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(^10) Symbols and terminology

Exercise 1.7 Transcribe the following simple words.

Lesson 2

band hall (^) jump (^) weep love (^) quit ask (^) top (^) miss (^) juice (^) out time bless (^) cliff (^) drop (^) hoop (^) bead turn

trap dive Transcription^ hints

fear grow (^) load (^) fair boil work (^) want (^) lose close (^) boot cook pull (^) dome (^) why cross (^) chair

In Lesson I we introduced the basic symbols to be used in the phonetic transcription of English and some of the basic terminology need~d to describe speech sounds. Here, we will look at some refinements to the symbol set and give some hints on how to avoid common errors when transcribing.

In modern RP English a number of changes have taken place which affect vowel qual-

ities. Fifty years or more ago a word like city was pronounced ISItI/. Nowadays it often

gets pronounced ISIti:/, although the earlier pronunciation is still heard. What is more

troublesome is that many speakers use a vowel which is intermediate between li:1 and

IIj. This means that in some circumstances the difference between the two vowels is

becoming blurred or neutralised. In order to cope with this situation an extra symbol needs to be employed. Our transcription of words like city uses the symbol/il (without

the length mark) for the second vowel: ISIti/. This can be interpreted as meaning: for

the second vowel of the word some speakers use li:/, some speakers use III and some

speakers use a vowel which is neither li:1 nor III, but somewhere in between. The

same situation is true for the two vowels lu:1 and lu/. In a phrase such as to a party,

the first word may be Itu:1 or Itu( or the vowel may be somewhere between (u:1 and

luj. In cases like this we shall use the neutralisation symbol lul and write Itu e

pa:tij. (Notice that the second vowel in party is also written with a neutralisation symbol.) You must be careful to realise that these neutralisation symbols are not appropriate in all situations. There is no doubt that native speakers of RP English useji:( and never II( in a word like bean, so it would be wrong to write (bin( when

transcribing this word. Similarly, the word bin is always Ibml, never (bi:n( or Ibinj.

Neutralisation of (i:/-/II and lu:/-/ul is always found in unstressed! syllables. It is

most common at the ends of words or morphemes. If there is a following consonant,

10 Symbols and terminology

band ask bless trap boil cook

hall top cliff dive work pull

Jump miss drop fear want dome

weep juice hoop grow lose why

love out bead load close cross

Lesson 2

quit time turn fair boot chair

Transcription hints

In Lesson I we introduced the basic symbols to be used in the phonetic transcription of English and some of the basic terminology need~d to describe speech sounds. Here, we will look at some refinements to the symbol set and give some hints on how to avoid common errors when transcribing.

In modern RP English a number of changes have taken place which affect vowel qual- ities. Fifty years or more ago a word like city was pronounced ISItI/. Nowadays it often gets pronounced ISIti:/, although the earlier pronunciation is still heard. What is more troublesome is that many speakers use a vowel which is intermediate between li:1 and III. This means that in some circumstances the difference between the two vowels is becoming blurred or neutralised. In order to cope with this situation an extra symbol needs to be employed. Our transcription of words like city uses the symboljil (without the length mark) for the second vowel: ISIti/. This can be interpreted as meaning: for the second vowel of the word some speakers use li:/, some speakers use III and some speakers use a vowel which is neither li:1 nor III, but somewhere in between. The same situation is true for the two vowels lu:1 and lu/. In a phrase such as to a party, the first word may be Itu:1 or Itu( or the vowel may be somewhere between (u:( and (uf. In cases like this we shall use the neutralisation symbol (u( and write Itu a pa:tif. (Notice that the second vowel in party is also written with a neutralisation symbol.) You must be careful to realise that these neutralisation symbols are not appropriate in all situations. There is no doubt that native speakers of RP English use(i:1 and never (I( in a word like bean, so it would be wrong to write (bin( when transcribing this word. Similarly, the word bin is always (bm(, never (bi:n( or (binf. Neutralisation of (i:(-/I/ and lu:/-/ul is always found in unstressedl^ syllables. It is most common at the ends of words or morphemes. If there is a following consonant,

