PHONOLOGY I SUMMARY

Better English Pronunciation – Chapter 1

Basically, during the early stages of our lives (from 0 to 10 years old), human beings that are exposed
to hearing a determined language acquire it at a native level. And, as every language has different
sounds its speakers combine in order to produce sentences, most of us acquire this sounds only. The
writer explains that depending on the language we were exposed to as kids, we have different “boxes”
in our heads from where we take each sound in order to talk and where we go when we hear other
people talkin. This means that when we hear people speaking in a different language than ours we try
to put the sounds they make into one of the similar boxes of sounds we already know, because we
lack those boxes corresponding to the sounds of their language. The aim of phonology is to learn and
incorpore new boxes to our heads.
The author says that in order to achieve this, we need to listen English (or the language we are trying
to tackle) repeatedly, over and over again in order to hear new sounds and differentiate them from the
ones we already know. Not only do we have to listen to english but also we have to repeate out loud
those sounds we are getting to know. Recording our voice while we do this and comparing it with the
passage we are trying to imiate is a great tool in order to achieve our imitation skills.
Letters and sounds must never be mixed up. Letters are written, whereas sounds are spoken. Though
it is very useful to have written letters to remind us of corresponding sounds, but this is all they do;
they cannot make us pronounce sounds which we do not already know; they simply remind us. In
ordinary spelling is is not always easy to know what sounds the letters stand for (for example in cake
the letter “c” stands for the /k/ sound whereas in scene it stands for the /s/ sound). There are 24
consonants and 20 vowels in English, each represented with a phoneme, a symbol.

This way of writing or transcribing makes it possible to show that some words which are ordinarily
spelt in the same way sound different. It also makes clear that some words which are spelt differently
sound the same.
A sound is made by definite movements of the organs of speech, and if those movements are exactly
repeated the result will always be the same sound: it is easy to show that there are more than forty-
four sounds in English. Each of the letters we use to show pronunciation may stand for more than one
sound; but each of the sounds represented by one letter has a great deal of similarity to the orther
sounds represented by the same letter; they have more similarities than differences. These groups of
sounds, each represented by one letter of the phonemic alphabet, are called phonemes. It is necessary
to distinguish carefully between phonemes and sounds: the 44 phonemes of English are the basic
contrasts which make it possible for us to keep each word or longer utterance separate from every
other. But each phoneme may be represented by different sounds in different positions, so the different
/t/ sounds in tea and two both represent the /t/ phoneme, and the three /h/ sounds in he, hat and who
all represent the same /h/ phoneme.
The second stage in learning pronunciation must be to learn to use as many different sounds as is
necessary to represent a particular phoneme. In theory a single phoneme is represented by a different
sound in every different position in which it occurs, but most of these differences will be made
automatically by the learner without instruction.
To sum up, it is necessary at first to master the basic sounds of the language, pronouncing them
properly; the best way of doing that is to practise single words or very short phrases. Nevertheless,
we don't talk in single words nor in single sounds. The sounds and words are connected together with
others to make up longer utterances, and these longer utterances have special difficulties of their own.
1. They must be pronounced smoothly, without hesitations and without stumbling over the
combinations of sounds. It may be quite easy to pronounce separately the words library, been, lately,
you, to, the, have but it is much more difficult to pronounce the question Have you been to the library
lately? without hesitating and making mistakes 2. In a longer English utterance some of the words
are treated as being more important to the meaning than others, and it is necessary to know which
these words are and how they are treated in speech, as the degree of importance determines the stress
in words (grammar words get weak forms and content words get stressed). 3. The rythm of English
must be mastered; the different lenghts which the syllables of English are given and the reasons why
this different lenghts occur. 4. The tune of the voice or melody of speech is different in different
languages and it is necessary to learn something of the English way of using tune (for example, when
saying thank you from a higher tone to a lower tone this means sincere gratitude, whereas when we
go from a lower tone to a higher one this means pure rutine gratitude).

Better English Pronunciation – Chapter 2

In all languages, we apeak from the lungs; we draw air into them and release it through the other
organs and depending on the form these take at this time is the sound we will produce.

The vocal cords – The air released by the lungs comes up through the wind-pipe and arrives first at
the larynx. The larynx caontains two small bands of elastic tissue, which can be though of as two flat
strips of rubber, lying opposite each other accros the air passage. There are the vocal cords.
The inner edges of the vocal cords can be moved towards each other so that they meet and completely
cover the top of the wind-pipe, or they can be drawn apart so that there is a gap between them (known
as the glottis) through which the air can pass freely.
When the vocal cords are brought together tightly no air can pass through them and if the lungs are
pushing air from below this air is compressed. If the vocal cords are then opened suddenly the
compressed aire bursts with a sort of coughing noise (this is known as the glottal stop).
If the vocal cords are brought together quite gently, the air from the lungs will be able to force them
apart for a moment, but then they will return to the closed position: then the air will force them apart
again and they will close again, and so on. The height of the note depends on the speed of opening
and closing of the vocal cords: if they open and close very quickly the note will be high, if they open
and close slowly the note will be low. The note, whether high or low, produced by this rapid opening
and closing of the vocal cords is called voice. Some of the English sounds are voiced and some are
voiceless. We can know if a sound belongs to one group or the other by saying the sound and touching
our throat at the same time: vibration means the sound is voiced and no vibration means it's voiceless.
The sounds that are not voiced are produced with the vocal cords completely drawn apart, so that the
air from the lungs can come out freely through them and there's no vibration.

The palate – It forms the roof of the mouth and separates it from the nasal cavity. It's divided into the
“hard” palate (the front part) and the “soft” palate (the part in the back). The hard, fixed part of the
palate is divided into two sections, the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. The alveolar ridge is that
part of the gums immediately behind the upper front teeth, and the hard palate is the highest part of
the palate, between the alveolar ridge and the beginning of the soft palate.

