PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

CHAPTER 1 – introduction

Human language is as complex in its own way as any of the biochemical and anatomical
functions of the human body. All native speakers of English share a set of mental rules wich
guarantee that they will know how to group the words into meaningful units.
• A Frameworks is a structure which holds something together and so knowing the
frameworks of a language enables you to understand how that language is
structured and what rules operace to produce that structure. The frameworks of any
living language change in a variety of ways.
Lexis ➝ the words of the language
Grammar ➝ the way words are combined into sentences
Discourse ➝ the way sentences are combined into texts
Phonology ➝ the sound of the language.
STANDARD ENGLISH ➝ the yardstick which linguists use and it is the english of newspaper,
television, radio, public documents ecc, but it also the variety of english which foreigners
learn. Standard English is a dialect (the lexis and the grammar of a particular language
variety)

Why study phonetics and phonology?

A knowledge of phonetics and phonology will help you to study:
o Accent: social and regional variations in pronunciation
o Informal conversation: changes in speech linked to audience, purpose and context
Of particular importance for learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) because it has a
practical application
English has a far larger repertory of phonemes than languages like Standard Italian
English is not a phonographic language, i.e. spelling generally does give a clear indication of
pronunciation
English is not a phonographic language because many sounds have several different
spellings,
e.g. go, though, foe, slow, boat = /əʊ̩ /
or
George, Joe, badge, village = /dʒ /

Many "same spellings" have different sounds,

e.g. <ough>: though, cough, bough, through, thought, and enough

➔ VOICE SETTING
Those features of accent that result from the characteristic disposition and use of the
articulatory organs by speakers of a particular language, and which affects the production of
all the individual sounds common to that language.
Pronunciation is one aspect of language learning where transfer from the L, can persist even
in advanced students (L interference). Each L, brings its own 'typical' pronunciation mistakes
to English, this is known technically as using the wrong voice-setting.
It is quite easy to identify a speaker's L1 thanks to the use of their L, voice settings when
speaking English. For learners to acquire a more natural pronunciation they need to
understand and learn to use the English voice-setting! Using the wrong voice-setting can
sometimes lead to a breakdown in communication

➔ TRANSMISSION
The physical properties of sounds as they travel from the mouth to the ear

➔ RECEPTION
The way in which the ear and the brain receive and respond to sounds

➔ FROM SPELLLING TO PRONUNCIATION

Spelling problems are caused by the indirect (or 'abnormal') relationship between letter and
sound, or grapheme and phoneme

THE PROBLEM OF PRONUNCIATION FOR LEARNES OF ESL

Learnes cannot rely on the spelling of a word meanwhile the problem is the opposite for
native speakers because English schoolchildren spend incredible amounts of time learning to
read and esp. to write. Many adults have very poor spelling

Is English spelling really so erratic?

83% of English words have predictable spelling, however the remaining 17% is made up of
the most commonly used everyday words.
Therefore, the greatest difficulties are faced by the learner at the start

Why is English spelling so erratic?

-not enough vowel letters for vowel sounds
-English does not use accents, umlauts (vowel change) etc
-English spelling reflect many archaic forms of pronunciation (ex: night in the past was
pronounced with a fricative)
-English has always resisted spelling reforms and academies to set standards
-English spelling became fixed in the 16th – 17th century with the arrival of printing
-English has borrowed extensively from other languages and has tended to maintain original
spelling
 CHAPTER 9 - phonetics and phonemes

PHONETICS: is the study of the sound of speech (how we produce speech and how we
perceive speech), so it focuses on the way which sounds are physically produced. There are
several several branches of phonetics like
-articulatory phonetics: how the sound is physically produced
-acoustic phonetics: the acoustic characteristics of the speech sound

PHONOLOGY: it focuses on sounds in a particular language

PHONEMES: is an abstract concept and is a single sound , for example /p/ if swapped with
another phoneme, could change one word to another. This is an idealised version of the
sound in question and it is not real so it is an abstract concept

PHONEME INVENTORY: it is the complete set of phonemes in a language

ALLOPHONES: the surface form which occurs in the realisation of a phoneme (clear l and
dark l are allophones of the phoneme /l/)

GRAPHEME: letter

STANDARD BRITISH ENGLISH

Standard English is a dialect (it is a variety characterised by certain lexical and grammatical
features)all speakers of English have an accent.
There are different ways of pronouncing a language depending on
-geographical origin of speakers
-social class
-age
-educational background
Linguists have traditionally selected an accent know as Received Pronunciation (RP) to
represent British English (it has de advantage of not being associated with any specific
geographical region although it has the disadvantage of being associated with social
privilege). Conservative RP is a variety associated with the aristocracy and with older
speakers

THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET (IPA): it is a special alphabet in which one symbol
always represents the same sound and in which there is a symbol for every possible sound a
language learner might need

