/bʌt/
/ʃʌt/
/mʌt/
/dʒʌt/
/let/
/set/
/met/
/ˈbet/
/ˈdʒet/
words | transcriptions |
/ˈmʌð.ə/ /ˈmʌ.tə/ /ˈlɪ.və/ /ˈlɪ.tə/ /spend/ /spent/ /ruːf/ /ruːt/ |
words | transcriptions |
/bəʊt/ /buːt/ /ˈbɔːt/ /baɪt/ /bɪt/ /beɪt/ /ˈbɑːt/ /bʌt/ |
For a list of useful minimal pairs (for your own practice and use in the classroom, click here (new tab).
Click here to take a short test to see if you can match minimal pairs. There are no transcriptions in this test so you will have to say the words aloud or to yourself to find the pairs. You can click on the other answers to see what feedback you get.
Here's the list you'll learn. If you want to download this chart as a PDF document to keep by you as reference, click here .
The symbols we are using in the course are those introduced by Gimson (1962) in the first edition of An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English .
The consonants are the easiest so we can start there. Most of them are transcribed using the normal letters of the alphabet and they are often the same as the written form of the letter but remember that spelling in English is not a reliable guide to pronunciation. There are five sounds which are denoted by special symbols and these you have to learn:
Additionally, there is one anomaly and two combination consonant sounds:
Voicing |
Voicing describes how phonemes may be different depending on whether the vocal cords vibrate or not at the time of pronunciation. (There are those who will aver that the technically correct term is vocal folds not vocal cords.) Voicing is also called sonorisation. For example, the /k/ sound is made without voicing but the /ɡ/ sound is made with the mouth parts in the same place but with voice added. Here are some examples of words containing voiced and unvoiced consonants. The consonant in question is underlined, in bold . Say them aloud and you will hear the differences.
Unvoiced | Say: | |
apanese | ap | |
e | e | |
In all the words above, the place of articulation (i.e., where in the mouth the sound is made) is identical for both pairs of consonants. All that changes is whether or not the vocal cords or folds vibrate. If you put your hand on your throat and say the words sue and zoo , you will see what is meant and feel a slight vibration on the second word (/s/ is unvoiced but /z/ is voiced). Try saying the words and examples in the table above out loud and you will see that you need to pronounce the voiced consonants with a vibration of the vocal cords and a little more energy than the sounds in the unvoiced cases. A check is to try saying ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS with a hand on your throat so you can feel the vibration.
Of the consonants, 16 form pairs of voiced-unvoiced sounds:
Unvoiced | Minimal pairs | |
/p/ | ||
/tʃ/ | ||
/f/ | ||
/s/ | ||
/k/ | ||
/t/ | ||
/θ/ | (plural noun) (verb) | |
/ʃ/ |
You have to listen out for voicing when you are transcribing because voiced and unvoiced consonants are full phonemes in English. There is, in fact, a cline between fully unvoiced phonemes and those which are heavily voiced but for the purposes of a phonemic rather than phonetic transcription, we simply have to draw a line and have unvoiced and voiced consonants on either side of it. Individual speakers, too, vary in the amount of voicing they exhibit and in which consonants they voice in which environments. For more, see the section below under assimilation concerning voicing and devoicing.
Click here for a little test to see if you can match voiced and unvoiced sounds by saying some words aloud.
To get us started with transcribing consonants, take a piece of paper and transcribe the consonants only in these words, using the right-hand side of the phoneme chart. Look at the example words and check to see if the pronunciation is the same as the words in this test. Click on the table when you have done that.
Given here is a full transcription but you can ignore the vowels (for now). You should have noticed these things: both the 'c' and the 'k' are transcribed as /k/. both the 'j' and the 'dg' are transcribed as /dʒ/. This is how the 'j' is usually pronounced but the /j/ is the one at the beginning of . is different from the 'th' in . The first is unvoiced, the second voiced so they are transcribed as /θ/ and /ð/. is transcribed as /s/ not as in , of course. is voiced so it is transcribed as /z/. It is a different sound from the beginning of . is actually pronounced as 'sh' so it is transcribed as /ʃ/. is not pronounced like that. It is transcribed as /ʒ/. That is not the same as the /z/ at the end of . is the same as the 'c' in . and are both nasalised and transcribed as /ŋ/. Compare them to the 'n' in . |
All the other sounds are transcribed using ordinary English alphabetic letters taking on their usual pronunciation.
Now transcribe the underlined CONSONANTS only in these words. Do not worry now about the rest of the words.
ToBaCCo | CHair | JuMP | BaFFLe | VaN | BaDGe | DaDDy | PaTH | THiS | MaZe | SHaVe | HaNG | HuLL | RaBBLe | Way | YaNK |
You should have:
tobacco | chair | jump | baffle | van | badge | daddy | path | this | maze | shave | hang | hull | rabble | way | yank | |
/t/ + /b/ + /k/ | /ɡ/ + /ɡ/ +/l/ | /tʃ/ | /dʒ/ + /m/ + /p/ | /b/ + /f/ + /l/ | /v/ + /n/ | /b/ + /dʒ/ | /d/ + /d/ | /p/ + /θ/ | /ð/ + /s/ | /m/ + /z/ | /ʃ/ + /v/ | /h/ + /ŋ/ | /h/ + /l/ | /r/ + /b/ + /l/ | /w/ | /j/ + /n/ + /k/ |
If you have included an /r/ sound at the end of your transcription of the word chair , that's fine because it would be pronounced that way if the following sound were a vowel. If not, in BrE the /r/ is not included but it is in many other varieties of English including AmE .
As a very simple check, try these three tests which just ask you to match the transcription of the consonant with a word containing only that consonant. If you would like to try an exercise in transcribing the consonants you hear rather than ones you read, click here (new tab).
The pronunciation of /w/ If you are transcribing the speech of someone from Scotland, Ireland or parts of the southern United States, listen out for how, for example, they pronounce the initial consonant on where, when, whether, whine, what etc . Although the sound is now almost extinct except in some varieties, a variant of /w/ usually transcribed as /hw/ (or you may see it as [ʍ]), appears at the beginning of words spelled wh- but has for almost all speakers of English now merged with /w/. The result is that apart from a small minority of speakers, there is no distinction in pronunciation between weather and whether, wine and whine etc. The merger is generally called the whine-wine merger.
Here's a list of the vowels in English (authorities may differ slightly about how many there are, incidentally).
