Phonology Portfolio

PHONOLOGY’S PORTFOLIO

PHONOLOGY 02.

TEACHER: JULIO ANIBAL BLANCO. STUDENT: MONICA SABRINA CASTRO ABREGO - 31-0938-2015

CONTENTS BASIC CONCEPTS. ................................................................................................................................ 1 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY. ....................................................................................................... 1 PHONEME AND ACCENTS: PHONETICS. .......................................................................................... 2 ENGLAND AND BRITAIN .................................................................................................................. 4 UNITED KINGDOM:.......................................................................................................................... 6 PHONOLOGY (A BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS) ................................................................................... 10 The International Phonetic Alphabet ................................................................................................ 11 THE VOCAL TRACT. ............................................................................................................................ 12 CONSONANTS & VOCAL TRACT. .................................................................................................... 14 MANNER OF ARTICULATION. ............................................................................................................ 18 SIMILARITIES...................................................................................................................................... 20 DIFFERENCES. .................................................................................................................................... 20 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. ......................................................................................................... 21 VOWEL SOUND PRODUCTION........................................................................................................... 23 IPA VOWEL CHART. ....................................................................................................................... 23 VOWEL COLOR CHART................................................................................................................... 24 VOWELS CLASSIFICATION. ............................................................................................................. 25 TRANSCRIPTION. ............................................................................................................................... 28 INFLECT ENDINGS / S / / Z / /iz / ................................................................................................... 30 INFLECTIONAL ENDINGS / t / / d / / id / ........................................................................................ 31 ASSIMILATION. .............................................................................................................................. 32 SCHWA. ......................................................................................................................................... 33 LINKING. ........................................................................................................................................ 35 CLUSTERS VS. SPELLING CASES. .................................................................................................... 36 REDUCTION. .................................................................................................................................. 37 ELLIPSIS. ......................................................................................................................................... 38 CONTRACTIONS. ............................................................................................................................ 38 DERIVATION. ................................................................................................................................. 39

BORROWING ................................................................................................................................. 40 MINIMAL PAIRS. ............................................................................................................................ 41 HOMOPHONES- HOMOGRAPHS ................................................................................................... 42 ALLOWPHONES. ............................................................................................................................ 44 STRESS. .......................................................................................................................................... 45 ELLISION ........................................................................................................................................ 46

BASIC CONCEPTS. PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY.

Information in the context of a general theory about speech sounds and how they are used in language.

PHONETICS: In order to produce sound humans use various body parts including the lips, tongue, teeth, pharynx and lungs.

Phonetics is the term for the description and classification of speech sounds, particularly how sounds are produced, transmitted and received. A phoneme is the smallest unit in the sound system of a language; for example, the t sound in the word top.

represent the speech sounds in writing through the use of symbols. Some of these symbols are identical to the Roman letters used in many language alphabets; for example: p and b. Other symbols are based on the Greek alphabet, such as θ to represent the th- sound in thin and thought. Still others have been specially invented; e.g. ð for the thsound in the and then. The most widely used phonetic script is the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Various phonetic alphabets have been developed to PHONOLOGY: Phonology is the term used for the study of the speech sounds used in a particular language. The distinctive accents that many learners of English have are due to differences between the phonological system of their language and that of English. From birth, and possibly 1

before, we learn to recognize and produce the distinctive sounds of our own language. We do not need to give any thought to how to have the lips, tongue, teeth, etc. working together to produce the desired sounds. The physical structures of parts of the sound system are adapted to produce native-language sounds.

English has some speech sounds (phonemes) that do not exist in other languages. It is no surprise, therefore, that native speakers of those languages have difficulties producing or even perceiving such sounds. This is particularly true for speakers from language families other than the Germanic one to which English belongs.

 PHONEMES: The smallest unit of speech that can be used to make one word different from another word.  TRANSCRIBED: Special symbol to represent speech sounds.  STRESS: Intensity given to a syllable of speech by special effort in utterance, resulting in relative loudness.  INTONATION: The use of the pitch of the voice to convey meaning.

The sound changes produced by the rise and fall of the voice when speaking; specially when this has an effect on the meaning of what is said.

PHONEME AND ACCENTS: PHONETICS.

 PHONEME: The smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language.  PHONETICS: Representing each speech sound with a single symbol.Using a system of written symbols that represent speech sounds in a way that is very close to how they actually sound.

