Professional Documents
Culture Documents
English Phonetics and Phonology-Constantin Manea
English Phonetics and Phonology-Constantin Manea
Constantin Manea
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY NOTIONS
Animal and human communication systems may have a lot in
common, but the differences of complexity and organisation are glaring; if
animals bees, for instance can transmit an unlimited number of signals
(every message representing a mere variant of a single message schema), the
diversity and richness of human messages are indeed outstanding; human
languages are unlimited in this sense that one can go on writing well-formed
sentences in any natural language English, for example without ever
ending the number of the possible well-formed sentences in that idiom. So, a
human speaker may benefit by an unlimited number of discrete (linguistic)
signals. Secondly, human language has an astonishingly great complexity,
each sentence usable having in its turn a structure which holds on two
separate planes / levels: first, there is a linear arrangement / string (of words,
each having its own meaning and sound patterning); then, there is the
grammatical structure of each such element. While systems of
communication used by animals are closed (i.e. their elements form a finite
collection), human languages are open-ended (i.e. they consist of sets
whose number is actually infinite / unlimited: people can talk freely about
virtually anything, and new items are permanently being introduced,
borrowed or coined). Novelty can hence be considered the key-word when
referring to human (linguistic) communication. This novelty is, of course
novelty of meaning, not (usually) of structure. For instance, sentences
occurring to a human speaker in given situations are not memorised or simply
repeated in a parrot-like manner (the exceptions are very rare, and special:
e.g. acting on a stage, role-playing during a foreign language practical course,
etc.). This creative capacity is not a mere result of the human ability to make
logical or functional analogies. Nor can novelty, or spontaneity and creativity
in language use be accounted for by the argument that languages represent
sets of mere verbal habits.
Language is an instrument of communication; when one person
wants to convey a message to another (when he or she has some idea he or
she wants to transmit to another human being) that person may use a variety
of means: the word of mouth, some other audible signal (drums, horns,
whistles, Morse-key), body signs or gestures, semaphore flags or mirror
flashes, written words, ideograms, drawings or signs, etc. It is only natural
that the overwhelming majority of the messages humans transmit are
3
conveyed as spoken material, as the spoken word has always been the most
frequent means of communication; it will be redundant to state that speech
has the central role in communication. In the process of communication, the
message is at the very centre which is an argument in favour of the
essential part played by phonetics in the context of linguistics. Phonetics is
concerned with the human noises by which the message is actualised or
given audible shape: the nature of those noises, their combinations, and their
functions in relation to the message. (J. D. OConnor, Phonetics, p. 9)
It is necessary to acknowledge the centrality of the message in
order to be able to place phonetics the study of the sounds of spoken
language in the context of linguistic studies generally. And OConnor goes
on with the presentation of the model of a single act of communication, the
passing of one message from a speaker to a listener.
Within the framework of that model, J.D. OConnor speaks about
the three functions of the brain in the process of communication (see also
below, Communication by means of language):
1) The creative function: It is defined as the central function within
human speech communication, as it ensures the forming of the message.
Since the modus operandi / the rules of language functioning are stored in the
brain, as a result of previous verbal experience (e.g. the permissible
grammatical patterns, the vocabulary items which can be correctly and
logically selected, the knowledge about the way individual types of voices
and the regional varieties of the respective language sound, knowledge of
sequencing possibilities, etc.), we can safely use them, even though that
knowledge is different from one person to another. The phases of
manifestation of the creative function are represented by a persons need to
communicate, by the communication medium available or most likely to be
chosen within the wider context, and by the form the message should take.
2) The forwarding function: nervous impulses are sent from the
brain, containing patterns of muscular behaviour / activity, directed to the
muscles of the speech / vocal organs (the lungs, the larynx, the tongue, the
jaws, etc.); these are responsible for the correct emission of sounds /
utterances, which is done in the shape of the correct (i.e. recognizable)
ordering and combinations.
3) The hearing function: It is performed as understanding of the
message received by the ear-drum as sound sequences differing as far as their
quality and quantity features are concerned. The hearer interprets the sounds
in keeping with the knowledge his / her brain possesses of the respective
language. As he / she recognises them, he / she selects the most likely
meanings which is precisely the other end of the creative function (v.
supra).
4
Here is what David Crystal (op. cit., p. 331) says about structures: A LANGUAGE,
for example, is a structure, in the sense that it is a network of interrelated units, the
MEANING of the parts being specifiable only with reference to the whole. In this
sense, the terms structure and system are often synonymous () More specifically,
the term is used to refer to an isolatable section of this total network, as in discussion
of the structure of a particular GRAMMATICAL area (), and here structure and
system are distinguished: one might talk of the structure of a particular system.
2
Here are D. Crystals comments on the notion of system (op. cit., p. 342): In its
most general sense, the term refers to a network of patterned relationships constituting
the organisation of LANGUAGE. Language as a whole is then characterised as a
system (cf. the linguistic system of English, etc.) - and often as a HIERARCHICALLY
ordered arrangement of systems () Within the totality, the term system may be
applied to any finite set of FORMALLY or SEMANTICALLY connected UNITS (referred
to variously as the terms or members of the system), where the interrelationships
are mutually exclusive () and mutually definable ()
using transformational rules (or T rules), which put two levels of structural
representation in correspondence. (hence, the generic name attributed to such
Chomskyan grammars: GTS, i.e. generative-transformational grammars).
He also postulated the existence of a Deep Structure (DS)3 and a Surface
Structure (SS)4. This approach mainly applied to syntax and phonology.
COMMUNICATION BY MEANS OF LANGUAGE
Verbal communication presupposes an interaction speaker-listener,
the two being essential factors of human (verbal) communication. The
act of communication takes into account and includes the following
stages / phases / distinctly analysable operations:
Here is the notion illustrated with the definition D. Crystal proposed (op. cit., p. 94):
TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR ; opposed to
SURFACE STRUCTURE. Deep structure or Deep grammar) is the abstract
organisation which specifies all the factors governing the way the sentence should be
interpreted. (The basic notion has also been referred to, in various theoretical contexts,
as D-STRUCTURE, UNDERLYING structure, BASE structure, REMOTE structure and
INITIAL structure).
4
The D. Crystal definition of surface structure: The surface structure of a
SENTENCE if the final stage in the SYNTACTIC REPRESENTATION of a sentence,
which provides the input to the PHONOLOGICAL COMPONENT of the grammar, and
which thus most closely corresponds to the structure of the sentence we articulate and
hear. (op. cit., p. 337)
encoding i.e. the choice of semantic / meaning units; among those the
respective language possesses in order to render the wanted idea(s) /
concept(s). Different languages will operate differently in selecting / cutting
out the respective semantic units from the materials offered by reality
itself. (To give a few examples, Welsh has a single word for a rather wide
range of colours and colour shades running from blui(e)sh to grey; some
languages have a large number of expressions meant to name colour shades
and nuances, e.g. Eng. scarlet, crimson, Fr. vert olive, jaune paille, vert Nil,
etc.; others only call them using phrases like: dark / light + blue / green, etc.
Some African languages have only three basic semantic units to designate
colours, etc.). Even reality itself, when perceived linguistically, is segmented
in different manners: referents (= the objects / entities in reality we refer to by
giving / attributing a sense to a word, or rather linguistic sign) can be selected
/ recognized differently, e.g. Eskimos are said to call the different qualities /
types of snow or reindeer meat / flesh by using scores of different names, the
Tamil language has over a dozen different words for tiger, Arabic
designates camels by different names, depending on their age, sex, size,
a.s.o., etc. English has two verbs corresponding to the Romance (viz.
Romanian, French, Italian) verb a lsa / laisser / lasciare i.e. to let and to
leave (as in Let me be! and Leave me alone!, respectively). Words designating
the notion of forest do not fully and univocally correspond in various
languages: e.g. Eng. wood(s), forest; Ger. Wald; Fr. fort, bois; Rom. pdure,
pdurice, codru, crng; or consider the words designating the idea of lake /
pond, in, say, English, Romanian and French. The Romanian for Whats your
name? can be literally translated as How do (they) call you?, whereas the
same question in Italian (Come ti chiami?) translates as How do you call
yourself?, etc.
-b) The grammatical encoding (a mental operation, like the
previous one). It refers to the arrangement done by the speaker (in keeping
with the patterns the language exhibits) and using certain specialised tools /
implements e.g. auxiliaries, conjuncts, etc.), to form correct sentences and
phrases (e.g. The cat is running after a mouse not *Cat the run ising after
mouses a). There are differences between languages in this respect, too.
Grammatical patterns and distinctions are not the same: e.g. the category of
aspect is not grammaticalised (recognised as being a grammatically relevant
category) in certain languages for instance, in Romanian vs. English, where
there are two grammatical aspect classes the progressive vs. the simple or
common aspect; Russian recognises the aspect distinction between
perfective and non-perfective. Old Greek had several voices in the class of
the verb, Romanian has three, and English has only two (as the reflexive
structures are not recognized as a separate voice). There are American Indian
languages with no specific category of the Future Tense. Chinese has no
8
The noun phrase is a False Friend / pitfall for Romanian learners of English; it may
mean either locuiune; expresie or sintagm, construcie.
level of structure might not be drawn in quite the same terms by all linguists,
and it requires some further development and qualification. () By the
productivity of human language (another term is creativity: cf. Chomsky,
1968) is meant the ability that we all have to construct and understand an
indefinitely large number of sentences in our native language, including
sentences that we have never heard before, and to do this, for the most part,
naturally and unreflectingly, without the conscious application of
grammatical rules. It is generally agreed that To explain how this is possible
is the root-problem of linguistic analysis (Haas: 1966, p. 117). () This
problem has been particularly important in the development of generative
grammar. () These two important properties are universal, in the following
sense at least: they have been found in all human languages so far
investigated (Lyons, p. 12). So, natural languages can be said to make
infinite use of finite means.
The phoneme can be defined as an abstract grouping of (minimal)
sound units, having a certain functional load and a (distinct) semantic
relevance within the phonological / phonematic / phonemic system of the
language considered. Each language has a specific inventory of such sound
units some phonemes may be specific to certain languages (e.g. [] for
English, // for Romanian, Portuguese and Russian, [b'] for Hindi, etc.)
B. The sending of the message: the brain sends nervous impulses /
signals to the organs of speech, which will respond through speech
movements that produce speech sounds. The string of phonemes is actualised
as a string of physical sounds. Sounds are produced as a continuum; they are
perceived as a continuous flow, being discernible only through the speakers
own linguistic competence (thus, // will be recognised as a mere sequence of
consonant phonemes in English, e.g. cats /kts/, and as a separate / distinct
phoneme in Romanian, e.g. ho /hots/. In actual speech, these phonemes do
not occur as such; actual sounds are different realisations of the phonemes of
that language compare the realisations of /k/ in: skip, cat, lake.
The above phenomena represent the object of articulatory
phonetics, a discipline which studies the speech organs interacting in order to
produce speech sounds. Although the speech organs are the same with natives
of every language, different languages have different phonological codes: the
sounds produced will be different in particular languages.
C. The transmission of the message is studied by that branch of
phonetics called acoustic phonetics. Its concern is the study of sound waves
perceived as sounds and conveying the message.
D. Reception of the message is studied by auditory phonetics,
whose object is the audition mechanism.
E. Decoding of the message is identical in point of constituency
with the encoding activity, only the stages are considered in the reverse way
10
Articulatory
Phonetics
Auditory
Phonetics
D. Reception of
message
Acoustic Phonetics
C. Transmission of the message
quality has for many centuries been characteristic of English, e.g. /i/,
/u/, /e/ reduced to //, and still the intelligibility of the English words and
phrases generally enjoys high acceptability for native speakers: first of all,
thanks to the rhythmic patterns of (familiar) words and also their
combinations into sentences and syntagms.
PHONETICS AND ITS IMPORTANCE
Phonetics is one of the disciplines making up linguistics (the others
being: phonology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, etc.). Communication is a
matter of sharing / exchanging signs; this is the symbolisation process. The
system of signs used by any language displays units having two sides (cf. F.
de Saussure: like a sheet of paper), i.e.:
a) the signifying side (le signifiant, in Saussures terminology, i.e the Sing) and
b) the signified side (le signifi, i.e. the S-ed).
The first is the concrete / material / conspicuous manifestation of
the sign (its shape as it were); this manifestation may be vocal or graphical.
The latter notion (b) is the content(s) of the sign, the thing which is
signified. Human language only uses conventional signs i.e. there is no
natural, direct relation between the S-ed and the S-ing side: so, linguistic
signs are said to be arbitrary (i.e. the relationship between sound and
meaning is arbitrary or conventional, with a few exceptions, e.g.
onomatopoeic words or expressions). This means that there is no physical
correspondence between the referents / the entities in the world to which the
linguistic forms refer, the qualities of those entities / objects, and the form (Sing) of the words designating them: e.g. a table is no less a table if it is
named in Romanian, Italian, Russian, etc. (so, ['mas], ['tavola], [stolj] are all
entitled to be forms for the same concept referring to the four-legged piece of
furniture).
If one cuts out a portion (metaphorically speaking remember the
sheet of paper simile for the linguistic sign) of one side of the S-ing : S-ed
association, the S-ing for instance, the change will be echoed by the other
side of the whole: e.g. if one drops an analysable sound from the English
word dunce [dns], the resulting form, dun [dn], will have an altogether
different meaning so, it is a different linguistic sign.
Languages can be analysed on two levels or planes: that of
expression (cf. Saussures S-ing); and the level / plane of content (cf.
Saussures S-ed). At each level distinctions can be made between substance
and form. On the plane of expression, sounds are organised in keeping with a
number of complex rules; they are not arbitrarily used. Therefore, a phonetic
12
15
phonemes (and, then, the words, word-groups and on) out of the apparently
unintelligible chaos of sounds one is faced with which is done gradually,
after very careful and attentive listening. The next step for learners to take
will be pronouncing the sounds thus distinguished and selected (first, without
their normal context) and practising with them, then analysing their sound
qualities, their articulation (the movements the tongue does together with
the lips and jaws in order to produce them: e.g. compare Rom. zis, Eng.
this; Eng. pop and Bob, etc. The final step of the analysis process is
performing the sounds considered i.e. arranging and uttering them in
longer sound contexts: syllables, words, phrases, sentences.
ENGLISH PHONETICS. RECEIVED
PRONUNCIATION. PHONETICS AND SPELLING
Descriptive phonetics as applied to English will observe the
(restrictive) norms that set up the rules of good pronunciation within such
considerable geographical and social variety as can be seen all through the
countries in which English is spoken; that is said to be the standard
pronunciation. Traditionally, the one variety that presents the most
advantages in being learned (and taught) is what phoneticians have called
Received Pronunciation (RP) i.e. that variety of British English used by
educated people / speakers in the Southern part of England, including the
London area or, simply, Southern English. It was Daniel Jones who first
introduced the term through his famous Pronouncing Dictionary. RP is
usually opposed to American English (whose subdivisions are: General
American or Western American, Eastern American and Southern American);
sometimes, it is opposed to dialectal / regional varieties of British English.
Here is the definition of the pronunciation model as given by Daniel
Jones in the first edition of his English Pronouncing Dictionary (1917): That
most usually heard in everyday speech in the families of South-Eastern
persons whose menfolk have been educated at the great public boarding
schools; so, he referred to his model as the Public School Pronunciation
(PSP); in later editions e.g. that of 1937 he added the remark that
schoolboys in day-schools do not tend to lose their markedly local
peculiarities. It was in 1926 that Daniel Jones abandoned the term PSP in
favour of Received Pronunciation (RP), i.e. that kind of standard / model,
rooted in the educated pronunciation of London and the Home Counties,
which spread throughout the country, being characteristic of upper-class
speech as early as the 19th century. So, its origin and evolution can be said to
be two-fold: both regional and socially determined (i.e., the type of English
most often heard among educated people in Southern England used by the
majority of Londoners who have had a university education, and most
17
features; yet, a foreigner who tries to learn English at least in school has
to comply with the general rules / norms of RP / standard pronunciation.
Since English pronunciation and spelling are rather wide apart as a
result of historical evolution, learners should have recourse to conventional
graphical signs (such as //, //, etc.) corresponding to the English phonemes,
as regular letters may have different phonetic values (e.g. cat, cent, indict;
love, move, cove, gone, word, sword; or: send, ease, sugar, measure; or there
may be two pronunciations of the same graphical word e.g. sow1 a
semna (cmpul cu semine), sow2 scroaf; bough, bow1 and bow2, etc.);
the same vowel is heard in sit, enough, village, women, busy.
In spite of these appearances of a phonetic chaos 7, English still has a
number of rather fixed or else, consistent pronunciation rules (see Annex
5), (as in: sheriff, bed, bad, feet, etc.).
Initially, English was phonetic (as opposed to the etymological aspect
i.e. historical, diachronic, in keeping with tradition), reflecting in a fairly
exact manner the pronunciation of the words. This older spelling was
preserved through the written documents in spite of the (natural) historical
evolution of living language. As an example, we can mention the work
knight, which, in the 14th century, was pronounced as /knixt/; see was
pronounced differently from sea; in the 18th century, tea
then
pronounced /tei/ was rhymed with obey. There have been timid attempts at
reforming spelling (e.g. in the 16th century many final es were eliminated:
compare Edmund Spensers Faerie Queene with todays words, fairy and
queen). Yet, printing contributed to freeze the older form; this traditional
stream actually had a positive influence on the language i.e. supradialectal
unification. The capital work of the great lexicographer Samuel Johnson
(1755) virtually fixed / froze English spelling. It is true that there is an
7
19
The difference between the two notations is sometimes ignored, so they can be used
- actually, they are used - indiscriminately; but most linguists, philologists and bookeditors draw a distinction between [mn] and /mn/: the former is an instance of
21
22
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Type (1) above is the one used throughout this book, (2) the same
transcription without the length colons, (3) the EPD transcription (= D.
Jones English Pronouncing Dictionary), (4) P.A.D. MacCarthys vowelletter doubling transcription, (5) the simplified transcription devised by
Daniel Jones, (6) Gimsons transcription, (7) the Abercrombie Edinburgh
transcription, and (8) that of J.S. Kenyon and T.A. Knotts Pronouncing
Dictionary of American English.
They all employ symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Anyone who is thorougly familiar with one of these should find very little
difficulty in reading anything written in one of the others. Our sample
sentence contains all the (British) English phonemes. (British pronunciation
is represented in all of them including the last.)
Some other books (dictionaries, textbooks, workbooks, pronunciation or
conversation guides, phonology treatises or manuals, etc.) use quite different
systems from the IPA: some for the sake of tradition (e.g. Websters
Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary), some in order to be more accurate in
giving the reader / user an idea of the exact pronunciation of sounds, which
could thus be more graphical (e.g. the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary
by J. C. Wells, based on A. C. Gimsons variant), others trying to simplify
things, and still others in an attempt to be original.
23
CHAPTER II
MAIN COMPARTMENTS OF PHONETICS
As already mentioned in the introductory chapter, phonetics is the
science of human speech-sounds. Its study focuses on the whole production
of what we may call vocal noise, substantiating the degree to which these
elements are characteristic of, and relevant for, the many diverse natural
languages analysed. The compartments of phonetics are in number of three
and they represent the three interdependent (although fully distinct)
standpoints from which the phenomena under study may be regarded.
Before trying to outline the essentials of the pronunciation of
English, it is important to point out that we start here from the assumption
that, nowadays, the basic motivation of students in their study of English or
any other foreign language is effective communication in that language.
Real communication, however, involves both production and comprehension
of messages. It means that only speaking the language fluently is not enough.
Understanding it is equally important in order to achieve true
communication. It is generally admitted that, of the two aspects of learning
pronunciation perception and production the most difficult task to acquire
is native-like audio-comprehension. Sometimes, when a message is
transmitted by a native speaker to an unsystematically trained foreign
listener, everything seems to flood in upon the hearer so violently that he or
she is in most cases unable to understand what is being said to him or her;
thus, a prerequisite to developing the ability to produce speech is developing
the ability to recognise speech as long as a sound pattern has not been heard
accurately, it cannot be reproduced accurately except by accident. Many
intermediate, and even upper-intermediate students of English are hardly
aware of the difference between the vowels in dance and dunce, or hoop and
hood, for example. Consequently, learning how to articulate the foreign
sounds has to go hand in hand with intensive listening to them. This
proposition has to be borne in mind during the whole process of learning or
teaching the pronunciation of a foreign language. In this section, we shall
examine some articulatory aspects of communication in English.
Articulatory Phonetics: Meaningful sounds / vocal noises that
humans produce in order to communicate amount to the social instrument of
language.
When we start analysing the sounds humans use in speech, it will be
inconceivable to begin it with the analysis of the letters we use in our
spelling; the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet (and even the 2,000-odd
24
symbols of the Chinese system) will not be enough to mark all the range of
sounds English makes use of to say nothing of the great variety of sounds
speakers of other languages can produce.
The only thing we should normally do is base our investigation upon
the most reliable criterion the sounds themselves can suggest: namely, the
physical properties they display. In an impressionistic description, sounds
may appear as flat, harsh, smooth, broad, soft, dark, bright,
clear, scratchy, etc., but these terms can hardly be said to be reliable
viz. concrete. (As an example, one may invoke the case of that pronunare
ndulcit applying to Romanian regional accents, and especially to the
Moldavian variant, although the significant use this sub-dialect makes of
palatalization is far from sounding soft). So, auditory data, when used in an
impressionistic manner, have little relevance for this kind of analysis. The
acoustic features of sounds will give us better results in this respect, mainly if
analysed by means of special equipment and techniques. On the other hand,
the data gathered by means of the analytical techniques based on the study of
the anatomy of the organs performing phonation (the organs of speech) seem
to be more exact; this has been the main current in the linguistic tradition
beginning with the middle of the last century up to the between-the-wars
period.
This type of analysis is consequently a physiological or articulatory
one, and the study of phonetics in this field is primarily based on the detailed
description, enumeration and classification of the body organs used in
making speech-sounds. So, the main concern of articulatory phonetics is the
study of the vocal organs which make it possible for human speakers to
articulate the sounds of everyday speech. (As a matter of fact, both
articulatory and acoustic phonetics may be given the more general label of
physical phonetics, as they investigate physical phenomena as opposed to
auditory phonetics, which is based on a massive physiological, or psychic,
constituent).
The parts of the body that man uses to this purpose are the speech (or
vocal) organs; they are called organs of speech / speech organs
although the essential function is a different one than the specifically human
function of producing sounds / phonation, characteristic of language. Thus,
their primary functions are eating, breathing, etc. (so, vital, physiological /
biological functions). This happens because humans, who are the only
speaking animals, have the faculty of speech as a native / innate part of their
specific heritage; it is only the human being that possesses the necessary
cerebral and anatomic attributes (the simplest example in point would be the
possibility animals have unlike humans to produce sounds while eating or
drinking, because of the reciprocal positions of their larynges and oesophagi).
So, the (upper part of) the food tract and of the respiratory system carries out
25
this task; in man, these were turned into speech organs proper, by way of
evolutionary mutations, it seems; the idea is that man simply could not bring
forth a new set of organs, specially meant for phonation / production of
speech; it is merely the case of functional adaptations of a number of parts of
the vocal apparatus.
The description based on the mainly concrete knowledge of the
organs of speech, their relation to each other, their activity (the way in which
they are used in speaking) can provide a universal framework for the
classification of speech sounds. (See also Hall, jr., op. cit., p. 37: Our
folklore about language includes the notion that some sounds are impossible
to pronounce, or that innate differences of physiological make people of a
certain group inherently incapable of pronouncing certain sounds found in in
languages spoken by people of other groups. Thus, some whites believe
themselves unable to make the differences in the pitch of individual syllables
found in Chinese and in many Southeast Asian, African, and American Indian
languages; Tuscans believe themselves hereditarily unable to pronounce
word-final consonant sounds, etc. These notions are quite unfounded. A white
child brought up in China among speakers of Chinese will learn to speak
exactly as they do; a child of Tuscan parents brought up speaking English
from his earliest years will have no difficulty at all in pronouncing word-final
consonants. A slightly more sophisticated version of the same folkloristic
notion is found in a recent attempt by a physiologist to show a statistical
correlation between blood-group types and the presence or absence of the
th sounds in the worlds languages; the effort failed, because of nave
misunderstanding of the distribution of national languages and their
dialects.)
THE SPEECH MECHANISM / TRACT
The speech mechanism / tract includes three compartments / segments,
in keeping with the function they perform in the act of utterance / phonation:
1) (as the source of the air-stream): the thorax and the lungs;
2) (as a means of modulation, through vibration): the larynx;
3) (as resonators): the cavities of the speech tract (viz. the supraglottal
cavities).
The main function of the thorax and the lungs is respiration, while
phonation is only a secondary function / a by-product and is materialised in
producing the air stream / current needed to start speech. The movements
performed by the lungs are initiated by the contraction of the intercostal
muscles and the diaphragm: the two acting like a pair of bellows (Rom.
"foale"). Inspiration and respiration make up the respiratory cycle; man
usually has a respiratory rate of about 10 to 20 cycles per minute (cpm), but
26
result of the movements / positioning and shape of the organs inside the oral
cavity, some of which are fixed (teeth, hard palate / roof of the mouth,
pharyngeal wall, etc.), while others are movable / mobile (e.g. the tongue).
The movable / moving organs are articulators; the fixed organs serve
as points of articulation.
I. The Points of Articulation are: the teeth, the teeth ridge / the
alveolar ridge, and the hard palate; the soft palate / the velum, ends with the
uvula (Rom. omuorul).
II. The Articulators of which the tongue is the most important;
its surface was (didactically) divided into: the tip, the blade (they form
together the apex); the front; the back; the root of the tongue, the lateral parts
are the sides / the rims of the tongue.
the lips which help in producing labial sounds;
the jaws: the lower jaw only is mobile / movable; the distance
between the two determines the close vs. open quality of certain
vowel sounds (e.g. //, /:/ vs. /i/, /u:/.
c) The Nasal Cavity: The position of the soft palate (the velum
vlul palatin), continued by the uvula, has the essential part in shifting the
air-stream into the nasal cavity: when raised, the velum directs the air flow
through the mouth (the sounds thus produced being oral); when the soft
palate is lowered and the mouth cavity is partially blocked, the air-stream
is directed through the nasal cavity (= pronunciation of the nasal sounds, e.g.
/m/, /n/, //). Nasalisation of otherwise oral sounds (i.e. vowels) is achieved
when only part of the air-stream escapes through the nasal cavity (e.g. the
French or Portuguese sounds / phonemes //, /, //, etc.). In English,
nasalisation has no phonemic relevance with vowels: it has no phonological
relevance.
So, the air is set in motion, then the various movements of the organs
of speech and their coordination take this flow over and transform it
(significantly assisted by the vibration supplied by the resonators) into sounds
and sound sequences / trains of sounds. The phonetician is one may say
interested in the study of anatomy and physiology to a significant extent, just
as he has to make extensive and flexible use of some tools of investigation
such as: direct observation of articulatory movements, X-ray photography for
recording the representative positions and movements of the tongue, soft
palate and vocal folds / cords, laryngoscopic investigation through
photography and / or observation, electromyography (i.e. measurement of the
electrical potential displayed by muscular contractions along the vocal tract).