/iː/ | sleep sheep free | /æ/ | sat hat flab | /ɪə/ | here beer mere |
/ɪ/ | kid slid blip | /ʌ/ | blood cup shut | */ʊə/ | d ring f rious poor |
/ʊ/ | put foot suit | /ɑː/ | part large heart | /ɔɪ/ | boy depl toy |
/uː/ | goose loose Bruce | /ɒ/ | hot cot shod | /eə/ | lair share pr yer |
/e/ | Fred dead said | †/i/ | happ navv sall | /eɪ/ | lace day betr |
/ə/ | bout fath cross | /aɪ/ | price wine shine | ||
/ɜː/ | verse hearse curse | /əʊ/ | boat coat note | ||
/ɔː/ | fought caught brought | /aʊ/ | south house louse |
* This diphthong in the example words is not pronounced by all speakers. For example, sure may be pronounced with the diphthong as /ʃʊə/ or with a monophthong as /ʃɔː/ † /i/ may be transcribed as /iː/ in some analyses. The schwa (/ə/) is the commonest sound in English but there is no letter for its representation.
The first two columns contain the 13 pure vowels in English. The right-hand column contains the 8 diphthongs making a total of 21 in all.
If you haven't already done so, to do this exercise, you may want to download the chart as a PDF document so you can have it at your elbow. Click here to do that .
Using the chart, transcribe the following words and then click on the table to check your answers.
If you didn't get the final vowel of ago , or the first one of happy , that doesn't matter (yet). In the first case the initial vowel was the schwa , transcribed as /ə/, and in the second case, the final vowel is transcribed as /i/ and lies between the short vowel in sit (/sɪt/and the longer one in seat (/siːt/). Try another short recognition test by clicking here .
There are 8 of these and they are combinations of pure vowels which merge together. We have, e.g., /ɪ/ + /ə/ (the sounds we know from bid and ago ) following one another to produce /ɪə/ as in merely (mee-err-ly). You can usually work out what the diphthong is by saying the word it contains very slowly and distinctly.
There is another test of your ability to recognise all the diphthongs here .
An issue to note is with the transcription here of tour. Here, we use the diphthong /ʊə/ but there are many speakers who pronounce, especially, short words such as sure, poor etc. with the monophthong /ɔː/ so, for example, sure as /ʃʊə/ or with a monophthong as /ʃɔː/, poor / pour as /pʊə/ or with a monophthong as /pɔː/ and tour as /tʊə/ or with a monophthong as /tɔː/. This sound is more often present in longer words such as individ ua l (/ˌɪn.dɪ.ˈvɪ.dʒʊəl/). If you are being careful to transcribe exactly what someone says, this is worth listening out for.
Finally, there is a set of three tests of your ability to recognise some commonly confused vowel transcriptions. Click here to go to it (new tab).
You have now transcribed words using all the vowels and consonant sounds of English.
As a check of your knowledge, try the following.
Did you get it right? One thing to notice is that in rapid connected speech, the transcription of come with me would probably be /kʌm wɪ miː/ without the /ð/ because we usually leave it out. You may also, depending on how you say things, have had /iɡ's/ or even /ik's/ at the beginning of exactly . That doesn't matter too much but note the convention for marking the stress on multisyllabic words: it's a ' inserted before the stressed syllable. There is also the convention of putting a stop (.) between syllables (as in, e.g., sentence ('sen.təns). Your students may not need that but many find it helpful. More on that in a moment.
The most common vowel in the spoken language has no letter to represent it. It is, of course, the humble schwa. If you teach no other phoneme symbol, teach this one. Including it in your transcriptions is simply a matter of listening out for it and making sure that you aren't being influenced by the spelling of words. You should also note that the schwa only occurs in unstressed syllables . You can't stress the schwa. The schwa may be how any of the traditionally spelled vowels are pronounced:
vowel | a schwa in | transcribed |
a | / .'sliːp/ | |
e | /'dɪ.fr nt/ | |
i | /'de.fɪ.n t/ | |
o | /'prɒ.s .di/ | |
u | /'tiː.dɪ m/ | |
ou | /'tiː.dɪ s/ | |
io | /'neɪʃ. n/ |
How many schwa sounds can you detect when you say and transcribe this sentence? Click on the bar when you have an answer.
No fewer than 12 in 11 words. Note:
As a check, we'll look again at an exercise from the section on consonants and ask you to try the test again but this time, transcribe the whole of each word, putting in the correct vowel transcriptions, the stress marks and the schwa. Here's the list again:
/tə.ˈbæˌko.ʊ/ | /ˈɡuː.ɡl̩/ | /tʃeə/ | /dʒʌmp/ | /ˈbæf.l̩/ | /væn/ | /bædʒ/ | /ˈdæ.di/ | /pɑːθ/ | /ðɪs/ | /meɪz/ | /ʃeɪv/ | /hæŋ/ | /hʌl/ | /ˈræb.l̩/ | /ˈweɪ/ | /jæŋk/ |
You may have transcribed three of these words slightly differently. They are:
The reason for this is that the final syllable is so short that most people do not pronounce the schwa at all in rapid speech and instead produce what is known as a syllabic consonant which is transcribed as /l̩/ with a mark below the phoneme to show that it is a syllable in its own right. There is more on this below. Be patient. By the way, if you transcribed chair as /tʃeər/, that's OK, too, because it would be pronounced that way if the following sound were a vowel. If not, in BrE the /r/ is not included but it is in many other varieties of English including AmE. The usual way to transcribe the word in AmE is as /ˈtʃer/.
Now you can get a little practice in transcribing the vowels you hear in some simple words. Click here to do that.
