English Phonetics for Teachers by Fagbokforlaget

English Phonetics for Teachers er en praktisk rettet lærebok i engelsk uttale som dekker både lydsystem og setningsmelodi. Den er spesielt egnet for lærerstudenter og er knyttet opp mot kunnskapsbehovet lærere har i undervisningssituasjonen. Hovedkomponentene er: • artikulasjonslære: en praktisk tilnærming til hvordan språklyder blir produsert • fonembeskrivelser med fokus på lydene som tradisjonelt volder problemer for norske elever og studenter

• intonasjonslære med vekt på hvordan setningsmelodien farger det vi sier i ulike kommunikasjonssituasjoner • en oversikt over noen typiske uttaletrekk i ulike varianter av engelsk • praktiske undervisningstips • øvingsoppgaver med nøkkel Boken er lagt opp slik at den også er godt egnet til selvstudium og fjernundervisning, og den er aktuell for alle som vil sette seg bedre inn i engelsk uttalemønster. Boken har eget lydmateriale med øvingsoppgaver og eksempler på ulike varianter av engelsk. Materialet finnes her: fagbokforlaget.no/englishphonetics.

ISBN 978-82-450-1857-8

,!7II2E5-abifhi!

English Phonetics for Teachers

• trykk og rytme og hvordan disse komponentene påvirker uttalemønsteret vårt

Thor Sigurd Nilsen og Kåre N. Rugesæter

Lydmateriale med øvingsoppgaver og eksempler på ulike varianter av engelsk ligger her: fagbokforlaget.no/englishphonetics.

Thor Sigurd Nilsen er førsteamanuensis i engelsk språk ved Høgskolen i Telemark og har undervist i engelsk fonetikk og intonasjon i mange år.

Kåre N. Rugesæter er førstelektor ved Høgskolen i Bergen. Han har arbeidet innenfor lærerutdanningen i mange år og vært foreleser ved University of Newcastle og daglig leder ved Det Norske Studiesenteret i Storbritannia.

Thor Sigurd Nilsen og Kåre N. Rugesæter

English Phonetics for Teachers Third Edition

List of Symbols Used Vowel phonemes Symbol /i:/ /ɪ/ /e/ /æ/ /ʌ/

Keyword eat pit pet add sun

/ɑ:/ /ɒ/ /ɔ:/ /ʊ/ /u:/ /ɜ:/ /ə/

art stop BE only saw put shoot bird again

Symbol Keyword /eɪ/ eight /aɪ/ high /ɔɪ/ boy /əʊ/ BE stone /oʊ/AE stone /aʊ/ out /ɪə/ BE only fear /eə/ BE only fair /ʊə/ BE only cure /i/ /u/

city actual

/b/ /d/ /dʒ/ /g/ /v/ /ð/ /z/ /ʒ/

bet do Jane go view this zoo pleasure

/n/

/r/ /w/

ring why

Consonant phonemes /p/ /t/ /tʃ/ /k/ /f/ /θ/ /s/ /ʃ/ /h/ /m/ /ŋ/ /l/ /j/

pet two chair car far three sit show hat met sing lie yes

Intonation symbols ↘ ↗ \↗

falling tone from mid to low

↘

falling tone from high to low

rising tone ending in mid pitch

↗

rising tone ending in high pitch

fall from a high pitch followed by rise to mid pitch

Other symbols < > <C> / / /C/ [ ] [ ˈ] [ ɖ] [ ɳ] [c] [ ʉ]

orthographic spelling any consonant letter phonemic transcription any consonant phoneme phonetic transcription primary stress <rd> as in EN “verden” <rn> as in EN “barn” <kj> as in Norwegian “Kjell”

<V>

any vowel letter

/V/

any vowel phoneme

[ʰ] [ˌ] [ʈ] [ɭ] [ʋ]

aspiration secondary stress <rt> as in EN “ert” <rl> as in EN “perle” as in Norwegian “vann”

as in Norwegian “du”

[ˀ]

reinforcement of final /p t k/

Thor Sigurd Nilsen and Kåre N. Rugesæter

English Phonetics for Teachers 3rd Edition

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Copyright © 2015 by Vigmostad & Bjørke AS All Rights Reserved 2. opplag 2016 Grafisk produksjon: John Grieg, Bergen Omslagsdesign ved forlaget Forsidefoto: © Gettyimages/Anwar Hussein ISBN: 978-82-450-1857-8 1. utgave 1999 2. utgave 2008 Disse utgavene hadde tittelen Basic English Phonetics for Teachers

Spørsmål om denne boken kan rettes til: Fagbokforlaget Kanalveien 51 5068 Bergen Tlf.: 55 38 88 00 Faks: 55 38 88 01 e-post: fagbokforlaget@fagbokforlaget.no www.fagbokforlaget.no Materialet er vernet etter åndsverkloven. Uten uttrykkelig samtykke er eksemplarfremstilling bare tillatt når det er hjemlet i lov eller avtale med Kopinor.

