1. Practical English Phonetics

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

3. 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. )

4. 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

5. / 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

6. /  / 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

7. /  / / / / / / / 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)

8. / 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

9. /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

10. 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

11. 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 ?

12. 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?

13. 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.)

14. 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

15. 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.

16. 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

17. 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.

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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