There are those who argue (Wells, for example) that there is actually no such thing as a triphthong in English. They take the view, roughly summarised, that the vowels in, e.g., player break into two syllables so what we have is simply a diphthong followed by another vowel so the transcription should be: /ˈpleɪ.ə/, not /ˈpleɪə/ and that means the diphthong /eɪ/ as in day followed by the schwa in the second syllable. Wells puts it like this:
I would argue that part of the definition of a true triphthong must be that it constitutes a single V unit, making with any associated consonants just a single syllable. Given that, do we have triphthongs in English? I claim that generally, at the phonetic level, we don’t. I treat the items we are discussing as basically sequences of a strong vowel plus a weak vowel. Wells, 2009
Roach, on the other hand, argues differently and states that:
The most complex English sounds of the vowel type are the triphthongs. They can be rather difficult to pronounce, and very difficult to recognise. A triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly and without interruption . Roach, 2009:29 (emphasis added)
Crystal, states:
The distinction between triphthongs and the more common diphthongs is sometimes phonetically unclear. Crystal, 2008:497
This is not the place to pit two esteemed phoneticians against each other so we'll stick with the simplest explanation, the one proposed by Wells, and suggest that what is sometimes called a triphthong is, in fact a glide from a diphthong to another vowel, the schwa and that there are (or can be) two syllables in such pronunciations. Here, we will recognise five of these combinations of sounds. Whether whomever you are transcribing produces all five is a matter of the accent and background of the speaker as well as how carefully and slowly the words are spoken. Here's the list:
You should have: mower : /ˈməʊə/ or /ˈməʊ.ə/ tyre : /ˈtaɪə/ or /ˈtaɪ.ə/ slayer : /ˈsleɪə/ or /ˈsleɪ.ə/ toil : /ˈtɔɪəl/ or /ˈtɔɪ.əl/ (but many pronounce that as /tɔɪl/, a single-syllable word with a diphthong vowel sound) shower : /ˈʃaʊə/ or /ˈʃaʊ.ə/
As far as transcription is concerned, you do not have to take sides in the Roach-Wells debate and can equally well have the transcription with the syllable-marking '.' or without. It just depends on whether you hear the sound as a single vowel or two syllables and that will vary from speaker to speaker. See the next section for how we recognise syllables.
As we saw, the main stressed syllable is conventionally indicated by ' before the syllable (e.g., /'sɪl.əb.l̩/). It is sometimes helpful to mark secondary stress in longer words like incontrovertible by a lowered symbol like this: /ɪn ˌ k.ɒn.trə.'vɜː.təb.l̩/ in which you can see a small ˌ before the /k/ sound indicating that the second syllable carries secondary stress and the main stress falls on the fourth syllable and is shown by the 'vɜː in the transcription. Most learners find just one stressed syllable enough to cope with. If we want to show that non-phonemically, we might write: in con tro VER tible on the board with an underline lower-case for secondarily stressed syllables but bold, underlined CAPITALS for the main stress. (An alternative way to mark stress sometimes used by professional phoneticians is to place an acute accent over the onset vowel of a stressed syllable and a grave accent over a secondarily stressed item. In this case, the syllable borders are usually ignored.)
However, before we can decide where to put the stress mark, we need to identify the syllables in an utterance. That is not always as easy as it sounds. A syllable is a unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants . By that definition, all of the following are single syllables: or go ask bus of various kinds (there is a guide to the difference on this site which you can access in the guide to syllables and phonotactics (new tab)). You can transcribe these individual words without any stress or syllable marks because there is no stress to note and only one syllable in question. In connected speech, of course, we may need to insert a stress mark if the word carries stress in a longer string of text. The transcription of those words is, therefore: or: /ɔː/ go: /ɡəʊ/ ask: /ɑːsk/ bus: /bʌs/ and there are no other markings.
However, words or utterances of more than one syllable pose a problem because the transcription needs to show both the division into syllables and the place where the stress appears.
You should have: There are 7 syllables so the word is broken down as de-na-tio-na-li-za-tion . The transcription is: /ˌdi:.ˌnæ.ʃə.nə.laɪ.ˈzeɪʃ.n̩/ In rapid speech, however, many speakers will omit some of the syllables in very long words so the transcription might easily be: /ˌdi:.ˌnæʃ.nə.laɪ.ˈzeɪʃ.n̩/ with the third syllable dropped. Notice, too, that the final syllable in both cases is simply /n̩/ which denotes that there is no obvious vowel between the /ʃ/ and the /n/ sounds. That's called a syllabic consonant because the single consonant forms a syllable. If you transcribed that with /ən/ at the end, that's fine (and correct). It can also be transcribed as /ᵊn/ to show that the vowel is very short. There is a bit more on syllabic consonants below.
The rules for deciding where a syllable starts and stops are quite complex in English but there is a rule of thumb we can use to decide, for example, how to divide a word like tumbler . We could have: /ˈtʌm.blə/ or /ˈtʌ.mblə/ or /ˈtʌmb.lə/ so how do we decide? Here are the rules:
Now the stress marking. Once we have applied the rules (or used a bit of common sense and intuition) we can divide multisyllabic items up conventionally and then decide where the stresses fall.
You should have: /ɪm.ˌpɒ.sə.ˈbɪ.lɪ.ti/ and /ˌɪnt.ə.ˌnæʃ.n̩.əl.aɪ.ˈzeɪʃ.n̩/ We cannot, of course, following Rule 2 above have /ɪ.ˌmpɒ.sə.ˈbɪ.lɪ.ti/ or /ˌɪnt.ə.ˌnæ.ʃn̩.əl.aɪ.ˈzeɪʃ.n̩/ because no word in English can begin with /mp/ or /ʃn/ so we move the /m/ and the /ʃ/ to the left and then we have something acceptable. Do not worry if your transcription was not exactly the same. If you have identified the syllable divisions and put the main and subsidiary stresses in the right places, that's OK for now.
Transcribing connected speech spoken at normal speed rather than someone reading from a list of words, requires the inclusion of a variety of new factors. Four are considered here.
Intrusive and linking sounds |
There are three sounds which speakers insert between vowels in connected speech. They need to be included in your transcriptions. They are:
You may see an intrusive sound put in superscript ( rwj ) and that's a good way to draw your learners' attention to the sounds. There is, however, a case to be made that you don't have to teach these at all because they are the inevitable effects of vowel-vowel combinations in speech. They aren't, of course, only applicable to English.
Try this next mini-test. Click on the table to get the answer.
There are times when you have to listen extremely carefully to hear whether a speaker is actually producing the intrusive sound or inserting /ʔ/, a glottal stop (see next section). For example, many will pronounce Go out as /gəʊʔaʊt/ rather than /ɡəʊ.ˈwaʊt/, The gorilla and me as /ðə.ɡə.ˈrɪ.ləʔənd.miː/ rather than /ðə.ɡə.ˈrɪ.lə.rənd.miː/ and I am here as /ˈaɪʔæm.hɪə/ rather than /ˈaɪ.jæm.hɪə/.