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Contents

1 Introduction ................................................................................ 7 2 Sound Foundation . . ..................................................................... 11 2.1 Places of articulation ............................................................ 12 2.2 Manners of articulation (consonants) .................................... 19 2.2.1 Stops ......................................................................... 20 2.2.2 Fricatives .. .................................................................. 21 2.2.3 Nasals ........................................................................ 22 2.2.4 Approximants . . ........................................................... 23 2.3 Force of articulation ............................................................. 23 2.4 Phoneme and allophone ....................................................... 24 2.5 The syllable .......................................................................... 26 3 Consonants ................................................................................. 28 3.1 A presentation of English and EN consonants ....................... 30 3.2 English consonants ............................................................... 31 3.2.1 Stops ......................................................................... 31 3.2.2 Fricatives .. .................................................................. 39 3.2.3 Nasals ........................................................................ 50 3.2.4 Approximants . . ........................................................... 51 4 Vowels ........................................................................................ 66 4.1 Background .......................................................................... 66 4.2 Vowels in English .................................................................. 69 4.2.1 The front monophthongs ............................................ 71 4.2.2 The central monophthongs ......................................... 76 4.2.3 The back monophthongs ........................................... 81 4.2.4 The weak vowels /i/, /u/, /É&#x2122;/ ...................................... 88 4.2.5 The front closing diphthongs ...................................... 92 4.2.6 The back closing diphthongs ...................................... 95 4.2.7 The centring diphthongs (note: BE only) . . ................... 99

Contents

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5 Stress, Rhythm, and Sounds in Company .. ................................... 107 5.1 Heavy and light .................................................................... 107 5.2 Word stress .......................................................................... 109 5.2.1 Two-syllable words ..................................................... 110 5.2.2 Words of more than two syllables ............................... 110 5.2.3 Primary stress and secondary stress ........................... 111 5.2.4 Double stress .. ............................................................ 112 5.3 From word stress to sentence stress ..................................... 113 5.4 Weak forms .......................................................................... 114 5.5 Stress and rhythm in the classroom .. ..................................... 119 5.5.1 Some general considerations ...................................... 119 5.5.2 Some suggested activities .......................................... 119 5.6 Assimilation and elision ........................................................ 122 5.6.1 Assimilation .. .............................................................. 122 5.6.2 Elision ........................................................................ 125 6 Intonation ................................................................................... 130 6.1 What is intonation? . . ............................................................. 130 6.2 Why is intonation so difficult â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and so important? ................. 130 6.3 Your theory kit .. .................................................................... 133 6.3.1 Pitch .......................................................................... 133 6.3.2 Tone units .. ................................................................. 134 6.3.3 Tones ......................................................................... 135 6.3.4 Tones ......................................................................... 135 6.4 Some extra considerations .................................................... 136 6.4.1 The pitch level before the tonic syllable ...................... 136 6.4.2 Old and new information ............................................ 137 6.5 The five tones â&#x20AC;&#x201C; some general remarks ................................. 138 6.6 The use of the five tones . . ..................................................... 140 6.6.1 The low fall . . ............................................................... 140 6.6.2 The high fall ............................................................... 142 6.6.3 The low rise ................................................................ 143 6.6.4 The high rise .. ............................................................. 146 6.6.5 The fall-rise ................................................................ 147 6.7 Some extra points .. ............................................................... 149 6.7.1 Question tags ............................................................. 149 6.7.2 Adding information .................................................... 150 6.7.3 Addressing someone .................................................. 150 6.8 Intonation in the classroom . . ................................................. 150 6.8.1 Some general considerations ...................................... 150 6.8.2 Some suggested activities .......................................... 152 4

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7 Teaching Pronunciation ............................................................... 154 7.1 Why is good pronunciation important? ................................. 154 7.2 Teaching and learning pronunciation .. ................................... 157 7.2.1 Pronunciation is different . . .......................................... 157 7.2.2 The teacher as a guide .. .............................................. 157 7.2.3 The teacher as a language model .. .............................. 158 7.2.4 Building up awareness ................................................ 158 7.2.5 Young learners and pronunciation .. ............................. 158 7.2.6 Pronunciation in a context .......................................... 159 7.2.7 The role of phonemic script ........................................ 160 7.2.8 The role of errors ........................................................ 161 7.3 Language practice ................................................................ 162 7.3.1 Nursery rhymes .......................................................... 162 7.3.2 Limericks . . .................................................................. 163 8 Varieties of spoken English ......................................................... 164 8.1 Accent and dialect ................................................................ 165 8.2 Variations in Britain .............................................................. 166 8.2.1 RP .............................................................................. 166 8.2.2 The north of England .................................................. 166 8.2.3 Scotland . . ................................................................... 167 8.2.4 Ireland . . ...................................................................... 167 8.2.5 London .. ..................................................................... 168 8.3 Variations in the US .............................................................. 169 8.3.1 The north-east . . .......................................................... 170 8.3.2 Traditional New York City (NYC) ................................. 170 8.3.3 Southern accents . . ...................................................... 171 8.3.4 African American vernacular English . . ......................... 171 8.4 Australian English ................................................................. 172 8.5 Pidgin and creoles ................................................................ 172 8.6 Accent variation – more than geography .. ............................. 173 8.7 English as an international language ..................................... 173 Appendix A AE . . .............................................................................. 175 Appendix A BE ................................................................................ 185 Appendix B AE ................................................................................ 195 Appendix B BE ................................................................................ 205