28
f, v
r
l
s, z
l,
k,g
Glottal
/Dorso-velarVelar
c, j
Uvular
Palatal
t,d
tr,
dr
n
r
Palato-alveolar
Retro flex
Post-alveolar
Alveolar
p,b
/ interdentalDental
Plosives
(Stops)
Affricate
sounds
Nasals
Rolled
(Intermittent
closure)
Flapped
Lateral
Fricative
sounds
Glides
Labiodental
Place of
artic.
Manner
of artic.
Bilabial
to learn that the initial consonants in English keep and car are articulated in
quite different positions, the tongue touching the roof of the mouth further
forward in the first [k] sound than in the second. And there are many other
sounds equally difficult to distinguish. (David Crystal, Linguistics, p. 170).
6. Force of articulation: this criterion refers to the force / tenseness
added to the articulation of contoid / consonant sounds, which in turn will
determine a larger or a smaller quantity of air sent by the lungs and further
propelled into the mouth. Those sounds involving a smaller air volume are
called lenis, as opposed to fortis (implying a higher volume of air. In
English, all voiceless contoids are fortis (as they need a larger amount of
respiratory / articulatory effort to be uttered) and are opposed to the lenis
consonants: i.e. the voiced stops (e.g. /b/, /g/, the glottal stop, etc.) and the
sonorants (e.g. /l/, /m/, //, etc.
7. There is a further class of consonantal / consonant-type sounds,
viz. the semi-vowels (e.g. /w/, /j/), which, although articulated like vowels
(i.e. meeting no major obstruction on their passage), have a consonant nature
(i.e. functional features: they cannot form syllables by themselves, having a
rather marginal position in the syllable and support from a neighbouring
vowel, which is the centre of the syllables.
A detailed table / chart including the description of the English
contoids as distinguished by A.C. Gimson (apud. D. Chioran, op. cit., 1977):
t,
d
()
r
, j
31
Front
Back
+
+
+
+
High
Low
MID~
MID~
+
+
+
+
+
+
MID~
MID~
CARDINAL
VOWEL
/i/
/e/
//
/a/
//
/o/
/o/
/u/
Compare the Cardinal Vowel Chart above with the English Simple
Vowels:
/i:/
/u:/
/i/
/u/
/:/
/e/
//
/o:/
//
//
/o/
/:/
33
ACOUSTIC PHONETICS
The sounds uttered by the speakers are transmitted as sound waves.
Acoustic phonetics studies sound waves, which is the physical way in which
sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another (D.
Crystal, Linguistics, p. 167). So, in this case, the phonetician is interested in
the manner in which the air vibrates between the mouth of the speaker (the
sender / transmitter of the message) and the ear of the listener (= the
recipient). These sound waves are studied, as far as their physical qualities
are concerned, by acoustics. This discipline of physics will characterise and
describe the speech sounds in physical terms. Thus, speech sounds are
defined as the observable product of vibration of the air (i.e. the air-pressure
caused by phonation). The phoneticians task will be very close to that of the
physicist, and the tools he / she uses must enable him / her to measure and
analyse the movement of air in acoustic terms. This generally means
introducing a microphone into the communication chain, converting the air
movement into corresponding electrical activity and analysing the result in
terms of frequency of vibration and amplitude of vibration in relation to
time (OConnor, op. cit., p. 16).
The properties of the above-mentioned vibration (producing sound
waves in the neighbouring medium viz. the air) are: nature and frequency,
to which specific properties of the medium are added. The vibration that
engenders speech sounds may be: periodic (vs. non-periodic) and, on the
other hand, complex (vs. simple).
Simple periodic vibrations can only be called those pure / musical
tones (i.e. having a constant frequency), produced by a tuning fork, for
instance. When one strikes a tuning fork, the two prongs vibrate; the
maximum width of that vibration depends on the physical properties of the
fork, and is also proportionate to the force with which the fork was struck:
that width is known as the amplitude of the vibration. The vibration of a
sound may be simple or double (the latter is called a period or a cycle: i.e. a
complete movement, coming back to the starting point of the vibration). The
rate of vibration is called its frequency. With solid bodies, it can vary
according to the weight, the volume, the shape and the tenseness of the
respective body or cavity. The rate of vibration determines the pitch / the tone
of that sound; it is measured in cycles / second (cps) i.e. the number of
cycles performed by a vibrating body in one second (in acoustics, the term /
unit Herz (Hz) is used); the number of cps depends on the length of the
prongs (plus, of course, the physical properties of the fork).
As said before, vibrations also have a specific amplitude of
34
movement, which conditions the intensity of the sound / acoustic power (and
is measured in Watts). When the power / energy of sounds is compared, the
decibel is used (db) i.e., when the qualities of perception of the human ear
are considered; a dB is actually a unit that measures the ratio of any two
amounts of electric or acoustic energy, just as percent measures the ratio of
two figures. But recent standardisation has established a permanent reference
scale of energy in relation to which dB has acquired also an absolute meaning
(as, for example, a degree on a thermometer which is calibrated according to
the boiling point and freezing point of water at sea level). The standard
reference value chosen for the zero point was 10-16 watts per square
centimetre, that is, one 10-quadrillionth of a watt. This extremely small
amount of energy is just above the threshold of perception of a human ear of
slightly better than normal sensitivity. Also, the least difference in loudness
detectable by the average hearer is approximately 1 dB; but this difference
seems to depend somewhat and also on the type of sound under test, whether
it is a tone, or a noise, and what kind of either. On this dB scale, average
conversation lies between 50 and 70 dB. A noise louder than 120 dB causes
pain, continued ringing in the ears, and even temporary deafness. (Ernst
Pulgram, Introduction to the Spectrography of Speech, p. 26)
The vibrations are taken over by the air and spread by means of
repeated compressions and rarefactions of the local density of the
transmission medium (i.e. the air); they produce a back-and-forth / pendulum
movement of the air molecules / particles; when they collide with the
eardrum / tympanum, they eventually cause sound perception. The amplitude,
which physically corresponds to the air pressure, will be perceived as
loudness, as the frequency determines the pitch of the sounds we hear. Power
is objective, and loudness is subjective: at high power levels, all tones of the
same power sound almost equally loud, regardless of frequency (..); but a
change in power at high power levels produces virtually the same change in
loudness regardless of frequency (ibidem).
Compound sounds (which, among other sound-producing
instruments, are characteristic of the human speech mechanism) have a
fundamental frequency (specific to the whole of the body in vibration), to
which are added secondary frequencies; the first vibration is called the
fundamental, and the others the harmonics.
The phenomenon of transmission of the vibration produced by a
body to another one is called resonance, and the body that produces it a
resonator.
Acoustic Characteristics of Speech Sounds: Speech Sounds are
produced by the vibration of the larynx (i.e. the vocal cords), activated by
the energy of the air-stream emitted by the lungs. This vibration engenders
the glottal / laryngeal tone, which represents the basis for producing vowels,
35
classification of speech sounds. Thus, vowels are classed into compact and
diffuse (i.e. having the main formants grouped in the middle of the spectrum
-e.g. //, /:/ vs. vowels having formants wide apart, at the extremities of
the spectrum, e.g. /i:/, /u:/).
A second division will oppose acute and grave vowels, depending on
whether the second formant has a high or a low frequency, respectively; thus,
/i:/, /i/, /e/, // (acute vowels) will be opposed to /u:/, /u/, /:/, /o/, /o:/ (grave
vowels).
We can easily notice these acoustic cross-classifications can be made
to correspond to the articulatory axes of classification (close vs. open, or high
vs. low and front vs. back).
For consonants, a number of acoustic features (although not very
consistently studied) can be noted: sharp consonants e.g. /d/, /t/- as
opposed to grave consonants e.g. /b/, /p/, in which lower frequencies
prevail; to this sharp / low axis is added the compact / diffuse axis e.g.
/k/, /g/ are compact vs. /t/, /d/, /p/, /b/, which are diffuse.
AUDITORY PHONETICS
This is the last of the three main compartments of phonetics. Its object
of study is mans hearing mechanism (or the hearing process), i.e. the way
in which human beings perceive sounds through the medium of the ear
(Crystal, Linguistics, p. 167). The act of hearing has a physiological, as well
as a psychological component i.e. the perception and the interpretation of
the sounds by the brain. The former concerns itself with the physiological
activity of the ear; the domain of the latter is represented by the nervous
activity being performed between the ear and the brain, the final result of
which is the sensation of hearing.
A. The physiological component is represented by audition, which is
performed by the ear; it has three parts: a) the outer ear (the pavilion or
earflap and the canal); b) the middle ear (the tympanum or eardrum and three
bones: the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup, which transmit the vibration of
the tympanum to the inner ear); c) the inner ear (the labyrinth and the cochlea
the actual hearing organ, shaped like a snail; inside the cochlea is the
organ of Corti, representing the end of the auditory nerve.
The mechanism of audition rests on the transmission of the vibrations
performed by the tympanum to the chain of bones and through the oval
window, to the inner ear, up to the organ of Corti. Mans auditory field
ranges between a hearing threshold and the pain threshold (circa 600 cps to
4,000 cps); the nervous excitation is transmitted to the brain.
B. The psychological interpretation of the sensation of hearing consists
in the analysis, by the brain, of these sound features that are relevant for
37
38
CHAPTER III
PHONOLOGY
A. THE PHONEME
Although sounds have a certain constancy in pronunciation, which
permits the speakers to recognise them as such, they are not identical; there
are variations, depending on: 1) the phonetic context (compare the different
values of /t/ in: Tom, ten, twig, still, little, cotton, Tuesday, pretty, eighth; 2)
geographical appurtenance; 3) repetition of the same sound by the same
person, during speech in the same context. (See also, though within a
different context, the distinction the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure
established between langue and parole, i.e. language and speech,
respectively). Each of us uses an infinite number of different speech sounds
when we speak English. Indeed, it is true to say that it is difficult to produce
two sounds which are precisely identical from the point of view of
instrumental measurement: two utterances by the same person of the word
cat may well show quite marked differences when measured instrumentally.
Yet we are likely to say that the same sound sequence has been repeated. (A.
C. Gimson, op. cit., p. 4)
These differences are not apparent; they do not affect communication:
speakers always grasp the same meanings, in spite of the differences; unlike
such cases as: Help the poor vs. Help the boor (where the difference lies in a
relevant (articulatory) phonetic trait / feature in our case, voice, which, in
English as in other languages, can separate meanings of words: /p/ and /b/
are separate / distinct phonemes). It is the task of phonemics / phonology to
class the features of speech sounds into distinctive and non-distinctive,
relating them to the possible changes in meaning that can be noticed unlike
phonetics, which studies the way sounds (proper) differ from one another. To
these classes are added combinational rules, or patternings of conventions.
Here is what A. C. Gimson says about that functioning of language as a
system of conventions: This pattern of conventions covers a system of
significant sounds (the PHONEMES), the inflexion and arrangement of
words, and the association of meaning with words. An utterance, an act of
speech, is a single concrete manifestation of the system at work. As we have
seen, several utterances which are plainly different on the concrete, phonetic,
level may fulfil the same function, i.e. are the same, on the systematic
language level. It is important in any analysis of spoken language to keep this
distinction in mind () (Gimson, op. cit., p. 4)
39
41
phonetic transcription, using the square brackets, e.g. [d]). The sign # marks
the boundaries of an utterance. Generally, the transcription of an allophonic
type is called narrow transcription, and the phonemic type is called broad
transcription.
There are numerous diacritical signs that can help the phonetician to
indicate the actual characteristics of the various allophones: e.g., /'/ for
aspiration, /=/ for the lack of aspiration, /~/ for the nasal description of a
sound, /o/ for devoicing, // for a dental sound, /w/ for a labial sound. Here are
some illustrations of their use: /t'eik/ (aspirated /t/); /kt>/ (unreleased
/t/), /'kot~n/ (nasal /t/). The truth is that the various books, be they
dictionaries, handbooks, phonetic guides, manuals or treatises, available are
by no means consistent in using such special signs and marks.
2. Phonemes are also oppositional units of sound. The procedure / the
test of substitution (or commutation) i.e. replacing form units to see if, in
similar contexts, changes of meaning occur (e.g. the cats : the bats) led to
oppositions revealing the functional character of phonemes; hence, they are
signifying / relevant units. This procedure is also called the minimal pair test
(here is the apt description David Crystal gave it: The minimal pair test,
briefly, is a technique which establishes which sounds in a language make a
difference, and which do not. It works like this. You take a word on its
own, to begin with and you alter one of its sounds: if you get a different
word thereby that is, if a speaker of the language tells you the words no
longer are the same then you have a minimal pair, and the two sounds
which alternate to produce the two words are considered important sounds in
language. They are part of the sound-system, and would be called
phonemes by most linguists. Examples would be /pet/ and /bet/, or /set/
and /st/, and so on. Sooner or later you would come to the end of the
possible substitutions you could make and you would assume that your
inventory of the important sounds was complete. It is more complicated in
practice than this, of course (); and certain assumptions the test makes can
be criticised (for example, it assumes certain norms of perceptual ability in
the person who judges whether the two words are the same or different). ()
The minimal pair test is a standard technique. Other examples of standard
techniques these days would be the use of transformation equivalences to
show the relationships between structures, and of acceptability testing to
determine the linguistic status of a particular utterance. (op. cit., pp. 99-100)
As seen from the above, a phoneme represents the minimal sound unit
having a sense (or a speech sound which contrasts meaningfully with other
sounds in the language). Phonemes have no sense / meaning proper, like the
morphemes, yet they represent the basic units of expression. A phoneme is
opposed to the rest of the phonemes in a given language.
Summing it up, phonemes are characterised by being: minimal / atomic
43
would give rise to a different word (latter), whereas if any other segments are
given a voiceless pronunciation (one in which the vocal cords do not vibrate)
the result is merely a peculiar version of ladder. The distinctiveness of such a
feature thus depends on a contrast between it and other possible features
belonging to the same set: thus, when distinctive, voicing contrasts with
voicelessness. Some approaches have taken these oppositions as the basic
elements of phonological structure rather than the phonemes: see in particular
the work of N. S. Trubetzkoy (1890-1938) (Trubetzkoy, 1939: 60-75; 1949:
68-87) and R. Jakobson (Jakobson & Halle, 1956).
The functional view avoids the difficulties which beset the physical
view as a result of wide variations of type 1; furthermore, since nondistinctive features are excluded from phonemes, variations of type 3 can be
conveniently handled provided they are not too great.
(iv) The abstract view, which regards phonemes as essentially
independent of the phonetic properties associated with them this enables
any type 3 variations to be handled. (E. C Fudge, Phonology, in New
Horizons in Linguistics, pp. 79-81)
*
Types of phonemes: The phonemes a natural language recognises and
can analyse as relevant are: A. Segmental; B. Supra(-)segmental. The
difference between the two types of phonemes lies in the fact that the
segmental ones deal with the organisation and description of the qualitative
features of utterances, whereas those in the second group the so-called
suprasegmental phonemes concern features relative to length, pitch and
loudness; they may generate phonemic oppositions. The features of pitch,
length and loudness generally form part of utterances which are longer than
46
opposition does not determine (relevant) minimal pairs within the field of the
English vowels; in English there are no nasal vowels having phonemic status;
there are only cases of nasal colouring vowels which are only
incidentally and unsystematically nasal, mainly owing to their respective
environments; consequently, the oral ones will not have a phonemic status,
either.
2. According to the second criterion that concerning the position of
the lips there are rounded vs. spread / unrounded vowels, e.g. /u/, /u:/,
/o/, /o:/ vs. /i/, /e/, //, etc. The degree of rounding may be different: it
decreases in keeping with the degree of opening; thus, /o/ is less round
than /o:/.
3. In English there are three parallel series shaped by the position of
the raised part of the tongue in producing vocalic sounds: this is a horizontal
axis of phoneme description, starting at the fore part of the mouth cavity and
having the other extremity located at the back of the oral / mouth cavity; inbetween, there is a central region. So, there will be a distinction between: a)
front vowels (e.g., /i:/, /i/, /e/, //); b) central vowels (//, /:/, //); and c)
back vowels (/:/, /o/, /o:/, /u/, /u:/). One may speak, though, of fully front
vowels (e.g. /i:/), as different from front-retracted vowels (e.g. /i/); or fully
back vowels (e.g. /u:/), as opposed to back-advanced vowels (e.g. /u/).
4. When the other, vertical, axis of description is considered, it means
that the degree of opening between the (raised part of) the tongue and the
hard palate comes under analysis; the degree of opening of the mouth (i.e. the
distance between the jaws) divides English vowels into: a) close vowels
(/i:/, /i/, /u/, /u:/), in which case the tongue is high in the mouth; b) mid-open
vowels (/e/, /:/, //, /o:/), where the position of the tongue is medium (there
is medium raising of the tongue); c) open vowels (/:/, //, //, /o/): the
tongue is low in the mouth. There are certain slight differences between the
actual realisations of the English vowels, leading to a four-degree
classification / description, into: close, half-close (or else, mid-high), halfopen (or mid-low), and open vowels. A. C. Gimson also used the terms midclose and mid-open vowels in order to designate the half-close (mid-high)
and half-open (or mid-low) vowels.
5. Long vowels are distinguished from short ones. The actual length of
a vowel is largely given by its phonetic context (e.g., // is short when
followed by a voiceless consonant and long when followed by a voiced one:
compare /kt/ and /kd/). Length is considered mostly an element of
phonetic description rather than a distinctive feature when considered in
itself: compare with the German words Staat state and Stadt city,
town, or similar cases of longer vowels in Finnish.
6. Tense vowels are opposed to lax vowels. This distinctive
oppositional feature of English (viz. tenseness / laxity) is parallel to the
50
long / short distinction: short vowels are said to be lax, whereas long
ones ought to be tense; yet, matters are largely settled by context / vicinity,
e.g. /i:/ in Pete is tense, although it was determined to be shorter than the
lax /i/ in a voiced context like bid /bid/.
7. Stability / constancy of articulation will lead to establishing the two
main classes of the vowel sounds in English: that of the simple (or pure)
vowels, also called monophthongs, and that of the diphthongs (or glides), on
the other hand. Stability of articulation is a fact in the first class (although a
very relative fact, it has to be said), whereas the diphthongs mark a change of
quality from the first to the second element (which represents a sort of
target: the second element is the glide proper. A diphthong is composed
of a nucleus and a glide. In English, all diphthongs are falling i.e.
having the nucleus (that is, the very bulk of its sonority) in initial position.
(Compare this situation with the fact that in Romanian there can be nuclei
preceded by the weaker element, e.g. /ea/, which is said to be urctor =
rising).
There are eight diphthongs in English:
a) Glides to /i/, namely: /ei/, /ai/, /oi/;
b) Glides to /u/, namely: /au/, /u/;
c) Glides to //, namely: /i/, //, /u/.
According to the amount of movement implied, there are: wide
diphthongs (/ai/, /au/, /oi/) vs. narrow diphthongs. When the first element (the
nucleus) is opener than the glide, the diphthong is a closing one (/ei/, /ai/,
/oi/, /au/, /u/), while an opening diphthong has an opener element as its
second element (the glide): /i/, //, /u/. These are also called centring
diphthongs (because //, viz. the target of the diphthongal movement, is a
central vowel).
A DETAILED DESCRIPTION
OF THE ENGLISH SIMPLE VOWEL PHONEMES
A. The Front Vowels:
1. The first vowel is /i:/. It is a front, close, tense, unrounded / spread,
long vowel. In achieving its articulation, the front of the tongue is raised
against the palate; the tongue is tense, its rims touching the upper molars. The
lips are spread. The opening between the jaws is narrow.
Romanians should compare it with Rom. /i/ in such words as: bine,
lin, zi (i.e. under stress, followed by a voiced consonant or in final position),
or ii in fii, vii. It should not be palatalised (Romanian learners should
carefully keep the preceding consonant and /i:/ apart in words like: keel,
geese, peel, beak, heel, meal)
51
close), short, lax, unrounded. The front of the tongue is in mid-open position.
The lips are spread. The jaw-opening accompanying its production is
medium, with the sides of the tongue making a slight contact with the molars.
It is laxer than Rom. /e/, which is slightly closer than Eng. /e/: compare Rom.
set and Eng. set. In spite of the fact that some dictionaries (for instance, the
Collins Concise Dictionary of English) use a (graphically) opener variant in
the phonetic transcription of such words as pencil /'pnsl/, Romanian learners
should not be misled into overdoing vowel no. 3 (in words like head, many),
and thus create confusions with words containing vowel no. 4 // (e.g. had,
manly).
Distribution: Generally, in stressed syllables (with a number of
exceptions, such as: referee, explanation). It cannot be placed in final
position.
As far as its variants are concerned, vowel no. 3 can have a closer
variety (which is in fact an RP tendency, which could be accounted for
through the scruple of better keeping /e/ apart from //, as in: pen / pan, etc.).
Moreover, there are local tendencies to diphthongize /e/: pen /pein/, or /pen/.
Spelling: e, ea, eo, a; e.g. merit, pleasure, leopard, Leonard,
jeopardize, any, many, the Thames, Pall Mall. Exceptionally: said, says,
leisure, friend, again, bury, ate.
4. English vowel no. 4 (//) is front, open, short, lax, unrounded. The
tongue is low in the mouth (almost flat, actually, with the front part a little
raised). There is very slight contact between the rims of the tongue and the
back molars. The jaw-opening is fairly wide. The lips are spread. Its length
may be increased according to the position the sound occupies in the word;
thus, it may be: short, e.g. cat, longer, e.g. bad, man, ran (in which case it
also acquires a certain amount of tenseness, too).
Romanian learners should not mistake it for, or replace it with, either
Rom. /a/ or Rom. /e/; or else pronounce it as a kind of diphthong: */man/ for
man. It will be pronounced with the mouth wide open (as for Rom. /a/), while
trying to utter /e/, or //; a notable pharyngeal quality will be added: by and
large, it may be said to sound like a sort of bleating.
Distribution: there is no final position for //. Generally, it occurs in
accented syllables: baron, mankind, etc.
Variants: two main remarks are in order when describing //; one is
that there can be (considerable) length added: /:/, or even a diphthongal
quality; the second remark is that it can acquire an opener quality (mainly
with the younger generation), especially when followed by dark l / velar
l: //, e.g. pal.
Spelling: a, as in mass, tanned, family, national, sparrow.
Exceptionally also in words like: plaid, plait, reveille, Plaistow.
53
B. Back Vowels:
5. The first in the back series, vowel no. 5, /:/, is described as a back,
open, long, tense, unrounded vowel phoneme. The back (or central-back) part
of the tongue is in (fully) open position. There is no contact with the molars.
The jaw-opening is wide. The length of this vowel is slightly variable:
compare part and bard, with the latter /:/ having more length because of the
voiced vicinity represented by /b/ and /d/.
Romanian learners should aim at producing a back (not a central)
vowel sound: compare Rom. cart and Eng. cart, as /a/ is in Romanian the
lowest point of the vowel triangle, which is not the case in English, where
/:/ is essentially back (the most graphical description would in fact be that of
the dentist-cabinet aperture of the mouth).
Distribution: It can occur initially, e.g. ask, arent, medially, e.g. pass,
bark, or finally, e.g. far, tar.
Variants: There are two main variants, an advanced one (cf. /a/), and a
fully back (=more retracted) one (cf. Cardinal //). There is free variation
/:/-// in words like telegraph, bath, elastic, telegram, where /:/ is
followed by /f/, //, /s/ or a nasal consonant. American English replaces /:/
with //, in words like pass, bath, last, etc. There may be differences of
length: compare car, calm, and ask. There is a sort of diphthongal variant
(when followed by dark l / velar l: //, in words like: snarl, Charlton.
Spelling: ar, ear, er, a (+l, f, ff, s, ss, th, n); examples: armpit, heart,
sergeant, clerk, Derby, Berkeley (the last three only render the /:/
pronunciation in the BrE variant), psalm, staff, craft, grass, past, path, plant.
6. This is a back, open, short, lax, (slightly) rounded vowel: /o/. The
tongue is low in the mouth; only its back is slightly raised. There is no
contact of the rims with the molars. The lip-rounding applied is slight, as the
jaw-opening is wide.
There are certain difficulties for the Romanian learners / students, who
may either tend to increase its rounding and / or lip protrusion (cf. Rom. om
/wom/), or to utter a closer variety (disregarding the /o/ vs. /o:/ opposition,
very obvious in minimal pairs such as pot : port). Romanian learners should
aim at producing a short open vowel (a sort of rounded /a/), while taking care
to add needed roundness and, at the same time, avoid lip-protrusion.
Likewise, diphthongization should be avoided: Tom pronounced as */toam/.
In addition, the type of open roundness applied should by no means result
maybe under the influence of the American model of pronunciation (see
below) in /a/: */tam/.
In point of distribution, it should be noted that there is no final position
for /o/.
Variants: Regionally (in South-West England) and in the American
54
variant of English, vowel phoneme no. 6 sounds like //; pot will have the
sound of RP part. The Southern (more conservative) variant of English
realises /o/ as /o:/, when followed by /f/, //, /s/, as in: off, cloth, cough,
across.
Spelling: o (when followed by a consonant), e.g. hot, lost, or in open
syllables, e.g. sorry, economy; (w)a: watch, what; (q)ua: quarrel. Exceptional
spelling: au, e.g. laurel, Austria, Australia; ou, e.g. cough, Gloucester; o in
gone, shone; yacht.
7. English vowel phoneme no. 7, /o:/, is generally described as a back,
half-open, long, tense, rounded vowel. The back of the tongue is raised more
than it is for /o/; its position is between the half-open and the half-close
levels. The jaw-opening used is wide, yet smaller than that of /o/. There is no
contact with the upper molars. The lips are rounded (more than they are for
/o/) and tense, as is the tongue, in fact.
The Romanian /o/ sound is more rounded and closer than English /o:/;
the Romanian sound has additional protrusion of the lips -as in or /wor/,
for instance a protrusion which has to be eliminated when uttering
English /o:/.
Its distribution may be: initial, medial or final, so in all basic positions,
e.g. all, awful; laundry, sport; door, law, pour.
Variants: There is a fully long variant, e.g. saw, broad; a reduced
variant (if followed by a voiceless consonant, e.g. saucer, taught); or it may
be diphthongized (when followed by dark l / velar l: //, e.g. call, hall).
Regionally i.e. in the London area it may become a triphthongal sound:
/o:w/, as in door, pour, or it can be diphthongized when in medial position:
daughter /'dout/.
Spelling: or, aw, au, ou, ore, oar, our, all, al + consonant; (w)ar;
examples: port, door, paw, tawny, launch, audit, brought, sore, more, soar,
roar, four, pour, call, hall, halt, paltry, chalk, walk, ward, quarter.
Exceptionally: broad, water, wrath.
8. English vowel phoneme /u/ is a back (advanced), close, short, lax,
rounded vocoid. The raised part of the tongue is nearer to the centre than the
back of the mouth cavity. The jaw-opening is narrower than that of /o:/. There
is no firm contact of the rims with the molars. The lips are closely rounded,
yet without tenseness. There is no tenseness in the tongue.