As we saw above with the transcription of suet , many speakers of all varieties will insert an intrusive /w/ in the middle of the word, producing /ˈsuːwɪt/ instead of /ˈsuːɪt/ and so we also hear fuel as /ˈfjuːwəl/ but that word, even without the intrusive /w/ is pronounced with an intrusive /j/ as the transcriptions show. if you listen carefully to some British English speakers pronouncing words such as tune, fortune, produce, century, nature, mixture, picture, creature, opportunity, situation, actually you may hear an intrusive /j/ sound after the /t/ or /d/ not shown in the spelling. Therefore, the transcription is actually: tune /tjuːn/ actually /ˈæk.tjuə.li/ situation /ˌsɪ.tjʊ.ˈeɪʃ.n̩/ etc. although ˈæk.tʃuə.li/ and /ˌsɪ.tʃʊ.ˈeɪʃ.n̩/ are also heard. Not all speakers do this.
A further issue to listen for is the linking /r/ sound. In British English, the final 'r' on many words is unsounded so, for example, harbour is pronounced as /ˈhɑː.bə/, whereas in AmE, the standard pronunciation includes the /r/ sound and the pronunciation is /ˈhɑːr.bər/. However, when a word ending in 'r' immediately precedes a word with an initial vowel, we get the linking /r/ and the sound is produced so, for example: My father asked will be pronounced as /maɪ.ˈfɑːð.ər.ˈɑːskt/ in BrE and as /maɪ.ˈfɑːð.r̩.ˈæskt/ in AmE.
The guide to connected speech contains more detail on the different forms of assimilation. For the purposes of transcribing sounds in connected speech, the various types are not as important as the ability to step away from the written word and transcribe only what you hear. You must be aware, however, that not all speakers will pronounce everything the same way and the phenomena listed here are not consistently produced by everyone. Much will depend on how careful speakers are and what variety of English they use. Assimilation describes the alteration of sounds under the influence of other sounds in the vicinity. The guide to connected speech has this table:
Before these sounds | this sound | assimilates to | for example | transcription |
/m/, /b/, /p/ | /n/ | /m/ | /ðem.ˈbeɪk.ɪt/ | |
/ðemˈpʊt.ɪt/ | ||||
/ðem.ˈɪks.ɪt/ | ||||
/t/ | /p/ or /ʔ/ | /ðəʔ.ˈmɪks.tʃə/ | ||
/ðəp.bred/ | ||||
/ðəʔ.ˈpeɪ.pə/ | ||||
/d/ | /b/ or /ʔ/ | /ˈmæʔ.mæn/ | ||
/ˈmæʔ.ˌbɔɪ/ | ||||
/mæb.ˈɒ.lə.si/ | ||||
/k/, /ɡ/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | /ˈbiːŋ.keɪks/ | |
/biːŋ.ˈɡʊd/ | ||||
/t/ | /k/ or /ʔ/ | /ˈðəʔ.keɪk/ | ||
/bək.ˈɡəʊ/ | ||||
/d/ | /ɡ/ | /ˈbeɡ.kləʊðz/ | ||
/j/ | /t/ | /tʃ/ | /ˈmaɪtʃu/ | |
/d/ | /dʒ/ | /ˈhədʒu/ | ||
/ʃ/ | /s/ | /ʃ/ | /ˈɡlɑː.ʃɒp/ | |
/z/ | /ʃ/ | /hæ.ˈʃʌt/ |
In the last case, the assimilation of /s/ and /z/ to /ʃ/, some would aver that the /s/ and /z/ sounds are simply being omitted and that's elision, the topic of the next section. Others believe that the /ʃ/ sound is, in fact being extended to nearly double its usual pronunciation so this is a case of assimilation. The distinction, such as it is, is not vital for teaching purposes. Consonant lengthening is a minor area in English (but not so in some languages). There are times when two non-plosive consonants occur together and, normally in rapid speech, one of them is assimilated (or elided, depending on your point of view). So, for example: some milk is usually pronounced as /səm.ɪlk/ with only one /m/ sound. However, when people are being slightly more careful and speaking a little more slowly, both /m/ sounds are heard so the transcription is /səm.mɪlk/ and it would appear from that that there are two separate sounds in the middle of the phrase. What in fact frequently happens is not that we have two /m/ sounds but that we have a single sound slightly lengthened. The transcription is sometimes adjusted to take this into account and a length mark is inserted after the consonant so we get the transcription as /səmː.ɪlk/. The phenomenon is called gemination (from the Latin gemini , meaning twins). This sort of lengthening occurs most frequently with certain consonants because plosives such as /p/ cannot usually be lengthened. Some examples are: club bar /klʌb.bɑː/ mad demons /mæd.ˈdiː.mənz/ safe fire /seɪf.ˈfaɪə/ big gate /bɪɡ.ɡeɪt/ full label /fʊl.ˈleɪb.l̩/ warm margarine /wɔːm.ˌmɑː.dʒə.ˈriːn/ gin next /dʒɪn.nekst/ car research /kɑː.rɪ.ˈsɜːtʃ/ less sense /les.sens/ mash shop /mæʃ.ʃɒp/ cave visit /keɪv.ˈvɪ.zɪt/ and here we have followed the convention of transcribing both consonants although we are aware that in rapid speech one will not usually be sounded. If that is the case in what you hear, delete the second of the consonant sounds but retain the syllable marker. If you wish to use the length marker after the consonant, that's fine too, providing that it is what you heard, but be aware that it is not a widely used convention. In some languages, including Arabic, Danish, Estonian, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish and Turkish, consonant lengthening carries meaning so a short or long consonant are independent phonemes. In English, no such meaning attaches to a longer consonant so we are dealing with allophonic differences and the transcription may be unaffected, therefore.
You should have: /ˈɡəʊl.dəm.bɒks/ /ˈtʃɪl.drəm.mʌst/ (or /ˈtʃɪl.drəm.mʌs/ with the elision of the final /t/ on must ) /ˈpʊt.paɪ/ or / ˈpʊʔ.baɪ/ /həʔ.ˈmæ.nɪdʒd/ With /n/ assimilated to /m/, /t/ to / ʔ / and /d/ to / ʔ/. Do not worry if your transcription was not exactly the same.
You should have: /faɪŋ.ˈkɑːs.l̩/ (with /ŋ/ not /n/) /sɪ ʔ .ˈkʌmf.tə.bli/ /həd.ˈ ɡ ʌ.vəd/ With /n/ assimilated to /ŋ/, /t/ to / ʔ / and /k/ to / ɡ/. Do not worry if your transcription was not exactly the same.
You should have: /peɪnʃ.ˈje.ləʊ/ /wʊdʒ.et/ With /t/ assimilated to /ʃ/ and /d/ to /dʒ /. Do not worry if your transcription was not exactly the same.