The soft palate can move; it can be raised so that it makes a firm contact with the back wall of the
pharynx and this stops the breath from going up into the nasal cavity and forces it to go into the mouth
only. In its lowered position, the soft palate allows the breath to pass behind itself and up into the
nasal cavity and out through the nose. This is the normal position of the soft palate when we are not
speaking but breathing through the nose, with out mouth closed. For most of the sounds of all
languages the soft palate is raised, so that the air is forced to go out through the mouth only. Apart
from this important raising and lowering of the soft palate, the whole of the palate, including the soft
palate, is used by the tongue to interfere with the air stream.

The teeth – The most important teeth to produce English sounds are the two upper front teeth, which
we use to produce thin and them.

The tongue – It is the most important organ of speech, as it has the greatest variety of movement. The
back of the tongue lies under the soft palate when the tongue is at rest; the front lies under the hard
palate, the tip and the blade lie under the alveolar ridge, the tip being the most forward part of all and
the blade between the tip and the front. The tip and blade are particularly mobile and they can touch
the whole of the lips, the teeth, the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. The front can be flat on the
botton of the mouth or it can be raised to touch the hard palate, or it can be raised to any extent
between these two extremes.

The tongue can also change its shape in another way. For example, for /s/ the sides of the tongue are
pressed firmly against the sides of the palate, so that the breath is forced to pass down the narroe
central passage between the blade of the tongue and the alveolar ridge. In /l/ the centre of the mouth
is blocked by the tip and blade of the tongue pressed firmly against the alveolar ridge and the air
passes instead between the sides of the tongue and the sided of the palate. So the sides of the tongue
may be either curved upwards to meet the sides of the palate or left flat so that they do not touch the
sides of the palate.

The lips – The lips can take up various different positions. They can be brought firmly together as in
/p/ or /b/ or /m/ so that they completely block the mouth; the lower lip can be drawn inward and
slightly upwards to touch the upper front teeth as in the sounds /f/ and /v/. And they can be kept apart
either flat or with different amounts of rounding, and they can be pushed forward to a greater or lesser
extent. Even though the closed position for /p, b, m/ and the lip-teeth position for /f/ and /v/ are used
in English, the English do not move their lips with very much energy: their lips are never very far
apart, they do not take up very rounded shapes, they are rarely spread very much and almost never
pushed forward or protruded.
 IMPORTANT AND BASIC CONCEPTS

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is called an alphabet because we say a-b-c-d and we use
it to write things. It's international because it includes and sums up every sound that the human body
is able physically produce, no matter which language we are trying to speak. Of course the symbols
are arbitrary, there's nothing they have that denote the sound they stand for. On the bottom, we have
the consonants. On the top we have vowels, the ones from the left are called pure vowels or
monophthongs, whereas the ones from the right are called gliding vowels or diphthongs.

The phoneme is the smallest linguistic unit that can bring about a change in meaning, it is a
constrastive sound. Phonemes can be vowels or consonants; regarding consonants, phonetically (the
way we produce the sound) we get some sort of impediment for the air to escape, there's a sudden
burst of air. Phonologically (the order in the system), consonants attach themselves to vowels to form
a syllable, they do not happen on their own, they're there to support a vowel. Regarding vowels,
phonetically (the way we produce the sound) the air escapes freely, mainly over the tongue, there's
no blocking. Phonologically (the order in the system), they are the central (essential) part of a syllable.

A diagraph is a group of two successive letters whose phonetic value is a single sound (such as ea in
bread or ng in sing) or whose value is not the sum of a value borne by each in other occurrences (such
as ch in chin where the value is \t\ + \sh\)

A grapheme is the set of units of a writing system (such as letters and letter combinations) that
represent a phoneme. A grapheme is a written symbol that represents a phoneme.This can be a
single letter, or could be a sequence of letters, such as ai, sh, igh, tch etc. So when a person says the
sound /t/ this is a phoneme, but when they write the letter 't' this is a grapheme.

Rhoticity – General British English is a non-rhotic accent. That is, the sound r is only found
before vowels. Therefore, letter <r> is not pronounced before consonants or silence. In rhotic accents
I see <r> and I say <r> (american english mostly, scotland, ireland, west country – england). Non-
rhotic accents only pronounce /r/+ vowel (south west of england, some parts of the old U.S colonies
– NY, South, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand).

A homophone is a group of two or more words spelt differently or with different meanings but with
the same sound, pronounced equally (such as the words to, too, and two)

A homograph is a group of two or more words spelt the same but different in meaning or
pronunciation.
 SPELLING AND PRONUNCIATION

The Basic Vowel Pattern

The basic vowel pattern is (consonant) + vowel + consonant. The brackets indicate that the consonant
preceding the vowel is omissible, but the consonant following the vowel is mandatory. Potentially
stressed monosyllabic words that are formed by one vowel letter and followed by one or more
consonant letters generally take a checked/short vowel sound (trap, dress, kit, lot, foot, strut). This
may also apply to the stressed syllable of a polysyllabic word. Nevertheless, this rule has some
exceptions in words that got fossilized in English, such as ghost /goust/.

Silent “e”

When silent <e> is added at the end of a one syllable word that ends in a single consonant, ‘the vowel
letter in the middle tends to say its own name.’ For example, in hat the vowel is /ae/ whereas in hate
the sound is /ei/ which at the same time it's the name of the letter “a”. Here again, there're some words
that got fossilized: some with -ve endings like love, others with -me endings such as some and others
with -ne endings such as none.

Magic “y”

When <y> is added at the end of a one syllable word ending in a single consonant letter, the vowel in
the middle tends to say its own name. For example, in tin the vowel is KIT, whereas in tiny the lexical
set is /ai/

Two vowel letters together / dipthongs

Although these patterns are highly inconsistent, there is a tendency: when there are two vowel letters
together, many times “the first that came says its name”. Sometimes, it maybe the second vowel that
says its own name. For example, in complain, the letter “a” says its name, as the pronunciation is /ei/.
Common exceptions are the spellings <oo> (fool – goose sound) <oo> (good – foot sound) <oi, oy>
(toy, boil) and <au> (daughter – force sound).

Double consonant letters

Consonant letters are normally doubled to keep a checked vowel (trap, dress, kit, lot, foot, strut). In
other words, the occurrence of diphthongs and long vowels tends to be blocked by these double letters.