Connected sp,eech 15

A very similar phenomenon is found when verbs take an ed ending to form the simple past tense or past participle. The ending is pronounced as an alveolar plosive (/tl or Id/) which agrees in voicing with the last sound of the verb. If the verb itself ends in an alveolar plosive then a vowel (/11 or la/) is inserted and the ending is always Id/. Examples:

loved laughed wanted

II/wdl Ilo:ftl Iwontadl

agreed wished ended

lagri:dl IWlltl lendadl

Here is a brief passage in ordinary spelling. It is followed by a phonetic transcription.

I saw Fred the other day. I must say he's gained a lot a/weight, hasn't he? He looks so different from the last time I saw him a year ago that I hardly recognised him. Have you seen him recently: Well, apart from looking fat, he seems qu!te well.

I ar s::>:"fred 5i 'A5a 'del I aI 'mAs seI iz 'gemd a 'lot av 'welt I 'heezant i I hi 'Iuks 'sau 'drfrant fram 5a '10:5 tarm ar 's::>:r1m a 'jIar a'gau I 5at ar 'ho:dli 'rekagnarzd 1m I hay 'ju: si:n rm 'ri:santli lwei a'po:t fram 'Iuku) 'feet I hi 'si:mz kW~lIt 'wel I ' Look through the transcription carefully. Here are some things to notice. _ There are no capital letters. These are not used in phonetic transcription. _ There are no normal punctuation marks - no commas, full stops, question marks. _ The mark' is used to indicate stressed syllables. For more details see Lesson 3. _ The symbol I is used to mark a point where a speaker of the text might introduce a brief pause. Quite often this coincides with a place where there is a punctuation mark in the text, but not always. The symbol I is called a word group boundary or potential pause. _ • is used to indicate that the following word is a name. _ Many words in conneCted speech are pronounced (and therefore should be tran- scribed) differently in different environments. For example, the word he is transcribed Iii in the phrase hasn't he. It is quite normal for the Ihl not to b~ pronounc~d h~re, b~t

in the very next phrase he looks so different ... we have transcnbed the word Ihl/. ThIs

is because immediately following a pause it is not usual to omit Ihl in RP English. There is more detail on this topic in Lesson 3. Another example is the word saw which appears twice in two different forms. _ There are a number ofletters ofthe alphabet which are not used as symbols for tran- scribing English. These are c 0 q x y. In transcriptions the only symbols you are supposed to use are the phonetic symbols introduced in Lesson I and in this lesson. _ Be careful to think about how speech sounds and to avoid being misled by the spelling. Look at the words recently and recognised. They both contain the letter c. Does this sound the same in the two words? No, of course it doesn't. In the first it has the sound Isl (a voiceless alveolar fricative) and in the second the sound Ikl , (a voiceless velar plosive). _ The ordinary spelling version uses letters which do not correspond to any sound at all. Some examples of these 'silent' letters are: e in gained, recognised, quite r in other, hardly, apart Exercise 2.4 As a final exercise for this lesson, try reading aloud the following short transcription and then check with the answers section. "war-d3u 'wont ta 'Ii:v sau '3:1i I 'aId av '8::>:t15at wi kud 'get 5ear on 'tarm I If wi 'left at abaut 'ho:f po:s 'ten I If wi 'Ii:v at 'nam I wil a'rarv 'fa: tu '3:1i I an wil 'heev ta 'steend araund m 5a 'kauld I- 'weltmg fa 5i 'Adaz ta Iau 'AP I From now on and throughout the rest of this book, we shall transcribe passages' rather than single words or phrases in order to demonstrate and study processes

Exercise 2.2 Transcribe the following simple phrases.