Contents

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Appendix C ...................................................................................... 215 Bibliography .................................................................................... 217 Glossary ........................................................................................... 219 Index . . .............................................................................................. 224

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1 Introduction

As a student training to become a teacher, you must expect English to be one of the subjects you are going to teach in the future. From the late 1990s, after the so-called L97 reform, English has been a compulsory subject from the first year in Norwegian schools, presenting an extra challenge to primary school teachers. In the past, many teachers have had to teach English without any formal education, and thus without being properly prepared for the task. Many of those teachers have enjoyed the challenge and done a marvellous job. But in order to succeed, they have had to study the language on their own, picking up information from various sources. Today English is an international language used more and more frequently as a lingua franca among non-native speakers in many parts of the world. There is little doubt about the fact that for a while now English has been the world language used most often in business communication, in academic articles, in diplomacy, as a media language and in many other contexts. Today it is estimated that approximately 350 million speak English as a first language (mainly in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand), but well over a billion non-native speakers of English use English as a second language (for example in former British colonies such as India, Bangladesh and Nigeria) and/or to communicate internationally. Therefore concepts such as English as an International Language (EIL) and English as a lingua franca (ELF) have been introduced recently when describing varieties of the language. For the same reason one also talks about English as a global language or as an international “contact language”. In this book dealing with the pronunciation of English we have chosen to use two standard varieties as models, or norms of reference: American English (AE) – a variety used partly in the Midwest and on the West Coast, and a standard British English accent (BE). One important feature of BE

1 Introduction

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is that it is non-regional – you will find BE speakers all over England. It is often referred to as “BBC-English”. However, it is important to emphasize that these accents are chosen not because they are “better” than other accents of English, but because they are commonly used when teaching English to foreigners. One may furthermore ask whether it actually is right to teach children to adopt a native variant, where the ideal is to make them sound like clones of an Englishman or an American, or whether more emphasis should be put on communication rather than on sound variants. Is it actually desirable to teach them to adopt a native accent that very few of them will be able to obtain, and which at best will provide them with a “fake” identity as someone they are not, when they express themselves in English? What is so wrong with having a foreign accent, showing that English is not their first language as long as they can make themselves clearly understood? Most of the time they will communicate with non-native speakers anyway, so why should they be measured against a special British or American norm? Some of these questions are treated in Chapter 7 (see pp. 154–163), but it is important from the start that you think about these issues and form your own opinion. Because it is such a complex question, it may be of help to clearly distinguish between the needs of your students and your role as a model in the classroom. Remember that the children you will be teaching are regularly bombarded with all types of English accents through the media, whether they are watching Australian soaps on TV, or listening to American rock artists, a footballer speaking with a broad London accent or an African leader being interviewed on the news. It may potentially be confusing for them. As a teacher it is important that you at least represent a form of consistency, and that you use a sound system that is recognizable as an accent that can be imitated. However, students today are exposed to English to such an extent that they will react to teachers having a strong Norwegian accent when speaking English in the classroom, and that does not exactly inspire confidence in the teacher as a professional. So you should definitely aim higher than just making yourself understood, and work on improving your own English in a way that will give you respect or “street cred” with today’s students. Also for that reason it is important to have a form of authentic reference to measure yourself against. However, in this book you will also find examples of accent features from other varieties than AE and BE, in order to focus on some important differences between a few main varieties of spoken English. 8

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Because it is important that you as a teacher get things right where Norwegians normally have problems, we have furthermore focused on contrasts in the sound system as a basis for clear communication. Everybody will immediately understand the importance of being able to distinguish between words like <now> and <no> and between <beer> and <bear>, for example. Teaching tips and descriptions of typical traps for Norwegian learners have been built into the description of the English sound system in this book. However, let us again underline the fact that no particular accent of English is in itself “better” than any other. You will have to accept, for example, that many of your pupils probably will have traces of both American and British English in their speech, or even regional varieties of English, such as typical London features, due to influence from the media. It is in addition more and more common for children to spend time with their families in other parts of the world, including English-speaking countries, and children easily pick up the accent of the region they are in. These are things you will increasingly have to live with in the English classroom. Norms for the spoken language change over time anyway, so we are left with the overriding principle of being able to make oneself clearly understood without attracting too much attention to how you speak (see pp. 154–156). Naturally, a subject like English consists of a number of elements, and you need some understanding of all of these in order to teach English successfully. In this book we hope to give you some insights into the pronunciation of English, one of these important elements. The aim is to give sufficient background knowledge for you to feel comfortable in the classroom situation, both with your own pronunciation and when helping your pupils master the pronunciation of a foreign language. In order to prepare for this task, you need to study pronunciation from various angles: the articulation of vowels and consonants (and you also need to know something about the differences between the sounds of English and Norwegian), the rhythm of English, and the intonation (or sentence melody). This book takes a practical approach to English phonetics and intonation, and we have tried to keep theory to a minimum. However, some important terms are needed, and you also need fairly detailed knowledge of the way speech sounds are made and how to correct mistakes. All this is done in order to give you the overview that is required. It goes without saying that the theoretical terms used in this book cannot be used directly in the classroom. We must keep in mind that the 1 Introduction