You should have: /le.ˈʃʊ.ɡə/ /wə. ˈ ʃʊə/ (or / wə. ˈʃɔːr/ depending on your accent) With /s/ assimilated to /ʃ/ (and lengthened, often) and /z/ also assimilated into a lengthened / ʃ/. Do not worry if your transcription was not exactly the same.
Assimilation, both progressive and regressive, also affects voicing (sometimes known as sonorisation). For example:
It is important, too, to listen carefully for what is not pronounced and this also involves releasing oneself from the spell of the written word and hearing only what is being said, not what one expects to be said. Again, the guide to connected speech has more detail in this area but here it will be enough to present some examples:
Again, speakers vary in this with some being more careful and correct and others less so (or sloppy as writers to newspapers often describe them). You have to listen hard to hear what is really being said.
You may have: /bæɡ.ə.pə.ˈteɪ.təʊz/, with the /v/ elided, or /bæɡ.əv.pə.ˈteɪ.təʊz/
You should have: /hi. ʃ ʊdnt.əv. ˈ b ɪ n.ðeə/ or /hi. ʃ ʊdənt.əv. ˈ b ɪ n.ðeə/ with the /ə/ included.
You should have either: /pɑːs. ˈ ðə.tə.hə/ or /pɑːs. ˈ ðə ʔ .tə.hə/ (with the assimilation of /t/ to / ʔ/). You may also have omitted the /h/ on her . If you transcribed that as /ðæ/ (with the full vowel sound and the elided /t/), that's OK, too. Many speakers, even when they are speaking quite quickly avoid the schwa for the vowel.
You could have either: /ˈsevnθs/ or /ˈsevns/ (with the elision of / θ /).
You could have either: /dʒɪm.meɪ/ or /dʒɪ.meɪ/ (with the elision of / m /).
At the back of your mouth there is a part of your larynx called the glottis and this is where the glottal stop is produced, hence its name. A glottal stop is formed by briefly blocking the airflow at the back of the mouth and then releasing it. The symbol for this sound is /ʔ/ and we have seen a lot of examples of how some sounds are replaced by the glottal stop above.
You probably have: /'pʊ ʔ ɒn/, / ' pɪ ʔ ʌp/ and / ' hɪ ʔ ɪm/ instead of the more careful forms of /'pʊt ɒn/, / ' pɪk ʌp/ and / ' hɪt ɪm/
We can have also butter as /'bʌ ʔ .ə/ not /'bʌt.ə/ or fatter as /ˈfæ ʔ .ə/ not /ˈfæ.tə/ in some common dialects (London and Scots, for example).
See also the use of the glottal stop to avoid a linking /r/, /w/ or /j/ sound, above.
Dropping the /h/ on him is not always sloppy speech; it is very commonly acceptable. And it is very common (but not in all dialects). The /h/ in I have, when not contracted, is often replaced by an intrusive /j/ as in /'aɪj æv/ and this happens frequently elsewhere, too ( they have, we have, e.g., rendered as /'ðeɪjəv/, /'wijæv/). Notice, too, the tendency to pronounce have as /həv/ in they have but as /hæv/ in we have . Hello is often pronounced /hə.'ləʊ/ sometimes /hæ.ˈləʊ/ but often /ə.'ləʊ/ or /æ.ˈləʊ/. It may be safer to stick with /haɪ/.
Similarly, in many dialects the final /ŋ/ in words ending with -ing is often rendered as /n/ but this is generally considered low status. We get, e.g., /'ɡəʊɪn 'aʊt/ instead of /'ɡəʊɪŋ 'aʊt/. Oddly, some high-status British accents also make this conversion, exemplified by the so-called huntin', fishin' and shootin' set (the /'hʌnt.ɪn 'fɪʃ.ɪn ən 'ʃuːt.ɪn set/).
You could have: /ˈdeɪ.zi.əz.ə.dɒɡ/ instead of the more careful /ˈdeɪ.zi.hæz.ə.dɒɡ/
You could have: /ə.ju.ˈɡəʊɪn.ˈaʊt.tə.ˈnaɪt/ instead of the more careful /ə.ju.ˈɡəʊɪŋ.ˈaʊt.tə.ˈnaɪt/ or even the very careful /ɑː.ju.ˈɡəʊɪŋ.ˈaʊt.tə.ˈnaɪt/
A rhotic dialect or variety of English is one in which the letter 'r' is pronounced as /r/ before a consonant or at the end of a word. For example, a rhotic accent, in this case General American is our example, will pronounce: card as /kɑːrd/ far as /fɑːr/ murder as /ˈmɝː.dər/ The symbol /ɝ/ is called an R-coloured or rhotic vowel. A non-rhotic variety such as BrE will pronounce those three words as /kɑːd/, /fɑː/ and /ˈmɜː.də/. The rhotic pronunciation is standard in American English and is becoming slightly more frequent in BrE, too. You sometimes need to listen hard to recognise whether an 'r' is being sounded in the middle of a word so, for example the AmE pronunciation of diversion is: /daɪ.ˈvɝː.ʒən/ whereas the BrE pronunciation lacks rhoticity: /daɪ.ˈvɜːʃ.n̩/. There are other differences, too, which are covered later. The symbol /ɝː/ to show the sound (a rhotic vowel) may also appear as /ɜːr/
We saw above that in most southern British dialects, the /r/ sound is only pronounced when the following sound is a vowel so we get, e.g.: My father asked pronounced as /maɪ.ˈfɑːð.ər.ˈɑːskt/ in BrE and as /maɪ.ˈfɑːð.r̩.ˈæskt/ in AmE. When the following sound is non-vocalic (not a vowel), this linking /r/ does not occur so, e.g.: My father told me is pronounced as: /maɪ.ˈfɑːð.ə.təʊld.miː/ in non-rhotic accents but as /maɪ.ˈfɑːð.ər.təʊld.miː/ in rhotic accents. In some speakers, the linking /r/ is avoided in favour of a glottal /ʔ/ (see above). In transcribing what is actually said, either by speakers of the language or by learners, it is important to be alert to whether the speaker is using a rhotic accent or a non-rhotic accent.
There are three influences which determine the use of a rhotic accent and using knowledge of them can help you to listen out when transcribing speakers' production.
