the terms phoneme and allophone. Make sure you understand the concepts neutralization,
free variation and complementary distribution.

28
 DISTINCTIVE FEATURE THEORY

Distinctive Feature Theory (DFT) arose as a challenge to Phoneme Theory (PT). It

takes the features of which phonemes are traditionally considered to be composed (e.g.
[NASAL], [VOICE]) as the basic units of phonology rather than the phonemes themselves,
and casts doubts on the validity of the concept of the phoneme. Thus, DFT can be compared
to splitting the atom.
Why is PT unsatisfactory? As we speak, we do not simply articulate a series of
phonemes, so we are not moving from one sound to another, as it were. What is really
happening is that features are continually being turned on and off throughout the speech
chain. For example, if we pronounce the English word wander, there is voicing throughout,
labialization is spread over the first two segments (/wɒ/), and the two intervocalic
consonants (/nd/) are both alveolar.
Compare also historical change. In the development of Latin VITA into Spanish vida,
we could say that /-t-/ has become /-d-/, but this does not tell us very much. Feature analysis
tells us that what has changed here is the voicing, exactly the same change that has taken
place in LUPU > lobo and LACU > lago. This is important because changes tend to affect
whole natural classes, like /p, t, k/ here, which are all unvoiced plosives. And note,
moreover, that the voicing facilitates the transition between the vowels, which are voiced
sounds. It is much easier to keep the voicing on than to turn it off between vowels.

Advantages of DFT
There are three major advantages of DFT over PT:
1. Economy: some traditional labels, like lateral, retroflex, tap, flap, trill and labio-dental,
apply to very few segments. The initial idea of DFT was to dispense with unnecessary
phonetic detail and provide an economical set of labels.

2. The “one-mouth” principle (Jakobson): it should be possible to describe Vs and Cs by

using the same set of terms because Vs are “open Cs” and Cs are “close Vs”. [j] and [w], as
in radio [ˈreɪdjəʊ] and influence [ˈɪnflwəns], are rapid, gliding versions of [i] and [u]; [l] and
[r] can vocalize and become [– CONS].

3. Sounds may have very different places of articulation, but similar acoustic properties, and
so be related despite their physical differences. DFT shows this more clearly.
[b] and [ɡ], [k] and [p] are often confused in the world’s languages as they are all
[+GRAVE]; [x] became [f] in some words in English ( enough, cough) because they are
both [+GRAVE]. [t] and [ʔ] in English are both stops despite the very different place of
articulation ([t] is alveolar and [ʔ] is glottal).

29
 Jakobson chose acoustic features in preference to articulatory ones to capture
relationships like these, but Chomsky & Halle reverted to articulatory ones.
The basic idea of DFT was to find a minimal set of phonetically based features
capable of defining the sounds found in the world’s languages. Jakobson proposed that these
should be binary but, although this works for categories like voicing and nasalization, as
sounds can usually be said to either possess these features or not possess them, for vowel
qualities it is more problematic, as vowels are not merely open or close, but may be half-
open or half-close. Note also that some systems have central vowels in addition to front and
back articulations.

Major class features

The first job that DFT needs to do is to distinguish vowels from consonants and the major
classes of these types of articulation from each other. We can divide vowel articulations into
the two broad categories vowels and semi-vowels (glides), while consonants can be split
into those that block the air (obstruents) and those that do not block the air completely and
are therefore more vowel-like (sonorants). These sounds can be distinguished satisfactorily
from each other by using three features ([SYLLABIC], [SONORANT] and
[CONSONANTAL], which we call major class features:

VOWELS [+SYLL] [+SON] [–CONS]

GLIDES [–SYLL] [+SON] [–CONS]
SONORANT Cs [+/–SYLL] [+SON] [+CONS]
OBSTRUENTS [–SYLL] [–SON] [+CONS]

Other important features that distinguish consonants are [VOICE], [NASAL],

[CONTINUANT], [STRIDENT]. The feature [STRIDENT] groups the sibilants [s, z, ʃ, ʒ, tʃ,
dʒ] + [f] and [v], while [CONTINUANT] blocks off the fricatives, vowels (including
glides) and liquids.
Two very powerful features are used for place: [ANTERIOR] and [CORONAL]. The
first of these, [ANTERIOR] defines all sounds up to and including the alveolars. Those
further back are [–ANTERIOR], so a good way to memorize the division is to recall that, in
English, [s] is [+ANTERIOR], while [ʃ] is [–ANTERIOR]; likewise, [l] is [+ANTERIOR],
while [r] is [–ANTERIOR], as it is post-alveolar.
The [+CORONAL] consonants are dentals, alveolars and palatals, i.e. the central
ones, while the consonants articulated at the front and back of the mouth (labials and velars)
are [–CORONAL]. Show on a grid how these two features combined distinguish the English
labial (/p, b, m/), alveolar (/t, d, n/) and velar (/k, ɡ, ŋ/) stops from each other.

30
DISTINCTIVE FEATURE CHARTS (Add + where appropriate)
Five-vowel system

i e a o u
high
low
back
round

The English Vowel System

i ɪ e æ ɑ ɒ ɔː ʊ uː ʌ ɜː ə
high
low
back
tense
round

The English Consonant System

p b t d k ɡ f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ m n ŋ l r j w h
syll
son
cons

voice
ant
cor
cont
nasal
strid

There are certain features that are commonly found which have not been included on this
consonant grid. First of all, it is convenient to define the affricates (/tʃ, dʒ/) as [DELAYED
RELEASE] or [DEL REL], though the proper representation of affricates is a currently
unresolved issue in phonology. Some systems also use [LATERAL] (for [l]) and [LABIAL],
and the aspiration of English /p, t, k/ ([pʰ, tʰ, kʰ]) is referred to with the feature [SPREAD].

31
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES: EXERCISES

Exercise 1. Circle the segments which are:

1. [–CONS] [w p ð ʊ ɒ j ɑ ŋ]
2. [+SYLL] [ð v ɔ dʒ n̩ e y x]
3. [–SON] [tʃ u m v ə r ɡ w]
4. [–COR] [n j w β b t ɡ dʒ]
5. [+ANT] [b ʒ ɡ l r f ŋ t]
6. [+HIGH] [iː ɪ ə ʊ ʌ ɑː æ e]
7. [+SPREAD] [w t ʔ kʰ β h e iː]
8. [–VOICE] [h d ʔ ɡ k m r l]
9. [+DEL REL] [t d ʃ ʒ s tʃ r dʒ]
10. [–CONT] [k m r z b w ʃ tʃ]

Exercise 2. What segment results from changing the feature(s) you are given in each case?

1. [u] [+SYLL] 2. [eː] [+TENSE]

3. [ɡ] [–NASAL] 4. [u] [+BACK, +ROUND]
5. [n] [+NASAL] 6. [ʒ] [+VOICE]
7. [i] [–ROUND] 8. [d] [+ANT, +COR]
9. [ð] [+CONT] 10. [ɡ] [–CONT]
11. [m] [+ANT] 12. [y] [+ROUND]

Exercise 3. What feature/s has/have changed in each of the following developments?

1. [p] > [b] 2. [b] > [m]

3. [m] >[n] 4. [n] > [d]
5. [d] > [ð] 6. [l] > [r]
7. [ɡ] > [ɣ] 8. [ɣ] > [x]
9. [p] > [f] 10. [θ] > [f]
11. [s] > [ʃ] 12. [ʃ] > [tʃ]
13. [z] > [d] 14. [i] > [j]
15. [s] > [r] 16. [e] > [a]
17. [a] > [e] 18. [e] > [i]
19. [i] > [y] 20. [o] > [e]

Exercise 4. Study exercise 3 again and write ten examples of your own.
32
Exercise 5. What places of articulation do the following features identify?

1. [+ANT] 2. [– ANT]:

3. [+ COR]: 4. [– COR]:

5. [+COR, +ANT]: 6. [+COR, –ANT]:

7. [–COR, +ANT]: 8. [–COR, –ANT]:

Exercise 6. What phoneme(s) do the following bundles of features represent?

1. [–VOICE, –CONT]
2. [+VOICE, +CONT]
3. [+ANT, +COR, +NASAL]
4. [–VOICE, +DEL REL]
5. [+DEL REL]
6. [+CONT, +STRID]
7. [+STRID]
8. [–VOICE, –ANT, +COR, +CONT]
9. [+SYLL, –CONS]
10. [–SYLL, –CONS]

------------------------------------------------------------

+ANT –ANT

–COR +COR –COR

Fig. [ANTERIOR] and [CORONAL] consonants

33
 ASSIMILATION (Textbook 6.2, 15.4.2)

Principal types:

A) HISTORICAL (has become permanent and irreversible: makes, begs 

B) CONTEXTUAL (contact assimilation at word boundaries).
1) Contact: English leaves 
2) Distant: OF cercher > ModF chercher.
3) Regressive: Latin CUM + RODERE ‘to gnaw’> English corrode.
4) Progressive: English stepped /stept/.
5) Reciprocal: English seven /sebm/.
6) Complete: Latin AD + TANGERE ‘to touch’ > English attain.
7) Partial: English breaks 
(Partial assimilation affecting allophones is called SIMILITUDE by Daniel Jones. For
example, we have the devoicing of /m/ after /s/ in English small and before /s/ in
French m’sieur.)
8) Coalescent: /s/ + /j/ > // in English session.
9) Umlaut: OE *musiz > mys ‘mice’. German singular Fuss ‘foot’, plural Füsse.
(Umlaut is a kind of vowel metaphony or vowel harmony. Strictly speaking, it is
regressive vowel assimilation in German.)

Exercise Identify the types of assimilation in the following examples:

1) Latin CUM-LEGERE > English collect.

2) Latin HOMINE > HOM’NE > French homme.
3) English I miss you 
4) German singular Kamm ‘comb’, plural Kämme.
5) Old Spanish sospiro > Modern Spanish suspiro.
6) English that 
7) Latin COCTU > Italian cotto ‘cooked’.
8) English nature  > 
9) English good luck 
10) English worms 
11) Basque itsu ‘blind’, Zuberoan dialect ütsü.
12) English that goat 

ASSIMILATION IN ENGLISH

1) a: 3rd person singular present tense of regular verbs and plural of nouns:

/-s/ after unvoiced Cs

lacks /læks/, hopes /həʊps/, bets /bets/, sniffs /snɪfs/, prints /prɪnts/, cats /kæts/

/-z/ after voiced Cs

gives /ɡɪvz/, feels /fiːlz/, guards /ɡɑːdz/, means /miːnz/, pigs /pɪɡz/, files /faɪlz/

34
 /-ɪz/ after sibilants: /s, z, ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/
misses /ˈmɪsɪz/, buzzes /ˈbzɪz/, fishes /ˈfɪʃɪz/, teaches /ˈtiːtʃɪz/, judges /ˈdʒdʒɪz/,
bushes /ˈbʊʃɪz/

b: Past tense and past participle of regular verbs:

/-t/ after unvoiced Cs (except /t/)

hoped /həʊpt/, kicked /kɪkt/, laughed /lɑːft/, missed /mɪst/, washed /wɒʃt/, watched
/wɒtʃt/

/-d/ after voiced Cs (except /d/)

grabbed /græbd/, begged /begd/, lived /lɪvd/, buzzed /bzd/, managed /ˈmænɪdʒd/,
filled /fɪld/

/-ɪd/ after /-t/ and /-d/

wanted /ˈwɒntɪd/, defended /dɪˈfendɪd/, printed /ˈprɪntɪd/, landed /ˈlændɪd/

These very important cases of assimilation are often referred to as morphophonemic

alternation.

2) Genitive -s, is, has. These behave the same way as (1a) above
John’s not there /ˈdʒɒnz nɒt ˈðeə/ My money’s gone /maɪ ˈmniz gɒn/
Mary’s friend’s uncle’s umbrella /ˈmeəriz ˈfrenz ˈŋklz mˈbrelə/
3) Have to /ˈhæftə/, has to /ˈhæstə/, used to /ˈjuːstə/, be supposed to /biː səˈpəʊstə/
4) Wanna /ˈwɒnə/, gonna /ˈgəʊnə, ˈgənə/
5) Velar nasal assimilation in stressed syllables: dónkey /ˈdɒŋki/, cónquest /ˈkɒŋkwest/.
BUT: incúr /ɪnˈkɜː/, ingrátiate /ɪnˈɡreɪʃieɪt/.
UN- does not assimilate: unpack /nˈpæk/, unplug /nˈplɡ/, unpopular /nˈpɒpjulə/, etc.