THE VOCAL TRACT

The vocal tract is where the sounds are produced. It begins at the voice box or larynx and it
finishes at the lips. The larynx is essentially a casing of cartilage rings at the top of the
trachea. In the larynx are two small but extremely important muscles, stretching from front
to back, which can open and close —>the vocal cords and the space between them is known
as the glottis.
English phonemes are made by the air passing from the lungs, up the trachea, then through
the larynx and the rest of the vocal tract. This flow of air is known as an airstream.
-egressive pulmonic airstream: if the airstream flows out from the lungs (all sounds of
English are made by this)

THE CONSONANTS OF ENGLISH

In phonetics a consonant is a speech sound which is produced through a TEMPORARY closure
(partial or complete) of the vocal tract.
The English of Received Pronunciation is based on a system of 24 consonants, and they are
classify according three aspects:
1) Place of articulation
Consonants can be classified by the speech organs used to articulate them so the place of
articulation describes where the airstream is shopped in the mouth.
The parts of the mouth involved in making speech sounds are called articulators.
-passive articulators: parts of the mouth cannot move so the upper teeth, the alveolar ridge
and the hard palate
-active articulators: other parts that can move (ex: tongue)

2) Manner of articulation
The way in which consonants are produced and to describe the manner of articulation we
need to focus on what happens to the airstream after it has passed through the vocal
cords.
It may be
-stopped—> sounds that are completely blocked in the mouth are called STOPS (plosives
and nasal because both of them involve a complete closure or stopping off of the vocal tract
at one of the places of articulation before the relies of air). They are MOMENTARY
-partly blocked —> sounds in which the airstream is partially intern in the mouth is called
CONTINUANTS (fricatives)
-allowed to move freely —> sounds in which the airstream in uninterrupted is called
CONTINUANTS

A sound may be

PLOSIVES
Plosives are sounds produced by stopping the airstream.
A blockage may be created by the movement of one articulator against another, or by the
movement of two articulators against each other. The air trapped by the blockage is then
released suddenly, making a small explosion enough to be heard:

[p] [b] —> bilabial

[t] [d] —> alveolar
[k] [g] —> velar

NASAL
Nasal are sounds produced when the soft palate is lowered and the airstream continues to
flow in the production of these sounds.
They are called stops because a blockage in the mouth prevents air escaping orally

[m] —> bilabial

[n] —> alveolar
[ŋ] —> velar

FRICATIVE
Fricatives are sounds produced by a partial blockage of the airstream resulting in friction as
the air is forced through the small gap. They also contrast with plosives and nasal in that they
are continuants so they can be extended as long as you have breath to articulate them

[f] [v] —> labiodental

[θ] [ð] —> dental
[s] [z] —> alveolar
[ʃ] [ʒ] —> palato - alveolar
[h] —> glottal

AFFRICATIVE
Affricates are sounds produced by combining a brief blockage of the airstream with an
obstructed release which causes some friction.
Like the plosives, these are called stops.
Affricate sound is a combination of plosive and fricative.

[tʃ] —> palato – alveolar

[dʒ] —> palato – alveolar

APPROXIMANT / LATERAL (meaning ‘at the side’ quindi esce dai lati)
[l] —> can be described as a lateral consonant because the passage of air through the mouth
is along the sides of the tongue rather than along the centre
This sound is different depending upon its position in a word:
1) [I] before a vowel sounds quite different from —> CLEAR l (ex: leg / log )
2) [l] in other positions —> DARK l (ex: meal / till )

[r] ; [w] ; [j] —> these sounds are described as approximants or frictionless continuants
because although they are consonants they do not adopt the articulator positions of the
plosives, nasals or fricatives
[r] is a CENTRAL APPROXIMANT because the sides of the tongue are very close to or
touching the alveolar ridge above the back teeth and the air escapes down the middle of the
mouth

[w] is produced by a partial closure of the lip, and is therefore a bilabila approximant, but the
back of the tongue is raised towards the soft palate and so this sound is a secondary velar
articulation

[j] is a palate approximant since the sides of the tongue are raised towards the hard palate

3) Presence or absence of voice

The presence or absence of voice when a phoneme is produced is caused by the state of the
vocal cords in the larynx
-VOICELESS: if the folds are open when the air passes through the larynx then the airstream
flows freely —> corde vocali aperte
-VOICED: if the vocal cords are almost closed then the air causes them to vibrate as it passes
through —> corde vocali chiuse perche l’aria deve passare e fa fatica quindi il suono viene
prodotto (the 3 nasal consonant)
Fricatives /h/ is voiceless because to produce it the vocal cords need to be more open than
for voiced consonants but not fully open as when breathing out normally and silently

