Inglese modulo teorico

a.a. 2020/2021 prof. Rizzato

LINGUISTICS is the scientific study of language. It is divided into several ‘areas’:
- Phonology/Phoneticssounds. We must focus on the phonemes (small number of regularly
used sounds which allow us to distinguish meanings)
- Morphologythe shape of words. It can be divided into inflectional morphology and
derivational morphology
- Syntaxthe arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a
language. Grammar is traditionally defined as: syntax + (inflectional) morphology
- Lexical semanticsmeaning of words
- Pragmaticuse of language in context.

1) Phonetics and Phonology

These are the most basic level of linguistics. It is important to remember that all languages have an
oral form.
PHONETICS is the study of speech sounds (in general) and is divided into:
- Articulatory phoneticsthe study of how sounds are made (production)
- Auditory phoneticsthe study of how the sounds are heard (perception)
- Acoustic phoneticsthe study of the physical properties of the speech waves that constitute
speech sounds.
PHONOLOGY is the study of the speech sounds in a particular language.
We’re trying to define the minimal set (inventory) of sounds you need to describe the pronunciation
of English words.
Minimal pairswords that differ only for one sound (phoneme). Ex. fill/feel, pet/bet.
N.B. Phonemes are usually placed between slashes.
To transcribe words, we use a special alphabet: the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet).
1.4 Accents and dialects
Languages have different accents: they are pronounced differently by people from different
geographical places, from different social classes, of different ages and different educational
backgrounds. Everybody has an accent and that is what we’re interested in with phonology. It’s
important not to confuse the word accent with dialect.
- ACCENTS differ only on pronunciation
- DIALECTS differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and word order.
Some accents and dialects are more prestigious than others. The accent that we concentrate on and
use as our model is the Received Pronunciation (RP). It is also called BBC pronunciation or
King’s/Queen’s English. it’s a social (not geographical) variety.
Within the accents of England, the distinction that is most frequently made by the majority of
English people is between northern and southern. A particular accent of the London area is called
Estuary English.
We’ll be describing RP/BBC English and, to a lesser extent, GenAm (General American).
2) The production of speech sounds
English, like most languages, uses the egressive pulmonic system. Air from the lungs travels up
the trachea (or windpipe) through the larynx (or Adam’s apple) into the vocal tract.
The articulators (articulatory phonetics) are:

- The larynx, which muscles produce many different modifications in the flow of air from the
chest to the mouth;
- The pharynx a tube which begins just above the larynx. At its top end it is divided into
two, one part being the back of the oral cavity and the other being the beginning of the way
through the nasal cavity;
- The soft palate (or velum) if it’s raised it doesn’t let the air escape through the nose. The
other important thing about the soft palate is that it is one of the articulators that can be
touched by the tongue. When we make the sounds k, g, the tongue is in contact with the
lower side of the soft palate, and we call these velar consonants. The soft palate ends with
the uvula;
- The hard palate often called the “roof of the mouth”. A consonant made with the tongue
close to the hard palate is called palatal (like the sound j in ‘yes’);
- The alveolar ridge (or gum ridge) it’s between the top front teeth and the hard palate.
Sounds made with the tongue touching here (such as t, d, n) are called alveolar;
- The tongueit’s usual to divide the tongue into different parts (tip, blade, front, back and
root), though there are no clear dividing lines within its structure;
 - The teeth (upper and lower)the tongue is in contact with the upper side teeth for most
speech sounds. Sounds made with the tongue touching the front teeth are called dental;
- The lips they can be pressed together (p, b), brought into contact with the teeth (f, v) or
rounded to produce the lip-shape for vowel like uː. Sounds in which the lips are in contact
with each other are called bilabial, while those with lip-to-teeth contact are called
labiodental.
The jaws are sometimes called articulators as well (even though they can’t make contact with other
articulators). Also important for making sounds are the nose and the nasal cavity (especially with
nasal consonants such as m, n).
3) Vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs
How do we distinguish between vowels and consonants? The most common view is that vowels
are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips.
Problem: h and w in e.g. hay and way do not really obstruct the airflow more than some vowels do.
Solution: we look at the distribution of sounds (phonotactics) rather than the way they are made.
N.B. It’s important to remember that the distribution of vowels and consonants is different for each
language.
However, let’s consider how vowels can be described in articulatory terms.

The cardinal vowels in the IPA vowel chart are the ‘ideal’ vowels (they are just a set of reference
points).
Variables used to describe vowels:
1) Tongue height (close, close-mid, open-mid, open);
2) Tongue backness (front vs central vs back);
3) Lip-rounding (rounded, spread, neutral).
Lip-rounding
Three possible shapes and positions of the lips:
- Roundedthe corners of the lips are brought towards each other and the lips pushed
forward. [u];
- Spreadthe corners of the lips moved away from each other (as for a smile). [i];
- Neutralnot noticeably rounded or spread. The noise most English people make when they
are hesitating (written ‘er’) has neutral lip position.

Vowels also differ in terms of length: short (lax) vs long (tense). Length is more important in BrE
than AmE. Diacritic used to mark length: : (as in leave /li:v/).
Short (lax) vowels

 ɪ (bit, bridge, built, pin, fish)  tongue height: close; tongue backness: front; lip
rounding: slightly spread;
 e (bet, bed, bury, men, yes)  tongue height: mid to open mid; tongue backness: front;
lip rounding: slightly spread;
 æ (act, bat, gas, man)  tongue height: open; tongue backness: front; lip rounding:
slightly spread;
 ʌ (cut, come, rush, blood, club)  tongue height: more open than open mid; tongue
backness: central; lip rounding: neutral;
 ɒ (cloth, cough, dock, pot, gone, cross)  tongue height: between open mid and open;
tongue backness: not fully back; lip rounding: slightly rounded;
 ʊ (put, pull, push, book, bull, bush)  tongue height: close to close mid; tongue
backness: near back; lip rounding: rounded;
 ə -schwa (leisure, preface, pressure)  tongue height: mid; tongue backness: central;
lip rounding: neutral.
Long (tense) vowels
  i: (beat, mean, peace, brief, cheese, field) tongue height: close; tongue backness: front;
lip rounding: only slightly spread (different than cardinal vowel no.1);
 ɜ: (bird, fern, purse, burn, earth, dirty) tongue height: mid; tongue backness: central;
lip rounding: neutral;
 ɑ: (card, half, pass, arch, aunt, bar) tongue height: open; tongue backness: back; lip
rounding: neutral;
 ɔ: (board, torn, horse, born, court, crawl) tongue height: mid to close mid; tongue
backness: back; lip rounding: strong lip rounding;
 u: (food, soon, loose, blue, boot, chew) tongue height: close; tongue backness: back;
lip rounding: moderately rounded.

Diphthongs
=sounds which consist of a movement or glide from one vowel to another (within the same
syllable). In terms of length, diphthongs are similar to the long vowels. The most important thing to
remember about all the diphthongs is that the first element is much longer and stronger than the
second element. The glide is never complete. Vowels which remain constant, without glide are
called pure vowels. Learners of English may not recognize diphthongs and pronounce them as pure
vowels: common mistake due to the distance between spelling and pronunciation in English.

CENTRING DIPHTHONGS: they glide towards the ə (schwa) vowel

 ɪə (beard, weird, fierce) this diphthong creates sounds similar to “ear” and most often
occurs with letter combinations that include /ee/, /ie/ and /ea/;
 eə (aires, cairn, scarce) this diphthong creates sounds similar to “air” and most often
occurs with letter combinations that include /ai/, /a/, and /ea/;
 ʊə (moored, tour, lure) this diphthong creates sounds similar to “sure” and most occurs
with letter combinations that include /oo/, /ou/, /u/, and /ue/;
CLOSING DIPHTONGS: they all end with a glide towards a closer vowel. The important thing is
that a glide from a relatively more open towards a relatively closer vowel is produced.

