Introduction to English pronunciation and phonetics Lecture 1

Introduction to English pronunciation and phonetics Lecture 1

Course outline • Part of the language structure course • Five lectures • Seminars • Written exam

Provide answers to questions such as. . . • what is the most common sound in English? • what is the crucial difference in pronunciation between ‘ice’ and ‘eyes’? • why does the word ‘joke’ have nothing to do with the yellow part of an egg? • why do Swedish learners have difficulty pronouncing words like ‘thermometer’ and ‘parenthesis’?

Course content • The English speech sounds • Phonetic symbols and the IPA • Spelling-sound differences • Contrasts between Swedish and English • English stress patterns

Two major models for English pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) “British English” General American (GA) “American English”

Spelling and sound – hardly a perfect match One sound sequence: /si: / may be spelt: see, sea, senile, scene, cease, seize

One spelling sequence: ’ough’ may be pronounced: cough, though, bough, thought

G. B. Shaw Word spelt ’ghoti’ should be pronounced ’fish’ enough women station

Vowel sounds • • voiced open air stream centre of a syllable English has 17 -20 vowel sounds, but only five letters!

Monophthongs (mono- = one) • • • open (‘sad’) or close (‘seed’) front (‘needle’) or back (‘noodle’) short (‘hat’) or long (‘heart’) normally unrounded in English compare Eng ‘mood’, Swe ‘mod’ ‘fyra nya röda tröjor’

Short vowels /e/ as in ‘bed’ /æ/ as in ‘bad’ Examples /e/ : said, head, many, bread /æ/ : sad, had, Manny, Annie, Brad

/ə/ – schwa • the most common vowel sound in English • used in unstressed syllables • where the vowel is reduced Examples above, polite, suppose, sofa Compare: land /lænd/ England/ˈıŋlənd/

/ʊ/ as in ‘put’ Examples bull /bʊl/ wolf /wʊlf/ soot /sʊt/ Compare: Sw ‘gods’ Eng ’goods’ /gʊdz/

/ɒ/ as in ’got’ GA has /ɑː/ or /ɔː/ in most words where RP has /ɒ/ Examples gone /gɒn || gɔːn/ bomb /bɒm || bɑːm/ song /sɒŋ || sɑːŋ /

/ı/ as in ‘sit’ Examples begin /bıˈgın/ target /ˈtɑː(r)gıt/ city /ˈsıtı/ Compare: Sw ’bild’ Eng ’build’

Long vowels /i: / as in ’see’ Examples free, be, neat, peel /u: / as in ’blue’ Examples soup, pool, cool

/ɜː/ as in ’earth’ Examples heard, earn, murder /ɔː/ as in ’door’ Examples sore, sauce, yawn /jɔːn || jɑːn/