Radical <r>

A post vocalic <r> letter followed by a consonant sound or silence tends to indicate that the vowel
sound is longer or more open. This occurs in monosyllabic words and in the stressed syllable of longer
words, too. Final <-re> may also result in a centring diphthong. This rule tends not to work either
when the letter is doubled (marry) or when it is between two vowel sounds within the base form
(very).

Troublesome <w>

The quality of letters <a, e, o> tends to be distorted when they are followed by <w>.

The quality of <a> and <o> is likely to change when they are preceded by <w>.

Summary
 THE ROLE OF STRESS

Word stress
There are two stress marks: primary stresses ' and secondary stresses , . It is the primary stress
of the word that can normally change the melody of intonation or tone.The presence of stress has an
impact on the choice of vowel sounds. There are two subsystems of vowels (notice that / and foot
belong to both groups):
a. Strong vowels – They tend to occur in stressed syllables (fleece, kit, dress, trap, start, lot, force,
foot, goose, strut, nurse, face /ie/, like /ai/ choice /oi/, mouth /au/, goat /ou/, near, square, cure.)
b. Weak vowels – They only occur in unstressed syllables: schwa, “happy” -i, u, kit, foot.
“Happy” -i is used 1. in the weak forms of these grammar words: he, she, we, me, be, the. 2. in
unstressed word-final position (happy, anybody). 3. unstressed syllable-final position before another
vowel.
“Thank you” -u is used 1. in the weak forms of these grammar words: you, who, to, do. 2. in
unstressed syllable-final position before another vowel.
The weak forms of to, do, the change depending on whether they’re followed by a consonant or a
vowel sound. They take schwa before consonants, and thank-you u or happy i before vowels.

- The verb to be is so frequent and predictable that it is almost always weak if it’s a monosyllable,
regardless of whether it functions as the main verb in a sentence.
- Contractions
Negative contractions are almost always strong because they contain a negative adverb inside them.
Adverbs are content words and as a consequence, they need stress.
Pronoun + auxiliary contractions are generally weak:

Confusable weak and strong forms

a. That is strong when it works as a demonstrative, but it’s weak when it works as a conjunction.
I’m glad (that) – weak that – strong man’s bad.
b. There is strong when it works as a locative, but it’s weak when it denotes existence.
There’s – weak a pear over there – strong
c. Be careful with us and as.
Tell us – schwa+s as – schwa+z much as – schwa+z you know.
d. Be careful with of and off.
This friend of – weak (schwa+v) mine’s taken off – strong (LOT+f).
e. Be careful with then and than.
You’re older than – weak (schwa+n) me, then – strong (dress+n).
f. Be careful with he’s and his.
He’s – weak (happy -i + z) younger than his – strong (kit+z) brother.

The teutonic rule – this rule asks for an obligatory stress on either the first or the second syllable. In
other words, there cannot be two initial unstressed syllables in English content words. First, you
should spot the primary stress. If it complies with the Teutonic Rule, there may be lots of final weak
syllables. However, if the tonic syllable is not on the first or second syllable, you will need to do some
detective work to find the secondary stress.
The rule of alternation – this rule can help the learner predict the stressed syllables in a polysyllabic
word. There is a strong tendency to alternate strong and weak syllables, so if the primary stress falls
on the third syllable, the first one is likely to bear a secondary stress. Conversely, if the primary stress
falls on the fourth syllable, it is the second one that is likely to carry the secondary stress.
The Rule of Derivation – it can help you double check whether you applied the Rule of Alternation
properly, or solve inconsistencies. If the primary stress is moved more than one syllable when an affix
is added, the stressed syllable in the original word may be likely to become a secondary stress:
pro'nounce → pro,nuncia'tion.

Sentence stress
In their citation form, every word has at least one lexical stress. However, when words occur in
context, some of them are not stressed at all and may even take a weak vowel (i.e. Schwa, happy -i,
thank you -u, kit and foot). It is convenient to think that there are two classes of words: those that
carry more meaning and those whose function is more grammatical and less loaded with information.
So, in order to spot the stressed syllables in the chunk, you first need to discriminate between content
and grammar words.
a. Content words (NAVA: nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs) can potentially carry one or several
stresses. Content words are highlighted in speech by means of stress because they are loaded with
meaning and are not easily predictable in the context. They are informative (big, rythmically strong,
they carry meaning) they provide more information and keep their stress.
b. Grammar words (CAPPA: conjunctions, auxiliaries, pronouns, prepositions, articles) take a weak
form as the norm. carry less information, it's not that they don't carry meaning at all, they carry less,
they are unestressed if monosyllabic and non-informative (don't get accented, they're grammar
words).

Disclaimer – words that normally take weak forms take strong vowels when they are purposedly
stressed (She is pretty, not him).