Exercises

1) Transcribe the principal parts of these verbs (e.g. lack ):

issue, lick, laugh, jumble, waste, offend, beg, hand, fan, wave, file, fax, believe, search,
elope, touch, prefer, seethe, erase, confess, damn, long, prick, wash.
2) Transcribe the following plural nouns: pencils, printers, rulers, plugs, anthologies,
magazines, journals, compact discs, diskettes, clocks, watches, plants, flowers, stems,
bushes, leaves, feathers, birds, eggs, nests, sticks, stones, bones, pigs, cows, horses.
3) Transcribe the following contractions and genitives: Now’s the time. My money’s just
gone. Hers is that one. What’s John’s aunt’s name? Who’s cap’s this? Mary’s friend’s
uncle’s umbrella.
35
 WEAK FORMS (Textbook 6.5)

See also:
O'CONNOR, J. D. Better English Pronunciation. 2nd ed. Cambridge: CUP, 1980.
ROACH, P. English Phonetics and Phonology. 4th ed. Cambridge: CUP, 2009.

1. WFs are so called because they generally involve weakening or even loss of a V or C
(and >  have > ).
This vocalic alternation under the influence of stress is also called gradation or
apophony. Cf. ablaut (sing/sang/sung, food/feed) and umlaut (regressive vowel
assimilation in German (Mutter ‘mother’, pl. Mütter; Loch ‘hole’, pl. Löcher).

2. Contractions like I’ve and the V reduction in of ([] > []) are manifestations of the
same phenomenon, so English writing with Roman letters often conceals the V reduction
in unstressed syllables.

3. Use of WFs is not a sign of laziness. If no WFs are used, the important words will not
stand out.

4. On, off, when and then do not usually have a WF.

Prepositions and verbs do not have WFs in final position.
Have uses WFs with got and as an auxiliary in compound tenses.

5. WFs manifest what is going on in English words in general under the influence of stress.
Cf. cónduct, to condúct; pérfect, to perféct; to compéte, competítion. Note the resistance
of /ae/ to reduction: ábstract, to abstráct, gýmnast, bómbast. Other Vs are sometimes
retained in unstressed position, too: mayhem /, compost (see
textbook, p. 111).
It would be impractical for English to be perfectly phonetic as we would need several
different spellings for a word like and according to context. And there would be no
visible relationship between nation and national, define and definition, etc. Note also that
as there are wide dialectal differences in English, the present spelling system is useful as a
standard.

6. Reduction of unstressed Vs started in Old Northumbrian and spread south after 10c. It is
an on-going process in Modern English (nobody, November). Note the evidence of V
reduction in 15c spellings: disabey, Bishap, tenne a clock.
The reductions mentioned above all take place in idealized speech, the kind of speech we
are supposed to be aiming at. In informal speech many other reductions can take place.
Here we go beyond the realms of phonology into phonetics.

/bɪkɒz/ [pxǝz, kǝz]

    /ˈkʊk ˈðeǝ/ [ˈlʊx ˈðe]
    /ˈmʌs biː/ [ˈmʌsβiː]
    /aɪ/ [ʌ]
    /ˈɡǝʊ ˈbæk/ [ɡǝ ˈbæk]
    /ˈsiː ˈhaʊ ˈðeɪl ˈbiː/ [ˈsiː hʌ ðel ˈbiː]

36
Transcription practice with weak forms

1. TO BE
She’s an engineer. Are they engineers, too? Yes, they are.
Mine’s the blue one.
WE were there. Where were YOU?
I was watching the football on television.

2. TO HAVE
He hasn’t come to class for ages.
Have you done your homework?
I’ve already told you.
If I’d known, I’d have called you.

3. WILL/SHALL/WOULD/SHOULD
I’ll be there at two.
Shall I carry it for you?
I would (I’d) advise you to go.
You should always look before you leap.

4. CAN/COULD
Can I talk to you? I can’t stop at the moment.
I could see you were upset, but I couldn’t help you.

5. MUST
You must watch what you’re doing. You mustn’t be so impatient.

6. DO/DOES
How do you do? Does it matter? No, it doesn’t.

7. PREPOSITIONS
It’s ten to two. a cup of coffee
That’s for you, not for me. Regards from your mother-in-law.

8. PRONOUNS AND POSSESSIVES

Give him his money back. Give her a good talking-to.
Tell us a story and then take me home. Bring them here.

9. CONJUNCTIONS
John’s older than Mary. That dress is prettier than this one.
black and white tired but safe

10. THAT: That film that you saw is awful.

11. SOME: Buy some milk, eggs, cheese, butter and some mineral water.
Some day you’ll be sorry.

12. THE, A(N): the world, the earth, a book, an onion.

37
WEAK FORMS: ADDITIONAL EXERCISES

1. Read the following text and then fill in the gaps in the phonetic transcription below with
the appropriate form of the missing grammatical words:

Peter gave his car a good wash because he and his wife were going to visit some friends that
afternoon. All the windows were clean and the metal was bright. He was very proud of his
work. While they were driving along the road, a few drops of rain began to fall. Then the
rain began to pour down and fell loudly on the roof of the car. A car passed them and
splashed dirty water from the road over theirs. He felt miserable and told his wife he’d
never clean a car again until they could afford to buy a new one.

/ piːtə ɡeɪv ..... kɑːr ..... ɡʊd wɒʃ / bɪkɒz ..... ..... ..... waɪf ..... ɡəʊɪŋ ..... vɪzɪt ..... frenz / ðæt
ɑːftənuːn // ɔːl ..... wɪndəʊz ..... kliːn / ..... ..... metl ..... braɪt // ..... ..... veri praʊd ..... ..... wɜːk
// waɪl ðeɪ ..... draɪvɪŋ əlɒŋ ..... rəʊd / ..... fjuː drɒps ..... reɪn bɪɡæn ..... fɔːl // ðen ..... reɪn
bɪɡæn ..... pɔː daʊn / ..... fel laʊdli ..... ..... ruːf ..... ..... kɑː // ..... kɑː pɑːst ðm / ..... splæʃt dɜːti
wɔːtə ..... ..... rəʊd əʊvə ðeəz // ..... felt mɪzrəbl / ..... təʊld ..... waɪf / ..... nevə kliːn ...... kɑːr
əɡen / ʌntɪl ðeɪ ..... əfɔːd ..... baɪ ..... njuː wʌn /

2. Fill in the gap with the appropriate phonetic form of the word in brackets in the following
text:

/ .....(a) fɑːmə .....(was) wɜːkɪŋ nɪər .....(his) haʊs / wen .....(he) nəʊtɪst .....(a) pɑːti .....(of)
hʌntəz / .....(who) .....(were) raɪdɪŋ ðeə hɔːsɪz / təwɔːdz .....(his) kɔːnfːld // .....(he) kɔːld
.....(his) jʌŋ sɜːvnt / ..... (and) sed / ɡəʊ .....(to) .....(the) ɡeɪt .....(of) .....(the) kɔːnfiːld /
.....(and) ʃʌt ɪt // .....(don’t) let eniwʌn ɡəʊ .....(into) .....(the) fi:ld // wen .....(the) fɜːst hʌntə
keɪm .....(to) .....(the) fiːld / .....(he) sed .....(to) .....(the) bɔɪ / aɪ .....(will) ɡɪv .....(you) tu:
paʊnz / ɪf .....(you) əʊpn .....(the) ɡeɪt // ɔːlðəʊ .....(he) .....(was) juːʒjuəli .....(an) əbiːdiənt
sɜːvnt / đɪs .....(was) mɔː mʌni / .....(than) .....(he) rɪsiːvd / .....(in) .....(a) həʊl mʌnθ // .....(he)
.....(couldn’t) rɪzɪst .....(the) tempteɪʃn // səʊ .....(he) əɡriːd / .....(and) əʊpnd .....(the) ɡeɪt //

3. Fill in the gap with the appropriate phonetic form of the word in brackets in the following
text:

/ maɪkl dɪsaɪdɪd .....(to) ɡəʊ .....(to) taʊn / .....(to) du: .....(a) lɪtl ʃɒpɪŋ // .....(he) .....(didn’t)
hæv meni θɪŋz .....(to) baɪ / .....(but) ɪt .....(was) ɔːlredi hɑːf paːs faɪv / .....(and) .....(the) ʃɒps
kləʊzd .....(at) sɪks // .....(he) went .....(to) .....(a) pəʊst ɒfɪs / .....(to) ɡet .....(some) mʌni //
.....(he) .....(was) hæpi .....(to) siː / .....(that) .....(there) .....(was) əʊnli wʌn pɜːsn ðeə / .....(but)

38
ʌnfɔːtʃənətli / ɪt .....(was) wʌn .....(of) ðəʊz əʊld men / huː ɔːlweɪz si:m .....(to) .....(be) ɪn
frʌnt .....(of) .....(you) ɪn kju:z / wen .....(you) .....(are) ɪn .....(a) hʌri // .....(at) lɑːst / .....(he)
ɡɒt .....(to) .....(the) desk / .....(and) dru: aʊt .....(a) hʌndrəd paʊnz // .....(he) naʊ .....(had)
.....(the) mʌni / .....(but) .....(not) ɪnʌf taɪm .....(to) spend ɪt //

4. Correct the mistakes in the following phonetic transcriptions:

1. It’s nót for mé, it’s for Ánne. / itz ˈnɒt fɔː ˈmiː / itz fə ˈæn /
2. Whý don’t you téll us the whóle truth. / ˈwai dəʊnt juː ˈtel əz ði ˈhəʊl tru:θ/
3. I hónestly thínk you shóuldn’t have sáid that. / aj ˈɒnɪstli ˈθɪŋk juː ˈʃʊdnt hæv ˈsed ðæt /
4. He bóught a présent for his fríend. / hiː ˈbɔːt ə ˈpreznt fə hɪs ˈfrend /
5. He cóuldn’t búy it because it was tóo expénsive for him. / hi ˈkudnt ˈbaɪ ɪt / bɪkɔz ɪt
wəs ˈtu: ɪkˈspensɪv fə hɪm /
6. Whére are you fróm? From Spáin. / ˈweə ə ju ˈfrəm / / frɒm ˈspeɪn /
7. He néver invítes me to his párties. / hiː ˈnevər ɪnˈvaɪtz miː tə hɪs ˈpɑːtiz /
8. We líked the énd of the bóok. / wiː ˈlaɪkt ðə ˈend ɒv ðə ˈbʊk /
9. He’ll néver knów how múch I réally lóve him. / hɪl ˈnevǝ ˈnəʊ haʊ ˈmtʃ aɪ ˈrɪəli ˈlʌv
hiːm /
10. We were áll enjóying a níce pízza and chíps. / wi wɜːr ˈɔːl ɪnˈdʒɔɪɪŋ eɪ ˈnaɪs ˈpiːtsǝ ænd
ˈtʃɪps /

5. Read the following, first with the weak form given, then the strong form. Make sure you
understand the difference in each case by translating them into Spanish or Catalan.

1) 
W = future perfect construction S = causative construction
2) ʌ
W = partitive S = indefinite (with a derogatory value)
3) 
W = preposition S = numeral
4) 
W = preposition S = numeral
5) 
W = infinitive particle S = adverb meaning ‘excessively’
6) 
W = ‘two years old’ S = ‘also, as well’
7) 
W = preposition meaning ‘before’ S = numeral, part of flight number
8) 
W = conjunction S = demonstrative (with derogatory value)
9) 
W = auxiliary verb S = past tense of to have expressing possession
39
10) 
W = existential there, implying something like Spanish tener en cuenta que
S = demonstrative locative

6. Read the following, paying careful attention to the weak forms. Then write them out in
ordinary alphabetical script.

1) 
2) .
3) 
4) 
5) 
6) 
7) 
8) 
9) 
10) 
11) 
12) 

40
 THE SOUND SYSTEMS OF ENGLISH, SPANISH AND CATALAN
(Textbook ch. 12)

VOWELS
 Compare the number of Vs in English, Spanish and Catalan.
 Note the English hard attack on Vs (textbook p. 251).
 The English long Vs tend to diphthongize.
 Note also the centripetal tendencies with reduction to schwa in unstressed syllables.
 The English low Vs have a front-central-back opposition.
 The long and short Vs form pairs because of their similar place of articulation.
 The short Vs are non-final, but shortened versions of V1 and V9 exist, as in very and you.
 Note the important influence of stress on pronunciation in English: súbject, to subjéct.
 Diphthongs go higher and are faster in Spanish and Catalan, thus foreign learners of
English should try not to intercalate a [j] or [w] in player, Brian, how are you?, tower, etc.
 [jiː] and [wuː] are not found in Sp or Cat, but note Eng yield, yeast, wound, woo.
 [eu] exists in Sp and Cat but not in Eng. Two varieties in Cat: open [e]: jeure, seure, feu;
close [e]: Romeu, Andreu, Matheu.

