Semester Outline Introduction to English Phonology and ... · PDF file1 Introduction to English Phonology and Phonetics Dr. Nadja Nesselhauf Semester Outline 1. Phonetics and phonology:

1

Introduction to English

Phonology and Phonetics

Dr. Nadja Nesselhauf

Semester Outline

1. Phonetics and phonology: basics

(& introducing transcription)

2. English consonants

3. English vowels

4. Beyond the phoneme (connected speech,

suprasegmentals etc.)

5. Accents of English

English Vowels: Outline

1. Classification of vowels

2. English monophthongs

3. English diphthongs

Phonetic Classification of Vowels

Phonetic criteria for the classification of vowels:

- tongue shape

(tongue height = closeness/openness + part of tongue which is highest = frontness/backness)

- lip shape (rounded vs. unrounded or spread vs. neutral vs. round)

- constancy of tongue/(lip)-shape (diphthongs vs. monophthongs)

- position of velum (oral vs. nasal vowels)

- duration (long vs. short)

2

Classification of Vowels:

Extreme Vowels

Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 59

[i]:

extremely front and close


Extreme Vowels


[u]:

extremely back and close


Extreme Vowels


[a]:

extremely front and open


Extreme Vowels


[@]:

extremely back and open

3


Vowel Diagram



Cardinal Vowels (D. Jones)


“gut”

“Rose”

“Sonne”

“pas”

“si”

“thé”

“même”

“la”


Cardinal Vowels (D. Jones)

Source: C

ollin

s/M

ees 2003, 6

1

Daniel Jones pronouncing the cardinal vowels: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UIAe4p2I74

Vowels in the IPA chart

4

Alternative Vowel Chart

(Primary Cardinal Vowels)Vowels - a Continuum…

George Bernard Shaw: Pygmalion

(Preface: “there are touches of [Henry] Sweet in the play”):

HIGGINS: Tired of listening to sounds?

PICKERING: Yes. It‘s a fearful strain. I rather fancied myself because

I can pronounce 24 distinct vowel sounds; but your hundred and

thirty beat me. I can‘t hear a bit of difference between most of

them.

HIGGINS: Oh, that comes with practice. You hear no difference at

first; but you keep on listening, and presently you find they‘re

all as different as A from B.

Classification of English Vowels

Criteria for the classification of English vowels:

- constancy of tongue-shape (diphthongs vs. monophthongs or “steady-state vowels”)

- tongue shape

1) tongue height = closeness/openness

2) part of tongue which is highest = frontness/backness


Monophthongs vs. Diphthongs

� monophthongs = steady state vowels

� diphthongs = (vowel) glides (e.g. /`H/)

Source: C

ollin

s/M

ees 2003, 6

4

5


Monophthongs vs. Diphthongs

� /`H/ in cross-section diagram:

Source: C

ollin

s/M

ees 2003, 6

4

Classification of English

Monophthongs (RP)

Source: S

auer 1

990, 1

6

Classification of English Vowels:

Duration

� vowel length / duration is not a distinctive

feature for English vowels

� quantity (duration) and quality, however,

are correlated

� the duration of vowels is also affected by

their phonetic environment (allophonic

variation)

Duration of English Vowels:

Allophonic quantity rules for English vowels:

Allophonic shortening:!V: / __ FC (stressed vowels are allophonically

shortened before fortis consonants)

e.g. feet, leaf

Allophonic lengthening:!V: / __ LC (stressed vowels are allophonically

lengthened before lenis consonants)

e.g. feed, leave

6

Classification of English Vowels

Distributional classification of English vowels:

vowels than can occur in word-final stressed open syllables (diphthongs + /h9, @9, t9, N9, 29/

“free vowels”

vs.

vowels that in word-final stressed syllables can occur only before consonants

(all the rest)

“checked vowels”

English Monophthongs (RP)

Source: S

auer 1

990, 1

6

English Monophthongs (GA)

Source: S

auer 1

990, 1

6

English Monophthongs

/h9/

• front, close

• unrounded lips

Question: How do the phonemes /i:/ differ phonetically in English (RP) and in German (compare for example nie and knee)?

7


/H/

• front-central

• half close

• unrounded lips

• centralized

before /l/

• raised before velars

• GA & mod. RP happY-tensing


RP /d/

• front vowel

• half close –half open

• unrounded lips


GA /d/

• front vowel

• half open

• unrounded lips


/z/

• front vowel

• half open –open

• unrounded lips

• attention! German accent: not too close!

