Lingua inglese 1

01.03 Pronunciation

Vowel sounds

Consonants and vowels

What is the difference between a consonant and a vowel?

➔ When we produce a vowel, the air coming out of the mouth is not impeded or blocked

➔ in any way. All vowels are “voiced”: the vocal cords vibrate.

When we produce a consonant, the air coming out of the mouth meets some

➔ impedance or blockage in one or more regions of the vocal tract

It is not easy to learn (and teach) to produce English vowels. As there is very little

➔ contact between the articulators (the parts of the mouth), it is difficult to be precise.

Why are English vowel sounds so difficult?

How many vowel sounds are there in English?

➔ English: 20 vowel sounds

◆ Italian: 7 vowel sounds

◆ ● NNS have problems perceiving differences in sounds between their L1

and English. Difficult to perceive vowel sounds that don't exist in L1.

This makes it difficult to produce certain sounds in English.

○ L1 interference English spelling

The vocal tract

• Sounds are produced in the vocal tract

➔ • It is important to understand how and where phonemes of English are produced

➔ How = manner of articulation

◆ 1

Where = place of articulation

◆

• When vowel sounds are produced, there is no obstruction of air.

➔ • The vocal tract is open.

◆

• Vowel sounds depend on the size and shape of the space in the mouth

➔ All vowel sounds are voiced . The vocal cords vibrate in the air flow

➔

Vowel sounds place of articulation

Vowel sounds place of articulation pt. 02

Vowel length 2

Minimun pair(coppia minima): beach-bitch - heat-hit

➔ The difference between i:i:/ and ɪ / is notoriously difficult for Italian speakers of

➔ English. Watch this video and practice making the sounds. By the way, unlike what

the speaker in the video says , a British person is unlikely to ask

« how have you bi:n /?» so the / bɪn / vs bi:n / distinction is not what

◆ differentiates American and British English!

And the weak vowel /ɪ/ IS found in the word ‘ been ’ in British English. For example :

➔ «I’ve bɪn / to London » and « Where’ve you bɪn / ?»

The schwa

• Central, weak vowel

➔ •Only vowel to have its own name

➔ •The most common vowel sound in English

➔ •Heard in unstressed syllables

➔ •Contrast between unstressed syllables and stressed syllables

➔ contributes to the rhythmic nature of spoken English.

➔ •English is a stress timed language and the schwa is crucial to this

➔

Examples of words with schwa:

Teacher

★ Station

★ Category

★ Catalogue

★ Manager

★ Some words have identical spelling but different stress patterns. This changes

➔ the vowel sounds. Say

'Content noun

◆ Con'tent adjective

◆

Where is the schwa?

➔ 3

Monophthongs and diphthongs

When you pronounce a monophthong, the position of the tongue, jaw and lips does

➔ not change.

On the other hand, when pronouncing a diphthong, there is a gradual change in

➔ position

A diphthong is considered to be one phoneme/syllable, not two.

➔ 4

07.03 Consonants (1)

Plosives and affricates: manner of articulation

plosives: like an explosion

➔ affricates: it happens slower

➔ Plosives and affricates: place of articulation

◆ 5

The glottalstop (1)

• A plosive produced by a complete block of air flow at the glottis (space between the

➔ vocal chords).

• It is not a sound in itself, but a silence beginning with sudden stop of previous sound

➔ and ending with sudden beginning (onset) of following sound.

• /?/ = unvoiced glottal plosive (or stop)

➔ • Use to give emphasis to word beginning with vowel:

➔ • excellent!/ ouch! / uh-oh!

◆

• Between adjacent vowels instead of a vowel:

➔ • You are

◆ • Connected speech: /ju:wɒ:/

◆ • Glottal stop: /ju:?ɒ:/

◆ • He is

◆ • Connected speech: /hi:jɪz/

◆ • Glottal stop: /hi:?ɪz/

◆

• To replace or reinforce an unvoiced plosive /p, t, k/ at the end of words:

➔ • /wɒt/ > /wɒ?/

◆ • /wɒtɪzit/ > /wɒ?ɪzi?/

◆

• To replace an unvoiced plosive, particularly / t/ in the middle of words:

➔ • /ˈbɒtl/ > /'bɒ?l/

◆ • /ˈæŋkəl/ > /ˈæŋ?əl/ *

◆

Register awareness

➔ • The glottal stop has "social salience".

◆ • Supposedly gives "social information" about the speaker.

◆ • Can be stigmatised as a feature of "working-class speech"

◆ 6

Fricatives

• Say the following and think about how the initial consonant sounds are formed in

➔ your mouth:

• fire (unvoiced), via (voiced), three (unvoiced), then (voiced), sue, zoo, sure,

◆ measure

● • The air flow is restricted, but not completely blocked.

● • These are known as fricatives.

• Fricatives can have longer or shorter duration.

