Speech sounds are produced by using and modifying, the respiratory system as we can change the shape of any part of it to make or articulate different sound. Since English use an egressive system (a sound is produced when air is exiting), we start with the air pushed out by the lungs up through the trachea (or windpipe) to the larynx in which are the vocal folds also known as vocal cords, that are thin membranes that sit across one’s throat and which take two basic positions:
accepted as syllable and are not deleted. If this syllable is not accepted as it doesn’t form any existing syllable, then they’re more likely to be deleted. This can be considered the first type of elision. (EX: can’t label > deleted as tl is not an acceptable syllable; can’t rain > pronounced as t can re-syllabify with r in tr (ex: train)). Instead, they are less likely to be deleted when followed by vowels as they can as well resyllabify onto the following segment. /k/, /g/ > velar, stops, voiceless – voiced (as in coffee, great)
/s/, /z/ > alveolar, fricative, voiceless – voiced (as in sun, zoo) can be silent (aisle, island). /ʃ/, /ʒ/ > post-alveolar, fricative, voiceless – voiced (as in sheep, vision). The first phoneme can be found in every position in a word, whereas the second one can be only found in the middle. /h/ > glottal fricative only occurs before a vowel sound. Phonetically, in some accent of England, Wales and Australia, word initial /h/ is dropped and in words like him, her, have etc. when it appears in non-initial and weakly accented positions. In the West country the locals never pronounce [h] making this phenomenon known as h dropping. Phonologically is a consonant, however, in some part of England it behaves as a vowel. AFFRICATES /tʃ/, /dʒ/ > post-alveolar, affricate, voiceless – voiced (as in chin, joke) NASAL /m/ > bilabial, nasal, voiced (as in mouth) /n/ > alveolar, nasal, voiced (as in name) [ŋ] > velar, nasal, voiced: is a phoneme in English (as in thing) In Italian is an allophone of /n/ which occurs before /k/ and /g/ and nowadays it can be considered like that in English too. Moreover, in English the velar nasal /ŋ/ has not always had a phonemic status. It never occurs in initial position. Words that have the orthographic will usually use this sound in Received Pronunciation , however there may be dialects variation, and, in this case, they’re considered allophones. In Milton Keynes and throughout the Southeast of England, in an accent known as Estuary, locals pronounce ‘ing’ endings with /n/ instead of /ŋ/. This actually occurs in most regional accents of English all over the world. GLIDES /j/ > palatal , glide (semi-vowel) (as in youth) /w/ > bilabial, glide (semi-vowel) (as in why) - can be silent (who, whole, wrong). Phonetically like vowel (they follow a vowel sound), phonologically like consonants. From a phonetic point of view the articulation of/j/ is the same as the front close vowel [i:] but is very short; and /w/ is similar to [u:]
LATERALS /l/ > alveolar, lateral, voiced (as in lake) At this point we have to make a difference between clear l and dark syllabic [ɫ] (there is no phonetic opposition between the two). can be silent (half, calm, talk, could) - the first one occurs in: word initial position ( leave) initial cluster ( blow) word medially ( silly ) final position before following a vowel or /j/ ( all over )
- the second one occurs in: final position after vowel ( feel ) after vowel before consonants ( milk ) syllabic dark l ( table )
RETROFLEX /r/ > post alveolar, retroflex, voiced (as in rain) - in British English the /r/ is pronounced: before a vowel sound ( the car is blue ) > linking r, in a phonological level it’s a case of assimilation
- in British English the /r/ is silent: if it occurs before a consonants sound ( car park ) when no sound follows ( my car ) This is the most common allophones of RP. This consonant is also connected to the concept of trill or roll which involves complete closure alternating with open approximation and rolled vibrations are produced, that is a rapid vibration of the active articulator against the passive articulator. However, this sound in not common in English except for the Scottish “r”. Rhotic and Non-Rhotic Speech > rhotic speakers pronounce the /r/ in words like large and park, while non-rhotic speakers generally don't pronounce the /r/ in these words, for this reason this phenomenon is also known as r-dropping. Speakers of these dialects don't drop r just anywhere,
the tongue’s tips is and which ranges from the center of the palate to the back of velum. - according to the high-low axes, they can be high, mid (divided into close-mid and open-mid) and low according to the tongue position. ~ high-low axes ~ - close ( high ) vowels > when any part of the tongue is moved very close to the roof of the mouth - mid vowels > when the tongue is between the close and open position - open ( low ) vowels > when the tongue is in low position
FRONT AREA Front vowels are produced with the front part of the tongue raised at the highest point in the palatal region. The front vowels are all unrounded. In the high (or close) front area, there are two possible sounds: - [i] > the close front tense vowel represented by the lower-case I we can find this sound in: beat, many
- [I] > the close-mid front lax vowel represented by the small capital I we can find this sound in: big, inch In the mid front area, there are two possible vowels:
- [e] > the upper-mid front vowel represented by the lower-case e This sound is not common in English but can be found in other languages like German leben or French été. So many dialects of English have no pure "e".
