Degree in English Studies. English Pronunciation.

Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

Topic 2: The English Language and Variation

Unit 6. Phonological transcription symbols

Lecture 6

The aims of Unit 6 are:

To understand and be able to explain in English how speech sounds

are classified

To understand the main differences between phonemic transcription

and phonetic transcription

To know the IPA symbols

To introduce students to the basics of phonemic transcription

To introduce students to basic vowel sounds.

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Degree in English Studies. English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

Phonological transcription symbols

1. Classifying speech sounds

Our articulators enable us to make an infinite number of different

speech sounds, but in our scientific study we need some way of
bringing order into the apparent chaos of all these different sounds.
The most fundamental division we can make is between vowels and
consonants. Within each of these basic categories, we can make finer
and finer distinctions. It is interesting to compare our science with
other sciences, such as botany or zoology. The world is full of plants
and animals of amazing variety, and each of them must be put into a
scientific category; to do this requires a taxonomy of plants or
animals, a framework for classification. If a new plant or animal is
discovered, a botanist or a zoologist will try to decide whether it
belongs within an existing family or group, or whether a new class
must be created. We do the same with the great variety of speech
sounds we find being used in the world’s languages.
For each language we examine, we are able to identify a
number of phonemes which function in that particular language as
distinctive, namely they distinguish meanings of different words in
the language. The difference between /p/ and /b/ in English causes
us to hear the difference between the words pin and bin; the

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Degree in English Studies. English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

difference between /e/ and /æ/ makes the difference between bed
and bad. In the theory of the phoneme, the phoneme is abstract (like
a letter of the alphabet), and what you hear is the realization of the
phoneme, specifically its physical form. Phonemes can have several
different physical forms, or allophones, e.g. /i/ is an allophone of /ɪ/
in such words as: happy /’hapi/, hobby /’hɒbi/, lady /’leidi/.
When we have decided what category a sound belongs in, we
can represent it with a symbol. It is a long-established convention
that when one wishes to distinguish between symbols for the
phonemes of a particular language and IPA symbols for allophones,
or for sounds in general, one should put the symbols between
different brackets. Phoneme symbols should be between slant
brackets, e.g. /t/. By contrast, phonetic symbols should be between
square brackets, e.g. [t]. As an example, we will look at the word
ostrich. We can write this relatively simply in phonemic transcription
as /'ɒstrɪʧ/; however, we might want to be more precise about the
exact pronunciation. The /r/ is usually a voiceless sound in this
context and can be represented phonetically as /ɹ/. Most English
speakers have rounded lips for /ʧ/ which is, therefore, transcribed
phonetically as ['ɒstɹiʔtʃw]; they also tend to put a glottal stop [ʔ] in
front of [tʃw]. A phonetic transcription of ostrich, then could look like
this: [’ɒstɹi ʔtʃw]. When all the classification possibilities available to
phoneticians have been listed, they can be put together in the form of
a chart, the best known of which is the IPA (International Phonetic
Association) Chart, which is shown in Figure 1 below.
The choice of symbols for the representation of RP is one which
has provoked much discussion, but since the 1980s there has existed,
largely as a result of pressure from the major ELT publishers, a de
facto standard set of symbolization conventions which have remained
almost unchanged to the present day. It is widely accepted that some
modification of these conventions is needed to take account of
observable changes in the pronunciation of English, but it is felt to be

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Degree in English Studies. English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

important that such modifications should not be introduced without

general agreement among practitioners of English phonetics so that
the benefits of a common system of transcription enjoyed over the
last twenty or thirty years should not be lost.

References

Roach, P. (2004). “British English: Received Pronunciation”. Journal of the

International Phonetic Association: Illustrations of the IPA, 34/2:
239-245. United Kingdom
Roach, P. (2001). Phonetics. Series Editor H. G. Widdowson. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, pp.17-18.
O’ Connor, J. D. (1991). Phonetics. London: Penguin, pp. 126-127.

