Introduction to English pronunciation and phonetics Lecture 5

Sentence stress one or several words in a sentence pronounced with more emphasis than the other words Rule of thumb lexical words are stressed function words are unstressed (=weak form) new information is stressed this is a general rule

Sentence stress Compare stress and interpretation Did Erik say that?

Which words are stressed? When a lexical word doesn’t add new information, it is often unstressed Example: French is a difficult language. French verbs are particularly difficult.

Which words are stressed? function words can be stressed if adding new info, e.g. for emphasis or contrast. He bought a car and a house. NB! Common Swedish emphasis mistake: *My English is quite good, and I do use it everyday.

Sentence stress vs. strong and weak forms most function words have strong and weak forms when the word is unstressed, the weak form is used Examples: We can meet at ten. /kn/ I can do it but I won’t. /kæn/

Sentence stress ARRIVING HEATHROW SATURDAY NOON. PLEASE MEET. LOVE MARK. I will be arriving at Heathrow on Saturday at noon. Please can you meet me. With love from Mark.

American English has its roots in English as it was spoken in Britain, Scotland and Ireland in the 17th and 18th centuries changes in North America as well as in the British Isles have resulted in today’s American English relatively few regional dialects

Br and Am English- two dialects Vocabulary (e.g. pavement - sidewalk) Grammar (e.g. Have you eaten already? – Did you eat already?) Semantics (e.g. first floor, public school) Spelling (e.g. colour - color) Pronunciation

General American an umbrella term used for neutral and commonly used US English spoken by a majority of Americans in the Western and Middle states comparatively few regional accents in US English Canadian English have many phonological similarities with GA, but is considered a separate variety

Different vowel sounds RP /ʌ/ — GA /ɜ/ ‘worry, courage, hurry’ RP /ɒ/ — GA /ɑ:/ ; /ɔ:/ ‘holiday, want, bomb ; gone, coffee’ RP /ɑ:/ — GA /æ/ ‘dance, laugh, bath, answer’ Weak/lacking diphthongs in GA ‘hair, here, my’

Different consonant sounds In GA, but not in RP • /r/ is pronounced in all positions • /l/ is more or less dark in all positions • /t/ is a voiced flap /D/ before unstressed syllable E.g. ‘better, writer, metal’ (but not ‘contain’) • ‘wh’ is often pronounced /hw/

Different pronunciations many individual pronunciation differences RP GA ate /et || eıt / /eıt/ pasta /'pæstə/ /'pɑ:stə/ vitamin /'vıtəmın/ /'vaıtəmın/ tomato /tə'mɑ:təʊ/ /tə'meıtoʊ/ progress /'prəʊgres/ /'prɑ:grəs/ either/neither /'aıðə/ /'i:ðər/

Different word stress primary stress earlier in GA than in RP in some words RP GA address address donate donate research research

Different word stress primary stress later in GA than in RP in some French loanwords RP GA garage garage café café ballet ballet brochure brochure

Vowel reduction differences in some words with suffixes, the vowel in the suffix is less reduced in GA than in RP Examples: February cemetery category ceremony dictionary

and now over to...

Written exam: A1, HS1/T1 • part of the A1/HS1/T1 language structure exam • 20 multiple choice questions • roughly proportioned according to the time given to the subject areas in the lectures • example exam in the language structure compendium

Written exam Lecture notes Language structure compendium Study questions in Rönnerdal and Johansson (pp. 129-134)

Literary pun: Charles Dickens walks into a bar and orders a martini Literary pun: Charles Dickens walks into a bar and orders a martini. The bartender asks: ”Olive or twist?”