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 ACCENTS:The way in which people in a particular area, country or social group pronounce words.  DIALECT: A form of a language that people speak in a particular part of a country, containing some different words and grammar, etc.  RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION: Is the instantly recognizable accent often described as ‘Typically British’. Popular terms for this accent, such as ‘The Queen’s English’, ‘Oxford English? OR ‘BBC English’ are all a little misleading. The Queen, for instance, speaks an almost unique form of English, while the English we hear at Oxford University or on the BBC is no longer restricted to one type of accent.RP is an accent, not a dialect, since all RP speakers speak Standard English. In other words the avoid nonstandard grammatical constructions and localized vocabulary characteristics of regional dialects. RP is also regionally nonspecific, that is it does not contain any clues about a speaker’s geographic background.  BBC PRONUNCIATION: Accent used by most announcers and newsreaders on BBC and British Independent television.

This is the standard pronunciation of southern British English that is traditional used by announcers on the BBC. 3

ENGLAND AND BRITAIN

ENGLAND: Estuary English (Southeast British) Estuary is an accent derived from London English which has achieved a status slightly similar to “General American” in the US. Features of the accent can be heard around Southeast England, East Anglia, and perhaps further afield. It is arguably creeping into the Midlands and North.

West Country (Southwest British) West Country refers to a large swath of accents heard in the South of England, starting about fifty miles West of London and extending to the Welsh border.

Midlands English Midlands English is one of the more stigmatized of Englishes.

Technically, this can be divided into East Midlands and West Midlands, but I won’t get into the differences between the two just now. The most famous of these dialects is Brummie (Birmingham English).

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Features: - The foot-strut merger, meaning that the syllable in foot and could is pronounced with the same syllable as strut and fudge. (IPA ʊ).

- A system of vowels otherwise vaguely reminiscent of Australian accents, with short i in kit sometimes verging toward IPA kit (“keet”) and extremely open “loose” dipthongs.

- A variety of unusual vocabulary: some East Midlands dialects still feature a variant of the word “thou!”

Northern England English These are the accents and dialect spoken north of the midlands, in cities like Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool.

Related accents also found in rural Yorkshire, although there are some unique dialect features there that I won’t get into now.

Features: - The foot-stut merger: (see the Midlands description above).

- Non-rhoticity, except in some rural areas.

- The dipthong in words like kite and ride is lengthened so that kite can become something like IPA ka:ɪt (i.e. it sounds a bit like “kaaaait”) - Unique vocab includes use of the word mam to mean mother, similar to Irish English.

Geordie

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Geordie usually refers to both the people and dialect of NewcastleUpon-Tyne, in Northeast England. The word may also refer to accents and dialects in Northeast England in general. I would classify this as a separate region from the rest of Northern England because it’s so radically different from the language spoken in nearby cities.

Features - The foot-stut merger(see the Midlands description above).

- Non-rhoticity (in the cities at least) - The /ai/ dipthong in kite is raised to IPA ɛɪ, so it sounds a bit more like American or Standard British “kate.”

- The /au/ dipthong in “about” is pronounced IPA u: (that is, “oo”) in strong dialects. Hence bout can sound like “boot.”

UNITED KINGDOM:

The UK has a population of around 65 million, most of whom speak English as part of their daily life. For such a small, densely populated land mass full of people sharing a common language and has a huge variety of distinct regional accents, often existing very close to each other – Brummie, Glaswegian, Scouse, Cockney, Multicultural London English (MLE) and Geordie, to name a very few. All of these accents are defined geographically, yet there is one accent that seems to represent us Brits internationally – Received Pronunciation or RP.

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Research consistently shows us that RP or the ‘Queen’s English’ gives British speakers the best headstart in life – RP speakers can relax with the knowledge that they will probably earn a few brownie points in that exam/job interview/trial by sounding ‘a bit posh’.

Why? Given that RP has no discernible geography, how did it manage to become the most desired accent on our little group of islands? Well, it’s no secret that power attracts emulation, and it seems that over the last few centuries we have shifted from admiring those ruling the nation

to trying to speak like them in the quest to climb the social ladder.

As a strategy, this worked in the 1800s, and whilst so much has changed since, this particular mindset remains largely the same.

Accents create variety in speech and form part of our rich cultural heritage, like forms of history and diversity that we can hear. But they are also a 7

form of history in the making. As younger generations discover all that speech has to offer, they claim its expressivity for their own, with new words being created in schools up and down the country.

NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN

Perhaps the biggest distinction of all between the different parts of England is the way that people speak. Not only are the accents in these areas very different, there are also different vocabularies and dialects.

NORTHERN: Tend to leave out certain sounds from words, or certain words from sentences ;the most common examples of these are “I’m going’t shops” or “I’m going the shops” as opposed to “I’m going to the shops” there is huge variation between a Yorkshire accent, a Manchester accent, a Liverpool accent and Newcastle accent.

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SOUTHERN: Accents are generally less coarse and are closer to RP (Received Pronunciation, or Queen’s English) that their northern counterparts. This is because RP originated from London and the surrounding counties (the Home Counties).

ESTUARY ENGLISH: A term which is widely found nowadays, and many learners of English have been given the impression that this is a new accent of English. In reality there is no such accent, and the term should be used with care.

Estuary English is an English dialect or accent associated with South East England, specially the area along the River Thames and its estuary, centring around London.

“Phonetician JOHN C. WELLS proposed a definition of Estuary English as “Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England” Although he criticized the notion that the spread of language from London to the south-east was anything new.

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PHONOLOGY (A BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS)

Branches of phonology PHONETICS. (production/articulatio n)

PHONEMICS.(distributio n/function)

Acoustic.

Auditory.

WORD MATH ENOUGH SING MONEY BREATH

Articulatory.

PHONEME 3 4 4 4 4

GRAPHEMES 3 4 3 4 4

LETTERS 4 6 3 5 6

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The International Phonetic Alphabet (commonly—though unofficially—abbreviated IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin alphabet. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association as a standardized representation of the sounds of spoken language. The IPA is used by lexicographers, foreign language students and teachers, linguists, speech-language pathologists, singers, actors, constructed language creators, and translators.

The IPA is designed to represent only those qualities of speech that are part of oral language: phones, phonemes, intonation, and the separation of words and syllables. To represent additional qualities of speech, such as tooth gnashing, lisping, and sounds made with a cleft lip and cleft palate, an extended set of symbols, the extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet, may be used.

IPA symbols are composed of one or more elements of two basic types, letters and diacritics. For example, the sound of the English letter ⟨t⟩ may be transcribed in IPA with a single letter, [t], or with a letter plus diacritics, [tʰ], depending on how precise one wishes to be. Often, slashes are used to signal broad or phonemic transcription; thus, /t/ is less specific than, and could refer to, either [tʰ] or [t], depending on the context and language.

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THE VOCAL TRACT.

When air is pushed up from the lungs, the movements within the vocal tract create each unique sound. The vocal tract is the area from the nose and the nasal cavity down to the vocal cords deep in the throat. Understanding the vocal tract is an important aspect of learning to accurately produce sounds. The lips, tongue, and jaw are the parts of the vocal tract that are initially the easiest to control voluntarily.

The vocal tract: front to back Consonant sounds are generally easier sounds to "feel" than vowel sounds because they are created with a more constricted vocal tract.

The lips: The p sound, b sound, and m sound are created by pressing the lips together, while forming the f sound and v sound requires interaction between the bottom lip and the top teeth.

The tip of the tongue and the front teeth: The unvoiced th and voiced th sounds are created by controlling how the close the tip of the tongue is to the front teeth.

The front of the tongue (including the tip) and the tooth ridge: The tooth ridge is the bony bump directly behind the top front teeth (behind the tooth ridge is the hard palate).

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Accuracy of tongue position in relation to the tooth ridge is necessary for production of the t sound, d sound, ch sound, j sound, s sound, z sound, sh sound, zh sound, l sound, and n sound.

The back of the tongue and the soft palate: The soft palate is the fleshy area at the top, back of the mouth. The back of the tongue interacts with the soft palate to create the k sound, g sound, and ng sound.

The deep back of the tongue and the throat: The h sound is created by constricting the area at the very back of the mouth.

(MY VOCAL TRACT CREATION)

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CONSONANTS & VOCAL TRACT.

Bilabial = two lips. Bilabial consonants are produced by creating a closure with both lips.

Interdental = tongue between the teeth, or just behind the upper teeth (also called "dental").

Labiodental = lower lip and upper teeth. Labiodental consonants are produced by raising the lower lip to the upper teeth. English has only fricative labiodentals, and no stops 14

Alveolar = tongue tip at the alveolar ridge, behind the top teeth. English alveolar consonants are formed by raising the tip of the tongue to the alveolar ridge, which lies right behind the teeth. There are both fricatives and stops.