Vowel clusters
English avoids hiatus with:
(1) [-n]: an ant, an insect, an event, an oven. (an apron < a napron, an orange < a norange);
(2) Semi-V or close V: the earth, piano, million; (3) Glottal stop: Asia and Europe, data
entry; (4) Intrusive [r]: Asia(r) and Europe, data(r) entry.

Sp and Cat reduce identical Vs: acaba(d)a, ensala(d)a; ¿qué te he hecho? Non-identical Vs:
(1) Shortening: lă horca; (2) Reduction to yod: si hay...; (3) Loss: primo + hermano >
primormano, la entrada > l’antrada.

Cat a ofegar > aufegar, la oliva > l’auliva (Fraga euliva).

For diagrams of English, Spanish and Catalan Vs, see TEXTBOOK, p. 249.

CONSONANTS
Generalizations (see table, anthology p. 34)
 Harder contact for English Cs. Note lenition in Spanish.
 Spanish has not got the phonemes 
 Catalan has no // or /h/, and /v/ is dialectal.
 Spanish will produce [x] for [h], and English people use [h] for [x].
 For Eng [v] encourage use of []; for Eng [] encourage use of the voiced theta in juzgar.
 Sp and Cat [r]s are different from Eng [r]s. (Sp para/parra, Cat pare/parra).
 Eng has not got the phonemes/, of which /x/ is not found in Cat.
 Eng and Cat have final clusters; Sp has not and only allows. (boj, reloj).
 Final  is generally lost in Cat, but note pur, car, mar.
Final Cs in foreign words in Sp are weakened or lost: club, esnob, spot, raid, eslip, camping,
light, autostop, chip, chut; estándar, lor, sprint, stand, flirt. (filme; chicano cloche, breque)

Plosives
All 3 langs have all 6 (but [t, d] are alveolar in Eng).
41
Note neutralization in Cat; aspiration and glottal stop in Eng; Sp and Cat fricative allophones;
Eng nasally and laterally exploded [t, d].
Sp [b] in cabo may sound like [w] to the Eng ear. Reverse: Eng water > Sp bater.

Fricatives and affricates

Sp theta is fully interdental. Eng and Cat have /s/ v. /z/. Nthn Sp [s] often sounds like esh.
Valencia and Ribagorza are apitxat. [h] is unstable in Eng: hit > it; hypercorrection: h-
illiterate, h-ignorant. (What airline do fleas fly on?)

Nasals
No eng as a phoneme in Sp. No final [m] in Sp. Sp and Cat have a palatal nasal.
Homorganic Nasal Assimilation is regular in Sp. In Eng it is only obligatory if the nasal and
oral stop belong to the same syllable or if the nasal is in a stressed syllable.

Approximants
Sp [l] is always “clear”; Cat has a “dark” [l] like Eng postvocalic [l]. Sp and Cat have a
palatal lateral; loss of lateralization is common in Sp. Final [l] often vocalizes in English.
(How do you count a large herd of cattle?). Postvocalic <r> is mute in SSB.
Yod is tenser in Sp than in Eng; [w] is more labial than velar in Eng.

CONSONANT CLUSTERS
Initial clusters
Similar in Eng, Sp & Cat, but Eng has [s] + C, [r], [r]. [tr, dr] are a pronunciation problem.
Eng 2 Cs without [s]: plosive + approx; fricative + approx; nasal [n,m] + approx [j].
Eng 2 Cs with [s]: [s] + voiceless plosive or fricative, nasal or approx (not [r]).
2 labials are not allowed initially in Eng except in foreign words: pueblo, buana, foie gras,
foyer, bon voyage.
No [] in Eng, except in foreign words: Vladimir, Vronsky, Shluh, Schweppes.
Eng 3 Cs: [s] + unvoiced plosive + approx. [spl-, spr-, spj-, str-, stj-, skl-, skr-, skw-, skj-].
No [spw] or [stl] (no [pw] or [tl]); no [stw], but [tw] exists.

Final clusters
Eng has up to 4 Cs (with at least one morpheme boundary): glimpsed, waltzed, twelfths.
3 Cs are found with or without morpheme boundaries: next (no boundary), whilst, facts.
2 Cs occur with or without morpheme boundaries if unvoiced: lax, lacks; pact, packed; mist,
missed; past, passed; quartz, quarts.
2 Cs occur with morpheme boundaries if voiced: ribs, rigged (exception: adze ‘kind of axe’).
Mixed voicing occurs in a few cases with a morpheme boundary: amidst, breadth, hundredth,
thousandth, width (but there are alternative assimilated forms with [t])
Alternatives: faul(t)s, prin(t)s; French, lounge (nasal + affr > fric); prom(p)t, glim(p)se,
succin(c)t, lynx (without [k])
Cat may have 3 final Cs: serps, Alps, llests, marcs, forns (texts/textos, passeigs/passeijos).
Reduction: camp, cinc, alt, fent, test, part. Cf. Eng climb, comb, sing, hang; as(k)ed.

Intrasyllabic groups
Reduction in Sp: submarino, subnormal, examen, próximo, Victoria, se(p)tiembre, Pepsi
Cola, fútbol; assimilation: balompié, I(s)rael. Cat preserves more intrasyllabic groups:
comptar, assumpte, capsa. Cat has [ts, dz]: dotze, atzar.
Eng loses [t] between Cs: listen, castle, soften, often. [p] is optional in empty, glimpse;
epenthetic in plim(p)soll ‘zapato de tenis’.
42
 THE CONSONANTS OF ENGLISH, SPANISH and CATALAN

English has twenty-four consonant phonemes, Spanish has twenty, and Catalan twenty-
three. The consonant systems of the three languages can be compared in the following table
(E = English, S = Spanish, C = Catalan):

E p b t d k ɡ f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ h m n ŋ l r j w
S p b t d k ɡ x f θ s tʃ m n ɲ l ʎ r ɾ j w
C p b t d k ɡ f s z ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ m n ŋ ɲ l ʎ r ɾ j w

[ð] exists as an allophone of /d/ in Spanish and Catalan. Spanish also has [z] as an
allophone of /s/, and [ŋ] as an allophone of /n/; [ʒ], [dʒ] and [h] exist dialectally in Spanish.
[v] exists as a phoneme in Western Catalan: beure v. veure. Note the Catalan oppositions
involving /s/ – /z/: caça – casa; /n/ – /ŋ/: fan – fang; /ɾ/ – /r/: pare – parra.
Examples of the palatals: /ʃ/ xic, això; /ʒ/ verge, joc; /tʃ/ mig, desig, cotxe; /dʒ/ viatge,
viatjar.

EXERCISE 1. Work out the possible INITIAL consonant clusters of English from the
following data:

bucolic, blunder, broken, clock, quack, closet, creep, cue, duty, draught, dwindle, flow,
phlox, glad, gnomic, greed, guano, Gwynedd, human, lurid, mnemonic, muse, psychology,
nude, phlegm, piano, plus, pneumatic, protocol, pseudo, pure, cure, quiet, Scot, sclerosis,
scribble, shrine, skewed, slim, smack, sniff, spank, spew, sphincter, splash, spread, squat,
stock, stroll, stupid, sweat, swamp, thrust, thwack, trust, tune, twine, view, fuse, flap, nubile,
skim, sclaff, free, practice, plan, splendid, sprint, stretch, screw, squash, skin, speak, steal.

Notes: Initial /pr/ and /fl/ are very common; initial /ɡw-/, /dw-/, /ʃr-/ and /θr-/ are uncommon
(Gwen, dwell, shrink, thwaite, thwart).
/θj-/ and /ɡj-/ are very rare word-initially (Thule, gubernatorial), but not so rare in syllable-
initial position (enthusiasm, language, distinguish, argue, singular).
/lj-/ and /sj-/ are old-fashioned in some words (lute, lurid, suit, sue).

LOAN WORDS are sometimes accepted with little change: pueblo, Puerto Rico (GB:
/ˈpwɜːtəʊ ˈriːkəʊ/; USA: /ˈpɔrtə ˈriːkoʊ/), Buenos Aires, foie gras, bon voyage, voyeur,
Vronsky, Vladimir, Schweppes, schwa. Sometimes they undergo ANGLICIZATION:
Schnorkel (Eng. snorkel; cf. Sp. esnórquel), Schnapps, tsetse fly, Nkomo (/nˈkʊmʊ/ –
/ŋˈkəʊmʊ/), mnemonic, pneumatic, pterodactyl, psych-, xerox (/ks/ > /s/ > /z/), gnosis,
gnu (< Kaffir [Xhosa]).
43
EXERCISE 2

What is the source of each of the following? 2. How are they pronounced in English? 3.
What adaptations from the original have taken place? 4. Are they “ear-borrowings” or
“eye-borrowings”?

apartheid, autobahn, chapati, Chopin, cul-de-sac, Don Quixote, foyer, joie de vivre,
mirage, paella, rapport, seance, Sheikh, slalom, yoghourt.

EXERCISE 3

Which of the following are not a possible word in English?:

1. /prɒt/ 2. /tweŋ/ 3. /fæmd/

4. /slɔːŋ/ 5. /pwɪd/ 6. /blʌnd/

7. /pljed/ 8. /mbʊnd/ 9. /zbiːl/

10. /ˈmele/ 11. /ˈmeli/ 12. /meˈle/

13. /ˈbəʊdəʊ/ 14. /flaɪnd/ 15. /flaɪmb/

16. /snɔːb/ 17. /psɪk/ 18. /sklɪnt/

19. /spwæt/ 20. /spɪr/

44
 PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION

No student of foreign languages can doubt the value of phonetic transcription. The
alphabets we use to represent the sounds of our languages are imperfect tools for such a
purpose, no matter how “phonetic” we may claim a language to be. Even Spanish, for
example, which people assume to show a close correspondence between spoken and written
form, has a writing system which is incapable of indicating all the minor adjustments that
sounds make to their phonetic environment when they are put together into connected
speech. Take, for instance, the [s] of desde. Only Spaniards trained in linguistics will be
aware of the fact that it is articulated as [z] before the [d]. Again, how many Spaniards are
aware of the elision of [s] before [r] in word groups like las rosas and las ranas?
English spelling is particularly irregular: the letter combination <ou> in the words
enough, cough and trousers is pronounced differently in each case; and the sound [iː] is
represented by no less than eleven different letters or letter combinations (see below: Some
notes...). There have been outcries against the illogicality of English spelling for several
centuries, and proposals for reform have been presented by people such as Alexander Gill,
Richard Mulcaster, John Wilkins, John Hart and, more recently, George Bernard Shaw. In
fact, Shaw thought that English spelling was so absurd that, on the basis of our inconsistent
spelling rules, we might write the word fish as ghoti, seeing that <gh> = [f] in cough,
<o> = [ɪ] in women, and <ti> = [ʃ] in nation.
Phonetic transcription is a way of writing down speech unambiguously. It provides
students with a more precise knowledge of pronunciation and is useful in correcting
pronunciation errors which students may have been making unconsciously for years. How
often is it realized by the foreign student, or the native speaker of English for that matter,
that the [d] and [r] in bedroom are tautosyllabic, that the <x> of exact stands for [ɡz] and
not for [k], that the first <r> in February is often pronounced as [j], that sandwich often
has [dʒ] finally and not [tʃ], and that Southwark (London SE1) and Arkansas are pronounced
/ˈsʌðək/ and /ˈɑːkɪnsɔː/ respectively?
Phonetic symbols are useful because alphabets represent the sounds of language rather
unsystematically. However, the symbols have no intrinsic value in themselves and only
represent what we want them to represent. We may use the symbol [r] for the [r]-sounds in
Spanish parágrafo and also for the [r]-sounds in English paragraph, which are quite
different, so make sure that for reading purposes you know the value of a given symbol in
the language in question first.

