Universit di Salerno Facolt di Lettere e Filosofia Curriculum Pubblicistica

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Università di SalernoFacoltà di Lettere e
FilosofiaCurriculum Pubblicistica

• Corso di Lingua Inglese
• a.a.2007-2008
• Prof. Rita Calabrese

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The Sounds of English

• Phonology deals with the meaningful sound
  contrasts of the spoken language,e.g.
  fall-tall-call
• Phonetics provides an acoustic, auditory and
  articulatory description of a particular language
  variety
• The study of sound in general is the science
  of acoustic

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WORDS CAN BE BROKEN DOWN (DIVIDED) INTO MORPHEMES
- THEIR STRUCTURAL CONSTITUENTS
un-employ-mentTHEY CAN ALSO BE BROKEN DOWN INTO
THEIR CONSTITUENT SOUNDS, i.e. PHONEMESA PHONEME
is the smallest unit of sounds which convey a
change of meaning.Seat / beat / meat /
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The sounds of English

• CONSONANT
• A sound made with a certain amount of temporary
  block of the airflow through the mouth.
• VOWEL
• -A sound made without any restriction in the
  airflow.

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The sounds of English

• The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
  provides a writing symbol for any linguistic
  sound of any world language.

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The International Phonetic AlphabetEnables
students and linguists to learn and record the
pronunciation of languages accurately,
therebyavoiding the confusion of inconsistent,
conventional spellings. One aim of the IPA was
to provide a unique symbolfor each distinctive
sound in a language-that is, every sound, or
phoneme, that serves to distinguish one word from
another.
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Consonants

• Are classified according to
• manner of articulation (plosive, affricate,
  fricative, nasal,lateral, approximant) referred
  to the passage of airflow in the vocal tract
• place of articulation (bilabial, labio-dental,
  dental, alveolar, palatal, velar, glottal), i.e.
  position of tongue, lips, etc..
• voicing (voiced unvoiced or voiceless sounds,
  i.e. b,d,v,d,z p,t,f,?,s) referred to the
  vibration of the vocal cords.

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VOWEL QUADRILATERAL

• FRONT MID
  BACK
• HIGH
• MID
• LOW

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SHORT VOWELS
bit, miss, hymn, bid
pull, would, put
mess, hen, bed, bet, deck
bus, bun, bud, gut, cut
mass, ham, bad, gap, bat
loss, Tom, cod, pot
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LONG VOWELS
do, food, soon, goose
beat, feet, lead, see, tea
court, chord, thought, bought, horse
hurt, heard, earn, earth, bird, word, fur, fern,
worse
car, cart, half, pass, class
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THE SCHWA SOUND

• It is a short and always unstressed vowel
  
• ago, quality merger

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IN STRESSED SYLLABLES

• The sequence
• VOWELCONSONANTVOWEL
• has the phonemic value of the alphabet name of
  the letter
• ltigt time, fine ltugt/ju/
  mute, renewal
• 
  
• ltogt
  gone, alone, phone
• ltegt supreme, meet, need
• ltagt made,
  mate,shadow

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Restrictions in the distribution of sounds

• lt-u-gt is pronounced as when
• there is
  as in
• put, bush, push
• but
• putt (a ball), Buddy with

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Restrictions in the distribution of sounds

• Initial ltth
• ltth-gt in lexical words
• Voiceless
  
• ltth-gt in function words
• Voiced that,the,they
• Exeptions Thomas, Thames
  

think,thing
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Restrictions in the distribution of sounds

• In the middle of a word lt-th-gt is
  VOICED
• if it is followed by lt-ergt as in
• leather, weather, father

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Restrictions in the distribution of sounds

• In the middle of a word lt-th-gt is
  VOICELESS
• when no lt-e-gt follows as in
• lethal, method, author

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Restrictions in the distribution of sounds

• l l l
• dark clear voiceless

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Restrictions in the distribution of sounds

• Dark/velarised l occurs before consonants
  told, children
• Clear l before vowels Lesley, low
• Voiceless/fricativel occurs initially
• in stressed syllable following /p/, /k/
• play, clean

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The Sounds of English

• In English, stressed syllables occur generally at
  regular intervals. The stress pattern can
  sometimes indicate a word's class, for example
  'conduct' can be pronounced /' /, a noun, or /
  '/, a verb. Also 'contest', 'contact', ecc.

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• A STRESSED SYLLABLE IS MARKED BY PLACING A HIGH
  VERTICAL MARK /'/ BEFORE IT. A stressed syllable
  is relatively loud, long in duration, said
  clearly and distinctly.
• LONGER WORDS may have one or more secondary
  stresses coming before the main stress. These
  are marked with /, /
• Laboratory, agreement, management

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The Sounds of English

• INTONATION MAY BE RISING OR FALLING
• In English declarative sentences -statements -
  are spoken with FALLING intonation. Interrogative
  sentences-questions - with RISING intonation.

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The Sounds of English

• THE FIRST PRONUNCIATION GIVEN IN A DICTIONARY IS
  THAT OF GENERAL BRITISH British English
• Received Pronunciation - RP - plus similar
  accents not strongly regional)