➔

Nasal consonants 7

/r/

/h/ When you pronounce /h/ your mouth shape takes on the shape of the following vowel

➔ Practice saying: hair/ air heat / eat harmed / armed hearing / earring heels /

◆ eels heart / art hill / ill hall / all

Pay attention to aspirated /h/ and silent 'h' in these words. Look at the

◆ phonemic transcription in a dictionary.

● heir, hair, honest, hotel, hour, honour, perhaps, rhyme, whale, whole,

white, yogurt, harmony, hospital, herb, exhaust

8

14.03 STRESS AND RHYTHM

STRESS AND EMPHASIS 9

SYLLABE STRESS

Some Syllable Stress Patterns 10

Voiced and unvoiced consonants

A sound is voiced if it requires the vocal chords to vibrate and unvoiced (or

➔ voiceless) if it does not.

Voiced sounds may be uttered with weaker breath force (gentle aspiration =

◆ lenis).

Unvoiced sounds may be uttered with stronger breath force (stronger

◆ aspiration = fortis).

Minimal pairs: unvoiced vs voiced

• Minimal pairs are words that differ only in one sound

➔ • Practice saying these

➔ • The words should sound the same except for the voiced/unvoiced distinction

➔ • Put your hand in front of your mouth to feel the force of the expelled air

➔ 11

14.03 Past tense pronunciation

voiced

> D

unvoiced

> T

Plural noun / 3rd person singular verb

pronunciation

voiced

> Z

unvoiced

> S 12

Long and short vowels before voiced and unvoiced

consonants

13

DICTIONARIES

SPECIAL FEATURES - Word Forms

Pronunciation

➔ Collocation

➔ 14

21.03 Why are English vowel sounds so difficult?

How many vowel sounds are there in English?

➔ English: 20 vowel sounds

◆ Italian: 7 vowel sounds

◆

NNS have problems perceiving differences in sounds between their L1 and English.

➔ Difficult to perceive vowel sounds that don't exist in L1.

This makes it difficult to produce certain sounds in English.

◆

L1 interference English spelling

➔ Consonant and vowel duration

What is important in Italian is the duration of the consonant and not of the vowel.

➔ Words are distinguished on the basis of the duration of the consonant:

e.g. sera / serra

◆

Italian speakers can hear and produce differences between long and short consonants,

➔ while English speakers might find this difficult.

What is important in English is the duration of the vowel and not of the consonant.

➔ Vowel duration is indicated in phonetic transcriptions with a colon (:)

◆ ● /bɪd/ vs /bi:d/ (“bid” vs. “bead”)

But there are other factors which affect vowel duration:

◆ ● -position before a voiced vs voiceless consonant;

○ -stress;

○ -emphasis.

beat / bead - cap / cab - peck / peg - neat / kneed

◆

● - an insult / to insult

Function words vs. Content words: english people tend to speak fast and they made

➔ the least possible effort

Various factors affect vowel duration, including:

➔ position

• before a voiced vs voiceless consonant

◆ ● beat / bead - cap / cab - peck / peg - neat / kneed – hit/hid

● (listen to these words pronounced in an online dictionary and note the

longer vowel duration before a voiced consonant)

stress

•

◆ 15

● - an insult / to insult

● - A record / to record

● - (note the longer vowel duration in the stressed syllable)

emphasis

•

◆ ● Function words vs. Content words

○ - when not emphasized, function words have reduced vowel

duration

● - fish and chips > ‘fish /n/ chips’ or ‘fish /ən/ chips’

○ (note the vowel disappears or can be pronounced as a schwa)

Vowel reduction

Function words vs. Content words

The English language distinguishes between lexical (or content) words and function

➔ words (or grammatical words)

• Lexical words: nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs

◆ • Function words: conjunctions, articles, pronouns, prepositions, auxiliaries,

◆ etc

Strong and weak vowels Vowel reduction

Vowel reduction occurs in:

• Unstressed syllables

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• Function words are more likely to be reduced in English.

a cup of tea 16

Connected speech: assimilation, elision and linking

Assimilation

➔ Assimilation takes place when the sound at the end of one word or syllable

◆ changes its quality because of the following sound. It happens because the

mouth moves into the position for the second sound while making the first. It

concerns the consonants

● /t/, /d/ and /n/ followed by /k/, /g/, /m/, /p/, and /b/.

/t/ /k/

changes to in front of /k/ and /g/

◆ ● white coffee /waɪtˈkɒfi / /waɪkɒfi/

● white gloves /waɪtɡlʌvz/ /waɪklʌvz/

/t/ /p

changes to / in front of /p/, /m/ and /b/

◆ ● white pepper /waɪtpepə / /waɪpepə/

● white magic /waɪtmædʒɪk/ / waɪpmædʒɪk /

● white bread /waɪtbred/ /waɪpred/

/d/ /g/

changes to in front of /k/and /g/

◆ ● red carpet /redkɑːpɪt/ /regɑːpɪt/