Romanian learners should bear in mind that the Romanian type of /u/ is
closer, more tense and not so central. Its rounding bears the mark of lipprotrusion, which is not the case of the /u/ vowel in English. So, the central
Romanian vowel //, and even //, may be taken as an appropriate starting
point when acquiring the pronunciation of English /u/.
Distribution: It can only occur in medial position, e.g. book, full (with
the notable exception of the strong form of to).
55
1. Plosive Consonants:
[p] is a bilabial, fortis, voiceless / breathed plosive consonant e.g.
pipe, upper.
Its variants (the aspirated [p'], when in initial position, followed by
vowel, in a strongly accented syllable, e.g. pay, apart; [p] without aspiration,
when placed before an unaccented vowel, e.g. happy, when preceded by [s],
e.g. sport, spend, or when followed by the sonorants [l], [r], [w], [j], e.g.
please, praise, pure) are hard to distinguish by Romanian learners, which
results in a considerable degree of foreign accent. They will have to
imagine that the aspirated variant is a kind of [p] followed by a [h] sound:
[ph], e.g. [phot] for pot. Romanian students should practise with minimal pairs
like pole bowl, pip bip, etc.
Other positional variants: weakly released or unreleased (when at
the end of the word / of the syllable, etc.), e.g cap, grasp, hoped, captain, top
boy;
- lateral p, e.g. apple, maple;
- nasally released, e.g. sharpener, I hope not;
intrusive p, used in careless, regional speech, e.g. something
['sm(p)i], Amsterdam.
Difficulties of spelling: exceptional spelling. e.g. hiccough (with
the spelling variant hiccup); silent p, when occurring in initial position
before n, s, t, e.g. pneumonia, psycho, Ptolemy; or in cupboard, receipt; in
other words, it is omitted optionally, when it is located between m and t, e.g.
(at)tempt, prompt, empty.
[b] is a bilabial, lenis, voiced (or partially voiced), unaspirated
plosive consonant e.g. bip, rubber.
Variants: devoiced, when in initial or final position, e.g. big, rub;
- fully voiced, when occurring between two voiced sounds, e.g.
able, harbour;
- unreleased [b>], when followed by another plosive or an affricate
sound, e.g. subject, globe-trotter;
laterally released [bl], when followed by clear l, e.g. black,
marble;
- nasally released [b~], when followed by a nasal consonant, e.g.
cabman, ribbon, cabin.
All the above variants can pose serious problems to the Romanian
learner of English, as sometimes voicing goes hand in hand with lack of
aspiration in phonemically defining (and distinguishing) [b], e.g. pair : bare.
Difficulties of spelling: because of the phonetic neighbourhood, in
words like bomb, comb, dumb, lamb, limb, tomb, or, etymologically, in the
words debt, doubt, subtle.
65
affricate type of sound [t]. The aspiration of [t] should be carefully practised,
as well: tape, tight.
[k] is a velar, fortis, voiceless, plosive consonant
Variants: aspirated [t'], when followed by an accented vowel, e.g.
cod, coat, key, cord, couple;
- unaspirated [k=], when before an unaccented vowel, e.g. liquor,
equal, or preceded by [s], e.g. skate, ski;
- slightly released, or unreleased [k >], when in final position, e.g.
make, risk, or followed by another plosive or affricate sound, e.g.
blackboard, shocked;
laterally released, when followed by [l], e.g. clear, necklace,
sickle;
nasally released, when followed by [n] or [m], e.g. sicken,
acknowledge.
Remarks and difficulties of spelling: chorus, character, stomach,
etc.
[g] is a velar, lenis, voiced, unaspirated, plosive consonant
Variants: partially devoiced [g], when in initial position, e.g. gay,
gaggle;
- fully voiced, when situated between two voiced sounds, e.g. ago,
lager, agree;
- unreleased [g>], when followed by another plosive or affricate
sound, e.g. lagged, bagpipes, big game;
- laterally released, when followed by [l], e.g. beagle, glory, ugly;
nasally released, when followed by [n] or [m], e.g. ignore,
dignity, segment;
- palatalized, when followed by [j], e.g. cube, curate.
Difficulties of spelling: when silent, e.g. gnat, gnaw, reign, right; in
x, e.g. exempt, example, etc.
Both [k] and [g] may pose significant problems to the Romanian
student: the aspirated quality of [k] should be carefully reproduced. Yet, the
worst mistake they are likely to make is the unneeded palatalization of these
velars when followed by [e] and [i], e.g. pet, pin.
The Glottal Stop [?] is a rather difficult contoid phoneme, a plosive
sound formed by the complete closure of the vocal folds: thus, the airstream
is blocked at the level of the glottis, after which they are abruptly drawn
apart, and the airstream escapes through the mouth. The resulting sound
comes very close to coughing. So, the glottal stop is a glottal, fortis,
voiceless plosive. There are practically no minimal pairs to illustrate it. It is
used as a syllable boundary marker, e.g. geometry, reaction; or before final
[p], [t], [k], [t], e.g. feet, hook, reach, etc. Sometimes, it is used instead of
67
linking r: far away. The difficulty [?] implies for Romanians is major,
especially as it is not even marked by a special letter.
2. Affricate Consonants:
Affricates are intermediate sounds between plosives and fricatives: a
plosive which is not abruptly released, but continued by a fricative element
added to it.
[t] is a palato-alveolar, fortis, voiceless / breathed affricate
consonant e.g. pitch, chief, while [d] is a palato-alveolar, lenis, voiced
affricate consonant.
It is only lip-rounding that varies, in both [t] and [d]. Careful
speakers tend to replace [t] and [d] with [tj] and [dj] in words like
literature, fortune, Christian, soldier, verdure. The affricate sound should be
carefully distinguished from the sequence [t] + [], e.g. pet-shop, nutshell.
The difficulties posed for the Romanian student are primarily related
to the palatalized nature of the two affricates in Romanian (moreover, the
Romanian consonants are only followed by [e] and [i]). Compare match and
meci, Rudge and rugi.
Exceptions and difficulties of spelling: question; Greenwich,
Norwich (in Britain only), gaol [deil] (= jail).
3. Fricative Consonants:
[f] and [v]: the first is a labio-dental, fortis, voiceless, fricative
consonant, while [v] is a labio-dental, lenis, voiced, fricative consonant. Their
articulation, variants and positions are not particularly difficult to acquire by
Romanian learners, except for some clusters like: flight, free, sphinx, softens,
baffled.
Spelling: [f] safe, half, afford; (exceptional) philosopher; laugh,
tough, cough;
[v] vote, have, convene; nephew, Stephen; of.
[] and [] The articulation of these interdentals (or dentals) can
presuppose serious difficulty for the Romanian students of English, as they
are apt to replace them either by [f], [v], by [s], [z], or by [t], [d] (in the last
case, mainly under the influence of some types of American pronunciation).
Sometimes simplified pronunciations like [i'zt 'su?] can be heard for Is
that you? or, in British English, ['hkju] or ['kju] for thank you.
The first phoneme in the pair, [], is a dental / an interdental, fortis,
voiceless / breathed, fricative sound, while [] is a dental / an interdental,
lenis, voiced, fricative consonant. The latter phoneme does not occur in initial
clusters, but can occur in final ones, e.g. betrothal, clothes, clothes, which
may naturally pose problems to the Romanian student. Learners should
68
practise hard the two interdental phonemes, starting from their pronunciation
in initial position, e.g. [a, e, i, o, u], etc.
[s] and [z] are articulated with the tip of the tongue raised against,
and loosely touching the alveolar ridge. The first phoneme of the pair is
described as an alveolar, fortis / breathed, voiceless, fricative consonant,
while [z] is described as an alveolar, lenis, voiced, fricative consonant.
Although they are quite similar to their Romanian counterparts, their natural,
accentless pronunciation should observe the obvious alveolar quality they
display (vs. the evident dental quality of the Romanian sounds [s] and [z]).
Exceptions and difficulties of spelling: the letter s is silent in words
like: aisle, isle, island, viscount, debris, rendez-vous, etc. Note also: base,
dose, close, increase, release, etc. As far as [z] is concerned, one should take
into account the interplay between [s] and [z] in regular plurals (e.g. cats,
dogs) or the 3rd person of the Present Simple tense of the Indicative mood
(e.g. asks, begs), but also some irregular (Greek or Latin) plurals, e.g. bases,
indices, analyses, theses, crises, series, etc.
[] and []: The first phoneme of the pair is a palato-alveolar, fortis,
voiceless / breathed, fricative consonant; the second one is a palato-alveolar,
lenis, voiced, fricative consonant. The consonant phoneme [] does not occur
initially, it only appears in words like: pleasure, casual; beige, rouge,
massage.
Difficulties encountered by Romanian students in pronouncing
them: the English phonemes are less palatalized than their Romanian
counterparts, e.g. Eng. sharper Rom. arpe. The tongue position for the
English [] and [] is higher up against the alveolar ridge.
Note the spellings: Asia, Persia, mansion, censure; exposure,
seizure, treasure, beige.
[h] is a glottal, fortis, voiceless / breathed, fricative consonant. In
articulating it, the airstream is forced through the open glottis into the mouth,
producing audible friction. It has no voiced counterpart. Yet, the phoneme has
a partially voiced variant, e.g. anyhow, behind. Some phoneticians group it
with the semivowels, starting from distributional and functional criteria.
The corresponding Romanian sound is rather velar than glottal: the
friction is produced in the mouth cavity, not at the level of the glottis. So, the
Romanian learners will have to practise it (mainly when followed by [e] and
[i], or similar vowels, e.g. heat, hit, hen. hat), paying attention that the tongue
is kept low in the mouth. Suggested exercises: In Hertford, Hereford and
Hampshire hurricanes hardly ever happen. He put his, not her, hat on his
head.
Notes on spelling: h is silent in a few words like hour, honest,
honesty, honour, honourable, heir; or in exhaust, vehicle; Durham, Wickham,
shepherd; rhapsody, rhetoric, etc.
69
4. Nasal Consonants:
The three phonemes grouped under this heading closely resemble
plosives in point of articulation, with the essential difference that for their
production the airstream escapes freely through the nasal cavity, as the velum
/ soft palate is lowered, thus (partially) closing the oral cavity. They are: [m],
[n], and []. Their corresponding oral / non-nasal plosive counterparts are,
respectively, [b], [d], and [g]. Nasal consonants are sonorant contoids (Rom.
sonante): they can form syllables, thus having a vocalic function, e.g.
button, bacon. Being sonorants, it goes without saying that they are all lenis
and voiced.
[m] is a bilabial, voiced, lenis, nasal consonant
It occurs in all three basic positions: initially, medially and finally.
Variants: labio-dental, when followed by [f] or [v], as in
Humphrey;
- devoiced, when preceded by [s], e.g. smear, smile, smith;
syllabic [m], when in final position and preceded by another
consonant, e.g. bottomed, rhythm, prism.
Difficulties of spelling: m is silent in words like mnemonic,
Mnemosyne. Note also: tomb, womb.
[n] is an (apico-)alveloar, voiced, lenis, nasal consonant.
Its alveolar quality may be an obstacle for Romanian learners.
It occurs in all three positions: initial, medial and final.
Variants: labio-dental, when followed by [f] or [v], as in infinite,
invite;
- devoiced, when preceded by [s], e.g. snipe, snail, sneak;
- dental, when followed by the interdentals [] or [], e.g. tenth, on
the brink;
- post-alveolar when followed by [r], e.g. unreliant, Henry;
syllabic [n], when in final position and preceded by another
consonant, e.g. buttoned, open, bacon;
assimilated to a following bilabial or velar consonant, e.g.
pancake, sunbeam (in which case we have the phenomenon of neutralization:
the distinction between [n] and [] and [m], respectively, disappears).
Difficulties of spelling: n is not sounded in words like autumn,
damn, solemn (compare with the respective derivatives: autumnal,
damnation, solemnity).
[] is a (dorso-)velar, voiced, nasal consonant
It only occurs in medial and final positions, e.g. angle, anchor,
singer; rang, among, king. Actually, it has comparatively recently acquired
phonemic status in English (it used to be a mere combination of [n] and [g]
see also the modern sequence [k], handkerchief). It is to be noted that the
70
(informal) reduction of [i] to [in] in words like coming, morning can be met
with in the (Southern regions of the) United States, and even in the United
Kingdom.
The main difficulty encountered by Romanian students is related to
the false analysis of the phoneme [] as a [n] + [g] sequence, but this can be
easily overcome if we consider the fact that there are scores of Romanian
words in which [] appears as a positional variant of [n], e.g. lng, lungan,
banc. Note also the difficulty of distinguishing between words like finger
['fig], linger ['lig] and singer ['si].
Variants: spread, e.g. being;
- slightly rounded, as in tongs;
- more advanced when preceded by a front vowel, e.g. sing;
- rather retracted when preceded by a back vowel, e.g. song.
There are words in which there is free variation between [ng] or [nk]
and [g] or [k], respectively, as in engage, increase, uncommon, etc. (when
we have the prefixes en-, in-, un-).
5. Liquid Consonants:
A. The Lateral Consonant [l]
In point of articulation, [l] can be said to resemble the plosives, as it
implies an obstruction of the airstream through the fact that the tip of the
tongue is pressed against the alveolar ridge. But the detail that it is always
voiced (so, it is a sonorant Rom. sonant) and its lateral articulation
make it stand apart.
There are two varieties of [l] in English: clear l [l], and dark l [].
The former (also called palatalized l) should not normally present
difficulties to the Romanian learner (besides the fact that it is alveolar, and
not dental as in Romanian). Yet, the dark l (or velar l) is rather difficult
through its additional velar articulation (it is in fact the same type of [l] sound
to be met with in Russian or even Portuguese, where it actually has the sound
of [u], e.g. gol, Brazil); in fact, Daniel Jones speaks about the u resonance
of []. Learners should practise by trying to utter an unrounded [u] while
keeping the tip of the tongue in position for [l]. It is only the so-called
narrow phonetic transcription that distinguishes between the two types /
variants of the phoneme [l], by marking dark l with a [].
Other variants: [l] is partially devoiced when preceded by a
voiceless consonant, e.g. slope, fly, clear; dental [l], when followed by [] or
[], e.g. stealth, will they; retracted post-alveolar [l] when followed by [r],
e.g. already, paltry; syllabic, e.g. double, people, table, little.
71
and [], respectively: the university, the yeoman, the window; a university, a
yeoman, a window. Also, words beginning with a semi-vowel are not
preceded by linking or intrusive [r], e.g. for you, higher waves.
[j] Its articulation has a similar position to that of English vowel No.
1 [i:]; there is no audible friction, the lips are spread.
This semi-vowel closely resembles the corresponding [j] in
Romanian, e.g. ia, iap, ea, el, iepure, ioc, iut.
Distribution: the semi-vowel [w] only appears in initial and medial
position.
Variants: closer, when followed by close vowels, e.g. yeast, yield;
- opener, when followed by open vowels, e.g. yard, yawn;
devoiced, when preceded by voiceless fricatives and plosives,
e.g. pure, cue, huge;
- partially devoiced, when preceded by the clusters [sp], [st], [sk],
e.g. spurious, student, askew, etc.
There is free variation between [ju:] and [u:], after [s], [z], [] and
[l], e.g. presume, enthusiasm, revolution. The [u:] pronunciation is
characteristic of American English, although such pronunciations as [su:t]
suit, ['su:t] suitor can often be heard in British English (but no extreme cases
like [nu: 'jo:k] New York). On the other hand, the most usual pronunciation
of words like statue, education, issue, visual turns the sequence containing
the semi-vowel [j] into [t], [d], [], [], respectively.
Remarks and difficulties of spelling: hideous, opinion; (exceptional)
beauty.
[w] is a rounded, labio-velar semi-vowel. The initial position of the
articulators is that for [u:]. The back of the tongue is raised, and the lips are
slightly protruded; so, there are two main points or foci of articulation (or
else, an u colouring and an h colouring).
Although the English semi-vowel sounds very much like the
Romanian [w] / [] sound in oal, oaie, trotuar, the fact that Romanian lacks
the sequences [we], [wi] may be considered an obstacle to correct
pronunciation. Yet, virtually no native speaker of Romanian fails to correctly
utter words like West, wind, women; moreover, taking as a starting point the
Romanian [ui] sequence in uit which is actually a falling diphthong seems
practically useless.
Distribution: like [j], the semi-vowel [w] only appears in initial and
medial position.
Variants: more closely rounded, e.g. wool, warp; vs. a more
loosely rounded variant, e.g. went, weak, with;
devoiced, when preceded by fortis, voiceless consonants, e.g.
twit, quit, swine, upwards;
73
of: -Voice: voiceless stops and fricatives will devoice sonorants and
semivowels following them (compare slay and lay, sly and lie, fry and rye;
play, cute, cure, queer). -(Nature of) release: This criterion applies to stops,
which may be: -unreleased, e.g. hopped, stabbed; -aspirated, e.g. pail, tower,
cool; -laterally released, e.g. rattle, middle, little, rubble, bad luck; -nasally
released, e.g. cotton, open, risen, ruggedness, darkness, rigmarole, not me.
-Position of the lips: rounded consonants, as in twin, lord, cauldron.
-Position of articulation: thus, alvelolars may become dental, e.g. tenth,
auntie, health, or they may become postalveolar, e.g. train, Henry; /n/ may be
sounded like labio-dentals, as in invitation, or /m/, as in ten minutes; velars
are advanced before a palatal sound, e.g. cube, argue.
ASSIMILATION AND ELISION
1. Assimilation is the process of joining together two (or more)
phonemes, a phenomenon which can be accounted for through the tendency
to economise articulatory effort and to achieve increased similarity of the
sounds in contact (as a matter of fact, in both assimilation and elision there is
an unconscious striving for economy of effort, and besides the phenomenon
of insertion aiming to render pronunciation easier, e.g. the so-called linking
r in far away, or the intrusive r in law and order [lo:r n(d) 'o:d], or the
an form of the indefinite article, as in an egg, vs. a man). It actually takes
place within the word or at word boundary, and essentially illustrates the
tendency for a sound to be made more like the surrounding sounds. There are
three main types of assimilation:
a. Progressive assimilation: a phoneme influences the following one,
e.g. slay, with partial devoicing of /l/;
b. Regressive assimilation the very reverse phenomenon: in tenth, /n/
is dentalised; in this ship, /s/ is assimilated to //;
c. Double (or reciprocal) assimilation, e.g. truth (/r/ is partially
devoiced, while /t/ turns into a post-alveolar, /t/-type consonant);
Coalescence is a particular case of assimilation: the result of the
process is a new phoneme, e.g. Did you do it? /'did 'du: it /?/. It is also
called total assimilation (cf. c. above, which is only partial).
Assimilation may be historical or diachronic (meaning that
transformations which were effected in the course of past evolution are now
accepted / frozen linguistic realities), e.g. bedlam < (Saint Mary in)
Bethlehem, or synchronic (contextual), which, in turn, is obligatory /
established / having the character of a linguistic norm (viz. a generally
accepted fact), e.g. He used to go there. /hi 'ju:st 'gu /; and nonobligatory / optional / accidental, e.g. Did you see him? /'did 'si: (h)im /?/,
If I meet him /ivai 'mi:tim/.
76
(otherwise pragmatic) angle of spelling. The plain truth is that there are such
modifications even in Romanian namely, cases of reduction and
obscuration some of which have to a certain extent been established by the
common use (mainly in the colloquial speech, e.g. doipe instead of
doisprezece), while others still remain incidental occurrences (most of them
even unrecommendable in the literary or learned / educated standard style,
e.g. aj-dori, a-avut, adz-venit, douj-de / douj-d pomi, nu--cine, etc. (see
also ASSIMILATION ).
In English pronunciation, there are a number of words which have two
series of forms: 1) a strong / full form; 2) one (or several) form(s) which
may be called weak / reduced; in other words, a strong pronunciation, and
one or several weak / reduced ones. The weak forms appear when the
respective words occurs in unaccented position within the sentence; the
strong forms are associated with the accented pronunciation (or, for stylistic
purposes, with clearly emphatic types of pronunciation).
Roughly speaking, the words which take sentence stress, meaning that
they are normally accented within whole sentences or broader sense groups,
are: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, demonstrative pronouns and
adjectives, interrogative pronouns, whereas articles, prepositions,
conjunctions (and other conjuncts), auxiliary and modal verbs are in
unaccented position, consequently they normally take the weak forms (these
are the so-called form-words, or function words); only if we want to lend
them (special) emphasis do they take the strong forms. (Distinguish
between: Tom is at lunch; hell be back home at seven, and I said at home,
not in a home.) The weak form contains a weak vowel, and the strong form
contains a strong vowel. If lexical words (words of full lexical meaning,
notional words, vs. function words) generally retain the accentuation
pattern they have when pronounced in isolation, this is not true of many
function words (which are no doubt among the most frequent words of
English see below), which occur with their weak or strong form(s),
according to whether they are unaccented or accented, respectively. The
unaccented WEAK forms of these words show reductions in the length of
sounds, obscuration of vowels towards /, i, u/, and the elision of vowels and
consonants. (A. C. Gimson, op cit., p. 228) The following 42 items occur in
the first 200 most common words in connected speech: the, you, I, to, and, a,
that, we, of, have, is, are, for, at, he, but, there, do, as, be, them, will, me,
was, can, him, had, your, been, from, my, or, he, by, some, her, his, us, an, am,
has, shall. It is significant that of these the following 19 have over 90%
unaccented occurrences with a weak form: at, of, the, to, as, and, or, a, his,
an, but, been, for, her, we, be, shall, was, them. (ibidem)
The fact will be worth mentioning that, when considered within the
framework of connected speech, the word is pronounced in sense-groups,
78
The emphasizing / emphatic pronouns and the absolute form of the possessive
pronoun always have their full form.
79
flo:/; /o/, We want to go /'wi: wnt t gu/; and, finally, the diphthong /u/,
with its dominant central // element, is readily reducible to // under weak
accent, e.g. You cant go with him /ju k:nt g 'wi im/; Hes going to do it
/'hi:z gn du: it/. (A. C. Gimson, op. cit., p. 230).
THE LIST OF THE WORDS MORE FREQUENTLY USED
WITH THE WEAK FORM
Word Weak / unaccented form(s) Strong / accented form Remarks
a
am
an
and
are
//
/m, m/
/n, n/
/nd, nd, n, n/
// + consonant
/r, r/ + vowel
/z/
/ei/
/m/
/n/
/nd/
/:/
/:r/
/z/
as
at
/t/
/t/
be
/bi/
/bi:/
been
/bin/
/bi:n/* *Rarely /bi:n/
but
/bt/
/bt/
can (aux.) /kn, kn/
/kn/
could
/kd, kd/
/kud/
do (aux.)
/du, d, d/
/du:/
does (aux.) /dz, z, s/, e.g. Whens he come? /dz/
Whats he like?
for
/f/ + consonant
/fo:r/
/fr, fr/ + vowel
from
/frm, frm/
/from/
had (aux.)*
/hd, d, d/**
/hd/ * Compare: He had
come. He had problems
** The weak form with /h/ is used
after a pause
has (aux.)*
/hz, z, z, s/**
/hz/
*, ** See above
have (aux.)* /hv, v, v/**
/hv/
*, ** See above
he
/hi, i:, i/**
/hi:/
** See above
her
/h, :, /**
/h:/
** See above
him
/im/
/him/
his
/iz/
/hiz/
is
/s, z/
/iz/
maam
/mm, m/
/mm/
me
/mi/
/mi:/
must
/mst, ms/
/mst/
my1
/mi, m/*
/mai/
*Colloquially
not
/nt, n/
/not/
of
/v, v, /
/ov/
or1
//
/o:r/
80
Saint
shall
she
should
Sir
NOTES:
1. Some other function words e.g. my, or, nor, your (see 1 above) can take
the weak form in very rapid (colloquial) speech (Whats your name? My
sister, etc.); also: I, by, so (as in Go by bus; ever so many), but it seems their
use is limited to a few phrases.
2. Verbs such as am, are, be, can, could, do, does, had, has, have, is, must,
shall, was, were, will, would keep their strong form when placed at the end
of a sentence, e.g. Whos lying? You are. Whos got it? I have.
3. Likewise, prepositions such as at, for, from, to are prominent in final
position (though unaccented), e.g. Where has he gone to? /tu:/, also /tu/, but
not /t/, or What are you looking at? /t/.
4. The same rule as above is valid when auxiliaries and prepositions occur in
final position within a rhythmic group, e.g. He looked at /t/, and solved the
81
puzzle.
Upon closer analysis, three degrees of reduction may be distinguished
in English: 1) reduction of the length of a vowel without changing its quality
(so, quantitative reduction), e.g. for [fo.], [fo], you [ju.], [ju], he [hi.], [hi], her
[h.], [h], your [jo.], [jo]; 2) reduction implying an alteration of the quality of
the respective vowel (hence, qualitative reduction), e.g. for [f], her [h], he
[hI], at [t], can [kn], was [wz], but [bt]; 3) the complete reduction
implies omission of a vowel or consonant (so, it is also called zero
reduction), e.g. am [m], from [frm], of [v], [f], can [kn], [k], do [d], is [s],
[z], us [s], must [ms], [mst], he [i.], [i], [I], him [im], his [iz], had [d], has
[z], [z], [s], have [v], [v], [f], and [n], will [l], shall [l], [l], would [d].
As a rule, when the strong form is used for a number of unstressed
form-words / function words, its use is syntactically (and rhythmically)
determined: 1) when a preposition is followed by a pronoun at the end of a
sentence: Hes looking at you ([t ju] or [t ju]); 2) when the word is used as
a substitute or an auxiliary standing for a whole grammatical phrase: I can
dance better than you can (=than you can dance) [kn]; Where do you
come from? [from]; It was aimed at (=they aimed at it) ['eimd t].
The same general rules and tendencies with regard to the use of the
weak and strong forms apply to the American variant of English. Mention
should be made of the fact that the r is pronounced by Americans at the end
of words, e.g. She put her hat on. They are worn-out. She has left for France.
On the whole, it will be reasonable to notice that the American tendency
towards favouring the weak forms is considerably reduced when compared
with the way the speakers of British English use. Sometimes, even strong
forms where there would normally be a weak form are possible (i.e. in
unstressed positions), e.g. a man [ei 'mn], the man [i: 'mn], with them
[wi em], etc.
As to the peculiar significance of weak forms in connected speech,
teachers and learners alike are aware of its contribution to increasing the
degree of naturalness and acceptability in the oral expression. Natives
themselves often place emphasis on this issue: It is important for learners of
English to use weak forms appropriately. Otherwise, listeners may think they
are emphasizing a word where this is not really so. Equally, native speakers
should not be misled into supposing that careful or declamatory speech
demands strong forms throughout. One exception is in singing, where strong
forms are often used. Even here, though, articles are generally weak.
(Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, p. 777).
D. SYLLABIFICATION / SILLABICATION
As said before, the stream of speech gives the hearer an impression of
82
84
85
under it; She stood before him; They knew everything about you.
Particle + verb patterns ordinarily take a // stress pattern, as in Did
you oversleep this morning? No one can underestimate Romanian
hospitality; She overheard our conversation. The resulting nouns carry
the // stress pattern: They all knew she was an upstart; The upkeep of that
house will give you much trouble; The atmosphere was relaxed from the
outset.