THE VOWEL OF ENGLISH

Vowels sounds are produced by the free flow of air and the position of the tongue, which
influences the shape of the space the air has to pass through. There are 20 vowels, the
sounds of a vowel does not depend on contact between articulators.
A) All vowels are VOICED.
MONOPHTHONGS: a monophthong is a pure vowel
DIPHTHONGS: a diphthongs is a glide from one vowel position towards another and they
are represented by 2 symbols, the first being the vowel with which the glide begins and the
second being the vowel towards which the glide moves.
/a/ /ɛ/ and ONLY occurs in diphthongs.
A diphthong is NOT one phoneme but TWO, however they are treated as distinct phonemes
because they are not simply sequences of one vowel followed by another, but single
elements of a slightly more complex nature than monophthongs in that the tongue glides
from one position to another.

B) It is possible a contrast of LENGTH

Diphthongs does not concern this feature since they posses the feature of length by being
glides.
A concrete way of demonstrating that some vowel are longer than others is by looking at
some simple monosyllabic words and we have
-CVC —> words with CLOSED structure: they are monosyllabic word which end in a
consonant
-CV —> OPEN structure: they are monosyllabic word which end in a vowel

SHORT vowels: always monophthongs

LONG vowels: monophthongs or diphthongs + they are represented by this symbol ː

DIACRITICS
SONO I SEGNI
(questo segno è
un diacritic)
There are 3 criteria to classificate vowel
1) The part of the TONGUE that is RAISED / height of the tongue
FRONT: the front of the tongue will be raised towards the alveolar ridge and the hard palate
CENTRAL: the tongue tends to be flatters than fro front or back vowels
BACK: the back of the tongue will be raised towards the soft palate

2) The DISTANCE between TONGUE and PALATE

CLOSE: small cavity between the tongue and the palate
HALF-CLOSE: intermediate measures of tongue height
HALF-OPEN: intermediate measures of tongue height
OPEN: large cavity since the jaw is slightly lowered for open vowels

The vowels /iː/ and /ɑː/ appear very near two extremes of the vowel grid. This means they
are very useful as points of reference. Daniel Jones identified eight reference points around
the grid, working out which vowels would be produced if the tongue fell from high to low at
the front or back of the mouth in equal measures. These reference vowels are known as
cardinal vowels and are shown in Figure 9.6. When cardinal vowels are written they are
often preceded by C as an indication that the phonetic symbol represents a cardinal vowel
 3) The POSITION and SHAPE of the LIPS
UNROUNDED (SPREAD)
/i:/ the corners of the lips are moved away from each other (as for a smile)

NEUTRAL
/ə/ (the noise when hesitanting “er”) the lips are not rounded or spread

ROUNDED
/u:/ the corners of the lips are brought towards each other and the lips pushed forward

The ‘neutral’ sound /ə/ has a special name –> schwa. To articulate schwa you have your
mouth in what is likely to be its most natural position.One of the reasons why schwa is so
common in English is because vowels in unstressed syllables normally revert to it.
The grid (Figure 9.7) used for plotting pure (monophthong) vowels can also be used to plot
the eight diphthongs of RP, using an arrow to indicate the direction of the glide in terms of
tongue height and which part of the tongue is highest.
From the figure above we can notice that there are
- 5 CLOSING DIPHTHONGS: three diphthongs move towards /ɪ/, and another two
towards /ʊ/
- 3 CENTRING DIPHTHONGS: the other three diphthongs move towards /ə/ as the
finishing position and (/ə/ is a central vowel)

CHAPTER 10 – segmental phonology

Phonology is concerned with the phoneme systems of languages and with the individual
sounds – or segments – when they are no longer in isolation but grouped together in
syllables and words. Phonology is often divided into two broad areas
1) SEGMENTAL PHONOLOGY
It deals with the distribution of the phonemes, how there vary in different environments and
how phonemes group together to form syllables and words
2) SUPRASEGMENTAL PHONOLOGY
It deals with aspects of speech such as pitch and intonation

THE DISTRIBUTION OF CONSONANTS

We have monosyllabic and disyllabic (2 syllables) words.
Mono: they have the structure CVC ≠ Disy: CVCV(C)
There are 3 position in which rh consonants can occur

1) WORD-INITIAL (at the beginning of a word)

/ɜ/: It occurs word-initially in a number of French loanwords (genre, gigolo), it is a fairly rare
consonant anyway

/h/: common (hotel, home)

/m/ and /n/: they occur (mat, nose) BUT /ɳ/: it never occurs

/l/, /r/, /w/ and /j/: they occur (look, rise, wet, you)

2) WORD-FINAL (at the end of a word)

/ɜ/: It occurs also word-finally in a few French words (beige, rouge), but the pronunciation
may alternate with /ʤ/ (garage)