• He missed it _ She repairs watches _ Bill's brother's passed _ Jack's started school
• He makes badges _ He misses his friends' company

Be sure to remember that all of the above rules only apply when an extra morpheme is added. It is not true, for example, that Isl can never follow a voiced sound. Here are some words where it can: bounce Ibauns/, toss Itos/, else lels/. In all these cases, the Isl is already part of the word, it has not been added as a suffix.

When the diphthongs leI ar au aul are immediately followed by lal in words such as player, higher, power, lower a phenomenon known as smoothing may occur. The end

target of the diphthong is left out and the resulting vowel sequences are lea aa aa

3:/. These symbols suggest that the smoothed version of lalal and laual are identical. However, this is not true for all speakers. The use of the symbol lal in both larl and laul reflects the fact that in modern RP English there is not much phonetic difference between the starting points for these two diphthongs. However, laul usually has a slightly backer start point. To reflect this in the smoothed versions, we shall use the symbol laal for a smoothed laral and loal for a smoothed laual, for example: tyre Ita ai, tower Itoal. Notice that the smoothing of laual results in a monophthong.

Exercise 2.3 Transcribe the following, showing smoothing where possible. _ hours

• wiring

_ showered _ grower

So far in this book we have concentrated mainly on the transcription of isolated words. Finally in this lesson we will look at a small piece of connected speech and give some hints on how to go about transcribing it. The remainder of the book focuses on some of the most common features of connected speech and practises their use in transcription.

,,:hich occur in con~e~ted speech. If you feel you need to do additional practice on smgle word transcnptlOn before attempting the passages, we can suggest Practical Phonology (Bogle, 1996), Making Sense of Spelling and Pronunciation (Digby and Myers, 1993) or English Spelling (Carney, 1997). You will also find it is useful to look at. the transcription examples and do the exercises in the textbooks 'on E~glish phonetics, phonology and pronunciation which you can find in the Bibliography at the end of the book.

Lesson 3

Stress, rhythm' and weak forms

Bogle, D. 1996: Practical Phonology. Edinburgh: Moray House. Carney, E. 1997: English Spelling. London: Routledge.. Digby, C. and Myers, J. 1993: Making Sense of Spelling and Pronunciation. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall International.

In many languages, including English, when a word has more than one syllable and when it is pronounced in isolation, that is to say, when it is in its citation form, one of its syllables will be more prominent and audible than the others. This most audible syllable bears the main lexical stress or accent of the word. Lexical stress is predictable in some languages. For example, in Czech the first syllable of the word bears the main lexical stress, whereas in Polish it is the penultimate syllable. Lexical stress in English is not predictable in this way. Look at the examples below, where the syllable bearing the main lexical stress is preceded by'. Examples: butter l'bAtel except IIk'septl seventy I'seventil attention le'tenJenl referee Irefe'ri: You can see that for two-syllable words, the first or the second syllable can bear main lexical stress and for three-syllable words the first, second or third can be stressed. When words are put together into phrases or sentences in connected speech, some words retain their lexical stress and others lose it and in connected speech one-syllable words can bear stress. Look at the example below: The 'fight between the 'cat and the 'dog In this utterance of this phrase there are three stressed syllables fight, cat and dog. These all happen to be one-syllable words. The word between does not bear a stress at all, although if we were to say this word in isolation, the second syllable would. bear the main lexical stress: Ibi'twi:n/. Moreover, a word may bear stress when it appears in connected speech on a different syllable from that which carries the main lexical stress when the word is said in isolation. Example: citation form

connected speech form

afternoon

afternoon tea

la:fte'nu:nl

!'a:ftanu:n 'ti:!

