Transcript Practical English Phonetics

Practical English Phonetics
Contents
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I. Introduction
II. The organs of speech
III. English Speech Sounds
IV. Sounds in Connected Speech
V. Intonation
• I. Introduction
– The importance of phonetic study
• A) Phonetics is the science and study of speech sounds
( sounds made by human speech organs representing
meaning ). It deals with the sound system of a language.
• Phonetics is a branch of linguistics: phonetics, vocabulary
and grammar.
• Speech sound is the basic element for word + grammar to
rely on.
• (To learn any spoken language, the first step is to learn the
basic sounds. )
• a): Relations between speech sound + word
• i) sound affects the formation of words
• Describe---description five----fifteen
twelve---twelfth
• (onomatopoeia)
• cackle quack honk twitter chirp grunt roar
giggle blab
• soup slurp sip slop sloppy slob
• ii) Sounds + irregular verb form change
• /e/ in original form, no change in other 2 past
forms.
• E.g. Bet bet bet let let let upset upset upset
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Spread spread spread
• / i :/ in origin form, / i :/ is changed into /e /
in other forms
• E.g. Meet met met feed fed fed lead led led
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Leave left left keep kept kept read read read
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Sleep slept slept feel felt felt sweep swept swept
• Verbs with /d / in original form, d changed into / t /
• E g. Send sent sent bend bent bent lend lent lent
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Spend spent spent build built built
• /  / in original verb forms, vowels changed into
/ / or
/ /
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E g. Sing sang sang ring rang rang
sink sank sank
Swin swam swam
drink drank drunk
spring sprang sprung
Begin began begun
swing swung swung
sling slug slung
Fling flung flung
wring wrung wrung
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/
• sink
• stink
• spin
• hang
/ /
/ /
/ /
sunk( sank)
sunk
stunk (stank)
stunk
spun (span)
spun
hung (hanged) hung (hanged)
• / a /changed into / / + /
/a/ //
• ride rode ridden
• drive drove driven
• write wrote written
• rise rose
risen
• arise arose arisen
• stride strode stridden
• strive strove striven
• thrive throve thriven
/
/dn/
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/i:/ /  /
/  /
speak spoke spoken
steal stole stolen
freeze froze frozen
break broke broken
choose chose chosen
// /:/ /:/
wear wore worn
tear tore torn
bear bore born
swear swore sworn
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iii) Relations between sound and grammar.
Sounds determine parts of speech
desert desert
insult
insult
record record
conduct conduct
content content
present present
close
close
bow bow
lead
lead
tear tear
• verb tense
• read read
• number of nouns
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man men
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b) A need in communication.
i) Intonation:
___Yes, Madam ?
___ I want a piece of soap.
___ It’s going to rain, isn’t it ?
• ii) the difference between oral language and
written language, the distance between sound
and transcription:
• Pick it up. [ pi i
tp ]
• Think it over.
• You should have told us.
• Not at all.
• Did you eat yet?
• c) A need for further study
• 2.Ways to learn phonetics
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more practice
more listening
more imitations
to know the basic rules (how each sound is formed,
stress, linking, rhythm, pauses, intonation and etc.)
• 3.Standard English pronunciation
• English: The most widely used language in the world
( one billion people speak English. 4 hundred million
speak it as their first language. 6 hundred people speak it
as a second or a foreign language. )
– English as native language in countries: British, America, Canada,
New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, Australia
– English as second language in countries: China
– English as official language in: India, Singapore, the Philippines,
Ghana
– English as working language in the United Nations:
• Permanent members: UK, China, France, USA, Russia
• It’s pronunciation varies in different geographical
areas, so it has dialects and accents, such as
General American (GA), General British (GB)
• RP (received pronunciation): based on the London
dialect, used by educated people in southern
England, used by the announcers of BBC, also
widely used through English-speaking countries.
So, it has been accepted everywhere for the
teaching of English to foreigners.
• 4. Basic sounds + phonetic transcription
• Basic sound: the smallest phonetic unit of
language
• Eg. Sea / i:/ composed of 2 sounds: // + /i:/
• The functions of basic sounds:
• a) distinguish word meaning
• Eg. Bed bad bid
• b) distinguish grammatical form
• E g. Man men work works
• Basic sounds are distinctive.
• Any language has a vast number of speech sounds,
yet basic sound are limited in number. In English
there are 44 basic sounds in all.
• Phonetic Transcription
• 26 English letters 44 basic sounds
• letters + basic sounds
• a) one sound spelt in different ways
/i:/ read sea people machine believe receive
we key quay
• b) same spelling, different pronunciations
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bough, although cough enough through brought
• c) silent letters
• climb knot autumn island
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d) same spelling, different meanings, different
pronunciations
• desert desert lead lead bow bow tear tear
• e) words spelt in different ways have the same
pronunciation
• piece peace knot not site cite sea see
• 5. International Phonetic Alphabet
• Characteristics: each symbol represents one sound and
not any other
• One sound must be represented by one symbol —//
//
• 6. Two types of transcription:
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Broad transcription: uses a simple set of symbols just to
represent the phonemes of a language without ambiguity
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Narrow transcription: uses symbol and diacritics to
denote particular allophones of phonemes