8


Task: Read the following pairs of words to your neighbour and ask her/him to tell you whether there is a clear distinction in yourvowel sounds:

bet – bat

pen – pan

kettle – cattle

head – had

bed – bad

pet – pat

bend – band

celery - salary


/U/

• central vowel

• half open –open

• unrounded lips

• spelled <u> and <o>


RP /@9/

• central-back vowel

• open

• unrounded lips


GA /@9/

• back vowel

• open

• unrounded lips

• /@9/ far more frequent in GA than RP

9


RP only: /P/

• back vowel

• open

• rounded lips

• /P/ in RP is

usually /@9/ in

GA


/N9/

• back vowel

• half open –half close

• rounded lips

• more frequent in RP

• GA: mainly before /r/


/T/

• back-central vowel

• half close

• rounded lips

• mirror image

of /H/


/t9/

• back vowel

• close

• rounded lips

• mirror image

of /h9/

10


/29/

• central vowel


• unrounded (spread) lips!


Task: Read the following pairs of words to your neighbour and ask her/him to tell you whether there is a clear distinction in your vowel sounds, in particular whether you spread your lips for the English vowel.

If you speak BrE, have your neighbour check additionally whether there really is NO /r/ in your pronunciation.

E: bird G: blöd

E: heard G: Hörtest

E: fern G: Fön

E: curse G: köstlich


/?/ (schwa)

• central vowel


• unrounded lips

• occurs only in unstressed syllables

• most frequent of all phonemes

• spelled with most vowel letters

Sound frequency

Frequency of vowel phonemes in conversational RP

(cf. Crystal 1995, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, p. 239):

Total: vowels: 39.2%

Most frequent vowels: /?/ 10.7% /H/ 8.3% /d/ 2.9%

Least frequent vowels: /H?/ 0.2% /NH/ 0.14% /T?/ 0.06%

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Transcription Practice

Please transcribe the following words:

ton front wonder onion sponge

stomach above company shovel oven

worry body lot comment

English Monophthongs:

RP – GA Correspondences

RP /U/

GA /U/ cut

GA /29/ / __ r hurry, worry



RP /U/

GA /U/ cut


RP /@9/

GA /@9/ father

GA /z/ / __ e,S,r,m,l (+C) staff, bath...



RP /U/

GA /U/ cut


RP /@9/

GA /@9/ father

GA /z/ / __ e,S,r,m,l (+C) staff, bath...

RP /N9/

GA /@9/ laundry

GA /N9/ <o,ou,oo> / __ r court

<a> /w __ r war

12



RP /U/

GA /U/ cut


RP /@9/

GA /@9/ father

GA /z/ / __ e,S,r,m,l(+C) staff, bath...

RP /N9/

GA /@9/ laundry

GA /N9/ <o,ou,oo> / __ r court

<a> /w __ r war

RP /P/ GA /@9/ lot


GA – RP Correspondences

RP /@9/ father

GA /@9/

RP /P/ lot

RP /N9/ laundry

GA /U/ RP /U/ cut

RP /N9/ courtGA /N9/

English Diphthongs

� diphthongs are dynamic, they glide from a

start point to an end point

English Diphthongs

� diphthongs are classified by their second

element (the direction of movement)

� RP and GA have five closing diphthongs

(in which the second element is closer

than the first)

� RP additionally has three centring

diphthongs (the second element is schwa)

13

English Diphthongs: Closing

/nT/goat/?T/

/`T/house/`T/

/NH/choice/NH/

/dH/face/dH/

/`H/price/`H/

GARP

fronting

backing


RP GA

Source: Sauer 1990, 16; Sauer 2001, 17

English Diphthongs: Closing/?T/ (RP) and /nT/ (GA) (boat, toast):- absent in German (beginners tend to replace it with German /n9/)

- allophonic variation in RP: first element further back before /l/; compare coat – coal

/dH/ (face, eight,…):- absent in German (beginners tend to replace it with German /d:/)

- also tendency towards monophthongization in GA; but not reflected in transcription

- N.B. Las Vegas BUT Los Angeles/dH/ /z/


/`H/ (eye, mine) and /`T/ (clown, house):

- contrast to German: in E. more time spent on first part; ends at a lower point

/`H/ additionally starts further back (compare eye

and Ei; mine and mein)