Rhythm

For many years, phoneticians believed that some languages had a stress-timed rhythm while others
had a syllable-timed rhythm. Although modern scientific research has debunked that view, it’s still
an interesting pedagogical “image.” It is true, however, that the existence of weak forms and weak
syllables in English has an impact on the way we perceive the clipped nature of English as opposed
to the lengthening of syllables of River Plate Spanish.
 CONTRACTIONS INFORMATION (EXTRACTED FROM Dr. Geoff Linsdey's video)
The most common contractions are very common in conversation. “It's” is the most common
contraction in English, as well as “that's”, “there's” and “can't”. Contractions involve the reduced
word joined to the end of the preceding word. Most involve verbs, specifically auxiliary verbs. In
most of them, a syllable is lost, indicated in writing with an apostrophe.
There're two main kinds of contractions; in the negative kind, “not” looses its vowel and is attached
to auxiliaries mostly. The other kind of contractions are auxixiliary contractions; it's the auxiliary verb
that contracts and is attached to the previous word, most of the times a pronoun. There're numerous
differences between both kinds, the NEG contractions are stressed, but the AUX are normally not.
The AUX contractions have just one syllable, but “n't” is still a syllable on its own. AUX contractions
have been around for longer in history than NEG contractions.
Something confusing is that the AUX contractions can be used with the word not, so we end up with
two different ways to express a negative idea (it isn't and it's not). The difference is not about meaning
but about frequency; natives tend to use contracted “is” and “are” more than “isn't” and “aren't”. With
the other verbs it's the reverse, natives prefer haven't, hadn't, wouldn't. Altough the statement “it's not”
is rather more common than “it isn't” the latter is used a lot in questions.
When do we not use contractions? The AUX contractions are avoided when the following idea has
been taken away; “Would you like some coffee? - Yes I'd like some” if we take away “like some” it
has to be “Yes, I would”. Uncontracted forms can also be used to be emphatic.
What about style? Are contractions informal? Not in contemporary speech, they are less common in
formal, scripted speeches, but even the Queen uses them sometimes. We get more of them from the
younger group of people. Today, even a serious Prime Minister uses them.
Writing definitely has fewer contractions, but the common ones are only forbbiden when the style is
cold and impersonal, as in academic journals. To address readers more personally, contractions have
long been used.
The U.S government says “write like you talk is a common rule of writing readably, and the best way
to do that is to use contractions.” On the other hand, the advise from the British Government is to
avoid NEG contractions like can't and don't, but it's easy to find the website contradicting it's own
advice: “Once you've asked for legal advide, the police can't question you...”. Here's another
discrepancy; in a recent issue of The Economy magazine, where the cover has “And what's wrong
with it” but the article inside has “And what is wrong with it”. For an explanation I turned to Lane
Greene, who's the language colonist and the editor at The Economist. He basically says that on the
cover they give themselves a lot more leeway for a warmer style because that makes people buy The
Economist instead of other magazines, even though once actually reading the magazine, they shift the
mode intending to be more classic and conservative.
Of course one type of English that uses contractions less is non-native English. After all, contractions
are less common in writing and language teachers often prioritize writing. These weirdness of
uncontracted speech is something native speakers sometimes are aware of.
Because contractions are avoided in cold, unemotional English, they're often avoided by robots and
aliens. In Star Trek, the android character Data failed to be human because he had no sense of humor
and didn't use contractions. Star Trek fans have pointed out that the character does use contractions
repeatedly, showing that the writers were inconsistent, but it seems to be the AUX contractions he
uses so much. If another character catches him using a NEG contraction, it probably means something
very suspicious is going on.
Summing up, contemporary use of the contractions we've been looking at here, the relevant question
is perhaps not whether the context is casual enough to allow contractions but rather whether the
context is formal and cold enough to avoid them.
I don't think that many natives would even notice if they saw “it's” and “don't” in a piece of formal
writing, or if Microsoft Excel were to say that it can't find the data you are looking for rather than
cannot. But on the other hand, only native speakers know their reaction would be different if the came
across “Because you are worth it” (instead of “Because you're worth it”) or “I cannot believe it is not
Butter!” (instead of “I can't believe it's not Butter!”).
 GUIDELINES FOR PHONEMIC TRANSCRIPTION

Phonemic script is enclosed by slant lines . Make sure you do not write a slant after each word.
Phonetic or allophonic script is enclosed by square brackets.
Ordinary spelling may be enclosed by angle brackets <> in order to avoid confusion (<mess>).
The following symbols are not English phonemes: <c, ñ, o, q, x, y>.
Capital letters are not used in transcriptions, neither are punctuation marks, we may use a single bar
( ) to show pauses, such as most commas and a double bar ( ) stands for a longer pause, such as
full stops, semi-colons or colons.
As stress is a property of the whole syllable, stress marks are placed before the syllable begins.

The voiced velar nasal consonant is never found in word-initial position.

The voiceless glottal fricative h is never found in word-final position.
The semivowels j/ and w can only occur before vowels.

- Don’t use the happy i and the thank-you u vowels in diphthongs. Diphthongs can only end in KIT,
FOOT AND SCHWA.
- Diphthongs may be followed by other vowels, especially schwa. Make sure you don’t use
semivowels here.
- KIT, DRESS, TRAP, LOT, FOOT and STRUT are checked vowels. This means that they never
occur word-finally.
- FLEECE, START, NORTH, GOOSE and NURSE can’t occur before the voiced velar nasal .
- The voiced velar nasal is normally preceded by checked (i.e. short) vowels.
- NURSE almost always occurs in stressed syllables.
- You’re not supposed to use schwa in stressed syllables.
- GOOSE and FOOT are extremely rare in word-initial position. Some exceptions are “oops” and
“ooze”.
- The spelling <oo>:
– It’s generally GOOSE
– It takes STRUT just in blood and flood
– It takes FOOT in foot, good, hood, stood, soot, woof, wood, wool
– It takes FOOT in all <-ook> endings (except for spook).
- The spellings for TRAP and STRUT are mutually exclusive. The spelling <a> never takes STRUT.
The spellings <o, u, ou> never take TRAP.
Some words whose spelling is <a> are called BATH words because they take START in General
British instead of TRAP.
You should transcribe a text the way you would pronounce it, not necessarily the way it is written:
– We favour contractions in speech
– We pronounce numbers and conventions fully
– We add words when we read dates
– We should be familiar with well-known acronyms and abbreviations (iPhone, for example).

Weak word endings

Many unstressed endings are generally weak in English; therefore, they take weak vowels. Some
words allow the optional use of either schwa or another weak vowel. Sometimes, it’s even possible
to elide a weak vowel altogether.

Some of these endings are really words in their own right, but they have become unstressed and weak
because these combinations are extremely frequent. We call this process monolithicity. They take
weak vowels.

Weak word beginnings

When the following word-beginnings are unstressed, they tend to take weak vowels.
Voice agreement

Regular plural nouns, the genitive and the 3rd person singular inflection of the simple present tense:
a. If the final sound in the original word is voiceless /p, t, k, f, 0/ we add s to agree in voice with
it.
b. If the final sound in the original word is voiced /b, d, g, v, 6, l, m, n, / a vowel or a diphthong, we
add /z/ to agree in voice.
c. If the final sound in the original word is a sibilant consonant /s, z, “large” S, 3, d3, ts/ a new syllable
/iz/ is added to the root.

