Tartalom

R-dropping, rhotic / non-rhotic accents, Linking-R, intrusive-R: ...........................................................2

L-Darkening ........................................................................................................................................2
Aspiration: ..........................................................................................................................................2
The pronunciation of -s and -ed: .........................................................................................................3
Full / Weak vowels in RP:...................................................................................................................4
Tense / Lax vowels in RP:...................................................................................................................4
Plain Tense / Broken Tense / Plain Lax / Broad Lax vowels in RP: .....................................................4
Vowel Shift: .......................................................................................................................................4
Laxness and Tenseness rules: ..............................................................................................................5
Types and sound-values of vowel-graphemes: .....................................................................................6
Free and Covered Graphic Position: ....................................................................................................6
Free Position Laxing Rules: ................................................................................................................6
Function of orthographic consonant doubling and word-final silent E .................................................7
 1. Major consonantal processes in RP and GA (R-dropping, rhotic / non-rhotic
accents, linking-R, intrusive-R, L-darkening, aspiration, the pronunciation of –s
and –ed)

R-dropping, rhotic / non-rhotic accents, Linking-R, intrusive-R:

• R-dropping: the process where certain spelt ‘r’s are deleted in certain accents of
English
• rhotic accents: those accents of English whose speakers pronounce all written ‘r’s
(GA, Canadian English, British English in North and South-West England, Scottish
English, Irish English)
• non-rhotic accents: speakers drop the R when followed by a consonant or a pause, and
only pronounce it when followed by a vowel (RP (Southern British English including
Cockney and London English)), Welsh English, Australian English, New Zealand
English, South African English, American English in New England and parts of
Southern US
• Linking R: word-final Rs are pronounced when followed by a vowel-initial morpheme
like -ing, -ed -; simmering, hammered
• Intrusive R: in some non-rhotic accents (except for conservative RP) an R is
pronounced without being present in writing, it only appears after non-high vowels

L-Darkening
In RP, the /l/ phoneme has two allophones, called “clear L” and “dark L”, but only in
pronounciation.
• the ‘l’ sound is sometimes not pronounced in English (talk)
• Clear L: in certain positions the ‘l’ is like in Hungarian
• Dark L: in other positions it becomes velarized
• RP: L is pronounced clear when followed by a vowel, dark when followed by a
consonant or pause
• ambisyllabic - the pronunciation is chosen according to the following word - (smile
back vs. smile at me)
• syllabic ‘l’ – forms a syllable on its own, last syllable lacks a vowel, /l/ takes up the
role of the vowel. always dark, even if followed by a vowel sound in the next syllable
e.g. cycling, cycle.
• GA: ‘l’ is usually dark in all positions
• L-vocalisation: in several non-standard varieties of English, the dark L is articulated as
an ‘o’ sound

Aspiration:
• voiceless plosives (p, t, k) are followed by an ‘h’ sound word-initially and before a
stressed vowel
• before stressed vowels: strong aspiration, before unstressed vowels: weak aspiration,
before the stop or after /s/: unaspirated
• Glottalization: word-finally the voiceless plosives (p, t, k) and (ts) are accompanied by
the vocal stop (a short closure of the vocal cords) → sleep (sliʔp), match (maeʔts)
 • 2 kinds of aspiration: H sound is pronounced or the devoicing of the following
sonorant (zengő) consonant → train (T is aspirated, R is devoiced, therefore sounds
like (ts) almost chain) (puff of air is released)
• Tapping/Flapping: the voiceless plosive ‘t’ becomes a voiced flap sound. Can also be
applied to ‘d’. e.g.: butterfly, nobody, tomato, little

The pronunciation of -s and -ed:

• voice assimilation: sound change in which some phonemes change to be more similar
to nearby sounds. s or ed.
• Progressive devoicing of -ed and -s suffixes (becomes like the following syllable),
otherwise only regressive (becomes like the syllable before it).
• -s: /z/ or /s/ or /iz/
• /z/: after all non-sibilant voiced sounds (e.g. legs, heads)
• /s/ after voiceless non-sibilants (e.g. kicks, laughs)
• /iz/ after sounds /tʃ/, /d3/, /ʃ/, /3/, /s/, /z/ (e.g. churches, kisses)
• -ed: /d/ or /t/ or /id/
• /id/ after root-final alveolar stops /t/ and /d/, the allomorph /i/ is inserted between the
two alveolar stops (e.g. navigated, protected)
• after all other voiced root-final phonemes: /d/ - cleaned, called
• after all other voiceless root-final phonemes: /t/ - looked, helped
 2. Functional classification of vowels in RP (full / weak, tense / lax, plain / broken /
broad, Vowel Shift)