 eɪ (pain, paid, face) this diphthong creates sounds similar to “great” and is most often
used with letter combinations that include /ey/, /ay/, /ai/ and /a/;
 aɪ (tide, time, nice) this diphthong creates sounds similar to "eye" and most often occurs
with letter combinations that include /i/, /igh/, and /y/;
  ɔɪ (void, loin, voice) this creates sounds similar to “boy” and most often occurs with letter
combinations that include /oy/ and /oi/;
 əʊ (load, home, most) this diphthong creates sounds similar to “boat” and most often
occurs with letter combinations that include /ow/, /oa/ and /o/;
 aʊ (loud, gown, house) this diphthong creates sounds similar to “ow!” and most often
occurs with letter combinations that include /ou/ and /ow/;

riassunto:
Triphthongs:
A triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly and
without interruption. Triphthongs can be thought of as diphthongs /aɪ/, /aʊ/, /eɪ/, /əʊ/, /ɔɪ/ (the 5
closing diphthongs) + /ə/ (but remember that the middle vowel is hardly pronounced).
 [eɪə]’layer’, ‘player’;
 [aɪə]’liar’, ‘fire’;
 [ɔɪə]’loyal’, ‘royal’, ‘employer’;
 [əʊə]’lower’, ‘mower’;
 [aʊə]’power’, ‘hour’.
Triphthongs are difficult to pronounce and difficult to recognise for the foreign learner because
vowel movement is very limited in present-day English. Because of this, the middle of the three
vowel qualities of the triphthong can hardly be heard and the resulting sound is difficult to
distinguish from some of the diphthongs and long vowels.
SMOOTHING takes place in rapid spoken RP and in Refined RP. Most important cases:
1. [aɪə][a:ə] Brian, fire, tyre, choir, society, hire, shire, byre, lyre, liable, higher, shyer, buyer,
liar
2. [aʊə][a:ə] our, shower, flower, coward, nowadays
3. [eɪə] [e:ə] player, greyer, conveyor, layer
4. [əʊə][ə:] mower, slower
5. [ɔɪə][ɔ:ə] employer, enjoyable, buoyant, joyous.
 Front vowels
[i:], [ɪ], [e] (often transcribed as [ɛ]), [æ]
(often transcribed as [a]).
A slight glide is common amongst RP
speakers with all ‘long’ vowels (especially
[i:] >[ɪi] and [u:]>[ʊu]) except when they are
shortened by pre-fortis clipping, compare
knee with neat. The pre-fortis clipping
process arises from the fact that the length of
a vowel is strongly determined by the
voicing of the consonant that comes after it
(or by the absence of any consonant, if this is
the case). When a stressed vowel is followed
by a voiceless consonant within the same
syllable, the length of that vowel is
considerably reduced. This is especially noticeable in the case of long vowels, which are shortened
up to half their length. There is usually a centring glide when [i:] precedes dark l, so that for many
speakers there is no contrast with [ɪəl], e.g. reel – real.
Variation between [ɪ] and [i] finally (pronunciation dictionaries usually use [i] for this sound):
happy, city, lady, sloppy, charity, memory. The [ɪ] variant is found in traditional RP, Northern
dialects (esp. Yorkshire and Lancashire) and Scots.
Dictionaries may use [ɨ] when there is variation between [ɪ] and [ə]: happiness [ˈhæpinɨs].
/e/ is nowadays more similar to [] than [e]. The lowering of /e/ has caused the lowering of /æ/
(which is similar to [a], the sound found in Northern English).
Central vowels
-[ə] (schwa)It is a reduced vowel, used only in
unstressed syllables. It corresponds to AmE [ɚ]
when e.g. <er> is used. It is noticeably open in
word-final position.
-[ɜ:]It was more open in traditional RP – a
feature now often regarded as affected. It
corresponds to [ɝ] in AmE when e.g. <er> is
used.
-[ʌ] It is used in stressed syllables only. It is
not used in Northern English. For many
speakers [ʌ] and [ə] are very similar (e.g. [ə] in
word-final position is very open).
Back vowels
-lax [ʊ] and tense [u:]
Lip-rounding for lax [ʊ] is typically weak.
Centralisation and unrounding of [ʊ] –
unrounding being more recent than centralisation
– is on the rise and is particularly noticeable in
high-frequency words such as good, should, could
and, to a lesser extent, would. [ʊ] is not used in
unstressed syllables in AmE: stimulus [ˈstɪmjʊləs]
(RP) vs. [ˈstɪmjələs] (AmE). Since [ə] (in place of [ʊ]) is also possible in RP, dictionaries may use
[ʉ] to indicate the two variants. Tense [u:] is generally realised as a diphthong, except where
shortened by pre-fortis clipping. There are two main variants of [u:] in RP: (i) a more centralised
vowel [ʉ:] or, with unrounding, [ɨ] (unrounding is more recent than centralisation; it may lead to
potential confusion between pairs such as two – tea for older speakers); (ii) a diphthong [ʊu] or
[ɨw].
-[ɔ:][ɔ:] is the most strongly lip-rounded of all vowels. It corresponds to [ɑ:] in AmE but is
sometimes realised as [ɔ:] in AmE, as in thought, law.
-[ɒ] It has weak lip-rounding. It is not used in AmE where it is replaced by [ɑ:] or [ɔ:].
-[ɑ] It is often realised as [æ] in short syllables – orthographically, <a> precedes a nasal (+
consonant) or a fricative (+ consonant) – in AmE and in most varieties of RP.
Diphthongs
-closing, ending in ITraditional RP had a closer starting
point for [e], a more front starting-point for [a] (cf. the
transcription [ʌ]), and a more open starting-point for [ɔ]. In
contemporary pronunciation, the glide in [e] is very slight
where pre-fortis clipping occurs. Before dark l, the glide in all
three diphthongs is frequently [ə], e.g. ale [eəɫ], mile [maəɫ],
oil [ɔəɫ].
-[e] French words: café, foyer, dossier, saute, fiancé, ballet, sachet, purée, matinée
-[a] -[ɔ]
-closing, ending in ʊ
-[əʊ](corresponds to [oʊ] in AmE) The starting point in RP is similar to that of [3:], compare fur
and foe; the starting point in AmE is similar to that of cardinal vowel []. Many younger RP
speakers have a more front articulation for [əʊ] which can sound similar to [e] to older speakers,
leading to potential confusion between e.g. cone/cane, go/gay. For certain speakers, the [ʊ] element
may be minimal or lost entirely before dark l, making pairs like pole/pearl, whole/hurl near-
homophones. London-based pronunciation may have [ɒʊ] instead of [əʊ] before dark l, as in gold,
revolt.
-[aʊ] Traditional RP tended to have a more back starting-point.
-centring, ending in ə
-[ə](RP only: near [nə]) Despite the [] symbol, the starting point tends to be closer (similar to
[i]). In fact, speakers may consider words like near as involving the sequence [i] + [ə]. Younger
speakers may also have a long vowel (i.e. []) without a glide as in beer [b].
-[eə] (RP only: square [skweə]), transcribed also as [ə][eə] is nowadays mostly realised as [:]:
Tony Blair [‘təʊni bl:] (see smoothing).
-[ʊə] (RP only: cure [kjʊə])Despite the [ʊ] symbol, the starting point tends to be closer (similar
to [u:]). [ʊə] is often realised as [ɔ:]: sure [ʃɔ:] (see smoothing) and, when it is not replaced by [ɔ:],
it is thought of as a sequence of [u] + [ə]. Some speakers have [ʊ:] in place of [ʊə] as in sure [ʃʊː].
4) Voicing and consonants
The larynx
Its main structure is made of cartilage. The larynx’s structure is made of two large cartilages. These
are hollow and are attached to the top of the trachea; when we breathe, the air passes through the
trachea and the larynx. The front of the larynx comes to a point and you can feel this point at the
front of your neck – particularly if you are a man and/or slim. This point is commonly called the
Adam’s apple. Inside the “box” made by these two cartilages are the vocal folds (or vocal cords). At
the front, the vocal folds are joined together and fixed
to the inside of the thyroid cartilage. At the back, they
are attached to a pair of small cartilages called the
arytenoid cartilages so that if the arytenoid cartilages
move, the vocal folds move too. The arytenoid
cartilages are attached to the top of the cricoid
cartilage, but they can move so as to move the vocal
folds apart or together. We can use the word ‘glottis’
to refer to the opening between the vocal folds. If the
vocal folds are apart, we say that the glottis is open; if
they are pressed together, we say that the glottis is
closed.
The four different position of the glottis:
-wide apart the vocal folds are wide
apart for normal breathing and usually
during voiceless consonants like p, f, s.
-narrow glottisif air is passed through
the glottis when it is narrowed, the result
is a fricative sound for which the symbol
is h. The sound is not very different from
a whispered vowel. It is called a
voiceless glottal fricative.
-position for vocal fold vibrationwhen
the edges of the vocal folds are touching
each other, or nearly touching, air
passing through the glottis will usually
cause vibration. Air is pressed up from the lungs and this air pushes the vocal folds apart so
that a little air escapes. As the air flows quickly past the edges of the vocal folds, the folds
are brought together again. This opening and closing happens very rapidly and is repeated
regularly. (voiced sounds, including ‘normal’ vowels!)
-vocal folds tightly closedair cannot pass between them. When this happens in speech, we
call it a glottal stop or glottal plosive, for which we use the symbol ʔ.
Consonants
Three parameters:
1) manner of articulation (how the stricture is realised)
2) place of articulation (where the stricture obtains)
3) voicing: fortis vs. lenis
PLOSIVES (or STOPS)
-3 stages:
1) closing stage when the articulator(s) move to form the stricture for the plosive
2) compression stagewhen the compressed air is stopped from escaping
3) release stagewhen the articulators used to form the stricture are moved so as to allow air to
escape (explosionreleased stop; no explosionunreleased stop)