RULES OF STRESSING FOR COMPOUNDS
(after Longmans Pronunciation Dictionary by J.C. Wells)
1. For compound sentences of a nominal nature, having the form N+ N or Adj. + N,
the rule is the early stress, e.g.
'bed time
'visitors book
'block buster
'music olessons
'Christmas card
'beauty ocontest
2. For two-word phrases, the late stress should be normally used:
next 'time
typed 'cards
several 'books
weekly 'lessons
3. When this order is changed, it is only for the sake of contrast (i.e. for emphasis),
e.g.
Not a school 'boy, -a school 'girl!
Not music 'lessons, -just time to 'practice!
Not 'weekly lessons, -'monthly ones!
(The stress patterns used by pronunciation dictionaries like the LPD apply for
those compounds having NO special emphasis i.e. implying NO CONTRASTIVE
FORMS!).
4. Sometimes a compound has a different meaning from the corresponding phrase:
a 'darkroom (a room for developing photographs)
a dark 'room (a room which is dark because there is little light in it)
a 'yellow ohammer (a kind of bird)
a yellow 'hammer (a hammer coloured yellow)
a 'moving van (a van used to carry furniture when one moves house)
a moving 'van (a van that is in motion).
5. Some expressions, which are grammatically compounds, are nevertheless
pronounced with late stress (as if they were phrases). There is no firm rule as to that;
that is why many compounds and phrases are listed separately in LPD, for instance
with their stress patterns).
VOWEL REDUCTION
When stress is reduced to weak stress, a change in the vowel quality
occurs. Unstressed vowels tend to become // (schwa). The occurrence of this
sound is extremely frequent in speech. The weakly stressed forms are known
88
Normally unstressed
NOUNS
Demonstrative
Emphatic
Possessive
Personal
Reflexive
Reciprocal
DETERMINATIVES
Quantitatives
Numericals
Ordinals
Demonstratives
Articles
Possessive Adjectives
QUALIFICATIVES
Adjectives Proper
Active Participials
Passive Participials
VERBS AND VERBALS
Principal Verbs and
Anomalous Finites, affirmative
Verbals, except those of be and
form, in statements. (In questions
have
the affirmative form may be stressed
or unstressed at will)
Anomalous Finites, negative
form, whether in questions
or statements
ADVERBS
All Adverbs except relatives
Relative Adverbs (see Connectives)
Prepositions used as Adverbs
PREPOSITIONS
Longer Prepositions
Monosyllabic Prepositions
CONNECTIVES (INCLUDING RELATIVES)
Two-word Conjunctives
One-word Conjunctives
Relatives
INTERROGATIVES
89
The term pitch contour is occasionally used instead of tone (especially when
variations in the height of the human voice affect several syllables).
91
where the vertical line shows that the pitch changes between syllables as in
doing. Sometimes a diagonal line will be used to show that the pitch changes
within a syllable as in at home; this is a book.
The levels of the pitches are not steady but rather there are variations
from syllable to syllable. In the study of intonation, however, only a few
pitch levels are important. For example, the change in voice intensity on the
last emphasized syllable is crucial in English. Conversely, at the beginning of
utterances pitch is optional and the simple presence of a primary stress (not
necessarily a pitch contour) is enough:
He is going to the movies. (231 rather than 2331)
A basic point to remember is that every idea group, as well as some
grammatical word-group units within an utterance, has its own intonation
pattern (or contour) consisting of two or more of the pitch levels and ending
with a terminal. To put it in the simplest way, there are three basic intonation
patterns in English: rising falling, rising, and sustained. In symbolizing
them the pitch levels can be indicated at three places: the beginning of the
unit, the beginning of the syllable carrying the primary stress, and the end of
the unit before the terminal.
The rising falling (231 ) is used to make a statement, e.g She leaves
on Saturday; in commands and requests, e.g Please tell me your name; Come
here; in questions which are not usually answerable by yes or no
(containing a WH- interrogative word, e.g. Whats the matter?); it can also be
used in tag questions which imply agreement.
The rising contour (23 ) is normally used at the end of questions
which have no interrogative word usually anticipating a yes or no
answer, e.g. She is your teacher? Is she your teacher? In short, In addition;
Marys ill, isnt she? (when ignoring the answer); or in utterances which include
a series of things of a choice between two things (the terminal rises on each
item with the exception of the last), e.g. They bought cakes, candy, and fruit.
The sustained level contour (232 ) is often used at the end of an
utterance which, after a slight pause, is followed by another one, closely
related to its meaning. The utterance usually starts at a mid level, goes up to
high on the stressed syllable in the phrase, and then drops to the mid-level,
which is sustained at the end of the utterance; they occur in statements to
indicate that the speaker still has something to say; the word but often
accompanies them, e.g. I knew where he was but I didnt tell them; or When he got
92
to the house she saw him. In this second sentence, both (231 ) and (23
)
contours can occur in the first group.
Additional remarks on intonation: *Repetition of previous pitch is used
for a quoter clause of the he said type in medial and final position, e.g. Are
you ready? he asked, or Shell leave, he said.
*The name of the person addressed often has different contours: Are
you reading, Mike? (233); Why are you talking, Mike? (12), etc.
*Pitch level 4: The highest of the four PLs is less frequently used in
normal speech. Speakers use this pitch to express such meanings as surprise,
indignation, insistence, panic, boredom, etc., e.g. (241 ) What are you doing?!
(= said in panic); (2431 ) What are you doing?! (= indignation), etc.
93
-unfinished statements, e.g. Hes coming to/ morrow (and well do it together).
(=Vine mine aa c o s terminm lucrarea mpreun.)
-afterthoughts (completri ulterioare, gnduri survenite dup exprimarea enunului
principal), e.g. Hes not a bad /boy come to / think of it. (=Nu e biat ru dac
stau s m gndesc)
-normal farewells (pronounced in such a way as to indicate the wish to continue the
relatioship), e.g. Good-/bye! So / long! Take /care!
Tone II Fall (tonul II cobortor) [\]
Main features: a) determination, resolution, commanding attitude (sometimes
expressed by using High Fall-Tone I High coborre puternic, or even Emphatic
High Fall Tone II Emphatic coborre subliniat / accentuat, marked by double
stress (\\): [\\];
b) certainty, precision, conviction, firmness
-simple / straightforward / non-implicatory statements, e.g. Ill be eigh'teen
(years'old) tomorrow.
-special / particular / wh-questions, e.g. When does the 'train 'arrive?
-insistent questions, e.g. At what hour did you 'actually re'turn 'home?
-peremptory commands / orders , 'Ring him 'up right now!
-normal greetings, e.g Good morning! Good afternoon! (seldom: Good day!
-words marking the end of the conversation (or even of the relation between the
interlocutors), e.g. That will do, young man! (=Mulumesc, tinere, e de ajuns!);
That will do, Johnson! (=Mulumesc, nu mai am nevoie de dumneata / poi s
pleci, Johnson!); \\Good \\day! (=i cu asta, basta!, Am terminat cu
dumneata!).
-apologies made out of obligation (=de nevoie / din obligaie / forat / n sil), e.g. I
beg your pardon!! (=V rog s m iertai! dei eu snt convins c aveam
dreptate).
-normal exclamations / ejaculations, e.g. Here is the train! Mother is 'coming!
Good!
Tone III Fall-Rise (tonul III cobortor-urctor) [
]
Main features: a) hesitancy, uncertainty
b) humility, submissiveness, malleability
c) other implications (reservation, hidden thoughts)
-hesitant statements, e.g. I think I could try to help you (some time next week).
Maybe (this could be a solution). I hope I can / manage (wi/ thout you).
-statements including unexpressed implications (viz. threat, doubt, fear, reservation,
etc.), e.g. There will be an inspection to // morrow. (=Mine o s avei inspecie
aa c bgai bine de seam / s vedem cum o scoatei la capt / i s-ar putea s avei
neplceri / i cine tie cum o s ieii.)
The 'widow seems to be very keen on / marrying him. (=Vduva ine mori s se
mrite cu el aa c m tem c bietul om n-are nici o scpare / aa c nu prea vd
cum o s ias din ncurctur.)
-statements with interrogative value, e.g. I hope you dont / mind. (=Sper c n-ai
nimic mpotriv. =N-ai nimic mpotriv, nu? / Nu te superi, nu?)
94
You wont keep me / waiting. (=Sper c n-ai s ntrzii mult / n-ai s m lai s
atept prea mult. Nu vii prea trziu, nu?
-requests, e.g. Please do me a favour! Would you mind 'opening that /door?
Do try to drink 'all this / milk!
-warnings (avertismente, preveniri, ndemnuri la atenie / grij), e.g. (Be)
careful!
Try not to 'break anything! Have a care! (=Bag bine de seam!)
-normal apologies(i.e. sincere, humble), e.g. Im really very / sorry! I deeply re/
gret it!
\\
Do try to for/ give me!
(In order to emphasize two elements in the sentence, Tone III Divided (=separat)
is used, e.g. Im sorry Im / late!).
Tone IV Rise-Fall (tonul IV urctor-cobortor) []
Main features: a) highly emotional viz. enthusiastic, cordial, excla,atory
b) mocking, quizzical expressing a mixture of irony and doubt or defiance
c) annoyed, irritated
-enthusiastic exclamations, e.g. (Its) wondeful! Splendid! Capital! Great!
Gorgeous! Tremendous!
-quizzical exclamations (exclamaii ironice, batjocoritoare, sfidtoare), e.g. You
dont say so! (=Nu mai spune! Aiurea! Ei, nu! Nu m-nnebuni! Pe dracu!)
What a ri'diculous idea! (=Halal vorb! Vai, ce prostie! n viaa mea n-am mai
auzit una ca asta!)
-cordial greetings, e.g. Good morning, my dear boys!(!) Look whom we have here!
(=Vai, ce bine c te vd / c te ntlnesc! Ia te uite, domle, ce surpriz plcut!)
-quizzical questions (ntrebri ironice / batjocoritoare / sfidtoare), e.g. Have you
read all these books? (=Ei, nu zu, chiar ai citit toate crile astea?)
Didnt you drink 'more than one 'glass, by any chance? (=Eti chiar aa sigur c nai but dect un pahar?)
-annoyed / irritated or mocking statements, e.g. The train is leaving and hes
drinking coffee. He simply never comes punctually! (=E pur i simplu incapabil
s fie vreodat punctual(!))
-impatient commands (iritate, enervate), e.g. Do it yourself! (=N-ai dect s te
descurci singur! De ce n-o faci chiar tu?!)
Leave me alone! (=Las-m n pace odat / pentru numele lui Dumnezeu!)
Tone V Rise-Fall-Rise (tonul V urctor-cobortor-urctor) []
Main features: a) enthusiasm, delight, joyfulness
b) cordiality, friendliness, geniality (amabilitate)
c) insinuation
-enthusiastic / happy / delighted statements, e.g. My 'sweetheart re'turns next
Monday!
To'morrows my birthday!
-cordial farewells (cuvinte cordiale de rmas bun / desprire) musch more
frequently used in American English, e.g. See you later! (=Pe curnd! Pa!);
95
Tone
Example
A. STATEMENTS
-usually II -Fall He wants to come.
-simple / direct
II -Fall
John is your best friend.
-straightforward, with
II -Fall
Ill talk him into it.
no implications
-hesitating, uncertainty
III -Fall-Rise I think he could.
-affirmative sentences with
interrogative sense
III -Fall-Rise He is sure he did (?)
-with implications
III -Fall-Rise She might who knows?
-insinuating
V -Rise-Fall-Rise
-enthusiastic
V -Rise-Fall-Rise Its OK!
-delighted
V -Rise-Fall-Rise
-mocking
IV -Rise-Fall
Again?!?
-annoyed
IV -Rise-Fall
-detached / indifferent /
perfunctory
I -L-Low-Rise
Well never mind.
-incomplete / unfinished
I -L-Low-Rise
-afterthoughts (completion) I -L-Low-Rise
Shell do it in future.
-enumerations
Low Rises + Fall Add some salt, pepper, cumin.
B. QUESTIONS
1. General (Yes No questions) I H-High Rise
-asking for repetition
I H-High Rise
And Mary?
-interrogative repetitions I H-High Rise
-interrogative exclamations I H-High Rise
A whole month?
-affirmative sentences with
an interrogative meaning III -Fall-Rise
He came in a car?
-ironical, quizzical
IV -Rise-Fall
You know it?!?
-perfunctory / indifferent
I L-Low Rise
96
-disjunctive:
He finished it, didnt he?
a) asking for confirmation I L-Low Rise
b) which do not ask for confirmation II-Fall,
or low flat tone So, he isnt afraid of dogs, is he?
2. Special (WH-questions) II Fall
Where did he go?
-insistent
II Fall
-perfunctory / indifferent
I L Low Rise
C. APOLOGIES
-normally III Fall-Rise Beg your pardon?
-humble (at the low emotional level)
III Fall-Rise
-asking for repetition
I H High Rise Sorry?
-perfunctory / out of obligation
I L Low Rise Sorry Sorry Sorry
-forced / out of obligation II Fall
Im sorry
D. IMPERATIVE SENTENCES II Fall
-orders, peremptory commands II Fall
Stop it!
-orders to leave
II Fall
-insistent questions
II Fall
What did he say?
-threatening
II Fall (or IV Rise-Fall) When did you see her?
-irritable, annoyed
II Fall
-perfunctory
I L -Low Rise Be quiet!
-mild -cf. REQUESTS
I L -Low Rise
-warnings
III Fall-Rise
Have a care!
-friendly warnings
V Rise-Fall-Rise
E. REQUESTS
-usually III Fall-Rise
-insistent (at the low emotio- II -Fall, or
Please!
nal level)
IV Rise-Fall
-apologies asking for repetition I L -Low Rise
F. EXCLAMATIONS
-usually II Fall
-enthusiastic (at the upper emoHow nice!
tional level)
IV Rise-Fall
-mocking, quizzical
IV Rise-Fall
What a shame!
-with interrogative sense I High Rise
-warnings (separated, when III Fall-Rise
Look out!
two elements are emphasized)
-friendly warnings
V Rise-Fall_rise Heigh!
-threats (at the lower level -emphasized or emotional) II Fall
G. GREETINGS
-usually II Fall
Hi!
-cordial
IV Rise-Fall
Hello!
-perfunctory
I L Low Rise
H. LEAVETAKINGS -usually I L Low Rise Good-bye!
-American
V Rise-Fall-Rise
-cordial
V Rise-Fall-Rise
-orders to leave
II Fall
Go!
97
Rise
submissivenes/
Im (deeply) sorry about it
humility
I apologize most humbly.
IV
IV
Rise-
enthusiasm
Thats fantastic!
Fall
Congratulations!
indignation
Im simply delighted! How
can you (be so cruel)?
0
V
98
1
V
2
Rise
Fall
4
cordiality
strong feel-
5
Bye-bye, sweet child!
You're adorable, darling!
Rise
ings
I saw them together last
insinuation
night
B. Static / Flat / Non-Kinetic Tones (=NON-EXPRESSIVE):
High Level to attract attention, e.g. -Ladies and -gentlemen,
Low Level parenthetic, e.g. He 'is, for the _time_being, my \ guest.
with implications (in the subtext), e.g. 'Actually, _to_tell you the truth, I
\hate it. She 'is, in _fact, my \girlfriend.
Notes: 1) Tones II High, IV and V are not actually indispensable, but rather
characteristic of special circumstances / contexts (speeches, didactic purposes), or
special emotional aspects.
2) By and large, the differences as to the intonation of Romanian are rather matters of
INTENSITY / DEGREE, than of ESSENCE, as the logic of intonation is
approximately the same. It seems that Romanians use a narrower range of sound pitch
(approximately two thirds of an octave), whereas native speakers of English
especially the British variant, and the more so as they are educated use a much
broader range (approximately one and a half octaves). Consequently, in British
English both falls and rises are more abrupt, especially in the nuclear syllable. This is
particularly obvious with regard to Tone I High (High Rise), expressing (genuine)
curiosity: General Questions (the answer of which can be Yes or No) appear as a
continuous rise in fact, a series of unaccented / weak forms (auxiliaries, modals,
pronouns, etc.) up to the main verb -WITH NO FALL OR INTERRUPTION
whatever. The contour of General Questions in British English is roughly:
and
in Romanian. (cf. Virgiliu tefnescu-Drgneti, in BRECAP Bulletin
of the Romanian-English Contrastive Analysis Project, University of Bucharest, 1975,
and Andrei Bantas studies, in English and Contrastive Studies, T.U.B., Bucharest,
1978).
99
on the other hand, intrusive r (that /r/ sound which cannot be justified by
spelling, and is used only in order to separate the vowels in a sequence) is not
as frequent in America as it is in Britain e.g. papa and mama /p'p:rn
m'm:/.
C) SUPRASEGMENTAL PHONETICS: Stressing, Accentuation,
Rhythm and Intonation
The main differences between the two varieties of English lie in:
a) Four-, or five-syllable words sometimes even three-syllable words
get two main accents in AmE, which are often absolutely equal (unlike the
oppostion between main and secondary stresses which operates in BrE);
when this happens in shorter words, there is a drawling effect (very obvious
in the Southern dialect -for instance, that of Texas), which is quite the
contrary of the preconceived idea of the Europeans about the Americans
speaking quickly.
b) For this reason, as well as the overall flattening of the intonational
contour of everyday speech (as different from oratory, lecturing, etc.) the
falling tone (II-fall) has more often than not a modified contour, with more
accidental rises (=ridicri ntmpltoare) than necessary.
c) Tone V (Rise-Fall-Rise), more affective, is by far more frequent in
AmE especially in farewell phrases, which are even termed cordial or
American farewell -e.g. See you later! or even Hi! (unlike BrE,
where a low rise tone I-L or a fall-rise tone IV would be used).
in the field were oriented towards that variant. The choice is motivated from
a utilitarian more specifically, didactic point of view, as a fixed,
universally accepted standard may thus be established; which does not imply
that the American accent / variant is disregarded. Attempts at diversifying the
reference point, in teaching as well as the contrastive relation, to the benefit
of the American variant of English can be accounted for through the fact that
American lecturers teaching EFL visited the majority of the higher education
institutions in this country. Therefore, interesting sidelights in point of both
segmental and suprasegmental phonetics and phonology were provided, of
interest not only for educators, but also for experts in contrastive analysis.
A Romanian-English contrastive analysis project (RECAP) involving
several higher education, as well as other specialised institutions in Romania
and in the US was started in the 70s. The results of the research carried out
by those groups were synthesised in the volume on The Sounds of English
and Romanian whose editors were professors Dumitru Chioran, James E.
Augerot and Hortensia Prlog a valuable contribution to the study of
linguistic contrast oriented along modern lines, while attaching due
importance to the (traditional) phonetic and phonological levels of
contrastive analysis and making the best of the contributors experience in
teaching EFL in Romania.
In addition to such fundamental works, there has been a fairly long
tradition of predominantly normative works in phonetics and phonology,
constituting a body of methods, guides, manuals that put to use accurate,
competent observations made by Romanian teachers of English. It has been
proved that there are times when contrastive studies, mainly when the targetlanguage is analysed under the angle of the objective, unimpaired linguistic
competence of a foreign researcher, may result in fertile departures for future
studies and considerations.
Such teaching-oriented analyses, having a primarily practical character,
are, in spite of the general opinion assessing the greater importance of
suprasegmental matters, illustrative of such traditional preoccupations
relating to the acquisition of segmental elements, largely due to the inherent
difficulty of a number of English phonemes, as well as the imperfect
correspondence between sounds and the written word, a thing of terror for
most Romanian learners of English.
Among the difficulties related to the acquisition of a foreign language,
those resulting from the interferences at work at various levels between any
two languages in contact are certainly the most important. Contrastive
analysis aims to find common elements going as far as postulating items
meant to construe linguistic universals and no less marking out a body of
instances, which could be used for teaching purposes, in which the
characteristic features of the two languages stand out as hindrances to
103
that every Romanian can properly utter such words as western, window.
As phoneticians agree on the point that the vowel-system of English is
trapezium-shaped, i.e. less fronted than the triangle-shaped Romanian vowelchart, the practice involving the /i:/:/i/ pair, which is the most likely to cause
mistakes, must be done accordingly. Yet, it was pointed out and confirmed
by didactic experience that erroneous perceptions (or else, prejudices)
may arise out of such remarks: thus, an empirical conviction exists that
Eng. /e/ is more open than Rom. /e/, materialised in some students confusing
the former with Eng. vowel no. 4 //, e.g. /pen/ for /pn/. The Romanian
perception of Eng. vowel no. 2 /i/ bears the mark of an almost general
confusion between /e/ and /i/, while in fact Rom. /e/ in tren being as retracted
as Eng. /i/ in pin. The flatness of Eng. /i/ is wrongly perceived as extra
openness so that for most Romanians ears /pin/ will have the sound of
/pen/. What makes that sound be misrepresented by Romanian learners /
beginners is the prejudice that it is a sort of /e/.
Generalising, it was demonstrated that the most important source of
errors in acquiring English vowels is the relatively narrow space in which
their articulation is jammed. All the methods used in order to acquire them
correctly take as a starting point the necessity for the student to become
aware of these (imperceptible, by Romanian standards) differences,
subsequently developing the ability to refine their actualisation; this is
generally done by minimal pairs. Minimal pairs in sentences likely to occur
in actual communication (v. D. Chioran, H. Prlog) are, as proved by
experience in teaching, an indispensable tool in acquiring such tricky pairs as
/i:/ : /i/, or /u:/ : /u/, in which a simplified version actualisation is to be met
with e.g. boon pronounced like Rom. bun. It was shown that the existence
of a high central phoneme // in Romanian does not pose obstacles to the
correct acquisition of English central vowels by Romanian students; likewise,
the fact that Romanian has no corresponding sound for Eng. vowel no. 10 //
in hut raises no major problems (despite the fact that its dialectal and
individual variants are numerous in English) as long as learners are aware
that the Romanian starting-point in producing it (/a/ as in ran) is more open
and tense. The common mistake is reproducing its shortness through almost
complete laxness, the vowel sounding, mainly when opposed to Eng. vowel
no. 5 // in such pairs as hut : heart, like a sigh. With respect to the
perception of the back vowel //, difficulties arise from the fact that the
central position of Rom. /a/ (which is, moreover, the Romanian vowel in
point of sonority) makes the Romanians way of uttering the /:/ sound
somewhat fronter (e.g. /a:nt/ instead of /:nt/); to which is added the
influence of the American way of rendering the English vowel /:/ as //, e.g.
pass /ps/, bath /b/.
The same foreign tinge can be noticed with the Romanians way of
105
rendering the central vowels // and /:/, e.g. in an : earn, although the unique
corresponding phoneme in Romanian, i.e. //, holds quite a representative
position. The slight differences existing between the two vowels are typically
reduced by Romanians to that of length. Moreover, in an attempt to keep its
length as well as tenseness, they sometimes add unwelcome rounding (a
rather puzzling fact, since the typically British variant is uttered with lipspreading). Another possible explanation would be that such rounded
utterance e.g. /s r/ is due to an exaggerated perception of the American
way of articulation in such sequences containing the retroflex r as sir, fur.
On the other hand, // is in most cases pronounced like Rom. //, irrespective
of its positional variants which are definitely characteristic and even
dissimilar (e.g. above, never, comfort, it was Tom). In vowel + r sequences,
the American influence is again obvious, pronunciations of the teacher type
being contrasted to the /a/ realisation of Eng. vowel no. 12 in villa,
veranda(h); in much the same way, there are major problems with the
schwa in unaccented positions (especially in the so-called weak forms
mainly form-words appearing in connected speech), whose erroneous
pronunciation is also a result of the Romanian way of rendering the native
word and sentence-stress in English utterances, e.g. /'it 'wz 'boi/.
Experience demonstrates that, among the back vowels, efforts are
mainly required to get a correct sense of the minimal pair /u/ : /u:/ (as in full :
fool) illustrated by rather few occurrences in actual speech. While /u:/ is
given a closer and backer articulatory place, /u/, by far the more difficult of
the pair, is drawn closer to Rom. /u/ in bun. The best practice experience as
well as theoretical approaches are directed towards the learners becoming
aware of the raising of the tongue (which is inferior for Eng. /u/ to that of
Rom. /u/), as well as the part of it that is raised. In fact, this open sound is
rather close to Rom /o/ which is reflected in its perception by beginners as
such, e.g. /bok/ for book; thus, the need is felt to practise in pairs opposing
Eng. vowel no. 6 /o/ to Eng. vowel no. 8 /u/, as in god : good).
As in the case of the /n/ : /:n/ pair, the /pot/ : /po:t/ pair proved easy
to acquire, mainly when the American pronunciation was chosen as a peg in
o+r sequences (e.g. port), while /o/ was perceived, precisely on account of
the influence of the American type of pronunciation (e.g. /h:t/ for hot), as
Rom. /a/ which can be additionally demonstrated if we consider such recent
loan words as bax for box.
Lip-protruding is generally felt as the main cause for mispronouncing
the rounded back vowels: Romanians not only users of a regional accentwill begin with a /w/-type sound (e.g. /won/ for /on/, cf. the mispronunciation
of Tom as /toam/). Tenseness is usually replaced by such gliding sounds, as in
all, ooze, pronounced approximately as /wo:l/, /wu:z/. It is a general fact that
vowel length and tensenness are rendered by beginners through
106
diphthongation.
Diphthongs do not really pose problems to Romanian learners as far as
vocalic nuclei are concerned; problems only arise with respect to the relative
quantity of the two elements as Romanians pronounce the second vocalic
element as a full vowel (the Romanian diphthongs /ai/, /ei/ can occasionally
have the final /i/ prolonged in folk songs, for instance). Moreover, there is a
tendency towards pronouncing them with a hiatus, e.g. /'da-un/, /'ple-it/
thence, Romanian learners will have difficulties in perceiving and / or
decoding such words as down, there, especially when pronounced in the
(Southern) British way, and the more so for three-vowel sequences, e.g.
flower, fire, etc.
Tenseness (force of articulation), as opposed to laxity, represents a
major difficulty in the realisation of English consonants by Romanian
students / learners. They will mistake word final lax consonants for their
tense counterparts (e.g. /led/ and /let/, /ten/ and /den/), as they generally fail
to sense the relevance of aspiration in English (in the case of word final /
initial consonants), which parallels the voiced : voiceless opposition. Practice
is directed towards perceiving / rendering the aspiration present with the
plosive consonants i.e. being aware of the differences in pronunciation
between words like Rom. pot and Eng. pot.
