Riassunto esame Principi di Linguistica modulo 2, prof. Giulia Sarullo, Libro consigliato Esercizi di fonologia dell’inglese, Giulia Sarullo

Principi di linguistica - Modulo 2 (Giulia Sarullo)

Perché studiare la fonologia dell'inglese?

È molto importante per gli studenti di English as a Second Language. L'inglese ha un repertorio di fonemi più ampio dell'italiano standard. In inglese lo spelling non sempre dà indicazioni sulla pronuncia.

Confusing spelling

"Because of the notoriously confusing nature of English spelling, it is particularly important to think of English pronunciation in terms of phonemes rather than letters of the alphabet".

Lo stesso suono può corrispondere a spelling diversi:

• /əʊ/ go, though, foe, slow, boat
• /dʒ/ George, Joe, badge, village

Lo stesso gruppo di lettere può essere pronunciato in modi diversi:

• <ough> although, cough, plough, through, bought, thorough, rough

Fonologia e fonetica

La fonologia si occupa dei sistemi di suoni delle lingue, usa una broad transcription. La fonetica riguarda la realizzazione fisica degli elementi di questi sistemi, usa una narrow transcription.

Quale inglese?

British English → Received Pronunciation (RP) → BBC Pronunciation

I fonemi dell'inglese

• Vowels
• Diphtongs
• Consonants

Vowels

Grado di apertura della bocca

Posizione della lingua

Close front vowels

• /iː/ as in see, me, field, key, beat, machine, ceiling, paediatric
• /ɪ/ as in pin, city, roses, women, cottage, busy, foreign, English
• /i/ as in easy, pretty, furious, spaghetti
• /e/ as in men, get, head, weather, any, bury

Neutralisation

In some circumstances the difference between /iː/ e /ɪ/ is becoming blurred or neutralised: some speakers use /iː/, some use /ɪ/ and some use a vowel which is neither but somewhere in between. The same is true for /uː/ and /ʊ/. In these cases we shall use the neutralisation symbols /i/ and /u/.

Half open and open vowels

• /æ/ as in man, back, have, cat, fashion, balcony, match.
• /ɑː/ as in bar, march, large, class, plant, heart, chance, calm.
• /ɒ/ as in dog, not, boss, shone, want, yacht, because, knowledge.

Back vowels

• /ɔː/ as in short, warm, horse, saw, fault, caught, thought.
• /ʊ/ as in book, full, woman, could, sugar, pull, push.
• /uː/ as in moon, school, do, blew, June, fruit, through
• /u/ as in casual, situation, influence

Neutralisation

In some circumstances the difference between /uː/ and /ʊ/ is becoming blurred or neutralised: some speakers use /uː/, some speakers use /ʊ/, and some use a vowel which is neither but somewhere in between. The same is true for /iː/ and /ɪ/. In these cases we shall use the neutralisation symbols /u/ and /i/.

Central vowels

• /ʌ/ as in love, up, son, mother, come, country, double, blood.
• /ɜː/ as in girl, word, work, turn, urgent, heard, earth, learn.
• /ə/ as in ago, above, doctor, answer, sister, surprise, famous.

Diphtongs

Closing diphtongs

• Dittonghi a chiusura terminanti in /ɪ/.
• Dittonghi a chiusura terminanti in /ʊ/.

Centring diphtongs

• Dittonghi centripeti terminanti in /ə/.

Diphtongs in /ɪ/

• /eɪ/ as in name, make, day, rain, they, break, steak, eight, gaol.
• /aɪ/ as in sky, nine, why, child, lie, height, identity, buy, eye
• /ɔɪ/ as in joy, boy, noise, coin, toy, annoy, voice.

Diphtongs in /ʊ/

• /əʊ/ as in go, so, rose, home, soap, cold, post, blow, folk, sew, toe.
• /aʊ/ as in cow, house, out, now, down, plough, doubt, crowd.

Diphtongs in /ə/

• /ɪə/ as in near, dear, hear, here, sincere, cheer, Shakespeare.
• /eə/ as in wear, chair, bear, there, where, air, vary, care, mayor.
• /ʊə/ as in moor, tour, pure, cure, secure, tourist, cruel, furious.

Monophtonging

The diphtong /ʊə/ is slowly disappearing from modern RP and is being replaced by the long, back rounded monophthong /ɔː/. The only words which consistently use the /ʊə/ diphthong are those spelled with -ewer: brewer, fewer, ecc. When a word ending with /uː/ and spelled with -ue has the ending -r attached to it we have a diphthong: /ʊə/ or /uə/.

Triphthongs

• /aɪə/ as in wire, fire, tired, quiet, diet, choir, lyre.
• /eɪə/ as in payer, layer.
• /ɔɪə/ as in royal, joyous.
• /aʊə/ as in our, flour, flower, power.
• /əʊə/ as in slower, blower.

Smoothing

In the triphthongs /eɪə/, /aɪə/, /aʊə/, the second vowel may disappear to ease articulation:

• Layer → /ˈleɪər/ → /leər/
• Fire → /ˈfaɪər/