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teacher needs to know more about pronunciation than the learners do, and in this book, which contains teaching tips and methodological advice, you will find a clear distinction between the material intended for the English teacher and the material intended for the learners in the classroom. We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to some of our colleagues whose help we have enlisted in various ways: Wendy Scott and Paul Seedhouse (University of Newcastle), the late Kurt Rydland (University of Bergen), Kari Moen (Telemark College), BjĂ¸rn SĂ¸rheim (Sogn og Fjordane College), Ian Watering (Hedmark College), Beck Sinar (the Norwegian Study Centre, University of York) and Bente Hannisdal (University of Bergen). The new edition of this book contains descriptions of major differences between AE/BE and other important varieties of English. It also takes up the issue of English as an international language. There are, furthermore, additional examples of native and non-native accents of English online. For this third edition we are particularly grateful to Bente Hannisdal for valuable advice and input. The sound recordings for this book, marked with in the text, can be accessed via www.fagbokforlaget.no/englishphonetics

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2 Sound Foundation

The English teacher can very often get pupils to pronounce an English vowel or consonant simply by asking them to repeat. In such cases, for instance with the word “complex”, this strategy is very likely to bring about an acceptable response (the reason is that most of the sounds used here are very similar to sounds used in Norwegian). In other cases, for example if a Norwegian learner is asked to pronounce “convert” (where the vowels in the initial and final syllables, as well as /v/ and /t/ are likely to be problematic), chances are that the attempt is not going to be that successful. In such cases, the teacher must be able to devise a way of changing an incorrect pronunciation into a correct one. In order to do this, it is not sufficient for the teacher to have a description of the English sound at hand; s/he must also be able to define the articulation of the incorrect pronunciation. This is necessary in order to plan a strategy by which the English articulation is mastered. This is why every teacher should experiment with different articulation positions and different degrees of approximation (= nearness) between articulators. In the following, we shall study various manners and places of articulation. We shall attempt to use technical jargon as sparingly as possible, even though some terms are necessary. Familiarity with these terms is necessary in order to understand the rest of the chapter. If nothing else, they can be used as “pegs”. It is also our strong belief that it is essential for a successful teacher to have walked the same path that s/he is asking the pupils to walk. This in fact means that the teacher should be able to mispronounce the English word in the same way as the learner. In this chapter, you will be asked to carry out a number of experiments. The point of these experiments is to guide you step by step through the various postures of the speech organs. You will also be asked to do this first silently, and then aloud. The reason is that silent practice will make you

2 Sound Foundation

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focus on the physical movements that are required before you actually hear what sounds they produce. We strongly recommend that you go through all the experiments carefully. This technique of silent practice is also one that can easily be used in the classroom.

2.1

Places of articulation

In order to discuss places of articulation understandably, it is necessary to study the way in which speech sounds are made and at the same time have a look at the speech organs.

Nasal Cavity

Velum (Soft palate)

Hard Palate

Alveolar Ridge Lips

Oral cavity Uvula

Dorsum Teeth

Lamina (Blade) Apex (Tip)

Radix (Root)

Fig. 2.1 Speech organs. These terms are very useful in a description of English speech sounds. Naturally, they are not very likely to be used in the classroom. If you do need to refer to them, try to find other, more familiar terms (e.g. “tip” instead of “apex”). However, the terms are widely used in other books on pronunciation.

Pharynx

Larynx

Glottis

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In English, as in Norwegian, all normal speech sounds are made by air coming from the lungs. We make an exception here for sounds that are produced by an in-going airstream, for example when we say “ja” in Norwegian, sucking the air in to show that we are listening attentively. On its way out, the air passes through the vocal folds (situated in the larynx), which may function in three different ways: a) They may be tightly shut. This is something you can feel if you pronounce the command “out” with strong emphasis. What happens here is that the vocal folds are held so tightly together that no air escapes. It is a sound commonly heard before a word starting with a vowel sound, and in some other cases that will be discussed later. The phonetic symbol is [ʔ]. EXPERIMENT

Make the sound of a cough. At the very beginning of the cough, you can feel that you stop the air completely below the larynx. Now try it again, but instead of releasing the air noisily, pronounce the vowel [ɑ:] (as in “spa”). The important thing is that you feel that the air is trapped completely before being released.

Fi so air

Fig. 2.2a Vocal folds held so tightly together that the air cannot escape.

b) They may be held apart. This is the case when we articulate consonants that do not have any voicing – for example [s] or normal breathing.

Fi he un

Fig. 2.2b Vocal folds held wide apart, as for unvoiced consonants.