Lenis (or voiced) stops

- /b/ (bilabial)
- /d/ (alveolar (but dental in Italian!))
- /g/ (velar)
Positions:
- Initial (CV) band [b̥ænd̥] (partially voiced, VOT<0)the release of b, d, g, is followed by
weak plosion, and this happens about the same time as, or shortly after, the beginning of
voicing.
- Medial (VCV)rubber ['rʌbə] (fully voiced, VOT<0)the pronunciation depends to some
extent on whether the syllables preceding and following the plosive are stressed.
- Final (VC)rib [rɪb̥] (fully devoiced) (also possible with no audible release: [rɪb̚])the
plosion following the release is very weak and often not audible.
- Final clustersrubbed [rʌb̚d̥] (NB. no audible release in stop clusters)

Fortis (or voiceless) stops

- /p/ (bilabial)
- /t/ (alveolar (dental in Italian!))
- /k/ (velar)
Positions:
- Initial (CV) pill [pʱɪɫ] (“aspirated”; VOT>0)the release of p, t, k is followed by audible
plosion. There is then, in the post-release phase, a period during which air escapes through
the vocal folds, making a sound like h. This is called aspiration. Then the vocal folds come
together, and voicing begins.
- Initial clusters 1) plosive + approximant: play [pl̥ eɪ], pray [pr̥eɪ], puke [pj̊ uˑk], twist [tw̥ɪst]
(aspiration as devoicing of the following consonant); 2) /s/ + plosive: spin [spɪn] (no
aspiration, i.e. the plosive is unaspirated and perceived as /b/ by native speakers in the
example at hand; VOT=0, i.e. unlike voiced plosives in initial and medial positions, there is
 no voicing in the pre-release stage (remember that VOT <0 for voiced plosives in initial and
medial positions))
- Final (VC) lip [lɪp̚] (often with no audible release; see below for other possible
pronunciations)The difference between p, t, k and b, d, g is primarily the fact that vowels
preceding p, t, k are much shorter. The shortening effect of p, t, k is most noticeable when
the vowel is one of the long vowels or diphthongs. This effect is sometimes known as pre-
fortis clipping
- Final cluster wiped [waɪp̚t]
LENIS VS. FORTIS CONSONANTS
Those English consonants which are usually voiced tend to be articulated with relatively weak
energy (lenis), whereas those which are always voiceless are relatively strong (fortis). Indeed, so-
called voiced consonants may have very little voicing (cf. -b̥) so that the energy of articulation
becomes a significant factor in distinguishing the voiced and voiceless series. Since voicing
depends on the phonological contexts, some linguists prefer the terms lenis and fortis in place of,
respectively, voiced and voiceless.
ASPIRATION
Aspiration is predictable, occurring word or syllable initially before a stressed vowel (in
polysyllabic words, a weakly stressed syllable implies weaker aspiration). Since it is predictable it is
not usually given in phonemic (or quasi-phonemic) transcriptions.
 5) Phonemes and symbols
The phoneme
When we speak, we produce a continuous stream of sounds. In studying speech, we divide this
stream into small pieces that we call segments, and we can find great variety in the way these
segments are made. These units are called ‘phonemes’, and the complete set of these units is called
the ‘phonemic system’ of the language. The phonemes themselves are abstracts, but there are many
slightly different ways in which we make the sounds that represent these phonemes. We find cases
where it makes little difference which of two possible ways we choose to pronounce a sound (two
different realisations of the phoneme; one can be substituted for the other without changing the
meaning). When we find a strict separation of places where particular realisation can occur, we say
that the realisations are in ‘complementary distribution’. When we talk about different realisations
of phonemes, we sometimes call these realisations ‘allophones’.
/b/ in boast has two allophones: it can be realised as a fully voiced sound (i.e. [bəʊst]) or as a
(partially) devoiced sound (i.e. [b̥əʊst]). The two allophones are in parallel distribution (i.e. one can
be used in place of the other). /t/ also has two allophones, an aspirated sound (as in time) and an
unaspirated or unreleased one (as in eat). However, the former is only found word or syllable
initially and the latter is only found word or syllable finally. That is, the two allophones are in
complementary distribution (i.e. one cannot be used in place of the other).
Symbols and transcription
Basically, the symbols are for one of two purposes: either they are symbols for phonemes
(phonemic symbols), or they are phonetic symbols. Phonemic transcriptionwhere every speech
sound must be identified as one of the phonemes and written with the appropriate symbol. Phonetic
transcriptionadditional details are offered through the use of diacritics (such as devoicing) –
marks which modify the symbol in some way.
Compare:
/rɪb/ (phonemic transcription, between slashes)
[rɪb̥] (phonetic transcription, in square brackets)
Phonemic (or broad) transcriptions provide a minimal (i.e. distinctive) amount of information while
phonetic (or narrow) transcriptions add details to the minimal (i.e. phonemic) transcription which
are predictable.
Phonology
When we talk about how phonemes function in language and the relationships among the different
phonemes – when, in other words, we study the abstract side of the sounds of language, we are
studying a related but different subject that we call ‘phonology’. Only by studying both the
phonetics and the phonology of English is it possible to acquire a full understanding of the use of
sounds in English speech.
6) Fricatives and affricates
FRICATIVES
The air escapes through a narrow passage and makes a hissing sound. Fricatives are continuant
consonants, which means that you can continue making them without interruption as long as you
have enough air in your lungs. Fortis fricatives behave like plosives in terms of voicing and
shortening of the preceding
vowel.
With the exception of glottal,
each place of articulation has a
pair of phonemes, one fortis
and one lenis.
Labiodental (the lower lip is in contact with the upper teeth) /f/, /v/ (fan, van)
Dental (the tongue tip does not necessarily protrude between the teeth - although this is common in
AmE) /θ/ (thumb), /ð/ (thus) - phonetically more like a lenis dental plosive
Alveolar (the tongue blade is pressed against the alveolar bridge; the air escapes through a narrow
passage along the centre of the tongue) /s/ (sip, rice), /z/ (zip, rise)
Palato-alveolar/post-alveolar (the tongue is in contact with an area slightly further back than that for
/s/, /z/) /ʃ/ (ship, Russia, Irish), /ʒ/ -it has limited distribution- (measure, usual, garage)
Both palato-alveolar phonemes involve some lip rounding.
Glottal (the narrowing that produces the friction noise is between the vocal folds) /h/ (head,
ahead, playhouse)
Phonetically, it is a voiceless vowel with the quality of the voiced vowel that follows it;
phonologically, it is a consonant. When it occurs between voiced sounds (e.g. ahead, greenhouse),
it is usually pronounced with voicing (this is called breathy voice). Remember that it is often not
pronounced in unstressed words such as he, her, him, his, and auxiliary have.
- initial + nasal or approximant (e.g. /m/, /n/, /l/, /r/, /w/) is NOT pronounced /z/. It is
pronounced /s/. Examples: smoke, swatch, swear, sweet, sweep, smile, snake, slow.
AFFRICATES
They begin as plosives and end as fricatives. The plosive and fricative parts are homorganic (made
with the same articulators). They are regarded as a single phoneme. Both fricatives and affricates
behave like plosives in terms of voicing and shortening of the preceding vowel.
Palato-alveolar (post-alveolar)/tʃ/ (chop, catch, nature) -it is slightly aspirated in the positions
where plosives are- ; /dʒ/ (jump, majority, fudge)
They often present lip-rounding.
Affricates can arise in connected speech (this phenomenon is an example of coalescence):
don’t you ['dəʊntʃuː], would you ['wʊdʒuː], do you [dʒuː].

7) Nasals and other consonants

NASALS
The air escapes through the nose. For this to happen, the soft palate must be lowered; in the case of
other vowels of English, the soft palate is raised and air cannot pass through the nose. In nasal
consonant, however, air does not pass through the mouth; it is prevented by a complete closure in
the mouth at some point.
Bilabial/m/ (mud)
Alveolar/n/ (nut)
Velar/ŋ/ (sing). NB /ŋ/ (virtually) never occurs initially. It can follow only: /ɪ/ /e/ /æ/ /ʌ/ /ɒ/ /ʊ/.
/ŋ/ never occurs with /g/ at the end of a morpheme in RP.
sing [sɪŋ]
singer = sing + er [‘sɪŋə]
singing = sing + ing [‘sɪŋɪŋ]
but: finger (1 morpheme!) [‘fɪŋgə]
An important exception: comparatives and superlatives
long [lɒŋ]
longish ['lɒŋɪʃ]
longer ['lɒŋgə]
longest ['lɒŋgɪst]
Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives are to be treated as single-morpheme words for the
purposes of this rule.
Dental allophone:
ten [ten] vs. tenth [tenθ]
Approximants
Lateral /l/: complete closure between the centre of the tongue and the alveolar ridge (air escapes
along the sides of the tongue)
Lateral release: see above.
Voiceless /l/, i.e. [l]: see above.
/l/ has two allophones in complementary distribution: clear [l] and dark (or velarised) []. Dark []
is only found syllable finally and before consonants in RP. Clear [l] will never occur before
consonant or before a pause, but only before vowels. Dark [] never occurs before vowels.
Examples: lull [l], hill, ball, bulb, milk
When an affix beginning with a vowel is added or the next word begins with a vowel (e.g. fiddling,
fiddle it, finally, parcel of books), the lateral may become clear (in which case it is usually non-
syllabic). In Estuary English [] is realised as a [ʊ] (e.g. ball, table, sell, fall). In GenAm, Standard
Scottish English, Australian and New Zealand English, large parts of the north of England and
North Wales, [] may occur in all positions.
/r/ is a post-alveolar approximant, i.e. [] (but spelt as [r] for the sake of simplicity). The tip of the
tongue does not make contact with any part of the roof of the mouth. The tongue is slightly curled
backwards; the tip is raised; the lips are slightly rounded. Note that /r/ is actually a voiceless
fricative in words like pray. /r/ occurs only before vowels in non-rhotic accents.
Note.
Italian /r/ can be either a lingual trill, [r], i.e. a rapid succession of taps by the tip of the tongue on
the alveolar ridge, as in carro, or a tap (or flap), [], as in caro. In some English dialects the degree
of retroflexion of the tongue for  may be greater than in RP, as in the speech of the south-west of
England and in some varieties of American English. This is indicated by the symbol .