In English, how the /r/ sound is produced is not semantically significant, the various pronunciations, therefore, heard in South West Britain, Ireland and Scotland etc. are allophonic not phonemic distinctions. Learners of English will, quite naturally, often carry over their native language pronunciation of /r/ into English and that contributes significantly to a foreign accent although it rarely interferes with communication. Here's a short list: In Spanish, the sole difference between pero ( but ) and perro ( dog ) is that in the former the 'r' is pronounced as a single flap (phonetically as [ɾ]) rather than trilled as it is in the latter like the Scottish [r]. Many languages, including Bulgarian, Swedish, Norwegian, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian and Dutch use a similar trilled sound. French, European Portuguese and some German speakers may use a voiceless uvular fricative, phonetically [ʁ] which is produced by restricting the airflow over the back of the throat with the tongue. This is not so obvious if it occurs at all in many German dialects. Most Chinese languages, except Cantonese, use a retroflex sound, phonetically, [ɻ] in which the tip of the tongue is curled back but the situation is complex dialectically. This is not dissimilar, incidentally, to the sound as it is produced in South West Britain. Some languages, notably Thai and Japanese, do not distinguish phonemically between /r/ and /l/ so the production of 'r' and 'l' in English may be randomly one or the other.
If you listen very carefully to how someone pronounces a word like stable , you may hear two or three possible pronunciations:
The first is more likely to appear in quite rapid speech and the second sounds rather formal and slow. The third is an intermediate stage in which some people will hear a schwa but aver that it is simply shortened. That would be transcribed with the symbol for the schwa raised to signify its comparative shortness. What is happening is that the schwa between /b/ and /l/ is being crushed in normal rapid speech so that the final /l/ sound constitutes a syllable on its own. Usually, syllables are defined by vowels but, in this case, a consonant alone is the syllable because the schwa is all but impossible to hear. To transcribe this phenomenon, you need to place a dot before the syllable and insert a small mark below it to signify that it is a syllabic consonant (see above).
There are, in English, three types of syllabic consonant and they affect /l/ (the example above), /n/ and /r/. Here are some examples.
/ˈkeɪ.pəb.l̩/ | |
/dɪ.ˈfaɪ.nəb.l̩/ | |
/kəm.ˈpjuː.təb.l̩/ | |
/'ʌŋk.l̩/ |
/ˈdɑːkən/ | or | /ˈdɑːk.n̩/ | |
/ˈəʊ.pən/ | /ˈəʊp.n̩/ | ||
/ˈdræ.ɡən/ | /ˈdræɡ.n̩/ |
/ˌme.dɪ.ˈteɪʃ.ən/ | or | /ˌme.dɪ.ˈteɪʃ.n̩/ | |
/ˌde.fɪ.ˈnɪʃ.ən/ | /ˌde.fɪ.ˈnɪʃ.n̩/ | ||
/ɪk.ˈsep.ʃən/ | /ɪk.ˈsep.ʃ.n̩/ |
/ɪn.ˈdɪ.fərəns/ | or | /ɪn.ˈdɪf.r̩əns/ | or | /ɪn.ˈdɪ.frəns/ | |
/ˈbrʌð.ə/ | /ˈbrʌð.r̩/ | /ˈbrʌð.ər/ | |||
/ˈre.və.rəns/ | /ˈrev.r̩əns/ | /ˈre.vrəns/ |
You could have: /ˈpæd.l̩/ /ˈfɪd.l̩/ /ˈduːə.b l̩ / /ˈlaɪt.n̩/ /ˈfɑːs.n̩/ /ˈtʃəʊ.zn̩/ but, of course, in more careful or slower speech, the / ə / will be inserted before a standard /l/ or /n/ instead of the syllabic /l̩/ or /n̩/. A New Yorker might produce: /ˈʃʌ.dr̩/ /ˈhʌn.tr̩/ /ˈdeɪn.dʒr̩əs/
Unlike individual sounds and issues of connected speech, there is no universally accepted or conventional way of transcribing intonation. In the classroom, most teachers develop their own ways of doing this depending on the features they want to highlight.
Whichever system or systems you adopt, you need to make sure that your learners understand its implications.
There is no exercise on this because
There are no arguments for teaching intonation in terms of attitude, because the rules for use are too obscure, too amorphous, and too easily refutable . (Brazil, D, Coulthard, RM, & Johns, C, 1980, Discourse Intonation and Language Teaching , Harlow: Longman, p120)
You are not advised to use both phonemic transcription and intonation diagrams together because that muddies the water and confuses your learners.
In the preceding, we have used transcriptions which seemed the most conventional and likely to be of some help in the classroom. As we noted, it is that introduced by Gimson (1962) in the first edition of An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English . There are, however, some alternatives to what has been used here that you may see, need to recognise or wish to use. Most commonly, the differences are between the transcriptions used here, those used by Daniel Jones (and refined by Gimson) and those used to transcribe the particular sounds of AmE. Here they are:
Instead of ... | we can use ... | Used by or in |
/ / to enclose | | | to enclose | Anyone |
/l̩/, /r̩/ and /n̩/ | /ᵊl/, /ᵊr/ and /ᵊn/ | Anyone |
/ɪ/ | /i/ | Jones |
/ɒ/ | /ɔ/ | Jones |
/ʊ/ | /u/ | Jones |
/e/ | /ɛ/ | AmE |
/ʃ/ | /š/ | AmE |
/ʒ/ | /ž/ | AmE |
/tʃ/ | /č/ | AmE |
/dʒ/ | /ǰ/ or /dž/ | AmE |
/ɪə/ | /iə/ | Jones |
/ʊə/ | /uə/ | Jones |
/ɔɪ/ | /ɔi/ | Jones |
/eɪ/ | /ei/ or /e/ | Jones or AmE |
/aɪ/ | /ai/ or /ay/ | Jones or AmE |
/əʊ/ | /ou/ or /o/ | Jones or AmE |
/aʊ/ | /au/ or /aw/ | Jones or AmE |
There are a few other alternatives which are rarely used.