- [ɛ] > the open-mid front vowel represented by the Greek epsilon we can find this sound in: met, hair In the low (or open) front area, there is one possible vowel in English:
- [æ] > the low front vowel represented by the Old English symbol called ash. It’s a ligature of a and e. we can find this sound in: hat, map
CENTRAL AREA In the central area, vowels are produced when the central part of the tongue moves towards the center of the hard or soft palate. So, they are produced in the palatal-velar region and are all unrounded. Central vowels are made with the tongue relatively flat. In the mid central area, there are two sounds: - [ə] > the most central vowel represented by the Hebrew schwa. The lips are neither rounded nor spread, sound not open nor closed and all articulators are in a relaxed or neutral position. Many small grammatical words are normally pronounced with schwa in connected speech when they’re followed by a consonant. These words are function words (prepositions auxiliary verbs, articles pronouns conjunction). Many of them have two pronunciations:
- weak form in connected speech. It can change pronunciation (the [di] before a vowel sound)
- strong forms when at the end of a sentence, when emphasized, when said in isolation. This sound is found in unstressed syllables and before [r] ( hurt). This vowel is often a reduced vowel, that is, another vowel sound will be centralized to schwa when it loses stress. we can find this sound in: mother, about
- [ʌ] > the open-mid central vowel represented by a “inverted v”. It’s a central vowel that occurs in words like cup (for this reason is also referred to as cup vowel). We can find this sound as well as words spelled with instead of the usual . This is due to the Anglo-Saxon orthography as before the Normans conquest in 1066 they had before m, v and n as explained by Peter Trudgill. However, when too many m, v, n and u were together, it was impossible to establish where one letter started, and another stopped making it difficult to distinguish consonants and vowels. For this reason, Normans had replaced with to make this distinction possible. This sound occurs only in stressed syllables. we can find this sound in: butter, luck In the low central area, there is one sound: - [a] > the low central vowel represented by the lower-case a. This sound doesn't usually occur in English, but we can find it in others like German machen. However, it can be used as a starting point for diphthongs. (aʊ)
BACK AREA The back vowels are all articulated with the back of the tongue in the velar region, are all rounded except one. In the high back area, there are two possible vowels: - [u] > the high back tense vowel represented by the lower-case u. we can find this sound in: through, moon
- [ʊ] > the high back lax vowel represented by Greek upsilon. we can find this sound in: could, book In the mid back area, there are two possible vowels:
- [o] > the upper mid back vowel represented by the lower-case o, but this sound doesn't exist in English as a monophthong.