RHOTICITY
In RP /r/ ONLY occurs before vowels. Many accents of English pronounce /r/ also in different
positions: accents with /r/ in final position and before a consonant are called rhotic, while others
(such as RP) are called non-rhotic.
The voiced palatal approximant /j/ and the voiced bilabial approximant /w/ are phonetically vowels
but consonants phonologically (i.e. they are followed by vowels). Their behaviour as consonants is
manifest when they are preceded by the definite and indefinite article (e.g. a way, a year, the way,
the year). They are slightly fricative when they are preceded by /p/, /t/, /k/ at the beginning of a
syllable (e.g. pure, tune, cure, twin, quit, see also above).
Regressive assimilation of place in fricative + approximant sequences:
miss you ['mɪ(ʃ)ʃuː], bless you [ble(ʃ)ʃu], as yet [ʒet]
MORE ON PHONETIC PROCESSES
- Initial and final devoicing of consonants doesn’t affect nasals and approximants: ram, long,
wall, moon, yell
- Assimilation: nasalisation - Vowels preceding nasals are regularly nasalized: [phnd]
- Epenthetic /t/ between /n/ and /s/: prince [prɪnts]
- Epenthetic /p/ between /m/ and /s/: hamster [‘hmpstə]
- Assimilation: labialisation - Some speakers may use labialised consonants when they
precede e.g. /ɔː/ (i.e. lip-rounding starts in the consonant preceding the vowel): door [dʷɔː]
 8) The syllable
The syllable can be defined both phonetically and phonologically.
Phonetically, syllables are usually described as consisting of a centre which has little or no
obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud; before and after this centre (i.e. at the
beginning and end of the syllable), there will be greater obstruction to airflow and/or less loud
sound. Syllables are associated with peaks of sonority (i.e. every syllable corresponds to a single
sonority peak). The sonority of a sound is its relative loudness compared to other sounds.
Problems with the sonority theory:
1) Where do we place syllable boundaries?
2) sticks: Why does it have a single syllable (it contains three sonority peaks)?
An alternative approach is to look at syllables phonologically, by considering phonotactics, i.e. the
study of the possible phoneme combinations of a language.
 What we call a minimum syllable is a single vowel in isolation (e.g. the words ‘are’ ɑ:, ‘or’
ɔ:, ‘err’ ɜ:). These are preceded and followed by silence.

 Some syllables have an onset – that is, instead of silence, they have one or more consonants
preceding the centre of the syllable: ‘bar’ bɑ:, ‘more’ mɔ:,’key’ ki:
 Syllables may have no onset but have a coda – that is, they end with one or more
consonants: ‘am’ æm, ‘ought’ ɔ:t, ‘ease’ i:z
 Some syllables have both onset and coda: ‘ran’ ræn, ‘sat’ sæt, ‘fill’ fɪl.
In English: onset: max. 3 consonants; coda: max. 4 consonants.
ONSETS
If the first syllable of the word in question begins with a vowel, we say that this initial syllable has a
zero onset. All consonants except /ŋ/ can begin an English word.
We now look at syllables beginning with two consonants. When we have two or more consonants
together, we call them a consonant cluster. Initial two-consonants clusters are of two sorts in
English. One sort is composed of /s/ followed by one of a small set of consonants. The /s/ in this
clusters is called pre-initial consonant and the other consonant is the initial consonant. /s/ is usually
classified as pre-initial only if a consonant other than /w/, /l/, /r/, /j/ follows.
The other sort begins with one of a set of about fifteen consonants, followed by one of the set /l/, /r/,
/w/, /j/. We call the first consonant of these clusters the initial consonant and the second the post-
initial. The post-initial consonants are all approximants (/w/, /l/, /r/, /j/). There are some restrictions
on which consonants can occur together.

In three-consonant clusters, the only possible initial consonants are /p/, /t/, /k/. The /s/ is the pre-
initial consonant, the /p/, /t/, /k/ are the initial consonants and the /l/, /r/, /w/, /j/ are post-initial.

CODAS
If we say that there is no final consonants, we say that there is a zero coda. When there is one
consonant only, this is called the final consonant. All consonants except /h/, /w/, /j/ occur word-
finally. /r/ doesn’t occur as syllable final in BBC pronunciation, but it does in many rhotic accents.
There are two sorts of two-consonant final cluster, one being a final consonant preceded by a pre-
final consonant and the other a final consonant followed by a post-final consonant. The pre-final
consonants are nasals, /s/ and /l/. The post-final consonants are /s/, /z/, /t/, /d/, /θ/.
There are two types of final three-consonant cluster; the first is pre-final plus final plus post-final,
as set out in the following table:
The second type shows how more that one post-final consonant can occur in a final cluster: final
plus post-final 1 plus post-final 2. Post-final 2 is again one of /s/, /z/, /t/, /d/, /θ/.

Most four-consonant clusters can be analysed as consisting of a final consonant preceded by a pre-
final and followed by post-final 1 and post-final 2, as shown below:

A small number of cases seem to require a different analysis, as consisting of a final consonant with
no pre-final but three post-final consonants (‘sixths’, ‘texts’).
To sum up, we may describe the English syllable as having the following maximum phonological
structure:
Maximal Onset Principle (MOP)
Within words, syllable boundaries are placed in such a way that onsets are maximal (in accordance
with the phonotactic constraints of the language). This principle states that where two syllables are
to be divided, any consonants between them should be attached to the right-hand syllable, not the
left, as far as possible within the restrictions governing syllable onsets and codas.
N.B. we never find isolated syllables ending with one of the short vowels (/ɪ/, /e/, /æ/, /ʌ/, /ɑ/, /ʊ/).
Ambisyllabicity
When one consonant stands between vowels and it is difficult to assign the consonant to one
syllable or the other – as in ‘better’ and ‘carry’ – we could say that the consonant belongs to both
syllables. The term used by phonologists for a consonant in this situation is ambisyllabic.
10) Stress in simple words
What is stress?

(1) "fA:.D@ (father)

(2) "h{p.i (happy)
(3) "T{Nk ju (thank you)
(4) "bQt.l (bottle)
@ @
[dictionaries: "bQt. l "bQt l]
(5) "Tret.n (threaten)
@ @
[dictionaries: "Tret. n "Tret n]
We can study stress from the points of view of production and of perception. The production of
stress is generally believed to depends on the speaker using more muscular energy than is used for
unstressed syllables (higher subglottal pressure). From the perceptual point of view, all stressed
syllables have one characteristic in common, and that is prominence. Stressed syllables are
recognised as stressed because they are more prominent than unstressed syllables. What makes a
syllable prominent? At least four different factors are important:
1) pitch (most important; it is the perceptual correlate of the fundamental frequency of vibration of
the vocal folds)
2) length (second most important): if one syllable in a word is made longer than the others, there is
quite a strong tendency for that syllable to be heard as stressed.
3) loudness: if one syllable is made louder than the others, it will be heard as stressed. However, it
is important to realise that it is very difficult for a speaker to make syllable louder without changing
other characteristics of the syllable.
4) quality: @, i, u syllabic consonants.

