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

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. 14 Marzo 2017

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/. 16 Marzo 2017

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/ ––> /faər/

Power ––> /paʊər/ ––> /paər/

The smoothing of /əʊə/ results in a monophthong:

Mower ––> /məʊər/ ––> /mɜːr/

CONSONANTS

Voiced: /b d ɡ v z ð ʒ dʒ l r m n ŋ w j/

Voiceless: /p t k f s θ ʃ ʧ h/

Place of articulation:

Bilabial /p b m w/ –> le labbra si serrano o si accostano l'una contro l'altra.

Labiodentale /f v/ –> gli incisivi superiori toccano il labbro inferiore

Interdental /θ ð/ –> l'apice della lingua poggia sotto i denti superiori

Apicodental (it) /t d n s (z) l r ts (dz)/ –> l'apice della lingua si oppone ai denti superiori sotto

le gengive

Alveolar (ingl) /t d s z n l r/ –> l'apice della lingua si appoggia alle gengive superiori interne

Palato-alveolar /ʃ ʒ/ –> l’apice della lingua poggia sul confine tra palato e alveoli

Palatal /ʧ dʒ j/ –> il dorso della lingua si appoggia al palato duro

Velar /k g ŋ/ –> il dorso della lingua si appoggia al palato molle

Glottal /h/ –> respiro rumoroso con occlusione della glottide

Manner of articulation:

Plosives or stops /p b t d k ɡ/ –> ostruzione completa seguita da rapido rilascio

Fricatives /f v s z ð ʒ h ʃ θ/ –>forte restringimento, ma l’aria esce con continuità, come fruscio

Affricates /t ʃ dʒ/ –> ostruzione con rilascio graduale, fruscio analogo a quello delle fricatives

Nasals /m n ŋ/ –> si abbassa il velo palatino e l’aria esce dal naso

Trills /r/ –> contatti rapidi tra la lingua e un organo fisso

Laterals /l/ –> deflusso dell’aria ai lati della lingua

Approximants /j w/ –> suoni continui ma senza frizione, simili a /iː/ e /uː/ ma più tese e più chiuse

PLOSIVES OR STOPS

/p/ as in pen, pot, play, apple, stop

/b/ as in bed, boy, tab, cable

/t/ as in tea, table, looked, missed

/d/ as in day, doll, lady, glad

/k/ as in key, clock, chemist, fox

/g/ as in game, beg, signal, exam

In initial position, in pronouncing /p/, /t/, /k/ there is, in the post-release phase, a period during

which air escapes through the vocal folds, making a sound like /h/. This is called aspiration. If the

plosive is preceded or followed by another consonant there is no aspiration.

In final position, /b/, /d/, /g/ normally have little voicing.

The difference between /p/, /t/, /k/ and /b/, /d/, /g/ is primarily the fact that vowels preceding /p t k/

are much shorter. The shortening effect of /p t k/ is most noticeable when the vowel is one of the

long vowels or diphthongs.

FRICATIVES

/f/ as in fit, offer, photo, laugh, off

/v/ as in veal, save, have, of

/s/ as in sea, class, cent, castle, ps

/z/ as in zone, pens, rose, scissors

/ʃ/ as in ship, sure, nation, Asia

/ʒ/ as in vision, pleasure, garage

/θ/ as in thin, bath, author, three

/ð/ as in the, this, mother, smooth

/h/ as in hot, perhaps, who, ahead

The voiceless fricatives have the effect of shortening a preceding vowel, as do voiceless plosives.

The shortening effect is most noticeable when the vowel is one of the long vowels or diphthongs:

Ice /ais/ ––– eyes /aiz/

The alveolar fricative is always voiceless in the groups <si, sn, sl, sw>. In italian /z/ is usually an

allophone so /s/, whereas it is a phoneme in English, in that it distinguishes pairs such as:

Peace /pi:s/ ––– peas /pi:z/

BBC speakers pronounce the sound of initial <wh> as /w/. Other speakers, instead, pronounce it

as a voiceless fricative with the same articulation as /w/. The symbol for this fricative is /ʍ/.

The sound of initial /hu/ is a voiceless palatal fricative. The symbol for this fricative is /ç/. However,

it is usual to treat this sound as /h/ plus /j/.

AFFRICATES

/tʃ/ as in chat, rich, match, nature

/dʒ/ as in jet, gym, large, bridge, gradual

Affricates begin with a plosive that is followed immediately by fricative noise.

––BUT–– We would not class all sequences of plosive plus fricative as affricates.

The plosive and the following fricative must be of the same place of articulation: they must be

homorganic.

