1 Université de Savoie UFR-LLSH LCE1 UE 103 Lecture: Phonetics & Phonology Alice Henderson [email protected] Office 812.

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Université de Savoie UFR-LLSH LCE1 UE 103

Lecture: Phonetics & Phonology

Alice [email protected] 812

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Content of the 5 lectures

1) Introduction, Phonemes

2) Sounds in context, connected speech

3) Stress, accent & rhythm

4) Intonation

5) Conclusion

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Outline, Lecture 5

Go over homework Review for Exam Varieties of English Conclusion Bibliography

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Vowel vs consonant

Consonant: involves some form of closure or narrowing that affects the air flow

Labels:– Voicing: voiced or voiceless– Place of articulation: horizontal axis

Bilabial, labio-dental, dental, …

– Manner/Type of articulation: vertical axis Nasal, plosive, …

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Try to label these:

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Answers:

voiced bilabial plosive voiceless alveolar fricative voiced palato-alveolar affricate voiced labio-velar approximant voiced velar nasal voiceless glottal fricative

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Word stress & word class

REbel / reBEL REfuse / reFUSE REject / reJECT ** PROmise / PROmise PERmit / perMIT INsert / inSERT OBject / obJECT ** conTROL / conTROL INsult / inSULT CONduct / conDUCT

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Review for exam

Phonetics? Phonology? What organs are involved in speech? Vowel? Consonant? (HW from Lecture 4)

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Que sont les branches de ce domaine?(from Lecture 1)

Phonétique générale (acoustique & articulatoire/physiologique): étudie le fonctionnement de l’appareil phonateur de l’homme et analyse ses capacités articulatoires et les particularités des son émis, au moyen d’appareils acoustiques

Phonétique descriptive: étude des particularités phonétiques d’une langue donnée

Phonétique évolutive/historique: étude des changements phonétiques d’une langue donnée

Phonétique normative: prescrit des règles de la bonne prononciation d’une langue donnée

Phonétique « criminologique »: étude des particularités dans un but médico-légal et/ou policier (forensic phonetics)

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Speech organs

Palate? (hard palate) Velum? (soft palate) Tongue tip? Alveolar ridge? Glottis?

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What’s hard for French speakers?

Phoneme level: V, C Word level:

– Groups of sounds– Word stress– Reduced vowels in unstressed syllables

Sentence level: – Rhythm– Weak forms– Effect of phonemes on each other in context– Intonation

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Phoneme level: V, C

Common trouble spots: sounds that exist in English but not in French: « h », the two « th », final NG, di- & triphthongs, « r »

Vowels that may seem similar to French sounds … but are just not the same: leave/live, cat/cut, bull/ « boule » …

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A quick puzzle …

What if your student says __ instead of__?

Cat / catch

Breeze / breathe

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A quick puzzle …

Cat / catch– Voiceless alveolar plosive– Voiceless palato-alveolar affricate

Breeze / breathe– Voiced alveolar fricative– Voiced dental fricative

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« h »

How can you avoid adding it when it is unnecessary?

When is it silent? When can it be elided?

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Which « h » can be dropped?

A: When did he go there? B: I don’t know. A: Who did he talk to? B: I don’t know. A: Have you talked to him yet? B: Yes, I have. A: Did you ask him? B: What? A: Did you ask him who he was with? B: No, it’s not of my business.

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Which « h » can be dropped?

A: When did he go there? B: I don’t know. A: Who did he talk to? B: I don’t know. A: Have you talked to him yet? B: Yes, I have. A: Did you ask him? B: What? A: Did you ask him who he was with? B: No, it’s not of my business.

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Eliding « h »

Pronoun or auxiliary verb NOT at the start of a tone unit

NOT « have » as a main verb NOT at the start of a tone unit

**Essential for smooth connected speech

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What’s hard for French speakers?

