English Pronunciation

Lecture 3

Phonetic Transcriptions
English Vowels
About the Lab...
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English Pronunciation

A few words about phonetic transcription:

• IPA characters are used to transcribe the
sounds in a word

BED

TIP

ME

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English Pronunciation

CAREFUL! These may not correspond to

the number of letters in the word

SHEEP

TONGUE
LAUGH

BRUISE

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English Pronunciation

Phonetic transcription:
• there is no punctuation in phonetic
transcription (no capital letters, etc.)

How's it going?

• there may be symbols that look like

punctuation, but they have a new
(symbolic) meaning…
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English Pronunciation

You need to learn a new meaning for these

two "punctuation signs":

' (an apostrophe)

IPA symbol for WORD STRESS

: (a colon)
used in the IPA to indicate a LONG VOWEL

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English Pronunciation

' marks WORD STRESS

placed BEFORE the stressed syllable

'

'

'

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English Pronunciation

From now on, WORD STRESS will

be marked in every polysyllabic
word that we transcribe...

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English Pronunciation

: indicates a LONG VOWEL*

placed AFTER the vowel symbol
(a long vowel is simply a vowel you take a
longer time to say…)

moon / mu:n /

deep / di:p /

leaf / li:f /
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English Pronunciation

Speaking of VOWELS…

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English Pronunciation

5 LONG VOWELS
sheep
blue moon
bird
door vowel
+ [r]
car

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English Pronunciation

6 "SHORT" VOWELS
ship
bed
hat
sun
dog
put, book

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1 UNACCENTED VOWEL SOUND

banana

"schwa"

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English Pronunciation

12 Monophthongs

= simple (single) vowel sound

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English Pronunciation

8 Diphthongs

rose beer
cow care
cake poor
night monophthong + [r]
boy

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English Pronunciation

5 Triphthongs
flower
higher
player diphthong + [r]
slower
lawyer

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English Pronunciation

13 Compound vowel sounds ("glides")

+
12 Monophthongs
=

French: 16 vowel sounds

Italian, Spanish: 5 (??)
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English Pronunciation

To master this complex system, you

need:

• to understand a little bit about vowels

• to learn the sounds (and the symbols)
• to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

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English Pronunciation

What is a vowel?
• How do you make a vowel sound?
• What do you do (with your mouth) to
change from one vowel sound to
another?

EXPERIMENT, and TELL ME

(in English, obviously!)

Hilton
English Pronunciation

A vowel sound:
• a reverberation of air in the mouth cavity
• vocal chords "on" (always) = "voiced"
sound

1. the degree to which your mouth is open

2. the position of your tongue
determine which vowel you produce.

Hilton
English Pronunciation

Hilton www.ling.mq.edu.au/.../ vowel_artic.html.

English Pronunciation
The Vowel Triangle

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English Pronunciation
The Vowel Triangle

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English Pronunciation
The Vowel Triangle

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English Pronunciation
The Vowel Triangle

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English Pronunciation
The Vowel Triangle

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English Pronunciation
The Vowel Triangle

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English Pronunciation
The Vowel Triangle

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English Pronunciation
The Vowel Triangle

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English Pronunciation
The Vowel Triangle

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English Pronunciation
The Vowel Triangle

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English Pronunciation
The Vowel Triangle

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English Pronunciation
The Vowel Triangle: DIPHTHONGS

cake a glide

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English Pronunciation
The Vowel Triangle: DIPHTHONGS

night

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English Pronunciation
The Vowel Triangle: DIPHTHONGS

snow
(RP)

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English Pronunciation
Booklet, p. 10: copy the symbols, and key words

SHEEP
BLUE MOON

FISH BOOK
"schwa"
BED BIRD DOOR

HAT
SUN DOG
CAR
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English Pronunciation

Homework:
• Study all the "long" vowels: booklet, pages
11, 15 (CAR), 16, 17 (MOON).
• For each vowel, try pronouncing the words.
• Look up any words you don't know in the
dictionary (unilingual, preferably).
• Notice how many different ways each
sound can be spelled!!

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