Palatal = the front or body of the tongue raised to the palatal region or the domed area at the roof of your mouth.

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Velar = the back of the tongue raised to the soft palate ("velum"), the area right behind the palate. As with bilabials, English has a limited range of velar consonants

Glottal = at the larynx (the glottis is the space between the vocal folds).

Locate the glottis (the vocal folds) in the diagram, below. A glottal stop is a speech sound articulated by a momentary, complete closing of the glottis in the back of the throat.

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BILABIALS: /b/ /m/ /w/ /p / LABIODENTAL /f/ /v / INTERDENTAL /θ//ð/ ALVEOLAR /t / /d / /s / /z / / n / /l / /r / ALVEOPALATALS / tʃ / /dʒ / /ʃ / /ʒ / / j /

VELARS /k / g / /ɳ / GLOTTAL /h /

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MANNER OF ARTICULATION. The manner of articulation is the way the airstream is affected as it flows from the lungs and out the nose and mouth.

PLOSIVE OR STOP /p / / b / / t / / d / / k / / g / FRICATIVE / f / / v / / s / / z / / /ʃ / /ʒ / / θ / / ð / /h / NASAL /m/ n//ɳ/ AFFRICATE / tʃ / /dʒ / LATERAL /l/ RETROFLEX /r/ APPROXIMANT /w/ /j /

VOICED /b / /d / / g/ /m/ /n/ / ɳ / / v / / z / / ʒ / / ð / / w / / j / / l / / r / 18

VOICELESS. / p / / t / / k / /f / / s / / ʃ / / θ / / h / / tʃ / (PHONOCARDS)

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SIMILARITIES. Voicing. / θ / and /s / Manner.

Voicing. / m / and / ɳ / Manner.

/dʒ / and / r /

Voicing.

Place of articulation.

/ r / and/ l / Voicing.

/m / and / z /

Voicing.

DIFFERENCES.

Place of articulation. / b / and / j / Manner of articulation.

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Place of articulation. / t / and / รฐ /

Manner.

Voicing.

Place of articulation. /dส / and / l / Manner.

Place of articulation. / f / and / m /

Voicing.

Manner.

/ s / and / z /

Voicing.

/ w / and / j /

Place of articulation.

Place of articulation.

/ d / and / รฐ / Manner.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

- During the production of stop- plosives, complete occlusion is secured at specific points in the vocal tract. Simultaneously, the velum is raised so that no air can escape through the nose. (stop-plosives) 21

- Result when organ and place of articulation approximate each other so closely that the escaping expiratory airstream causes an audible friction. (fricatives)

- These consonants are produced with the velum lowered so that the air can pass freely through the nasal cavity. However, there is complete occlusion within the oral cavity between organ and place of articulation. (nasals)

- For affricates sounds, two phases can be noted. First, the velum is raised as a complete closure is formed between organ and place of articulation. As a consequence of these articulatory conditions, expiratory air pressure builds up behind the backage formed by the organ and place of articulation, the stop phase. (affricates) - For the realization of glides, the constriction between organ and place of articulation is not as narrow as for fricatives. Glides are also characterized by a gliding movement of the articulators from a relatively constricted into a more open position. (glides)

- Are consonants in which there is a much wider passage of air resulting in a smooth (as opposed to turbulent) air flow for these voiced sounds. (approximants)

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- These sounds are established by a midline closure but lateral openings within the oral cavity. (laterals)

VOWEL SOUND PRODUCTION. What is a vowel sound?

It is a sound in which there is a continuous vibration of the vocal folds and the airstream is allowed to escape from the mouth in an unobstructed manner, without any interruption.

IPA VOWEL CHART.

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VOWEL COLOR CHART.

FRONT VOWELS

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VOWELS CLASSIFICATION.

   

VOWEL PHONEMES ARE CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THE FOLLOWING PHONETIC FEATURES: Front,central or back.

High, mid or low.

Tense or lax.

Rounded or Spread.

vowels sounds: 



/i:/ /I/ /ei/ /a: /

/e/ /ae/

/ u: /

/u /

/o: / /o /

/i:/ classification: Front – High – Tense - Spread.

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

EXAMPLES: Sea,bee,people,receive.



/I / classification: Front – High – Lax - Spread.



EXAMPLES: Pin,English,business.



/ei/ classification: Front – Mid - Tense - Spread.



EXAMPLES: Take,pay,wait,ballet.



