Spoken English
Prof. BOUTABSSIL
Introduction to Spoken English:
Phonetic symbols and sounds:
IPA- vowels- diphthongs- consonants
What is Linguistics?
• Linguistics is the scientific study of language,
it focuses on the systematic investigation of
the properties of particular languages as well
as the characteristics of language in general.
• It encompasses not only the study of sound,
grammar and meaning, but also the history of
language families, how languages are
acquired by children and adults, and how
language use is processed in the mind and
how it is connected to race and gender.
What is Linguistics?
Linguists are interested in questions like:
- What is the difference between a language, a
dialect and an accent?
- How can we analyze the grammar (structure)
of a sentence?
- How and why languages change?
- What is the relationship between language
and culture?
- How do children and adults learn second
languages?
Sub-fields of linguistics
• Phonetics - the study of how speech sounds
are produced and perceived
• Phonology - the study of sound patterns and
changes
• Morphology - the study of word structure
• Syntax - the study of sentence structure
• Semantics - the study of linguistic meaning
• Pragmatics - the study of how language is
used in context
Phonetics
• Phonetic (adjective)= something is phonetic
when it is related to the speech sounds and to
the spoken language.
• Phonetics (study): is a segment in linguistics
that studies the characteristics of speech
sounds and provides methods for their
narration and classification.
Is english a phonetic language?
Consider the following examples:
- Debt = /det/
- Lamb= /læm/
- Character= /’kærəktə(r)/
- Tough= /tʌf/
- Although= /ɔːlˈðəʊ/
- thin= /θɪn/
- There= /ðeə(r)/
Phonetic languages
• Phonetic languages are languages which the
writing system accounts for how the words are
pronounced; where each sound is represented by
a letter.
• In phonetic languages, each letter has a
corresponding sound, where spelling matches
pronunciation.
• English and French are highly non-phonetic; they
have letters that can be pronounced in different
ways or sometimes not pronounced at all.
Is english a phonetic language?
• Conclusion: there is a difference between how words are written and
how they are pronounced.
• A basic rule in learning English pronunciation is to differentiate
between:
letters (written): A a,B b,C c,D d,E e,F f….
sounds (spoken): /b,s, m, g, j, ʃ, ʒ, ð, tʃ, …/
• Writing is not helpful when it comes to pronunciation.
• Words can be mispronounced because of an unusual spelling such as
“enough”, or because they look like words in another language.
example: nation= /’neɪʃn/
•
Therefore, english is highly a non-phonetic language.
The importance of studying spoken
english
• When we transcribe a word, we give a direct specification
of its pronunciation.
• Spelling of English is irregular (though, tough)
• Phonetic characteristics of continuous speech are not
reflected in the spelling (orthography)- aspiration, stress,
insertion, deletion, shortening.
• Phonetic transcription enables you to extract explicit
information on pronunciation from a dictionary.
• Homographs (same spelling but different pronunciation
and meaning) are difficult to pronounce (e.g., live, read,
content).
• Accuracy in pronunciation can only be achieved through
mastering phonetic transcription.
Phonetic transciption
• To find solutions to the inconsistencies found
between the writing system and the spelling one,
the International Phonetic Alphabet was created.
• The IPA is an international alphabet system for a
phonetic representation of the sounds of any
language. It was developed and customized by
the International Phonetic Association in the 19
th century for a standardized characterisation of
the pronunciation of languages.
• It describes and transcribes precisely the sounds
of all the languages in the world.
International phonetic transcription
• IPA uses graphical characters and roman
alphabet to provide a distinct representation
for the wide variety of sounds.
• It is found in dictionnaries to help language
learners pronounce words correctly.
• IPA is a prerequesite for studying phonetics
and phonology.
Why phonetic transcription?
- Spelling of english is irregular;
-When we transcribe a word, we give a direct
specification of its pronunciation;
- Phonetic characteristics of continuous speech are
not reflected in the spelling (aspiration, stress,…);
- Phonetic transcription enables you to extract
explicit information on pronunciation;
- Accuracy in spelling can only be achieved through
mastering phonetic spelling.