/h/: does not occur

/m/ and /n/: they occur (bomb—> /bɒm/ , can) + /ɳ/: it occurs (sing)
ONLY /l/: it occurs (cool)

3) WORD-MEDIAL (between vowels in a word of 2 syllables and more)

/ɜ/: the sound can also occur in word-medial position (measure, pleasure)

/h/: rarer (ahead)

/m/ and /n/: they occur (among, ant) + /ɳ/: it occurs (finger)

/l/, /r/: often (allow, arrow) AND /w/: more rarely (award) BUT /j/: does not
THE DISTRIBUTION OF VOWELS

In monosyllabic words, the structure can be: VC, CV, CVC (egg, boo, bite)

SHORT MONOPHTHONGS do NOT occur in open syllables (CV)

-/ʊ/: does NOT occur in closed monosyllables (VC)
-/ə/only occurs unstressed syllables! Thus, it does not occur in monosyllabic words
(although it does occur in monosyllabic words when pronounced in connected speech)—>
ex:of/ɒv/(strong) /əv/ (weak)

LONG MONOPHTHONGS occurs in ALL 3 positions

- /iː/ eave, bead, bee
- /ɑː/ art, bard, bar
- /ɔː/ ought, board, bore
- /uː/ooze, food, boo
- /ɜː/ irk, bird, purr

CLOSING DIPHTHONGS: they glides towards /ɪ/ /ʊ/and they occur in ALL 3 structures (CVC,
VC, CV)
- /eɪ/ bait, age, bay
- /aɪ/ bite, ice, buy
- /ɔɪ/ void, oil, boy
- /əʊ/ bode, ode, beau
- /aʊ/ fowl, owl, bough

CENTRING DIPHTHONGS occur in CVC an CV structure

- /ɪə/ beard, beer (+ ear, VC)
- /ə/ laird, bear (+ air, VC)
- /ʊə/ gourd, poor.
THE SYLLABLE STRUCTURE

Vowel: is the central element of a syllable and it can be a word (ex: ear). If a word has 2
distinct vowel it is a disyllabic word
Consonant: cannot constitute a word maximum number of consonants which can begins
syllable is 3. When we have a combination of consonants we have a CLUSTER
Phonotactics:the way phonemes group together to form syllables, they do according to a
pattern or syllable template.

CLUSTERS 1
When we have a combination of consonants we have a CLUSTER
The maximum number of consonants which can begins syllable is 3 (ex: strange, spring)

➔ INITIAL CONSONANTS
We mentioned earlier that all consonants, can occur in word initial position: all these
consonants are called initial consonants. The preceding and following consonants are called
pre-initial and post-initial consonants.

A) WORD-INITIAL 2-CONSONANTS CLUSTERS

the pre-initial consonant can only be /s/
/s/ can only be followed by 9 other consonants:
- the-voiceless plosives /p, t, k/
- the voiceless labio-dental fricative /f/
- a nasal /m/ and /n/ (but not /ŋ/, which doesn’t occur word initially),
- an approximant(but not /r/), so /l, w, j/
The plosives and the fricative which can follow /s/ are all, like /s/, voiceless
The post-initial consonants are all approximants
 B) WORD-INITIAL 3-CONSONANTS CLUSTERS
They are related to the combinations possible for two-consonant clusters
• /spr-/ (as in spring) is only possible as an English cluster because the initial consonant
/p/ can be preceded by /s/ and followed by /r/ in two-consonant clusters
• It is difficult to say precisely why possible combinations such as /stw-/ and /slj-/ fail to
occur. They may be accidental gaps or dye to rare occurrences
• /j/, for instance, in clusters such as /fj-/, /stj-/ and so on, almost always occurs before
/u/

CLUSTERS 2

➔ FINAL CONSONANTS
As with syllable-initial consonants, we can say that all consonants that can occur in word-
final positions are final consonants
Thus, all consonants with the exceptions of the approximants /r*, j, w/ and of the glottal
fricative /h/ are final consonants.
Consonants which precede them are pre-final, and those which follow are post-final.

A) WORD-FINAL MONOSYLLABIC CLUSTERS

Word-final clusters have a maximum of four consonants
• All the consonants occur alone word-finally with the exception of /h, w,j/
• The approximant /r/ does not occur word-finally in RP (although it does in rhotic
accents)
 B) WORD-FINAL 2-CONSONANTS CLUSTERS
(pre-final C + final C combinations)
➢ In pre-final position, the consonant will be a nasal, the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/,
or the lateral approximant /l/
Only /s/ occurs in the pre-initial consonant position
The pre-final consonant position can be not only /s/ but also four other consonants–>
/m, n, ŋ, l/

➢ The final + post-final combination also has several possibilities

C) Word-final two-consonant clusters

(final C + post-final C combinations)