- [ɔ] > the close-mid back vowel represented by the backwards c, called an “open o”. In some dialects, it occurs only before [r] we can find this sound in: shore, crawl In the low back area, there are two possible vowels:
- [ a ] > the low back vowel represented by the lower-case script a , this is the only back vowel which is not rounded. we can find this sound in: calm, father
- [ɒ] > the low back vowel represented by the upside-down script a. we can find this sound in: hot, body LONG VOWELS i: > close jaw front tongue spread lips u: > close jaw near back tongue rounded lips ɜ: > mid jaw center tongue unrounded lips ɔ: > mid jaw back tongue rounded lips
Linking (or catenation) appears when ending consonant sound is carried over to initial vowel sound Linking sounds: /w/ > “Have you ever” /juwevə/ /j/ > “I am” /aɪjæm/ ▪ /ŋ/ > “thinking of”/θɪŋkɪŋgəv/ /r/ > this phenomenon is based on the fact that, by default, in Standard British English (though not in many other accents of English), /r/ in non-prevocalic position (i.e., sugar; car park) is not realized whereas before a vowel sound it’s pronounced. Assimilation is the contamination or influence of a sound by other (usually adjacent) sounds so the sound assimilates the place of articulation of the adjacent sound. It may involve place and manner of articulation, voicing. We have two types of assimilation: regressive and progressive Regressive assimilation > assimilation to the following segment (read these > /rɪ:d’dɪ:z/ instead of /rɪ:d/ /ðɪ:z/ (/ð/ disappears)) Progressive assimilation > assimilation to the preceding segment (in the English plural form/s/ is voiceless if preceded by a voiceless sound, but become a voiced [z] if preceded by a voiced sound) The most common assimilation form involves the movement of the place of articulation of the alveolar stops /t/, /d/ and nasal /n/ to a position closer to that of the following sound. An interesting example of assimilation is the so-called yod coalescence , a phenomenon which takes place when /j/ is preceded by certain consonants, most commonly /t/ and /d/ and /s/, /z/ where the articulation of these sounds together changes their sounds in post-alveolar affricate and post-alveolar fricative. /t/+/j/ > /ʧ/ = what you will /waʧu’wil/ /d/+/j/ > /ʤ/ = would you mind /wʊʤ u’maind/ /s/ + /j/ > /ʃ/ /z/ + /j/ > /ʒ/ Elision Elision is the omission (elision) of certain sounds in certain contexts. Beside the t, d deletion, there are other examples like the omission of the schwa /ə/ before liquids /l/ and /r/. We can have a total elision of one or more sounds (in adjusting to the next sound) either within words or at word boundaries. so, vowels also disappear through elision, with the result that sometimes a whole syllable may not be pronounced (ex: every > [evri]) Syllable A syllable is a phonological unit made up of one or more phonemes. Minimum syllable is made up of one vowel such as for the verb are [ɑː] or the conjunction or [ɔː]. A syllable can be open, when it ends with a vowel > tea [ti:], zoo [zu:], or closed when ending with a consonant > all [ɔːl], arm [ɑːm]. Most common syllable in English: CVC. Stress It’s the relative prominence given to a syllable. In phonetic transcription it’s indicated by a vertical line (stress mark) preceding the stressed syllable. Words with more than one syllable (polysyllabic) carry a stress on just one syllable. However, the position of the accent is not entirely predictable, and we can find primary and secondary stress. In transcription [ˈ] indicates main stress, [ˌ] secondary stress. Stress is a meaningful feature of speech and has many functions such as: - it can distinguish different parts of speech, like nouns (with initial stress) and the corresponding verbs (with final stress)
- stress patterns can distinguish parts of speech (like whether if a world is concrete or abstract or if it’s an adjective).
- emphasis on one word rather than another with a stress in order to make intended meaning clear (> contrastive)
- in sentences some words have stronger stress than others (usually those providing new or important information) Vowel length is a characteristic of stressed syllables while unstressed syllables have shorter vowels (often reduced to /ə/)). In connected speech we focus on stressed syllables rushing the less important ones. Italian is a syllable-timed language (syllables with similar length, articulated at regular intervals, basic unit of rhythm) whereas English is a stress-timed language (the time of an utterance depends on the number of stressed syllables, rather than the total number). We can make a difference between strong and weak form where the weak forms occur when the word is unstressed. There are many types of stress patterns: Type strong + weak > with primary stress on the first syllable -> (money [ˈmʌni]) Type strong + strong > with primary stress on the first syllable and a full vowel on the second -> (background [ˈbækɡraʊnd]) Type weak + strong > with primary stress on the second syllable -> (result [rɪˈzʌlt]) Type strong + strong > with a full vowel on the first syllable and primary stress on the second syllable -> (although [ɔːlˈðəʊ]) ~ with 3 syllables ~ Type strong + weak + weak > with primary stress on the first syllable -> (family [ˈfæməli]) Type strong + weak + strong > with primary stress on the first syllable, and a full vowel on the third syllable -> (telephone [ˈtelɪfəʊn]) Type strong + strong + weak > with primary stress on the first syllable, and a full vowel on the second -> (newspaper [ˈnjuːzpeɪpə]) Type weak + strong + weak > with primary stress on the second syllable -> ( remember [rɪˈmembə])