/e/ classification: Front - Mid - Lax - Spread.



EXAMPLES: Bed,head,bury,exit.



/ae/ classification: Front – Low – Lax - Spread.



EXAMPLES: Cat,bag,apple,black.

/ u: / classification:  Back – High – Tense – Rounded.

EXAMPLES:  fool, pool, fruit,glue

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/u / classification:  Back – High – Lax – Rounded.

EXAMPLES: • Cook, full,put, foot,

/o: / classification:  Back – Mid – Tense – Rounded.

EXAMPLES: • or, bought, board.

/o / classification:  Back –Mid – Lax – Rounded.

EXAMPLES: •

what, because, clock.

/a:/ classification:  Back – Low – Tense – Neutral.

EXAMPLES: •

Car, art, heart

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TRANSCRIPTION. Eat: /iːt / Eel: /iːl / East: /iːst / Keen: /ki: n / She: /ʃiː/ Free: /friː/ Is: /ɪz/ If: /ɪf/ Lift: /lɪft/ Car: /kɑː/ Bike: /baɪk/ Apple: /ˈæpəl/ Wife: /waɪf/ Fence: /fɛns/ Head: /hɛd/ Sand: /sænd/ Axe: /æks/ End: /ɛnd/ Me: /miː/ Yes: /jɛs/ Good: /ɡʊd/ Too: /tuː/

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INFLECT ENDINGS / S / / Z / /iz /

Just like the -ed ending, there are three ways of saying the plural “s” ending in English: • [s] • [z] • [ɪz] [s] Voiceless sounds that cause the plural “s” to be pronounced as [s] include: [p], [t], [k], [f] Example • weeks [wiyks] • bits [bɪts] • backs [bæks] • briefs [briyfs] [z] Voiced sounds that cause the plural “s” to be pronounced as [z] include: [b], [d], [g], [l], [r], [w], [m], [n], [v], [y] Example • • • • •

webs [wɛbz] beds [bɛdz] bags [bægz] bells [bɛlz] jars [jɑrz]

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•

canoes [kəNUWZ] | (note the [uw] vowel sound ends in a [w])

[ɪz] The sounds that cause the plural “s” to be pronounced with an additional syllable [ɪz] include: [tʃ] [dʒ] [s] [z] Example • watches [WA tʃɪz] • bridges [BRɪ dʒɪz] • judges [dʒʌ dʒɪz] • slices [SlAiY sɪz] • blazes [BLeY zɪz] INFLECTIONAL ENDINGS / t / / d / / id /

You may have noticed that in English, past tense verbs with an ed ending are pronounced in three different ways:  [t]  [d] or  [Id]. e.g.

“Walked” [wakt] 1) The -ed verb ending sounds like a [t], “Walked” [wakt], even though it ends in the letter “d”.

What do you hear when I say: “smelled“, as in, “it smelled bad.”

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2) The -ed verb ending sounds like a [d]: “smelled” [smeld] And when I say, “visited”, as in “I visited New York City”, how did I pronounce that “-ed” ending?

[Id] [vizitid].

3) The -ed verb ending sounds like [ɪd], [vizitid].

ASSIMILATION.

Assimilation is when two sounds come together and change or melt into a new sound. Assimilations may happen inside a word, or between two words, when the final sound of a word touches the first sound of the next word (because when we speak we join all the words together). When speaking, people make many assimilations, most of them can only be noticed by the trained ear of an academic speaker and are not important for us. But there are 4 assimilations that are very important, because the sound changes a lot and the student of English can notice the difference and feel confused about it.

1- /t/ + /j/ = /tʃ/ (T+Y=CH) 2- /d/ + /j/ = /dʒ/ (D+Y=J) 3- /s/ + /j/ = /ʃ/ (S+Y=SH) 4- /z/ + /j/ = /ʒ/

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RULES. 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

/ t / changes to / p / before / m / / b / or / p / / d / changes to / b / before / m / / b / or / p / / n / changes to / m / before / m / / b / or / p / / t / changes to / k / before / k / or /g/ / d / changes to / g / before / k / or / g / / n / changes to /ŋ/ before / k / or / g / / s / changes to /ʃ/ before /ʃ/ or / j / / z / changes to /ʒ/ before /ʃ/ or / j / /θ/ changes to / s / before / s /

SCHWA.

Schwa is the name for the most common sound in English. It is a weak, unstressed sound and it occurs in many words. It is often the sound in grammar words such as articles and prepositions.