20 Stress, rhythm and weak forms (^) Use of weak forms in RP 21

Table 3.2 Common words with strong and weak forms in RP English word strong form weak form word strong form weak form a leII lal his IhIZI IIZI am lreml laml^ just^ Id3AStl Id3astl an lrenl lanl me Imi:1 ImI/,/mil and lrendl landI, lan/, lJ;ld/, 1J;l1 must^ ImAstl^ Imastl are 10:1 tal of loYI^ laYI as lrezl lazl^ shall^ IJrell^ IJ~II, IJ!I at lretl latl she IJi:1 IJI/, IJi! be Ibi:1 IbI/, Ibil should IJudl IJud/, IJadl been Ibi:nl Ibml some ISAml Isam/,/srJ; but IbAtI Ibat! than 15renl 15an/, 15J;l can Ikrenl Ikan/, IkJ;l1 that 15retl 15at! could Ikudl Ikud/, Ikadl the^ 15i:1^ 1511,15i/, 15al do Idu:1 Idu/, Idu/, Idal them 15eml 15am/,/aml does IdAZI Idazl there^ 15eal^ 15al for 1f'J:1 Ifal to Itu:1 Itvl, Itul Ita 1 from Ifroml Iframl us IASI lasl had Ihredl Ihad/, ladl was Iwozl Iwazl has Ihrezl Ihaz/, lazl we Iwi:1 IWlllwi! have IhreYI IhaY/, lavl "were IW3:J Iwal he Ihi:1 IhI/, IIllhi/, Ii! who Ihu:1 Ihullhul her Ih3:1 Iha/, tal would Iwudl Iwud/,^ Iwadl him IhIml IIml you Iju:1 Iju/, Iju/, Ijal

Idu:1 -.. Idul -.. Idal do Iju:1 -.. /jul -.. Ijal you

The .last pronunciation of these words (which is only possible when the following sou~d IS a c~nsonant as we shall see below) is considered to be very informal in RP, but IS usualm other varieties of English.

Consonant changes are not an intrinsic part of weak forms but an optional step in a scale of weakening which depends on the speech register that is used. Many of the consonant changes that we will mention are not exclusive to weak forms. They can be seen to occur in lexical words, too, depending on the phonetic context and register. Never~heless, grammatical words are favourable environments for these changes. The followmg changes are very often found in weak forms

- I~I may be elided ifit is not at the very beginning of the utterance (following a poten- tIal pause):.

Ihi 'kerml he came

- Idl and It I may be elided when at the end of a word and preceded by another con- sonant:

I'ffindl -.. landl -.. lanl and

This matter of elision will be dealt with more fUlly in Lesson 6. Table 3.2 lists the most common words which have strong and weak forms in RP English. Notice that all these words consist of a single syllable and that they nearly all belong to one of the four classes: auxiliary verb, conjunction, preposition, pronoun. The symbols III and I~I in this table represent syllabic consonants. (See Lesson 5 for an explanation.)

That's the picture I was looking IJ:!.. Iffitl not latl You were later than I was this morning IWDZI not Iwazl He can sing well, but I can too Ikffinl not Ikanl or Ik~( He's younger than I am (ffiml not laml They were being lookedfor by the police Ib:( not (fal The underlined words above are not likely to bear stress, but nevertheless appear in.. the strong form. The reason is that a word which normally follows the underlined pre- position or auxiliary verb has either been deleted or moved to some other position in the sentence, leaving the auxiliary or preposition behind. The auxiliary or preposition is said to be stranded. Take the first sentence, for example. The word at, being a pre- position, is normally followed by a noun or noun phrase which it is said to govern. The noun phrase which at governs in this sentence is the picture. Because of the grammatical structure used, this phrase does not immediately follow the preposition, therefore the preposition is stranded. In the second and third sentences the verbs was and can are not followed by an adjective or a verb, respectively. They have been deleted in order to avoid repetition. Again, the auxiliaries are stranded. Stranding often takes place at the end of the sentence, but not always, as you can see from some of the sentences above. One final detail about stranding is that the auxiliary verb have in structures where it is immediately preceded by another auxiliary, such as can't, could, couldn't, must, mustn't, should, shouldn't, will, won't, would, wouldn't, is normally used in its weak form even if it is stranded. In the following sentences have is pronounced levl or (havl J?-ot Ihffiv;'

Grammatical words in connected speech are used in their weak form most of the time but take into account the following restrictions.