In fact, morphemes have two characteristics, both of which are necessary: - it must be identifiable from one word to another in a consistent fashion (i.e., in similar positions)
- it must contribute in some way to the meaning of the whole word A morpheme also has the following characteristics:
- it has internal stability since nothing can be interposed in a morpheme
- it is externally transportable
- it has positional mobility or free distribution, occurring in various contexts. Morphemes are represented within curly braces {x}. ~ basic terminology ~ In a world we can find: ROOT > a (usually free) morpheme around which words can be built up through the addition of affixes, it may attach to other free or bound morphemes. It carries the principal lexical or grammatical meaning. The root = what you find when you strip all other morphemes off of a complex word. [Ex: re charging if you strip off all the affixes (‘-re, ‘-ing’) you get the root: ‘charge’] BASE > an element to which additional morphemes are added. (it’s also called stem). A base can consist of a single root morpheme or can also contain already others morpheme [EX: serious= base to form 'seriousness' > seriousness = base to form un seriousness] AFFIX > a bound morpheme which attaches to a base. Based on its position regarding the root it can be a: PREFIX: attached to the front of a base SUFFIX: attached to the end of a base INFIX: which are inserted inside a root We can distinguish two types of morphemes: FREE MORPHEME > morpheme that can stand alone as an independent word and can act as a base. BOUND MORPHEME > morpheme that cannot stand alone as an independent word but must be always attached to another free morpheme/word. They have little meaning when alone, but they do bring meaning to the new word and are therefore considered units of meaning. Morphemes can be lexical or grammatical (this classification is based primarily on meaning).
- Lexical morphemes express lexical, or dictionary, meaning. They can be categorized into the major lexical categories, or word classes: noun, verb, adjective, or adverb. They constitute open categories, to which new members can be added. Lexical morphemes are generally independent words (free roots) or parts of words (derivational affixes and bound roots). - Grammatical morphemes express a limited number of very common meanings or express relations within the sentence. They do not constitute open categories; they can be exhaustively listed. Their occurrence is (entirely) predictable by the grammar of the sentence because certain grammatical meanings are associated with certain lexical categories, for example, tense and voice with the verb, and number and gender with the noun. Grammatical morphemes may small but independent “function words” belonging to the minor word classes including preposition, article, demonstrative, conjunction, auxiliary, and so on (e.g., of , the , that , and , may) or parts of words (inflectional affixes) The two main processes to form a word are inflection and derivation.
- Inflection deals with patterns of word structure that are determined by the role of words in sentences. It’s the process of adding very general meanings to existing words, not the creation of new words. In fact, it consists of affixes which combine with their root to simply indicate basic grammatical categories that is the same of the base. Even this category’s affixes are grammatical in nature and establish a relationship between two or more words. In English there are only 8 inflectional suffixes which are added to nouns, verbs, and adjectives: nouns > s plural, ‘s possessive verbs > s third person singular, -ed past definite, -ing present participle/gerund, -en perfect participle adjectives > er comparative, est superlative SAXON GENITIVE > it refers to the forms of the possessive associated with the apostrophe. Its name derives from its origin as, along with the plural ending, it’s the only noun inflections surviving from Old English or Anglo-Saxon. The Saxon genitive can be used: - alone with a place reference: ( see you at Tom's ) (+ also used to refer to shops, restaurants using the name or job title of the owner ( Luigi’s ). - with nouns referring to people, groups of people, countries, and animals. - to express belonging to or ownership ( John’s bag ) - to express where someone works or studies or spends time ( John’s room ) - a family relationship ( John’ sister) - qualities ( John's patience ) - fixed expressions (in a year's time, for God's sake! today's newspaper ).
