Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Introductory class
Profa. Me. Graziela Casagrande
The schedule
The purpose
To understand how English is pronounced in the accent normally chosen as the standard both in American and British English; To present a general theory of speech sounds and how they are used in the language;
Why is this important? In lower level of study one is concerned simply with setting out how to form grammatical sentences. But people who are going to work with the language at an advanced level need a deeper understanding of it.
The syllabus
The production of speech sounds: articulators Phonetics: consonants and vowels; phonetic transcription (IPA) Phonological rules; Syllable structure: final consonants, consonantal clusters, syllabic consonants Prosody: word and sentence stress; intonoation;
Reference Material:
ROACH, P. English Phonetics and Phonology: a practical course. Second Edition. UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
UNKNOWN AUTHOR. Teaching Pronunciation: a handbook for teachers and trainers. 2001. [available for download from the Department of Education Training and Yourth Affairs website] CELCE-MURCIA, M.
Phonetics x phonology
Phoneme x allophone
Stress x intonation
Phonetics x Phonology
Phonetics: it describes, classifies, and transcribes speech sounds; it can be articulatory (how it is produced), acoustic (its physical properties) or auditory (how sounds are percieved).
Phonology: it studies the sound inventory of a language that is, the sounds that distinguish meaning in a language. To determine whether a given pair of sound is contrastive, phonologists look for minimal pairs.: [tim] team /t/ and /s/ are contrastive sounds in English, whereas [t] [sim] seem and [th] are allophones of /t/, that is, different phonetic realizations of /t/.
Phoneme: the contrastive sounds of a language. In the sequence pen there are 3 phonemes and only one distinguishes from the sequence pin. We should always remember that pronunciation has to do with phonemes (sounds), and not letters of the alphabet. For example, the word enough begins with the same vowel phoneme of the word inept and ends with the same consonant sound as stuff. Allophony: the different pronunciations of a phoneme, which are called variants. Variants do not contrast meaning.
Phoneme: the voiceless stops in English are /p, t, k/ /pill/ /spill/ /till/ /still/ /kill/ /skill/ Phonetic fact: there is a burst of air in pill, till and kill that is absent in spill, still, and skill. [phIl] [spIl] [thIl] [stIl] [kIl] [skIl]
Why are aspirated stops considered allophones? Because although they are physically different, both aspirated and non-aspirated stops are considered the same sound. In English, aspiration is not employed to create a meaning difference.
We must bear in mind that what is considered an allophone in a language, can behave as a phoneme in another one.
Aspiration, for example, is a phonemic feature in Hindi, which means that it constrasts meanings: [pal] [phal]
minimal pairs
Stress x Intonation
Intonation: has many functions in the language, but the most important is to perform a role similar to punctuation. It demarks sentences and clauses, and distinguishes interrogations from declarations. It is also used to distinguish irony, doubt, anger, along, of course, with other paralinguistic aspects.
Sounds are the results of the work of different parts in the vocal tracts: these are called articulators.
Lips: they are very sounds Alveolar Ridge: important. Pressed together, they theby producedit by dividedfrom Teeth: sounds produced Tongue: is touching Velum: prevents air in four produce palatetouching brought b when the Nose: used m/;are called teeth alveolarthroughtip, blade, the tongue Hard /p,ridge producing different for flowing parts: the nose. innasal called dental. example. contact with d/, for n/ and the teeth alveolars /t,and by/m, they are touched root. front,consonants the Whenback produce /f,v/; when rounded, nasal vowels /, / /k/ and tongue, sounds like they produce the vowels /o, u/. /g/ are produced. These sounds are called bilabial or labiodental.
Try saying this phonemes in isolation: Practice /p/ // /t/ pat diiference bet. Pet, pat /p/ /i/ /t/ peat /p/ /I/ /t/ pit /p/ /e/ /t/ pet /p/ // /t/ pot /p/ // /t/ put
Vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips. How do vowels differ from each other?
TONGUE:
1) the vertical distance between the tongue and the palate; 2) the part of the tongue, from front to back, which is raised the highest.
See it yourself:
The vowel /i:/ as in see is produced by raising the tongue close to the rood of the mouth. The vowel // as in cat is produced by lowering it and distantiating it from the roof of the mouth.
/i/ is considered a close vowel, while // is an open vowel. Also, because the front part is raised, /i/ and // are both considered front vowels.
If we take both /i/ and //, but change the part of the tongue which is raised, well have back vowels: /u/ and //, closed and open, respectively. So this is how the four vowels seen so far are distributed in the vowel system of English:
CLOSED OPEN
FRONT
BACK
/i/ /u/
// //
The primary cardinal vowels are the vowels that are most familiar to the speakers of most European languages. Their distribution is represented in a diagram which resembles the human mouth:
1. Raising and lowering the body of the tongue; 2. Pushing the tongue forward or pulling it back; 3. Rounding the lips
Raising and lowering the body of the tongue; How high is the tongue? HIGH MID LOW Pushing the tongue forward or pulling it back; Is the tongue advanced or retracted? FRONT CENTRAL BACK Rounding the lips; Are the lips rounded? ROUNDED UNROUNDED Is the tongue tense or lax? TENSE LAX
REVIEW
This is what we have seen so far: Difference between: phonetics x phonology segmental x suprasegmental phoneme x allophone stress x intonation vowels x consonants Use of articulators to produce sounds; How vowels are produced.
Vowels
When a vowel is produced, there are three things happening:
low back
FRONT
BACK
/i/ /u/
// //
Vowels
When vowels are produced: There is nothing in the vocal tract that narrows the passage of air. That is, vowels are produced without having any articulators touching.
FRONT
NEAR FRONT
I
(bit, sit)
CENTRAL
NEAR BACK u
(boot)
BACK
Round LAX
(book)
i
(beat, seat)
Unround TENSE
Unround LAX
Round TENSE
MID
(extra, bet)
(but)
(paw)
(about)
Round LAX
(pot)
MONOPHTHONGS
http://pages.uoregon.edu/l150web/vowel.html http://www.stuff.co.uk/calcul_nd.htm
In the vowel quadrant diagram below, fill in the phonemic symbols for the English vowels:
In the vowel quadrant diagram below, fill in the phonemic symbols for the English vowels:
Big These Bread Build book Blood His Said Ten good Short Went Son Soup hot Cup talk Young Bad Saw Be Beach Tree Have Man Men Give Pour Hand Put Food Sue All Odd Waffle apple
u
/
http://www.oupchina.com.hk/dict/phonetic/home.html www.dictionary.com
In the vowel quadrant diagram below, fill in the phonemic symbols for the English vowels:
Big Build Give His Bread Said Ten Went Men Blood Son Cup Young Be Beach These Tree Bad Have Hand Man apple Short Saw Pour All talk Good Book Put Food Soup Sue Odd Waffle hot
I
/
Beware of heard , a dreadful word That looks like beard and sounds like bird. And dead it's said like bed not bead . For goodness sake, don't call it deed ! Watch out for meat and great and threat. They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.