45
SOME NOTES TO HELP YOU WITH ENGLISH PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION
(Study these notes carefully before attempting the transcriptions)

There is no one-to-one sound-symbol correspondence in English; therefore, a letter may

have several values (e = /iː/ in even, /e/ in bed, /i/ in begin) and, conversely, a sound may
be represented by more than one letter or letter combination (<e, ee, ea, ei, ie, i, oe, eo, ae,
ay, ey> can all stand for /iː/, as shown by the words even, feet, beat, receive, believe,
machine, Oedipus, people, Caesar, quay, key).
However, in spite of this apparent chaos, the spellings of the English words you are
transcribing can still be a help to correct transcription. Try and remember the following
points:

1) Letter i is not usually /iː/ except in a few words of French origin, like machine,
ravine, police, Christine, technique and physique. These words are late borrowings
into English which did not undergo the Great English Vowel Shift, which would
have changed their /iː/ into /aɪ/ (as in fine, wine, guide, style, etc.). Letter <i> is
usually /ɪ/ (as in bit and lift) or /aɪ/ (as in dine and dining – i.e. when followed by a
single consonant plus <e> or sometimes <i>).
2) /æ/, /ɑː/ and /ʌ/ are often difficult to distinguish for foreign students of English.
Remember that /æ/ is always spelt with <a>, except in the words plait and plaid;
/ʌ/ is spelt with <u> (cup, bus) or <o> (money, honey, London, love, glove,
monk, ton), and sometimes with <ou> (couple, country), though <ou> usually =
/aʊ/ (trousers, about).
The problem with letter <u> is that some words did not undergo the Southern
English change converting /ʊ/ into /ʌ/, so we have words like butcher, put, pull, push
and cushion with /ʊ/ and not /ʌ/.
The vowel /ɑː / is a long vowel and its length is often due to consonant loss, as in
words like park and calm, so don’t transcribe the <r> or the <l> in these cases.
3) The phoneme /ɜː/ is usually associated with the spellings <er>, <ir> and <ur>
(herd, bird, fur), although there are a few words with <or> (word, world, work,
worth, worm, attorney), and the irregular words learn, heard, journey, were. Note
also the French ending <eur> in words like connoisseur /kɒnəˈsɜː/ (but amateur
/ˈæmətə/).
4) Remember that schwa (/ə/) only occupies unstressed syllables. Unfortunately, no
hard-and-fast rules can be given for its use. Schwa is taking over from /ɪ/ in some
cases, e.g. /ˈpɒsəbl/ ~ /ˈpɒsɪbl/, /ˈjuːsləs/ ~ /ˈjuːslɪs/. Note also alternation with [i]
/prəˈtend/ ~ /prɪtend/, /bəˈɡɪn/ ~ /biˈɡɪn/.
5) <ea> normally = /iː/ (beat) or /e/ (bread), but it has the value /eɪ/ in break, steak,

46
 great, Reagan (and the obsolete word yea ‘truly’).
6) For the diphthong in phone we use the symbol /əʊ/ as the first element of the
diphthong is a central articulation, not a back rounded vowel.
7) We use the symbols /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ for the diphthongs in like and cow, with the symbol
[a], to indicate that they begin with an element which is fronter than /ɑː/ (so our
transcription is not completely broad – see also 8).
8) Some transcriptionists use the symbol /ɛə/ for the diphthong in where, but the LPD
uses /eə/.
9) Some speakers use the diphthong /ɔə/ in open syllables (= sílabas no trabadas por
consonante): door /dɔə/, before /bifɔə/, war /wore /wɔə/. But note that RP speakers
today consistently replace the diphthong // by vowel no. 7, /ɔː/, which is the usual
transcription given in dictionaries, and that these sounds are used by some speakers
instead of /ʊə/ in words like poor and sure.
10) Unstressed letter <e> is often pronounced /ɪ/: ticket, enjoy, largest /tɪkɪt, ɪndʒɔɪ,
lɑːdʒɪst/. Also [i] (see page 50).
11) /s/ versus /z/.
<ss> is /s/ except in scissors /ˈsɪzəz/, possess /ˈpəzes/ and dessert /dɪˈzɜːt/ (cf. desert
/ˈdezət/).
<ce> is always /s/: niece, choice, voice, fleece, Greece, police, pence.
<se> varies: /s/ in crease, grease, release, case, base.
/z/ in cheese, please, noise, raise, phase.

In certain words final <s> = /z/: is, was, has, his, as. In others we find /s/: bus,
gas, this (cf. these /ðiːz/ and /ðəʊz/). Note that the plural of house /haʊs/ is /haʊzɪz/.
The use of /s/ or /z/ in the above-mentioned words is lexical and has nothing to do
with the assimilation rules for the third person singular present tense verbal ending
and the plurals of nouns (see p. 34-35). N.B. the ending */-ɪs/ does not exist in these
cases (though naturally it is found in other words like palace /pælɪs/, premise
/premɪs/, etc.
Similar rules of assimilation apply to the regular past tense and past participle
ending, i.e. <ed> is pronounced /t/ after unvoiced consonants, /d/ after voiced
consonants and vowels, /ɪd/ after /t/ or /d/.
Note also the assimilation in have to, has to, used to (= ‘solía’) and be used to
(=accustomed to): /hæv tə/> /hæf tə/, /hæz tə/ > /hæs tə/, /juːzd tə/ > /juːstə/. Cf.
/juːzd/, past tense of /juːz/, and note that the noun is pronounced /juːs/.
12) /θ/ versus /ð /.
Unfortunately, both these sounds are represented by <th>.
Intervocalically /θ/ is used in Romance words (method, Catholic, author), and /ð/ is

47
 used in Germanic words (father, weather, brother).
Initially /ð/ is used in a number of common Germanic grammatical words like this,
that, these, those, the, then, than, they, them, their, there and therefore; lexical words,
like thin, thick, theft, think, third and thirsty tend to have /θ/.
Note that with in Southern British English has /ð/: /wɪð/; in Scotland and the USA
the pronunciation is /wiθ/. But final <-th> is usually /θ/ as opposed to final
<-the>, which is pronounced /ð/. Cf. bath, bathe /bɑːθ, beɪð/, teeth, teethe /tiːθ, tiːð/,
mouth, mouthe /maʊθ, maʊð/.
13) Weak forms
Remember that weak forms are a natural part of good spoken English. Failure to use
them results in wooden, unnatural and even incorrect English.
For a complete list of weak forms see O’Connor, Better English Pronunciation, and
Roach, English Phonetics and Phonology, and Mott, English Phonetics….
The verb to be has its strong forms in final position, even if unstressed:

Who was there? Fred was. /ˈhuː wəz ˈðeə // ˈfred wɒz/

This is also true of prepositions:

Who are you looking at? At you. /ˈhuː ə ju ˈlʊkɪŋ æt// ət ˈjuː/
Where are you from? I’m from Barcelona.
/ˈweər ə ju ˈfrɒm // aɪm frm bɑːsəˈləʊnə /

A preposition followed by an unstressed pronoun has its strong form:

I gave it to you. /aɪ ˈɡeɪv ɪt tuː ju/. Cf. /tə ˈjuː/

I’m looking for them. /aɪm ˈlʊkɪŋ fɔː ðm/. Cf. /fə ðem/

Certain words of this kind do not have a weak form: when /wen/, then /ðen/, on /ɒn/,
off /ɒf/ (cf. of /əv/). A weak vowel is sometimes heard in when in rapid speech; until
/ʌnˈtɪl/ sometimes becomes /ənˈtɪl/, and always is sometimes heard as /ɔːlwəz/ instead
of the more prescriptive /ɔːlweɪz/.
Weakening (gradation, apophony) in some words implies loss of initial [h]: he, him,
his, her /[h]i, [h]ɪm, [h]ɪz, [h]ɜː/. The [h] must not be dropped after a pause, only
after a consonant:

Give her her books. /ˈɡɪv hɜː hɜː ˈbʊks/ >/ˈɡɪv ər ə ˈbʊks/ OR /ˈɡɪv ə hə ˈbʊks/
BUT Her books are here. /hə ˈbʊks ə ˈhɪə/

48
 <h> is never pronounced in the place-name ending -ham: Birmingham, Tottenham
/ˈbɜːmɪŋəm, ˈtɒtnəm/.
The use of weak forms depends on SPEED OF DELIVERY and is also influenced by
register and style.
For simplicity sake, only one form of and will be given in the texts: /ən/. But don’t
forget that /n/, /nd/, /ənd/ and /æ/ are also possible.
When unstressed, especially when final or prevocalic, vowel no. 1 is noticeably
shorter and is transcribed as /i/: funny /ˈfʌni/, create /kriˈeɪt/. Similarly, vowel no. 9,
when unstressed, especially in prevocalic position, is also noticeably shorter and is
transcribed as /u/: regularity /reɡjuˈlærɪti/, sensual /ˈsensjuəl/.
The pronouns he, she and we will be given as /hi, ʃi, wi/, and you as /ju/, throughout
the texts when they are unstressed.
To /tuː/ before vowels is /tu/, and before consonants /tə/.
Be /biː/ and been /biːn/ have weak forms: /bi/ and /bɪn/.
In the days of the week and the word yesterday, -day /-deɪ/ may weaken to /-di/, e.g.
/ˈmʌndeɪ / or /ˈmʌndi/.

In the third edition of the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, the following prefixes are
now transcribed with [i] instead of [ɪ]:

be-, de-, e-, pre-, re-: begin /biˈɡɪn/, decide /diˈsaɪd/, elect /iˈlekt/, prevent /priˈvent/
receive /riˈsiːv/

se- is variable: seduce /sɪˈdjuːs, səˈdjuːs/, semester /səˈmestə, sɪˈmestə/,

select /səˈlekt/, serene /səˈriːn/ (schwa more usual before a liquid)

To help you to learn how to transcribe English, you will find the following book particularly
useful:

Lillo, Antonio (2009). Transcribing English: The nuts and bolts of phonemic transcription.
Albolote (Granada): Editorial Comares.
You can order the book from www.comares.com

49
TEXTS FOR PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION

Listen to the recording and transcribe the following texts. Stop the recording as often
as necessary and listen to parts of it over again as required. The texts should be tackled in
order, as notes which are relevant to more than one text may not be repeated.

1. My sister is a nurse. She works in a big hospital in the centre of London. But she does
not live in London. She lives in a village on the coast. She has to get up very early every day
to catch the train. But Angela likes her work. She works with children. She sometimes feels
very tired in the evening, but she is always happy. She likes working with children. At the
weekend she often goes to the country with her friends. They go to the mountains by bus and
walk or climb. In the summer they sometimes sleep in the country.

2. John is a grocer. He has a shop in a small town in the north of England. It is open from
nine o’clock to half past five. Two shop assistants help him from Monday to Friday, but today
is Saturday and his children are helping him. There is not much work at the moment because
it is lunchtime, but he was very busy this morning. He is going to close the shop early today
and go home because there is an interesting football match on television. He is going to count
the money in a minute. A lot of people came this morning and spent quite a lot of money.

3. Christine is a housewife. She lives in an old house in the country. The house has a big
garden and there is a lot of work to do there. Her husband helps her in the garden at the
weekends. At the moment she is working in the house. She is cleaning the kitchen and
preparing lunch. Usually, her husband stays at work for lunch, but today he is going to come
home. He works in an office only ten miles away so he can get home very quickly. This
morning he left home very early because he had to go to London. He has been in London all
morning.

4. Andy is a schoolboy. He is twelve years old. He lives in a big town in the south of
England. He does not like school very much, but he has to go every day. Sometimes, he goes
to school by bus, and sometimes he walks. When he walks, he has to leave early. Today he is
not at school because he is ill. He is lying in bed, looking at a book and listening to the radio.
His mother has gone to the shops to buy some food. She went out half an hour ago. When she
comes back, she is going to prepare his lunch.

5. Mr Brown is the manager of a factory. The factory has more than a thousand workers.
Today he is going to London because he has to see an important customer. He woke up at
seven o’clock, had his breakfast and went to the station. He arrived in London at nine o’clock.
He does not like London very much. It is too big and noisy for him. He is going to see the
customer at ten o’clock, but first he has to go to a shop to buy something for his wife. He is
taking a taxi to the shop because there are a lot of people on the buses.

6. Fred lives in Scotland. He is a very good writer. He wrote his first novel when he was
only sixteen. He was very happy and he continued with his hobby. When he was twenty-two,
he won first prize in a competition. He lived in his brother’s house in the country. In those
days it was very quiet there, so he decided to go to a large city.

7. The postman comes down my street every day. He usually comes in a little red van,
but he sometimes comes on foot. Yesterday he gave me a letter from my father. I was very
happy because he lives in another city and he has not got a telephone. He said that he would
like to stay with me next week, so I must prepare everything for his visit.
50
 8. London is the capital of England. It is also the largest, the most beautiful and the
oldest city in Britain. Millions of cars, taxis and buses move through it every day. Thousands
of secretaries and office workers go to work there every morning. Hundreds of ships and
planes arrive there from all over the world. Many tourists go to London every year to visit the
famous museums, art galleries, shops and concert halls. London is also famous for its large,
green parks. London is not a typical English city.