Regular verbs in the past tense <-ed> and most adjectives:

a. If the final sound in the original word is voiceless /p, t, ts, f, 0, s, “long” s), we add /t/ to agree in
voice with it.
b. If the final sound in the original word is voiced, a vowel or a diphthong, we add /d/ to agree in
voice.
c. If the final sound in the original word is either /t/ or /d/, a new syllable /id/ is added to the root.

Miscellanea

- Sometimes, a vowel is added after another vowel. You should keep both!

- <ng> vs <gn>
Final <-gn> is /n/ (<g> is silent). Final <-ng> is (i.e. <g> has fused with <n>).
Word-internal <-ng>, when it’s not at morpheme boundaries, is g . The g belongs in the
word, therefore the nasal shows velar assimilation. Word-final and morpheme-final<-ng> is .
The letters <n> and <g> fuse.

- Spelling <x>
There's no phoneme /x/ so when we see this letter in spelling, it is /ks/ after a stressed vowel when:
– It's at the end of words. For example; mix, text, sex.
– It's followed by an unstressed vowel sound; mixing, sexes, toxic
It is /gz/ when followed by a stressed vowel sound. For example; exist, exam, exhausted, anxiety.
It is /kS/ in: anxious, luxury, complexion, sexual.
It is /z/ at the beginning of words; xylophone, Xavier.

- /s/ or /z/?
Although this is really arbitrary, there're some tendencies that can help us:
a. The spelling <z> is never s
b. The beginning <s-> is never z
c. You should never use z for the spelling <c>
d. The spelling <ss> is generally s and final <ss> is always /s/.
e. In word-internal position, <-s-> is:
– Almost always z between vowels (easy, present)
– Generally z before or after a vowel or voiced consonant
– Generally /s before or after a voiceless consonant
f. The ending <-se> is normally:
– /s/ immediately after stressed syllable (practise)
– /s/ in adjectives that end in VOWEL + <SE>
– /s/ in <-lse, -nse and -rse>
– /z/ in those verbs that don't fall into the previous categories.
– Homographs tend to take z in verbs and s in adjectives and nouns (to excuse, to
house)

g. The ending <-s> is normally

– /s/ in most monosyllabic content words
– /s/ after short vowels
– /z/ in most monosyllabic grammar words
– /z/ after long vowels
h. Prefixes:
– <-dis> and <-mis> always take /s/
– <-trans>: a. /s/ before voiceless consonants (for example, transcription), b. /s/ is usual before
/l/ or an unstressed vowel, c. /z/ before voiced consonants and stressed vowels (trasct,
transgender).
 THE ENGLISH DIPHTHONGS

A diphthong is “a vowel sound where the tongue glides from one vowel position in the direction of
another, within the same syllable”. Each of them is a unique contrastive phoneme made up of two
elements. The first element is clearly articulated, while the second element is never actually
reached. As a result, it is the first element that can be affected by clipping. In contrast, the second
element may even be lost when a vowel follows.

Classification of diphthongs
1. According to their prominence, the English diphthongs are falling: a vowel glide whose more
prominent element is the first one. Note that the weak sequences Happy i+Schwa and Thank you
u+Schwa may be pronounced slowly as a vowel hiatus (i.e. two vowels that belong to different
syllables) or they may be compressed into just one syllable as a sequence of a semi-vowel followed
by schwa, where the prominence is rising. To illustrate this point, we can see a falling diphthong in
words such as fear and poor, and alternatively, a possible hiatus in easier and usual.
2. According to the direction of the glide, diphthongs can be either centring or closing. Centring
diphthongs are those whose gliding movement goes in the direction of the central vowel schwa.
Closing diphthongs are vowel glides that move towards a close position, either front-closing KIT or
back-closing FOOT.
3. According to the distance of the glide, diphthongs can be either wide or narrow. Wide diphthongs
are those that entail a wide tongue movement inside the mouth, while narrow diphthongs are those
that show a gentler movement.
 ASPIRATION

Aspiration is associated with the voiceless English plosives p, t, k when they occur initially in the
stressed syllable of a word. Aspiration, which is felt as an extra puff of air, really consists of the
DELAYED VOICE ONSET TIME of the following vowel – i.e. p, t, k are followed by a brief
period of voicelessness, which makes the voicing of the vowel start later than it does in Spanish. This
salient English feature constitutes the most decisive clue for the native English ear to distinguish the
voiceless plosives p, t, k from their voiced counterparts d, d, g .

When one of the voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ happens in syllable-initial position and is stressed, we
have full aspiration.
When one of the voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ is preceded by an /s/ we have lack of aspiration, the
voiceless plosive is no longer in syllable-initial position

DEVOICING OF APPROXIMANTS /l, r, w, j/

When stressed syllable-initial p, t, k/ are followed by the approximants /l, r, w, j/ there is no

aspiration as such: instead, the extra puff of air merges with these approximants, which become
fricative and lose their original voice. This process is represented by keeping the original phonemic
symbol with the devoicing diacritial mark underneat, which looks like a small circle.
DENTALIZATION

Sounds tend to adapt to their environment. Of all the English sounds, it is the alveolar consonants that
are most ready to change. This may be due to their high frequency as syllable-final or even word-
final elements, their high predictability, and their position in the oral cavity. The closure of an alveolar
t d n l changes when a dental sound follows: the oral blockage is then produced just
behind the upper teeth (the tongue should stick out between the teeth). Nevertheless, the dentalisation
of t is not as frequent as its replacement by a glottal stop.

HACKING H

We have to “hack” (kill) /h/ not the previous final consonants.

