Practical English Phonetics

Contents I. Introduction II. The organs of speech III. English Speech Sounds IV. Sounds in Connected Speech V. Intonation

I. Introduction The importance of phonetic study A) Phonetics is the science and study of speech sounds ( sounds made by human speech organs representing meaning ). It deals with the sound system of a language. Phonetics is a branch of linguistics: phonetics, vocabulary and grammar. Speech sound is the basic element for word + grammar to rely on. (To learn any spoken language, the first step is to learn the basic sounds. )

a): Relations between speech sound + word i) sound affects the formation of words Describe---description five----fifteen twelve----twelfth (onomatopoeia) cackle quack honk twitter chirp grunt roar giggle blab soup slurp sip slop sloppy slob ii) Sounds + irregular verb form change /e/ in original form, no change in other 2 past forms. E.g. Bet bet bet let let let upset upset upset Spread spread spread

/ i :/ in origin form, / i :/ is changed into /e / in other forms E.g. Meet met met feed fed fed lead led led Leave left left keep kept kept read read read Sleep slept slept feel felt felt sweep swept swept Verbs with /d / in original form, d changed into / t / E g. Send sent sent bend bent bent lend lent lent Spend spent spent build built built

/  / in original verb forms, vowels changed into / / or /  / E g. Sing sang sang ring rang rang sink sank sank Swin swam swam drink drank drunk spring sprang sprung Begin began begun swing swung swung sling slug slung Fling flung flung wring wrung wrung

/  / / / / / / / sink sunk( sank) sunk stink stunk (stank) stunk /  / / / / / / / sink sunk( sank) sunk stink stunk (stank) stunk spin spun (span) spun hang hung (hanged) hung (hanged)

/ a /changed into / / + /  / ride rode ridden drive drove driven write wrote written rise rose risen arise arose arisen stride strode stridden strive strove striven thrive throve thriven

/i:/ /  / /  / speak spoke spoken steal stole stolen freeze froze frozen break broke broken choose chose chosen // /:/ /:/ wear wore worn tear tore torn bear bore born swear swore sworn

iii) Relations between sound and grammar. Sounds determine parts of speech desert desert insult insult record record conduct conduct content content present present close close bow bow lead lead tear tear

verb tense read read number of nouns man men b) A need in communication. i) Intonation: ___Yes, Madam ? ___ I want a piece of soap. ___ It’s going to rain, isn’t it ?

ii) the difference between oral language and written language, the distance between sound and transcription: Pick it up. [ pi i tp ] Think it over. You should have told us. Not at all. Did you eat yet?

c) A need for further study 2.Ways to learn phonetics more practice more listening more imitations to know the basic rules (how each sound is formed, stress, linking, rhythm, pauses, intonation and etc.)

3.Standard English pronunciation English: The most widely used language in the world ( one billion people speak English. 4 hundred million speak it as their first language. 6 hundred people speak it as a second or a foreign language. ) English as native language in countries: British, America, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, Australia English as second language in countries: China English as official language in: India, Singapore, the Philippines, Ghana English as working language in the United Nations: Permanent members: UK, China, France, USA, Russia

It’s pronunciation varies in different geographical areas, so it has dialects and accents, such as General American (GA), General British (GB) RP (received pronunciation): based on the London dialect, used by educated people in southern England, used by the announcers of BBC, also widely used through English-speaking countries. So, it has been accepted everywhere for the teaching of English to foreigners.

4. Basic sounds + phonetic transcription Basic sound: the smallest phonetic unit of language Eg. Sea / :/ composed of 2 sounds: // + /:/ The functions of basic sounds: a) distinguish word meaning Eg. Bed bad bid b) distinguish grammatical form E g. Man men work works

Basic sounds are distinctive. Any language has a vast number of speech sounds, yet basic sound are limited in number. In English there are 44 basic sounds in all.

Phonetic Transcription 26 English letters 44 basic sounds letters + basic sounds a) one sound spelt in different ways /:/ read sea people machine believe receive we key quay b) same spelling, different pronunciations bough, although cough enough through brought c) silent letters climb knot autumn island

d) same spelling, different meanings, different pronunciations desert desert lead lead bow bow tear tear e) words spelt in different ways have the same pronunciation piece peace knot not site cite sea see

5. International Phonetic Alphabet Characteristics: each symbol represents one sound and not any other One sound must be represented by one symbol —// // 6. Two types of transcription: Broad transcription: uses a simple set of symbols just to represent the phonemes of a language without ambiguity Narrow transcription: uses symbol and diacritics to denote particular allophones of phonemes