Getting the schwa sound correct is a good way of making your pronunciation more accurate and natural.

The phonemic symbol for this sound is Schwa.

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STRESSED SCHWA.

/ʌ/ Features:  monosyllabic words  stressed syllable  when there are more than one syllable. e.g. /bʌt/

UNSTRESSED.

/ ə/

Features:  unstressed syllables.  More than one syllable. e.g. /əˈɡəʊ/ /əˈpɒn/ /ˈsəʊdə/ /əˈraɪv/ /əˈkɜː/

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STRESSED SCHWA + r

/ʒ^/

Features:  Stressed syllables.  Monosyllabic words.  Spelling cases. “ur” “ir” “er” e.g  /ʒ^n/ / bʒ^d/ / /θʒ^d/ /t ʒ^m/

UNSTRESSED SCHWA + r (ə + r) Unstressed syllable words. e.g.  Nature, sugar, color,after.

LINKING.

Linking is the merging of multiple words together until they sound as if they are only one word. Native speakers of English all do this naturally. Linking is an advanced topic for non-native speakers, but learning to correctly link words can result in significantly more fluid and fluent sounding English speech.

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TYPES OF LINKING. 1. Linking Consonant To Vowel (CTV) 1st Word

Consonant

that's

/s/

To

Vowel

2nd Word

/ɪ/

it

2. Linking Consonant To Consonant (CTC) 1st Word

Consonant

stop

/p/

To

Same Consonant

2nd Word

/p/

playing

3. Linking Vowel To Vowel (VTV) 1st Word

Vowel

I

/aɪ/

To Linking with /j/

Vowel

2nd Word

/ʌ/

understand

CLUSTERS VS. SPELLING CASES.

CLUSTERS

In linguistics, a consonant cluster (CC) is a group of two or more consonant sounds that come before (onset), after (coda), or between (medial) vowels.

Also known simply as cluster.

SPELLING CASES. 36

The sound /ʒ/ is spelled with the letter "s" or "g". Examples:  S: Asia /eɪʒən/  Ge: Garage /ɡærɑːʒ/.

Unusual spelling: Seizure /siːʒər/ The sound /tʃ/ is spelled with the letters"ch" or "tch" Examples:  ch: choose /tʃuːz/  tch: kitchen /kɪtʃən/ Other spellings:  t: before u; naturally /nætʃərəli/  ti: after s: question /kwestʃən/

REDUCTION.

Sounds that change and disappear when spoken at normal speed.

TO Most native English speakers don’t pronounce “to” like the number “2.” Instead, we say it like this: Going to –> “gonna” Want to –> “wanna” Wants to –> “wantsta”

AND The word “and” often gets shortened to “n” in spoken English: I ate rice n beans.

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ELLIPSIS.

Ellipsis is the omission of a word or series of words. There are two slightly different definitions of ellipsis which are pertinent to literature.

The first definition of ellipsis is the commonly used series of three dots, which can be place at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a sentence or clause. These three dots can stand in for whole sections of text that are omitted that do not change the overall meaning. The dots can also indicate a mysterious or unfinished thought, a leading sentence, or a pause or silence. This punctuation is also referred to as a suspension point, points of ellipsis, periods of ellipsis, or in speech may be called, “dot-dot-dot.”

Examples:     

So…what happened?

Um…I’m not sure that’s true. …sure.

You went to the restaurant. And…?

But I thought we were meeting on Tuesday…?

CONTRACTIONS.

A contraction is a shortened form of one or two words (one of which is usually a verb). In a contraction, an apostrophe takes the place of the missing letter or letters. Some contractions are: I'm (I am), can't (cannot), how's (how is), and Ma'am (Madam).

BE I

WILL

WOULD

HAVE

HAD

I'm I am

I'll I will

I'd I would

I've I have

I'd I had 38

you he she it we they that who what where when why how

you're you are he's he is she's she is it's (or 'tis) it is we're we are they're they are that's that is who's who is what's/what're what is/what are where's where is when's when is why's why is how's how is

you'll you will he'll he will she'll she will it'll it will we'll we will they'll they will that'll that will who'll who will what'll what will where'll where will when'll when will why'll why will how'll how will

you'd you would he'd he would she'd she would it'd it would we'd we would they'd they would that'd that would who'd who would what'd what would where'd where would when'd when would why'd why would how'd how would

you've you have he's he has she's she has it's it has we've we have they've they have that's that has who's who has what's what has where's where has when's when has why's why has how's how has

you'd you had he'd he had she'd she had it'd it had we'd we had they'd they had that'd that had who'd who had what'd what had where'd where had when'd when had why'd why had how'd how had

DERIVATION.