(I) When the word is stressed because of emphasis or contrast, the strong form is com- pulsory:

landl -.. !'ffindt in I didn't say apples or pears, I said apples and pears

(II) When prepositions and auxiliary verbs appear in grammatical structures such as the following, they are used in strong form:

22 Stress, rhythm and weak forms

He left before he should have I told them to do it, but they won't have unfortunately

It must be borne in mind that stranding does not apply to other words which have weak forms, such as conjunctions or pronouns.

(III) A preposition preceding a pronoun can be used in strong or weak form: I was looking for you /fa ju/ or /b: juj.

(IV) Some words can function either as an auxiliary verb or as a main verb. When such words are used as auxilia~y verbs, they may be pronounced in the weak form, but if they constitute a main verb, even if they are unstressed, they must be used in strong form:

We have our holiday in August /hrev/ not /hev/ or /ev/ We have to go /hrev/ not /hev/ Of /ev/ You have seen them /~ev/ or /av/ if unstressed Other words ,to which this applies are has, had, do and does. The various forms of the verb to be are an exception to this rule, since they can appear in weak form even if they are functioning as the main verb:

Some of the boys ran or I bought some. In other cases the weak form is norm~lly used: /sam/ I need some money. However, notice the following important pomt: some can mean 'part of the whole', in which case it is usually stressed,and strong, or itcan simply be the plural equivalent of 'a' or 'an' as in singular: a person, plural some people. So a sentence like I met some people at the party could mean 'I met some [but not all] of the people at the party' in which case some will be strong, or it could mean 'I met a few people at the party' in which case some will be weak.

They are happy We werefriends

/a/ if unstressed /wa/ if unstressed

that /5ret/, /5at/ Strong form as an adjective or pronoun /5ret/: That boy is sad. Weak form as a relative pronoun or conjunction (5at/: He's the man that I was talking about (pronoun), I know that you have a bike (conjunction).

there (5ee(, (5e( Strong form as an adverb: (5ea( in I b~ught it there. Weak form in existential construction: /5a( in There is a dog in the garden. (VI) Some words with more than one weak form have their choice determined by the phonetic context. do (du(, (du( before a vowel as in D9J. know you? (da( before a consonant as in DQihey want to? (casual pronunciation). the /51(, /5i/ before a vowel as in Th0!Pples were good. (5a/ before a consonant as in The children left.

(V) There are a number of words which need special mention. For these words the use of weak or strong forms is determined by their function in the utterance or by their meaning.

As a possessive adjective, /h( is not usually dropped, for instance in This is her car is pronounced with /haj. As a personal pronoun /a( may be used, as in It belongs to her.

just (d3ASt, d3as/

This word can mean 'only' or 'simply' as in I'll just telephone him. In this meanc ing the word is usually found in its weak form. Another meaning is 'precisely' or 'exactly' as in I arrived just in time. With this meaning the word is usually stressed and therefore used in its strong form. A third meaning is 'a short time ago' or 'a short time before'. This is usually found accompanying a verb in the present perfect or past perfect tense as in I've just seen him or She'd just written him a letter. In this usage the word can be weak if unstressed, but must be strong if it is stressed. some (sAm/, /sam/, (sl"Q/

This is a rather troublesome word because it has so many different meanings. It is used in its strong form when it precedes countable singular nouns and it means 'a certain': (sAm( in Some animal was shot, or when it precedes certain non-countable nouns and means 'a considerable amount of', so (sAm/ in I

haven't seen you for some time. It is also strong when used as a pronoun as in

to (tu(, /tu( before a vowel as in He spoke tl!..!.verybody. /ta( before a consonant as in I gave it tQ!!!)'neighbour.

