English language 1 - Appunti per esame

TRILLS, TAPS AND FLAPS

manners of articulation exist in some dialects of English (but not SSBE)

→These

• Trills: airflow makes the active articulator vibrate against the passive articulator. Some Scottish

English speakers pronounce /r/ as an alveolar trill [r] Scottish • The Italian R is an alveolar trill [r]

• Taps and flaps: the active articulator makes a single fast contact with the passive one. US English has

an alveolar tap [ɾ] instead of [t] when it occurs between two vowels ES Butter, party [ˈbʌɾəɹ] [ˈpɑɹɾi]

→

Consonant articulation and recognition SOLUTION:

SOLUTION:

SOLUTION: SOLUTION:

SOLUTION:

SOLUTION:

SOLUTION:

SOLUTION:

SOLUTION:

Minimal pairs

• Phonemes segments […] that speakers of the language use to distinguish one word

→“distinctive

from another”. How do we establish the phonemic status of a sound? → we identify words that differ in

ONE AND ONLY sound, like hat /hæt/ and cat /kæt/.

Pairs of words that differ in only one sound are called minimal pairs. ES --> fill /fɪl/ - kill /kɪl/ • kin /kɪn/ -

king /kɪŋ/ • sit /sɪt/ - seat /siːt/

The minimal pair test is based on the notion of ‘minimal contrast’ → «two or more sounds in a language

contrast if they can appear in the same position in the same frame». If we want to know which sounds

contrast with /p/ in /pɪn/ → we need to identify the sounds that, substituted to /p/, give us another

English word • What is our phonetic frame of reference? [_ɪn]. We can identify → bin /bɪn/, kin /kɪn/, chin

/tʃɪn/ etc. ….

The set of words distinguished by difference in a single sound are called a minimal set We can do this

process for any sound in a word, for consonants and vowels, ES:

• hot /hɒt/ → phonetic frame [h_t]

• hat /hæt/

• hit /hɪt/

• heat /hiːt/

• hoot /huːt/

• hut /hʌt/

These sounds are in contrastive distribution: substituting one with the other will cause a change in

meaning. Some minimal pairs are difficult for non-native speakers of English.

You can hear and practice some of them at this link: Find minimal pairs for these words by changing

only the initial consonant

General American consonants

American is a RHOTIC accent: this means that the sound /r/ is pronounced in all situations

→General

where there is a letter “R" in spelling.

SSBE is a NON-RHOTIC accent: the sound /r/ is NOT pronounced before consonants (e.g. turn, party)

and at the end of a word (e.g. car, brother) General American consonants.

In GA /j/ is regularly absent following /t, d, θ, ð, n/ in accented syllables:

• Tune SSE /tjuːn/ → GA /tun/

• News SSE /njuːz/ → GA /nuz/

Glottal stop [ʔ] > closure of the glottis > allophone of [t] ES British [kʌt] and American [kʌʔ].

→

Alveolar tap allophone

US English has an alveolar tap [ɾ] instead of [t] when it occurs:

• between two vowels → Butter, bottle

• between an /r/ and a vowel → party, turtle

• between an /n/ and a vowel sound, the sound /t/ may be elided : • winter → /ˈwɪnər/, • Internet →

/ˈɪnərˌnet/.

If the /t/ is at the beginning of a word (e.g table, twist, ten) or at the beginning of a stressed syllable (e.g.

potential, until), it is produced as an alveolar stop. SOLITION:

Introduction to vowels

How many vowels do we have in Italian?

5 graphic symbols 7 sounds /a/ – ancora /e/ – pésca (attività del pescare) /ɛ/- pèsca (frutto) /i/ -

infermiere /o/ - bótte (contenitore in legno) /ɔ/ - bòtte (percosse) /u/ - ulivo

VOWELS

have 5 graphemes to represent vowels • A – E – I – O – U • But 20 sounds in Standard British English

→We

Monophthongs → “vowels with a single perceived auditory quality”

Diphthongs → “vowels where two vowel qualities can be perceived”

What is a vowel? A vowel is a sound for which there is no closure of the throat or mouth at any point

where vocalization occurs. This can be contrasted with consonants, which are sounds for which there

are one or more points where the airflow is reduced or stopped.

The quality of a vowel is determined by the shape of the vocal tract.

Vowels:

• Produced with an open mouth

• No audible friction

• Vibration of the vocal chords → voicing

• Produced through

• Shape of the mouth

• Position of the tongue and lips

Vowel quadrilateral

The International Phonetic Association use sa quadrilateral diagram to represent the vowels of every

language. Each vowel sound is represented by an IPA symbol. Represents cross-section of the inside of

a mouth.

Vowel production Cardinal vowels

are a set of

→they

reference vowels

used by phoneticians

in describing the

sounds of languages. A cardinal vowel is a

vowel sound produced when the tongue is

in an extreme position, either front or

back, high or low. The current system was

systematized by Daniel Jones in 1956.