The majority of the consonants (save for such specifically English
items as: velar //, flapped /r, glottal //, the interdentals, // and //) are
generally thought of, and rendered as being quite close to their Romanian
counterparts. The problems they pose are in relation with the place of
articulation (Romanian consonants have a comparatively fronted
articulation). The foreign tinge may easily be noticed in the beginners
pronunciation of /s/ : /z/, /t/ : /d/, and /h/ which are realised by Romanians
as dentals, respectively, a velar. While // is almost universally perceived in
consonant clusters as /u/, e.g. in table, experience shows that Eng. /r/,
actually a new sound for Romanian students / learners, is the first such
specific consonant to be acceptably reproduced as it is perhaps the most
striking characteristic of the consonant system of English; as is the
interdental // (incidentally, they have almost the same frequency, as shown
by statistics, i.e. 3.5). Among the various ways beginners use to approximate
the pronunciation of the two interdental phonemes, some are to be found with
English speakers, as well (viz. the cockney replacing of // : // by /f/ : /v/,
and the regional American pronunciation of the interdentals as alveolars
e.g. /dt/, /ti/; which seems to be encouraged into becoming a strong
prejudice with beginners through the large amount of American audio and
video productions available in recent years. For the consonants which do
exist in Romanian, too, the correct pronunciation needs careful
discrimination and reproducing practice especially /t/ and /d/ in final
107
112
CHAPTER IV
Exercise 1: Check / make sure the pronunciation of the following words by using an
English pronouncing dictionary (e.g. Daniel Jones, A.C. Gimson, J.C. Wells, J.
Windsor Lewis, etc.)
addict
administrative
administratrix
after
again
against
age
aged
aisle
alga, algae
alloy n., v.
ally n., v.
almond
amateur
answer
ant
antithesis
any
apostrophe
appal (US also
appall)
arc
archaic
archipelago
area
argue
aria
ark
ask
asked
ate
attorney
audience
aunt
Australia(n)
awkward
backroom
bade
ballot
banana
basil
bass 1, 2
bath, baths
bathe
bathed
bather
bayonet
beach
bear
beatitude
beau(x)
Beauchamp
beauty
because
beach
begged
below
Berkley
birch
bird
biscuit
blew
blood
blue
boa
boar
body
bog
bogus
boom
boor
booty
bore
born
borne
bosom
bouquet
bourgeois
bow 1, 2
bow-window
bowl
brass
bread
breeches
broad
brooch
broom
brougham
buccaneer
bud
buddy
burial
Burt
Burton
bury
bush
bushel
business
buster
busy
butcher
butler
Byzance
Byzantine
Byzantium
calm
camel
canal
canoe
car
caress
carriage
catastrophe
cater(er)
Cather
cauliflower
cavalry
ceiling
census
channel
chapel
chaplain
chapter
character
charcoal
charge
charg
(daffaires)
charter
check
chef
chemise
chemist
chemistry
Cheops
cheque
Chicago
chief
chimaera,
chimera
chime
chivalrous
christen
chunnel
churl
circuit
clergy
clerical
113
clerk
clogged
close adj.
close v.
closed
cloth
clothed
clothes
clue
coffee
colonel
colonist
colour
commerce
commercial
concur
conduit
confer
conscious
conservative
constable
constant(ly)
content(s)
coo
cough
could
country
county
courage
courageous
courier
court
courtesy
courtier
cousin
Covenant
Coventry
crow
crusade
cudgel
cure
current
cutlass
cutlery
dance
dawn
114
deaf
deafer
debt
defer
Derby(shire)
descend
deter
doctor
doctrine
does
donkey
door
doubt
dour
dowry
dragon
drama
drama
dramatist
draught
ear
earn
East(ern)
elastic
electron
elixir
enfranchise
engrave
enough
epistle
epithet
epitome
epoch
esquire
Esther
example
exclamation
exclaim
exile
family
fan
fanatic
fanaticism
fast
father
feud
few
fief
finance
financial
fir (tree)
flaw
flood
floor
flu
foot
foreign
fountain
friend(ly)
fruit
fur
furnace
fusileer, fusilier
garage
gas
gather
gauge
gibbet
gibe
giggled
gill
gills
gist
glass
Gloucester
Gloucestershire
gone
gown
grand
grant
grave
gravel
graven (image)
gravy
gray
grey
group
guinea
habit
half
hallowed
Halloween
halt
have
heart
heathen
heave
height
heir
hereditary
hero
Hero
heroic
heroine
holiday
holly
Hollywood
holy
hone
honour
hoped
hopped
horary
hose
hosiery
housed
houses
hurry
hyperbole
indict
indictment
indulgence
intentional
Ipswich
italicised
italics
jeopardy
jewel
journal
jubilee
judicial
June
jury
key
kindred
kingship
knowledge
labour
labourer
lapel
lass
laugh
launch
laureate
laurel
law
learned
leaven
Leicester(shire)
leisure(ly)
Leonard
leopard
lettuce
lever
levy
Levy
lichen
lineage
linguistics
listed
litotes
litre
litter
little
liver
loathed
London(er)
lone
loose
lose
lowest
machine
magazine
malt
manger
manhood
manoeuvre
many
Maria
marriage
marry
martyr, -dom
Mary
mass
Mass
master
Maugham
mayor
meagre
measure
mercy
merry
metaphor
metonymy
metre
Michigan
minute
mischief
mischievous
modest
money
monkey
month
morass
mother
mountain
murmur
myrtle
naked
national
neutron
Norwich
nothing
obedience
offer
one
ooze
ordeal
oven
Pall Mall
palm
paltry
papa
paradigmatic
paradigm
path, paths
pearl
peninsula
people
plague
plaid
Plaistow
plait
pore
potato
pour
prayer
precious
preface n.
prefer
prelate
pretty
private
procedure
proton
prove
psalm
psyche
psychology
punish
quality
quart
quay
rant
rather
rationalist, -ism
read p.t.
realm
reciprocal
reign
rein
relax
relaxation
reprisals
request
reservoir
reveille
revile
roar
romance
room
rouge
rough
said
sailor
sallow
salmon
salt
same
sandwich
satire
satiric(al)
satyr
sauce
sausage
saw
says
scarce
schism
scourge
scythed
seamstress
sedate
senate
senator
sergeant
series
sesame
sever
severe
sew
sewing
shackles
shake(n)
shaver
shiver
shoe
shone
shop
should
shover
sign
simile
slough 1, 2
sluice
soar
sofa
some
soprano
sore
soup
sour
115
sow 1, 2
sphere
squire
squirrel
staff
staged
stalk
stirrup
stove
study
suffrage
suffragette
sugar
sure
survey
swan
swarm
swear
sword
sworn
synecdoche
syntagm
tailor
tallow
taught
telegraph
Thames
116
thorough
thought
threw
through
tomato
tomb
tongue
touch
tour
tourism
towards
tower
traffic
transfer n., v.
travel
Tuesday
tune
Turner
Turton
twopence
unique
valuable
value
vase
Vaughan
vehemence
vehemently
vehicle
via
vicereine
vile
vine
vinegar
vinery
vineyard
vintage
viola
violin
voyage
wan
wand
wane
want
warlike
warm
warmth
warn
wash
washed
water
weapon
were
whirl
who
whole
wholly
winery
wolf
woman
women
won
wool
Worcester
word
worry
worse
worst
worsted
worth
would
wound n.
wound p.p.
wrath
yacht
yeast
yeoman, yeomen
yeomanry
yesterday
yield
Exercise 2: Check and assimilate the spelling (as well as the pronunciation, meaning
and usage) of the following English words:
absolute, absolve
car, far, war
ago, do
card, hard, ward
acknowledge, knowledge
case, phase, phrase
aisle, isle, islet
cast, fast, last, mast, past, caste, chaste
alley, ally, to ally, sally, to sally
catch, match, watch
to allow, hallo, sallow, tallow
caught, draught, taught
angel, angle, anger, stranger
to cease, to please
ant, arent, aunt
chair, chaise
antiquity, antique, antic, antiquarian
chaste, chastity
apple, to apply, apricot, to appraise
chat, that, what
are, care, here
chief, mischief, mischievous
to assume, to assure, to ensure
child, children
ate, date, fate, hate, late, mate
chime, chim(a)era
aunt, to vaunt
cigar, sugar
bad, cad, lad, sad, wad
circuit, pursuit
ballet, chalet, wallet
clean, cleanly, to cleanse
to banish, Spanish, Danish
to climb, limb
basin, cousin
close 1, close 2
beard, bird, heard, heart
cloth, both. doth, oath, loth, moth
beast, breast, yeast
cloven, clover, oven
to beat, heat, great, seat
cocoa, boa
begin, gin
collar, colour
blood, flood, good, mood
comb, combat
blossom, bosom
combat, company, comrade
bomb, comb, tomb, womb
come, home, Rome
boor, door, moor, poor
to conquer, to concur
booth, smooth, tooth
cone, gone, done, shone, tone, ton,
bough, dough, rough, tough, cough,
anemone, lone
slough, Slough
conquest, to conquer
boulder, shoulder, bolder, bolder, to
cost, coast, host, lost, most, post
solder
couch, touch
bow, to bow, rainbow, tow
cough, tough, dough, doughty, rough,
bowl, owl
slough, bough
(to) break, breakfast
cover, hover, lover, over
to breathe, breath
cough, hiccough
breeches, leech, to beseech
country, county
broad, road
course, coarse, cause
brook, brooch, cook, look, took
court, courteous, courtesy, curtsy
bushy, busy, Susy, Susan
coward, toward 1, toward 2
calf, half
to create, creation, creator, creature
calm, balm, psalm, qualm, alms, almond
crime, criminal
can, man, wan
crisis, crises, bases (< base), bases (<
cant, cant
basis)
117
118
moment, to foment
moon, Monday
pour, dour, sour, four
boor, poor, floor, door, moor, Moor
mountain, to maintain
mouth, mouths, Plymouth, youth,
youths
Mr., Mrs., Ms.
nation, national, patriot, patriotic
nature, natural
new, queue, Kew Gardens
ninth, plinth
mow, nowhere, no, nothing
of, off
office, to suffice, sufficient
orchard, orchid
on, upon, son, sun
paid, plaid, said, raid, plait
pastry, past, last, cast
pays, says, rays
pence, pens, pennies
people, leopard
peep, Pepys
pint, print, mint, mind
plague, ague, vague
plaid, plait, gait
please, cease, pleasing, pleasure, teasing
polish, Polish, polite, police
(to) preface, deface, face
pretty, petty
principle, disciple, discipline
private, privy, to privatize
to promise, compromise
to punish, punitive, puny
quay, to say, pay
rallied, allied, alliance
to reach, to read, ready, read p.t./ p.p.,
red, reading, readiness
receipt, script, receive, recipe, recipient,
leisure
reading, Reading
realm, real, reality
to reap, to reappear, reaper
refuse, to refuse, fuse
reign, foreign, skein, sovereign
riot, chariot
rival, civil
Roman, woman, Romanian
rose, lose, arose, chose
rove, dove, cove, strove, love, to shove
rove, prove, glove
rover, lover
scholar, polar, solar, molar
science, conscience, scientific
secret, to select
service, vice
to sew, to sow, so, sow, low, row, row,
rowan, rowlock, rowel
sign, signal, signing, signature
doll, roll, enrol, toll, scroll, Moll, knoll
to extol, to enrol
honey, money, pony, peony, Coney
doe, shoe, to shoe, foe, toe, roe
shade, shadow
shall, small, tall, ball, mall, pall, Pall
Mall, fall
sheep, shepherd, leopard
should, shoulder
so, to, go, to do, do, lo, loo
soldier, to solder, bolder, boulder
sole, solitary, solidarity, solidity
soul, foul, fowl
south, southern, southerly
Spain, Spanish, Spaniard
speak, break, steak, streak
to steal, stealthily, stealth
steward, reward, stewardess
stew, new, to sew, New York
stood, understood, flood, blood
story, storey, history
sward, sword, swarthy, word, ward
those, whose, rose, to lose, hose, pose
though, through, thorough(going),
thought(ful)
three, threepence
tomato, potato
either, leisure, neither, deceive, skein,
receive
crevice, device, devise, arise, demise,
promise
conscience, scientific, science, scientist
bier, briar, higher, hire, pyre, sire, shire,
119
120
wart, search
alarm, barm, harm, warm, warn, worm,
storm, swarm, war, warrior
bard, card, yard, hard, lard, pard, sward,
ward
dont, font, front, wont, wont
horse, worse, corpse, corps, core,
corpuscle
August, Augustus, august, Augustan
aunt, gaunt, to flaunt
launch, laundry, laureate, laurel
cork, work, pock, stork, storm, worm
bury, burial, curious, curiosity, fury,
furious
query, cherry, cheering, merry, very,
bevy, heavy, to levy, Levi, Leviathan,
Leviticus
any, many, zany, arrival, canal, petal,
penal, rival
measure, peasant, please, pleasant,
displease, pleasure, leisure, pressure
doll, knoll, moll, poll, roll, stroll, toll,
folly, holly, jolly
bomb, comb, tomb, grovel, hovel,
shovel
bother, brother, brothel, other, mother,
another, thother
are, dare, flare, glare, hare, mare, rare,
Sarah, tare, ware
chair, chaos, chaise
timber, climber
hair, hare, heir, heritage, here, hear,
heard, inherit, heirloom, harbour
hair, lair, layer, mayor, payer, prayer,
sayer
ere, here, there, mere, where, neer
canary, Mary, granary, Rosemary
sigh, neigh, Leigh, Lee, height, weight,
either, neither, (dead) weight
alien, Italian
hazel, label, lapel
base, chase, erase, phase, phrase
bleak, steak, streak, weak, week, wick
ague, argue, plague, vague
bane, Dane, deign, pain, plain, plane,
rain, reign, rein, reindeer, sane, skein
121
122
Exercise 3: Assimilate the spelling (as well as the pronunciation, meaning and usage)
of the following words, and form sentences with them, resorting to good dictionaries
whenever necessary.
The one hundred-odd words most frequently misspelled (according to
statistics)
(After Hodges, Harbrace College Handbook)
accommodate
achievement
acquire
all right
among
apparent
argument
arguing
belief
believe
beneficial
benefited
category
coming
comparative
conscious
controversy
controversial
definitely
definition
define
describe
description
disastrous
effect
embarrass
environment
exaggerate
existence
existent
experience
explanation
fascinate
height
interest
its, its
led, lead
lose
losing
marriage
mere
necessary
occasion
occurred
occurring
occurrence
opinion
opportunity
paid
particular
performance
personal
personnel
possession
possible
practical
precede
prejudice
prepare
prevalent
principal
principle
privilege
probably
proceed
procedure
professor
profession
prominent
pursue
quite
receive
receiving
recommend
referring
repetition
rhythm
sense
separate
separation
shining
similar
studying
succeed
succession
surprise
technique
than, then
their, there
theyre
thorough
too, to, two
transferred
unnecessary
villain
woman, women
write
writing
written
The Next 560-odd words most frequently misspelled (plus a number of frequent
errors made by Romanians in point of spelling and pronunciation)
absence
abundance
abundant
academic
academically
academy
acceptable
acceptance
accepting
accessible
accidental
accidentally
acclaim
accompanied
accompanies
accompaniment
accompanying
accomplish
accuracy
accurate
accurately
accuser
accuses
accusing
accustom
acknowledge
acquaintance
across
acquainted
actuality
actually
adequately
admission
admittance
adolescence
adolescent
advantageous
advertisement
advertiser
advertising
123
advice
advise
aesthetics
aesthetician
affect
afraid
against
aggravate
aggressive
alleviate
allotted
allotment
allowed
allows
already
altar
all together
altogether
amateur
analysis
analyses
to analyse /
analyze
annihilate
another
annually
anticipated
apologetically
apologised
apology
apparatus
appearance
applies
applying
appreciate
appreciation
approaches
appropriate
area
arise
arising
arouse
arousing
arrangement
article
atheist
124
athlete
athletic
attack
attempts
attendance
attendant
attended
attitude
audience
authoritative
authority
available
autochthonous
apartment
bargain
base
basically
basis, bases
beauteous
beautified
beauty
become
becoming
before
began
beginner
beginner
beginning
behaviour
bigger
biggest
bosom
boundary
breath
breathe
brilliance
brilliant
Britain
Britannica
Briton
burial
buried
bury
business
busy
calendar
capitalism
career
careful
careless
carried
carrier
carries
carrying
catastrophe
cemetery
certainly
challenge
changeable
changing
characteristic
characterised
chief
children
Christian
Christianity
choice
choose
chose
cigarette
cite
cloth
clothes
commercial
commission
committee
communist
companies
compatible
competition
competitive
competitor
completely
concede
conceivable
conceive
concentrate
concern
concomitant
concomitance
condemn
confuse
confusion
connotation
connote
conscience
conscientious
consequently
considerably
consistency
consistent
contemporary
continuous
controlled
controlling
convenience
convenient
correlate
council
counsellor
countries
create
courageous
criticism
criticise
cruelly
cruelty
curiosity
curious
curriculum, pl.
curricula
dealt
deceive
decided
decision
dependent
descendant
descent
desirability
desire
despair
destroy
destruction
detriment
devastating
device
difference
different
diffuse
difficult
dilemma
diligence
dining
disappoint
disciple
discipline
discrimination
discussion
disease
disgusted
disillusioned
dissatisfied
dissent
divide
divine
dominant
dropped,
dropping
due, duly
during
eager
easily
efficiency
efficient
eighth
eighty
eliminate
emperor
emphasise
encourage
endeavour
enjoy
enough
enterprise
entertain
entertainment
entirely
entrance
equipment
equipped
escapade
escape
especially
everything
evidently
excellence
excellent
except
excitable
exercise
expense
experiment
extremely
fallacy
fallacious
familiar
families
fantasies
fantasy
fashions
favourite
fictitious
field
finally
financially
financier
foreigner
forty, fortieth
fourth,
fourteen(th)
friendliness
fulfil, fulfilling
fundamentally
further
gaiety
gendarme
generally
genius
government
governor
grammar
grammatical(ly)
group
guaranteed
guidance
guiding
handled
happened
happiness
hare
hautboy
haute couture
haute cuisine
haute cole
hauteur
hear, here
heir
heiress
heirless
heirloom
heroes
heroic
heroine
hindrance
honest
honorarily
honorary
honorific(al)
honour
honourable
hopeless
hoping
hospitalisation
hostler
huge, hugely
humorist
humorous
humour
hundred
hunger
hungrily
hungry
hypocrisy
hypocrite
ideally
ignorance
ignorant
imaginary
imagination
imagine
immediately
immense
importance
incidentally
increase
indefinite
independence
independent
indispensable
individually
industries
inevitable
influence
influential
ingenious
ingredient
initiative
intellect
intelligence
intelligent
interference
interpretation
interrupt
involve
irrelevant
irresistible
irritable
jealousy
knowledge
laboratory
labourer
laborious(ly)
laid
later
leisurely
lengthening
license
likelihood
likely
likeness
listener
literary
literature
liveliest
livelihood
liveliness
lives
loneliness
lonely
loose
lose
loss
125
luxury
magazine
magnificence
magnificent
maintenance
management
manoeuvre
manner
manufacturers
material
mathematics
matter
maybe
meant
mechanics
medi(a)eval
medicine
melancholy
method
miniature
minutes
mischief
monstrous
monstrosity
moral
morale
morally
mysterious
narrative
narrator
naturally
Negroes
ninety
noble
noticeable
noticing
numerous
obstacle
off
omit
omitted, omitting
operate
opinion
oppose,
opposition
opponent
126
opposite
optimism
organisation
original
pamphlet
parallel
parliament
paralysed
passed
past
peace
peculiar
perceive
permanent
permit
perseverance
persistent
persuade
pertain
phase
phenomenon
philosophy
physical
piece
pitiful
pity
planned
plausible
playwright
play-writing
pleasant
politician
political
practice
posthumous
preponderance
preponderant
predominant
preferred
presence
prestige
primitive
prisoner
propaganda
propagate
prophecy
psychoanalysis
psychology
psychopathic
psychosomatic
quantity
really
realise
rebel
recognise
regard
relative
relieve
religion
remember
reminisce,
reminiscent
represent
resistance
resistant
resources
response
responsibility
responsible
revealed
ridicule
ridiculous
roommate
sacrifice
safety
satire
satirical
satirist
satisfied
satisfy
scene
schedule
seize
sentence
sergeant
several
shepherd
significance
simile
simple
simply
since
sincerely
sociology
sophomore
source
speaking
speech
sponsor
stabilisation
stepped
stories
story, storey
straight
straightforward
strength
stretch
strict
stubborn
studying
substantial
subtle
sufficient
summary
summed
suppose
suppress
surrounding
susceptible
suspense
swimming
symbol
synonymous
synonymy
temperament
tendency
than, then
their,
there,
theyre, therere
themselves
theories
theory
theirs, theres
therefore
those
though, thought
together
tomorrow
tragedy
tremendous
tried
tries
tyranny
tyrannical, tyrant
undoubtedly
unusually
useful
useless
using
vacuum, vacua
valuable
varies
variety
various
view
vengeance
vigilance,
vigilant
warrant
weather
weird
wether
welcome,
welcomed
where, were
whether
whole
Exercise 4: Read aloud, and then give the phonetic transcription of the following
texts:
a) IF (by Rudyard Kipling)
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on
you; if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their
doubting too; if you can wait and not be tired of waiting, or, being lied about, dont
deal in lies; or, being hated, dont give way to hating, and yet dont look too good, nor
talk too wise; if you can dream and not make dreams your master, if you can think
and not make thoughts your aim, if you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat
those two impostors just the same; if you can bear to hear the truth youve spoken
twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, or watch the things you gave your life to
broken, and stoop and buildem up with worn-out tools; if you can make one heap of
all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, and lose and start again at
your beginnings, and never breathe a word about your loss; if you can force your
heart, and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so hold on
when there is nothing in you except the will which says to them: Hold on; if you
can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings nor lose the common
touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, if all men count with you, but
none too much; if you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of
distance run, yours is the Earth and everything thats in it, and, which is more, youll
be a Man, my son!
b) ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE
Dearest creature in Creation,
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse:
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and
worse.
I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy:
Tear in eye, your dress youll tear,
So shall I: Oh, hear my prayer:
Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
127
128
debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's dose and rose and lose
Just look them up goose and choose,
And cork and work, and card and ward,
And font and front, and word and
sword,
And do and go, and thwart and cart Come, come, I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I'd mastered it when I was five!
129
130
131
132
133
134
A worm or a bug,
Would say My dear friend, I beg pawarden.
There was an old lady of Harwich
Who drove in an old-fashioned carwich,
A sort of black box
With two seedy crocks
Which shed used on the day of her marwich.
A lively young lady of Limpne
Indulged a peculiar whimpe.
She danced without stopping
From Ealing to Wopping;
No wonder her figure was slimpne.
A beautiful lady named Psyche
Is loved by a fellow name Yche.
One thing about Ych
The lady cant lych
Is his beard, which is dreadfully spyche.
There was a young lady of Slough
Who went for a ride on a cough.
The brute pitched her off
When she started to coff;
She neer rides on such animal nough.
There was a young wife of Antigua
Who remarked to her spouse, What a pigua!
He replied, Oh, my queen,
Is it manners you mean,
Or do you refer to my figua?
There was a young fellow of Beaulieu
Who loved a fair maiden most treaulieu.
He said, Do be mine.
And she didnt decline,
So the wedding was solemnised deaulieu.
There was a young fellow of Gloucester
Whose wife ran away with a coucester.
He traced her to Leicester
And tried to arreicester,
But in spite of her efforts he loucester.
A jocular fellow named Maugham
135
136
137
138
Explica\ii
Exemple
Transcriere
Corespondent
(aproximativ)
^n
romne`te
139
spre a, rostit cu
buzele trase n
jos, ca n graiul
ardelenesc
cod
[kod]
[o:]
o lung, deschis
`i cu buzele
trase n jos
door
lord
[u]
u foarte scurt
cook
[kuk]
[u:]
u foarte lung
boon
[bu:n]
1
0
[]
a foarte scurt
`i ^nchis, rostit
^n centrul
gurii
vocal central,
un fel de a
foarte lung,
rostit cu din\ii
apropiai `i
buzele ^ntinse
lateral
vocal central
ne-accentuat,
un fel de a
foarte scurt
supper
1
1
[:]
[]
b) Diftongi / Diphthongs
1 [ei]
similar cu
3
diftongul romnesc, dar mai
deschis `i fr
palatalizare
1 [u]
ca u din
4
romn, dar cu
buzele rotunjite, cea de jos
ie`it ^nainte)
1 [ai]
ca ai din
[do:]
[lo:d]
['sp]
aproape de
sunetul din
toat),
cod (dar mai
asemntor
cucoad)
dor (cu o
lung, deschis,
fr r),
lord (fr r,
cu o lung,
deschis)
cuc (cu u
scurtat)
bun (cu u
foarte lung, ca
^n iulie)
sap (cu a
foarte scurt,
retezat)
Sir
[s:]
s (cu vocala
foarte lung `i
^nchis)
sitter
['sit]
sit (cu
vocala final
^nchis `i
retezat)
lay
hey
[lei]
[hei]
tow
[tu]
lei (cu
vocale mai
deschise, fr
palatalizare),
hei (idem)
tu (cu
vocala
rotunjit)
sky
140
[skai]
scai (cu a
1
6
romne`te, dar
mai deschis
[au]
[oi]
17
1
8
1
9
[i]
2
0
[u]
[]
ca au din
romne`te, dar
mai deschis
cu o deschis
nr.6
ardelenesc,
urmat de un i
foarte scurt
i deschis, urmat
de scurt
e foarte
deschis, urmat
de a scurt
u scurt , urmat
de scurt ,
^nchis
how
[hau]
boy
[boi]
fear
[fi]
Mary
continuer
['mri]
[kn
'tinu]
c foarte tare,
nepalatalizat,
cut
141
[kt]
mere n graiul
ardelenesc
continu cu
mai scurt,
cobor^tor
pat (cu p
foarte tare `i a
lung )
ban (cu b
foarte vibrat `i
a foarte scurt)
tom (cu t
foarte tare ,
post-dental `i cu
o foarte
deschis)
din (cu
consoanele
foarte sonore `i
cu vocala foarte
scurt), Dan
(idem)
cat (cu c
foarte tare,
[g]
sonor
urmat de o mic
explozie de aer
ca un h scurt
ca g romnesc,
foarte sonor
[d]
d ^mbinat cu j,
ca ^n gi
romnesc
(nepalatalizat)
c) Nazale / Nasals
bila[m]
ca m romnesc
bial
alveo
[n]
ca n romnesc
-lar
velar
[]
n velar (realizat
prin lipirea
dosului limbii de
vlul palatului ca
^n rom.
l^ng,
crng,
pung)
d) Laterale / Laterals
[l]
ca l romnesc
alveo
(cu limba mai
-lar
retras, cnd
consoana apare
la sf^r`itul
cuvntului)
e) Fricative (`uiertoare) / Fricatives
surd
[f]
ca f romnesc
[v]
ca v romnesc,
urmat de un fel
de h `i de a
scurt)
gam(cu a
scurt, -nr.10-`i
scurt -nr.12)
gummer
['gm]
touch
much
[tt]
[mt]
jam
[dm]
moot
[mu:t]
nod
[nod]
bunker
['bk]
luck
[lk]
lac (cu a
scurt-nr. 10)
fin
vie
[fin]
[vai]
fin(cu i scurt)
vai(cu
142
taci (cu i
foarte scurt,
nepalatalizat, `i
a scurt -nr.10)
maci (idem)
geam (cu
consoana
nepalatalizat ,
`i diftongul ea
^mbinat)
mut (cu u
lung)
nod (cu o
foarte deschis
-nr.6)
banc (cu n
mai nazalizat, `i
a `i d scurte)
sonor
surd
sonor
[]
[s]
surd
sonor
surd
sonor
thicker
['ik]
without
[wi'aut]
sauce
[so: s]
[z]
ca z romnesc,
foarte sonor
zinc
[zik]
[]
ca ` romnesc
shock
[ok]
[]
ca j romnesc,
foarte sonor
consoan lichid,
aproape fr
fric\iune, fr
vibra\ia limbii
rouge
[ru:]
bravo
['br:
'vu]
high
[hai]
[r]
sonan
-t
alveo
-lar
[h]
surd
consoan surd,
pronun\at cu
limba \inut
^ntre din\i (ca
un s foarte
peltic)
consoan foarte
sonor,
pronun\at cu
limba \inut
^ntre din\i (ca
un z foarte
peltic)
ca s romnesc,
mai retras
un h pronun\at
mai ^n fundul
gtului dect ^n
romne`te
143
diftongul u`or
nazalizat)
Sic (foarte
peltic)
sos (cu o
deschis, lung
-nr.7 )
zinc ( cu i
deschis, scurt `i
n velar )
`oc (cu o
deschis -nr. 6)
ruj (cu r lichid
`i u lung)
bravo (cu r
foarte
moale,lichid,
fr vibra\ia
limbii; la
sf^r`it,
diftongul [u]
hai (cu un h
mai aspru,
gutural / glotal)
Oan (cu a
scurtat -nr.