Phoneme level: V, C Word level:

– Groups of sounds– Word stress– Reduced vowels in unstressed syllables

Sentence level: – Rhythm– Weak forms– Effect of phonemes on each other in context– Intonation

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Word level: Groups of sounds, clusters

– Words ending in two consonants + S Scientists, linguists, asks, students, acts, risks, pastes

– Consonant + « th » At the seaside, a good thing, is that it?, his things

– Consonant + « th » + consonant Twelfths, months, clothes, Smith’s crisps

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*Red letters are often changed

– Words ending in two consonants + S Scientists, linguists, asks, students, acts, risks, pastes

– Consonant + « th » At the seaside, a good thing, is that it?, his things

– Consonant + « th » + consonant Twelfths, months, clothes, Smith’s crisps

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Word level: Word stress

Stress:– Louder, longer, higher pitch– Basic rules of placement

*Where would you stress these?

lorax (n.), kuringe (v.), elbonics, laundrette, humongous, carperpetuate

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Where would you stress these?

elBOnics : stress 1 syllable before -ic

launDRETTE : stress the ending -ette

huMONgous : stress 1 syllable before -ous

carperPEtuate : stress 2 syllables before -ate

LOrax (n.) : 2 syllable noun, stress 1st syll.

kuRINGE (v.) : 2 syllable verb, stress 2nd syll.

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Word level

Reduced vowels in unstressed syllables– cupboard – breakfast – handkerchief

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What’s hard for French speakers?

Phoneme level: V, C Word level:

– Groups of sounds– Word stress– Reduced vowels in unstressed syllables

Sentence level: – Rhythm– Weak forms– Effect of phonemes on each other in context– Intonation

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Sentence level: Rhythm & Weak forms

Try the Lorax again …Try tapping the rhythm out with a pencil

on your deskStress lexical or « content » wordsEssential to use weak forms: prepositions,

pronouns, articles, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, etc. (so-called « grammatical » or « function » words)

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Sentence level :

Effect of phonemes on each other in context– Elision– Assimilation– Coalescence– Linking

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Match the example to the term

Tom am Bob a) Elision

Whatcha gonna do? b) Assimilation

It’s her only hope. c) Coalescence

It’s her only hope. d) Linking

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Answers:

Tom am Bob B a) Elision

Whatcha gonna do? C b) Assimilation

It’s her only hope. D c) Coalescence

It’s her only hope. A d) Linking

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Sentence level: Linking

Improves flow from one sound to another Essential to recognise Not essential to do yourself

** Helps to avoid « parasitic h »– our own, four apples, She’s alone, Get it out, Eat

some of this

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What’s hard for French speakers?

Phoneme level: V, C Word level:

– Groups of sounds– Word stress– Reduced vowels in unstressed syllables

Sentence level: – Rhythm– Weak forms– Effect of phonemes on each other in context– Intonation

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Sentence level: Intonation

Stress, accent, pitch, nucleus, tune, focus

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Focus or emphasis

Basic Sentence Stress: lexical words, nucleus/accent on last content word

Focus: chosen by speaker, « flexible » New Focus: Can focus on any word/s that

give/s new information. Contrastive Focus:

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New Focus

A: What are you doing? B: I’m just relaxing. A: Didn’t you have lots of work? B: Yes, // but it’s for Friday. A: But shouldn’t you start on it now? B: Probably, // but it’s not going to disappear.

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Focus or emphasis

Basic Sentence Stress: Focus: New Focus: Contrastive Focus: can emphasize focus

words to contrast an idea, e.g. when correcting or checking information

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Contrastive Focus

A: So that’ll be 14.98. B: But the price tag says 4.98.

Just to check: your number is 35487? No, it’s 35489.

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Outline, Lecture 5

Go over homework Review for Exam Varieties of English

– See www.llsh.univ-savoie.fr « Cours en Ligne », « Academic English for Specialists »

Conclusion Bibliography

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Rhotic

/r/ is pronounced where there is « r » in the spelling (before consonants & at the end of words)

Typical of North America, Scotland, Ireland, SW England (Bristol)

*Non-rhotic: no r-sound in car, farm, art *Typical of most of England, Wales, Australia, New

Zealand, South Africa Try: near, nearer, father, strawberry, further, farmer,

postcard, hard, colour, colouring

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Southern & Northern British English

Non-rhotic in South Six short vowels (only 5 in North: book/buck) Long mid diphthongs: face, goat (resisted) Clear « l » in all positions in much of North NG: « g » pronounced Birmingham to