Description of vowel sounds is based on a combination of articulatory and auditory criteria, namely:

1.Tongue

shape →

2.Lip shape →

3.Whether tongue and/or lip position is constant or changes (steady-state vowel vs diphthong) →

4.Position of the soft palate (oral vs nasal) → in

English all vowels are oral →

5. Length →

The vowels of English

If you want to listen to the vowels: You can listen to the sound file at this

link→http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/vowels/chapter3/bbcenglish.html , or go and watch the MRI

pronunciation of vowel sounds at Seeing Speech →https://www.seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-

charts/?chart=4.

Front vowels: Front vowels 2:

Minimal pairs: SOLUTION: SOLUTION:

However…

• A short /i/ - a sound intermediate between /iː/ and /ɪ/ can be produced in unaccented final position in

words like lady, sloppy, happy, beauty, family

• lady→ /ˈleɪdi/

• sloppy → /ˈslɒpi/

• happy → /ˈhæpi/

• beauty → /ˈbjuːti/

• family → /ˈfæmɪli/

• Frequent spelling for the happY words: : final position y#, i#, ie#, ee#, ey#, ea#

Activity: find five words…

[æ] and [a]

• /æ/: madness, match, bad

• Nowadays, the pronunciation of the vowel in bad, land, amateur is closer to [a] and is now transcribed

as /a/ in major dictionaries such as the OED.

• Short vowel

• Lips neutrally open

• Unrounded

In American English, trascription and pronunciation are still [æ] → we find [æ] also in cases where SSBE

uses other vowels

• SSBE: bath /bɑːθ/ AmE /bæθ/

• class /klɑːs/ /klæs/

• past /pɑːst/ /pæst/

Which word contains the sound /æ/? SOLUTION:

Big – bag – beg bag /bæg/

Litter – letter – latter latter /ˈlætə/GA →/ˈlæɾər/

Pin – pen – pan pan /pæn/

Sand – send – sinned sand /sænd/

Find the words with the /æ/ sound SOLUTION:

Front vowels revision:

Transcribe the following words into IPA

• mat

• crazy

• best

• teeth

• hands

• then

• please

SOLUTION:

• mat /mæt/

• best /best/

• teeth /tiːθ/

• hands /hændz/

• then /ðen/

• please /pliːz/

Central vowels (1)

• /ə/: writer, wisdom, domestic

• Short vowel

• Lips neutrally spread - Little effort to pronounce – neutral position of lips,

tongue relaxed

• unrounded

• Called ‘schwa’

THE SCHWA

Any vowel letter can be pronounced as schwa and the pronunciation of a vowel letter can change

→

depending on whether the syllable in which it occurs is stressed or not.

ES in the word 'man' the letter 'a' has its full sound -represented by the symbol /æ/. → [mæn] but

→

[ˈpəʊs(t)mən].

In 'postman' the syllable 'man' is not stressed and the letter 'a' is pronounced as schwa, represented

by the symbol schwa.

The sound schwa does not only represent a single letter. In some words it is the sound of several letters

or even a whole syllable.

THE SCHWA

/ə/ is normal in the weak (unaccented) forms of words such as a, an, the, to, for, but, and, etc.

→

Where’s the schwa in these words?

• accent

• present (noun)

• speaker

• platypus

SOLUTION:

accent

present (noun)

speaker

platypus

Look at the words below and identify where in the word

the schwa sound occurs

• About

• Level

• Coastal

• Banana

• Doctor

• Yesterday

• Today

• Father

• Paper

• Protect

SOLUTION:

• About

• Level

• Coastal

• Banana

• Doctor

• Yesterday

• Today

• Father

• Paper

• Protect

THE SCHWA

Identify the schwa in the following sentences. Underline and/or write the schwa

symbol over the correct part of the word.

• What are you doing tonight?

• Have you watched the new movie?

• We need more financial support

• John bought a big watermelon for tomorrow’s party

• The airport is not far from the capital city

• We’ll have to pay a lot of attention

• Do you want some mustard?

SOLUTION:

THE SCHWA

• RIVER: I found this, definitive work on the angels. Well, the only one. Written by

a madman, it’s barely readable, but I’ve marked a few passages.

DOCTOR: Not bad. Bit slow in the middle. Didn't you hate his girlfriend? No. No,

hang on. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

AMY: Doctor Song? Did you have more than one clip of the Angel?

RIVER: No, just the four seconds.

DOCTOR: This book is wrong. What's wrong with this book? It's wrong.

Central vowels (2)

Back vowels (1)

• /uː/: pool, loser, taboo

• Long vowel

• Tongue tense

• Lips rounded

• /ʊ/: bullet, good, put

• Short vowel

• Tongue lax

• Lips loosely rounded

Which word contains the sound [uː]?

Pool – pull

Suit – soot

Full – fool

SOLUTION:

Back vowels (2)

• /ɔː/: corner, door, sport

• Its pronunciation nowadays is more similar to [oː]

• Long vowel

• Tongue lax

• Medium lip rounding

• /ɒ/: lot, lock, donkey

• Its pron