you /ju(, (ju( before a vowel as in You always say that... (ja/ before a consonant as in You can't be serious (casual pronuncIatIOn). Notice however that the various weak forms of the word and are not restricted to specific e~vironme~ts. The use of (and/, /an/, /~d/ or /~/ is essentially random. (VII) Contracted negative forms of auxiliary verbs, including the verb to be, do not have weak forms. So, for example, aren't is always /a:ntj. Be careful with some of these negative contractions because they may differ considerably from the affirmative strong form as in can't /ka:nt(, don't /daunt( and won't /waunt/. (VIII) Possessive pronouns, such as yours, his and hers, are never used in weak forms. So, That hat is his must show the full form /hIZ/, whereas That is his cake can be found with IIz/.

Here there are four passages for you to transcribe. Pay special attention to the use of weak forms and remember the hints which we gave you in the previous lessons. After doing each one of them, compare it to our version at the end of the book and study the comments carefully. We suggest you do not start a new transcription until you have fully understood the last one you have done. It may be a good idea to revise the expla- nations given in this lesson and the previous ones if you find you do not understand the transcription comments or that you are making quite a lot of mistakes.

Exercise 3.2 Transcribe the following passage including all we have covered so far with special attention to weak forms.

• How did you get here this morning? I didn't see you at the station.
• I came by car, but I wouldn't do it again.
• Why not? The traffic isn't too bad, is it? ,
• It was this morning. There are a lot of roadworks just the other side of the river.
• Oh, yes. I'd completely forgotten about those. So why didn't you catch the train? •• The alarm clock didn't go off. There must have been a power cut last night, because the numbers were blinking. And then the traffic made me 20 minutes late.
• Oh, dear. Mr Jenkins wouldn't like that.
• He certainly didn't like it. He got rather unpleasant about it.
• I'm not surprised. He's been getting more and more bad-tempered lately. Every- body's noticed it. Ever since he had that meeting at the head office, he has been quite unbearable.
• Yes. I know he's got a lot on his plate at the moment, but there's really no need to be rude to someone in front of everybody else. He made me feel as if I had just killed somebody. I tell you. I think he means to make me pay for this.
• Oh, I shouldn't worry too much about it. He'll have forgotten all about it by tomor- row. He always does. It's one of his few good qualities.
• He will if I'm not late again, but this is the fourth time I've been late this month. When it's not roadworks, it's a broken down bus. I really must manage to get here on time from now on.
• I'd do my very best if I were you. You mustn't underestimate him, not with all these goal-achieving policies he's always ranting about. Besides, there are quite a few people around that would love to have a go at your job. Nothing personal, you understand. It's just pure climbing.
• Oh, I do know. And I will try. Like you said, this place is teeming with competitors and getting on the wrong side of Jenkins is not the best way to keep them at bay. I've already changed jobs twice in the last three years. I don't want to go through all that again.

Exercise 3.3 Transcribe the following passage including all we have covered so far with special attention to weak forms.

I have lived in London for ten years now. It seems such a long time, when I actually stop and think about it. Ten years! More than a third of my life. When I think of home however, Sheldon always comes to mind - a tiny village in the heart of the Blackdown Hills, hidden in the depths of Devon. I love going home at this time of year. Spring is maturing like an adolescent girl; the leaves unfurling, modestly extending their fresh, green growth. The fields reverberate with the hesitant bleating

of newborn lambs and the hedges and trees are filled with the expectant rustle of new life in creation. London, however, remains oblivious to the fertility of spring. We are buried in ourselves. There are delays on the Northern Line again. A signal failure at some station makes all trains late. The Big Issue vendor at the underground ticket office shouts in your face. The crowds push 'l:nd shove in the direction of the super- market, mouths watering in anticipation of their evening meal. I take a walk down the road to post a letter. London kills me. Red buses shuddering past me, belching thick smoke which clings to the back of my throat. In this city, you learn to walk fast, avoid all eye-contact and maintain the air of someone on an errand. It's called self-preservation. If you slow down, or catch a stranger's eye, then who knows what might happen? It is safer to remain within the bubble of anonymity. I want to go home - my home - where I can sit under the eucalyptus tree in the dusk and watch the horizon darken as the sun sets and the bats start their nightly hunt for juicy insects.