2 Sound Foundation

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c) The vocal folds may be held loosely together and begin to vibrate because of the air that is passed through. The resulting sound is like a buzz, and it is primarily a function of speech. Voicing is a normal feature of vowels and is also often present in, for example, [z] as compared with [s]. EXPERIMENT

Pronounce a very long [ɑ:]. If you put a finger in each ear, you should be able to hear the vibration very clearly. Say the sound again, but this time let it be followed by a [z]. Keep your fingers in your ears all the time and make sure that the buzzing is there. When you have successfully managed to produce a voiced [z], keep the tongue in the same position and practise turning the vocal fold vibration on and off: [zzz-sss-zzz-sss] etc.

Fig. 2.2c Vocal folds vibrating as for voicing.

As we shall see later on, sounds like [z] are particularly difficult for Norwegian learners. It is therefore extremely important that the teacher knows exactly how to produce voicing and how to instruct others to do it. The vocal folds may vibrate at different speeds. If they vibrate quickly we hear a sound at a high pitch, whereas if they vibrate slowly we hear a sound at a low pitch. This is in fact the way in which we produce intonation (see Chapter 6). It goes without saying that only voiced sounds can be responsible for changes in pitch (or tone height).1 After passing through the vocal folds, the air enters the vocal tract, and this is where most of the modifications to the airstream are made. Two cavities are particularly important here: the oral cavity and the nasal cavity. Even though this is not a difficult point for Norwegian learners, teachers of English should still know what the differences are between an oral sound and a nasal sound. The important organ in this respect is the soft palate, which may be 1

This is easy to check. Now that you are able to produce a voiced [z], try to sing the first few bars of a song using this buzzing noise. Then try to do the same using an [s] sound.

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raised or lowered. If it is raised, the air can only escape through the mouth (oral sounds). This is the case with most speech sounds in all languages: EXPERIMENT

Say the word “sad” in a normal way. Note carefully how the word is pronounced and what it sounds like. Next, squeeze your nose so that no air can possibly escape, and pronounce “sad” again. It should sound exactly the same.

If, on the other hand, the soft palate is lowered, the air is allowed to enter the nasal cavity. In English and Norwegian this will normally coincide with a complete closure somewhere in the oral cavity. Such sounds are referred to as nasals: EXPERIMENT

This time say the word “sand” in a normal way. Again, note carefully how it is pronounced and what it sounds like. Next, squeeze your nose again and try to pronounce the word. This time you should not be able to pronounce the word properly. Now try to say the word “button” [bʌtn]. See if you can isolate the last two sounds [tn]. If you pronounce this sequence correctly, you should actually be able to feel the lowering of the soft palate. Do this several times.

Most of the modifications to the airstream, however, are made in the oral cavity. In the following, we shall study briefly the various parts that are used in the production of speech sounds. This is very important for teachers of English, and it is absolutely vital that you carry out the experiments carefully. Remember what we said earlier about being able to “mispronounce” a word in the same way as a learner, and to devise a strategy to correct the mistake. The oral cavity is where most of the “places of articulation” are found. The specification of these places, at least for consonants, normally implies a contact or approximation between a lower (active) articulator and an upper (passive) one. It therefore makes sense to divide the discussion into two parts corresponding to these articulators. The upper articulators stretch from the upper lip to the back of the soft palate, the uvula, which we can disregard completely in a discussion of English speech sounds. The parts that are most commonly used as passive articulators are to be found in the front of the cavity.

2 Sound Foundation

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Nasal cavity

Oral cavity

Soft palate

Pharynx

Fig. 2.3aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; Diagram showing the position of the soft palate during the articulation of an oral sound.

Nasal cavity

Oral cavity Soft palate

Pharynx

Fig. 2.3bâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; Diagram showing the position of the soft palate during the articulation of a nasal sound.

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EXPERIMENT

After the lips, the forward part of the upper articulators should be quite easy to find – the upper teeth. If you pull your tongue further back, you will feel a bony convex area just behind the teeth. This part is called the alveolar ridge. The dentalveolar region (teeth and alveolar ridge) is where we articulate most consonant sounds in both English and Norwegian.

Pronounce the Norwegian word “åtte” several times, and try to stop in the middle of the articulation of the [t]-sound. In most Norwegian accents there will now be a contact between the tongue and the entire dentalveolar region. Now pronounce a very long [s]-sound. The tongue should not touch the teeth (except the sides of the tongue). Pronounce an [s]-sound again, but this time try to pronounce it on air coming in rather than going out. You will now feel cold air both on the central surface of the tongue and on the alveolar ridge. As mentioned above, this area is very important in the articulation of English consonants, and some of the differences between English and Norwegian can also be found here. It is therefore important that you try out the differences between a typical Norwegian [t]-sound (where there is contact between the tongue and the upper front teeth) and a typical English [t]sound (where the contact is alveolar). When you feel fairly confident about these two different articulations, try to pronounce the three words “eighth”, “eight”, and “train”, concentrating on the articulation of the [t]-sounds. You will probably feel that the alveolar ridge needs to be subdivided into alveolar and postalveolar in order to capture the different articulations of the [t]sounds in “eight” and “train”. Also experiment with the differences between the initial consonant in “thought” and the one at the beginning of “sought”. The upper articulators behind the dentalveolar area can also be subdivided into two parts: EXPERIMENT

Pull the tongue further back from the alveolar ridge. You will feel that the forward part has a bony structure. This is what we shall call the palatal area. If you pull your tongue still further back, you will feel that the roof of the mouth becomes soft and fleshy. The part is called the soft palate, or the velar area. Relatively few sounds in English and Norwegian are articulated in the palatal and velar areas, but the initial consonant in Norwegian “ja” has a palatal articulation, and so does the pronunciation of the letter <k> in “kilt”. The pronunciation of <k> in “kone”, on the other hand, is velar, and that is also the typical place of articulation for <k> in English. 2 Sound Foundation

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We can now sum up the upper articulators in Fig. 2.4:

alveolar ridge

teeth

upper lip

hard palate

soft palate

Fig. 2.4 Diagram showing the upper articulators (adapted from Catford, 1994).

The lower articulators are very active during speech production. This is true for the lower lip, but most of all the tongue, which is a bundle of muscles that is hardly ever at rest as long as one produces speech. Only the lower teeth are not used directly as a speech organ. The fact that the tongue is a very important organ when we speak is recognized in a number of languages where the same word is used for “tongue” and “language”. The very word “language” reflects this: it is a French loanword, and in French “langue” means “tongue”. In Norwegian we also have the word “tungemål”. When we are going to describe English vowels and consonants, we shall need to refer to various parts of the tongue. The apex is the front-most extremity of the tongue, the tip. One of the differences between English and Norwegian is that the apex is more frequently used in English. Just behind the apex we have a relatively small area of the tongue often referred to as the lamina. Earlier you carried out an experiment in which you pronounced a very long [s]-sound on an in-going airstream. Now try to do this again. You should be able to feel that the part of the tongue that is chilled is the lamina. The rest of the tongue behind the lamina (at least for our purpose) is called the dorsum. This part of the tongue is used as an active articulator for the initial consonant in “caught”. But more importantly, as we shall see later on, the dorsum is the part of the tongue that is highest 18

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during the articulation of any English vowel. The tongue may be moved in three different directions: EXPERIMENT

a) Horizontal movement: Pronounce the vowels in the two words “black car” – i.e. [æ] and [ɑ:]. Try to move quickly from one to the other. If you do this correctly, you should feel that your tongue is moving back and forth.

Fi (a pa rim ad

apex

lamina

teeth

lower lip

dorsum

Fig. 2.5 Diagram showing the lower (active) articulators. An important part that is not shown here is the rims (sides of the tongue) (diagram adapted from Catford, 1994).

b) Vertical movement: Pronounce the vowels in the name “Annie” – i.e. [æ] and [i]. Again, try to move quickly. In this case the tongue is relatively flat in the mouth for the first vowel, and very high in the mouth for the second. c) Movement of the apex: Pronounce the word “alley” – [æli]. If you hold a mirror in front of your mouth when you pronounce the word, you will see that the apex is raised independently of the rest of the tongue. Try the same with the sound sequence many people use when they do not know the words of a song: “la-la-la”.

2.2

Manners of articulation (consonants)

All normal speech sounds in English (and in Norwegian) are made by modifying the airstream that comes from the lungs (see section 2.1): the air may be stopped completely, it may only be allowed to escape through the nose, two articulating organs may be so close that a friction sound is produced, and there may be varying degrees of approximation between two organs. 2 Sound Foundation

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EXPERIMENT

Carry out the following experiment, first a couple of times silently, and then aloud. Concentrate on the initial consonant in each word, and make a mental picture of how you believe it is articulated. Pronounce carefully the following words, and allow a generous pause between each articulation: “tip” – “chip” – “sip” – “nip” – “lip” – “rip” – “whip”. How would you characterize the escape of the airstream for the initial consonant in each case? What about the differences between the individual words?

This experiment shows how differently the initial consonants are pronounced, from the complete stoppage of the airstream in “tip” to the vowellike articulation of the beginning of “whip”. We therefore need to describe these various articulations in a fairly precise way.

2.2.1 Stops EXPERIMENT

Pronounce the words “par”, “tar”, and “car”, first silently, and then aloud. What do the initial consonants have in common? How would you characterize the articulation of the three consonants?

What we see here is that the air is trapped for a moment. The soft palate (Fig. 2.3a) is raised to close off the nasal passage, and there is a complete closure of the airstream somewhere in the oral cavity. It is easiest to observe this in the case of the initial sound in “par”, where a look in the mirror will show you that the lips are completely closed. We use the term stop to refer to this type of consonant. If you pronounce the word “happy” in front of a mirror, you can see that the articulation of /p/ (and any other stop consonant) can be divided into three stages: the closing stage (where the lips are being closed), the hold stage (the closure is held, and air pressure builds up behind it), and the release stage (allowing the air to escape). These three stages can be shown diagrammatically like this:

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closing stage

hold stage

release stage

Fig. 2.6 Diagram showing the three stages in the articulation of plosives. EXPERIMENT

Now pronounce the two words “test” and “chest”, first silently, then aloud. Concentrate on the initial consonant. What is the difference between these two articulations?