. BrE pronunciation |
Nearly all of the above has so far been based on RP (Received Pronunciation) in British English although we have referred to other varieties when it was essential to do so. You may find yourself transcribing the standard American pronunciation, called GAm or just GA (General American) which has a similar status to RP in Britain. We need also to be aware that within varieties there are significant differences of accent. In the USA at least nine varieties are usually identified and, of course, the more precise and careful the analysis is, the more varieties will be described. Traditionally, in Britain eight varieties are usually recognised and each is further divided into between three and ten sub-varieties. You need to be alert to the usual differences between the varieties and transcribe what you heard, not what you expected to hear. Here's some help:
Example | AmE | BrE |
/ˈfɑːð.ᵊr/, /ˈfɑːð.ɚ/ or /ˈfɑːð.r̩/ | /ˈfɑːð.ə/ | |
/nɝːs/ | /nɜːs/ | |
/kɝːs/ | /kɜːs/ |
Example | AmE | BrE |
/ˈmɪ.lə.ˌte.ri/ | /ˈmɪ.lɪ.tri/ | |
/ˈmɑː.nə.ˌste.ri/ | /ˈmɒ.nə.stri/ | |
/ˈtest.əˌmo.ʊ.ni/ | /ˈtest.ɪ.mə.ni/ |
Example | AmE | BrE |
/bə.ˈnæ.nə/ | /bə.ˈnɑː.nə/ | |
/pæθ/ | /pɑːθ/ | |
/læst/ | /lɑːst/ | |
/kæst/ | /kɑːst/ |
Example | AmE | BrE |
/ʃoʊn/ | /ʃɒn/ | |
/ˈjoʊɡ.r̩t/ | /ˈjɒɡ.ət/ |
Example | AmE | BrE |
/hɑːt/ | /hɒt/ | |
/ˈjɑːt/ | /jɒt/ |
Example | AmE | BrE |
/brɑːt/ | /brɔːt/ | |
/lɑːrd/ | /lɔːd/ |
Example | AmE | BrE |
/ˈdaɪ.nə.sti/ | /ˈdɪ.nə.sti/ | |
/aɪ.ˈtæ.lɪk/ | /ɪ.ˈtæ.lɪk/ | |
/ˈpraɪ.və.si | /ˈprɪ.və.si/ |
Example | AmE | BrE |
/ʃət/ | /ʃʌt/ | |
/dəl/ | /dʌl/ |
Example | AmE | BrE |
/ˈniː.ðər/ | /ˈnaɪ.ðə/ | |
/ˈiː.ðər/ | /ˈaɪ.ðə/ |
Example | AmE | BrE |
/bɪr/ | /bɪə/ | |
/ʃɪr/ | /ʃɪə/ |
Example | AmE | BrE |
/per/ | /peə/ | |
/ʃer/ | /ʃeə/ |
Example | AmE | BrE |
/ˈæk.sent | /ˈæk.sənt/ | |
/ˈnɑːn.sens/ | /ˈnɒnsəns/ (or even /ˈnɒnsns/) |
Example | AmE | BrE |
/ˈɒ.si/ | /ˈɒ.zi/ | |
/ɪ.ˈreɪs/ | /ɪ.ˈreɪz/ | |
/ˈve.nəs.n̩/ | /ˈve.nɪz.n̩/ |
Example | AmE | BrE |
/ɪk.ˈskɝː.ʒən/ | /ɪk.ˈskɜːʃ.n̩/ | |
/ˌɪ.ˈmɝː.ʒən/ | /ɪ.ˈmɜːʃ.n̩/ |
Example | AmE | BrE |
/ˈbʌd.r̩/ | /ˈbʌt.ə/ | |
/ˈhɑː.dər/ | /hɒ.tə/ |
Example | AmE | BrE |
/nuː/ | /njuː/ | |
/duː/ | /djuː/ |
There are, of course, plenty of other differences with individual words pronounced differently in the two varieties but they do not usually represent consistent patterns. You just have to listen. There is a short, simplified document on British and American pronunciation which was written in response to a visitor's question. You can get it here . If you would like the fuller list above as a PDF document, you can get that here .
You can easily get as much practice as you like by opening a book at random, selecting some words and transcribing them. You can then go online or to a dictionary and check your answers.
If you would like to get some practice transcribing spoken language, follow the links below to Audio transcription practice.
/'lɑːst.li 'traɪ træn.'skraɪb.ɪŋ ðɪs 'sen.təns ən ðen tʃek jər 'ɑːn.sə hɪə/ Note the effects of the features of connected speech in how your and and are transcribed. The final 'r' on your is sounded because it is followed by a vowel sound and the 'd' on and is omitted because it is followed by a voiced consonant.
The pronunciation section of the in-service index on this site has separate guides to consonants, vowels, connected speech and intonation as well as a guide to syllables and phonotactics which discusses syllabic consonants and much else.
This is the test you did at the end of the section on consonants (new tab) | |
This is the test you did at the end of the section on vowels (new tab) | |
for some practice in transcribing what you hear in short sentences | |
for some more (and more difficult) practice in transcribing what you hear | |
for more guides to aspects of pronunciation | |
for a list of weak forms in PDF format | |
for a list in PDF format of minimal pairs to use for recognition and production practice | |
for a set of three recognition-only tests |
References: Crystal, D, 2008, A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (6th edition), Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Gimson, AC, 1962 An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English, London: Arnold Roach, P, 2009, English Phonetics and Phonology: A practical course , 4th edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Wells, J, 2009, phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2009/12/triphthongs-anyone.html
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Phonetic - vowel sounds
Phonetic: vowels 2
Phonetic: consonants
Phonetic: transcription
Worksheets - resources
Write: short sentences - 1.
/aɪ lɪv ɪn speɪn/ . |
/haʊ əʊld ə jʊ/ ? |
/ʃiː ɪz maɪ ˈsɪstə/ . |
/duː jʊ spiːk ˈɪŋglɪʃ/ ? |
/wi həv tuː dɒgz/ . |
/kæn jʊ draɪv ə kɑː/ ? |
/duː jʊ laɪk ˈfʊtbɔːl/ ? |
Transcription and pronunciation of the word " assignment " in British and American variants. Detailed translation and examples.
An important part of phonetics and phonology is the ability to predict the way in which a standard native speaker would pronounce a given sentence, at various levels of detail.
Of course, there is never a single correct answer , especially in terms of intonation, stressing and weak forms, or linking. However, we can make predictions which are plausible for standard British English.
Open this paragraph . We will illustrate more kinds of transcription on this example.
First, transcribe only the phonemes – the results are here .
In the winter semester of English Phonetics and Phonology, you will learn about the segmental aspects of English – how individual sounds change in different contexts. In other words, you will be transcribing allophones . Add allophones related to the fortis-lenis distinction, to major articulatory shifts and to releasing of stop (plosive) sounds. The results are shown here .
Allophonic transcription may be even more detailed, including also coarticulatory changes: nasalization, labialization, velar fronting. However, we do not require these in the winter semester transcription analysis.