/`T/ starts further front (compare clown and Clown, house and Haus)

- N.B.: the shape of the a-symbol is different than for long /@9/

/NH/ (boy, employ):

- more time spent on first part

14


Please transcribe the following words:

how (wie)

row (Streit)

row (Reihe, rudern)

bow (sich verbeugen, Bug)

bow (Bogen, Schleife)

sow (sähen)

sew (nähen)

owl (Eule)

English Diphthongs:

Centring (RP)

The centring diphthongs in RP are:

� /H?/ (sheer)

� /d?/ (share)

� /T?/ (sure)

English Diphthongs:

Centring (RP)

Source: S

auer 1

990, 6

English Diphthongs:

Centring (RP) and GA Equivalents

share, MaryRP /d?/

RP /T?/ GA /Tq/ sure, poor

GA /Hq/ sheer, beardRP /H?/

GA /dq/ (/zq/)

15

English Diphthongs: Centring (RP)

- more movement of German centring diphthongs, esp. second element much lower (compare beer – Bier; sure – Schur; mare - Meer)

- tendency towards monophthongization of /d?/ and /T?/


tear (reißen)

tear (Träne)

beard (Bart)

bear (Bär)

pear (Birne)

care (kümmern um)

sure – shore/N9//T?/sure, poor

-/D9//d?/share, bear

-(/h9/)/H?/sheer, beer

Homo-phones

>Monoph-thong

DiphthongExample

RP: Monophthongization of

Diphthongs Sound frequency

Frequency of vowel phonemes in conversational RP

(cf. Crystal 1995, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, p. 239):

Total: vowels: 39.2%

Most frequent vowels: /?/ 10.7% /H/ 8.3% /d/ 2.9%

Least frequent vowels: /H?/ 0.2% /NH/ 0.14% /T?/ 0.06%

16

RP: Monophthongization of

Triphthongs

slower –slur

/29292929/(/?9??9??9??9?/)/?T??T??T??T?/lower

our – are/@9@9@9@9//`9?`9?`9?`9?//`T?`T?`T?`T?/sour

--/N9?N9?N9?N9?//NH?NH?NH?NH?/employer

layer – lair/D9D9D9D9//d9?d9?d9?d9?//dH?dH?dH?dH?/player

fire – far /@9@9@9@9//`9?`9?`9?`9?//`H?`H?`H?`H?/fire

Homo-phones

>Monoph-thong

>Diph-thong

Triph-thong

Example

Revision Part III

- phonetic classification of vowels (tongue shape, lip shape, constancy of tongue shape, position of velum, duration)

- cardinal vowels (D. Jones); vowel chart

- distinctive features of English vowel phonemes (constancy of tongue shape, tongue shape + why only these):

- monophthongs vs. diphthongs

- front-central-back

- close, half close, half open, open

- distributional classification of English vowels (free vs. checked vowels)

Revision Part III

- classification of 12 (RP) /11 (GA) English monophthongs (on basis of position in vowel chart, i.e. tongue shape)

- classification of 8 (RP) / 5 (GA) English diphthongs (closing vs. centring in RP; closing: fronting vs. backing)

- differences RP / GA: inventory (GA: no /P/, no centring diphthtongs)differences in quality (/@9, d, ?T-nT, dH/)distribution: hurry, dance, lot, laundry

- differences English – German: esp. absence of /z/ and /29/

Revision Part III

1) Name the distinctive features used to describe English vowels.

2) Draw the English phonemes /T/ and /H/ in a

(labelled!) vowel chart. Which distinctive feature(s) do they share, with respect to which distinctive feature(s) do they differ (be specific!)?

3) In what ways is /?/ special compared to other vowel phonemes (consider distribution and frequency)?

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Revision Part III

Are the following statements true or false?1) Of the primary cardinal vowels, more are

unrounded than rounded.2) Degree of roundedness is not a distinctive

feature of English vowels.3) There are 3 nasal vowels in English.4) Cardinal vowels must be represented in square

brackets, not in slashes.5) Phonetically, 28 different vowel sounds can be

distinguished.6) The quality of the [e] in the IPA chart is different

from the quality of the English phoneme /e/.7) The duration of English vowels is affected by

their phonetic environment.

Documents

Semester Outline Introduction to English Phonology and ... · PDF file1 Introduction to English Phonology and Phonetics Dr. Nadja Nesselhauf Semester Outline 1. Phonetics and phonology: