ENGLISH PHONOLOGY
ESCUELA: INGLÉS
NOMBRES Dra. Carmen Benítez
FECHA ABRIL – AGOSTO 2009
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CHAPTER 9
STRONG AND WEAK SYLLABLES
Strong: stressed
peak:
long vowel, diphthongs, triphthongs
short vowel + coda (1 or more C)

Weak:
unstressed, lower intensity,
dif. quality
peak:
end of words: ə, i, u, ə +
coda, SC (l, m, n, ŋ, r)
inside words: ə, i, u, ɪ next
syllable begins with consonant
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“Schwa” Vowel ə
 The most occurring vowel in
English
 Weak: occurs with weak syllables
Quality:
mid half way between close open
central half way betw front back
lax art. without much energy
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ə
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weak form strong form
 a ə æ
 ar ə ɑ:
 o ə ɒ - əʊ
 or ə ɔ:
 e ə e
 er ə ɜ:
 u ə ʌ
 ough ə many
 ou ə aʊ 6

Close front – Close back Vowels
Area of producing: near i:
i
i: u: ɪ
ɪ ʊ
near u:
u
ʊ

Distribution:
i
 Word f p: “y”, “ey” after 1 or more C.
 Morpheme f p: “y”, “ey” + suff beg
with V
 Prefixes: re, pre, de, before unst
vowel.
 Suffix: iate, ious 2 syllable words
 he, she we, me, be (unstressed)
 the preceding a vowel
u
 you, to, into do
 before another vowel within a word

Syllabic consonants
l, m, n, ŋ, r syllabic consonants
Why?
Stand as peak in weak syllables;
novel, pencil, action
How do you mark it?
By placing a (ˌ) under l, m, n, ŋ, r
novel nɒvl, pencil pensl,
action ækʃn

Syllabic l
Distribuition:
After another consonant (alveolar)
- w f p with 1 or more C + “le”
 With alveolar C prec. little
 With non-alveolar C. prec. Staple
- w f p, words spelt with 1 or
more C + “al” “el”`partial, panel
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Syllabic n
Distribuition:
Doesn’t occur in IP except in some
words.
In M or F P: n becomes syllabic
after plosive or fricative + ən
cotton often open

yllabic m, ŋ
Result from a process of
assimilation or elision.
Not so common
an be transcribed as ən too 12

CHAPTER 10
STRESS IN SIMPLE WORDS
trength used to pronounce a
syllable in a word
arked wit (ˈ)
PRODUCTION PERCEPTION
What
ways of seen it: characteristics
What speakers
do to pronounce make a sound to
strong syllables be heard as
strong
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roduction: use of energy to
produce sound (muscles)
subglottal pressure higher
erception: stressed syllables are
prominent
ROMINENCE characteristic of
stressed syllables (factors)
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Levels of stress
Stress is marked with (') high up
before the stressed syllable
(') primary stress (strong)
(ˌ) secondary stress (weak)
( ) unstressed (no prominence)
(∘) tertiary stress (very weak)
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lacement of stress within the
word
1-syllable words
asically we take into account:
ind of word:simple or complex
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nly used with strong syllables
wo-syllable words
erbs: 2nd s, stress 2nd; 2 w,
stress 1st; 2nd əʊ, 1st
ouns: 2nd s short v, stress 1st

Three- syllable words
verbs: f strong, s f
f w, s preceding if s
f w, preceding w, s 1st
Nouns: f əʊ, prec s, s 2nd
2nd and f w, s 1st
f s, 2nd weak, s 1st
Adjectives: same rule as nouns
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CHAPTER 11
COMPLEX WORD STRESS
COMPLEX WORDS
COMPLEX: COMPOUND:
STEM + AFFIX TWO OR MORE
INDEPENDENTS
prefix suffix WORDS
Affixes can:
 Receive primary stress
 Do not receive it
 Influence on the shift of stress 19

Suffixes: at the end of the word.
region + al = regional
stem + suffix
Productive suffixes: the most
common and used.
Some problems:
 Some words seem to have a
suffix. regional canal
 number of suffixes a word can
have interestingly
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Suffixes carrying the stress
themselves
ee, er, ese, ette, esque
portuguese pɔ:tʃə'gi:z
Suffixes that do not affect st. plac
able, age, al, en, ful, ing, ish, like,
less, ly, ment, ness, ous, fy, wise,y
national 'næʃnl
Suffixes that influence stress in the
stem
eous, graphy, ial, ic, ion, ious, ty, ive
proverb proverbial prəˈvɜ:biəl
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Prefixes before the stem
Do not work the same as suffixes
Do not carry primary stress
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Compound words
Words formed by two ind. words
hand-bag typewriter
Most carry stress in the 2nd word
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Exceptions:
Adj. first element and ed at the
end
bad-'tempered
First element is a number
three-wheeler
Comp. functioning as adverbs
North-east
Comp. functioning as verbs hand
have an adv. As first element
down-grade
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Variable stress
 Stress is shifted to another
position because:
 The influence of other words
bad ˈtempered bad tempered ˈteacher
 Speakers do not agree on stress
placement.
controversy 'kɒntəvɜsi kɒn'təvɜsi
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Word class pairs
Identical words with different
grammatical function.
adj, noun, verb
Consist of a preffix + stem
Are different because of stress
'æbstrækt (adj) æb'strækt (v)
'ekspɔ:t (n ) eks'pɔ:t (v)
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CHAPTER 12
WEAK FORMS
Strong and weak forms: same
words pronounced in strong and
weak form in certain contexts.
that ðæt ð ət
function words:
auxiliaries, prepositions,
conjunctions, pronouns, etc.
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Weak forms are pronounced as
strong in the following cases:
 of at the end of a sentence
 For contrasting information:
Give it to him not to her
 Coordinate use of prepositions
The letter said from New York
not to New York
 For emphasis
You have to do that
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There are many forms pronounced
only weak in ceratin contexts.
the, a an, and, that, his, her,
your, she, he, we, you, him, at,
him, her, them, us, for, from, of,
to, as, some, there, can, have,
has, had, shall, should, must, do,
does, am, are, was
Recomedation: practice a lot.
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CHAPTER 14
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED
SPEECH
Our speech is accompanied of
some aspects. These aspects are:
Rhythm
Assimilation
Elision
Linking
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Rhythm
Involves noticeable event happening
at regular intervals of time.
English is stress-timed rhythm.-
The times from one stressed syllable
to the next will tend to be the same
irrespectibly of the number of
intervening unstressed syllables.
syllable-timed rhythm: syllables (s
or un)tend to occur at regular time-
intervals, times shorter or longer
depending on the number of
ustressed syllables
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Unit of rhythm: foot
Rhythm can vary
minimal value arhythmically
maximum value very rhytmically
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Assimilation
Process by which a phoneme is
realized in differently because of
the influence of a neighbouring
sound.
F C becomes like I C regressive
that person ðæt pɜ:sn ðæp pɜ:sn
I C becomes like F C progressive
Assimilation of voice
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Differences in place of artic.
Alveolar sounds become bilabial
or dental plosives (regressive)
Differences in manner of artic.
Final plosive becomes fricative or
nasal (regressive)
Differences in voicing devoicing
of voiced consonats (regressive)
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Elision
Sounds dissapear under certain
circumstances, a phoneme may
be realized zero or not
realized.
acts æks scripts skrɪps
looked back lʊk bæk
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INTONATION
Closely related to pitch, helps to
convey messages or show
different states.
Pitch is produced by the vibration
of the vocal cords.
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Levels of pitch
 Level _
 Falling `
 Rising ´
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N
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