Levels of stress
(it should be remembered that in this chapter we are dealing only with stress within the word. This
means that we are looking at words as they are said in isolation, which is a rather artificial situation)
Three levels of stress are usually recognised:
- @"raUnd
(unstressed + primary stress)
The most important fact about the way we pronounce this word is that on the second syllable the
pitch of the voice does not remain level, but usually falls from a higher to a lower pitch.
- %f@U.t@"gr{f.Ik
(secondary stress + unstressed + primary stress + unstressed)
This type of stress is weaker than primary stressed but stronger than unstressed syllables.
- %{n.Tr@"pQl.@.dZi
(secondary stress + unstressed + primary stress + unstressed + unstressed)
This level is regarded as being the absence of any recognisable amount of prominence. It is worth
noting than unstressed syllables containing ə, ɪ, i, u, or a syllabic consonant, will sound less
prominent than unstressed syllable containing some other vowel.
Is it possible to predict English stress placement?
English doesn’t behave like languages such as French (last syllable), Polish (penultimate), Czech
(first).
Warning: Section 10.3 is based on a circular argument. It says that it’s possible to ‘predict’ stress
placement by inspecting syllables (i.e. whether they are strong or weak) but in order to know
whether a syllable is strong or weak, one must know where stress is placed in the first place!
However, we can identify some general tendencies.
Words of two or three syllables:
Primary stress on first syllable,
e.g. "culture, "hesitant, "motivate
Two-syllable words have stress on the second syllable if that syllable is long (any syllable with a
long vowel, any syllable with a diphthong, any syllable with a short vowel followed by more than
one consonant). If it is short, the first syllable is stressed. As a matter of fact, this rule, despite its
numerous exceptions, apply to many nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions.
In three-syllable words, the syllable with a long vowel or diphthong ending with more than one
consonant will attract stress. This rule applies to both ultimate and the penultimate syllables.
Besides, if the second syllable and third syllable contain short vowels, the first syllable takes stress.
Longer words (more than three syllables):
Primary stress on the antepenultimate syllable
e.g. credi"bility, com"municate, methodo"logical.
11) Complex word stress
Complex words
1) words derived from a basic form (base or stem) with the addition of an affix
person > personality (suffix)
pleasant > unpleasant (prefix)
impossible > im-bloody-possible (infix)
2) compound words (words usually made of two independent words, e.g. ice-cream, armchair)
Affixes are of two sorts in English: prefixes, which come before the stem, and suffixes, which come
after the stem.
Derived words
Suffixes (prefixes are less regular, so we’ll ignore them)
(1) stress on the suffix
-ee: train > trainee (vs. trainer)
treIn > %treI"ni:
-ese: journal > journalese
"dZ3:.n@l > %dZ3:.n@"li:z
-ette: cigar > cigaret(te)
sI"gA:, s@- > %sIg.@"ret
-esque: picture > picturesque
"pIk.tS@ > %pIk.tS@"resk
(2) stress on the last syllable of the base
-eous, -graphy, -ial, -ic, -ion, -ious, -ty, -ive
-eous: advantage > advantageous
@d"vA:n.tIdZ > %{d.v@n"teI.dZ@s, -vA:n"-, -v{n"-
-ic: atom > atomic
"{t.@m > @"tQm.Ik
-ious: injure > injurious
"In.dZ@ > In"dZU@.ri.@s, -"dZO:-
-ive: reflex > reflexive
"ri:.fleks > rI"flek.sIv, r@-
(3) stress not affected
-able, -age, -al, -en, -ful, -ing, -ish, -like, -less, -ly, -ment, -ness, -ous, -fy, -wise, -y
-able: comfort > comfortable
p p p
"kVm f.@t > "kVm f.t@.bl=, "kVm .f@.t@-
-age: block > blockage
blQk > "blQk.IdZ
-al: refuse (v.), refusal
@
rI"fju:z, r@- > rI"fju:.z l, r@-
Compound words
Their main characteristic is that they can be analysed into two words, both of which can exist
independently as English words. Compounds are written in different ways: sometimes they are
written as one word (e.g. ‘armchair’, ‘sunflower’); sometimes with the words separated by a hyphen
(e.g. ‘open-minded’, ‘cost-effective’); and sometimes with two words separated by a space (e.g.
‘desk lamp’, ‘battery charger’). Normally, in N + N compounds stress is on the first element:
(1) "type%writer
(2) "car-%ferry
(3) "sun%rise
(4) "suit%case
(5) "tea-%cup
An interesting contrast:
(1) an "English teacher (a teacher who teaches English)
(2) an English "teacher (a teacher who is English)
(3) a "doll’s house (a kind of house)
(4) my brother’s "house (not a kind of house!)
(5) "goat’s milk (a kind of milk)
(6) the goat’s "tail (not a kind of tail)
But there are exceptions: a child’s "bicycle (a kind of bicycle)

Some exceptions (mainly based on grammar)

-The first element is an adjective and the second element ends in –ed:
%bad-"tempered
%half-"timbered
(A half-timbered house is usually old and shows the wooden structure of the building on the outside
walls.)
%heavy-"handed
-The first element is a number:
%second-"class
%five-"finger
(e.g. five- finger exercise: on the piano; fig. an easy task)

%three-"wheeler
((BrEng) a car that has three wheels ; (AmEng) a vehicle that has three wheels, especially a motorcycle, tricycle, or special
wheelchair)

-The first element functions as an adverb:

%head-"first
(e.g. I fell head-first down the stairs)

%north-"east
%down"stream
(e.g. a boat drifting downstream)

-Nouns ending in –er or –ing + particle:

hanger-"on
 passer-"by
washing-"up
-–ing + noun if the compound suggests a characteristic of the object, with no idea of aiding an
activity:

leading "article
running "water
casting "vote
sliding "scale
vs.
"sewing machine
"running shoes
"scrubbing brush
"washing machine
Manufacturers rule:
These compounds are stressed on the first component only because they do not specify the material
they’re made of
apple "pie vs. "apple tree
plum "brandy vs. "plum stone
paper "bag vs. "paper clip
cotton "socks vs. "cotton reel
diamond "bracelet vs. "diamond cutter

Location rule:
Compounds which contain a location receive the level of stress. Only place names that contain
‘street’ do not fall under the Location rule and are pronounced with initial stress.
Scotch ˈmist Notting ˈHill Churchill ˈWay
Lancashire ˈhotpot Silicon ˈValley Fifth ˈAvenue
Bermuda ˈshorts Botany ˈBay
Brighton ˈrock Hyde ˈPark
London ˈpride (the) Severn ˈBridge but:
Paddington ˈStation ˈChurch Street
Carnegie ˈHall ˈTrafalgar Street
Manchester Uˈnited

-parts of a building
back "door
bedroom "window
garden "seat
office "chair
front "room

but:
 "living room
"drawing room
-positioning and (to some extent) time
left "wing
Middle "Ages
upper "class
bottom "line
morning "star
afternoon "tea
January "sales
April "showers
summer "holiday
-food items (they are covered by the ‘Manufacturers Rule’ or the ‘Location Rule’)
Worcester "sauce
Welsh "rabbit
Christmas "pudding
fish "soup
but:
"chicken liver
"vine leaves
-bread: "shortbread
-cake: "Christmas cake, "carrot cake
-juice: "orange juice
-paste: "fish paste

-Words withdesert
identical spelling belonging to two different word-classes:
     (N)     
escort     (N)       but     also possible
export      (N)          
import     (N)     but  also possible
insult    (N)   
object           (N)       
perfect     (A)       
permit     (N)    
present      (N, A)       
produce           (N)        
protest      (N)     
rebel     (N)    
record     (note AmE     ) (N)     (V)
subject           (N)          but           also
possible

Remember that there is a lot of variation!

 distribute        
exquisite              
formidable           
irreparable (___ non-RP)      
irrevocable       
kilometre          
lamentable           
necessarily           
preferable (___ non-RP)      
primarily               
reputable (___ non-RP)      
temporarily         

(double underlining: preferred stress; only BrE shown)

The list on the previous slide shows instances of idiolectal variation, see also:
"ice-%cream, %ice-"cream
Further, there’s variation due to connected speech:
a "bad-tempered "teacher
a "half-timbered "house
a "heavy-handed "sentence

9) Strong and weak syllables

Strong vs. weak syllables (they differ in stress)
(1) "fA:.D@ (father)
(2) "h{p.i (happy)
(3) "T{Nk ju (thank you)
(4) "bQt.l (bottle)
@ @
[dictionaries: "bQt. l "bQt l]
(5) "Tret.n (threaten)
@ @
[dictionaries: "Tret. n "Tret n]
When we compare weak syllables with strong syllables, we find the vowel in a weak syllable tends
to be shorter, of lower intensity (loudness) and different in quality. Any strong syllable will have as
its peak one of the vowel phonemes (or possibly a diphthong or a triphthong), but not ə, i, u. If the
vowel is one of ɪ, e, æ, ʌ, ɒ, ʊ, then the strong syllable will always have a coda as well. /@/, /i/,
and /u/ don’t occur in strong syllables, nor do syllabic consonants like /l/, /n/. Weak syllables
have a small number of possible peaks and they can have no coda. Possible peaks: the vowel ə
(“schwa”); a close front unrounded vowel in the general area of i:, ɪ, symbolised i; a close back
rounded vowel in the general area of u:, ʊ, symbolised u.
The @ vowel (‘schwa’) is a mid, central, lax vowel (the lips are in neutral position). It corresponds
to many different spellings: <a>, <ar>, <ate>, <o>, <or>, <e>, <er>, <u>, <ough>, <ou>.