Is the process of forming a new word on the basis of an existing word, e.g. happiness and unhappy from the root word (base words) happy, or determination from determine. It often involves the addition of a morpheme in the form of an affix, such as -ness, un-, and -ation in the following examples.  adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness)  adjective-to-verb: -ise (modern → modernise) in British English or -ize (final → finalize) in American English and Oxford spelling 39

       

adjective-to-adjective: -ish (red → reddish) adjective-to-adverb: -ly (personal → personally) noun-to-adjective: -al (recreation → recreational) noun-to-verb: -fy (glory → glorify) verb-to-adjective: -able (drink → drinkable) verb-to-noun (abstract): -ance (deliver → deliverance) verb-to-noun (agent): -er (write → writer) print – printeable.

BORROWING

A borrowing is a linguistic item that has been copied from another language, with the phonological and semantic properties basically remaining intact.  from German: cobalt, quartz, spath, feldspar, sinter, gneiss, hornblende, nickel, meerschaum (from the lexical field of mineralogy); landau, pumpernickel, seltzer, waltz;  from Low German/Dutch: schooner, pea-jacket, caboose (all nautical); from Cape Dutch: steenbok, springbok, klipspringer, hartebeest;  from Italian: cantata, duetto, finale, soprano, viola, violoncello, adagio, crescendo (and dozens of other musical terms); colonnade, arcade, loggia, alfresco, picturesque, terra-cotta, torso (from architecture and art); influenza, malaria, extravaganza, lotto.  from Spanish: albino, domino, fandango, flotilla, jade, merino, stevedore

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MINIMAL PAIRS.

A minimal pair is a pair of words that vary by only a single sound, usually meaning sounds that may confuse English learners, like the /f/ and /v/ in fan and van, or the /e/ and /ɪ/ in desk and disk. e.g.        

Minimal Pairs /ɪ/ and /i:/ sit seat Minimal Pairs /e/ and /ɪ/ desk disk Minimal Pairs /e/ and /eɪ/ wet wait Minimal Pairs /æ/ and /ʌ/ bat but Minimal Pairs /əʊ/ and /ɔ:/ so saw Minimal Pairs /ɒ/ and /əʊ/ not note Minimal Pairs /æ/ and /e/ bad bed Minimal Pairs /ɑ:/ and /ɜ:/ fast first

Consonant Sounds        

Minimal Pairs /b/ and /v/ berry very Minimal Pairs /b/ and /p/ buy pie Minimal Pairs /n/ and /ŋ/ thin thing Minimal Pairs /l/ and /r/ alive arrive Minimal Pairs /ʧ/ and /t/ catch cat Minimal Pairs /s/ and /ʃ/ sea she Minimal Pairs /f/ and /v/ fan van Minimal Pairs /s/ and /θ/ sink think

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Initial Consonant Sounds  Minimal Pairs initial /f/ and /p/ fast past  Minimal Pairs initial /k/ and /g/ came game  Minimal Pairs initial /t/ and /d/ two do

HOMOPHONES- HOMOGRAPHS

HOMOPHONES.

One of two or more words with the same pronunciation but different spellings and/or meanings (for example weak and week) Homophones are words that have exactly the same sound (pronunciation) but different meanings and (usually) spelling. For example, the following two words have the same sound, but different

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meanings and spelling:  hour (noun: 60 minutes)  our (possessive adjective: belonging to us) In the next example, the two words have the same sound and spelling, but different meanings:  bear (noun: large, heavy animal with thick fur)  bear (verb: tolerate, endure)

We have all five words with their different meanings: Our bear cannot bear to be bare at any hour.

HOMOGRAPHS. Is a group (usually a pair) of words that are spelled the same way, but have different meanings. They may or may not be pronounced the same way, although the difference in pronunciation is often just a shift in the accented syllable. e.g.  Accent - stress or emphasis/a manner of speaking or pronunciation influenced by the region in which one lives or grew up.  Desert - a hot, arid region/to leave.  Row - a fight/to propel a boat forward using oars/a line.  Second - 1/60th of a minute/after the first.

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ALLOWPHONES.