9. Mary loves going out. Last Saturday she went to a film with Bruce. It was about a
little country in Africa. After the film they drove to an expensive restaurant in the centre of
town. They had some very good cheese, bread and French wine, but Bruce did not like it very
much. After dinner Mary had to go home because she wanted to go to the park the next
morning. Tomorrow she is going to meet her best friend, Sheila, at twelve o’clock. They are
going to have a picnic on an island in the middle of a river.

10. Mr. Steele, the boss at the library, is going to be away from the first until the fifteenth
of July, and Arthur is very happy about this. He is going to be in the library just with Mary for
a fortnight. He is not going to be away till August and Mary is not either. Mary usually goes
to Spain for her holidays. She likes Spanish people, the food and hot weather, and she also
likes lying on the beach and swimming in the sea. Arthur does not like hot weather much. He
has never been to a hot country. He often spends his holidays with his parents in Applefield.
He helps his father with the gardening and sometimes takes his sister out.

11. Arthur plays football every Saturday. He has always played football at weekends since
he was a boy. Mary is watching him today. She thinks he plays badly. He does not run fast
enough. Actually, Mary does not like football very much. She likes going to the theatre or
cinema, lying in the sun or reading. She is not going to go with Arthur next Saturday. After
the game Arthur and Mary are going to meet Sheila and her brothers at the pub. Later they are
going to have dinner at an expensive retaurant in the town. It is the beginning of the month, so
Arthur has lots of money. He sometimes puts some money in the bank, but he nearly always
spends it all in the first week.

12. Richard is singing and putting some clothes and a towel into his suitcase. He is going
to catch the ten o’clock plane to Italy. Every year he goes on holiday to the same place. Some
of his friends have a large house near the sea there. He usually goes to the beach every day,
lies in the sun and goes swimming. In the evening he often goes out with his friends to bars
and restaurants. Last year they went fishing in a small boat and Richard caught a big fish. He
made a fire on the beach and cooked it for his friends. It was very tasty.

13. John is the director of a large car factory. Every day he gets up at seven and has his
breakfast with his wife. He usually has bacon and eggs and a few cups of tea. Then he drives
to work and listens to the news on the radio. He arrives at the factory at about half past eight
and goes to his office. He talks to the men about their work. This morning he left home early
with a suitcase. He took a taxi to the airport and read a newspaper. He is going to fly to
America on business. He has to buy some important new machines.

14. On Saturday Jane always goes shopping. She gets up at about nine and has breakfast
with her children. Then she drives into Fenton to do the shopping. This morning she is going
to be late because there has been an accident. A truck has turned over on the road. The driver
is shouting at a man. He was driving on the wrong side of the road. First Jane is going to the
butcher’s to buy a large piece of meat for the Sunday lunch. Sometimes she goes to the
market to buy fruit and vegetables. It is always very busy.
51
15. My uncle is a very interesting man. He is so different from my father that people do
not believe that they are brothers. My father is tall and handsome and rather thin, with dark
brown hair. My uncle, on the other hand, is short and fat and his hair is almost white. He is
certainly not good-looking, and most people think that he is not very clever. But he is good-
hearted and loves a joke. Every time he comes to our house, he gives me some money and
tells me to buy some ice-cream. I am very fond of him.

16. I am very fond of going to parks, especially in the summer when they are full of
flowers and interesting people. Last year I visited London, which is particularly famous for its
parks. In Hyde Park there were people from almost every country in the world. Some were
lying on the grass, others were sitting in the shade of the trees, and many others were standing
around just listening to the political debates on Speaker’s Corner. For those who enjoy a ride
there are boats on the lake in the middle of the park. One day I even saw a demonstration. The
police were present but it was not necessary for them to intervene. I would like to return to
England some day.

17. The first time I went to the theatre, I was too young to understand the play or anything
about it, but I was very interested in everything that happened and kept asking questions.
Finally, my parents told me to stop talking as I was annoying the other people. During the
interval I had a large ice-cream and a cool drink and, as I was not used to going out late at
night, I began to feel rather tired, so I slept quietly until the end of the performance. Then my
father woke me up, took me home and put me to bed. Now I have become very fond of the
theatre, and I go as often as I can afford to.

18. I love travelling to new cities and meeting different people so, when I was given the
chance to go to London for a short holiday, I felt quite excited. The journey by train and ship
was rather boring, but I was very interested in the crowds at Victoria Station. My hotel was
very comfortable, and I soon got accustomed to the huge English breakfasts. I entertained
myself by doing all the things that tourists usually do. I had always heard that the food in
England was not at all good, but I found it much better than I had expected. As cooking is a
hobby of mine, I soon learned how to prepare some favourite English dishes to surprise my
English friends with.

19. I was sitting on a bench in the park, enjoying the spring flowers and the warm
sunshine, when an odd person sat down beside me and began a conversation. His clothes were
shabby, his shoes badly worn, and he obviously had not had a bath or a shower for several
days. He told me he used to be a soldier and that he was having great difficulty in finding a
job. As I expected him to try to borrow money from me, I said good-bye politely and walked
away. But he followed me, still talking and trying to make me pay attention to him. I was very
relieved when two policemen came up and my unwanted companion finally disappeared.

20. I arrived at the hotel late in the afternoon, just as the sun was setting. It was a beautiful
modern building, but it looked so expensive that I doubted whether I could afford to spend the
night there. I went to the desk and asked if I could book a small room. The girl replied that
they were full. As I turned to leave, she suddenly discovered a room that was not occupied
and, as it was a very small one, she said I could have it especially cheaply. I accepted
immediately. The room was quite comfortable, and I slept well. Next morning I had a huge
breakfast in the magnificent dining-room, paid the bill, and left with hardly any money in my
pocket.

21. There was so much traffic on the road that we arrived late for the football match, and
52
had a lot of trouble getting to our seats. My boyfriend Jim is not always able to control
himself on occasions like this, and at half time he became engaged in a violent argument with
a man in a cloth cap, whom he had never met before. I was terribly afraid they might begin to
hit each other and be arrested, but luckily the game started again before that happened. A tall
man sitting in front of me kept moving from side to side with excitement, so I could not see
much, but Jim’s attention was so firmly fixed on the game that he did not notice anything
else.

22. The blind man walked slowly up the road, tapping on the pavement with his white
stick. He was alone, but he obviously knew this part of the city very well. When he came to
the pub on the corner, he went in, and I followed him. He went straight to his favourite seat.
He was certainly a regular customer there. I took my drink over to his table and started to talk
to him. He told me he had been a famous musician and had played the violin all over the
world. His career had been interrupted when he lost his sight. Although he had had many
troubles, he was quite happy and never complained. He was grateful to be still alive.

23. It had been a tiring day, and I was looking forward to a quiet evening. My husband
would not be back until late, and I had decided to sit down in a comfortable chair in the
living-room and read a book. I put the children to bed early and prepared a cold meal and
some coffee. I was just beginning to eat when the telephone rang. I dropped my knife and fork
and hurried to answer it. By the time I got back to the living-room, my coffee had got cold. I
managed to sit down again, and actually read a whole page without interruption until the baby
woke up. He began crying loudly and was still awake when my husband came home.

24. After my friend and I had been walking for some time, a lorry stopped behind us. The
driver put his head out of the window and shouted: “Do you want a lift?” We were both tired
and my feet were quite painful, so we were delighted to accept his offer and climbed into the
back of the vehicle, which was old and smelled of petrol. The road was full of holes, so it was
not a comfortable journey. But at least it was better than walking, and we felt grateful to the
driver for being so kind to us. At the back there were some sacks of potatoes, a few chickens
in a wooden box, and a dog that barked loudly at everyone we passed on the way

25. When his friends heard about Tony’s visit to a fortune-teller, they all laughed loudly.
He said she was an old lady who lived in a rather poor quarter of the town. She told him that
he would be rich one day, although she forgot to indicate when. But she warned him that, if
he was not careful, he would have a serious misfortune in the near future. This came true
immediately because, as he left the house, the old lady’s dog, which was not tied up as it
ought to have been, came running at him before he was able to shut the gate, bit him in the
right leg, and tore a big hole in his new trousers.

53
 TRANSCRIPTIONS OF THE TEXTS

Text 1

/ maɪ sɪstəz ə nɜːs // ʃi wɜːks ɪn ə bɪɡ hɒspɪtl / ɪn ðə sentər əv lʌndən // bət ʃi dʌznt lɪv ɪn
lʌndən // ʃi lɪvz ɪn ə vɪlɪdʒ ɒn ðə kəʊst // ʃi hæs tə ɡet ʌp veri ɜːli / evri deɪ / tə kæʧ ðə treɪn
// bət ændʒələ laɪks hɜː wɜːk // ʃi wɜːks wɪð ʧɪldrən // ʃi sʌmtaɪmz fiːlz veri taɪəd / ɪn ði iːvnɪŋ
/ bət ʃiz ɔːlweɪz hæpi // ʃi laɪks wɜːkɪŋ wɪð ʧɪldrən // ət ðə wiːkend /ʃi ɒftn ɡəʊz tə ðə kʌntri /
wið hɜː frenz // ðeɪ ɡəʊ tə ðə maʊntɪnz baɪ bʌs / ən wɔːk ɔː klaɪm // ɪn ðə sʌmə / ðeɪ
sʌmtaɪmz sliːp ɪn ðə kʌntri /

line 1: note linking [r] in /sentər əv/. /dʌznt/ - alternative /dəz nɒt/.
line 2: obligatory assimilation /z/ > /s/ in /hæstə/.
line 3: in rapid speech /hɜː/ > /ə/.
line 4: /ði iːvnɪŋ/ – /ði/ before a vowel, not /ðə/ . /ɒftn/ – /ɒfn/ for some speakers.
line 5: the /d/ is barely audible in /fren z/. Cf. the historical loss of /t/ in castle, listen,
d

etc.
No /l/ in /wɔːk/, no /b/ in /klaɪm/.

Text 2

/ dʒɒnz ə ɡrəʊsə // hi hæz ə ʃɒp ɪn ə smɔːl taʊn / ɪn ðə nɔːθ əv ɪŋɡlənd // ɪts əʊpən frm naɪn ə
klɒk / tə hɑːf pɑːs faɪv // tuː ʃɒp əsɪstnts help ɪm / frm mʌndi tə fraɪdi / bət tədeɪz sætədi / ən
ɪz ʧɪldrən ə helpɪŋ ɪm // ðər ɪznt mʌʧ wɜːk ət ðə məʊmənt / bikɒz ɪts lʌntʃtaɪm / bət i wəz
veri bɪzi ðɪs mɔːnɪŋ // hiz ɡəʊɪŋ tə kləʊz ðə ʃɒp ɜːli tədeɪ / ən ɡəʊ həʊm / bikɒz ðəz ən
ɪntrəstɪŋ fʊtbɔːl mæʧ ɒn telɪvɪʒn // hiz ɡəʊɪŋ tə kaʊnt ðə mʌni ɪn ə mɪnɪt // ə lɒt əv piːpl keɪm
ðɪs mɔːnɪŋ /ən spent kwaɪt ə lɒt əv mʌni /

line 1: /əʊpn/ – occasionally /əʊpm/ by assimilation.

line 2: no /l/ in /hɑːf/; note loss of /t/ between consonants in /pɑːs faɪv/.
line 3: /ðər ɪznt/ – alternative /ðəz nɒt/. Note schwa between nasals in /məʊmənt/.
line 4: possible assimilation of /n/ to /ɡ/ in /əŋ ɡəʊ/.
line 6: note /ɪ/ in second syllable of minute. Cf. lettuce /letɪs/.
Alternative for /ðɪs mɔːnɪŋ/ in colloquial English: /ðəs mɔːnɪŋ/.
quite /kwaɪt/ – cf. quiet / kwaɪət/.

