English Language I

EXERCISE

 Identify an alveolar fricative between 2 vowel sounds:

craze, case, rose, busy, doze, electricity, ace, raising, pleasing

 Identify all the words in the following that begin with an approximant:

link, talk, quick, unit, sew, judge, youth, write, onion

 Identify all the words in the following that end with a voiceless fricative:

dogs, laugh, boxes, rags, cuts, cuts, through, tough, bath

 Identify all the words in the following that end with a vowel sound:

fly, put, stop, flow, lime, bit, name, through, rose, type

15. The glottal stop

There is one realization of /t/ that occurs frequently but which is not an

allophone of /t/. 23

How to make the glottal stop? Sudden closure of the vocal folds that blocks the

airstream (hiccup sensation) → say “oh-oh”.

In each of these words the realization of /t/ can be a glottal stop → get ; get at ;

getting ; hat shop ; ought.

Presence of the glottal stop across dialects of English:

 prestige varieties of British English (e.g. Estuary English)

 regional & social varieties of British English (e.g. Cockney)

 General American

Distribution (of /t/ realized as glottal stop):

 at the end of a word (get, at, ought)

 between vowels (getting)

Glottal stop cannot be an allophone, there is no exclusive place reserved for it!

The glottal stop can also be the realization of the phonemes /p/ and /k/ when

they occur:

 At the end of words

 At the boundary of syllables

 As a reinforcement before syllables starting with stressed vowels.

16. From Phonemes to Allophones The phonetic realizations

of the /p/ phoneme

depend crucially on

context.

Each of the realizations of

/p/ can only occur in that

specific environment and

nowhere else →

predictable.

Predictable realizations of

underlying phonemes are

called allophones.

 The phoneme /t/ & its allophones

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 The phoneme /k/ & its allophones

Allophones → are in complementary distribution with one another: each

allophone of a given phoneme has an exclusive place, and environment,

reserved for it.

Phonemes → are in contrastive distribution with one another: different

phonemes can appear in exactly the same position within a syllable (remember

the minimal pair test!).

Phonemes → are distinctive sounds (can create different words) whereas

allophones are non-distinctive sounds.

A set of allophones are the allophones of the same phoneme if:

 they never contrast

 are in complementary distribution

 are phonetically similar

 are predictable realizations of a phoneme in a particular local phonetic

environment

Phonemes are abstract, allophones are concrete.

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Look for the different realizations of /l/ in this set of words and explain in which

contexts they occur. 17.

17.

17.

17.

17.

17.

Recap on consonants

 Notion of contrastiveness (minimal pairs).

 Basic inventory of consonant phonemes for English (IPA symbols).

 Classification of consonants: voice, manner, place.

 Phonemes and allophones (underlying structure and possible realizations

of that structure).

18. The syllable

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence

of speech sounds. Structure:

 Nucleus: central vowel; it can be a monophthong, diphthong, tripthong;

in fact, there are different degrees of difficulty. Vowels are necessary,

whereas consonants can even not be present

 Onset: the initial consonant(s)

 Coda: the final consonant(s)

 Rhyme: nucleus plus coda (if one of the two parts doesn’t exist, the

rhyme still exists) 1. The Rhyme (nucleus + coda)

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The furl of fresh-leaved dogrose down (A)

His cheeks the forth –and-flauting sun (B)

Had swarthed about with lion-brown (A)

Before the spring was done. (B)

 Couplet: two lines rhyme, one below the other

Cuckoos lead Bohemian lives (A)

They fail as husbands and wives (A)

That is why they cynically disparage (B)

Everybody else’s marriage. (B)

 Ballad: the second and the fourth lines rhyme

It is an ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three.

‘By thy long beard and glittering eye,

Now wherefore stopp’st though me’?

Alliteration (onset) → is obtained when the initial constituent (onset) or two

or more syllables is identical (Es. Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-

dingle).

LITTLE TASK 1

If a syllable begins with two consonants, and the first of those consonants is

/b/, then what can the second consonant be?

Try to think of at least six words that begin with /b/ followed by another

consonant. Each word should be one, and only one, syllable.

Blue ; Brand ; Blend ; Breed ; Black ; Brown ; Brunt….

If a monosyllable begins with 2 consonants and the first one is /b/, then the

second MUST BE /r/ or /l/.

The observation holds 99%

good also for two and three-

syllable words (blanket,

blender, blossom, bracket,

brother, broiling, blinker…).

Exception: beauty /bjuːtɪ/ .