Asterisks show that examples are the result of adding inflections

Some consonant clusters only exist word finally because they occur as the result of an
inflection being added to a noun or verb
Some consonants, particularly the nasals /m/ and /n/ and the approximant /l/, are able to
combine with both voiced and voiceless consonants
 D) Word-final two-consonant clusters
(pre-final C + final C + post-final C combinations )
Table10.8 lists the pre-final + final combinations and gives examples of the 5 post-final
consonants can follow them
A 3-consonant cluster only occurs if its first two elements and its last two elements occur
separately as two-consonant clusters. The same principle applies to word-final
combinations. Most examples derive from adding noun or verb inflections.
Only a few ‘pure’ examples: glimpse /glimps/ and twelfth /twelfθ/.
 E) Word-final two-consonant clusters
(pre-final C + final C combinations)
Table10.9 gives examples of final + post-final clusters which can be followed by a further
postfinal consonant. Almost all are the result of adding inflections
Only exceptions are
-next /nekst/
-thousandth /θaυzəntθ/
-sixth /siksθ/
Tables 10.8 and 10.9 share the words in italics, which can be analysed in two ways:
1)pre-final C + final C + post-final C
2)final C + post-final C + post-final C
 F) Four-syllable final clusters
Some words in English end in four-syllable clusters, but they are rare. These words are either
nouns ending in a three consonant cluster with the plural inflection /-s/, or verbs which
have a /-s/ inflection in the third person singular of the present tense (he sculpts).
In other words, there are no four-consonant final clusters in uninflected words in English.

THE SYLLABLE TEMPLATE

We also need to consider the phenomenon of rhyme. In rhyming pairs, e.g. sad and glad,
straight and hate, it is the vowel + any following consonants that provide the rhyme. The
word-initial consonant(s) may change
This suggests a link between the length of the vowel and the consonants which follow it
In RP
• short monophthongs have to be followed by one or more consonants
• but almost all vowels (excepting only /υ/ and /υə/) can occur without a preceding
consonant.

ONSET: the opening consonant(s), if present

RHYME:the obligatory vowel followed by any final consonant
PEAK: the vowel at the ‘centre’ of the syllable, having the greatest sonority
CODA: any consonants which conclude a syllable

SYLLABIFICATION
The way in which a word is divided into syllables
Sometimes the morphemes in a word will correlate with its syllable structure —> blackbird?
toaster?
- /təυ-/ + /-stə/?
- /təυst-/ + /-ə/?
- Although toaster = [toast + -er], we do not syllabify it as [toast + er] but as [toa + ster]

magnet?
- The consonant cluster /gn/ is impossible both as an onset and as a coda —> [mag+net]
TRIPHTHONGS
Triphthongs result from the fact that, sometimes, a closing diphthong is followed by a glide
towards schwa:
- fire /faɪǝ/ In this case the number of syllables perceived depends on the
- sour/saʊǝ/ prominence given to the middle element of the triphthong.

Speakers will differ as to whether a triphthong results in one syllable or two

In other cases, esp. words with an inflectional or derivational ending (such as <-er>), the
perception is probably of two syllables.

SYLLABIC CONSONANTS
The initial assumption was that a vowel is obligatory in a syllable, otherwise there is one
exception: syllabic consonants
-when the vowel in the syllable is not stressed, it is so reduced that it disappears, leaving the
coda to function as the peak
-instead, a nasal (/m/ or /n/) or an approximant (/l/ and sometimes /r/) functions as the
peak of the syllable
-button: [bʌ] + [tɒn] —> [bʌtən] —> [bʌtņ]

CONNECTED SPEECH
Phonemes vary when in contact with adjacent phonemes from other words, these
variations are the result of connected speech

ELISION: loss of a speech segment

In conversational speech, many sounds are often omitted. Total omission of one or more
sounds is due to the fact that the mouth is anticipating the next sound. Many vowels are
elided within words, for example correct is often pronounced [krekt] rather than /kəˈrekt/
At word boundaries some consonants also disappear, usually /t/ and /d/ when they are
followed by a dental, alveolar or labial sound, for example both the elided sound and the
following sound are formed at the front of the mouth

Examples:
• last week —> /lɑːst wiːk/ [lɑːswiːk]
 • Just before —> /dɜʌsbɪfɔː/
• Slept together —> /sleptəɡeðə/

LIAISON: in some circumstances segments may be lost, but it is also common for segments
to appear or be added at word boundaries
In English, the segment which usually appears is /r/. RP is a non-rhotic accent, so words
which end in /r/ in some accents will not do so in RP.
For example, a speaker of a rhotic accent will pronounce four as [fɔr] whereas an RP speaker
will pronounce it [fɔ:] [FOUR;FLOOR;SURE;]. However, when four is followed by a word
which begins with a vowel, the /r/ is likely to be pronounced in RP. So, like a speaker of a
rhotic accent, an RP speaker may well pronounce four apes as [fɔr eips], with the /r/
emerging at the end of four. This occurrence of /r/ is known as linking r