In this case you will notice that the closing stage and the hold stage are very similar for both consonants. Therefore both of them are classified as stops. The release stage, on the other hand, is quite different. In the case of “test”, the speech organs part rapidly in a kind of “clean” release, and the term plosive is often used as a label for this type of stop. The articulation of “chest” is quite different. Here the release is so slow that a friction sound is clearly audible. This type of articulation is referred to as affricate. Once again we can show the articulation in a diagram:

closing stage

hold stage

Fi th of

release stage

Fig. 2.7 Diagram showing the three stages in the articulation of affricates.

2.2.2 Fricatives EXPERIMENT

Pronounce the five words “fin”, “thin”, “sin”, “shin”, and “he”. Once again, carry out this experiment first silently, then out loud. We saw that two articulators made a complete closure to the airstream in the case of stops. Clearly, the places of articulation for the initial consonant in these five words are different, but how would you describe the approximation between the speech organs?

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Whereas a complete closure was made in the oral cavity for stop consonants, the initial consonants in these words have an articulation where two speech organs are held very close to each other. The approximation is so strong that a friction noise is heard when air is pushed through the narrowing. This friction sound is similar to the one you get when you rub your hands together. The collective term for these articulations is fricative, and they can be divided into two subcategories according to articulation. EXPERIMENT

Pronounce the initial consonants in the two words “fin” and “thin” silently (probably most helpful) and loudly. Then do the same with the initial consonants in “sin” and “shin”. Can you notice any difference in the articulation of the two pairs? Does the air escape differently in the two cases?

You can best experience the difference if you pronounce “sin” and “shin” on an in-going airstream. Wet your tongue, suck in air, and at the same time pronounce these two consonants. Now you should be able to feel that a narrow part in the middle of the tongue gets cold. This is not the case with the corresponding consonants in “fin” and “thin” to the same extent. In these cases the teeth and a wider area of the surface of the tongue feel cold. The reason is, of course, that these two pairs are articulated differently. For the consonants in “sin” and “shin”, you can feel that the sides of the tongue are held firmly against the roof of the mouth, and that the air escapes through a narrow “furrow”. You can also hear that these two fricatives have a different type of noise component than the other two; in Norwegian we would call it “hvislelyd”. The English term is sibilant, and the consonants in “fin”, “thin”, and “he” are called non-sibilants. The sibilants in English are /s z ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ/. This distinction is quite important when we come to the pronunciation of the inflectional -s (plural, genitive, third person singular present), on p. 45.

2.2.3 Nasals EXPERIMENT

Pronounce the words “sin”, “rim”, and “sing”. Concentrate on the final consonants. Try to form an opinion about how they are articulated. Next, pronounce the three words “rid”, “rib”, and “rig”. How would you explain the articulatory difference between the final consonants in the two sets?

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Here you noticed that these three consonants are very different from the fricatives. Whereas the air escapes through the oral cavity for the fricatives, the nasals involve an articulation where the oral cavity is completely closed at some point. This makes nasals fairly similar to stops. At the same time, however, there is a very noticeable difference between them. In addition to the oral closure, the stops are articulated with the velum (or “soft palate”; see Fig. 2.3a) in a raised position, which means that the air is completely trapped for a moment. The nasals, on the other hand, do not have this velic closure, so the air is allowed to escape through the nose (see Fig. 2.3b).

2.2.4 Approximants EXPERIMENT

Pronounce the four words “law”, “raw”, “your”, and “war”, concentrating on the initial consonant in each case. Try to form an opinion about how they differ from the categories we have discussed already, for instance by comparing them to “door”, “nor”, and “thaw”.

As you will have experienced, this category is fairly heterogeneous. However, what the four consonants have in common, compared with the initial consonants of the last three words, is that there is no closure that prevents the airstream from escaping through the oral cavity. Nor is there a narrowing between two speech organs that is strong enough to cause friction, but rather an approximation between two speech organs, hence the term approximant. Later we shall come back to a discussion of the differences between the individual members. However, you may note that /l/ is strictly speaking not an approximant. The reason is that there is contact between the apex and the alveolar ridge while the sides of the tongue are lowered. Still, /l/ is often numbered among the approximants, and we shall also do this.

2.3

Force of articulation

So far we have studied manners and places of articulation for consonants. We therefore know that /t/ and /s/ have different manners but the same place of articulation, and that /t/ and /p/ have different places but the same manner of articulation. But how are we to distinguish between /t/ and /d/? Clearly, they have both the same manner and the same place of articulation. If you

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pronounce these two consonants, as in “two” and “do”, you will feel that you have to use more energy to articulate the initial sound in “two” than the corresponding sound in “do”. In this book we shall use the Latin word “fortis” to refer to the relatively strong articulation of /t/, and “lenis” to refer to the comparatively weaker articulation of /d/. You may be used to calling these two consonants voiceless and voiced, and voicing does occasionally have something to do with the difference between them, but there is quite a bit more to it. Early in the next section we shall be studying stop consonants. One of the important differences between /t/ and /d/ in the two words “two” and “do” is that the /t/ has a strong puff of air after it (normally transcribed phonetically like this: [tʰu:] - aspiration), whereas this is absent in the word “do”. This phenomenon will not be mentioned again, because the rules for aspiration are the same in English and Norwegian. Another very important feature of the fortis/lenis distinction is that a fortis consonant will shorten the preceding syllable, whereas a lenis consonant may even lengthen it. (See more about this in section 4.2.)