10- `i scurt
nr.12)
iod (cu i
palatal
palatizat (iot),
folosit ^naintea
vocalelor
yod
[jod]
foarte deschis
nr. 6)
144
[()nt'a:ktik],
the
Antarctic
Continent
[i
nt'a:ktik 'kontinnt].
Antarctida np. f. the Antarctic Continent [i nt'a:ktik
'kontinnt].
Anteu np. mit. Antheus ['nis].
Antigona np. Antigone [n'tigni].
Antile np. the Antilles [n'tili:z].
Antiohia np. geogr. Antioh ['ntiok].
Anton(ie) np. Anthony ['ntni; rar sau ! amer.
[ntni].
Antoniu np. Antony ['ntni], Antonius [n'tunis].
Anvers np. Antwerp ['ntw:p], rar, franc. Anvers
[a:n'vR].
Anzi np. (the) Andes [i 'ndi:z].
Apalai np. (the) Appalachians, the Appalachian
Mountains [i p'leitinz; i p'leitin
'mauntinz].
Apenini np. geogr. (the) Apennines ['pnainz].
Apis np. mit. Apis ['pis; 'eipis].
Apocalipsa sf. (the book of) Revelation [( buk v)
revi'lein; rev-], the Apocalypse [i 'poklips]. ||
Apocalipsa Sfntului Ioan Teologul The Revelation
of Saint John the Divine [ rev'lei n v sn'don
di'vain].
Apolo, Apollo np. mit. Apollo ['polu].
Apuleius np. Apuleius [pju'li:s].
Aquitania np. Aquitaine [kwi'tein].
arab I. sm. Arab ['rb], Arabian ['reibjn]. II. adj.
Arab(ian). 2. lingv. Arabic ['rbik]. || cal ~ Arab
horse [rb 'ho:s]; cifre ~e Arabic numerals
[rbik 'nju:mrlz]; limba ~ Arabic ['rbik] (U),
the Arabic language [i rbik 'lgwid].
Arabia np. Arabia ['reibi]. || Arabia Saudit Saudi
Arabia [saudi 'reibi].
arabic adj. Arabic ['rbik], Arabian ['reibin].
Arcadia np. Arcadia [a:'keidi].
arctic adj. Arctic ['a:ktik] (nu comp.). || Oceanul ~ the
Arctic Ocean.
Arctica np. (the) Arctic ['a:ktik].
Ardeal np. Transylvania [trnsil'veini].
Ares np. Ares ['ri:z].
Argentina np. geogr. Argentina [a:dn'ti:n], the
Argentine
['a:dntain].
argentinian sm., adj. Argentine ['a:dnti:n], Argentinian
[a:dn'tinin].
Argo np. mit. Argo ['a:gu].
argonaui sm. pl. mit. Argonauts ['a:gno:ts].
Argus np. Argus ['a:gs].
Arhimede np. Archimedes [a:ki'mi:di:z].
Ariadna np. mit. Ariadne [ri'dni].
Arimateea np. bibl. Arimath(a)ea [rim'i:].
Aristofan np. Aristophanes [ri'stofni:z].
Aristotel np. Aristotle ['ristotl].
Arkansas np. Arkansas ['a:knso:] (fluviul ~: i
[a:'knzs]).
Armenia np. Armenia [a:'mi:ni].
145
aromn
sm.,
adj.
Macedo-Romanian
[msiduru'meinin].
Artemida, Artemis np. mit. Artemis ['a:timis].
Asclepios np. Asclepius ['skli:pis].
Asia np. geogr. Asia ['ei / 'ei].
Asia Mic np. geogr. Asia Minor ['ei / 'ei 'main].
asiatic sm., adj. Asian ['ein; 'ein], Asiatic [eii'tik].
Asiria np. Assyria ['siri].
asirian sm., adj. Assyrian ['sirin].
As(s)uan np. geogr. Aswan [s'wa:n, a:s-, -'wn].
Astianax np. mit. Astyanax ['stainks].
Asturia np. Asturias ['sturis].
Asuncion np. geogr. Asuncion [sunsi'on, -'un].
Atena np. 1. Athens ['inz]. 2. mitol. (Pallas) Athena
sau Athene [('pls / -s) 'i:n / 'i:ni(:)].
Atica np. Attica ['tik].
Atlantic np. the Atlantic (Ocean) [t'lntik ('un)].
Atlas np. ['tls]. || Munii ~ the Atlas Mountains [i
'tls 'mauntinz].
Atlantida np. Atlantis [t'lntis].
Atreu np. mit. Atreus ['eitris].
Attila np. ist. Attila (the Hun) ['til ( hn)].
Augias np. Augeas [o:'di:s].
August(us) np. Augustus [o:'gsts].
Aurora np. Aurora ['ro:r].
Austerlitz np. ['o:stlits].
Australia np. Australia [o'streili; o:-].
Austria np. Austria ['o(:)stri].
Austro-Ungaria np. ist. Austria-Hungary [o(:)stri
'hgri].
Avacum np. bibl. Habakkuk ['hbkk].
Avdie np. bibl. Obadiah [ub'dai].
Avesalom np. Absalom ['bslm].
Avon np. (the) Avon (river) ['eivn].
Avram, Avraam np. bibl. Abraham ['eibrhm].
azer sm., adj. Azeri ['ziri].
Azerbaidjan np. Azerbaijan [zbai'da:n]. || (locuitor)
din ~ Azerbaijani [zbai'da:ni].
Azincourt np. Agincourt ['dinko:(t)]
Baal np. mit. Baal ['beil].
Babilon np. Babylon ['bbiln; -ilon].
babilonian sm., adj. Babylonian [bbi'lunin]. ||
imperiul ~ Babylonia [bbi'luni].
Bach np. Bach [ba:k].
Bagdad np. Bag(h)dad [bg'dd].
Bahama np. the Bahama Islands [ b'ha:mr 'ailndz],
the Bahamas [b'ha:mz]. || locuitor din ~ Bahamian
[b'heimin].
Bahrein np. Bahrain, Bahrein ba:'rein]. || locuitor din ~
Bahraini, Bahreini [ba:'reini].
Bahus np. Bacchus ['beiks].
Baikal np. Baikal [bai'kl], Lake Baikal.
Balcani np. the Balkans ['bo:lknz].
balcanic adj. Balkan ['bo:lkn] (!! atr.).
Balthazar np. bibl. Balthazar [bl'z].
Baltica np. the Baltic (Sea) [ bo:ltik ('si:)].
Balzac np. Balzac ['blzk].
Bamako np. geogr. Bamako [bm'ku].
Banat np. geogr. (the) Banat ['bnit, 'ba:nit]; sn. banat
['bnit, 'ba:nit].
Bandung np. geogr. Bandung ['bndu].
Bangkok np. geogr. Bangkok [b'kok, 'bkok].
Banglade np. Bangladesh [bgl'de]. || locuitor din ~
Bangladeshi [bgl'dei].
Bangui np. geogr. Bangui [bo'gi:, ba: -].
Bantu np. Bantu [bn'tu:].
Barabas np. bibl. Barabbas [b'rbs].
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
eherezada
np.
Scheherazade
[her'za:d, i-, -hir-, -za:d].
tefan np. Stephen ['sti:vn].
Tadjikistan np. Tajikistan, Tadzhikistan
[ta:di:ki'sta:n].
Tahiti np. Tahiti [t'hi:ti].
tahitian Tahitian [t'hi:n].
Taiget np. mit. Taygete ['teiditi:].
Tailanda np. Thailand ['tailnd; -lnd],
ist. Siam [sai'm].
tailandez, thailandez sm., adj. Thai
[tai].
Taivan / Taiwan np. Taiwan [tai'wa:n];
ist. Formosa
[fo:'mus; -muz].
Talia np. mit. Thalia ['lai].
Tallin np. Tallin / Tallinn ['tlin; t'lin,
-li:n].
Tamerlan np. ist. v. TIMUR LENK.
Tamisa np. the Thames [temz].
Tananarivo np. geogr. Antananarivo
[nt0nn'ri:vu].
Tanganika, Tanganica np. Tanganyika
[tgn'ji:k].
Tantal np. mit. Tantalus ['tntls].
Tanzania np. Tanzania [tnz'ni:].
Tasmania
np.
geogr.
Tasmania
[tz'meini].
Tatra np. the Tatra Mountains, High
Tatra ['ta:tr].
Taurida np. Tauris ['to:ris].
ttar sm., adj. Tatar ['ta:t], Tartar ['ta:t;
-a:].
Teba np. Thebes [i:bz].
Te Deum, tedeum sn. Te Deum
[ti:'di:m, tei'dei-, -um].
Tegucigalpa np. geogr. Tegucigalpa
[tegusi'ga:lpa:].
Teheran np. geogr. Teheran, Tehran
[t'ra:n, -rn, teh-; amer. te'ra:n,
-'rn].
Tel Aviv np. Tel Aviv [tel 'vi.:v].
Telemah
np.
mit.
Telemachus
[t'lemks; ti-].
Termopile
np.
Thermopylae
[(:)'mopli(:)].
156
157
158
A Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is a, the pronunciation differs according to whether the vowel is
short or long, followed or not by r, and strong or weak.
2. The strong pronunciation is regularly [], as in cat [kt], at, captain (short A);
[ei], as in face [feis], able, make, take (long A)
3. Where a is followed by r, the strong pronunciation is [:], as in start [st:t] ||
[st:rt] (*** the American variant follows the || sign), or [] || [e], as in square
[skw] || [skwer], bare, dare; or, indeed, there may be regular short pronunciation
[], as in carol ['krl] (although in this position some speakers of GenAm use [e],
thus ['kerl]).
4. Less frequently, the strong pronunciation is [:], as in father ['f:] || ['f:r],
[:] || [], as in bath [b:] || [b], [o] || [:], if preceded by w(h), as in watch [wot]
|| [w:t] (esp. after w), [o:] || [] as in talk [to:k] || [t:k (esp. before l), or [o:] || [o:],
as in warm [wo:m] || [wo:rm], war, all. (A more general rule for BrE at least
would be: [:] before r, l, ff, ss, ft, sk, th, as in car, calm, staff, pass, raft, task,
path).
5. The weak pronunciation is [], as in about ['baut], or [i], as in village ['vilid].
6. Note that where the spelling is a the pronunciation is never [].
7. a also forms part of the digraphs ai, au, aw, ay.
ai, ay Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is one of the digraphs ai, ay, the pronunciation is regularly [ei],
as in rain [rein], day [dei]; or, before r, [] || [e], as in fair [f] || [fer].
2. Occasionally with these digraphs the pronunciation is weak:
[], as in curtain ['k:tn] || ['k:tn] (for some speakers [i], thus ['k:tin]), captain,
mountain, or [i], as in Murray ['mri] || ['m:ri], when at the end of a word. (For
159
B Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is b, the pronunciation is regularly [b], as in baby ['beibi].
2. Where te spelling is bb, the pronunciation is again b, as in shabby ['bi].
3. b is silent in two groups of words:
I. before t in debt [det], doubt [daut], subtle ['stl]; and
II. after m at the end of a word or stem, as in climb [klaim], comb [kum], lamb
[lm], thumb [m], tomb [tu:m], bomb [bom], bomber ['bom].
C Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is c, the pronunciation is regularly [k], as in cat [kt] (hard
C); [s] as in nice [nais] (soft C). Less frequently, it is [], as in ocean ['un].
c may also form part of the digraphs ch and ck.
2. The pronunciation is regularly [k] when c is at the end of a word or is followed by
one of a, o, u or a consonant letter, as in basic ['beisik], camp [kmp], copy ['kopi],
curl [k:l], cry [krai].
3. The pronunciation is regularly [s] when c is followed by one of e, i, y as in central
['sentrl], city ['siti], cycle ['saikl], face [feis]. Note also Caesar ['si:z].
4. Where c at the end of a stressed syllable is followed by e or i plus a vowel within a
word, the pronunciation id regularly [], as in precious ['pres], special ['spel],
musician [mju'zin]. In these cases, the e or i is silent as usually applies when the
following is weak; but when the vowel after the e or i is strong, the pronunciation is
[i], as in speciality [spei'lti]. Sometimes, there is an alternative possibility with
[s], as in appreciate, associate, oceanic; and, where there is another [] in the same
word, the tendency to dissimilate means that many speakers prefer [s] as in
association, pronunciation.
5. Correspondingly, where the spelling is cc, the pronunciation id [k] in most
positions, as in account ['kaunt]; but [ks] when followed by one of e, i, y, as in
accept [k'sept].
6. Correspondingly, too, when the spelling is sc, the pronunciaion is [sk] in most
positions as in describe [di'skraib]; but [s] when followed by one of e, i, y, as in scent
[sent], disciple [di'saipl]; [] when at the end of a stressed syllable and followed by i
plus a vowel within a word as in luscious ['ls].
sc may also form part of the trigraph sch
160
D Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is d the pronunciation is regularly [d], as in dead [ded].
2. Where the spelling is double dd, the pronunciation is again [d], as in middle
['midl].
3. Less frequently, the pronunciation is [d], as in gradual ['grdul], procedure
[pr'si:d]. This possibility arises through yod coalescence (see ASSIMILATION) and
applies only where the spelling is du and the u counts as a weak vowel. In RP
[d] is always an alternative possibility often preferred. In GenAm though, [d] is
usual as in educate ['edjukeit] || ['edkeit]. In much non-standard BrE the
pronunciation is also [d] in words such as duke [dju:k], reduce, wherever RP would
have [dj].
4. The verb ending ed has three regular pronunciations (viz. [d], [t], [id]). Note that
after a voiceless consonant the pronunciation is regularly [t], as in clapped [klpt],
asked.
5. In certain positions, d can be elided (see ELISION). In some words the elided
pronunciation is now established so that d is now usually silent in, for example
sandwich. Also usually in Wednesday.
161
E Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is e, the pronunciation differs according to whether the vowel is
short or long, followed or not by r and strong or weak.
2. The strong pronunciation is regularly [e] as in dress, bet, elm, check (short E:
the respective syllables are checked), or [i:] as in cathedral [k'i:drl], even,
these, be (long E).
3. Where e is followed by r, the strong pronunciation is [:] serve, her, err, prefer
or [i], as in severe [s'vi], sphere; or indeed there may be the regular short
pronunciation [e], as in very ['veri].
4. The weak pronunciation is [i], as in review [ri'vju:], object (although some
speakers use [] instead), or [], as in agent ['eidnt] (especially where the spelling
el, ence, ent, er); the weak pronunciation is the rule with unaccented syllables:
quarrel, longer, bribery.
5. Less frequently, the strong pronunciation is [i] in the exceptional words pretty,
England, English; [] in where, there (strong form) and a few others; [ei] in foreign
borrowings such as suede [sweid]; in BrE only, [:], as in clerk, Derby and a few
others.
6. e is frequently silent. At the end of a word for example it is silent if it follows a
consonant letter, as in make, life, these, notice, orange, face, huge, collapse, twelve.
In this position it may have the function of indicating that the vowel before the
consonant is long (make, life, these); or that c or g is soft (notice, orange); or both
of these (face, huge); or neither (collapse, twelve).
7. In a few cases, at the end of a word after a consonant the pronunciation is [i], as in
apostrophe ['postrfi], catastrophe, simile.
8. e also forms part of the digraphs ea, ee, ei, eu, ew, ey.
ea
1. Where the spelling is the digraph ea, there are, notoriously, several different
pronunciations. The most usual is [i:], as in tea; [e], as in bread. Less frequently it is
[ei], notably in great [greit], steak [steik], break [breik]; [i], notably in idea [ai'di],
theatre, real.
2. Where ea is followed by r, the pronunciation is regularly [i], as in near. Less
frequently it is [:], as in early and several others; [:] notably in heart [h:t], hearth
[h:]; [], notably in bear, pear, swear, wear and one meaning of tear [t].
3. ea is not a digraph in words such as creation, react, area.
ee
1. Where the spelling is the digraph ee, the pronunciation is regularly [i:], as in tree
[tri:], breed; or, before r, [i], as in beer [bi].
2. Exceptionally, the pronunciation is [i] in AmE been [bin] (sometimes also in BrE)
and in coffee, committee, breeches, Greenwich (although here many speakers use e).
ei, ey
1. Where the spelling is one of the digraphs ei, ey, the pronunciation is most
frequently [ei], as in veil [veil], convey [kn'vei], skein [skein].
2. Less frequently, it is [i:], as in receive [ri'si:v], ceiling ['si:li], key [ki:], and in a
few words [ai], as in height [hait], eye [ai], or [e], as in heifer ['hef], leisure ['le],
Leicester ['lest], Reynolds ['renldz].
3. Where the spelling is ei before r, the pronunciation is either [], as in their [],
162
F Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is f, the pronunciation is regularly [f], as in fifty [fifti].
2. Where the spelling is ff, the pronunciation is again [f], as in stiff [stif].
3. Exceptionally, the word of is pronounced with [v]: a piece of meat [ pi:s v'mi:t].
4. f is silent in the old pronunciation of halfpenny ['heipni].
5. [f] is also regularly written ph, as in photograph, and occasionally gh, as in rough
[rf].
G Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is g, the pronunciation is regularly [g], before the letters a, o, u,
as in game, gone, gun, or before the letters e, i, as in get [get], give [giv] (hard G);
also: glad, greed, mug, magnet. Less frequently, before e and i it is [d], as in gentle
['dentl], gin, gypsy / gipsy (soft G). Occasionally, it is [], as usually in garage
['gr:] || [g'r:], mirage, rouge.
g also forms part of the digraphs gh, gu, ng (see 6 and under ng).
2. Hard G is the usual pronunciation. Soft G and [] are found in certain words where
g is followed by e, i, y -mostly words of French or Latin origin.
3. Where the spelling is the digraph dg before e, i, y, the pronunciation is always [d],
as in edge [ed], grudging ['grdi].
4. Where the spelling is doubled gg, the pronunciation is again regularly [g], as in egg
[eg]. Occasionally, it is [d], as in exaggerate [ig'zdreit].
Note suggest, BrE [s'dest] but AmE [sg'dest].
5. g is silent before m, n, but only at the beginning or end of a word or stem, as in
gnat [nt], sign [sain], phlegm [flem], foreigner ['forn], paradigm (but syntagm).
6. [g] is also occasionally written gh, as in ghost [gust], gu, as in guest [gest].
ge
163
H Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is h, the pronunciation is regularly [h], as in house [haus]. The
letter h may also form part of one of the digraphs ch, gh, ph, rh, sh, th, wh (see
under c, g, p, r, s, t, w respectively).
h is silent in a number of cases:
I. at the beginning of the exceptional words heir, honest, honour / AmE honor,
hour, and their derivatives; also, in AmE only, in herb;
II. at the end of a word after a vowel letter, as in oh, hurrah; also: Sarah, verandah;
III. in most cases when it is at the beginning of a weak-vowelled syllable, as in the
WEAK FORMS of he, her, him, has, have; in words such as annihilate, vehicle,
exhibit; and sometimes also in words such as hotel, historic, hysteric (because the h
here is not in a stressed syllable).
3. [h] is also occasionally written wh, as in who [hu:].
I Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is i the pronunciation differs according to whether the vowel is
short or long, followed or not by r, and strong or weak.
2. The strong pronunciation is regularly [i], as in bit [bit] (short I), or [ai], as in
time [taim], hi [hai] (long I). For the first type of pronunciation, there has to be a
checked syllable, e.g. sick, bliss, hill.
3. When i is followed by r, the strong pronunciation is [:], as in firm [f:m], fir,
[ai], as in fire, hire, virus, or indeed the regular short pronunciation, as in miracle
['mirkl].
4. Less frequently, the strong pronunciation is [i:], as in machine [m'i:n]. This is
the case of Romance (more specifically, French) borrowings; other such examples:
sardine, routine, police, etc.
5. The weak pronunciation is [i], as in rabbit ['rbit] (although some speakers, esp.
of AmE, use [] instead, thus ['rbt]), or [], as in admiral ['dmrl]. Also: aspirin,
university, defensible. Where the next sound is a vowel, the weak pronunciation is
[i], as in medium (see COMPRESSION), or the i is silent, serving only to indicate the
pronunciation of the preceding consonant, as in special (see c, s, t).
6. In the rare cases where i is found at the end of a word, the pronunciation is either:
strong [ai], as in hi [hai], or weak [i], as in spaghetti.
164
7. i also forms part of the digraphs ai, ei, ie, oi, ui.
ie
1. Where the spelling is the digraph ie, the pronunciation is regularly [i:], as in piece
[i:] (esp. in the middle of a word), or [ai], as in tie [tai], pie (esp. at the end of a
word); or [i], as in fierce [fis] (before r).
2. The weak pronunciation in -ied ies is usually [i], as in carried ['krid]. Thus the
spelling change from y to ie, in inflected forms of words written with y at the end,
does not imply any change in pronunciation.
3. Note the exceptional friend [frend] and sieve [siv]; also, the usual pronunciation of
handkerchief [-tif]; see also: mischief, movie.
4. ie is not a digraph in science, pliers, society, acquiesce, Viennese, happiest.
J Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is j, the pronunciation is regularly [d], as in jump [dmp].
2. Very occasionally, in words of foreign origins, it is [], as in jabot, or [j], as in
hallelujah.
3. [d] is also regularly written dg or g, as in hedge [hed], large [l:d].
K Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is k, the pronunciation is regularly [k], as in kind [kaind]. In the
digraph ck the pronunciation is again [k], as in back [bk].
2. k is silent at the beginning of a word when followed by n, as knee [ni:].
3. [k] is also regularly written c, as in cat, and k, as in back [bk]. It is sometimes
also written cc, as in account, qu, as in queue [kju:], and in various other ways.
L Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is l, the pronunciation is regularly [l], as in little ['litl].
2. Where the spelling is double ll, the pronunciation is again regularly [l], as in silly
['sili].
3. l is silent in a fair number of words, especially when it stands between a and f, as in
half [h:f]; a and k as in talk [to:k]; a and m, as in salmon ['smn].
Note also could [kud], should [ud], would [wud].
M Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is m, the pronunciation is regularly [m], as in medium
['mi:dim].
2. Where the spelling is double mm, the pronunciation is again regularly [m], as in
hammer ['hm].
N Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is n, the pronunciation is regularly [n], as in nation or [], as in
think [ik];
n also forms part of the digraph ng.
2. The pronunciation is [n] everywhere EXCEPT:
before the sound [k] (written c, g, k, q, x) and
where the spelling is the digraph ng (see ng 2, 3 below), in which cases the
165
O Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is o, the pronunciation differs according to whether the vowel is
short or long, followed or not by r, and strong or weak.
2. The strong pronunciation is regularly [o], as in lot [lot], odd, pond, respond
(short O), [u], as in nose [nuz], both, hole, so (long O). Note that the short O
regularly occurs in checked syllables, whereas the long O is to be found in open
syllables.
3. Less frequently, it is [], as in come [km], especially before m, n, v, th.
[u:], as in move; [u], as in woman ['wumn]. Note also [i] in women ['wimin], or [o],
as cross [kros] (but some speakers of AmE use [:] instead, thus [kr:s]).
Note also the exceptional gone [gon].
4. Where the spelling is or, the strong pronunciation is [o:], as in north [no:],
store, or indeed in BrE the regular short pronunciation [o], as in moral ['morl].
5. Less frequently, it is [:], as in work [w:k], worm (especially after w), or [], as
in worry ['wri], love, son.
166
167
5. Where the spelling is our, owr, the pronunciation may be [au], as in flower
['flau], flour ['flau], our, sour; [o:], as in four [fo:], pour, court; [:], as in journey
['d:ni], courteous; [], as in courage ['krid]; [u], as in tourist ['turist] (BrE
also [o:]), tour, bourse; [u], as in the exceptional courier (usually ['kuri]).
P Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is p, the pronunciation is regularly [p], as in pipe [paip].
p
also forms part of the digraph ph.
2. Where the spelling is double pp, the pronunciation is again regularly [p], as in
happy ['hpi].
3. p is normally silent at the beginning of a word before: n, s, t, as in pneumonia,
psalm, psychiatrist, ptomaine; also, at the end of a word: receipt.
ph
1. Where the spelling is the digraph ph, the pronunciation is regularly [f], as in
photograph.
2. Exceptionally, it is [p], as in shepherd ['epd], Clapham ['klpm]
(etymologically, ph is not a digraph here: rather, we have p plus silent h); [v], in
Stephen ['sti:vn] and the older pronunciation of nephew ['nevju:] (now usually
['nefju:]).
Q Spelling-to-sound
1. Except in occasional words from foreign languages, the letter q is always followed
by u. Where the spelling is the resultant digraph qu, the pronunciation is regularly
[kw], as in quite [kwait], or [k], as in picturesque [pikt'resk].
2. The pronunciation is generally [kw] EXCEPT in the case of que at the end of a
word. Examples: queen, square, equal, liquid, conquer.
3. In the case of que at the end of a word, and also in a minority of other cases, the
pronunciation is [k]. Examples: clique [kli:k], cheque [tek] (AmE spelling check);
queue [kju:], liquor ['lik].
4. Where the spelling is cqu, the pronunciation is again [kw], as in acquaintance
['kweintns], or [k], as in lacquer ['lk].
R Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is r, the pronunciation is regularly [r], as in run [rn].
2. Where the spelling is double rr, the pronunciation is again regularly r, as in merry
['meri].
3. When the spelling is r followed by a consonant letter or a silent e, or r at the end of
a word, the pronunciation differs in different varieties of English: In RP, the r is silent.
The same applies to most varieties of English English, to Australian English, and the
other non-rhotic accents. In connected speech, however, r may be pronounced at the
end of a word if the next word begins with a voiced sound (see R-LIAISON).