Allophones are the linguistically non-significant variants of each phoneme. In other words a phoneme may be realised by more than one speech sound and the selection of each variant is usually conditioned by the phonetic environment of the phoneme.

Occasionally allophone selection is not conditioned but may vary form person to person and occasion to occasion (ie. free variation).

A phoneme is a set of allophones or individual non-contrastive speech segments. Allophones are sounds, whilst a phoneme is a set of such sounds.

Allophones are usually relatively similar sounds which are in mutually exclusive or complementary distribution (C.D.). The C.D. of two phones means that the two phones can never be found in the same environment (ie. the same environment in the senses of position in the word and the identity of adjacent phonemes). If two sounds are phonetically similar and they are in C.D. then they can be assumed to be allophones of the same phoneme.

eg. in many languages voiced and voiceless stops with the same place of articulation do not contrast linguistically but are rather two 44

phonetic realisations of a single phoneme (ie. /p/=[p,b],/t/=[t,d], and /k/=[k,ɡ]). In other words, voicing is not contrastive (at least for stops) and the selection of the appropriate allophone is in some contexts fully conditioned by phonetic context (eg. word medially and depending upon the voicing of adjacent consonants), and is in some contexts either partially conditioned or even completely unconditioned (eg. word initially, where in some dialects of a language the voiceless allophone is preferred, in others the voiced allophone is preferred, and in others the choice of allophone is a matter of individual choice).

eg. Some French speakers choose to use the alveolar trill [r] when in the village and the more prestigious uvular trill [ʀ] when in Paris. Such a choice is made for sociological reasons.

STRESS.

Stress, in phonetics, intensity given to a syllable of speech by special effort in utterance, resulting in relative loudness. This emphasis in pronunciation may be merely phonetic (i.e., noticeable to the listener, but not meaningful), as it is in French, where it occurs regularly at the end of a word or phrase; or it may serve to distinguish meanings, as in English, in which, for example, stress differentiates the noun from the verb in the word “permit.”

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Word Stress Rules

There are two very simple rules about word stress: One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long words.)

We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help you understand where to put the stress. But do not rely on them too much, because there are many exceptions. It is better to try to "feel" the music of the language and to add the stress naturally.

ELLISION

Elision is the omission of a sound (a phoneme) in speech. Elision is common in casual conversation. here are 3 main kinds of Elision:

a) When the final syllable has /t, d/ 46

Examples Conscripts /’kɒnskrɪps/ The next day /ðə ˈneks ˈdeɪ/ The last car

/ðə ˈlɑ:s ˈkɑ:/

Hold the dog! /ˈhəʊl ðə ˈdɒg/ Send Frank a card. /sen ˈfræŋk ə ˈkɑ:d/

Facts /fæks/ Helen’s machine stopped printing /’hlənz mə’ʃi:n ‘stɒp ‘prɪntɪŋ/ The sounds /h/ and /j/ do not tend to create this elision but there are other consonants do.

There are a number of useful combinations that they show the vulnerability of /t/ and /d/ such as -pt, -kt, -st, -ft, -ʃt, -ʧt, -bd, -gd, -nd, ld, -zd, -ʤd, -vd, ðd: Next day

/neɪks deɪ/

Mashed potatoes /mæʃ pɒˈteɪtəʊz/ The last post /ðə lɑːs pəʊst/ Liz smiled gently /’lɪz ‘smaɪl ‘ʤentlɪ/

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b) The elision of /ə/ This can often occur. In connected speech /ə/ can easily disappear at word end when the sound comes at the start of a word, positioned between two stressed syllables, as in: Go away is pronounced /’gəʊ_’weɪ/ Or when it is followed by a stressed syllable beginning with /r/ or /l/ Secretary /ˈsekrətri/ Police

/pli:s/

Memory

/ˈmemri/

Elision can also happen when the sound is produced in the middle or final combinations Preferable is pronounced /’prefrəbļ/ Library is pronounced /’laɪbrɪ/

c) The loss of /h/ The sound /h/ is lost in pronominal weak forms. The elision occurs at the end of sentences with this sound.

For example, the /h/ of the two masculine pronouns is retained at the beginning of the sentence He passed his exam is pronounced

/hɪ ‘pa:st ɪz ɪg’zæm/

Did you see him last night?

/ dɪd ju: si: ɪm lɑːs naɪt/ 48

At Chile, Both of them, live happily ‘hæpɪli /

/ ət ‘tʃɪli boʊθ əv əm lɪv

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