Phonetics

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Phonetics

• Cinzia Giglioni
• Università della Valle dAosta

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Task 1

• Match the terms 1 3 with the definitions A C.
• Stress
• Phoneme
• Intonation
• The music of our voices
• Giving emphasis to one syllable
• An individual sound

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Task 1

• Match the terms 1 3 with the definitions A C.
• Stress
• Phoneme
• Intonation
• The music of our voices
• Giving emphasis to one syllable
• An individual sound

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Task 2

• Match the terms 1 3 with the definitions A C.
• An individual sound is mispronounced
• A request is made with very flat intonation
• The wrong syllable is stressed in a word
• The word is incomprehensible
• The listener might understand bin when the
  speaker wanted to say pin
• The speaker can sound arrogant and demanding

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Task 2

• Match the terms 1 3 with the definitions A C.
• An individual sound is mispronounced
• A request is made with very flat intonation
• The wrong syllable is stressed in a word
• The word is incomprehensible
• The listener might understand bin when the
  speaker wanted to say pin
• The speaker can sound arrogant and demanding

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?
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INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET(IPA)
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SYMBOLS

• from Latin e.g. /m//v//?/
• from Greek e.g. /?//ð//?/
• created/?/
• and the diacritic symbols/?//'//?/

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• Aims of the lesson
• Becoming more aware of how and why we use English
  sounds
• (language awareness, metalinguistic analysis)
• Improving English pronunciation

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MINIMAL PAIRS

• 3

?ri?
tin
kæt
tri?
hæt
??n
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Lets compare!
Italian sounds which dont exist in English Examples of English sounds which dont exist in Italian Examples of English sounds which dont exist in Italian Examples of English sounds which dont exist in Italian
Consonants /?/ aglio /?/ gnomo /dz/ zelo /ts/ zio Vowels /?/ about /?/ bird /æ/ cat /?/ see Diphthongs /a?/ now /??/ go /e?/ there Consonants /ð/ then /?/ thin /?/ long /? / measure
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Lets compare!

• 7 vowels
• 23 consonants
• 12 vowels
• 8 diphtongs
• 24 consonants

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Consonants and their symbols

• /b/ as in bag/d/ as in dog/f/ as in fat/g/ as
  in good/h/ as in hat/l/ as in late/m/ as in
  man

• /n/ as in note/p/ as in pot/r/ as in rope/s/
  as in sock/t/ as in tear/v/ as in vowel/w/ as
  in worm/z/ as in zoo

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Other familiar symbols, but

• /k/ cake, crack, ache, stomach
• /g/ get, give NO gem
• /h/ happy, here NO thirsty, show, Thomas,
  hour, heir,
• /j/ your, yes, cute NO jam
• /s/ piece/peace, sell/cell,
• /z/ zone, lazy, nose/knows,
• NO pizza

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Confusion between spellings and sounds

• beat, seed, piece, machine /i/
• day, veil, obey
  /ei/
• shoe, sugar, issue, mansion, mission, nation,
  suspicion, ocean, conscious, chaperon, schist,
  fuchsia /?/
• one single sound may correspond
• to more than one letter

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Confusion between spellings and sounds

• man car
  name
• /æ/ man /a/ car
  /e?/ name
• /t?/ cheese, church,
  cheap
• /?/ chalet, champagne,
  Chigago, chic
• /k/ character,
  chemistry, chaos

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Confusion between spellings and sounds silent
letters

• ltbgt in subtle, doubt, comb, lamb
• ltwgt in answer
• ltkgt in knife, know, knight
• ltghgt in bright, light, night
• lt-egt in name, time, goose

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Silent letters Which letters are silent in the
following words?

• tomb whistle folk Greenwich
• pneumatic soften dumb honest
• receipt weigh debt
• psychiatry column scissors knot
• comb heir aisle

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Homophones flour, flower
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Homographs

• He took a bow at
• the end of the
• concert /ba?/
• He was wearing a
• bow tie /b??/

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Words, words, words.