International Phonetic Alphabet
International Phonetic Alphabet
- In the english language, there are 26 letters:
26 letters
Consonants (21)
B, C, D…Z
Vowels (5)
A, E, I, O, U
- These letters are used in written english
International Phonetic Alphabet
• However, when we speak, we don’t use
letters. We use sounds.
• There are 44 sounds in English including (24
consonant sounds, and 20 vowel sounds).
• These sounds are represented in IPA symbols.
Consonants
• Consonants are sounds that involve a major
obstruction or restriction of the vocal tract.
• We can feel, see and hear where the
constriction are made and what kind of
constriction they are.
Vowels
• Vowels, by contrast, are produced without a
constriction in the vocal tract.
• They are made with a very open vocal tract.
• It is harder to see how vowels are articulated.
• Try to say « so ».
• Try to say a long /V/
• Difference: air flow
International Phonetic Alphabet
24 consonant sounds
Voiced: is a category of
consonant sounds made
while the vocal folds
vibrate. To feel the
vibration, touch your
throat and say the
following sounds: [b],
[d], [l], [m], [n], [ŋ], [j],
[v], [w], [z], [ʒ],
[dʒ], [r], [ð], /g/
Voiceless: is a
category of
sounds in which
the vocal folds are
not activated: [s],
[k], [f], [p], [t],
[θ], [ʃ], [tʃ], [h]
Consonant sounds
[p]= paper- stop- power
[b]= baby, beautiful
[d] = dead, madly
[k] = character, quick
[g] = got, exam, ignore, finger
[f] = food, laugh, telephone
[v] = vain, over, Stephen
[h] = hot, hair, whole, whose
[m] = moon, lamp, lamb
[n] = can, snow, pneumonia
[s] = small, since, scene, psalm, disagree
[z] = zoo, goes, xenophobe
Consonant sounds
[l] look, small, battle, isle
[r] real, train, wrong, write
[θ] thin, three, truth, teeth, earth, method, both
[ð]
then, the, although, this, they, father, breathe
[j]
yellow, Europe, young, yes, university
[ʃ]
shoe, finish, show, splash, shell, machine, she
[ʒ]
measure, leisure, treasure, genre, vision
[tʃ]
church, teacher, chair, match, future
[dʒ]
judge, gender, just, general, age, soldier
[ŋ]
sing, king, morning, singer, strong, tongue
Vowel sounds
20 vowel sounds
Monophthongs
are single, pure
vowel sounds. While
pronouncing a
monophthong, the
positions of the mouth
and tongue remain.
fixed.
Diphthongs are sound
sequences that are made
of two sounds. A
diphthong combines two
vowel sounds in one
syllable.
In a diphthong, the
sound begins as one
vowel and moves
towards another.
Short and long vowels
• In english, all vowels are produced with an open
configuration of the oral tract; still, some vowel sounds
are short while others are long.
• Short vowels make shorter speech sounds than is the
case with long vowels.
• Most importantly, vowels sounds should not be
confused with vowel letters.
• The same vowel letter can make both short and long
speech sounds with found in different words.
• In the word black, ‘a’ makes a short vowel sound while
‘a’ in the word dark makes a long vowel sound.
Some rules of long and short vowels
• Three-letter words with a single vowel in the middle
are pronounced with short vowel sounds (but, hat, lit,
hot, pet).
• When preceeded by the consonant ‘c’, the vowel letter
‘ei’ makes a long vowel sound /i:/ (receive, deceive,
conceive).
• Words with double ‘e’ are pronounced with a long
vowel sound, /i:/ (flee, meet, keep, fleet).
• The vowel letters ‘a’ and ‘o’ make a long vowel sounds
when they are by the consonant letter ‘r’ (dark, far,
mark, horse, fork, and sore).
• Rules for proper pronunciation are not without
exceptions. The best way to practice the correct
pronunication of words with short vowel sounds and
long vowel sounds is through phonetic transcription.
