2. Charts
English vowels:
The labels “Front”, “Central”, and “Back” refer to the
part of the tongue. The terms “High”, “Mid”, and “Low”
describe the position the tongue assumes for a given
vowel. For example, the vowels in hip, heap and hippy
are highfront vowels: /hɪp/ /hiːp/ /hɪpi/.
3. English consonants:
The labels in the upper row (“Bilabial”, “Labiodental”, etc.) refer to
the articulator, or part of the mouth involved in the articulation of a
consonant. The terms in the column on the left (“Plosives”,
“Fricatives”, etc.) describe the manner of articulation for a given
consonant. Consonants on the right side in each column are voiced,
and the ones to the left are voiceless. For example, the consonant
/p/ is a voiceless plosive bilabial.
5. 1. Vowel symbols
1. Write these words next to the right phonetic symbol
above.
dork, steam, start, week, lurk, spat, food, foot, lark, cool,
corn, far, seat, stern, van, sport, scream, seem, harsh,
lurk, rude, born, dull, puke, psalm, rock
6. Odd man out
2. Eliminate the word whose vowel is different from those in
the other three. In words with more syllables, the vowel in
question is in bold type.
(F) stick, myth, feet, fit (A) lard, father, parent, jar
(G) blood, muck, tar, pub (B) done, gun, fall ,stub
(H) roll, rot, dot, gosh (C) sat, Nazi, clap, plaid
(I) son, run, fun, butcher (D) set ,dead, heat, bet
(J) lock, bottle, shore, stop (E) sieve ,leave,
meat, Steve
7. 3. Transcribe the vowels in the following sentences.
Love thy neighbor as yourself, but choose your
neighborhood.
/l_v ðaɪ neɪb_r əz jəs_lf bət tʃ_z jə neɪb_h_d/
If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.
/_f ju ɑː n_t kr_təsaɪzd jə meɪ n_t bi duɪŋ m_tʃ/
Opportunity is missed by most people because it’s
dressed in overalls and looks like work.
/ɒpət_n_ti ɪz m_st baɪ məʊst p_pəl bikɒz ɪts dr_st ɪn
əʊvər_lz ən ɪt l_ks laɪk w_k/
I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until
after they're dead.
aɪ dəʊnt θ_ŋk _nibʌdi ʃəd raɪt ðər əʊn baɪɒgr_fi ʌnt_l ðə
d_d
8. Vowels /ʊ/ and /uː/
spelled ‘u’ /ʊ/
When the letter ‘u’ is pronounced as a high-back vowel, it is usually the
short /ʊ/: bull, butcher, full, pull, push, sugar, wuss
u-e /uː/
But when a syllable containing the /u/ sound is followed by the letter ‘e’
in the spelling, the sound will be /uː/: absolute, cute, crude, dude,
exude, immune, include, mute, nuke, rude, use, etc.
spelled ‘ew’ /uː/ brew, chew, jewel, Jewish, lewd, Lewis, newt,
shrewd, etc.
spelled ‘oo’ /uː/ bloom, boom, boost, boot, booth, booze, cool,
doom, food, fool, gloom, goof, goose, hoot, loop, loot, loose, mood,
moon, moot, noose, ooze, pool, proof, school, shoot, smooth, snoop,
soon, spook, spoon, stool, swoon, swoop, tool, tooth, troop, zoom
9. spelled ‘oo’ /ʊ/ book, good, foot, hood, hook, look,
nook, shook, stood, took, wood, wool
Final /uː/ Words usually end in the long /uː/: argue,
avenue, bamboo, boo, coo, loo, peekaboo, shoo,
taboo, tattoo, too, voodoo, Yahoo, zoo, etc.
both /ʊ/&/uː/ broom, groom, roof, room; in AmE also
root, soot, whoop
idiosyncratic /ʊ/ woman, wolf
/uː/ womb, tomb, fruit, group, soup, suit
10. Exercises
Minimal pairs. The words below differ only in
one sound (the /uː/-/ʊ/contrast). Complete the
table.
wood /wʊd/- wooed /wuːd/ ____ /pʊl/ - ____ /puːl/
____ /fʊl/- fool /fuːl/ ____ /lʊk/- ____ /luːk/
Transcribe the following phrases.
true blue, loose woman, A Few Good Men,
footloose groupie, cool looking dude, spoonful of
sugar, hooked on books, Fruit of the Loom,
shooting some bull, food and booze, cute Susan
crude tool, new tattoo, useful fool wolf on the
loose, astute conclusion, groovy music
11. Vowels /ɪ/ and /iː/
Patterns
/ɪ/ is usually spelled as the letter “i”: bit, spin, zit,
glib, etc.
/iː/ is often pronounced when spelled as:
‘ee’ bee, greet, meet, leek, reek, see, etc.; employee,
refugee, divorcee, etc.
‘ea’ bean, beat, heat, league, peace, sea, weave etc.