In GenAm, the pronunciation is [r]. The same applies to Scottish English, to Irish
English, and to the other rhotic accents. In GenAm, the r coalesces with a preceding
[:] vowel to give [].
Examples:
RP
GenAm
farm
[f:m]
[f:rm]
168
more
[mo:]
[mo:r]
stir
[st:]
[st]
murder
['m:d]
['mdr]
4. In the middle or at the end of a word r frequently affects the preceding vowel.
Consequently ar, er, ir, or, ur, yr, could be regarded as digraphs, and air, are, ear,
eer, eir, ere, eur, ier, ire, oar, oor, ore, our, ure as trigraphs (see individual entries).
5. r may also appear in non-rhotic accents in certain cases, where no corresponding
letter is written (intrusive r, see R-LIAISON), as when thawing is pronounced
['o:ri]. Note also the exceptional word colonel ['k:nl].
6. The exceptional word iron is pronounced as if written iorn, namely ['ain] (also
with possible COMPRESSION).
rh
Where the spelling is digraph rh or its doubled form rrh, the pronunciation is
regularly the same as that of the letter r: [r], as in rhythm ['rim], rhapsody; or
silent, as in catarrh [k't:].
R LIAISON
1. In BrE (RP), and other non-rhotic accents (see r spelling-to-sound), a word said in
isolation never ends in [r]. Nevertheless, in connected speech an [r] may be
pronounced in some cases if the next word begins with a vowel sound.
2. This typically happens with a word (syllable) that ends in one of the vowels [],
[:], [o:], [:], [i], [], [u], when the following word (syllable) begins with a vowel
sound.
far [f:]. In isolation, or before a consonant sound, this word is, in RP, pronounced
[f:]. But in a phrase such as far away, far out it is usually pronounced [f:r]. (In
GenAm it is always [f:r], whatever the environment it occurs in.)
near [ni]. In isolation, the RP form is [ni]. But in a phrase such as near enough it
is usually pronounced [nir].
3. Usually, as in the cases just mentioned, the spelling includes r. The inserted r-sound
is then known as linking r. It corresponds to a historical [r], now lost before a
consonant or pause.
4. In RP, however, as in other non-rhotic accents, the insertion is frequently made
even if there is no r in the spelling. This intrusive /r/ does not correspond to historical
[r], and there is no corresponding [r] in AmE.
comma ['kom] In isolation, the RP form is is ['kom]. But in a phrase such as put
a comma in, it is often pronounced ['komr]. (In GenAm it is always ['k:m],
whatever the environment).
thaw [o:]. In isolation, RP thaw is [o:]. In the phrase thaw out, intrusive [r] may
be added, giving [o:r'aut]. (In GenAm there is no [r]).
(The dictionary treatment of R LIAISON: In principle, dictionaries of pronunciation
show the citation pronunciation of words -i.e. the way they are pronounced when said
alone). Therefore, such dictionaries do not usually show places where r-liaison is
likely across a word boundary. They can be inferred from the rule given in 2 above).
Pronouncing dictionaries do show r-liaison within a word, whether linking or intrusive
[r]. The linking [r], being obligatory, is shown thus: storing ['sto:ri]. The intrusive
[r], being optional (and often disapproved of), is shown thus: thawing ['o:ri].)
169
S Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is s, the pronunciation is regularly: [s], as in sense [sens]
(voiceless S), or [z], as in rises ['raiziz] (voiced S). Less frequently, it is [], as in
pleasure ['ple]. s may also form part of the digraphs sh or si , and sometimes of
the digraphs sc or sch (see under c).
2. At the beginning of a word, the pronunciation is regularly [s], as in say [sei], sleep
[sli:p], stand [stnd]. (In this position, with spelling s, the pronunciation is never [z]).
This also applies in compounds, for example insight ['insait]. Exceptionally, the
pronunciation is [] at the beginning of the words sure, sugar and their derivatives
(for example: assurance, sugary).
3. In the middle of a word, we must take account of the letters on either side of the s.
I. Where s is between a vowel letter and a consonant letter, the spelling is usually [s] if
the following consonant sound is voiceless, [z] if it is voiced. Thus: [s] in taste [teist];
[z] in husband, wisdom. Before silent t, however, the pronunciation is [s], as in
listen ['lisn].
II. Where s is between two vowel letters, the pronunciation may be either [s], as in
basin ['beisn], crisis ['kraisis], or [z], as in poison ['poizn], easy ['i:zi]. There is no
rule: each word must be considered separately.
Where the spelling is s between a vowel and and ia, ian, speakers vary as between []
and [], with RP preferring the former, GenAm the latter: Asia (silent i).
III. Where s follows a consonant letter, the pronunciation is usually [s] if the s follows
one of the letters l, n, r or if the preceding sound is voiceless, but [z] otherwise. Thus:
[s] in consider, cursor, gipsy / gypsy; [z] in clumsy ['klmzi], observe [b'z:v].
In some words both pronunciations are in use, for example translate, absorb. Where
the spelling has s between l, n, r and ion, ial, ure, the pronunciation is
correspondingly [] (with i silent), as in expulsion, tension, controversial. However,
in -ersion -ersia(n) AmE has [], as Persian ['p:n].
4. Where the spelling has s at he end of a word, or before silent s at the end of a word,
the pronunciation may be either:
[s], as in gas [gs], loose [lu:s], case [keis], or
[z], as in has, choose, phrase [freiz].
For s between l, n, r and silent e, we usually get [s], as in else [els], immense
[i'mens], horse [ho:s].
Beyond this, there is no rule: each word must be considered separately. Sometimes
there is a distinction between related parts of speech that are spelled identically, as in
the cases of use ([s] noun, [z] verb) and close ([s] adjective and adverb, [z] verb and
noun). (In some other cases, however, there is no such difference: as promise and
base, always with [s]). There is a BrE-AmE difference in the word erase [i'reiz] ||
AmE [i'reis].
5. The inflectional ending -s, -es is discussed below at its alphabetic place. Where the
spelling has double ss, the pronunciation is regularly [s], as in lesson, kiss.
Exceptionally it is [z], notably in the words dessert [di'z:t] possess [p'zes],
possession, scissors and their derivatives.
Followed by ion, ia, ian, ure, it is [], as in mission ['min], pressure [pre].
7. s is silent in various words, including island ['ailnd] and several words of French
origin, among them corps, aisle, debris, prcis, viscount, Grosvenor, Illinois.
170
T Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is t, the pronunciation is regularly
[t], as in tent [tent], basket, time, mate, later.
Less frequently, it is regularly:
[t], as in nature ['neit], torture, century
[], as in nation ['nein], ratio, patience.
t may also form part of the digraph th.
2. In AmE, [t] has the variant [t] in certain positions (see T VOICING), e.g. atom BrE
['tm] || AmE ['tm].
3. Where the spelling is double tt, the pronunciation is again [t], as in button ['btn],
better ['bet], battle, sitting.
4. The pronunciation is [t] in most words ending -ture, for example departure,
picture. Historically, this pronunciation came about through yod coalescence (see
ASSIMILATION). More generally, the pronunciation is usually [t] wherever the
spelling is t followed by a weak u, as actual, situated. In some words of this type,
however, there is an older or more careful pronunciation, with [tj], and this is
regularly the case where the u is strong, as in attitude ['titju:d]. In this latter type
AmE prefers plain [t]. In much non-standard BrE, the pronunciation is also [t]
wherever RP would have [tj], as in Tuesday, tune.
5. Where t at the end of a stressed syllable is followed by i plus a vowel within a
word, the pronunciation is regularly [], as in partial ['p:l], action ['kn],
superstitious. When the following vowel is weak, as in the examples just given, the i
is silent; but when it is strong, the pronunciation is [i], as in initiate [i'niieit].
Sometimes, there is an alternative possibility with [s], particularly if the word already
contains a [], as in negotiation.
6. t is usually silent in two groups of words
I. in -sten -stle, as listen ['lisn], thistle ['isl]; also in Christmas, soften and
sometimes in often.
II. At the end of words recently borrowed from French, as chalet ['lei], ballet,
bouquet.
The sound t is often elided (see ELISION) giving further silent ts, in words such as
postman.
th
1. Where the spelling is the digraph th, the pronunciation is regularly [], as in thick
[ik], or [], as in mother ['m], father.
171
U Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is u the pronunciation differs according to whether the vowel is
short or long, followed or not by r, and strong or weak.
2. The strong pronunciation is regularly [], as in cup, butter (short U), or [ju:]
and [u:], as in music ['mju:zik], rude, flute (long U). Note that the short U
regularly corresponds to the checked syllables, as the long U is specific to the
open syllables.
3. Less frequently, it is [u], as in push [pu] (especially before sh, l); also: bull, put,
sugar, butcher.
4. Where the spelling is ur, the strong pronunciation is [:], as in turn [t:n], fur, or
[ju], as in pure [pju] (in BrE [u] is often replaced by [o:]; thus [pjo:]), curio,
mural, or indeed there may be the short pronunciation [], as in hurry. (In AmE
[] and [r] coalesce into [:])
5. In the case of expected [ju:], [ju], [ju], the [j] drops out as folllows:
I. after the consonant sounds [t], [d], [], [r], [j], as in jury ['duri], rude [ru:d].
II. sometimes, in BrE and always in AmE, after [l], [], [s], [z], as in assume
['s(j)u:m].
III. Usually in AmE, but not in BrE, after [t], [d], [n], as tune [tju:n] (see also
ASSIMILATION for the BrE possiblity of [tu:n]).
6. Note the exceptional words busy ['bizi], business ['bizns], bury ['beri].
7. The weak pronunciation is [ju], as in stimulate; [], as in album, Arthur, or [j],
172
as in failure.
Note also lettuce ['letis], minute n. ['minit].
8. u also forms part of the digraphs au, eu, ou, ue, ui, uy.
ua
The pronunciation of u in this digraph is [w], as in persuade, quarter.
ue
1. When the spelling is the digraph ue, the pronunciation is regularly [ju:], as in cue
[kju:], or [u:], as in blue [blu:], clue, true (for the dropping of [j], see u, 5 above)
2. ue is not a digraph in duet, cruel, pursuer.
ui
1. Where the spelling is the digraph ui, the pronunciation is regularly [ju:], as in
nuisance ['nju:sns] (AmE usually ['nu:s ns]), [u:], as in fruit [fru:t], cruise. (For the
dropping of [j], see 5 u above).
2. Less frequently, the pronunciation is [i], as in build, guild or [ai], as in guide
[gaid], disguise; also [i] || AmE [], as in biscuit ['biskit] || AmE ['biskt] (when
weak).
3. Note the exceptional case suite [swi:t].
4. ui is not a digraph in fluid, tuition, nor in quick [kwik], quite [kwait] (where the
digraph qu is followed by i).
uy
In the rare cases where the spelling is the digraph uy, the pronunciation is [ai], as in
buy [bai], guy / Guy [gai].
V Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is v, the pronunciation is regularly [v], as in very ['veri].
2. [v] is also occasionally written vv, as in skivvy ['skivi], savvy, spivvy; ph, as in
Stephen ['sti:vn], the standard pronunciation of nephew ['nevju:]; and f in the single
word of [ov], (weak forms) [v, v].
W Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is w, either the pronunciation is [w] or else the w forms part of
one of the digraphs aw, ew, ow (see under a, e, o respectively). For example, swim
[swim], away ['wei], few [fju:].
2. w is always silent in wr at the beginning of a word or stem, as in wreck [rek],
rewrite n ['ri:rait]; also in the exceptionally spelled words two [tu:], answer [':ns].
3. [w] is also regularly written u, as in persuade [p'sweid], and as part of the digraph
qu, as in quite [kwait].
wh
1. Where the spelling is the digraph wh, the pronunciation in most cases may be either
[w] or [hw], depending on regional, social and stylistic factors. In RP and other
accents of England, and in Australian English, it is usually [w], as in white [wait]; but
in GenAm usually, and in Scottish and Irish English almost always, it is [hw], as in
white [hwait]. (In England and Australia the pronunciation with [hw] is widely
regarded as better, although it is not used often except by the speech-conscious.)
Learners of EFL are recommended to use plain [w] if they are following the RP
model, [hw] if they are following the GenAm model.
173
X Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is x, the pronunciation is regularly [ks], as in six [siks], axe,
execute. Less commonly, it is [gz], and occasionally [z] or [k].
2. The pronunciation [gz] is found mainly in words beginning ex before a stressed
vowel, for example exist [ig'zist], exaggerate, examine. There is a variant
pronunciation with [-kz-]. However, in words beginning exce, exci, the
pronunciation is [ks], with the e silent, as in exceed [ik'si:d].
3. The pronunciation is regularly [z] at the beginning of a word, as in xerox / Xerox
['ziroks], xylophone, Xerxes. Note also anxiety ['zai-].
4. The pronunciation is [k] in words ending -xious, -xion, -xure, for example
crucifixion, anxious ['ks].
5. [ks] is also regularly written:
cks, as in kicks [kiks]
ks, as in thanks [ks]
cc, as in accident ['ksidnt].
6. x is silent in certain names and other words borrowed from French, as in prix [pri:].
Y Spelling-to-sound
1. At the beginning of a word or syllable, where the spelling is y, the pronunciation is
[j], as in yet, beyond [bi'jond].
2. Elsewhere, the same pronunciations correspond to y as to i:
[i] (short), as in crystal ['kristl], vinyl, hypocrite;
[ai] (long), as in type [taip], nylon, my, myself;
weak [i], as in happy ['hpi], lazy;
or y may be part of one of the digraphs ay, ey, oy, uy (see under a, e, o, u
respectively).
3. [j] is also sometimes written i, as in onion ['njn]. (It frequently arises through
COMPRESSION of i with a following weak vowel, as in convenient [kn'vi:njnt]). As
part of the sequence [ju:] (or one of its derivatives [ju], [ju], [jo:], [ju], [j]), it is
regularly written eu, ew, u, ue.
ye
The pronunciation of ye is [ai], as in bye, dye, rye.
Z Spelling-to-sound
1. Where the spelling is z, the pronunciation is regularly [z], as in lazy ['leizi].
2. Where the spelling is double zz, the pronunciation is again [z], as in dazzle ['dzl],
buzz, quizzes, blizzard, dizzy.
3. Because of yod coalescence (see ASSIMILATION), the pronunciation is occasionally
[], as in seizure ['si:].
4. In certain words borrowed from foreign languages, spelled with z, zz or the digraph
tz, the pronunciation is [ts], as in Nazi ['n:tsi], pizza ['pits], quartz [kw:ts].
5. [z] is also regularly written s, as in choose [tu:z].
174
ANNEX 6:
Prefixes with a spelling which differs in the American variant of English
(After Andrei Banta)
American spelling
hemohomeosulf-
Examples
hemoglobin
hemorrhage
homeopath
sulfurous
sulfamide
British spelling
haemohomoeosulph-
Examples
haemoglobin
haemorrhage
homoeopath
sulphurous
sulphonamide
Suffixes and endings with a different spelling in the American variant of English
American spelling
- ense
- er
- fill
- or
-orable
- yze
Examples
defense
pretense
offense
center
kilometer
specter
fulfill
odor
behavior
neighbor
honorable
colorable
favorable
analyze
paralyze
British spelling
-ence
-re
-fil
- our
- ourable
- yse
Examples
defence
pretence
offence
centre
kilometre
spectre
fulfil
odour
behaviour
neighbour
honourable
colourable
favourable
analyse
paralyse
175
phonology and general linguistics, in keeping with the model provided by the
definitions in the brief Index below (b). (See also Chapters I-IV):
a) accent; accentuation; acoustic; acute; airstream; allophones; alveolar; auditory
phonetics; blade; breath groups; breathed [bret]; centre, central; close; closure;
cluster; coda; compact; competence; complementary (distribution); connected speech;
contoid; contrast, contrastive; dark; deep structure; dental; devoiced, devoicing;
diachronic; diffuse; diphthong, diphthongal, diphthongization; distinctive; double
consonant letters; dynamic (stress); egressive; emphatic; fall, falling; feature; flap(ed);
flat; fortis; free variation; fricative; front, fronted; glide; glottal stop; glottis;
intonation; intrusion, intrusive; inventory; juncture; labial; lax; length; lenis; linking;
liquids; medial; mid-; minimal pair; narrow; obstruent; occlusion, occlusive;
oesophagus, oesophageal; open; oral; palatal, palate, palatalization; palato-alveolar;
pause; paradigm, paradigmatic; pharynx, pharyngeal; pharyngealize; phonation;
phonematic units; phoneme, phonemic; phonemics; phonology, phonologi(cal);
performance; prominence; prosody; prosodic feature; pulmonic; pure vowel; quality,
qualitative; quantity; R liaison; rate; recipient; regressive; release; rounding; RP
(Received Pronunciation); schwa (sound); segmental; semi-consonant; semi-vowel;
sharp; short vowel; sign; sound system; source; spectrograph, spectrography; speech;
spread; stop; stress-timed; stricture; strong form; substance; supraglottal;
suprasegmental; surface structure; syllable, syllabic; syllabi(fi)cation, syllabify;
syllable-timed; syntagmatic; tap; tension; tip (of the tongue); tone; tonic; transition;
triphthong; T-voicing; unreleased; unvoiced; uvular; variant; velar, velarisation; vocal
cords / vocal folds; vocal organs, vocal tract; vocalic; vocoid; voiceless; vowel; weak
forms.
b) An INDEX of phonetic and linguistic terms:
abrupt (release) A rapid release of a sound, usually without any acoustic turbulence
(like that of fricatives, for instance); it is a phenomenon specific to plosive
consonants, in contrast with / to delayed release, which characterizes affricate
consonants (the term is used in phonology: the theory of distinctive feature
analysis).
affricate From the point of view of the manner of articulation, a consonant is said to
be affricate if there is an amount of air-pressure behind a complete closure, the
release of which is gradual; it is in fact a complex sound, made up of a plosive (=the
initial sound), immediately followed by a fricative (=the release), both produced at
the same place of articulation; the duration of the friction in the latter element is
smaller than that of a fricative sound proper. (If the duration is very brief,
phoneticians use the term affrication). From the point of view of phonological
analysis, some specialists consider that, in addition to [t] and [d], which are palatoalveolar, also belong to the category of the affricates: [tr], [dr] (post-alveolar), and
sequences of consonants like [t], e.g. eighth, [ts] cats, [dz] rides, [bv] obvious.
Affricates are always part of the same syllable, e.g. natural, address (compare with
nutshell).
affrication See affricate
anterior Sounds produced with an obstruction in front of the palato-alveolar region of
the mouth are anterior; all other sounds are non-anterior; note: only sounds that are
[+consonantal] can be [+anterior], because an obstruction is required; [+anterior] =
176
177
178
179
iota [ai'ut] is the palatal sound marked by [j]; see also yod coalescence
kinetic A notion used in phonology in reference to various types of tones, whose
quality may be different in point of pitch range; one may distinguish dynamic or
contour tones in contrast to static or level tones
lateral Coronal sounds in which the mid-section of the tongue is lowered on one or
both sides, allowing air to escape out of the mouth are lateral; [+lateral] = all [l]type sounds; [-lateral] = all non-[l]-type sounds.
liaison In phonology, this term marks a process through which, in connected speech,
certain words may link together, particularly by means of a sound-transition (a new
sound may appear at the end of a word within a particular context); the cases of
linking r and intrusive r are notorious examples of liaison, especially before words
beginning with vowel-sounds, e.g. Never in my life, or Asia and Africa
long distinguished long (geminate) sounds, both vowels and consonants, (e.g. [:], or
[aa], or [] and [t:] ot [tt]), which are [+long], from their short counterparts (e.g. [a]
and [t], which are [-long].
long vowels Any vocal sound in English whose articulation implies a longer period on
the temporal scale from its very uttering by the speaker to the listeners perceiving it
as a sound; this quality of vocoids is called lebgth or duration, and it is graphically
marked by a colon [:]. There is an opposition between long and short vowels, as
each vowel letter in English may be either short or long, depending on the context it
occurs in. Long vowels usually appear: prior to a consonant letter followed by silent
e, e.g. complete, in one-syllabled words, ending with a vowel, e.g. me, etc.
loudness is a category referring to the perception of sounds, belonging to the same
category as length, pitch and quality. It is the direct result of intensity (i.e. the
physical effort which is used in uttering the respective sound).
low sounds produced with with the body of the tongue lowered from its neutral
position are low; other sounds are non-low; [+low] = low vowels, laryngeal glides,
pharyngeal and pharyngealized consonants; [-low] = high and mid vowels, glides [j]
and [w], all consonants except pharyngeal and pharyngelized consonants.
mechanism (usually: speech ~) see vocal tract, organs of speech
monophthongs are vowels in the production of which the position of the organs of
speech is constant; the term is synonymous to pure vowels and the opposite of
diphthongs
nasal Sounds articulated with the velum lowered are nasal; other sounds are non-nasal
(i.e. oral); [+nasal] = nasal stops, nasalized vowels nasalized glides, nasalized
liquids; [-nasal] = all oral sounds.
neutral 1) A term referring to the position of the lips, held in relaxed position, i.e.
neither rounded nor spread. 2) (Of vowels): lax and central, with the tongue neutral
as to the front, back, high and low positions. Examples: afloat, balloon, never.
neutralisation A term used in phonology to describe the phenomenon of blurring
the usual distinction between two phonemes in certain contexts, e.g. spare and
*sbare (as aspiration is lost after /s/).
non- as in vocalic vs. non-vocalic, consonantal vs. non-consonantal, strident vs. nonstrident, sharp vs. non-sharp, flat vs. non-flat; aspirated vs. non-aspirated, etc.
represents the negative / privative counterpart of oppositional pairs of phonological
features (cf. compact vs. diffuse, abrupt vs. continuant, etc.)
180
181
roll An articulation perfomed through a series of rapid taps of the tongue (=), or the
uvula (=); the sounds thus produced are called rolled; the rolled type of r is not
characteristic of English (with the exception of the Scottish dialect).
round Sounds produced with a narrowing (rounding) of the lip orifice are round;
other sounds are non-round; [+round] = rounded vowels, glide [w] and labialized
consonants; [-round] = unrounded vowels, glide [j], laryngeal glides, all nonlabialized consonants.
secondary articulation See articulation
sonorant Resonant sounds are sonorant. Other sounds are non-sonorant (i.e.
obstruents); [+sonorant] = vowels, nasals, liquids, glides ([j] and [w]); [-sonorant] =
stops, fricatives, affricates, laryngeal glide.
stress distinguishes stressed syllabic sounds, both vowels and consonants, which are
[+stress], from unstressed syllabic sounds which are [-stress].
stressed see stress
strident Sounds, usually fricatives and affricates, that are acoustically relatively
noisier than other corresponding sounds at the same point of articulation are
strident; other sounds are non-strident; [+strident] = [f], [v], [s], [z], [], []; [strident] = [], [], [], [], [x], []; also vowels, glides and other consonants.
syllabic Sounds that comprise the centre or peak of a syllable. Other sounds are nonsyllabic; [+syllabic] = vowels, syllabic consonants; [-syllabic] = non-syllabic
liquids, nasals, glides, and obstruents.
tempo The general acception of the notion in suprasegmental phonetics is that of
uttering speed alongside with pitch variations and loudness modifications; tempo of
utterance is subordinate to the broader domains of rhythm and stress; the term rate
is also used.
tense Sounds produced with relatively greater muscular tension are tense; other
sounds are non-tense, or lax; [+tense] = tense vowels, voiceless obstruents; [-tense]
= lax vowels, voiced obstruents; note: tense is also sometimes used to replace
long for long vowels and consonants.
timbre ['tmb], tambre, tamber is the same as quality (i.e. the set of criteria
serving as a possibility of recognition of different voice qualities in spite of their
identity in point of pitch, loudness and length)
timing see stress-timed, syllable-timed
tone group / tone unit is the basic unit used for describing intonation (containing a
nuclear tone / nucleus, which marks a change in pitch; it may also contain a prehead and / or a head, and a tail)
trill see roll
voice is the quality lent by vocal cord vibration to the speech sounds being produced
(and consequently giving rise to, for instance, voiced vs. voiceless consonants, or to
sonorants); voice may be perceived as creaky voice, or breathy voice, lax voice,
tense voice, etc,
voiced Sounds produced with vocal cord vibration are voiced; other sounds are nonvoiced, or voiceless; vowels and sonorant consonants are usually voiced; however,
all sounds, from stops through vowels, can be either [+voice] or [-voice] cf.
voiceless
182
weak vowels (in many-syllabled words) determine the weak syllables (as opposed to
the strong vowels, e.g. undone, acorn, butane). The vowels //, /i/, /u/ are always
weak, e.g. situation, carelessness. This distinction has implications for
syllabification and sometimes for rhythm.
yod coalescence is the coarticulation / double articulation phenomenon of
(im)merging of two different phonemes into a single new sound, e.g. /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/
usually merge with /j/ (iota or yod) becoming /t/, /d/, //, // in words like
suggestion, studious, progression, Cartezian.
ANNEX 7:
TEXTS FOR READING PRACTICE AND PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION
1. Framton tried to say the correct thing which should flatter the niece, without
showing too little respect for the aunt who was to come. Privately he doubted more
than ever whether these formal visits on total strangers would be of much help for him
as he had just had a serious nervous breakdown. I know how it will be, his sister
had said when he was preparing to go somewhere into the country. You will bury
yourself down there and not speak to a living soul and your nerves will be worse than
ever. I shall give you letters of introduction to all the people I know there. Some of
them, as far as I can remember, were quite nice. Do you know many of the people
here? asked the niece. Hardly a soul, said Framton. My sister was staying here
some years ago and she gave me letters of introduction to some of the people here.
Then you know practically nothing about my aunt?, continued the young lady.
Only her name and address, admitted the caller. Her great tragedy happened just
three years ago, said the girl, that would be since your sisters time. Her
tragedy? asked Framton. Tragedies seemed out of place in that country ()
2. It is as difficult to climb down this wall as it is to climb up it. The young man in
the picture will be very tired at the end of the day. But he will feel satisfied, too, as he
finishes his climb. The air is clean and fresh, and the scenery is as beautiful as
anywhere in the world.
3. The cinema can be found on the corner of the High Street and Park Lane, and is
next to the car park, which is also on the High Street. Across from the cinema, on the
opposite corner, is the swimming pool. If you continue up Park Lane from the
swimming pool, you will find the hospital on the corner of Park Lane and Mill Street.
If you turn left down Hill Street at the hospital, you will find the library on the left
hand side, and opposite the library is the Town Hall. On the same side of the street as
the Town Hall and on the corner of Mill Street and Belgrave Avenue is the school. On
the opposite corner is the museum. The railway station is also on Belgrave Avenue,
between Hill Street and the High Street. The bus station is on the corner of Belgrave
Avenue and the High Street.