Manchester to Liverpool: singing, singer

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« Cockney »

« h » dropping « th » replaced by /f/ and /v/: thing, then,

another Same vowels as RP BUT front vowels are

closer, so that sat - set, set - sit Distinctive pronunciation of diphthongs: **My

Fair Lady Get off : /t/ becomes a tap/flap OR glottal stop

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Welsh

More aspiration /p t k/ (like Irish English) Clear « l »: castle, chapel, little Dylan Thomas reading his poem « Do not go

gentle into that good night »

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Yorkshire

Wallace & Gromit Book/buck: same vowel Shortened mid diphthongs: name, say, take Get off sounds like « geroff »: /t/ becomes /r/ here Clear « l » in all positions in much of the North

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Standard Scottish English

Ant/aunt, soot/suit caught/cot : same vowel /e/ is different to RP: heaven, eleven, next No centring diphthongs (like GA): beard, fare, dour =

vowel + /r/ === rhotic Tapped « r »: red, trip /t/ realised as a glottal stop: butter /p t k/ little aspiration (except in Western Highlands) « The Magic o Uncle Peter »

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American English

Eastern (New England, parts of New York City): Non-rhotic, 16th c. near London /r/ was already disappearing

Southern (Virginia to Texas and southwards) General (all the rest) General American (GA) : « that form of English

without marked regional characteristics », also called Network English, (Gimson, p85),

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American

Rhotic « T tapping »: Intervocalic /t/ becomes a tap that often

sounds like/is /d/: butter, put it Glass/cat NOT /a:/, Am. resistance to so-called « BATH

broadening » More rgeular spelling-pronunciation link: clerk, Derby « LOT unrounding »: bother =father Changes in open vowels: raising of « cat, man », merger of

caught=cot *For many GA speakers (and most Canadians) cod, calm & cause have one vowel

Lacking /j/ after /t d/: tune, dew, duty

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Australian

Like London but …– T tapping– No glottalling– Weak « happy » sound becomes schwa: valid,

salad– Raised /e/: dress sounds like /drIs/

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Other Englishes

Indian English: http://www.indiaradio.com/ Nigerian English Singlish Spanglish …

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English-es? And if so, which?

Written / spoken Constant change = nature of the beast Last 500 years : Attitude regarding

norms/standards, there « should » be one pronunciation that is preferable over others

Which?

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Which English?

RP= traditional norm taught to learners, the most commonly described/applied in published materials

But role of RP has changed dramatically Now over 320 million people speak English as their 1st

language but the majority of these speak a form of American English

Another 150 million use English as an official language, and a form of local pronunciation domniates (Indian English)

But RP continues to serve as a model, for historical reasons (Africa, Asia, Indian subcontinent)

And Indian English is now being « exported »

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Future?

Two « catatrophe » scenarios, acc. to Trudgill– Americanisation– Disintegration

Phonology: the most divergent area of change, compared to lexis & grammar

– Cut fronting to cat– New Zealand /dres/ raising closer to /drIs/– « th » becoming /f/ or /v/– Rhoticity: disappearing in UK, opposite in USA– /t/ flapping & glottalling– « h » dropping– labio-dental /r/

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Which models for the future?

RP or Estuary English? British or American or neither? A Lingua Franca core? Minimum General Intelligibility? Should we bother? Should we care?

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What advice for you?

Learn to listen to & hear English sound patterns

Choose a speaker as a model and imitate that person; « wacky » extreme accents are the most fun

Don’t be afraid to be/feel « silly » Remember: native English speakers are in the

minority on this planet, so everybody needs to learn more tolerance of variety

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It’s a wide wide world, so

get out there and feast your ears!

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Bibliography

Ashby, P. (1995), Speech SoundsSpeech Sounds, Routledge, New York. Cruttenden, A., (2001), Gimson’s Pronunciation of

English, Arnold, London. Greven, H. (1994), Travaux pratiques de phonétique

anglaise, Université de Rouen. Seuss, Dr. (1971), The Lorax, Random House, New York. Trudgill, P. « World Englishes », Plenary Session, SAES

Conference, (2000), Université de Savoie. http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/index.html http://eleaston.com/world-eng.html#ng