‘ie’ / ‘ei’ achieve, believe, field, piece, ceiling, receive,
conceive, etc.
e-CONSONANT-e athlete, complete, concrete,decent,
Irene, obese, Pete, Portuguese, Steve,
12. But there are exceptions:
Looks like /iː/ but is really pronounced as /ɪ/:
sieve, mischief, counterfeit, foreign
Looks like /ɪ/ but is really pronounced as /iː/: liter,
kilo, and -ique words antique, physique, pique,
technique
Plus, there are some tricky examples of Irish
names: Sean /ʃɑːn/, Sinead /ʃɪˈneɪd/
13. Exercise
Transcribe the following
King and Queen
kith and kin
speed limit
feeling of bliss
Decipher these minimal pairs
/fiːl/ /fɪl/ /stiːl/ /stɪl/ /biːn/ /bɪn/
/riːm/ /rɪm/ /diːm/ /dɪm/ /liːk/ /lɪk/
14. Vowels /ə/, /ʌ/ and /æ/
/ə/ (the “schwa”) is the most frequent vowel in
English.
It usually appears in unstressed syllables, but
never in stressed syllables: about, afraid,
confuse, etc.
It is not associated with any specific letter in the
spelling (in fact, it can be spelled with any vowel
letter: ability, seven, dinosaur, suppose)
The indefinite article a/an is pronounced with
the schwa: /ə bed/, /ən æpəl/.
15. /æ/ is usually spelled as the letter “a”: ban,
cat, dab, hag, stack, tab, etc.
/ʌ/ is usually spelled as the letter “u”: bun,
cut, dub, hug, stuck, tub, etc.
16. Exceptions:
Some exceptional cases of /ʌ/ words to
memorize:
ton, son, won, front;
one, done, none, come, love, glove, brother,
mother, some, something, other, nothing, money,
monkey, cover, govern, color, does;
blood, flood;
enough, rough, tough;
touch, country, cousin, young, couple, double,
trouble.
18. Past /d/, /t/, or /ɪd/
After unvoiced sounds such as p, k, f, s, sh,
and ch the final -ed is pronounced like t as in the
word cat. Note that the -e remains silent.
e.g. p help helped f stuff stuffed, laugh laughed s
miss missed dice diced , fix fixed
After voiced sounds such as b, , g, v, z, , , m, n,
ŋ, l, and r the final -ed sound is pronounced like d
as in good. Note that the -e remains silent.
e.g. b grab grabbed g hug hugged v save
saved z ooze oozed, please pleased
19. The final -ed is also pronounced like the d in
good after all vowel sounds. Note that the -e
remains silent.
e.g. stay stayed, free freed, lie lied
For verbs ending in d and t the final -ed is
pronounced Id as in the final two letters of the
word did. Note that here the -e is not silent and
this final -ed sound adds another syllable to the
end of the verb.
E.g. add added, grade graded, decide decided
21. plural /z/, /s/, or /ɪz/
If the noun ends in an unvoiced consonant
sound: /f/, /k/, /p/, /t/, /th/-(thin), pronounce "s" as
/s/.
When it ends in a voiced consonant sound,
/b/, /d/, /g/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /ng/, /r/ or with a vowel
sound, /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, pronounce "s" as /z/.
If it ends with /s/, /z/, /sh/, /ch/-chair, /zh/-the
second "g" in garage, /dz/-(j), pronounce "s" or
"-es" as /iz/.
23. Diacritics Used with
Consonants
Changes in Place of Articulation for
Consonants.
These symbols describe deviations from normal
tongue placement for consonants.
24. Dentalization.
Dentalization refers to an articulatory variation in
which the tongue approaches the upper incisors.
It is marked by [ ] placed under the IPA symbol.
For example,
the symbol [d] stands for a coronal alveolar voiced
stop.
widow and width.
FORMULA
Dentalization rule
[-dental] → [+dental] ∕ ___________ [+
dental]
25.
26. Palatalization
Another modification of consonant articulation is
palatalization. Only sounds for which the palate is
not the place of articulation can be palatalized.
The diacritical mark for palatalization is a
superscript j added
to the right of the basic IPA symbol.
Ch, dz, 3, sh
S sound in question
FORMULA:
[-palatal] → [+palatal] ∕ ___________ [+ palatal]
27. Velarization.
Velarization refers to the posterior movement of
the tongue placement (in the direction of the
velum) for palatal sounds.
The diacritical mark for velarization is a
superscript γ placed to the right of the IPA
symbol.
FORMULA:
[-velar] → [velar] ∕ ___________ [+ velar]
since [sins] silk [silk]
mince [mins] milk [milk]
28. Voice Symbols
Aspiration and Nonaspiration
Syllabic Consonants.
Unstressed syllables easily become reduced
syllables. This means that their vowel nucleus
practically disappears.
If the vowel nucleus is reduced, the following
consonant becomes a syllabic; that is, it becomes
the peak of that syllable.
“little” [l tl ]
“scratching” [skr tʃn ]
