Although the English alphabet has 26 letters, English speakers produce more than 40 sounds Phoneme: The smallest

linguistic unit of sound that can bring about a change in meaning in a language

Bid, dead, bed, bad, bud, bard Como, coma, cima,

4. Sounds and spelling

In some languages, there is correlation between sounds and spelling. In English, 1 sound many spellings /V / in different spellings (won, young, funny, flood) 1 spelling many sounds <ou> can be pronounced in different ways (enough, through, though, journey)

An overview of the IPA symbols for English phonemes

/s/ /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /t/ /d/ /k/ // /f/ pen, spin, tip but, web two, sting, bet do, odd chair, nature, teach gin, joy, edge cat, kill, skin, queen go, get, beg fool, enough, leaf /z // // /h/ see, city, pass zoo, rose she, sure, emotion, leash pleasure, beige ham

/m/ man, ham

/n/ // no, tin singer, ring

/l/
/r/

left, bell
run, very

/v/
// //

voice, have
thing, teeth this, breathe, father

/w/ we /j/ yes

/i/ // /e/

see Sit, bit, little bed

//
// // //

Bad, bat, cat, ran

arm not, wasp law, caught

//
/u/ // //

put, wood
soon, through Bud, cut, run, enough Bird, hurt, herd

//

About, complete, ability

Sound-Spelling Rules

Rule of Plural morpheme s es Rule of past tense morpheme ed Rule of Present tense morpheme, 3rd person singular s, -es Rule of genitive s

Weakening

You, he, she,we, you; me, him, her, us, them Are, Does, do, Have, has Was, were a/an The, Some At, to, from, of, as There is, There are, there was, There were; theres That Must,can Who than

Strong Forms

Arent Doesnt, dont Werent Wasnt Havent Hasnt Mustnt Cant Q Tags Short answers with ellipsis: Yes, they are. Etc Indirect questions: I dont know where they are/ if she does.

Organs of speech (vowels)

mm
Front, centre, back

Organs of speech (consonants)

(vellum)

Tip, blade, centre, back

The vocal folds in the larynx

Vibrating loosely together

Voicing
Voicing: the vocal folds vibrate, producing voice Consonants are either [+V] or [-V]

Voiced consonants are produced with vocal fold vibration /b,d,g,v,D,z,Z ,dZ,m,n,N,w,r, l,j/

Voiceless consonants are produced without vocal fold activity, no voice /p, t, k, f, T, s, S, tS, h/

Force of articulation: Lenition v. fortition

Lenis consonants

Fortis consonants

Place of articulation
The place where the articulation takes place- two articulators participate in an obstruction of airstream, or narrowing, or approximation. Used to classify consonants, e.g. If the articulation involves the alveolar ridge, the consonant it said to be alveolar; vellum (soft palate) velar consonants

Manner of articulation
Plosives Fricatives Affricates Nasals Laterals Approximants

The choice of a model

Models of standard English: SBE (RP) and GA (norma culta)

French: lle de France German: Hochdeutsch Italian: Tuscany Italian Etc. UK: RP SBE USA: GA

Non-standard forms
No subimoal bondi ta luego Toy Vamo

Pollo/poyo/posho Yo yerba Llame Ya!! Allophone versus phoneme

How to Learn Pronunciation

1.
2. 3. 4.

5.

Listen, listen, listen! (analytic listening) Minimal pairs Phonemic transcription Read aloud often; TV, books on tape; Internet resources Think before you speak: Rehearsed speech: Think, mentally project sounds, open your mouth!!

Classroom Considerations 2

It is important to first develop oral language skills. Phonological awareness skills should be taught orally without print. Phonological awareness training helps children learn vocabulary and reading skills.

Problems in English
Homographs (read and read) Homophones (red and read) Differs from language to language

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