 PRE-FORTIS CLIPPING

As we know the vowel sounds are classified into two big groups: relatively long vowels (namely the
monophthongs FLEECE, START, NURSE, FORCE & GOOSE; and the diphthongs FACE, PRICE,
CHOICE, GOAT, MOUTH, NEAR, SQUARE & CURE) and relatively short vowels (namely KIT,
DRESS, TRAP, STRUT, LOT, FOOT & Schwa). It is possible to contrast pairs of vowels which differ
both in quality and quantity (length) provided they are followed by the same syllable-final consonant
sounds.
Pre-fortis clipping is a process that reduces the length of vowels and clusters of vowels followed by
sonorant consonants when the syllable is closed by the fortis consonants /p, t, k, tS, f, 0, s, S/
Clipping is most evident when it affects a diphthong or long monophthong, especially in stressed
positions. In other words, these vowels are fully long only when they are final in a stressed open
syllable, or when the syllable is closed by a lenis consonant. The following diacritics show length
distinctions: (1) fully long vowels take ; (2) clipped long vowels take just one dot ; (3)
and “a little u” is placed on top of clipped /m, n, , l/, short vowels, and the first element of a
diphthong.

Although long vowels are reduced approximately by half, make sure you just clip one quarter of the
length of START and NURSE. In other words, these two vowels are only slightly clipped so that there
is a clear contrast between NURSE & Schwa, and START & STRUT.
 THE PLURAL RULE -S & -ES
(Countable Nouns, Nouns in the Genitive, and Verbs in the 3rd Person Singular – Simple Present
Tense)

1. There's voice agreement, no extra syllable.

– 1. The voiceless alveolar fricative s is added to words ending in a voiceless sound [-V]+/s/

– The voiced alveolar fricative z is added to words ending in a voiced sound [+V] + /z/

2. Sibilants add an extra syllable

– After the sibilants s, z, S, 3, tS and d3/ an extra syllable IZ/ is added. In turn,
and z agree in voice, too.
 -ED ENDINGS

The morpheme used to indicate the past tense of regular verbs is pronounced in three ways:

1. There's voice agreement, no extra syllable is added.

– 1. The voiceless alveolar plosive t is added to words ending in a voiceless sound (other
than t ) = [-V] + /t/
– The voiced alveolar plosive d is added to words ending in a voiced sound (other than d )
= [+V] + /d/

2. The endings /t/ and /d/ get an extra syllable /Id/

– The endings <-ted, -ded> (which correspond to the final alveolar plosives t and d in
the base form of the word) add an extra syllable d . In turn, and d agree in
voice, too.

3. Adjectives and adverbs

– There’s a small group of adjectival words whose <-ed> ending is generally pronounced
d namely. The shaded words may have an alternative pronunciation that doesn’t add a
syllable:

– The adverbial ending <-edly> is pronounced /Idli/ /schwa+dli/ namely:

 LINKING /r/

As we know, in General British, people do not pronounce the sound r when it is followed by
either a consonant sound or silence. To put it differently, the consonant r is only pronounced
before vowel sounds. Therefore, this accent is non-rhotic.
Now, this r sound emerges when there is a final <r> in the spelling of a word and the next word
starts with a vowel sound. We call this “linking r ”.

INTRUSIVE /r/

Words ending with a final letter <r> are linked to a following word beginning with a vowel. This use,
which is justified by the spelling, is called linking r .
By analogy, however, some speakers of non-rhotic accents (e.g. General British) extend this linking
phenomenon to situations where there is indeed a final Schwa, NEAR, START, FORCE, NURSE
sound followed by a vowel but without an <r> letter in the spelling: this is called intrusive r .
Even those speakers who consider this to be typical of sloppy speech tend to use intrusive r .
Foreign learners need to be familiar with this process for listening comprehension purposes, but they
are not encouraged to adopt it in their oral production.
 CLASSIFICATION OF CONSONANTS IN DETAIL

The important features we have to know are 1. Voice; 2. Place of articulation & 3. Manner of
articulation.

1. Voice – The vocal folds are the organ of speech that can make a sound voiced or voiceless; the
vocal folds may be set in motion by the airstream that passes through them. The air pressure is built
up behind the closed vocal folds till it forces them to open; when the pressure is released, the flaps
come together again. This process, which is repeated hundreds of times per second, is called
VOICING. The glottis (the space formed between the vocal folds when they don't touch) may be held
wide open (i.e. the vocal folds are not in contact) so that the airstream passes freely through them
without vibration. There is no phonation, so this is the position the vocal folds take to produce
VOICELESS sounds.

2. Place of articulation – The organs of speech (i.e. articulators) that intervene the most in the
production of a sound (normally the area where there is the most extreme narrowing of the vocal tract)
determine its place of articulation. The articulators that are movable are considered to be active, while
the ones that cannot move are called passive.

The organs of speech

Places of articulation

3. Manner of articulation – The behaviour of the articulators determines the manner of articulation.
– A plosive consonant shows an articulation of complete oral closure. It’s made up of three
stages: (1) a closing stage, where the active articulator approaches the passive articulator (or
where both active articulators move towards each other), thus blocking the air passage; (2) a
compression stage, where the airstream coming from the lungs builds up pressure behind the
 oral closure; and (3) the release stage, in which the abrupt separation of the articulators lets
the pent-up air escape with a burst noise called plosion.
– A fricative consonant consists of an articulation of narrow stricture that produces turbulence
as the air coming from the lungs fights its way out through the oral cavity. The active
articulator comes close to the passive articulator and forms a narrow channel.
– An affricate consonant is a unit made up of two elements: an initial plosive element and a
fricative second element. It consists of three stages: (1) a closing stage, (2) a compression
stage, and (3) a slow fricative release stage. It is the last stage that differentiates an affricate
from a plosive. The release is not abrupt this time: the organs separate slowly to let the
compressed air out while forming a narrow passage that forces the airstream to cause friction.
– An approximant sound consists of the two articulators coming towards each other, but they
are not close enough to produce friction. The air escapes freely through this wide stricture.
– Most English consonant sounds are oral; this means that the velum is “up” which prevents
the air from escaping through the nasal cavity forcing it through the mouth. So, this also means
that for the production of a nasal consonant the velum is lowered so that the passage to the
nasal cavity is open. Two articulators come in contact in the oral cavity and block it so that
the air that can’t escape through the mouth is forced out through the nasal cavity.