- Derivation is the process by which affixes combine with roots to create new words. Derivational prefixes do not normally alter the word class of the base word (that is, a prefix is added to a noun to form a new noun with a different meaning), whereas derivational suffixes usually change both the meaning and the word class (that is, a suffix is often added to a verb or adjective to form a new noun with a different meaning and a new grammatical class (adj: quick > adv: quickly). So, it’s the process through which existing words become new words. Derivation is much less regular, and therefore less predictable, than inflectional morphology (moreover, suffixes tend to have less specific meanings than prefixes). (For example, we can
associated affixes). One principle which holds is that the word class of the compound is determined by the head of the compound, called headword, usually right-hand head. Often the semantics of compounds is not simply a sum of the meaning of the parts; that is, even though we know the meaning of the two roots, we cannot necessarily predict the meaning of the compound (as in makeup). There can be compounds made by words that have two different meanings that brought together, turn yet again into another unpredictable meaning. The most productive is noun + noun. BLEND > involves two processes of word formation: compounding and clipping. Two free words are combined and blended, usually by clipping off the end of the first word and the beginning of the second word, although sometimes one of the morphemes is left intact. Blends are sometimes called “portmanteau” words. EX: sm(oke) + (f)og > smog docu(mentary) + drama > docudrama perma(nent) + frost > permafrost film + (bi)ography > filmography BACK FORMATION > is a process where speakers derive a morphologically simple word from a form which they analyze as a morphologically complex word, on the basis of derivational and inflectional patterns existing in English. For example, by analogy with the common derivational pattern in English in which the agentive suffix -er is added to a verb to produce a noun: sing + -er > singer, work + -er > worker, we can have the back-formed verbs which have been formed by the removal of this agentive suffix (as in sightseer – -er > sightsee, babysitter – - er > baby-sit) SHORTENING > is a process which can identify three subdivisions (acronyms, initialisms, and clipped forms) that have in common the deletion of sound segments without respect to morphological boundaries. That is, parts of words are deleted to shorten the word. In fact, a clipping is the result of deliberately dropping part of a word, usually either the end or the beginning, or less often both, while retaining the same meaning and same word class [EX: adv > advertisement; porn > pornography; rehab > rehabilitation; fan > fanatic; burger > hamburger; phone > telephone; fridge > refrigerator]. In an acronym , the initial letters of words in a phrase are pronounced as a word (NATO > N(orth) A(tlantic) T(reaty) O(rganization)). In an initialism, the initial letters of words in a phrase are pronounced as letters (a.m./p.m.) + SUFFIX -S The suffix {-s} in English is one of the most fascinating linguistic variables because it can signal more than one meaning (which also means that it is a morpheme): genitive, plural and the third person of a verb. Although they are 3 different features, they all have something in common from a phonological point of view: they all have 3 variant forms occurring in the same phonetic contexts: - [-s] > after a voiceless stop (maps)
- [-əz] > after a sibilant (boxes)
- [-z] > in the other cases (toys)
There are standards contexts and exceptions where the -s is not used, for example: - verbal -s in the subjunctive
- possessive -s when the form “x of y” is employed
- plural -s in irregular nouns. Nowadays it’s difficult to think of the verbal third person singular without the -s morpheme. But, actually in British Isles they often speak without the -s. To know where the verbal -s come from, we need to go back to Middle English as in that period they had different suffixes:
- in the Northern part of England: the first singular person was “thanke-Ø”, with no morpheme marking it whereas all the others had “thanke-s” marking it.
- In the Midlands: the first singular person was “thanke-Ø”, with no morpheme marking it in the 2 nd^ and 3 rd^ singular person it was “thanke-s(t)/th. For all plural there was a different pattern which is marked by “n” (thanke-n)
- As to Southern England: the first singular person was “thanke-Ø”, with no morpheme marking it the second had “thanke-st” the other had “thanke-th” The e is pronounced with a schwa that later on disappeared, and that’s how we arrived to thank , which is used in present English. It’s from Modern English that we have the only distinction of the 3 rd^ person singular with the -s. This is part of SE as this is what we are also taught in school, however, there are still some regional variations in the U.K.; for instance, in the South-West of England people still have some sort of suffixes to mark the verbs. -> Old forms survived in the Southwest: all the other voice have s, and the 2nd^ sing. person in marked with -st -> the Somerset speaker uses - s for all voices -> a Devon farmer could use is and was in 3 rd^ plural (the houses is) However, in East Anglia the reverse happened. These is no distinction, no -s including for the 3rd singular person. East Anglia had Norwich as one of the biggest cities of the country that also had influence of linguistics features. While Norwich native English speakers were hearing and using less the 3rd singular person {-eth} because they were hearing the {-s} more and more, all the South emigrants were learning English as second language with simplified patterns, but they basically never adopted the {-s} variant. That’s why nowadays in Norwich, in East Anglia the {- s} at the 3rd singular person is not used since it’s no part of this dialect. According to Trudgill this made the difference because of the contacts between the arrive of immigrants and the variation language. This is the only geographical area in the UK where we have the absence of the 3rd person singular -s, so they say “she think, he dance, etc.”. For this reason, it’s also referred to as singular zero. After the Middle English period we have Early modern English and Late modern English before arriving at present day English.
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