Monophthongs
Short vowels
/ɪ/= tip- pick- pit- sick- busy- system
Long vowels
/I:/= see- sea- week- be
/e/= set- pet- let- bet- bread
/æ/= sad- fat- black
/ɑ:/= car- far- calm- bath
/ʌ/= shut- but- blood- love-hug
/ɔ:/= door- sore- more- core
/ʊ/= would- good- pull- put
/ɜ:/= heard- sir- earn- burn
/ɒ/= hot- pot- lot- bought-box
/u:/= mood- glue- food
/ə/= again- aside- ballon
Some rules of phonetic transcription
• The schwa sound /ə/:
- Schwa sound is the most common vowel sound in english in view of the large
number of words where it appears.
- The schwa sound is the function of different spellings. Shwa occurs when we
have the vowel letters a, e, i, o, u:
• A: Amazing: /əˈmeɪzɪŋ/; ballon: /bəˈluːn/;
• E: Enemy= /ˈenəmi/, problem= /ˈprɒbləm/, president= /ˈprezɪdənt/
• O: Freedom= /fri:dəm/, bottom= /bɒt.əm/, offensive: /əˈfensɪv/
• U: Support= /səˈpɔːt/ , furniture: /ˈfɜːnɪtʃə(r)/
These rules are not without exceptions.
Long vowels
• The long vowel /i:/ is found in environments
such as:
-1) e: be = /bi:/, eve= /i:v/, evening= /ˈiːvnɪŋ/
-2) ea: beak= /bi:k/, meal= /mi:l/, meaning=
/mi:niŋ/
- 3) ee= see= /si:/, need= /ni:d/, seek= /si:k/
- 4) ie: field= /fi:ld/, believe= /bili:v/
- 5)ei: receive= /rɪˈsiːv/, being= /ˈbiːɪŋ/
Long vowels
• The long vowel /a:/ is found in enviroments
like: (aahh)
1- car: /ka:/, far= /fa:/, arm= /a:m/, army=
/a:mi/, part= /pa:t/, past= /pa:st/, pass= /pa:s/,
castle= /ca:sl/.
- Other environments: father= /ˈfɑːðə(r)/
Long vowels
The /ɜ:/ ‘err’ (thinking sound) is found in
enviroment such as:
-
Her
Church
Girl-third
Worst
Work
world
Long vowels
• The long vowel sound /u:/ is found in
enviroments like:
- oo: food- mood- room
- O: do- move- movie
- U: june- rude-dude
- Ewe: few, new
- Ue: blue, true
- Ou: group- through
Long vowels
• The long vowel sound /ɔ:/ is found in
environments like:
- Four
- Door
- Or
- Talk
- Walk
Diphthongs
1- /aɪ/:
• I= Kind- wild- mind- climb
• Igh= bright-sight- might
• Y= by-cry-dry
• Ie= Die, tie, lie
• Consonant+i+consonant+e= time+ bike+
life+nice+like+smile
Diphthongs
• 2- /eɪ/:
- __a__e: blame- cake-make- late- name- same-
wave.
Ay: play- say- way-stay
Ei= eight- neighborhood-weight
Ea= break-great
ey= grey- survey-they
Diphthongs
3- /aʊ/:
- ow: owl- how- now-growl- allow- cow-downtown
- Ou: out- south-mouth- sound- noun-countdoubt.
4- /eə/:
- ai= affair- air- chair-hair-pair- stairs.
- Are= aware-bare-care-compare-share
Diphthongs
5- /ɪə/:
- ee: deer- beer
- ea: fear- hear-near
- e= here
6- /ɔɪ/: (oy)
- oi: avoid-join-oil-voice
- Oy: boy- destroy-employ- enjoy- toy
7- /əʊ/: (ow)
- _o_e: bone- alone-code- hope-joke-note-phone
- Ol: control- fold-gold- cold- told-no
- Ow: follow-below-blow-grow-low-show-window
- Oa: boat- coat-load-road-approach
Diphthongs:
8-/ʊə/: (oha)
- ou: tour
- Oo: poor
- U: sure- mature-pure