• WORD STRESS
• Melancholic
• ?mel??k?l?k

Secondary stress
Primary stress
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STRESS SHIFT

• afternoon afternoon tea
• Japanese Japanese Girl
• weekend weekend traffic

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Classic Italian-speakers errors

• adjective, colleague, canal, report
• IN COMPOUNDS
• e-mail, home-page, web-site, chat-line

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ASSIMILATION

• a consonant sound at the end of a word becomes
  similar to a consonant sound at the beginning of
  another word
• /s ?/ ? /?/ this shop /ð????p/
• /t k/ ? /k/ that cake /ðække?k/
• /t g/ ? /g/ greet guests /griggests/
•  

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LINKING /r/

• Normally /r/ is not pronounced in the final
  position in BBC English. In connected speech,
  however, the final spelling r of a word is
  pronounced if the first sound of the next word is
  a vowel
• Thats my car /ka/
• That car is new. /kar ?z nju/

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INTRUSIVE CONSONANTS/j/ /w/

• - if the first word ends in /?/ and the next
  word starts with any vowel sound, we add /j/
• every ear /evr? ???/
• sounds like every year
• - if the first word ends with /u/ or /?/ and
  the next word starts with any vowel sound, we add
  /w/
• you ache /ju ?e?k/
• sounds like you wake

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ELISION

• a sound which would be present in a word
  spoken in isolation is omitted in connected
  speech, e.g.omission of /t/, omission of /d/
• next please /neks pliz/
• I dont know /ai d?? n??/
• you and me /ju ?n mi/
• stand there /stæn ðe?/

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VOWEL REDUCTION

• If you say the following sentences rapidly,
  stressing the underlined syllables
• You and me
• I wish you would tell me
• You will notice that in the second sentence
  the vowels in these two words are reduced, i.e.
  become shorter and less clear
• /ju ?n mi/
• /a? w?? j? w?d tel m?/
•  

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STRONG AND WEAK FORMS

• strong form
  weak form
• and /ænd/ /?n/
• of /?v/ /?v/
• you /ju/ /j?/
• does /d?z/ /d?z/
• have /hæv/ /h?v/ /?v/

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INTONATION

• I had coffee cake and honey
• I had coffee, cake and honey

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FUNCTIONS OF INTONATION

1. INDICATOR OF ATTITUDE - expresses our attitude at
   the moment of speaking to the situation we are
   in, or to what we are talking about, or to
   ourselves or to our listener
2. GRAMMATICAL INDICATOR - indicates if our
   utterance is a declarative sentence, an
   imperative, an exclamation, a question
3. DISCOURSE INDICATOR reveals the relationship
   between utterances and information throughout the
   discourse.

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Exercises
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1. In each of these groups of words, one word is
exactly the same as in normal letters. Underline
it. Then write the others in normal letters.

• /'pens?l/ /'pe?p?/ /pen/ /'n??tb?k/
• /desk/ /fæks/ /k?m'pju?t?/ /'tel?f??n/
• /nek/ /hed/ /hænd/ /leg/
• /hen/ /p?g/ /?i?p/ /ka?/
• /gri?n/ /blu?/ /red/ /blæk/
• /get/ /te?k/ /g?v/ /g??/
• /'sev?n//ten/ /?ri?/ /fa?v/

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1. KEY

• pencil paper pen notebook
• desk fax computer telephone
• neck head hand leg
• hen pig sheep cow
• green blue red black
• get take give go
• seven ten three five

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2. Here is a list of different activities. In
each one, one of the words is written with
phonemic symbols. Write it in normal letters.