Exercise 3.4 Transcribe the following passage, including all we have seen so far, with special attention to weak forms.

I haven't got a car of my own, but sometimes I borrow one from a friend and drive to see my brother and sister-in-law, who live about 60 miles from London. I have done the journey in all kinds of weather, but the worst time I ever had was on a very foggy day in the middle of November. When I started the drive, the weather was a bit misty, but I didn't think it was bad enough to postpone my trip, or to go by train, which, although it was possible at that time, wasn't very easy or conve- nient. Anyway, I got about 20 miles outside London and the mist started getting thicker and thicker. I was getting more and more nervous, because I am not a very confident driver at the best of times. I suppose I don't get enough practice. I really hate fog, even when I'm not driving, but when you're behind the wheel of a car, it seems ten times worse, doesn't it? I had to drive extremely slowly and the journey took me almost an hour longer than it normally does. Finally, I got to the place where I had to turn off the main road into the small country lane which leads to the village where my brother lives. At least I thought I had got to the right lane. After about a mile, I passed a house which I could just l11akeout in the fog, but which I didn't recognise at all. I didn't fancy turning round and going back to the main road, because I thought it would be dangerous getting back into the flow of traffic in such poor visibility. I decided to press on and see if I came to any signposts which would put me back on the right track. That was my silliest mistake. The next hour was like a nightmare. I got deeper into the coun- tryside and the fog got even thicker. At one point, I lost the road altogether and found myself driving across a field through a herd of rather surprised cows. Once I missed by inches going into a rather deep ditch. Finally, I came to a signpost with the name of my brother's village on it. It was ten miles back in the direction I had just come. The next time I visit my brother in November, I shall listen very carefully to the weather forecast before I set out. Better still, I shall get him to visit me. " Exercise 3.5 Transcribe the following passage, including all we have covered so far,

with special attention to weak forms.

The game's something like baseball, something like football, but let me tell you, it's much better than either. It's played on a·flat park which has a square marked in the middle and a limit round the outside. The square is where the batman stands. He has a bat made of wood and shaped something like a garden spade. The batman cannot leave the area which is marked off at any time during his round on the pitch. If he does, he loses one of his three lives. The ballman stands anywhere he wants outside the square and throws the ball to the batman. The ball must land within the square. If it doesn't, the batman gets a point. Otherwise he has to hit the ball before it bounces a second time, but he can't hit it before it bounces at all. If the ball bounces a second time inside the square, the batman loses two of his lives. Let's assume the batman hits the ball. He can get two points if the ball goes over the limit without touching the ground, and one point if it does touch down. Both the batman's team and the ballman's team have fieldmen on the park. Exactly how many is decided by the ballman for each new round. Sometimes there are 20 or more. The batman's team must always have as many as the ballman's team. If a fieldman of the ballman's team gets the ball, he must try to get it back to the square and drop it in. He can do this by running with the ball, or throwing it to another fieldman on his team. If he succeeds, the batman doesn't score anything. The batman's team's fieldmen have to try to stop this happening and to get the ball across the limit, again by throwing it or by running with it. This phase of the game is more like war than anything. About the only thing that fieldmen ar~n't allowed to do is to hit an opponent with their fists. Almost anything else goes. Fieldmen need to be really tough, I can tell you. Most of them are about eight feet tall, and you wouldn't want to meet any of them in an alley on a dark night. A few years ago the game was played without any protective gear, but there were many accidents and often players got seriously injured. Nowadays if you saw the players for the first time, you would think they belonged to a commando unit or to a science fiction film. They are padded from head to toe. They wear crash helmets and protections on all their joints and soft parts, specially the fieldmen, but they don't wear gloves. That is because you can get a better grip with your bare hands. Batmen do use gloves so that the bat does not slip. Old-timers think these new outfits make it a softer game, so they are not in favour of players using them. But I'm sure the players are.