/i/ and /u/ are close front and close back vowels, respectively. It is difficult to distinguish
between /i:/ and /I/ and /u:/ and /U/ in unstressed syllables. Still, they are more like /i:/ and /u:/
when they precede another vowel, less so when they precede a consonant or pause.
Where do we find i?
i. <-y>, <-ey> and in morphologically related words before a vowel (e.g. "hVr.i.IN)
ii. unstressed <re->, <pre->, <de-> + vowel (e.g. ri."{kt)
iii. <-iate>, <-ious> (e.g. @."pri:.Si.eIt, hI"le@.ri.@s)
iv. he, she, we, me, be, the (+ vowel) (all unstressed)
Notice that /i/ and /@/ in hI"le@.ri.@s can be compressed into a single syllable, producing a crescendo (or
rising) diphthong:
hI"le@.ri.@s > hI"le@.rj@s
In LPD: hI "le@r i@s
rising (or crescendo) diphthong:
2nd element more prominent than 1st one
falling (or diminuendo) diphthong:
1st element more prominent than 2nd one
NB /je/ in yes /jes/ could be analysed as a crescendo diphthong (rather than semiconsonant + vowel)

How would you transcribe lenient using LPD conventions?

"li:n i@nt
= "li:n i @nt (slower), "li:n j@nt (faster)

Where do we find u?
i) you, to, into, do (all unstressed and not immediately preceding a consonant)
ii) through, who (all unstressed)
iii) within a word: before another vowel (e.g. "mju:.tSu.@l)
Notice that /u/ and /@/ in "In.flu.@ns can be compressed into a single syllable, producing a
crescendo diphthong:
"In.flu.@ns (slower) > "In.flw@ns (faster)
In LPD: "In flu@ns

Syllabic consonants
These consonants stand as the peak of the syllable instead of the vowel, and we count these as weak
syllables like the vowel examples given earlier in this chapter.
Syllabic l
- It occurs after another consonant.
- It is dark.
- In less common words or more technical words /@l/ can be used instead:
e.g. "bQt.l vs. @"kwIt.@l or @"kwIt.l
[NB The notation "bQt.l is redundant (cf. non-redundant "bQtl and "bQt.l). Still, we’ll be using it
for the sake of clarity.]
 Syllabic n
- More restricted than l, n is most common (medially and finally) after alveolar plosives
and fricatives:
e.g. "Tret.n and "sev.n
- A sequence of two consonants + n is unlikely: London is normally "lVnd.@n

Syllabic m and N̍
They occur only as a result of processes such as elision and assimilation:
"hp.m
(also: "hp.n̩, "hp.@n)
"br@U.kN̍ ki:
(also: "br@U.kn̩, "br@U.k@n)

Syllabic r
It is very common in rhotic accents:
particular pr."tIk.@.lr

Syllabic consonants can be found together:

national "nSnl
Warning: it is often difficult to say whether a speaker has pronounced a syllabic consonant, a non-
syllabic consonant, or a non-syllabic consonant plus @.

Syllabic consonants in dictionaries

@
"bt l (both CPD and LPD)
="bt.l (more likely/recommended)
"bt.@l (less likely/not recommended)
@
"dIst @nt (LPD only, cf. "dIs.t nt in CPD)
="dIst.@nt (more likely/recommended)
"dIst.nt (less likely/not recommended)
(notice difference in syllabification between LPD and CPD in distant).

PolysyllablesWith polysyllables, primary stress must be placed before the stressed syllable in
each word.

12) Weak forms

We will consider certain well-known English words that can be pronounced in two different ways:
these are called strong forms and weak forms.
Ex: aI laIk Dt (strong form)
aI h@Up D@t Si wIl (weak form)
Such words are usually function (or grammatical) words.
It is important to remember that there are certain contexts where only the strong form is acceptable,
and others where the weak form is the normal pronunciation. Some tendencies:
1) the strong form is used if some kind of emphasis is implied (e.g. contrast, co-ordination, stress,
citation);
2) the strong form is used at the end of a rhythmic group, except for pronouns (unless they are used
emphatically);
3) weak forms beginning with <h> have /h/ at the beginning of a rhythmic group;
4) a preposition preceding a pronoun can be used in strong or weak form,
e.g I was looking for you ["fO:ju, f@"ju]
([j@] is also possible here)

In general, stressed vowels become schwas

vowels  @
except for
i;  i
u;  u (but also @)*
I  I * E.g. in to, do, you.
The most common weak forms:
 the
D@ before consonants ‘Shut the door’
Di before vowels ‘Wait for the end’
 a, an
@ before consonants ‘Read a book’
@n before vowels ‘Eat an apple’
 and
@n ‘Come and see’
n sometimes after /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /S/
‘Fish and chips’
 but
b@t ‘It’s good but expensive’
 that
D@t weak form only in its relative sense
 [in its demonstrative sense always strong form]
‘The price is the thing that annoys me’
 than
D@n ‘Better than ever’
 his (when it occurs before a noun)
Iz ‘Take his name’
hIz at the beginning of a sentence
‘His name is Joe’
 her (adjective)
@ before consonants ‘She made her decision’
@r before vowels ‘Write down her address’
h@ when sentence initial ‘Her job is demanding’
 your
j@ before consonants ‘Take your time’
j@r before vowels ‘On your own’
 she
Si ‘Why did she read it?’ ‘Who is she?’

 he
i ‘Which did he choose?’
hi at the beginning of a sentence
‘He was late.’
 we
wi ‘How can we get there?’
 you
ju ‘What do you think?’
 him
Im ‘Leave him alone’
 her
@ ‘Ask her to come’
h@ when sentence initial ‘Her not him’
 them
D@m ‘Leave them here’
 us
@s ‘Write us a letter’
 at
@t ‘I’ll see you at lunch’
&t in final position ‘What’s he shooting at?’
 for
f@ before consonants ‘Tea for two’
f@r before vowels ‘Thanks for asking’
fO; in final position ‘What’s that for?’
 from
fr@m ‘I’m home from work’
frQm in final position
‘Here’s where it came from’
 of
@v ‘Most of all’
Qv in final position ‘Someone I’ve heard of’
 to
t@ before consonants ‘Try to stop’
tu before vowels ‘Time to eat’
tu in final position ‘I don’t want to’
 as
@z ‘As much as possible’
&z in final position ‘That’s what it was sold as’
 some
meaning “an unknown individual”: strong form sVm ‘I think some animal broke it’
meaning “an unspecified amount/number of”: weak form s@m ‘Have some more tea’
in final position sVm ‘I’ve got some’
 there
in its demonstrative function:
De@ (De@r before vowels) ‘There it is’

in its existential function

D@ (D@r before vowels) ‘There should be a rule’
‘There is a reason’
 D@ or De@ in final position ‘There isn’t any, is there?
 can, could
k@n, k@d ‘They can wait’ ‘He could do it’
in final position k&n, kUd
‘I think we can’ ‘Most of them could’
 have, has, had
@v, @z, @d (with h in initial position)
‘Which have you seen?’, ‘Which has been best?’, ‘Most had gone home’
h&v, h&z, h&d in final position
‘Yes, we have’, ‘I think she has’, ‘I thought we had’
 shall, should
S@l or Sl, S@d ‘We shall need to hurry’, ‘I should forget it’
S&l, SUd in final position
‘I think we shall’, ‘So you should’
 must (OBLIGATION)
m@s before consonants ‘You must try harder’
m@st before vowels ‘He must eat more’
mVst in final position ‘She certainly must’
 do
d@ before consonants ‘Why do they like it?’
du before vowels ‘Why do all the cars stop?’
du; in final position ‘We don’t smoke, but some people do’
 does
d@z ‘When does it arrive?’
dVz in final position ‘I think John does’
 am
@m ‘Why am I here?’
&m in final position ‘She’s not as old as I am’
 are
@ before consonants ‘Here are the plates’
@r before vowels ‘The coats are in there’
A; in final position ‘I know the Smiths are’
 was
 w@z ‘He was here a minute ago’
wQz in final position ‘The last record was’
 were
w@ before consonants ‘The papers were late’
w@r before vowels ‘The questions were easy’
w3; in final position ‘They weren’t as cold as we were’
Use of strong forms
• Contrast
The letter’s from him, not to him
D@ "let@z "frQm Im nQt "tu: Im
• Co-ordination
I travel to and from London a lot
aI "tr&vl "tu: @n "frQm "lVnd@n @ "lQt
• Emphasis
You must give me more money
ju "mVst "gIv mi "mO: "mVni
• When words are quoted or cited
You should’t put “and” at the end of a sentence
ju "SUdnt pUt "&nd @t Di "end @v @ "sent@ns
14) Aspects of connected speech
Rhythm
The notion of rhythm involves some noticeable event happening at regular intervals of time; one
can detect the rhythm of a heartbeat, of a flashing light or of a piece of music. It is often claimed
that English speech is rhythmical, and that the rhythm is detectable in the regular occurrence of
stressed syllables. Let’s mark the stressed syllable in the following sentence (stress falls on ‘open-
class’ or ‘content’ words)
"Walk "down the "path to the "end of the ca"nal
English is a stress-timed language: stressed syllables are said to occur at (relatively) regular
intervals. By contrast, Italian is usually classified as a syllable-timed language (all syllables tend to
have the same length).
Some writers have developed theories of English rhythm in which a unit of rhythm, the foot, is
used. The foot begins with a stressed syllable and includes all following unstressed syllables up to
(but not including) the following stressed syllable. In the previous example there are 5 feet (you
start with a stressed syllable and include all unstressed syllables up to, but not including, the
following stressed syllable).
 Walk down the path to the end of the ca nal
1 2 3 4 5

Some theories divide feet into strong and weak.