• Ski /d??mp??/
• /w????/ the dishes
• /ju?z??/ a computer
• /s????/ a song
• /???k??/ about something
• /ple?j??/ games

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2. KEY

• Ski jumping
• washing the dishes
• using a computer
• singing a song
• thinking about something
• playing games

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3. Long vs. short vowels

• bee
• sheet
• bit
• cat
• food
• cangaroo
• put
• third
• but
• core
• far
• marsh (fever)
• set

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3. KEY

• Long
• bee
• sheet
• food
• cangaroo
• third
• core
• far
• marsh

• Short
• bit
• cat
• put
• but
• set

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4. Insert the missing words
/i/ /?/ /e/ æ
bead
bet
did
ken
lad
seat
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4. KEY
/i/ /?/ /e/ æ
bead bid bed bad
beat bit bet bat
deed did dead dad
keen kin ken can
lead lid led lad
seat sit set sat
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5. Diphthongs identify the words

• /?a?ld/
• /we???z/
• /?a?t/
• /???s/
• /?a?/
• /de?n??/
• /en???d/
• /a?ð?/
• /?a??/

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5. KEYS

• /?a?ld/
• /we???z/
• /?a?t/
• /???s/
• /?a?/
• /de?n??/
• /en???d/
• /a?ð?/
• /?a??/

1. Child
2. Wages
3. Shout
4. Choice
5. Shy
6. Danger
7. Enjoyed
8. Either
9. shower

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6.Identify the correct transcription

• Soul
• /s?l/
• /s?l/
• /s??l/
• Throw
• /?r?/
• /?r??/
• /?ru/

• Sew
• /s?/
• /s??/
• /sju/
• Ought
• /?t/
• /??t/
• /?t/

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6.KEY

• Soul
• /s?l/
• /s?l/
• /s??l/
• Throw
• /?r?/
• /?r??/
• /?ru/

• Sew
• /s?/
• /s??/
• /sju/
• Ought
• /?t/
• /??t/
• /?t/

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7. For each of the following words, choose the
correct vowel sound

• foot
• a) /?/
• b) /u/
• c) /??/
• stir
• a) /??/
• b) /?/
• c) /?/
• want
• a) /??/
• b) /?/
• c) /?/

• clear
• a) /i/
• b) /?/
• c) /??/
• straw
• a) /?/
• b) /?/
• c) /?/

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7.KEY

• foot
• a) /?/
• stir
• a) /?/
• Want
• b) /?/

• clear
• c) /??/
• straw
• b) /?/

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8. Match the word and the phonetic transcription
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8. KEY

• 1-e 8-a
• 2-f 9-k
• 3-l 10-i
• 4-h 11-j
• 5-b 12-d
• 6-g
• 7-c

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9. Choose the word which matches the phonetic
transcription

• 1) /ma?ðz/ a) mouths
• b) months
• c) mouse
• 2) /n??/ a) nor
• b) now
• c) know/no
• 3) /pra?d/ a) pride
• b) proud
• c) prude
• 4) /f???/ a) fear
• b) fair
• c) far

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9. KEY

1. A
2. C
3. B
4. A

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10. Words commonly mispronounced. Guess what
these words are
9. la??n/ - ...................... 10./bre?/ -
...................... 11./brið/ -
..................... 12/r?'sit/ -
..................... 13./m?tju?/ -
................... 14./h??/ - ...................
...... 15./rid??n/ - ......... 16./d?'lit/ -
...................... 17./bækw?d/ -
.................. 18./fow?d/ -
.................... 19./p?t?kj?l?/ -
................ 20./n????/ - ....................
.

• /w?d/ - .........................
• /??nli/ - ........................
• /fr?nt/ - ........................
• /'e?ri?/ - ......................
• /plant/ - .......................
• /v?ra??ti/ - ....................
• /pe?r?nt/ - ....................
• /ðe?/ - .........................

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10. KEY

• 1)word 10)breath 19)particular
• 2)only 11) breathe 20) nothing
• 3)front 12)receipt
• 4)area 13) mature
• 5)plant 14)hear-here
• 6)variety 15)region
• 7)parent 16)delete
• 8)there 17)backward
• 9)lion 18)forward

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Links

• http//www.teachingenglish.org.uk/download/pron_ch
  art/pron_chart.shtml
• http//www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/spelling/rec
  ognising/homophones/quiz.shtml
• http//www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/johnm/flash/flashin
  .htm