/p/ /b/
Voiceless – the vocal folds are held open, so Voiced – the vocal folds are loosely together, so
they don’t vibrate while the air passes through they vibrate as the air escapes through them.
them.
Place of articulation: bilabial – both lips come together. There's no passive articulator, both lips
are the active articulators
Manner of articulation: plosive – there are three stages: 1) the closing stage (the lips come together
and form a complete oral closure); 2) the hold stage (the lips are kept together while some air
pressure is built up behind the closure); 3) sudden release stage (the organs separate
abruptly letting the pent up air escape with a burst noise)

/t/ /d/
Voiceless – the vocal folds are held open, so Voiced – the vocal folds are loosely together, so
they don’t vibrate while the air passes through they vibrate as the air escapes through them.
them.
Place of articulation: alveolar – the tip and blade of the tongue are raised and come into contact
with the alveolar ridge. The passive articulator is the alveolar ridge and the active articulator is the
tip and blade
Manner of articulation: plosive – there are three stages: 1) the closing stage (the tip and blade of
the tongue are pressed against the alveolar ridge and form a complete oral closure); 2) the hold
stage (the articulators are held together while some air pressure is built up behind the closure); 3)
sudden release stage (the organs separate abruptly letting the pent up air escape with a burst noise)

/k/ /g/
Voiceless – the vocal folds are held open, so Voiced – the vocal folds are loosely together, so
they don’t vibrate while the air passes through they vibrate as the air escapes through them.
them.
Place of articulation: velar – the back of the tongue is raised towards the soft palate (i.e. the
velum) and forms a complete oral closure. The passive articulator is the velum/soft palate and the
 active articulator is the back of the tongue
Manner of articulation: plosive – there are three stages: 1) the closing stage (the back of the tongue
is pressed against the velum, forming a complete oral closure); 2) the hold stage (the articulators
are held together while some air pressure is built up behind the closure); 3) sudden release stage
(the organs separate abruptly letting the pent up air escape with a burst noise)

/tS/ /d3/
Voiceless – the vocal folds are held open, so Voiced – the vocal folds are loosely together, so
they don’t vibrate while the air passes through they vibrate as the air escapes through them.
them.
Place of articulation: palatoalveolar – the tip and blade of the tongue form a closure against the
back part of the alveolar ridge, and the rims of the tongue are in contact with the side teeth.
Concurrently, the front of the tongue is raised in preparation for the fricative element: there’s
turbulence caused by the close narrowing created by the front of the tongue and the front part of
the hard palate. The passive articulator is the front of the hard palate and the active articulator is
the tip, blade and front of the tongue.
Manner of articulation: affricate – there are three stages: 1) the closing stage (the tip, blade and
front of the tongue are pressed against the back part of the alveolar ridge, forming a complete oral
closure); 2) the hold stage (the articulators are held together while some air pressure is built up
behind the closure); 3) a slow fricative release stage (the organs separate but they form a narrow
stricture through which the pent up air escapes with a slow friction noise)

/f/ /v/
Voiceless – the vocal folds are held open, so Voiced – the vocal folds are loosely together, so
they don’t vibrate while the air passes through they vibrate as the air escapes through them.
them.
Place of articulation: labio-dental – the inner side of the lower lip makes light contact with the
upper front teeth. The passive articulator is the upper front teeth and the active articulator is the
inside of the lower lip
Manner of articulation: fricative – there is a narrowing produced between the lower lip and the
upper teeth so that the air escapes with turbulence through the teeth

/0/ / “inverted” 6/
Voiceless – the vocal folds are held open, so Voiced – the vocal folds are loosely together, so
they don’t vibrate while the air passes through they vibrate as the air escapes through them.
them.
Place of articulation: dental – the tip and rims of the tongue are in contact with the inner side of
the upper front and side teeth. The passive articulator is the upper front teeth and the active
articulator is the tip and rims of the tongue
Manner of articulation: fricative – there is a narrowing produced between the tongue tip and the
upper teeth so that the air escapes with turbulence through the teeth
 /s/ /z/
Voiceless – the vocal folds are held open, so Voiced – the vocal folds are loosely together, so
they don’t vibrate while the air passes through they vibrate as the air escapes through them.
them.
Place of articulation: alveolar – the blade (or tip and blade) of the tongue comes close to the
alveolar ridge forming a groove through which the air escapes with friction. The passive articulator
is the alveolar ridge and the active articulator is the blade (or tip and blade) of the tongue
Manner of articulation: fricative – there is a narrowing produced between the tongue blande (or tip
and blade) and the alveolar ridge so that the air escapes with turbulence

/S/ /3/
Voiceless – the vocal folds are held open, so Voiced – the vocal folds are loosely together, so
they don’t vibrate while the air passes through they vibrate as the air escapes through them.
them.
Place of articulation: palatoalveolar – the blade of the tongue comes close to the rear part of the
alveolar ridge while the front of the tongue is close to the hard palate, forming a narrowing
through which the air escapes with friction. The passive articulator is the front of the hard palate
and the active articulator is the blade and front of the tongue
Manner of articulation: fricative – there is a narrowing produced between the tongue blade and
front and the front of the palate so that the air escapes with turbulence

/h/ Voiceless: the vocal folds are held open, so they don’t vibrate while the air passes
through them.
Place of articulation: glottal – the vocal folds are close enough to produce friction, but
wide enough not to produce voicing. There's no passive articulator, the active
articulator are the vocal folds.
Manner of articulation: fricative – there is a narrowing produced between the vocal
folds so that the air escapes with turbulence

/m/ Voiced: the vocal folds are loosely together, so they vibrate as the air escapes through
them.
Place of articulation: bilabial – both lips come together. There's no passive articulator,
the active articulator are the lips.
Manner of articulation: nasal – there is a complete oral closure (both lips coming
together, in this case) but the air escapes through the nose because the velum is
lowered

/n/ Voiced: the vocal folds are loosely together, so they vibrate as the air escapes through
them.
Place of articulation: alveolar – the tip and blade touch the alveolar ridge, while the
side rims of the
 tongue are in contact with the upper side teeth. The passive articulator is the alveolar
ridge and the active articulator is the tip and blade of the tongue.
Manner of articulation: nasal – there is a complete oral closure (the tip and blade
articulate with the alveolar ridge, the side rims with the upper side teeth) but the air
escapes through the nose because the velum is lowered