LITTLE TASK 2

Now try the same exercise

with monosyllables beginning

with /f/ + consonant and /p/ +

Consonant. Which words can

you identify? 27

19. Phonotactic rules

They are rules which restrict the permissible sequences of sounds in a

language English initial consonant clusters are restricted: P is bilabial, just like W and

 maximum of three consonants in the onset M;

 if there are three consonants,

 the first one is /s/ R is alveolar

 the second one is a voiceless stop /p t k/ or the nasal /m/

T can be combined with R;

 the third one is an approximant /l r j w/ in the same way it’s more

 /s/ + /p/ + /l r j/ frequent to find P with L

 /s/ + /t/ + /r j/ because both T and R are

 /s/ + /k/ + /l r j w/ alveolar?

 /s/ + /m/ +/j/

20. Syllabification 28

21. Ambisyllabic consonants

Spelling sometimes can be an indicator for ambisyllabic consonants:

 Shimmer

 Litter

 Hammer

 Hummer

 Simmer

 Better

 Slumming

 Winning….

→ But written evidence is not conclusive on this matter.

EXERCISE: S is ambisyllabic

S is ambisyllabic

M is ambisyllabic

K is ambisyllabic

22. Sonority 29

 Sonority can be defined as the ‘vowel-like quality’ of classes of consonant

sounds (‘carrying power’ of a sound)

 Consonant sounds are on a continuum: plosives have the least sonority,

glides have the highest sonority

Plosives affricates fricatives nasals liquids glides

lowest sonority highest sonority

Sonority and the structure of the syllable

 Sonority sequencing:

 The sonority peak is at the centre of the syllable (nucleus).

 Sounds closer to the nucleus tend to have more sonority than sounds

that lie at the periphery of the syllable.

 This tendency can be observed in consonant clusters making up the

onset and the coda of a syllable.

 <Print> → Onset nucleus coda

/pr/ /i/ /nt/

Sonority, classes of sounds, openness

 Sonority can also be seen in terms of relative ‘openness’ as opposed to

‘closeness’ of sounds.

 Degree of closeness and openness in the vocal tract.

 Consonant are closed sounds.

 Vowels are open sounds.

 Plosives are the most closed consonant sounds, glides are the least

closed consonant sounds.

23. More on the structure

of the onset

24. More on the

structure of the coda

Generalizations about single C codas:

 Any C can function as a single C coda

 Exceptions: /j , w, h/

Generalizations about multiple C codas:

 Sonority sequencing (from the most to the least sonorous)

 Two consonants can share the same place of articulation (grind, paint..)

Generalizations about the structure of syllabic nuclei:

Stressed syllables: 30

 The nucleus is a vowel → a monophthong (both short and long) or

diphthong

Unstressed syllables:

 The nucleus can be a non-vocalic segment → /n, m, l/ and in some

varieties of English also /r/

 Syllabic consonants 25. Light and heavy

syllables

 Heavy syllables → syllables containing filled codas

 Light syllables → syllables containing no codas

EXERCISE: Identify whether the following words contain light or heavy

syllables:

 Imp H

 Hymn H

 Im.pish H,H

 Hi.ppy L,L

 Li.tter L,H

 Ci.ty L,L

 Grin.ding H,H

 He L

26. The syllable: recap

 Native speakers have intuitions about where syllable boundaries are

 The number of syllables in a word is connected with the number of

vowels

 Consonants are at syllable boundaries

 Acceptable consonant clusters (initially or finally in a syllable) are

determined by the phonotactics of the language:

/skr/ is a permissible syllable initial consonant cluster in English

/sbl/ is not 31

 Knowledge of phonotactics helps syllabification

27. Syllables and stress

 Some syllables are more prominent (perceived as: louder, longer,

produced with more apparent effort) than others

 These are termed ‘stressed’ syllables

 In English stressed syllables alternate with unstressed ones (stressed-

timed language)

 Different languages can have different timing (stressedtimed vs. syllable

timed)

 In English stressed syllables are the ones that ‘carry’ the words (sounds

in the unstressed syllables are less audible).

 Stressed syllables create the typical rhythm of English, i.e. they create

the typical stressed-timing of English.

 In some languages other than English different syllables are given equal

emphasis, i.e. they are all stressed → syllabletiming.

 ESL & EFL leaners often have problems reproducing the typical rhythm of

English (they tend to reproduce the timing of their own mother tongue) →

miscommunication.

 In words with more than 3 syllables it is possible to differentiate between

primary stress and secondary stress.

Where is a syllable in a word? It is conventional to count syllables from the

end of the word: Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

balloon orange agenda

 last ultimate cigar flower

 2nd to last penultimate important

 3rd to last antepenultimate reply river awaken

 4th to last preantepenultimate bizarre cellar

repulsive

affair rabbit

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28. Stress in monosyllables Content-words

Function-words, they are

usually used to explain

grammatical relations

29. Vowels

Good example of the speech-writing difference:

 5 vowels (letters!)

 About 20 vowels (sounds!) in most varieties of English

All vowel sounds are voiced (produced with vibration of vocal folds).

Vowels are oral sounds (produced with the velum raised, thus sealing off the