Daniel Jones lists among the affricates these four sounds:

/ts/ as in cats, but not outside

/dz/ as in beds, decides, but not headset

/tr/ as in tree, country, but not outreach

/dr/ as in drink, but not headrest 28 Marzo 2017

NASALS

/n/ as in nose, know, input, sign, in, reign, gnu

/m/ as in my, me, miss, comfort, comb, autumn, lamb

/ŋ/ as in sing, bang, long, bank, singer

In italian /ŋ/ is an allophone of /n/, whereas it is a phoneme in English in

that it distinguishes pairs such as:

sing /sɪŋ/ vs. sin /sɪn/

/ŋ/ never occurs in initial position

/ŋ/ occurs frequently in medial position

<-nk-> is always /ŋk/

<-ng-> can be: /ŋ/ without following /g/ if it occurs at the end of the morpheme

/ŋg/ with a following /g/ if it occurs in the middle of a morpheme

/ŋ/ is never followed by /g/ in final position

When a suffix is added to a word ending with /ŋ/ no /g/ is added but not for the comparative and

the superlative

TRILLS

/r/ as in red, narrow, write, rhotic, very

Suono soggetto a variazioni regionali o individuali

/r/ as in "my car is new, here it is"

Nel BBC English si trova /r/ solo in posizione prevocalica e intervocalica: read, story

Ma se <r> o <re> in fine di parole è seguita da parola che inizia per vocale allora troviamo /r/, che

viene a trovarsi in posizione intervocalica e viene detta linking-r

My sister has many rings on her hands

Rita reached the centro of the square

LATERALS

/l/ as in lamp, look, always, fill

Ha due allofoni:

Clear l, in posizione iniziale o quando seguita da vocale, simile alle [l] dell'italiano standard.

Dark l, in posizione postvocalica o finale, con articolazione secondaria velare. Se preceduta da

vocale anteriore si può avere l'impressione dell'inserimento di [ə], <feel> [fiː(ə)l]ej

APPROXIMANTS

/w/ as in way, wind, away, queen, one, suite, why

/j/ as in you, yes, million, use, university

Non sono mai in fine di parola

I fonemi /j/ e /w/ sono fonologicamente delle consonanti.

Sono sempre seguiti da una vocale

Le parole che iniziano per /j/ e /w/ sono precedute dall'articolo a

L'articolo determinativo the si pronuncia /ðə/ e non /ði/ come per le consonanti

I fonemi /j/ e /w/ sono desonorizzati, cioè diventano sordi, quando sono preceduti da /p/, /t/ o /k/.

/j/ as in "I agree, the way out"

The sound /j/ is used in rapid spoken English to link other sounds.

The sound /j/ links words ending in /i:/ or /ɪ/ when the next word begins with a vowel. This is called

linking J.

They are coming

/w/ as in "Who are you? Go away"

The sound /w/ s used in rapid spoken English to link other sounds.

The sounds /w/ links words ending in /u:/ or /ʊ/ when the next word begins with a vowel. This is

called linking W.

Do you understand? 30 Marzo 2017

LONG CONSONANTS

happy /ˈhæpi/ solely /ˈsəʊlli/

common /ˈkɒmən/ BUT bookkeeper /ˈbʊkˌkiːpə/

college /ˈkɒlɪdʒ/ penknife /ˈpennaɪf/

pattern /ˈpætən/

SYLLABLE

Syllables have a centre (peak) that can be preceded and/or followed by a consonant:

minimum syllable: a single vowel

• Are /ɑː/, or /ɔː/

Some syllables have an onset

• Bar /bɑː/, more /mɔː/

Some syllables have a coda

• Art /ɑːt/, all /ɔːl/

Some syllables have an onset and a coda

• Cart /kɑːt/, call /kɔːl/

When we have two or more consonants together we call them a consonant cluster.

Initial two-consonant cluster

• s followed by an initial consonant

• Pre-initial consonant

• l,r,w,j, preceded by an initial consonant

• Post-initial consonant

•

Initial three consonant cluster

• S+p, t,k+l,r,w,j,

•

Final two-consonant cluster

• m, n, ŋ, l, s followed by a final consonant

• Pre-final consonants

• s, z, t, d, θ preceded by a final consonant

• Post-final consonants

•

Final three-consonant cluster

• Pre-final + final + post-final (bonds, twelfth)

• Final + post-final- post-final2 (fifths, next)

•

Final four-consonant cluster

• Pre-final + final + post final1 + post final2 (prompts, twelfths)

• Final + post-final1 + post-final2 + post-final3 (sixths, texts)

•

WORD STRESS

Primary stress may move because of:

- Role change (underground as a noun and underground a