54
Text 3

/ krɪstiːnz ə haʊswaɪf // ʃi lɪvz ɪn ən əʊld haʊs / ɪn ðə kʌntri // ðə haʊs hæz ə bɪɡ ɡɑːdn / ən
ðəz ə lɒt əv wɜːk tə duː ðeə // hɜː hʌzbənd helps ər ɪn ðə ɡɑːdn / ət ðə wiːkend // ət ðə
məʊmənt / ʃiz wɜːkɪŋ ɪn ðə haʊs // ʃiz kliːnɪŋ ðə kɪʧn / ən pripeərɪŋ lʌnʧ // juːʒjuəli / hɜː
hʊzbənd steɪz ət wɜːk / fə lʌnʧ / bət tədeɪ / hiz ɡəʊɪŋ tə kʌm həʊm // hi wɜːks ɪn ən ɒfɪs /
əʊnli ten maɪlz əweɪ / səʊ hi kn ɡet həʊm veri kwɪkli // ðɪs mɔːnɪŋ / hi left həʊm veri ɜːli /
bikɒz hi hæd tə ɡəʊ tə lʌndən // hiz biːn ɪn lʌndən ɔːl mɔːnɪŋ /

line 1: no weak form for has as it is not accompanied by got.

line 3: moment see note to line 3, TEXT 2.
/kɪtʃn/ – also /kɪtʃən/, /kɪtʃɪn/. /juːʒjuəli/ can reduce to /juːʒli/
line 6: /hæd/ – strong form as past tense of must/have to.

Text 4

/ ændiz ə skuːlbɔɪ // hiz twelv jɪəz əʊld // hi lɪvz ɪn ə bɪɡ taʊn / ɪn ðə saʊθ əv ɪŋɡlənd // hi
dʌznt laɪk skuːl veri mʌʧ / bət i hæs tə ɡəʊ evri deɪ // sʌmtaɪmz hi ɡəʊz tə skuːl baɪ bʌs / ən
sʌmtaɪmz hi wɔːks // wen i wɔːks / hi hæs tə liːv ɜːli // tədeɪ / hi ɪznt ət skuːl / bɪkɒz iz ɪl //
hiz laɪɪŋ ɪn bed / lʊkɪŋ ət ə bʊk / ən lɪsnɪŋ tə ðə reɪdiəʊ // hɪz mʌðəz ɡɒn tə ðə ʃɒp / tə baɪ sm
fuːd // ʃi went aʊt hɑːf ən aʊər əɡəʊ // wen ʃi kʌmz bæk / ʃiz ɡəʊɪŋ tə pripeə hɪz lʌntʃ /

line 1: /ændiz/. Cf. The Andes /ði ændiːz/. /jɪəz/ – also /jɜːz/.
line 4: note /laɪ/ + /ɪŋ/ = /laɪɪŋ/, not */laɪŋ/. No /t/ in /lɪsnɪŋ/.
line 5: /pripeə hɪz/ – alternative /pripeər ɪz/

Text 5

/ mɪstə braʊnz ðə mænɪðʒər əv ə fæktri // ðə fæktri hæz mɔː ðn ə θaʊznd wɜːkəz // tədeɪ hiz
ɡəʊɪŋ tə lʌndən / bikɒz i hæs tə si: / ən ɪmpɔːtnt kʌstəmə // hi wəʊk ʌp ət sevn ə klɒk / hæd
ɪz brekfəst / ən went tə ðə steɪʃn // hi əraɪvd ɪn lʌndən ət naɪn ə klɒk // hi dʌznt laɪk lʌndən
veri mʌtʃ // ɪts tuː bɪɡ ən nɔɪzi fɔː hɪm / hiz ɡəʊɪŋ tə siː ðə kʌstəmər ət ten ə klɒk / bət fɜːst i
hæs tə ɡəʊ tu ə ʃɒp / tə baɪ sʌmθɪŋ fə hɪz waɪf // hiz teɪkɪŋ ə tæksi tə ðə ʃɒp / bikɒz ðər ər ə
lɒt əv piːpl ɒn ðə bʌsɪz/

line 1: /mænɪðʒər əv/ – note linking [r].

/hæz/ – see note to line 1, TEXT 3.

55
 line 4: /fɔː hɪm/ – alternative /fɔːr ɪm/. Cf. note to line 5, TEXT 4. Note that the
strong form of the preposition is used before an unstressed pronoun, so that
/fə/ instead of /fɔː/ is not possible.
line 5: /fə hɪz/ – alternative /fər ɪz/. Cf. note to line 4.
line 6: /tæksi/ – note that X = /ks/ after stress, as in this word, and /ɡz/ before stress,
as in exam /ɪɡzæm/.

Text 6

/ fred lɪvz ɪn skɒtlənd // hiz ə veri ɡʊd raɪtə // hi rəʊt ɪz fɜːs nɒvl / wen i wəz əʊnli sɪkstiːn //
hi wəz veri hæpi / ən i kntɪnjuːd wɪð ɪz hɒbi // wen i wəz twenti tuː / hi wʌn fɜːs praɪz ɪn ə
kɒmpətɪʃn // hi lɪvd ɪn ɪz brʌðəz haʊs ɪn ðə kʌntri // ɪn ðəʊz deɪz ɪt wəz veri kwaɪət ðeə / səʊ
hi dɪsaɪdɪd tə ɡəʊ / tu ə lɑːdʒ sɪti /

line 2: note loss of interconsonantal /t/ in /fɜːs praɪz/.

line 3: /kɒmpetɪʃn/ – full vowel, not schwa, in first syllable because of secondary
stress. Cf. accuse /əˈkjuːz/, accusation /ˌækjuːˈzeiʃn/.
line 4: /tu/ before a vowel, not /tə/.

Text 7

/ ðə pəʊsmən kʌmz daʊn maɪ striːt / evri deɪ // hi juːʒjuəli kʌmz ɪn ə lɪtl red væn / bət i
sʌmtaɪmz kʌmz ɒn fʊt // jestədi hi ɡeɪv mi ə letə frm maɪ fɑːðə // aɪ wəz veri hæpi / bikɒz i
lɪvz ɪn ənʌðə sɪti / ən i hæznt ɡɒt ə telɪfəʊn // hi sed ðət iːd laɪk tə steɪ wɪð mi / nekst wiːk /
səʊ aɪ məs pripeər evriθɪŋ fə hɪz vɪzɪt /

line 1: /pəʊsmən/ – schwa not elided between nasals.

/juːʒjuəli/ – see note to line 3, TEXT 3.
line 2: /jestədi/ – alternative /jestədeɪ/.
line 4: /nekst wiːk/ – optional interconsonantal /t/. /fə hɪz/ alternative /fər ɪz/.

Text 8

/ lʌndənz ðə kæpɪtl əv ɪŋɡlənd // ɪts ɔːlsəʊ ðə lɑːdʒɪst / ðə məʊs bjuːtɪfl / ən ði əʊldɪst sɪti ɪn
brɪtn // mɪljənz əv kɑːz tæksiz ən bʌsɪz / mʊːv θruː ɪt evri deɪ // θaʊznz əv sekrəteriz / ən ɒfɪs
wɜːkəz / ɡəʊ tə wɜːk ðeə evri mɔːnɪŋ // hʌndrədz əv ʃɪps ən pleɪnz / əraɪv ðeə frm ɔːl əʊvə ðə
wɜːld // meni tʊərɪsts ɡəʊ tə lʌndən evri jɪə / tə vɪzɪt ðə feɪməs mjuːziəmz / ɑːt ɡæləriz / ʃɒps

56
ən kɒnsət hɔːlz // lʌndənz ɔːlsəʊ feɪməs / fər ɪts lɑːdʒ ɡriːn pɑːks // lʌndənz nɒt ə tɪpɪkl ɪŋɡlɪʃ
sɪti /

line 1: /bjuːtɪfl/ – the ending -ful can be pronounced /-fl/, /-fəl/ or /-fʊl/.
/əʊldɪst sɪti/ – the /t/ of oldest may be elided because it is between consonants.
line 2: /θaʊznz/ – the /d/ of thousands is barely audible between consonants. Cf.
/frenz/.
line 3: /ðeə[r] evri/ possibility of linking [r].

Text 9

/ meəri lʌvz ɡəʊɪŋ aʊt // lɑːs sætədi / ʃi went tu ə fɪlm wið bruːs // ɪt wəz əbaʊt ə lɪtl kʌntri in
æfrɪkə // ɑːftə ðə fɪlm / ðeɪ drəʊv tu ən ɪkspensɪv restrnt / ɪn ðə sentər əv taʊn // ðeɪ hæd sm
veri ɡʊd tʃiːz / bred ən frentʃ waɪn / bət bruːs dɪdnt laɪk ɪt veri mtʃ // ɑːftə dɪnə / meəri hæd
tə ɡəʊ həʊm / bikɒz ʃi wɒntɪd tə ɡəʊ tə ðə pɑːk / ðə neks mɔːnɪŋ // təmɒrəʊ / ʃiz ɡəʊɪŋ tə miːt
ə bes frend / ət twelv ə klɒk // ðeə ɡəʊɪŋ tə hæv ə pɪknɪk / ɒn ən aɪlənd / ɪn ðə mɪdl əv ə
rɪvə/

line 2: /sentər əv/ – note linking [r].

line 5: /hɜː/ > /ɜː/ > /ə/.
/bes frend/ – note elision of /t/ of best because it is interconsonantal.
/ðeɪ ɑː/ > /ðeɪ ə/ > /ðeə/.

Text 10

/ mɪstə stiːl / ðə bɒs ət ðə laɪbrəri / ɪz ɡəʊɪŋ tə biː əweɪ / frm ðə fɜːst / ʌntɪl ðə fɪftiːnθ əv
dʒuːlaɪ / ən ɑːθəz veri hæpi əbaʊt ðɪs // hiz ɡəʊɪŋ tə bi ɪn ðə laɪbrəri /dʒʌst wið meəri / fr ə
fɔːtnaɪt // hiz nɒt ɡəʊɪŋ tə bi əweɪ tɪl ɔːɡəst / ən meəri ɪznt aɪðə // meəri juːʒjuəli ɡəʊz tə speɪn
fə hə hɒlədiz // ʃi laɪks spænɪʃ piːpl / ðə fuːd ən hɒt weðə / ən ʃi ɔːlsəʊ laɪks laɪɪŋ ɒn ðə biːtʃ /
ən swɪmɪŋ ɪn ðə siː // ɑːθə dʌznt laɪk hɒt weðə mtʃ // hiz nevə biːn tu ə hɒt kʌntri // hi ɒftn
spenz ɪz hɒlədiz wið ɪz peərnts ɪn æplfiːld // hi helps ɪz fɑːðə wɪð ðə ɡɑːdnɪŋ / ən sʌmtaɪmz
teɪks ɪz sɪstər aʊt /

line 1: /laɪbrəri/ – in colloquial English also /laɪbri/. Possible liaison with /ɪz/:
/laɪbrəriz/. However, it is preferable to separate these words as the boss at the
library is an appositional phrase bracketed off from the rest of the sentence.
/biː/ or /bi/. See also line 3.
line 2: /dʒʌst wɪð/ optional /t/ on just. Cf. note to line 4, TEXT 7.

57
 line 3: /meəri ɪznt/ – alternative /meəriz nɒt/.
line 4: /fə hə/ – or /fərə/.
line 6: /ɒftn/ – see note to line 4, TEXT 1.
/spenz/ – the /d/ of spends is barely audible. Cf. note to line 2, TEXT 8.
/hɒlədiz/ – also /hɒlədeɪz/ ~ /hɒlɪdeɪz/.
line 7: /sɪstər aʊt/ – note linking [r].

Text 11

/ ɑːθə pleɪz fʊtbɔːl evri sætədi // hiz ɔːlweɪz pleɪd fʊtbɔːl ət wiːkenz / sɪns i wəz ə bɔɪ //
meəriz wɒtʃɪŋ ɪm tədeɪ // ʃi θɪŋks i pleɪz bædli // hi dʌznt rʌn fɑːst ɪnʌf // æktʃuəli / meəri
dʌznt laɪk fʊtbɔːl veri mʌtʃ // ʃi laɪks ɡəʊɪŋ tə ðə θɪətər ɔ: sɪnəmɑː / laɪɪŋ ɪn ðə sʌn ɔ: riːdɪŋ //
ʃiz nɒt ɡəʊɪŋ tə ɡəʊ wið ɑːθə neks sætədi // ɑːftə ðə ɡeɪm / ɑːθər ən meəri ə ɡəʊɪŋ tə miːt ʃiːlə
/ ən ə brʌðəz ət ðə pʌb // leɪtə ðeə ɡəʊɪŋ tə hæv dɪnə / ət ən ɪkspensɪv restrnt ɪn ðə taʊn // ɪts
ðə biɡɪnɪŋ əv ðə mʌnθ / səʊ ɑːθə hæz lɒts əv mʌni // hi sʌmtaɪmz pʊts sm mʌni ɪn ðə bæŋk /
bət i nɪəli ɔːlweɪz spenz ɪt ɔːl / ɪn ðə fɜːst wiːk /

line 1: /wiːkenz/ – see note to line 6, TEXT 10, etc.

line 2: /æktʃuəli/ – also /æk[t]ʃəli/.
line 3: /sɪnəmɑː/ – sometimes /sɪnəmə/.
line 4: /neks sætədi/ – note loss of intervocalic /t/.
/ʃiːlə ən/ – note that linking [r] is not possible as here Sheila does not end in
<r>.
line 5: /ðeə/ – see note to line 5, TEXT 9.
/ dɪnə[r] ət/ – note possibility of linking [r] in connected speech.
/ɪkspensɪv/ – /ks/ and not /ɡz/ before the stressed vowel because of the
presence of the /p/. Cf. excessive /ɪksesɪv/.
line 7: /spenz/ – see note to line 2, TEXT 10. /fɜːst wiːk/ – the /t/ is optional.