Full / Weak vowels in RP:

• Two major phonological classes, based on the type of syllable the vowels appears in.
• English unstressed syllables have reduced vowels only: vowels are shorter, weaker,
and closer to schwa in pronunciation
• Only weak vowels in unstressed syllables
• Only full vowels in stressed syllables

Tense / Lax vowels in RP:

• Two categories within full vowels: tense and lax vowels
• short vowels are lax
• diphthongs and triphthongs are tense

Plain Tense / Broken Tense / Plain Lax / Broad Lax vowels in RP:
Two categories within tense vowels: Plain Tense and Broken Tense.
Pre-R Breaking: plain-tense vowels can’t stand before r, so they are replaced by their broken
counterparts in this position.
• Broken Tense vowels only appear before an R
• Plain Tense vowels never appear before an R
• in non-low starting tense vowels, Breaking is obligatory (/i:/ cheek - /i/ cheer, /u:/
moon - / / poor)
• in low-starting diphthongs, Breaking is only obligatory if R is at the end of the word
or followed by a productive suffix (e.g. ing) → fire - fired - firing, in other cases, (non-
productive suffix, morpheme internal r) Breaking is optional
• Smoothing: closely related to Pre-R Breaking. Simplification of Broken Tense vowels
in fast casual speech; it influences triphthongs - typically the middle component is
dropped
• Monophthongization: in faster speech, the last component (schwa) is dropped
• Compensatory lengthening: to make up for the loss of the third and second
components of the triphthong, the first part is lengthened - tired /taiəd/ - /taəd/ - /ta:d/
Plain Lax / Broad Lax:
• Lax vowels can be divided into two groups: Plain Lax, Broad Lax
• Pre-R Broadening: Broad Lax vowels replace their Plain Lax counterparts before R -
compensatory lengthening also occurs
• Carrot-rule: absence of Broadening where R is followed by pronounced vowel (VrV):
often indicated in spelling by a double r: e.g. marriage but not always: miracle
• Broadening without carrot-rule: R behaves as if the suffix was the next word eg. Starry

Vowel Shift:
• Alternation between a tense and a lax vowel (wise-wisdom ; receive-reception)
• tense vowels or word stems become lax in certain environments
 • some tense vowels do not have lax counterparts, therefore cannot alternate (ju:, ɔi, aʊ)
- they are non-laxable
• Two types of word pairs: one in which the stressed vowel is followed by the letter <r>
and one in which it is not. Sole – Solitude | Flora – Florist. Pre-R Breaking applies for
tense vowels (tense vowels differ according to what follows them) but Pre-R
Broadening doesn’t (same lax vowels everywhere).
• Historical version: Great Vowel Shift – 15h century, applied to long vowels.

Laxness and Tenseness rules:

• Trisyllabic-laxing: at least the third syllable must be lax e.g. sane – sanity. Lot of
irregular and regular exemptions. E.g.: tense vowels appear and trysillabic
environments. E.g. nightingale
• Laxing Ending: ending is added to the stem: a stressed syllable followed by one of the
laxing endings must be lax; -ic, -id, -et, -el, -it, -ish (e.g.: tonic)
• Pre-Cluster Laxness: triggered by the presence of a consonant cluster, immediately
after the stressed vowel → a stressed vowel followed by at least two consonants must
be lax (intervene - intervention)
• Laxing by Free U: stressed syllable is followed by a free U (CuV, CuCV) - grade -
gradual
• CiV Laxing Rule: Stressed vowel + CiV (consonant + i + vowel) must be lax - e.g.
decide - decision
• CiV Tensing: all the other vowels undergo this process e.g. senior
• Prevocalic Tenseness: all stressed vowels preceding other vowels are tense
• Hiatus: when two separate vowels are next to each other. E.g. Leo, hiatus. The first
member of a hiatus, if stressed, is always tense. It does not apply to unstressed vowels,
it is only relevant in pronunciation.
 3. The relationship of spelling and pronunciation for the vowels of RP (letter-to-sound
rules, types and sound-values of graphemes, free and covered graphic position, free
position laxing rules)