2.4 Phoneme and allophone An utterance may be broken down in several ways: into sentences, tone units, words, morphemes, and sounds.2 Sentences, words, and morphemes belong to grammar proper; intonation units belong to a separate part of this course (see Chapter 6). The “sounds”, as we just called them, may be seen as the building blocks of the spoken language. This means that if you use one sound instead of another, you may get a change in meaning. For example, if you use a [t]-sound instead of a [d]-sound, you get a change from “hard” to “heart”. Sounds that distinguish meaning in this manner are referred to as phonemes by linguists. The phonemes may be said to be the smallest sound units that distinguish two words, or utterances. The word “sounds” was used earlier in a very imprecise way. As we have seen, the result of a substitution may be a different word (e.g. “hard”/“heart”). But this is not necessarily the case. 2

Further subdivisions (e.g. distinctive features, phonetic features) are also possible, but they are beyond the scope of this practical course in English pronunciation. See, for example, Nilsen (2014), pp. 38–42.

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EXPERIMENT

Pronounce silently the two words “tip” and “trip”. Concentrate on the articulation of the initial consonant. Can you feel that the closure for the /t/3 is made further back in the case of the second word? Now pronounce silently, and then aloud, the two words “leek” and “keel”. This time check the articulation of the sounds written orthographically as <l>. Can you hear that they are not identical (this is particularly true for BE)?

Hopefully, you were able to tell that these two sounds are clearly different. What would happen if you used the initial consonant in “trip” at the beginning of “tip”, or the /l/ in “leek” at the end of the word “keel”? Nothing. The result of the sound substitution would not be a different word, but rather an unusual pronunciation of “tip” and “keel”, respectively.4 As we have observed, phonemes like /t/ and /l/ may be articulated in different ways depending on where they occur. These variant articulations are referred to as allophones by linguists. We see, then, that the loose term “sound” may, in fact, mean different things. This is why we are going to use the different terms “phoneme” and “allophone”. The very important difference here is that phonemes have contrastive function. This means that if you use one phoneme instead of another, the result will be a different word altogether. To exemplify this, we can set up pairs of words in which the only difference is the use of one phoneme instead of another (minimal pairs).5 try

dry

sell

shell

cheap

jeep

pit

pet

bay

buy

fear

fair

3 4 5

The square brackets, [ ], are used when we refer to the allophones of a phoneme, whereas the slant brackets, //, are used when we refer to the phonemes. In Irish English, on the other hand, this pronunciation of “keel” would not sound strange at all. Note that because of apparent lack of correspondence between spelling and pronunciation in English, two letters may be realized as one phoneme (e.g. “shell”), and some letters are not pronounced at all (e.g. the <k> in “knife” or the <l> in “talk”).

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List of Symbols Used Vowel phonemes Symbol /i:/ /ɪ/ /e/ /æ/ /ʌ/

Keyword eat pit pet add sun

/ɑ:/ /ɒ/ /ɔ:/ /ʊ/ /u:/ /ɜ:/ /ə/

art stop BE only saw put shoot bird again

Symbol Keyword /eɪ/ eight /aɪ/ high /ɔɪ/ boy /əʊ/ BE stone /oʊ/AE stone /aʊ/ out /ɪə/ BE only fear /eə/ BE only fair /ʊə/ BE only cure /i/ /u/

city actual

/b/ /d/ /dʒ/ /g/ /v/ /ð/ /z/ /ʒ/

bet do Jane go view this zoo pleasure

/n/

/r/ /w/

ring why

Consonant phonemes /p/ /t/ /tʃ/ /k/ /f/ /θ/ /s/ /ʃ/ /h/ /m/ /ŋ/ /l/ /j/

pet two chair car far three sit show hat met sing lie yes

Intonation symbols ↘ ↗ \↗

falling tone from mid to low

↘

falling tone from high to low

rising tone ending in mid pitch

↗

rising tone ending in high pitch

fall from a high pitch followed by rise to mid pitch

Other symbols < > <C> / / /C/ [ ] [ ˈ] [ ɖ] [ ɳ] [c] [ ʉ]

<V>

any vowel letter

/V/

any vowel phoneme

[ʰ] [ˌ] [ʈ] [ɭ] [ʋ]

aspiration secondary stress <rt> as in EN “ert” <rl> as in EN “perle” as in Norwegian “vann”

as in Norwegian “du”

[ˀ]

reinforcement of final /p t k/

ISBN 978-82-450-1857-8

,!7II2E5-abifhi!

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English Phonetics for Teachers Third Edition