Seminar 1

Read the text above carefully and answer the

following questions:

1. Why is it important to classify speech sounds?

Our articulators enable us to make an infinite number of different

speech sounds, but in our scientific study we need some way of
bringing order into the apparent chaos of all these different sounds.

2. How can speech sounds be broadly classified?

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Degree in English Studies. English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

They can be classified in two categories, vocals and consonants

3. In what ways does phonetics resemble botany or zoology?

4. What is a phoneme? Illustrate your answer with three examples.

5. What is an allophone? Illustrate your answer with at least one

example.

6. Explain the main differences between phonemic transcription and

phonetic transcription. Illustrate your answer with one example.

7. What does the IPA Chart consist of?

8. Has the choice of the IPA symbols been a source of controversy?

9. Why do you think it is an advantage for scientific research to have

a permanent set of phonemic symbols?

10. Summarize the main contents of the reading passage above in

the box below (250 words).

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Degree in English Studies. English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

Seminar 2

Phonemic transcription

1. Look at the consonant sounds /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /l/ and /r/,
and think what English letters, combinations of letters or
positions of letters in a word give these sounds.

Figure 2. The English phonemic chart

2. Study the phonemic transcription of the excerpt from "The

Hobbit" by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.

Text

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole,
filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare,
sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-
hole, and that means comfort.
It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a
shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a
tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke,
with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with

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Degree in English Studies. English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats - the hobbit
was fond of visitors.
"The Hobbit" by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

/ɪn ə həʊl ɪn ðe/ə graʊnd ðeə lɪvd ə 'hɒbɪt//

/nɒt ə 'nɑ:stɪ/i/'dɜ:ti/wet həʊl/ fɪld wɪð ði endz ɒv wɜ:(r)mz ænd ən

'u:zi/ɪ smel/nƆ: jet ə draɪ/beə/'sændi həʊl wɪð 'nʌθɪŋ ɪn ɪt tʊ sɪt daʊn ɒn Ɔ: tʊ
i:t/ ɪt wəz ə 'hɒbɪthəʊl/ ənd ðæt mi:nz 'kʌmfət//

/ɪt hæd æ 'pɜ:fɪktli raʊnd d Ɔ: laɪk ə 'pƆ:thəʊl/'peɪntɪd gri:n/wɪð ə 'ʃaɪni

'jeləʊ brɑ:s nɒb ɪn ði ɪg'zækt 'mɪd(ə)l//

/ ðe dƆ: 'əʊpənd ɒn tʊ æ 'tju:bʃeɪpt hƆ:l laɪk ə 'tʌnəl/ ə 'verɪ

'kʌmftəb(ə)l 'tʌnəl wɪ'ðaʊt sməʊk/ wɪð 'pænəld wƆ:lz/ənd flƆ:z taɪld ænd
'kɑ:pɪtɪd/ prə'vaɪdɪd wɪð 'pɒlɪʃt ʧeəz/ænd lɒts ænd lɒts ɒv pegz f Ɔ: hæts ænd
kəʊts/ ðe 'hɒbɪt wəz fɒnd ɒv 'vɪzɪtə(r)z//

Transcribe the following sentences from the above

reading passage without looking at the phonemic
transcription. Once you have finished, you can check it out.
 Once you have finished, you can check it out.

1. In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

2. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell,
nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a
hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

3. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a

shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle.

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Degree in English Studies. English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

4. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very

comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled
and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for
hats and coats - the hobbit was fond of visitors.

References

Hancock, M. 2003. English Pronunciation in Use (Intermediate).

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jones, D. 2006. Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary. 17th
Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Type IPA phonetic symbols
http://ipa.typeit.org/full/
Phonemic Chart English Club
https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/phonemic-chart.htm

Seminar 3
Practice reading the text from Seminar 2. When
you feel you are ready, record your oral reading
of the text from Seminar 2 and upload it to
Moodle.

References

Hancock, M. 2003. English Pronunciation in Use (Intermediate).

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jones, D. 2006. Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary. 17th
Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.