ASSIMILATION: describes the process in which two phonemes occurring together are
influenced by each other, making the sounds more alike
Example: I can go —> /ɑɪ kæn ɡəʊ/ —> [ɑɪkæŋɡəʊ]
There are 3 types of assimilation

1) ANTICIPATORY assimilation
In a phrase such as ten pin bowling, the /n/ at the end of ten is often pronounced [m] in anticipation of the
fact that the following word, pin, begins with the bilabial phoneme /p/.
This could also happen to the /n/ at the end of pin as this too precedes a bilabial phoneme (/b/). In
connected speech, then, ten pin bowling will probably be pronounced [tem pɪm bəʊlɪŋ]

2) PERSEVERATIVE assimilation
This is when a feature of one segment 'perseveres' and is found in the following segment.
The two elements of the compound ashtray in isolation will probably be pronounced [æʃ] and [treɪ].
But in connected speech or simply in the utterance of ashtray by itself, it is likely a speaker will say [æʃʧreɪ].
Here, the fricative quality of the /ʃ/ at the end of ash has been carried over to the /t/ at the beginning of
tray, causing it to surface as [ʧ]

3) COALESCENT assimilation
This is when two segments merge into one.
Example: haven’t you is likely to be pronounced [hævənʧuː] with the /t/ at the end of
haven’t and the /j/ at the start of you being merged to give [ʧ]

CHAPTER 11 - SUPRASEGMENTAL PHONOLOGY

Suprasegmental phonology is the study of
-stress
-pitch
-intonation
STRESS
Some syllables are described as WEAK because they are unstressed others are described as
STRONG because they are stressed
A stressed syllable can be marked in transcription by placing a small vertical line (′) just
before the syllable it relates to.
Stressed syllables are said to have PROMINENCE because they are usually louder and longer
and have a noticeably different pitch from that of unstressed syllables
-The neutral vowel schwa is commonly found in unstressed syllables and never
occurs in stressed ones
-By contrast I and U can occur in both

1) PRIMARY STRESS
Primary stress is the syllable with the most emphasis in a word, marked by placing (′)
 2) SECONDARY STRESS
Secondary stress means the syllable also has emphasis but not as strongly as the syllable
with primary stress, it is marked by a small vertical line (ˌ) just before the syllable it relates
to

RHYTHM
Rhythm refers to the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in speech, we often
associate rhythm with a degree of regularity in this pattern in contrast to arhythmic speed
where the pattern is irregular.
The latter is likely to occur when we are nervous or hesitant; in general, though, our speech
tends to be fairly rhythmic.
What is of particular significance is the way we adjust the rhythm of our speech in order to
make it more regular.
In normal spontaneous speech it is highly unlikely that there will be a consistent alternation
between stressed and unstressed syllables, what speakers of English normally do to
compensate for the irregularity in occurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables is to
space the stressed syllables at approximately equal intervals -> this adds something like a
REGULAR BEAT to the utterance.
➢ Stress-timed languages: languages which use this strategy as a means of constructing
rhythm as opposed to
➢ Syllable-timed languages: such as French where all syllables have approximately
equal duration.
English is fundamentally a stress-timed language although there are some varieties of
global English (such as Indian English) that have a rather different rhythmic pattern.
The alternation between stressed and unstressed syllables results in a regular rhythm
Example:
a cup of tea, a piece of cake -> if, however, we join them with the conjunction and, the
regularity is slightly disrupted by the fact that two unstressed syllables now occur between
tea and piece -> the likelihood is that speakers will space the stressed syllables at fairly
regular intervals irrespective of the number of unstressed syllables which occur between
them
✦ In order to achieve more regularity of rhythm, stress shift will occur on individual words
✦ Some polysyllabic words contain both a primary and a secondary stress -> however, in
connected speech, the normal distinction between primary and secondary stress may
disappear, or stress positions change
✦ Ex. trend for a primary stress in a polysyllabic word to shift or become less prominent
when the next stressed syllable that follows it, albeit in a different word, also has primary
stress (compund nouns)
✦ Ex. tendency among speakers to alternate primary and secondary stresses. Similarly, the
inclination to alternate stressed and unstressed syllables is sufficiently strong at times to
shift stress to a previously unstressed syllable
Strong and weak forms -> The choice between the strong and weak forms of the words can
have an effect on the rhythm of the sentence in question
- When we utter monosyllabic words in isolation, we give the full value to their vowels ->
true for bothlexical and grammatical words
- However, in connected speech, the vowels in monosyllabic grammatical words are often
reduced, resulting in the entire word becoming unstressed
✦ The preposition from, for example, in isolation would be pronounced normally. By
contrast, in a string such as my holiday from hell, the vowel in from would be reduced to
schwa
✦ A number of monosyllabic grammatical words like these which will be unstressed in
some contexts but stressed in others -> these words have both strong (namely stressed)
and weak (unstressed)

