Practical English Phonetics

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Practical English Phonetics
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Contents

• I. Introduction
• II. The organs of speech
• III. English Speech Sounds
• IV. Sounds in Connected Speech
• V. Intonation

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• I. Introduction
• The importance of phonetic study
• A) Phonetics is the science and study of speech
  sounds ( sounds made by human speech organs
  representing meaning ). It deals with the sound
  system of a language.
• Phonetics is a branch of linguistics phonetics,
  vocabulary and grammar.
• Speech sound is the basic element for word
  grammar to rely on.
• (To learn any spoken language, the first step is
  to learn the basic sounds. )

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• a) Relations between speech sound word
• i) sound affects the formation of words
• Describe---description five----fifteen
  twelve----twelfth
• (onomatopoeia)
• cackle quack honk twitter chirp
  grunt roar giggle blab
• soup slurp sip slop sloppy slob
• ii) Sounds irregular verb form change
• /e/ in original form, no change in other 2 past
  forms.
• E.g. Bet bet bet let let let upset
  upset upset
• Spread spread spread

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• / i / in origin form, / i / is changed into /e
  / in other forms
• E.g. Meet met met feed fed fed lead
  led led
• Leave left left keep kept kept
  read read read
• Sleep slept slept feel felt felt
  sweep swept swept
• Verbs with /d / in original form, d changed into
  / t /
• E g. Send sent sent bend bent bent lend lent
  lent
• Spend spent spent build built built

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• / ? / in original verb forms, vowels changed into
  /? / or
• / ? /
• E g. Sing sang sang ring rang rang
• sink sank sank Swin swam swam
• drink drank drunk spring sprang sprung
• Begin began begun swing swung swung
• sling slug slung Fling flung flung
  
• wring wrung wrung

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• / ? / /? / /? / /? /
• sink sunk( sank) sunk
• stink stunk (stank) stunk
• spin spun (span) spun
• hang hung (hanged) hung (hanged)

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• / a? /changed into /?? / / ? /
• /a?/ /??/ /?n/
• ride rode ridden
• drive drove driven
• write wrote written
• rise rose risen
• arise arose arisen
• stride strode stridden
• strive strove striven
• thrive throve thriven

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• /i/ / ?? / / ?? /
• speak spoke spoken
• steal stole stolen
• freeze froze frozen
• break broke broken
• choose chose chosen
• /??/ /?/ /?/
• wear wore worn
• tear tore torn
• bear bore born
• swear swore sworn

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• iii) Relations between sound and grammar.
• Sounds determine parts of speech
• desert desert
• insult insult
• record record
• conduct conduct
• content content
• present present
• close close bow bow
• lead lead tear tear

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• verb tense
• read read
• number of nouns
• man men
• b) A need in communication.
• i) Intonation
• ___Yes, Madam ?
• ___ I want a piece of soap.
• ___ Its going to rain, isnt it ?

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• ii) the difference between oral language and
  written language, the distance between sound and
  transcription
• Pick it up. pi ?i t?p
• Think it over.
• You should have told us.
• Not at all.
• Did you eat yet?

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• c) A need for further study
• 2.Ways to learn phonetics
• more practice
• more listening
• more imitations
• to know the basic rules (how each sound is
  formed, stress, linking, rhythm, pauses,
  intonation and etc.)

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• 3.Standard English pronunciation
• English The most widely used language in the
  world ( one billion people speak English. 4
  hundred million speak it as their first language.
  6 hundred people speak it as a second or a
  foreign language. )
• English as native language in countries British,
  America, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, South
  Africa, Australia
• English as second language in countries China
• English as official language in India,
  Singapore, the Philippines, Ghana
• English as working language in the United
  Nations
• Permanent members UK, China, France, USA, Russia

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• Its pronunciation varies in different
  geographical areas, so it has dialects and
  accents, such as General American (GA), General
  British (GB)
• RP (received pronunciation) based on the London
  dialect, used by educated people in southern
  England, used by the announcers of BBC, also
  widely used through English-speaking countries.
  So, it has been accepted everywhere for the
  teaching of English to foreigners.

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• 4. Basic sounds phonetic transcription
• Basic sound the smallest phonetic unit of
  language
• Eg. Sea / ??/ composed of 2 sounds /?/
  /?/
• The functions of basic sounds
• a) distinguish word meaning
• Eg. Bed bad bid
• b) distinguish grammatical form
• E g. Man men work works

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• Basic sounds are distinctive.
• Any language has a vast number of speech sounds,
  yet basic sound are limited in number. In English
  there are 44 basic sounds in all.

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• Phonetic Transcription
• 26 English letters 44 basic sounds
• letters basic sounds
• a) one sound spelt in different ways
• /?/ read sea people machine believe receive
  we key quay
• b) same spelling, different pronunciations
• bough, although cough enough through brought
• c) silent letters
• climb knot autumn island

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• d) same spelling, different meanings, different
  pronunciations
• desert desert lead lead bow bow tear
  tear
• e) words spelt in different ways have the same
  pronunciation
• piece peace knot not site cite sea see

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• 5. International Phonetic Alphabet
• Characteristics each symbol represents one
  sound and not any other
• One sound must be represented by one symbol /?/
  /?/
• 6. Two types of transcription
• Broad transcription uses a simple set of
  symbols just to represent the phonemes of a
  language without ambiguity
• Narrow transcription uses symbol and
  diacritics to denote particular allophones of
  phonemes

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