Text 12

/ rɪtʃədz sɪŋɪŋ ən pʊtɪŋ sm kləʊðz ən ə taʊl / ɪntə hɪz suːtkeɪs // hiz ɡəʊɪŋ tə kætʃ ðə ten ə klɒk
pleɪn / tu ɪtəli // evri jɪə / hi ɡəʊz ɒn hɒlədi / tə ðə seɪm pleɪs // sʌm əv ɪz frenz / hæv ə lɑːdʒ
haʊs / nɪə ðə siː ðeə // hi juːʒjuəli ɡəʊz tə ðə biːtʃ evri deɪ / laɪz ɪn ðə sʌn / ən ɡəʊz swɪmɪŋ //
ɪn ði iːvniŋ / hi ɒftn ɡəʊz aʊt wið ɪz frenz / tə bɑːz ən restrnts // lɑːst jɪə / ðeɪ went fɪʃɪŋ ɪn ə
smɔːl bəʊt / ən rɪtʃəd kɔːt ə bɪɡ fɪʃ // hi meɪd ə faɪər ɒn ðə biːtʃ / ən kʊkt ɪt fə hɪz frenz // ɪt
wəz veri teɪsti /

58
 line 1: /ɪntə hɪz/ – alternative /ɪntu ɪz/.
line 2: /hɒlədeɪ/ – see note to line 6, TEXT 10.
/sʌm/ – strong form: some is an indefinite pronoun, not a partitive form.
line 4: /lɑːst jɪə/ – the /t/ is more easily retained before /j/ and /w/ than before other
consonants. Cf. line 7, TEXT 11.
line 5: /fə hɪz/ – or /fər ɪz/.

Text 13

/ dʒɒnz ðə daɪrektər əv ə lɑːdʒ kɑː fæktri // evri deɪ / hi ɡets ʌp ət sevn / ən hæz brekfəst wɪð
ɪz waɪf // hi juːʒjuəli hæz beɪkn ən eɡz / ən ə fjuː kʌps əv tiː // ðen i draɪvz tə wɜːk / ən lɪsnz
tə ðə njuːz ɒn ðə reɪdiəʊ // hi əraɪvz ət ðə fæktri / ət əbaʊt hɑːf pɑːst eɪt / ən ɡəʊz tə hɪz ɒfɪs //
hi tɔːks tə ðə men əbaʊt ðeə wɜːk // ðɪs mɔːnɪŋ hi left həʊm ɜːli / wɪð ə suːtkeɪs // hi tʊk ə
tæksi tə ði eəpɔːt / ən red ə njuːzpeɪpə // hiz ɡəʊɪŋ tə flaɪ tu əmerɪkə ɒn bɪznɪs // hi hæs tə baɪ
sm ɪmpɔːtnt njuː məʃiːnz /

line 2: /beɪkn/ – occasionally /beɪkŋ/ by assimilation.

line 3: /ən ɡəʊz/ – possibly /əŋ ɡəʊz/.
/tə hɪz/ – or /tu ɪz/.
line 5: /ði eəpɔːt/ – note use of /ði/ before vowels.
/njuːzpeɪpə/ – also /njuːspeɪpə/ by assimilation.
/əmerɪkə ɒn/ – no linking [r]. Cf. line 5, TEXT 11.

Text 14

/ ɒn sætədi / dʒeɪn ɔːlweɪz ɡəʊz ʃɒpɪŋ // ʃi ɡets ʌp ət əbaʊt naɪn / ən hæz brekfəst wið ə
tʃɪldrn // ðen ʃi draɪvz intə fentn / tə duː ðə ʃɒpɪŋ // ðɪs mɔːnɪŋ ʃiz ɡəʊɪŋ tə bi leɪt / bikɒz ðeəz
biːn ən æksɪdnt // ə trʌks tɜːnd əʊvər ɒn ðə rəʊd // ðə draɪvəz ʃaʊtɪŋ ət ə mæn // hi wəz
draɪvɪŋ / ɒn ðə rɒŋ saɪd əv ðə rəʊd // fɜːst dʒeɪnz ɡəʊɪŋ tə ðə bʊʧəz / tə baɪ ə lɑːdʒ piːs əv
miːt / fə ðə sʌndi lʌntʃ // sʌmtaɪmz ʃi ɡəʊz tə ðə mɑːkɪt / tə baɪ fruːt ən vedʒtəblz // ɪts ɔːlweɪz
veri bɪzi /.

line 1: /ɡəʊz ʃɒpɪŋ/ – possible assimilation of /z/ to /s/ or /ʃ/.

line 2: /ðeəz/ – the weak form /ðəz/ is also possible.
line 4: /fɜːst/ – loss of /t/ is less likely here because first is followed by a slight
pause.
line 5: /vedʒtəblz/ – not usually */vedʒətəblz/. Cf. comfortable /kʌmftəbl/ – not
usually */kʌmfətəbl/.

59
Text 15

/ maɪ ʌŋklz ə veri ɪntrestɪŋ mæn // hiz səʊ dɪfrnt frm maɪ fɑːðə / ðət piːpl dəʊnt bɪliːv / ðət
ðeɪ ə brʌðəz // maɪ fɑːðəz tɔːl ən hænsm / ən rɑːðə θɪn / wið dɑːk braʊn heə // maɪ ʌŋkl ɒn di
ʌðə hænd / ɪz ʃɔːt ən fæt / ən ɪz heər ɪz ɔːlməʊst waɪt // hiz sɜːtnli nɒt ɡʊdlʊkɪŋ / ən məʊs
piːpl θɪŋk / ðət iz nɒt veri klevə // bət iz ɡʊdhɑːtɪd / ən lvz ə dʒəʊk // evri taɪm i kʌmz tu
aʊə haʊs / hi ɡɪvz mi sm mʌni / ən telz mi tə baɪ sm aɪskriːm // aɪm veri fɒnd əv ɪm /

line 1: /ðət/ – weak form as this is a conjunction, not a demonstrative.

line 2: /ðeɪ ə/ – /ðeə/ is also possible.

Text 16

/ aɪm veri fɒnd əv ɡəʊɪŋ tə pɑːks / ɪspeʃli ɪn ðə sʌmə / wen ðeɪ ə fʊl əv flaʊəz / ən ɪntrestɪŋ
piːpl // lɑːst jɪər aɪ vɪzɪtɪd lʌndən / wɪtʃ ɪz pətɪkjuləli feɪməs fr ɪts pɑːks // ɪn haɪd pɑːk / ðə wə
piːpl frm ɔːlməʊst evri kʌntri əv ðə wɜːld // sʌm wə laɪɪŋ ɒn ðə ɡrɑːs / ʌðəz wə sɪtɪŋ ɪn ðə
ʃeɪd əv ðə triːz / ən meni ʌðəz / wə stændɪŋ əraʊnd / dʒʌs lɪsnɪŋ tə ðə pəlɪtɪkl dibeɪts / ɒn
spiːkəz kɔːnə // fə ðəʊz huː ɪndʒɔɪ ə raɪd / ðərə ðə bəʊts ɒn ðə leɪk / ɪn ðə mɪdl əv ðə pɑːk //
wʌn deɪ aɪ iːvn sɔː ə demənstreɪʃn // ðə pliːs wə preznt / bət ɪt wəz nɒt nesəseri / fɔː ðm tu
ɪntəviːn // aɪd laɪk tə rɪtɜːn tu ɪŋɡlənd sʌm deɪ /

line 1: /ðeɪ ə/ – also /ðeə/.

line 2: /lɑːst jɪə/ – see note to line 4, TEXT 12.
/pətɪkjuləli/ – the post-tonic /uː/ is shortened to /u/.
line 3: /sʌm/ – see note to line 2, TEXT 12.
line 6: /pliːs/ – or /pəliːs/.
/wəz nɒt/ – also /wɒznt/.
/fɔː ðm/ – for has its strong form because it is followed by a weak pronoun.
line 7: /sʌm/ – strong form as this is an indefinite adjective, not a partitive form.

Text 17

/ ðə fɜːs taɪm aɪ went tə ðə θɪətə / aɪ wəz tuː jʌŋ / tu ʌndəstænd ðə pleɪ / ɔːr enɪθɪŋ əbaʊt ɪt //
bət aɪ wəz veri intrestɪd / ɪn evrɪθɪŋ ðət hæpnd / ən kept ɑːskɪŋ kwestʃnz / faɪnəli / maɪ
peərnts təʊld mi tə stɒp tɔːkɪŋ / əz aɪ wəz ənɔɪɪŋ di ʌðə piːpl // djʊərɪŋ ði ɪntəvl / aɪ hæd ə
lɑːdʒ aɪskriːm / ən ə kuːl drɪŋk / ən æz aɪ wəz nɒt juːstə ɡəʊɪŋ aʊt / leɪt ət naɪt / aɪ biɡæn tə
fiːl rɑːðə taɪəd / səʊ aɪ slept kwaɪətli / ʌntɪl ði end əv ðə pəfɔːməns // ðen maɪ fɑːðə wəʊk mi

60
ʌp / tʊk mi həʊm / ən pʊt mi tə bed // naʊ aɪv bikʌm veri fɒnd əv ðə θɪətə / ən aɪ ɡəʊ / əz
ɒftn əz aɪ kn əfɔːd tuː /

line 1: /θɪətə aɪ/ – no linking [r] unless read very quickly, as there is a clause division
here.
line 4: /æz/ – strong form more likely here than in line 3 as the dependent clause
precedes the main clause. /wəz nɒt/ – or /wɒznt/.
line 5: /pəfɔːməns/ – note the schwa between nasals.
line 6: /θɪətə ən/ – see note to line 1.

Text 18

/ aɪ lʌv trævlɪŋ tə njuː sɪtiz / ən miːtɪŋ dɪfrnt piːpl / səʊ wen aɪ wəz ɡɪvn ðə tʃɑːns / tə ɡəʊ tə
lʌndən / fr ə ʃɔːt hɒlədi / aɪ felt kwaɪt ɪksaɪtɪd // ðə dʒɜːni baɪ treɪn ən ʃɪp / wəz rɑːðə bɔːrɪŋ /
bət aɪ wəz veri intrestɪd / ɪn ðə kraʊdz ət vɪktɔːriə steɪʃn // maɪ həʊtel wəz veri kʌmftəbl / ən
aɪ suːn ɡɒt əkʌstəmd / tə ðə hjuːdʒ ɪŋɡlɪʃ brekfəsts // aɪ entəteɪnd maɪself / baɪ duːɪŋ ɔːl ðə
θɪŋz / ðət tʊərɪsts juːʒjuəli duː / aɪd ɔːlweɪz hɜːd / ðət ðə fuːd ɪn ɪŋɡlənd / wəz nɒt ət ɔːl ɡʊd /
bət aɪ faʊnd ɪt mʌtʃ betə / ðn aɪd ɪkspektɪd // æz kʊkɪŋz ə hɒbi əv maɪn / aɪ suːn lɜːnd haʊ tə
pripeə / sm feɪvrɪt ɪŋɡlɪʃ dɪʃɪz / tə səpraɪz maɪ frenz wið /

line 1: /tʃɑːns/ – remember that <ce> is always pronounced /s/, never /z/.
line 3: /kʌmftəbl/ – see note to line 5, TEXT 14.
line 5: /tʊərɪsts/ – also / tɔːrɪsts/. Cf. jury, which usually has /ʊə/.
/aɪd/ < /aɪ əd/ < /aɪ həd/ < /aɪ hæd/.

