Phonetics II – Prof.

Miriam Avilés

Introduction
WELCOME ACTIVITY AND REVIEW

TASK 1
A) Match the sounds with the definitions. 9/9

1. /i:/ /u:/ /ɜ:/ F a. Made of two vowel sounds.

2. /j/ /w/ /r/ I b. Air coming through the nose.

3. /ɔɪ/ /ɪə/ /eə/ A c. A shorter sound.

4. /m/ /n/ /ŋ/ B d. Air coming around the sides of the tongue.

5. /ð/ /z/ /θ/ G e. Air released slowly.

6. /l/ D f. A longer sound.

7. /p/ /k/ H g. Air moving between two parts of the mouth which
are very close to each other.
8. /ʧ/ /ɗʒ/ E h. Air released suddenly.

9. /ɔ/ /ə/ /ʊ/ C i. Air moving between two parts of the mouth which
are not so close to each other.

B) Now match the definitions with its concepts. 9/9

SHORT VOWELS C

LONG VOWELS F

DIPHTHONGS A

LATERAL D

NASALS B

FRICATIVES G

PLOSIVES H

AFFRICATES E

APPROXIMANTS I
 Phonetics II – Prof. Miriam Avilés

C) Read the following text and guess the missing words, based on what you learnt in
Phonetics I.

After reading, go to Resource and find the audio file “Content vs. Function
Word”.
Listen, check and complete the missing information.

Content vs Function Words

The distinction between content words and function words is one of the _key_
____aspects____ of English stress and connected speech.

Content words are those which carry ___clear___ ____meaning___, such as:

MAIN VERBS: go, speak, think
NOUNS: house, word, idea
ADJECTIVES: big, difficult, interesting
ADVERBS: slowly, clearly, quite

Function words are ____grammatical____ ___words___ that glue a ___sentence___

together, such as:
AUXILIARY VERBS: are, have, can
PREPOSITIONS: to, from, for
CONJUNCTIONS: and, but, if
PRONOUNS: her, I, their
ARTICLES: a/an, the

Content & Function Words in Connected Speech

In connected speech, function words tend to be pronounced as weak forms with one of the
__weak___ ___sounds___ /ə,ɪ,i,u/.
If a function word is stressed, it will be pronounced with a strong vowel sound, meaning
that many function words have 2 possible pronunciations: a __weak_ __vertion__, and
a __strong_ ____vertion____. These are shown for some function words below:

EXAMPLE /Strong,Weak/
are /ɑː,ə/
have /hav,(h)əv/
were /wəː,wə/
to /tuː,tə/
for /fɔː,fə/
but /bʌt,bət/
been /biːn,bɪn/
he /hiː,(h)i/
 Phonetics II – Prof. Miriam Avilés
Sentence Stress

In a sentence consisting of content and function words, the content words are _____tipically___
__stressed__, and the function words are ___tipically___ __weak___:

Are we going to the shops?

However, stress is always related to ___meaning__, so the above sentence could have stress on
‘we’ and not on the two content words:

Are we going to the shops?

In this example, the concept of ‘going to the shops’ is already in the ____conversation___ and the
___focus__ of the meaning is on ‘we’. The strong pronunciation of the function word is then used.

____ . ____

D) Based on the last concept: “Sentence Stress”, think of how stress changes the
meaning in a sentence.
Just as it occurs with words (where some syllables are weak and one or two are
stronger, the same patterns apply to a sentence (or utterance) and it affects directly
the meaning of your sentence.
Think of one different example where you say a same sentence, but with different
meaning depending on which words you stress. Then go to “Discuss” in the
platform and participate in the forum, posting your example, and explaining the
meaning of them. You can also attach a voice note if you want, so the difference in
stress is clearer.
And finally, you can comment on your classmate’s posts.100/100

See you there!