You have now done quite a few exercises on the basics of English transcription. If you think you have mastered the symbols, smoothing, weak forms and the rest, you can go on to Lesson 4. However, if you are not very sure you are doing well, we suggest you carryon practising with the five texts that follow. It is important that you feel confident in doing what we have covered so far before you go on to the next lesson.

Exercise 3.6 Transcribe the following passage, including all we have dealt with up to now, with special attention to weak forms.

I recently went to London to meet a friend I had not seen for some time. I arranged to meet her at Victoria station and travelled by train, instead of driving as usual. The train was a few minutes late due to maintenance work on the line. It was not crowded as it was too late for commuters to be using it and we had a comfortable journey. My friend was waiting for me by the arrivals and departures board and as we bad both breakfasted earlier than usual, we went into the station cafe and

had a cup of coffee. When we had finishecCour drink, we went by tube to South Kensington to the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was difficult to decide where to go first, as there was so much of interest to see, but we finally chose an exhibition on dress, where we saw costumes from the eighteentl~ century onwards, some of them for day wear, but mostly for evening wear, and all for well-off people. Some of the ball gowns were magnificent. We then looked at Islamic art, mostly pottery, ceramics and carpets. The latter were very beautiful, with intricate patterns and rich colours. There were also lovely plates and ewers, and carved wood inlaid with ivory. We also enjoyed looking at European medieval carvings and silver cups. We had lunch in the cafeteria in the museum, and having admired some stained glass and church embroideries, we left the museum and went to look at more recent work in Harrods department store. We spent most of our time there in the food halls, where our mouths watered as we passed piles of fruit and vegetables from all parts of the world, luscious chocolates, spiced, smoked and fresh meats. There were also pies, pates, cheeses, pickles and preserves. My friend said it must be pos- sible to buy anything you wished for, as long as you had enough money. All too soon it was time to catch my train home. This time it was filled with commuters and some people. couldn't find a seat and had to stand for a long time, until others reached their destination and got out. The early part of the journey was through the London suburbs. When we were waiting for the signals to change in our favour near Clapham Junction, I saw a fox walking along beside the track where there was a grassy space between the rails. He seemed quite unconcerned about the train. He came to a place where there was a scatter of feathers and I won- dered ifhe had caught a pigeon the previous evening and had come back to see ifhe could catch another for his dinner. There was no more excitement after that, though the embankments were looking beautiful with cherry blossom and lilac in the gar- dens, fresh green foliage and wild flowers. I had a very enjoyable day though I felt pleasantly tired at the end of it. Exercise 3.7 Transcribe the following passage, including all we have dealt with so far, with special attention to weak forms. My friend and I both have very energetic dogs, so first thing in the morning we like to take them for a walk to burn up a little bit of their energy and keep fit ourselves at the same time. We are lucky to have a park nearby, usually known as The Hill. It is really two hills, one open and rocky with wild places covered in bracken and gorse. There is a system of paths that have been surfaced with tarmac so that we can keep our shoes dry, even on very rainy days. We don't usually see much wildlife: birds, squirrels and a rabbit or two, but I'm told that at the less disturbed times of early morning, late evening and night time, badgers, foxes, hedgehogs, lizards, all enjoy the hill, adding to the fun for the dogs, because there are interesting SCents to pick up, and trails to follow. The second hill has a conifer wood, with a soft floor of pine needles and a deciduous wood, where children delight to search for horse chestnuts, which are known as conkers, in the autumn. For the rest of us, there are beautiful views to enjoy. To the south and west you can see the Dublin moun- tains. Each season has its delights: the green of spring with the white blackthorn blossom, is followed by the hawthorn and alder blossom, heavy with scent which attracts the bees. The gorse blooms in spasms from spring on, but puts on its real