Text 19

/ aɪ wəz sɪtɪŋ ɒn ə bentʃ ɪn ðə pɑːk / ɪndʒɔɪɪŋ ðə sprɪŋ flaʊəz / ən ðə wɔːm sʌnʃaɪn / wen ən
ɒd pɜːsn / sæt daʊn bɪsaɪd mi / ən bɪɡæn ə kɒnvəseɪʃn // hɪz kləʊðz wə ʃæbi / hɪz ʃuːz bædli
wɔːn / ən i ɒbviəsli hædnt hæd ə bɑːθ / ɔːr ə ʃaʊə / fə sevrl deɪz // hi təʊld mi hi juːstə bi ə
səʊldʒə / ən dət i wəz hævɪŋ ɡreɪt dɪfɪklti / ɪn faɪndɪŋ ə dʒɒb // æz aɪ ɪkspektɪd ɪm / tə traɪ tə
bɒrəʊ mʌni frɒm mi / aɪ sed ɡʊdbaɪ pəlaɪtli / ən wɔːkt əweɪ // bət i fɒləʊd mi / stɪl tɔːkɪŋ ən
traɪɪŋ tə meɪk mi peɪ ətenʃn tu ɪm // aɪ wəz veri rɪliːvd / wen tuː pliːsmən keɪm p / ən maɪ
ʌnwɒntɪd kmpænjən faɪnəli dɪsəpɪəd /

line 2: /kɒnvəseɪʃn/ – full vowel in first syllable with secondary stress. See also note
to line 3, TEXT 6.

61
 /hɪz ʃuːz/ – possible assimilation of /z/ to /s/. See also note to line 1, TEXT
14.
line 3: /hædnt/ – or /[h]əd nɒt/.
line 4: /æz/ – see note to line 4, TEXT 17.
line 5: /frɒm/ – note use of strong form of preposition before weak pronoun.
line 6: /pliːsmən/ – note retention of schwa between nasals and elision in first
syllable.
line 7: /kmpænjən/ note that the /j/ could also be [i]. Cf. radio, line 4, TEXT 4.

Text 20

/ aɪ əraɪvd ət ðə həʊtel / leɪt ɪn ði ɑːftənuːn / dʒʌst əz ðə sʌn wəz setɪŋ // ɪt wəz ə bjuːtɪfl
mɒdn bɪldɪŋ / bət ɪt lʊkt səʊ ɪkspensɪv / ðət aɪ daʊtɪd weðər aɪ kʊd əfɔːd / tə spend ðə naɪt
ðeə // aɪ went tə ðə desk / ən ɑ:skt ɪf aɪ kəd bʊk ə smɔːl ruːm // ðə ɡɜːl riplaɪd ðət ðeɪ wə fʊl
// əz aɪ tɜːnd tə liːv / ʃi sʌdnli dɪskʌvəd ə ruːm / ðət wəz nɒt ɒkjupaɪd / ən æz ɪt wəz ə veri
smɔːl wʌn / ʃi sed aɪ kəd hæv ɪt / ɪspeʃli tʃiːpli // aɪ əkseptɪd ɪmiːdjətli // ðə ruːm wəz kwaɪt
kʌmftəbl / ən aɪ slept wel // neks mɔːnɪŋ / aɪ hæd ə hjuːdʒ brekfəst / ɪn ðə mæɡnɪfɪsnt daɪnɪŋ
ruːm / peɪd ðə bɪl / ən left wið hɑːdli eni mʌni ɪn maɪ pɒkɪt /

line 1: /wəz setɪŋ/ – possible assimilation of /z/ to /s/. Cf. note to line 1, TEXT 14,
and note to line 2, TEXT 19.
line 4: /æz/ in a dependent clause preceding the main clause may have its strong
form – though not always (cf. previous instance of as). See also note to line 4,
TEXT 17.
line 5: /ɪmiːdjətli/ – instead of /j/ , /i/ is also possible. Cf. radio, line 4, TEXT 4, and
companion, line 7, TEXT 19.
line 6: /kʌmftəbl/ – see note to line 5, TEXT 14.

Text 21

/ðə wəz səʊ mʌtʃ træfɪk ɒn ðə rəʊd / ðət wi əraɪvd leɪt fə ðə fʊtbɔːl mætʃ / ən hæd ə lɒt əv
trʌbl / ɡetɪŋ tu aʊə siːts // maɪ bɔɪfrend dʒɪm / ɪznt ɔːlweɪz eɪbl / tə kntrəʊl hɪmself / ɒn
əkeɪʒnz laɪk ðɪs / ən ət hɑːf taɪm / hi bikeɪm ɪnɡeɪdʒd ɪn ə vaɪələnt ɑːɡjumənt / wɪð ə mæn ɪn
ə klɒθ kæp / huːm hid nevə met bɪfɔː // aɪ wəz terɪbli əfreɪd / ðeɪ maɪt biɡɪn tə hɪt iːtʃ ʌðə / ən
bi ərestɪd / bət lʌkɪli / ðə ɡeɪm stɑːtɪd əɡen / bɪfɔː ðæt hæpnd // ə tɔːl mæn sɪtɪŋ ɪn frnt əv mi
/ kept muːvɪŋ frm saɪd tə saɪd / wɪð ɪksaɪtmənt / səʊ aɪ kʊdnt siː mʌtʃ / bət dʒɪmz ətenʃn /
wəz səʊ fɜːmli fɪkst ɒn ðə ɡeɪm / ðət i dɪdnt nəʊtɪs eniθɪŋ els/

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 line 1: /hæd/ – strong form required as had is not an auxiliary here.
line 2: /hɪmself/ – also /ɪmself/.
line 5: /ðæt/ strong form required as that is a demonstrative in this context.
line 6: /ɪksaɪtmənt/ – note that <x> = /ks/ here, and not /ɡz/, because it is followed
by <c>. Note the retention of the schwa between nasal consonants.

Text 22

/ ðə blaɪnd mæn wɔːkt sləʊli ʌp ðə rəʊd / tæpɪŋ ɒn ðə peɪvmənt / wɪð ɪz waɪt stɪk // hi wəz
ələʊn / bət i ɒbviəsli njuː / ðɪs pɑːt əv ðə sɪti veri wel // wen i keɪm tə ðə pʌb ɒn ðə kɔːnə / hi
went ɪn / ən aɪ fɒləʊd ɪm // hi went streɪt tu ɪz feɪvrɪt siːt // hi wəz sɜːtnli ə reɡjulə kʌstəmə
ðeə // aɪ tʊk maɪ drɪŋk / əʊvə tu ɪz teɪbl / ən stɑːtɪd tə tɔːk tu ɪm // hi təʊld mi hid biːn / ə
feɪməs mjuːzɪʃn / ən əd pleɪd ðə vaɪəlɪn / ɔːl əʊvə ðə wɜːld // hɪz kərɪə həd biːn ɪntərʌptɪd /
wen i lɒst ɪz saɪt // ɔːlðəʊ hid hæd meni trʌblz / hi wəz kwaɪt hæpi / ən nevə kmpleɪnd // hi
wəz ɡreɪtfl tə bi stɪl əlaɪv /

line 4: /tu ɪz/ – or /tə hɪz/. /tu ɪm/ – or /tuː hɪm/ – the preposition has its strong
form here because it is followed by an unstressed pronoun.
/hid biːn/ – or /id bɪn/.
line 5: /əd/ – or /həd/. /həd/ – or /[ə]d/. /biːn/ – or /bɪn/.
line 6: /ɪz saɪt/ – possibly /ɪs saɪt/ by assimilation. See also note to line 1, TEXT 20.
/hid/ – or /hi əd/ ~ /hi həd/.
line 7: /ɡreɪtfl/ note that the ending -ful can also be pronounced /-fəl/ or /-fʊl/.

Text 23

/ ɪt əd biːn ə taɪərɪŋ deɪ / ən aɪ wəz lʊkɪŋ fɔːwəd / tu ə kwaɪət iːvnɪŋ // maɪ hzbənd wʊdnt bi
bæk / ʌntɪl leɪt / ən aɪd dɪsaɪdɪd tə sɪt daʊn / ɪn ə kʌmftəbl tʃeər ɪn ðə lɪvɪŋ ruːm / ən riːd ə
bʊk // aɪ pʊt ðə tʃɪldrn tə bed ɜːli / ən pripeəd ə kəʊld miːl / ən sm kɒfi // aɪ wəz dʒʌs biɡɪnɪŋ
tu iːt / wen ðə telɪfəʊn ræŋ // aɪ drɒpt maɪ naɪf ən fɔːk / ən hʌrid tu ɑːnsər ɪt // baɪ ðə taɪm aɪ
ɡɒt bæk tə ðə lɪvɪŋ ruːm / maɪ kɒfid ɡɒt kəʊld // aɪ mænɪdʒd tə sɪt daʊn əɡen / ən æktʃuəli
red ə həʊl peɪdʒ / wɪðaʊt ɪntərʌpʃn / ʌntɪl ðə beɪbi wəʊk ʌp // hi biɡæn kraɪɪŋ laʊdli / ən wəz
stɪl əweɪk / wen maɪ hʌzbənd keɪm həʊm /

line 1: /əd/ – or /həd/. /iːvnɪŋ/ – not /iːvənɪŋ/. /wʊdnt/ – or /wəd nɒt/.

line 5: /əɡen/ – also pronounced /əɡeɪn/.
line 6: /wəz stɪl/ – possible assimilation of /z/ to /s/.

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Text 24

/ ɑːftə maɪ frend ən aɪd biːn wɔːkɪŋ / fə sʌm taɪm / ə lɒri stɒpt bihaɪnd əs // ðə draɪvə pʊt ɪz
hed aʊt əv ðə wɪndəʊ / ən ʃaʊtɪd / dju wɒnt ə lɪft // wi wə bəʊθ taɪəd / ən maɪ fiːt wə kwaɪt
peɪnfl / səu wi wə dilaɪtɪd / tu əksept ɪz ɒfə / ən klaɪmd ɪntə ðə bæk əv ðə vɪəkl / wɪtʃ wəz
əʊld / ən smeld əv petrl // ðə rəʊd wəz fʊl əv həʊlz / səʊ ɪt wəz nɒt ə kʌmftəbl dʒɜːni // bət
ət liːst ɪt wəz betə ðn wɔːkɪŋ / ən wi felt ɡreɪtfl tə ðə draɪvə / fə biːɪŋ səʊ kaɪnd tu əs / ət ðə
bæk / ðə wə sm sæks əv pəteɪtəʊz / ə fjuː tʃɪknz ɪn ə wʊdn bɒks / ən ə dɒɡ ðət bɑːkt laʊdli /
ət evriwʌn wi pɑːst ɒn ðə weɪ /

line 1: /sʌm/ strong from required as some is an indefinite adjective in this context.
line 4: /wəz nɒt/ – or /wɒznt/.
line 6: /tʃɪknz/ – also /tʃɪkɪnz/.

Text 25

/ wen ɪz frenz hɜːd əbaʊt təʊniz vɪzɪt tu ə fɔːtʃuːn telə / ðeɪ ɔːl lɑːft laʊdli // hi sed ʃi wəz ən
əʊld leɪdi / huː liːvd ɪn rɑːðər ə pʊə kwɔːtər əv ðə taʊn // ʃi təʊld ɪm ðət iːd bi rɪtʃ wʌn deɪ /
ɔːlðəʊ ʃi fəɡɒt tu ɪndɪkeɪt wen / bət ʃi wɔːnd ɪm / ðət ɪf i wɒznt keəfl / hid hæv ə sɪəriəs
mɪsfɔːtʃuːn / ɪn ðə nɪə fjuːtʃə // ðɪs keɪm truː ɪmiːdjətli / bikɒz æz i left ðə haʊs / ði əʊld leɪdiz
dɒɡ / wɪtʃ wəz nɒt taɪd ʌp / əz ɪt ɔːt tu əv biːn / keɪm rʌnɪŋ æt ɪm / bifɔːr i wəz eɪbl tə ʃʌt ðə
ɡeɪt / bɪt ɪm ɪn ðə raɪt leɡ / ən tɔːr ə bɪɡ həʊl / ɪn ɪz njuː traʊzəz /

line 1: /fɔːtʃuːn/ – cf. /fɔːtʃunətli/ ~ /fɔːtʃənətli/.

line 3: /hæv/ – strong form required as have is not auxiliary here.
line 4: /æz/ – see note to line 4, TEXT 17, and note to line 4, TEXT 20.
line 5: /æt/ – note strong form of preposition before unstressed pronoun.

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