Letter-to-Sound Rules (types and sound-values of vowel-graphemes):

two kinds of English vowel-graphemes:
1. single vowel-letters (a, e, etc.)
2. vowel-digraphs (ee, oa, ui, etc.)
Single vowel-letters have two basic sound-values: tense and lax. Both may be influenced by a
following r, according to the rules of Pre-R Breaking and Pre-R Broadening. This gives four
standard sound-values for each letter.
Pre-R Breaking:
Plain-tense vowels may not stand before r, and are replaced by their broken counterparts in this position
Pre-R Broadening:
Plain-lax vowels are replaced by their broad counterparts before r

Free and Covered Graphic Position:

Graphic position of a vowel-letter: the letters that follow it in spelling.
Two types of graphic position: Free and Covered.
Free position basic rule: A vowel letter is in free graphic position if it is either not followed by
a consonant letter at all, or it is followed by a consonant letter that is itself followed by a
vowel letter.
Covered position rule: A vowel letter is in covered graphic position if it is followed by a
consonant letter that is either at the end of the word, or is itself followed by another consonant
letter.
• Free: tense if not affected by laxing rules.
• Covered: lax
• Tenseness Reversal: in some cases the stressed single vowel letter is not pronounced with the
tense / lax value predicted by the Free Position Basic Rule or the Covered Position Rule - it is
pronounced with the opposite e.g. bind (baind), fight
• Irregular Tenseness Reversals: the stressed single vowel letter in a free graphic position is not
made lax by any of the laxing rules, but is lax - typically in the second to last, last or only
syllable of a word, which is pronounced as if the final silent <e> was not present at the end
• Quality Deviations: Often the single vowel letters of vowel digraphs are not pronounced with
one of their regular pronunciation values. The spelling and pronunciation of these words is not
predictable by any of the rules, they must be memorized.

Free Position Laxing Rules:

• Trisyllabic Laxing: stressed syllable is followed by two other syllables. eg. animal, gravity
• Laxing by Ending: laxness due to a Laxing Suffix in the next syllable: eg.
-ic: panic, comic | -id: valid, solid | -ish: parish, finish (but not adjectives) |-et, -it: comet, visit
|-el: panel, level
• Laxing by Free U: laxness due to a free letter u in the next syllable, eg. menu, statue, tribute
• CiV Laxing of i: stressed i is lax when the next syllable has C + i + V, eg. idiot
 • Non-laxability of free U: free-position u is non-laxable, it cannot be affected by any laxing
rules. Therefore its tense or lax pronunciation depends on its free or covered graphic position.
• Glide i: unstressed, high, front, nonconsonantal segment - can either be an /i/ or a /j/ (a glide)

Function of orthographic consonant doubling and word-final silent E

Function of ortographic consonant doubling: Doubled consonant letters can be used to
indicate a geminated consonant sound. In OE, consonants written double were pronounced
longer than single ones, but during MidE and EModE, phonemic consonant length was lost
and a spelling convention developed in which a doubled consonant serves to indicate that a
preceding vowel is to be pronounced short. In modern English, for example, the ⟨pp⟩
of tapping differentiates the first vowel sound from that of taping. Sometimes, doubled
consonant letters represent a true geminate consonant in modern English; when two instances
of the same consonant come from different morphemes, for example ⟨nn⟩
in unnatural (un+natural).

Word-final silent e: it typically represents a vowel sound that was formerly pronunced, but
became silent in Middle English or Early Modern English. E.g. rid and ride, the presence of
the final, unpronounced ⟨e⟩ appears to alter the sound of the preceding ⟨i⟩. A silent ⟨e⟩ in
association with the other vowels may convert a short vowel sound to a long vowel
equivalent, though not always. Because of the complications of the Great Vowel Shift, the
long vowel is not always a lengthened version of the corresponding short one; in most cases
(ride) it is a diphthong. To create a long vowel, there is usually only one consonant between
the silent ⟨e⟩ and the preceding vowel. In some cases, two consonants may also have the same
effect, as in table, paste and bathe, in other cases no consonants are found, as
in tie, toe and due. The presence of a double consonant may indicate that the ⟨e⟩ is not silent
and does not affect the preceding vowel (Jesse, posse).