4. John usually gets up at six, but yesterday morning he got up half an hour later. He
had a shower at a quarter to seven and then got dressed. He usually has breakfast after
his shower, but yesterday he didnt have time and he rushed off to work. He just
caught the seven twenty bus. He usually gets to work at eight, but yesterday he was a
quarter an hour late. His lunch break starts at twelve thirty, but yesterday he didnt
183
184
business all the week in the great neighbouring commercial town of Drumble, distant
only twenty miles on a railroad. In short, whatever does become of the gentlemen,
they are not at Cranford. What could they do if they were there? The surgeon has his
round of thirty miles, and sleeps at Cranford: but every man cannot be a surgeon. For
keeping the trim gardens full of choice flowers without a weed to speck them, for
frightening away little boys who look wistfully at the said flowers through the
railings; for rushing out the geese that occasionally venture into the gardens if the
gates are left open; for deciding all questions of literature and politics without
troubling themselves with unnecessary reasons or arguments; for obtaining clear and
correct knowledge of everybody's affairs in the parish; for keeping their neat maidservants in admirable order; for kindness (somewhat dictatorial) to the poor, and real
tender good offices to each other whenever they are in distress, the ladies of Cranford
are quite sufficient. A man, as one of them observed to me once, is so in the way of
the house! Although the ladies of Cranford know all each other's proceedings, they
are exceedingly indifferent to each other's opinions. Indeed, as each has her own
individuality, not to say eccentricity, pretty strongly developed, nothing is so easy as
verbal retaliation; but somehow good-will reigns among them to a considerable
degree.
10. (From The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde) JACK: My dear
fellow, there is nothing improbable about my explanation at all. In fact its perfectly
ordinary. Old Mr. Thomas Cardew, who adopted me when I was a little boy under
rather peculiar circumstances and left me all the money I possess made me in his will
guardian to his grand-daughther, Miss Cecily Cardew. Cecily, who addresses me as
her uncle from motives of respect that you could not possibly appreciate, lives at my
place in the country under the charge of her admirable governess Miss Prism.
ALGERNON: Where is that place in the country, by the way?
JACK: That is nothing to you, dear boy. You are not going to be invited... I may tell
you candidly that the place is not in Shropshire.
ALGERNON: I suspected that, my dear fellow! I have Bunburied all over Shropshire
on two separate occasions. Now, go on. Why are you Ernest in town and Jack in the
country?
11. (From The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare) LAUNCE (to
the audience): I have received my proportion, like the prodigious son, and am going
with Sir Proteus to the Imperials court. I think Crab, my dog, be the sourest-natured
dog that lives: my mother weeping, my father wailing, my sister crying, our maid
howling, our cat wringing her hands, and all our house in a great perplexity, yet did
not this cruel-hearted cur shed one tear: he is a stone, a very pebble stone, and has no
more pity in him than a dog: a Jew would have wept to have seen our parting; why,
my grandam, having no eyes, look you, wept herself blind at my parting. Nay, Ill
show you the manner of it. This shoe is my father: no, this left shoe is my father: no,
no, this left shoe is my mother: nay, that cannot be so neither: yes, it is so, it is so ()
This shoe, with the hole in it, is my mother, and this my father; () now, sit, this staff
is my sister, for, look you, she is as white as a lily and as small as a wand: this hat is
Nan, our maid: I am the dog: no, the dog is himself, and I am the dogOh! the dog is
me, and I am myself () Now come I to my father; Father, your blessing: now should
not the shoe speak a word for weeping: now should I kiss my father; well, he weeps
185
on. Now come I to my mother: O, that she could speak now like a wood woman!
Well, I kiss her (); heres my mothers breath up and down. Now come I to my
sister; mark the moan she makes. Now the dog all this while sheds not a tear nor
speaks a word; but see how I lay the dust with my tears.
12. (From A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare) THESEUS:
() Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, / Such shaping fantasies, that
apprehend / More than cool reason ever comprehends. / The lunatic, the lover and the
poet / Are of imagination all compact. / One sees more devils than vast hell can hold: /
That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic, / Sees Helens beauty in a brow of
Egypt. / The poets eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, / Doth glance from heaven to earth,
from earth to heaven, / And as imagination bodies forth / The forms of things
unknown, the poets pen / Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing / A local
habitation and a name.
13. (From As You Like It by William Shakespeare)
JAQUES: All the worlds a
stage, / And all the men and women merely players. / They have their exits and their
entrances, / And one man in his time plays many parts, / His acts being seven ages. At
first the infant, / Mewling and puking in the nurses arms. / Then the whining
schoolboy with his satchel / And shining morning face, creeping like snail /
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, / Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
/ made to his mistress eyebrow. Then, a soldier, / Full of strange oaths, and bearded
like the pard, / Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel, / Seeking the bubble
reputation / Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice, / In fair round belly
with good capon lined, / With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, / Full of wise saws
and modern instances; / And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts / Into the lean
and slippered pantaloon, / With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, / His youthful
hose, well saved, a world too wide / For his shrunk shank, and his big, manly voice, /
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes / And whistles in his sound. Last scene of
all, / That ends this strange, eventful history, / Is second childishness and mere
oblivion, / Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
14. (From Hamlet by William Shakespeare) HAMLET: To be, or not to be; that is
the question: / Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And, by opposing,
end them. To die, to sleep / No more, and by a sleep to say we end / The heartache
and the thousand natural shocks / That flesh is heir to tis a consummation /
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep. / To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, theres the
rub, / For in that sleep of death what dreams may come / When we have shuffled off
this mortal coil / Must give us pause. Theres the respect / That makes calamity of so
long life, / For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, / Thoppressors wrong,
the proud mans contumely, / The pangs of despised love, the laws delay, / The
insolence of office, and the spurns / That patient merit of thunworthy takes, / When
he himself might his quietus make / With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels
bear, / To grunt and sweat under a weary life, / But that the dread of something after
death, / The undiscovered country from whose bourn / No traveller returns, puzzles
the will, / And makes us rather bear those ills we have / Than fly to others that we
know not of? / Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, / And thus the native
hue of resolution / is sicklied oer with the pale cast of thought, / And enterprises of
186
great pitch and moment / With this regard their currents turn awry, / And lose the
name of action.
187
Tongue Twisters
She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore.
The shells that she sells are sea-shells Im sure.
Robert Rowley rolled a round roll round,
A round roll Robert Rowley rolled round;
Where rolled the round roll Robert Rowley rolled round?
Which is this switch?
Which switch is which?
Swan Swam over the Sea
Swan swam over the sea
Swim, swan, swim;
Swan swam back again,
Well swum, swan.
Peter Piper
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers;
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Wheres the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
Nicks thistle stick is as thick as Dicks stick;
Ricks stick is not so thick as Dicks stick.
(After Prlog-Chioran, Ghid de pronunare a limbii engleze)
188
bet
set
bed
hell
ten
head
pat
dad
lad
gnat
ban
pal
bat
sat
bad
Hal
tan
had
Helen says shes been in bed for seven days.
Ben sent a letter to his friend.
The weather is getting better and better.
Henry went to town to sell ten fresh eggs.
They are expecting ten guests for breakfast on Wednesday.
Jacks glad to be back.
The fat man is carrying a black cap in his hand.
That mans having a nap.
The bad cat ate the bat.
The lamb ran after the ram.
a) I said bad.
I said bed.
b) I want my wife to be more expensive.
I want my wife to be more expansive.
c) We watched him peddling.
We watched him paddling.
d) Throw the pen away.
191
luck
bud
some
bun
calm
harsh
mast
barter
starter
bark
come
hush
must
butter
stutter
buck
aunt
cart
chart
part
park
bark
ant
cat
chat
pat
pack
back
lark
bard
card
193
halve
harm
barred
lack
bad
cad
have
ham
bad
Mark cant drive his car fast.
He parked his car in a barn.
The dog barked at a calf which was half-way between the farmyard
and a large cart.
It makes me laugh to see the calf go down the path to take a bath.
Thats a rather smart answer!
The judge rushed to crush the bug.
You must come to supper on Sunday.
He was as snug as a bug in a rug.
He was lucky to have sung before he got drunk.
His mother suddenly won a large sum of money.
a) Calm down!
b) Is the calf white?
c) I found a larva in the garden.
I found a lover in the garden.
d) There were several carts in
the movie.
There were several cuts in
the movie.
e) I dont like this type of
barter.
I dont like this type of butter.
194
Come down!
Is the cuff white?
a) Give me your hat!
b) No ham in it!
c) What about the cat?
d) Do yon like this lad?
e) They said something
packing and leaving.
Give me your heart!
No harm in it!
What about the cart?
Do you like this lard?
They said something about parking and leaving.
The duck was dark colored.
Pass me the last cup of rum.
Father gave his son a hearty hug.
The stuff was marred by the mud in the cart.
Barbara was humming to herself, tugging her toy cart around the
garden.
not
spot
cock
odd
nod
what
naught
sport
195
cork
awed
gnawed
wart
shot
rnoss
stock
body
rot
short
caller
morse
stalk
bawdy
wrought
stork
dawn
baulks
port
court
hawk
cord
taught
pork
corpse
bores
fawned
stuck stark stock
done darn don
bucks barks box
putt part pot
cut cart cot
196
lark
starred
card
shark
bud
hut
cut
fussed
bun
scuff
putt
ton
luck
stud
cud
shuck
bird
hurt
curt
first
burn
scurf
pert
turn
lurk
stirred
curd
shirk
The fashionable photographer lived in a comfortable apartment in
London.
It is difficult not to attract the attention of your younger brother.
Mr. Johnson, the prosperous Birmingham banker, was an amateur
astrologer.
An observant policeman has caught a camera thief.
Ignorance is a voluntary misfortune.
The early bird catches the worm.
200
toys voice
boy choice
coin moist
noisy adroit
poison hoist
destroy exploit
tall toil caw coy
ball boil pause poise
all oil raw Roy
call coil Saul soil
fall foil lawns loins
jaw joy Baugh boy
tray try Troy
say sigh soy
bay by boy
pays pies poise
lane line loin
bail bile boil
ray rye Roy
lanes lines loins
fail file foil
ale isle oil
tail tile toil
paint pint point
What kind of noise annoys an oyster?
The boys voices were most annoying during the voyage.
Joyce made the best choice.
Boiling oil is a hard toil.
The joy over the new toy made the boy boisterous.
a) What a terrible vice.
What a terrible voice.
b) Jane walked in with pies.
Jane walked in with poise.
c) John brought a file.
204
bow
sow
row
art out cant count
lard loud dart doubt
bar bough part pout
cars cows parch pouch
bard bowed grass grouse
card cowed darn down
bout boat loud load
cowed code how hoe
drown drone now know
out oat sow so
flout float fowl foal
gout goat ground groaned
The scouts found a house up in the mountains.
Mrs. Brown was not allowed to prowl around the town.
The hunter was proud of his hound for bringing him the grouse in its
mouth.
I doubt that she can pronounce this noun.
There was no sound from her when she found a mouse under the
couch.
a) Mr. Brown made a bow.
Mr. Brown made a bow.
b) Crones are a source of trouble.
Crowns are a source of trouble.
c) This coach is quite rough.
This couch is quite rough.
d) I know he phoned her.
I know he found her.
e) Has she told you about the blouse she got?
207
pan ban
pang bang
time dime
tip
touch
tour
tuck
tug
ton
tummy
tusk
ten
came
call
cut
con
curl
coast
cane
candour
carter
carrot
dip
Dutch
dour
duck
dug
done
dummy
dusk
den
game
gall
gut
gone
girl
ghost
212
gain
gander
garter
garret
harper
dapple
crumple
copper
napping
rapid
ripping
roping
staple
caper
camper
Titter
butting
canter
catty
centre
shutter
cited
citing
latter
clouting
chucking
harbour
dabble
crumble
nabbing
rabid
ribbing
robing
stable
caber
camber
udder
213
budding
candour
caddy
sender
shudder
sided
siding
ladder
clouding
chugging
clocking
dicker
docking
echo
flocking
hackle
knacker
becking
clogging
digger
dogging
ego
flogging
haggle
nagger
begging
rope
mop
lap
tap
cap
cup
rip
sip
tripe
nap
sat
set
214
pat
mate
bat
bet
lit
beat
note
butt
knack
sack
back
leak
pick
tuck
Dick
duck
prick
rack
robe
mob
lab
tab
cab
cub
rib
sib
tribe
nab
sad
said
pad
made
bad
bed
lid
bead
node
bud
215
nag
sag
bag
league
tug
dig
dug
Prig
rag
power
pat
party
appointment
capacity
disappoint
disappear
report
repose
repel
spy
spa
space
spade
span
spare
spark
sparrow
speak
spear
apple
couple
simple
staple
dapple
happen
open
deepen
sharpen
216
sharpness
plasma
please
complaint
complexion
price
prick
repress
reprove
pupil
pew
stop
stoop
loop
mop
soup
copper
upper
supper
paper
pepper
keep pace
upkeep
map designer
upbringing
sip tea
soup plate
lip jam
gulp chips
stop giggling
keep quiet
balance
baseball
balsam
bath
beautiful
rob
Bob
217
rib
pub
lab
harbour
barber
rubber
carbide
booby
baby
abbey
sober
robber
snobbish
symbol
marble
table
blaze
black
ribbon
gibbon
abnegation
submarine
submit
subdue
object (vb.)
grabbed
subpoena
rob Charles
rob John
sob quietly
sob calmly
subtract
dab paint
The upper part of the apple-pie is putrid.
Patrick is preparing an appropriate speech for our party tomorrow.
Pauline is picking purple pansies in the public garden.
Please stop preaching to me and rope the parcel properly.
218
Please put your cap away, have a cup of coffee, and pass the apricots
around.
Billy Brown plays the banjo in a big band.
A big battle between old boys and young boys broke out
yesterday
when a big band came to our borough.
Better talk plain English and stop beating about the bush.
The submarine began bubbling like a bottle of beer when the boiler
blew out like a bomb.
Bobby, bring back the book about bees, please.
a) She was well robed.
She was well roped.
b) Its in her lap.
Its in her lab.
c) Its so rapid.
Its so rabid.
d) This is a good buy.
This is a good pie.
Hes a man who always appreciates a fine pun.
Hes a man who always appreciates a fine bun.
time
tool
terrible
attain
attorney
tag
tug
toy
tackle
tooth
stain
station
stop
stick
stand
219
stoop
stay
sty
stone
steep
bottle
subtle
turtle
hurtle
cattle
kettle
cotton
mutton
button
utmost
traffic
train
tray
tree
trench
twenty
twice
twist
tube
tune
that test
that den
that girl
that boy
that pen
sweet cherries
hot day
sweet jam
late train
that car
hot
lot
note
220
site
beat
catty
shutter
latter
canter
datum
dog
double
dark
down
dwindle
red
bad
good
sad
bud
adder
ladder
broader
madder
sadder
body
candour
ardour
udder
border
admit
saddle
bedlam
laden
muddle
riddle
garden
sadden
redden
ladle
sad tune
221
sad dinner
sad company
sad girl
sad party
good juice
bad chaps
bad judgement
fried chicken
sad boy
traction dream
tractor drill
treatise dress
treaty dregs
trickle drench
trill drag
trespass droop
tremor drop
trousseau drawl
troup drowse
It isnt the time to try teaching him how to shoot.
Its time for tea.
Stop teasing your aunt, shes burst into tears.
You must tell Teddy the truth.
Tell Thomas to try and meet Timothy and Anthony today.
What needs doing must be done.
A friend in need is a friend indeed, (proverb)
As the day drew to a close, the driver found the road dreary.
His daughter couldnt comprehend the idea, good as it was.
At dawn the dubious doctor unexpectedly dashed out of his den and
fled away but he was seized by the mounted police near Londonderry
half an hour later.
a) Dont give me the petal, give me the pedal!
Its not the pedal I want to draw but the petal.
b) Whats the matter with him ?
Where have you put that madder?
c) The latter is in the corner.
222
clean
crime
cream
crown
cube
cute
quick
quite
back
duck
clock
look
take
liquor
liquefy
mica
impeccable
vacuum
lecture
back door
black cherries
sack John
look pale
look joyful
pack baggage
bleak cave
bleak grotto
lock-jaw
gag
gallop
gamble
game
go
goose
leg
dog
bag
beggar
224
rugby
ragged
haggard
degree
meagre
megaphone
jaguar
foggy
fogey
giggle
juggle
jungle
goggles
struggle
magnolia
ignorant
organ
phlegmatic
dogma
big game
big plate
big cherry-tree
big dilemma
big case
big chin
big jaw
lag behind
nag John
fig-tree
Call the cat back!
Clara thinks she can come next week.
Call me at six oclock to wake me up, take a taxi-cab, come and have
a cup of coffee with me.
On a clear day you can see across the canyon.
Economic questions occurred frequently.
Go and get it.
All that glitters is not gold. (proverb)
225
They lagged behind the group of girls who couldnt stop giggling.
Gordon is digging in the garden.
Go and get some eggs, cigarettes, sugar and garlic.
This is the new class I talked to you about.
This is the new glass I talked to you about
He took her back and left.
He took her bag and left.
Its a new decree.
Its a new degree.
There must be a leak somewhere.
There must be a league somewhere.
Take the pick with you.
Take the pig with you.
charm jam
check generous
choice jeopardize
creature engine
mischief magic
furniture wages
actual major
peach siege
catch hedge
coach age
lunch wedge
chin gin
cheap jeep
choke joke
cheer jeer
chest jest
etching edging
larch large
match Madge
batch badge
rich ridge
which chair
much junk
much gin
226
rich judge
Dutch cheese
large jar
much jelly
charge Jim
search Charles
large choice
The butcher found some matches in his kitchen.
How much are the peaches?, he asked the coach as he reached for
them.
Charles teaches French and Chinese.
Which lecture did the teacher go to ?
The children had chicken and cheese for lunch.
George and Geoffrey had a large gin, a giant sandwich, and an orange
juice and went to bed.
The janitors were jabbering about their objections when judge Jackson
entered.
Jane enjoyed the old Japanese legend about the magic pigeon.
Just how urgent is your job, Mr. Jones?
Jean and Joan enjoy wearing the jade jewellery they bought last June
when they joined Georges class.
each eats
beach beats
pitch pits
hatch hats
peach Petes
coach coats
hitch hits
patch Pats
catch cats
match mets
siege seeds
age aids
hedge heads
rage raids
227
budge buds
forge fords
ridge rids
wedge weds
wage wades
sledge sleds
He pointed to his chin and shook his head.
He pointed to his gin and shook his head.
I didnt say they were choking.
I didnt say they were joking.
His chore was unpleasant.
His jaw was unpleasant.
They thought their friends encouragement rather jeering.
They thought their friends encouragement rather cheering.
It was difficult to catch the cats.
Pats jacket had a patch on it.
The coats were lost in a railway coach.
Each one of them eats with his left hand.
The cabbage heads were found in the hedge.
They crossed two fords to reach the blacksmiths forge.
thin sin
thing sing
thick sick
thaw saw
think sink
thank sank
thought sought
theme seem
thorn sawn
thighs size
thin fin
thirst first
three free
thorn fawn
thought - fought
228
thrill - frill
thresh -fresh
theme team
thin tin
thank tank
three tree
thread tread
thick tick
thinker tinker
thought taught
thrust trust
through true
scythe size
with whizz
breathe breeze
writhe rise
clothe close
seethe sees
bathe bays
threat fret
thaw for
thief - fief
booth booze
tithe ties
lithe lies
they day
mere dare
though dough
thine dine
writhe ride
scythe side
breathe breed
loathe load
229
wreathe read
thy die
that vat
than van
thy vie
thine vine
writhe rive
clothe clove
sheathes sheaves
thou vow
lithe - live (adj.)
loathes loaves
five
food
fear
faith
difference
sacrifice
coffee
roof
leaf
deaf
trifle
muffle
baffle
rifle
waffle
soften
deafen
often
syphon
toughen
flee
flesh
flag
frog
230
fruit
frame
fume
fury
fuse
future
rough fingers
tough Francis
enough vaccine
deaf vicar
chief thing
stuff three
stuff them
rough skin
puff cigarettes
half zone
veal
very
van
every
envy
velvet
native
leave
give
move
drivel
shrivel
ravel
evil
gravel
driven
shriven
raven (vb.)
even
graven
grave voice
five vases
231
drive fast
leave first
remove thistles
move there
love this
nominative singular
brave zebra
feel veal
few view
fan van
fat vat
fail veil
leaf leave
reef reeve
proof prove
belief believe
staff starve
He found a fly in the breakfast coffee.
With much effort father pulled in a net full of fish.
The physician noticed that Francis coughed frequently.
Deafening confusion emphasized the effect of the statement.
The friends fight off the ruffians.
All English vowels are voiced.
A rich vocabulary is a very valuable asset.
The heavy stove was moved near the ventilator.
Everything of value in Victors bank vault has vanished.
You get a wonderful view when you travel over the vast river.
He could not fail Mary.
He could not veil Mary.
I also had a few of them.
I also had a view of them.
I dont use this kind of fat.
I dont use this kind of vat.
The bakers van is out of order.
The bakers fan is out of order.
This year the fines were bigger than last year.
232
worth singing
both zebras
then
than
that
weather
loathing
without
bathe
soothe
breathe
with
betrothal
heathen
southern
northern
leathern
rhythm
soothe them
loathe them
loathe Victor
breathe slowly
mouth the words
smooth throat
breathe fast
smooth skin
breathes
mouthes
mouth mouth (vb.)
wreath wreathe
loath loathe
teeth teethe
sooth soothe
thigh thy
ether either
sheath - sheathe
234
thin tin sm
thank tank sank
theme team seem
thaw taw saw
thought taught sought
thongs tongs songs
thill - till - sm
thick tick sick
faith fate face
path part pass
faith face faiths
fourth force fourths
myth miss myths
moth moss moths
growth gross growths
fourths forts
deaths - debts
hearths hearts
tenths tents
cloths clots
heaths - heats
wreathe read res
scythe side size
then den zen
seethe seed seize
breathing breeding breezing
bathe bade baize
lithe lied lies
tithe tide ties
writhe ride rise
lathe laid laze
clothe close clothes
seethe sees seethes
235
class three
this theft
this theory
the bus there
this summer
bus stop
peace zone
gross vegetation
miss Fowkes
this shrimp
zip
zone
zeal
present
busy
daisy
praise
breeze
buzz
battles
dazzle
frazzle
hazel
drizzle
sizzle
brazen
cousin
dozen
risen
cozen
shows zeal
is zero
plays the zither
praises this
is silly
knows theory
gathers thistles
goes there
238
loves freedom
buys veal
sip zip
seal zeal
said zed
sue zoo
sink zinc
piece peas
bus buzz
hiss his
loose lose
price prize
As time elapsed, the interest in the famous case increased.
The psychology of persuasion is a fascinating subject.
The steam escaped with a hissing sound.
My sister, Sarah, was surprised to see him. sitting there.
My first niece was born on Sunday, the second of September.
The designs became increasingly confused and puzzling.
Susan is busy; she washes knives and spoons.
She complains her fingers are frozen.
He loves eating apples, oranges and bananas.
He says that the cause was worthy of praise.
He could live comfortably on the price he got.
He could live comfortably on the prize he got.
Can I have some peace?
Can I have some peas?
Dont set your hopes on the race.
Dont set your hopes on the raise.
I had a look at her ice.
I had a look at her eyes.
Ive never heard of the place.
Ive never heard of the plays.
sure
shop
sheep
239
sharp
pressure
machine
national
fresh
push
wash
bushel
marshal
initial
essential
martial
nation
cushion
option
passion
tension
shrewd
shriek
shrill
shrine
shrink
shroud
shrub
shrank
shred
shrivel
finish shooting
wash shrimps
leash the dog
push the door
fresh things
crash through
fresh food
rush for umbrellas
push Victor
Nashville
pleasure
240
measure
beige
rouge
usual
leisure
treasure
garage
massage
camouflage
conclusion
decision
elision
incision
invasion
intrusion
occasion
persuasion
precision
vision
share chair
shell - chill
ship - chip
shop chop
sheer cheer
sheep cheap
shoe chew
shant chant
shock chock
Shaw chaw
short sort
shower sour
shame same
shy sigh
ash ass
mesh mess
plushed plussed
gushed gust
241
lash lass
rouge ruse
beige baise
seizure Caesar
closure closer
leisure ledger
lesion legion
pleasure pledger
azure Ager
Aleutian allusion
ruche rouge
Asher azure
dilution delusion
mesher measure
Confucian confusion
Some of the machines were partially sheltered.
I wish this dictionary gave more information on Shakespeare.
The shoes shown at the national exhibition were highly appreciated
These shirts will shrink in the wash.
Its time to shut up shop.
Such an unusual decision affected his prestige.
He had a vision of great treasure in Asia.
Their decision to charge the usual price at the garage was a measure
of persuasion.
Occasionally he gave us the illusion of precision.
He made a casual remark upon the unusual division of the money.
heat
hit
hedge
hand
heart
ahead
anyhow
behave
inhibit
subhuman
242
hide Id
heart art
hear ear
hold old
hair heir
harm arm
hedge edge
hall -all
hail ale
hate eight
This hotel is very hot.
Help me pass the hot-dogs and hamburger around.
Have your heard that Henry has bought a new house?
I hope hell give me a helping hand.
They hurried hand in hand to the hospital.
nymph
comfort
circumvent
smack
smoke
rum run
game gain
sum sun
room rune
meat [mi:t] neat
room mate
some money
come, Mary
some men
dim memories
rhythm
243
prism
lissom
bottom
materialism
gymnastics
farm noises
grim news
room number
slim Nancy
How much money do you make a month?
We saw them on Monday at the same museum.
The pamphlet mentioned some methods of making films.
Maybe Mr. Manning lives on Maple Street.
My mother goes to Moldavia every summer.
infant
infinite
invite
sneeze
snatch
cotton
sudden
often
mission
listen
thin thing
run rung
sinner singer
ton tongue
kin king
win wing
ban bang
clan clang
tan tang
bun bung
244
run north
Ann knew
clean nails
done navely
brown napkin
clean mug
win money
molten metal
in motion
medicine-man
Whats done cannot be undone.
The confusion was caused by fundamentally unimportant but
extensive
changes.
The grant to the university had not only many advantages, but also a
few disadvantages.
The prudent man strengthened the ties of friendship with his
neighbours.
I knew her name, but now I cant remember it.
bring
cling
anger
drink
singer
bacon
taken
blacken
thicken
sicken
singer
singing
bringing
hanger
hanging
245
banging
longing
ringing
winging
stinging
finger
hungry
England
jungle
stronger
drink
donkey
uncle
think
anchor
wronged
hanged
ringed
winged
amongst
strength
things
tongues
wrongs
wings
brings
length
winged wind
hanged hand
mounting mountain
winging winning
pangs pans
fangs fans
ding din
sung sun
dung done
gong gone
246
sung sunk
tang tank
sing sink
bring brink
cling clink
ping pink
wing wink
sting stink
rang rank
bang bank
growing need
loving neighbour
gong noises
sing nicely
ring Nancy
sling mud
shining moon
bring money
wrong measure
singing merrily
In the beginning I was looking forward to going there.
He was reading the morning newspaper, while she was brushing and
pressing his suit.
Things are going well for the bank.
My younger sister is measuring the length of the cloth.
The strong man was clinging to the rocks, hoping to be rescued.
Fangs are very useful sometimes.
Fans are very useful sometimes.
The singer offered them an apology.
The sinner offered them an apology.
I rang for a long time.
I ran for a long time.
The two wings were highly praised by specialists.
The two wins were highly praised by specialists.
Do you think she had no pangs?
247
248