✦ In addition to the above, the primary auxiliaries am, are, was and were can also occur in
both weak and strong forms when functioning as lexical verbs

There are various reasons why a weak or strong form may be selected
1) The position of a word in a sentence may affect the form it takes

2) Or for the sake of contrastive stress

 3) Or simply for emphasis

CHAPTER 12 – VARIATION IN ENGLISH

English is characterised by the vast number of people who speak it and also by the extent it is
used global.
English speakers can be divided into 3 groups
1) ENL: people who have English as a native language
2) ESL: people who have it as a second language, speakers usually use a different
language at home but English for mor public purposes —> not as fluent as enl
3) EFL: speakers across the world who have learnt it as a foreign language

Elsewhere, English may have the status of an official language, but its importance is as lingua
franca so a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native
languages are different (this is the case in India, where the primary offi- cial language is Hindi
and where English is only spoken as a native language by a smallish minority. However,
English is used by the majority as a second language and has considerable importance in
government and education)

In linguistics, distinction is generally made between:

➢ diachronic variation, or variation through time, also called historic variation
➢ diatopic variation, which is variation according to place or geographical variation
➢ diastratic variation, or variation according to social class or to the social group to
which a speaker feels they belong
➢ diaphasic or 'stylistic' variation, or even individual variation
➢ diamesic variation, or variation depending on the communication means or channels

Standard Englishes do vary across the globe. The non-standard varieties will differ from the
standards as a result of various social, regional and historical factors.
Standard varieties tend to be
-national
-non-regional
Non-standard dialects are often linked to a specific geographical region or community, and are
likely to have associated accents. Of all the non-standard varieties of English, the most marked in
terms of their difference from any of the standards are the English-based pidgin and creole varieties
found in the Caribbean, the Pacific and West Africa.
Phonological variation: CONSONANTS

1)PLOSIVE / t /

UK: /t/ is often realised as a glottal stop [ʔ] (ex: butter might be pronounced [bʌʔə] )
However, the glottal stop only occurs postvocalically (after a vowel) and so never replaces [t]
word-initially. Although the glottal stop has often been stigmatised as ‘lazy’ or ‘uneducated’
speech, in certain contexts, it can also be heard in the prestigious RP accent when /t/ occurs
before a syllable-initial consonant, as in hat·stand /hæʔ·stænd/. (The dot in this example
represents a syllable boundary —> fine e inizio di una sillaba)

T-FLAPPING
Process where intervocalically /t/ is often voiced as a flapped ‘d’ sound [d], like in GenAm
Liverpool accent: we can find the realisation of intervocalic /t/ as a FLAPPED ‘r’ [ɾ]
Indian English and South Asia varieties: /t/ and /d/ tend do be RETROFLEX [ ʈ ] and [ ɖ ]

2) DENTAL FRICATIVES [θ] and [ð]

TH-FRONTING
Process where speakers will realise (especially in the Estuary English accent)
- [θ] as [f]
- [ð] as [v]
In Estuary English: /θ/ can be [f] in any position, but /ð/ can only be [v] word-medially or
word-finally
In Irish English, /t, d/ are usually dental plosives [t , d]

STOPPING
The process by which fricatives ( θ and ð) are realised as plosives ( t and d)
- in accents with a creole history speakers
- in Irish English
- in Indian English, usually with heavy aspiration

3)GLOTTAL FRICATIVE /h/

h-dropping: this happens when /h/ is often dropped word-initially in various accents in
England

4) NASAL / ŋ /
This nasal is sometimes realised as [n] when it occurs in the -ing suffix so singing and dancing
could be pronounced [sɪŋɪn ən dɑnsɪn]. This feature can be found particularly in the UK and
USA

England speakers from the West Midlands, parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire: they will
pronounce /ŋ/ as [ŋɡ] so singing becomes [sɪŋɡɪŋɡ]

5) APPROXIMANT CENTRAL / r /

Of most significance as far as /r/ is concerned is whether an accent is rhotic or non-rhotic.