It seems that stresses are altered according to context. Further, stress-timed rhythm may be
characteristic of some styles, not of English as a whole. Sometimes we speak very rhythmically
(this is typical of some styles of public speaking) while other times we may speak arrhythmically
(i.e. without rhythm) if we are hesitant or nervous. The difference between stress-timed and
syllable-timed languages is controversial. What is really important in the case of English is the
difference between strong and weak syllables.

Assimilation
Assuming that we know how the phonemes of a particular word would be realised when the word is
pronounced in isolation, in cases where we find a phoneme realised differently as a result of being
near some other phoneme belonging to a neighbouring word, we call this difference an instance of
assimilation (usually found in rapid, casual speech).
Generally speaking, the cases that have most often been described are assimilations affecting
consonants. As an example, consider a case where two words are combines, the first of which ends
with a single final consonant (which we will call Cf) and the second of which starts with a single
initial consonant (which we will call Ci ); we can construct a diagram like this: Cf | Ci
If Cf changes to become like Ci in some way, then the assimilation is called regressive (the
phoneme that comes first is affected by the one that comes after it); if C i changes to become like Cf
in some way, then the assimilation is called progressive. In what ways can a consonant change? We
have seen that the main differences between consonants are of three types:
I. Differences in place of articulation: where Cf is alveolar and Ci is not alveolar.
Ex.: -‘t’ will become ‘p’ before a bilabial consonant ‘that person’ ; 'light blue'
; 'meat pie' .
-Before a dental consonant, ‘t’ will change to a dental plosive, for which the phonetic symbol is ‘t̪ ‘:
‘that thing’ ; ‘get those’ ; ‘cut through’ .
-Before a velar consonant, the ‘t’ will become ‘k’: ‘that case’ ; ‘bright colour’
; ‘quite good’ .
-In similar contexts, ‘n’ would become ‘m’, ‘n̪’ and ‘ŋ’: ‘ten people’ ; ‘ten
things’ ; ‘broken key’ ̍.
-/s/ and /z/ are less affected:
s > S before S, j DIS Su:
z > Z before S, j D@UZ jI@z
II. Assimilation of manner is much less noticeable and is only found in the most rapid and
casual speech; generally speaking, the tendency is again for regressive assimilation and the
 change in manner is most likely to be towards an “easier” consonant – one which makes less
obstruction to the airflow.
It is thus possible to find cases where a final plosive becomes a fricative or a nasal: e.g. ‘that said’
; ’good night’ .
In one particular case we find progressive assimilation of manner, when a word-initial ð follows a
plosive or nasal at the end of a preceding word: it is very common to find that the C i becomes
identical in manner to the Cf but with dental place of articulation. For example: ‘in the’ ;
’get them’ ; ‘read these’ .
III. Assimilation of voice: limited, in connected speech only regressive and only involving
devoicing.
Ex.: ‘supposed to’: s@"p@Uzd t@ > s@"p@Ust t@
‘have to’: hv t@ > hf t@
NB Assimilation occurs also word-internally and takes place without exception:
tenth, bank, plural –sthe suffix ‘-s’ will be pronounced as ‘s’ if the preceding consonant is
fortis and as ‘z’ if the preceding consonant is lenis.
Word-internally, progressive assimilation of voice also affects:
- Third person plural <-s> in verbs
- The suffix <-ed> in verb conjugation when realised as /t/ (when preceded by a fortis consonant)
and /d/ (when preceded by a lenis consonant).
Elision
The nature of elision may be stated quite simply: under certain circumstances sounds disappear.
One might express this in more technical language by saying in that in certain circumstances a
phoneme may have zero realisation or be deleted. As with assimilation, elision is typical of rapid,
casual speech.
i. loss of weak vowel after p, t, k: potato, tomato, canary, perhaps, today

ph"teIt@U, th"mA:t@U, kh"ne@ri, ph"hps, th"deI

ii. weak vowel + n, l, r  n, l, r become syllabic: tonight, police, correct
tnaIt, pli:s, krekt
iii. avoidance of complex consonant clusters: George the Sixth’s throne, acts, looked back,
scripts
sIks Tr@Un, ks, lUk bk, skrIps
iv. loss of –v in ‘of’ before consonants: lots of them, waste of money
lts @ D@m, weIst @ "mVni
v. contractions: had, is, has, will, have, not, are, etc.
Linking and intrusive [r]
Linkingthe phoneme r does not occur in syllable-final position in the BBC accent, but when the
spelling of a word suggests a final r, and a word beginning with a vowel follows, the usual
pronunciation is to pronounce the r.
IntrusiveBBC speakers often use r in a similar way to link words ending with a vowel, even when
there
here is
areno “justification” fromA the spelling.draw it
Formula
four eggs Australia all out raw egg
media event law and order
idea of it the spa at Bath
India and China nougat and chocolate
vodka and tonic drawing

Juncture
Juncture refers to breaks or pauses in speech that indicate words or other grammatical units.
“Linking r” and “intrusive r” are special cases of juncture. It allows an English speaker not to
confuse the following pairs:
maI t:n [my turn] vs. maIt :n [might earn]
maIt reIn [might rain] vs. maI treIn [my train]
O:l D@t aIm A:ft@ t@deI [all that I’m after today] vs. O:l D@ taIm A:ft@ t@deI [all the
time after today]
hi: laIz vs. hi:l aIz
ki:p stIkIN [keep sticking] vs. ki:ps tIkIN [keeps ticking]

 Intonation
The study of intonation is part of suprasegmental phonology (vs. segmental). Intonation is linked
to pitch (auditory sensation).
Pitch (auditory sensation) vs. fundamental frequency
Pitch differences are linguistically significant when:
1) they are under the speaker’s control,
2) they are perceptible.
Word stress, which is confusingly
sometimes used interchangeably with
accent, is where the emphasis is put in a
sentence. Word stress is achieved by
adjusting the loudness, length and, yes,
the pitch of a syllable. The word stress in
“emphasis,” for example, is on the first
syllable.
Accent is a physical mark on a syllable to
indicate stress, pitch or vowel quality.
These marks are called ‘diacritics’.
English does not use diacritics in its
spelling system. (This is most likely
because original English words are mainly monosyllabic, so diacritical marks such as accent were
not needed.)
Utterance: a continuous piece of speech beginning and ending with a clear pause.
Minimal utterance: one syllable.
Tone: the overall behaviour of the pitch: level vs. moving (e.g. falling, rising)
_yes _no
 yes  no
 yes  no
 yes  no (complex tone: fall-rise)
 yes no
 (complex tone: rise-fall)
We ignore differences between high and low level tones.
In ordinary speech, the intonation tends to take place within the lower part of the speaker’s pitch
range (extra pitch height is symbolised by ↑, e.g. ↑yes).
Is English a tone language? Tonal languages are different from non-tonal languages because tonal
languages are dependant on the emphasis and pronunciation, because how a word is said will affect
its meaning. English may seem tonal because if you say one word a certain way, it has the potential
to change the meaning of the sentence it is in, or at the very least, change its entire sound. But
English is not tonal, it simply uses intonation. Intonation is the changes in your pitch of voice that
convey different meanings by showing the individual’s different feelings.
Within each intonation phrase, we select one word as particularly important for the meaning. This is
where we place the nucleus (or nuclear accent), the syllable that bears the nuclear tone (a fall, rise,
or fall-rise). Pragmatically, we accent a word by accenting its stressed syllable (or at least one of
them if it has more than one). This indicates the importance or relevance of the word for what we
are saying.
The most important decision the speaker makes in selecting an intonation pattern is to decide where
the nucleus goes: which is the last word to be accented. By doing this the speaker chooses the
tonicity of the intonation phrase. But how do we decide where the nucleus should go? First, we
know that the nucleus must go on a stressed syllable. By ‘stressed syllable’ we mean the syllable
that has lexical stress. To make a word the nucleus of an IP (intonation phrase), we put a nuclear
tone on (or starting on) the lexically stressed syllable. To produce an English intonation pattern
correctly is essential, therefore, to know which syllable in each word bears the stress.

Form vs. function of English tones

It is not always possible to state what the function of a tone is but we can identify some tendencies.
- Fall: “neutral”, finalityin a falling nuclear tone the pitch of the voice starts relatively high
and then moves downwards.
A: Have you seen Ann?
B:  No.
- Rise: invitation to continue (e.g. in instructions or directions)in a rising nuclear tone the
pitch of the voice starts relatively low and then moves upwards.
A: You start off on the ring road…
B: yes
A: turn left at the first roundabout…
B: yes
A: and ours is the third house on the left.

A: Have you seen Ann?

B: no (vs. no)
A: Do you know what the longest balloon flight was?

B: no (vs. no)

- Fall-rise: limited agreement (non-finality), reservations about what is saidin a fall-rise
nuclear tone, the pitch starts relatively high and then moves first downwards and then
upwards again.
A: I’ve heard that it’s a good school.
B:  yes

A: It’s not really an expensive book, is it?