/ / Voiced: the vocal folds are loosely together, so they vibrate as the air escapes through
them.
Place of articulation: velar – the back of the tongue is raised towards the soft palate
(i.e. The velum) and forms a complete oral closure. The passive articulator is the soft
palate and the active articulator is the back of the tongue.
Manner of articulation: nasal – there is a complete oral closure (the back of the
tongue articulates with the velum) but the air escapes through the nose because the
velum is lowered

/l/ Voiced: the vocal folds are loosely together, so they vibrate as the air escapes through
them.
Place of articulation: alveolar – the tip of the tongue makes contact with the alveolar
ridge, the air escapes over both or one side of the tongue. The passive articulator is the
alveolar ridge and the active articulator is the tip of the tongue.
Manner of articulation: approximant – there is a narrowing that is wide enough for
the air to escape freely. In this case, the air escapes without being stopped and without
friction over one or both sides of the tongue

/r/ Voiced: the vocal folds are loosely together, so they vibrate as the air escapes through
them.
Place of articulation: post-alveolar – the tip of the tongue is raised towards the rear
part of the alveolar ridge. The centre of the tongue may be lowered, so that a
retroflexion of the tip is common. The passive articulator is the back part of the
alveolar ridge and the active articulator is the tip of the tongue.
Manner of articulation: approximant – there is a narrowing that is wide enough for
the air to escape freely. In this case, the air escapes without being stopped and without
friction over the centre of the tongue.

/w/ Voiced: the vocal folds are loosely together, so they vibrate as the air escapes through
them.
Place of articulation: labio-velar – this sound has a double articulation consisting of
two strictures of equal rank. First, a bilabial approximation whose rounding is greater
than that of GOOSE. Second, the back of the tongue is raised towards the velum. This
semivowel has similar qualities to GOOSE: it is a back close vowel-like sound or
extremely short duration that is marginal in the syllable: it precedes a vowel sound.
 The passive articulator is the velum and the active articulator are both lips and the
back of the tongue
Manner of articulation: approximant – there is a narrowing that is wide enough for
the air to escape freely. In this case, the air escapes without being stopped and without
friction over the back of the tongue and between the lips.

/j/ Voiced: the vocal folds are loosely together, so they vibrate as the air escapes through
them.
Place of articulation: palatal – the front of the tongue is raised towards the hard
palate. This semivowel has similar qualities to FLEECE: it is a front close vowel-like
sound or extremely short duration that is marginal in the syllable: it precedes a vowel
sound. The passive articulator is the palate and the active articulator is the front of the
tongue.
Manner of articulation: approximant – there is a narrowing that is wide enough for
the air to escape freely. In this case, the air escapes without being stopped and without
friction over the centre of the tongue.
 CLASSIFICATION OF VOWELS IN DETAIL

KIT Voicing

Voiced
Nasal resonator Shut off – oral sound
Relative length Relatively short
Degree of opening Just above close-mid
Part of the tongue Centralised front
Lip shape Unrounded: loosely spread
Tongue tension Lax (it’s a checked vowel)

Voicing Voiced
Nasal resonator Shut off – oral sound
Relative length Relatively long
Degree of opening Just below close
Part of the tongue Just behind fully front
Lip shape Unrounded: spread
Tongue tension Tense (it isn’t a checked
FLEECE vowel)

Schwa Voicing

Voiced
Nasal resonator Shut off – oral sound
Relative length Relatively short
Degree of opening Between open-mid and
close-mid
Part of the tongue Centre
Lip shape Unrounded: neutral
 Tongue tension Lax

DRESS Voicing

Voiced
Nasal resonator Shut off – oral sound
Relative length Relatively short
Degree of opening Just above open-mid
Part of the tongue Fully front
Lip shape Unrounded: loosely spread
Tongue tension Lax

NURSE Voicing Voiced

Nasal resonator Shut off – oral sound

Relative length Relatively long
 Degree of opening Between mid-open and
mid-close
Part of the tongue Central
Lip shape Unrounded: neutrally
spread
Tongue tension Tense

TRAP Voicing Voiced

Nasal resonator Shut off – oral sound

Relative length Relatively short, but it can
be lenghtened before
voiced consonants
Degree of opening Just above open
Part of the tongue Fully front
Lip shape Unrounded: neutrally
spread
Tongue tension Lax

STRUT Voicing Voiced

Nasal resonator Shut off – oral sound

Relative length Relatively short
Degree of opening Just above fully open
Part of the tongue Centralised back (modern)
or central (traditional)
Lip shape Unrounded: neutrally open
Tongue tension Lax
START Voicing

Voiced
Nasal resonator Shut off – oral sound
Relative length Relatively long
Degree of opening Fully open
Part of the tongue Between centre and back
Lip shape Unrounded: neutrally open
Tongue tension Tense

LOT Voicing

Voiced
Nasal resonator Shut off – oral sound
Relative length Relatively short
Degree of opening Just below open-mid
Part of the tongue Fully back
Lip shape Rounded: slight open lip
rounding
Tongue tension Lax
FORCE Voicing

Voiced
Nasal resonator Shut off – oral sound
Relative length Relatively long
Degree of opening Just below mid-close
(modern) – between mid-
close and mid-open
(traditional)
Part of the tongue Fully front
Lip shape Rounded: medium lip
rounding
Tongue tension Tense

GOOSE Voicing

Voiced
Nasal resonator Shut off – oral sound
Relative length Relatively long
Degree of opening Just below close
Part of the tongue Centralised monophthong or
diphthong / Fully back before
velarized lateral
Lip shape Unrounded (modern) –
rounded (traditional)
Tongue tension Tense
FOOT Voicing Voiced

Nasal resonator Shut off – oral sound

Relative length Relatively short
Degree of opening Just above close-mid
Part of the tongue Centralised back
Lip shape Unrounded (modern) –
closely rounded (traditional)
Tongue tension Lax