All accents of English articulate /r/ word-initially and before or between vowels, but not all
accents have /r/ after vowels when they occur at the end of a word or before another
consonant (non-prevocalic r).
Rhoticity is likely to be found in south-west England + Scotland + Northern Ireland +
General American

6) APPROXIMANT LATERAL / l /
The approximant /l/ has two allophones in RP, with clear l occurring at the beginning of a
syllable, dark l at the end.
In other accents, /l/ is generally clear in both positions (Welsh English) or some degree
darker (in other words, even more palatalised), as in Scottish English and also Australian
English.
In the London accent, and particularly in Cockney: final /l/ or /l/ preceding a consonant is
often realised as a vowel so meal is [miʊʷ] and milk is [mɪʊk]

7) When 2 consonants combine in a CLUSTER (when 2 or more consonants sound appear

in a word with no intervening vowels)
The basic phonological template of syllables seems to favour CV or CVC structures, it is
perhaps not surprising that in certain contexts, clusters of two (or possibly more) consonants
are likely to be reduced, for example, fish and chips is likely to be pronounced /fiʃ ən tʃips/
rather than /fiʃ ənd tʃips/, partly because and is an unstressed (non accentata) element, and
partly because a sequence of /n, d, tʃ/ forms an awkward cluster of three consonants

Creole speakers: clusters are often

- reduced word-finally, for example /bes/ for best and /graʊn/ for ground
- word-initial clusters with /s-/ are also subject to reduction (a reduction which is reflected
in the written form), for example story as /tari/ and strong as /traŋ/

Asian accents and Irish English: they use a less common but alternative strategy to cluster
reduction by introducing AN EPENTHETIC VOWEL, for example skin —> [səkɪn], film —>
[fɪləm], warm —> [wɑrəm], arm—> [ɑrəm]

CONSONANTS CLUSTERS WHICH CONTAIN / j / BEFORE / u /

RP speakers: they will always pronounce the /j/, often referred to as yod
East Anglian accents: never pronounce the yod
GenAm and Esturay English: in some contexts

YOD COALESCENCE
The C+/j/ combination is replaced with an affricate, causing
/t/ + /j/ to become [tʃ], for example tune —> [ʧuːn]
/d/ + /j/ to become [ʤ]

YOD-DROPPING
The absence of /j/ in the pronunciation of a word where it is normally present,for example
tune —> [tuːn]

Phonological variation: VOWELS

Vowels are more susceptible to variation then consonants

MONOPHTHONGS

1) / ʌ / —> [ ʊ ]
Newcastle accent (like several northern English accents): has no /ʌ/, nor does it have /ʒ/, but
it does have /a/, which is a low front unrounded vowel.

Northern accents on England: this short vowel is absent, and it is replaced by [ʊ], so shut
and tuck are pronounced [ʃʊt] and [tʊk] respectively

Welsh English: /ʌ/ is often realised as a schwa, so RP [bʌtə] will be [bətə]

2) / ɑː / —> [ æ ]
In a variety of accents, the long vowel /ɑː/ is often realised as [æ], depending on the
environment in which it occurs. Australian speakers are likely to realise /ɑː/ as [æ] in some
contexts

In General American and in northern England: [æ] occurs before particular consonants or
consonant clusters

Welsh English and Northern Irish English: they show a tendency to reduce /ɑː/

3) / ɒ / and / ɔː /

General American: this vowel in general American is absent so cot is pronounced with [ɑ]
Australian and South African English: they realise this vowel pairs as [ɔ and o]

Welsh and Scottish English: they realise both phonemes as [ɔ]

Irish English: they as pair [ɑ and ɑː]

4) Short/long pair of / ɪ / and / ɪː /

Conservative RP speaker: they will have the short vowel at the end of city meanwhile
speakers of mainstream RP or Estuary English will have the longer vowel [i]. A similar pattern
is noticeable in South African English in closed vowels where bit and bin will be [bit] and [bin]
respectively.
The short vowel /1/ can occur in both stressed and unstressed syllables
Australian and New Zealand speakers: they are likely to use schwa in unstressed syllables,
so damage will be [damad] rather than [damic] and carpet [ka:pat] rather than [ka:pit).

DIPHTHONGS
Diphthongs also vary considerably across accents of English

RP: take is [teɪk]

Estuary English: [tæɪk]

Sometimes a diphthong in one accent will have a monophthong elsewhere

RP: pair [pɛə]
Australian English: [peː] so it’s a single vowel
Welsh English: [pɛː]
Liverpudlian: [pɜː]

By contrast, a diphthong may be articulated as two syllables

Welsh English: the pronunciation of beer as [bi ə]

A vowel which is typically a monophthong is diphthongised

New Yorker: [ɡɜɪl] for girl
RP: [ɡɜːl]

Rhoticity can also affect the quality of a vowel

Non-rhotic RP: dear is [dɪə]
Rhotic General American: [dɪr]

PROSODIC FEATURES

In terms of prosodics, all speakers vary to some extent in terms of

-voice quality
- the tempo
- volume of their speech.
Some accents are particularly associated with a certain voice quality so the effect of the way
the vocal tract is configured during speech.
English accents in general can be divided between those which are
• stress-timed —> English
• syllable-timed —> several varieties of English, the unstressed vowel schwa [a] is
largely absent in these accents