B:  no
- Rise-fall: strong feeling
A: You wouldn’t do an awful thing like that, would you?
B:  no

A: Isn’t the view lovely!

B:  yes
- Level: routine, uninteresting (e.g. roll-call, routine questions)
There are three sizes available, _SMALL, _MEdium and LARGE.
is it you
three-syllable utterance consisting of one tone-unit;
The only syllable that carries a tone (i.e. the tonic syllable or nucleus) is the third one.
John is it you
four-syllable utterance consisting of two tone-units
Alternative names for tone-unit: tone group, intonation phrase

Simple tone-unit
Head: the part of a tone-unit that extends from the first stressed syllable (the onset of the head) up
to the tonic syllable. Remember that stressed words are (usually) content words (nouns, adjectives,
verbs, adverbs), but see also below.
‘Bill ‘called to ‘give me these
Pre-head: all the unstressed syllables preceding the first stressed syllable.
in a ‘little ‘less than an hour
Tail: all the syllables following the tonic syllable up to the end of the tone-unit
look at it
both of them were ˙here
NB. If there is a tail, the pitch movement is not completed on the tonic syllable (see the previous
two examples). In such cases, the tonic syllable is the syllable on which the pitch movement of the
tone begins.
In sum:
(PH) (H) TS (T)
where (usually) H begins with the first stressed content word and TS belongs to the last stressed
content word. But the issue of tonicity (i.e. where the nucleus goes), in particular, deserves closer
scrutiny.
More generally, we’ll be discussing the following cases:
A. Onset (i.e. beginning of the head) on a function word
B. Final, but not nuclear
C. Phrasal verbs
D. Nucleus on last noun
E. Event sentences (an instance of D)
We’ll see that there is a tendency for the nucleus to go on the last nominal element which is in
focus (i.e. it is not given) and is outside a locative/temporal adverbial phrase.

A. Onset on a function word

(In the following examples the head is in blue and tonic syllable in red.)
- Interrogative wh-words are stressed:
‘Who wrote the report?
‘How do you feel?
but:
This is the officer │ who ‘wrote the report.
What happens to nucleus placement when a (direct or indirect) question has the pattern
wh-word + be + pronoun
(i.e. it contains only function words)?
The nucleus goes on the verb be.
‘How are you?
‘Tell me how you are.
‘What is it?
‘Tell me what it is.
(Welcome back!) ‘How’s it been?
‘Tell me how it’s been.
but:
‘Who’s she? (pointing at somebody)
‘Who’s that? (hearing somebody at the door)
‘Who is that? (knocking at the door continues)
‘How old are you?
‘What’s it for?
‘What’s this button for?
- Demonstratives and place adverb there are readily stressed:
‘That’s an interesting point.

‘There he sat │ "drinking his beer.

but:
That ‘anyone should forget │ was unthinkable.

There’s ‘nothing we can do.

- In yes-no questions, an initial auxiliary or modal is optionally stressed:

‘Did you re member? Or Did you re member?

 
‘Can you swim? Or Can you swim?
 
- An initial contracted negative verb is almost always accented, so too is the word not.
‘Haven’t we been here be fore?

I’m ‘not really sure.

- The modals ought, used, need, dare are usually stressed even in statements. The other
auxiliaries and modals are also often stressed in statements if by doing so we avoid an
awkwardly long prehead. May, might, and should are usually stressed. Deontic must, unlike
epistemic must, is usually not stressed.
I ‘used to live in San Diego.
I’m ‘going to be late for work. or I’m going to be late for work.
She ‘must be late. (epistemic must)
You must re’member to brush your teeth. (deontic must)
- Pronouns are stressed not only when contrastive, but also when coordinated or to signal a
change of grammatical subject or object.
‘You do the ironing │ and ‘I’ll wash the floor. (contrast)
‘You and I │ could ‘sort it out quickly. (coordination)
‘Bill told Mary │ and then ‘she told Jennifer. (object  subject)
- Prepositions and subordinating conjunctions which have considerable semantic content or
are polysyllabic may be stressed.
(‘)On the table │ you’ll ‘find a glass.

vs.
 By a re’markable coincidence │ …

Al’though I tried my best │ …

vs.
If you ‘really can’t wait │ …

When prepositions or other grammatical items are coordinated, they are usually stressed (see also
above on coordinated pronouns):
‘To and (‘)from work.

‘If and (‘)when he re turns │…


B. Final, but not nuclear

- Empty words and pro-forms
I ‘keep seeing things.
‘What are you going to tell people?
They’re ‘really going places.
‘Have a word with the guy.
(= ‘Have a word with him.)
I ‘can’t stand that woman.
(= I ‘can’t stand her.)
For  some reason │ (I keep forgetting to do it.)

In  some cases │ (the answer is obvious.)

 Some days │ (I feel very depressed.)

(‘Can I borrow your ruler? │) I ‘haven’t got one.

(‘Can I borrow some sugar? │) I ‘haven’t got any.

- Adverbs of time and place
‘Did you see Big Brother on television last night?
He’s ‘got a tattoo on his arm.
There’s a fly in my soup.
(vs. C’è una ‘mosca nella minestra.)
But they can bear the nucleus in a separate intonation phrase:
We’re ‘going to Brighton tomorrow.
We’re ‘going to Brighton │ tomorrow.
Adverbs of time and place are stressed if the sense of the verb would be incomplete without the
final adverbial:
‘Put it on the table.

‘Write the details in the book.

- Descriptive adverbs (e.g. adverbs of manner), on the other hand, tend to bear the nucleus:
She ex’pressed her views honestly.

She ‘walks with a noticeable limp.


C. Phrasal verbs

‘How are you getting on?


It’s ‘time to drink up.

but:

(Here are the photos. │) ‘May I look at them?


‘Which of them can you really re ly on?

NB. If the particle is separated from the verb by an object which is not given, then the particle is
not stressed:
‘Take your shoes off.

‘Take them off.

(to someone who has just heard a good joke)
You ought to ‘write these jokes down.


D. Nucleus on last noun

The nucleus is put on a NOUN where possible.

‘Which colour do you prefer?

‘Which do you prefer?

‘What did Mary do?

‘What did she do?

I’ll ‘get the table ready.

 I’ll ‘get it ready.

This is very common with defining relative clauses:

‘Look at what she’s wearing!

‘Look at the shoes she’s wearing!


E. Event sentences

(i.e. They can be thought of as answers to the question “What happened”?)

These are sentences describing an event, where the verb is intransitive. The nucleus tends to be
located on the subject, provided it is lexically filled, even if the verb contains apparently new
information. This is also a case of “nucleus on last noun”.
The radio’s gone wrong.


Back to functions

Tendencies:
fall: finality, definiteness
rise: general questions, listing, “more to follow”
fall-rise: uncertainty, requesting
rise-fall: surprise
Statements, commands and wh-questions typically involve falling tones, whereas yes/no questions
and non-final clauses usually have rising nuclei:
Statements:
She ‘carefully read the instructions.
Commands:

Tell me about it.

Wh-questions:
‘What’s the best way to roast a goose?
Yes/No questions:

‘Will it be ready by Friday?


Non-final clauses:

Al’though Oliver promised to help │ (he ‘let us down.)

 
What about lists?
This train is for Leeds, York, Darlington and Durham.
But remember that these are just general tendencies. For example, wh-questions may be said with a
rising pattern. The rising pattern makes them sound more friendly (whereas the falling pattern
makes them sound more distant):
‘What’s your name?

(e.g. a policeman interviewing a suspect)

‘What’s your name?

(e.g. meeting someone you like)

In fact, intonation can be used to ‘disambiguate’ sentences:
The Conservatives who like the proposal are pleased. (ambiguous)
The price is going up. (used as a statement vs. question)
They are coming on Tuesday, aren’t they? (provide confirmation vs. request for information)

Summing up (nucleus in red):

… noun verb
adjective
particle
… pronoun/Ø verb
adjective
particle
NB. Final prepositions are never stressed (although strong forms, with the exception of to, are used)
unless all other elements in the intonation phrase are function words (e.g. What is it for? vs. What
is it?).
There is a tendency for the nucleus to go on the last nominal element which is in focus (i.e. it is not
given) and is outside a locative/temporal adverbial phrase.

Intonation in EFL
As in other areas of foreign or second language learning, learners of English will tend to start by
assuming that English is like their own first language. They will transfer the intonation habits of the
L1 to the L2. To some extent, this assumption may well be correct. All those elements of intonation
that are truly universal must, by definition, apply to English just as they do to other languages.
Depending on the learner’s L1, there may indeed be many other, non-universal, elements of
intonation that are the same in English as in the L1, thus allowing their positive transfer to the
learner’s use of English (his or her so-called interlanguage). For example, German and Dutch have
tonicity systems extremely similar to that of English, so that German and Dutch learners already
know this part of English intonation. French, however, does not use tonicity because of their
negative transfer of the French system to English. Unchecked, the assumption that English is like
your L1 thus leads to interference from the L1 as inappropriate elements are transferred.