1. Introduction to English pronunciation and phonetics
Lecture 1

2. Course outline Part of the language structure course Five lectures
Seminars
Written exam

3. Provide answers to questions such as...
what is the most common sound in English?
what is the crucial difference in pronunciation between ‘ice’ and ‘eyes’?
why does the word ‘joke’ have nothing to do with the yellow part of an egg?
why do Swedish learners have difficulty pronouncing words like ‘thermometer’ and ‘parenthesis’?
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4. Course content • The English speech sounds
• Phonetic symbols and the IPA
• Spelling-sound differences
• Contrasts between Swedish and English
• English stress patterns
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5. Two major models for English pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (RP) “British English”
General American (GA) “American English”

6. Spelling and sound – hardly a perfect match
One sound sequence:
/si:/
may be spelt:
see, sea, senile, scene, cease, seize

7. One spelling sequence: ’ough’ may be pronounced: cough, tough, though, bough, thought

8. A word spelt ’ghoti’ should be pronounced ’fish’ enough women station
G.B. Shaw
A word spelt ’ghoti’ should be pronounced ’fish’ enough women station

9. Vowel sounds voiced open air stream centre of a syllable
English has vowel sounds,
but only six letters!
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10. Monophthongs (mono- = one)
open (‘sad’) or close (‘seed’)
front (‘needle’) or back (‘noodle’)
short (‘hat’) or long (‘heart’)
normally unrounded in English
compare Eng ‘mood’, Swe ‘mod’
‘fyra nya röda tröjor’

11. Short vowels /e/ as in ‘bed’ /æ/ as in ‘bad’ Examples
/e/ : said, head, many, any, bread
/æ/ : sad, had, Manny, Annie, Brad

12. /ə/ – schwa the most common vowel sound in English
used in unstressed syllables
where the vowel is reduced
Examples
above, polite, suppose, sofa
Compare: land /lænd/
England/ˈıŋlənd/

13. /ʊ/ as in ‘put’ Examples bull /bʊl/ wolf /wʊlf/ soot /sʊt/
Compare: Sw ‘gods’
Eng ’goods’ /gʊdz/

14. /ɒ/ as in ’got’ GA has /ɑ:/ or /ɔ:/ in most words where RP has /ɒ/
Examples
gone /gɒn || gɔ:n/
bomb /bɒm || bɑ:m/
song /sɒŋ || sɑ:ŋ /

15. /ı/ as in ‘sit’ Examples begin /bıˈgın/ target /ˈtɑ:(r)gıt/
city /ˈsıtı/
Compare: Sw ’bild’
Eng ’build’

16. Long vowels /i:/ as in ’see’ /u:/ as in ’blue’ Examples
free, be, neat, peel
/u:/ as in ’blue’
soup, pool, cool

17. /ɜ:/ as in ’earth’ /ɔ:/ as in ’door’ Examples heard, earn, murder
sore, sauce, yawn /jɔ:n || jɑ:n/