In the summer semester, you will be transcribing in connected speech . This means 1) linking, 2) using stress groups (feet) as units, not words, and 3) marking prosodic phrases. Also include connected speech phenomena like weak forms, elisions or assimilations. Check our suggested results . Please note that there are more prosodic renditions possible – that is, your phrasing, stresses and linking may differ from our suggestion. We encourage you to try our version, but also various other possibilities when it comes to phrase boundaries, stressing and linking.
You can also transcribe intonation, using marks for the individual nuclear pitch movements. This is our suggestion . Try to read the paragraph aloud, using this intonation; again, other renditions are possible, of course .
You can try to compare the British and American standards – referred to as Standard British English (SBE) / Standard Southern British English (SSBE) / General British (GB) and General American (GenAm), respectively. Transcribe two versions (SBE and GenAm) of this text in phonemes. You can look at the results in phonemic transcription and in connected speech .
It would not be phonetics without careful auditory analysis of natural English speech.
Save the zipped sound file and transcribe what you hear in allophonic transcription. First of all, transcribe only the phonemes, and then start with the allophones. It is always better to focus on one allophone or a group of allophones. Don’t try to “catch” all the details for one word. You may start, for example, with fortis-lenis allophones (aspiration, then devoicing, and pre-fortis shortening).
You can complete some of the allophones – like devoicing or pre-fortis shortening – without actually listening for them.
Here you will find the results .
You can try two more exercises of the same type, with the sound and the results both in zip folders: first and second .
And another two exercises, slightly longer and more difficult: third and fourth .
In this exercise you can combine prediction for a given text with the actual pronunciation.
Press Alt with the appropriate letter. For example, to type ɔ or ɒ , hold Alt and press O once or twice.
Stop the mouse over each button to learn its keyboard shortcut.
Alt + click a button to copy a single character to the clipboard.
You can select text and press Ctrl + C to copy it to your document. In your target document, press Ctrl + V , or, if you want to paste the text without formatting, try Ctrl + Shift + V .
After pasting, you may need to choose an IPA-enabled font (such as Lucida or Arial ) in your target application to see all characters.
Want to type faster? You can use keyboard shortcuts with the Alt key. For example, to type ɔ or ɒ , hold Alt and press O once or twice.
Point at a button to see its shortcut.
You can change the Alt hotkey in the Settings window.
This IPA keyboard allows you to type pronunciations of English words as they appear in major English dictionaries from publishers like Longman, Oxford, etc. Dictionary transcriptions are “phonemic transcriptions”. They only give you the broad-strokes view of the pronunciation – just enough to make sure you won’t confuse two different words. If you need to represent precise sound qualities (for example, the different quality of p in pot vs. spot ) or differences between accents of English, use the full IPA keyboard instead.
Spring 2024.
Mon. & Wed. 12:30 PM - 1:20 PM Pacific Time Jordan Hall room 040 (420-040)
Please read this entire handout before beginning. We advise you to start early and to make use of the TAs by coming to office hours and asking questions! For collaboration and the late day policy, please refer to the home page.
In this assignment you will become familiar with some easily available spoken language processing systems and perform some basic analysis and manipulation of speech audio. The goal of this assignment is to familiarize yourself with some of the basic tools/libraries available and get you thinking about challenges in building spoken language systems.
This assignment is due on 04/15/2024 by 11:59PM pacific (or at latest on 04/18/2024 with three late days) and has three parts. For parts 1-2, you should submit a PDF to Gradescope and mark in the PDF which page corresponds to which question . For part 3, you will submit your filled-in/executed Colab Notebook with all code/output.
You will submit your materials for parts 1-2 and part 3 to Gradescope. Please tag your question responses.
For the first part of your assignment, you will be investigating the performance of popular speech transcription and personal assistant services. Your task will be to interact with three different speech systems, document your results, and describe the types of failures or issues you discover in the writeup.
First, compose some short (2-4 sentence) emails or text messages using the speech input button on your mobile keyboard (usually in the email or messaging app). Try your best to limit yourself to “everyday” sentences and “optimal” conditions (no obscure vocabulary, low background noise, etc) to gauge how well the system could work at its best. Try composing messages that include different domain-specific words (e.g. machine learning jargon) or proper nouns (e.g. restaurant or actor names) to challenge the system.
Use Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa or any kind of similar speech-based personal assistant. In this section, you will try to perform a few goal-oriented interactions and describe how the system handles your requests. For each of the below, include a description or screenshot of the interaction. Depending on what system you are using, try to describe the interaction or include a screenshot if possible (not necessary to provide a verbatim description)
In this section you will do some basic creation and editing of phonetic pronunciations.
Audio analysis notebook (70 points).
Complete the exercises described in the Colab notebook provided via Google Drive folder . Turn in a PDF of your fully executed Colab notebook, showing the plots you created. Remember to make a copy of the Colab notebook before you start working so changes will save!
Course info.
Learning resource types, language and its structure i: phonology, assignments.
Many assignments are taken from the required course textbooks:
[PGG] = Kenstowicz, Michael. Phonology in Generative Grammar . Blackwell, 1994. ISBN: 9781557864260.
[CIP] = Ladefoged, Peter. A Course in Phonetics . 5th ed. Thomson, 2005. ISBN: 9781413006889.
LEC # | TOPICS | ASSIGNMENTS |
---|---|---|
1 | Introduction, course overview, vowels: Articulatory description and transcription | [CIP], chapter 1: A, B, C, D, I, J |
2-3 | Consonants: Articulatory description and transcription; distinctive features | [PGG], 1.1 A, B, C, D,; 1.3 A, B, C; 1.5; 1.8 |
4 | Phonological versus phonetic representations | [PGG], 2.1; 2.2; 2.7 |
5 | Alternations and derivations I | [PGG] 3.1; 3.2 |
6 | Alternations and derivations II | [PGG], 5.1.A (Icelandic) |
7 | Constraints | Using Praat ( ) |
8 | Phonetics I: Acoustics of vowels, using Praat | Thai vowels ( ) |
9 | Phonetics II: Acoustics of consonants | English consonants ( ) |
10 | Phonetics III: Suprasegmentals | |
11 | Feature geometry | [PGG], 4.2; 4.4 |
12 | Course review | |
13 | Sociolinguistic variables | |
14 | American English dialects | |
15 | Tone I: African languages | [PGG], 7.2; 7.3 |
16 | Tone II: Asian languages | |
17 | Tone III: Intonation and phrasing | Phan Rang ( ) |
18 | Syllables I: Structure and syllabification | Miya ( ) |
19 | Syllables II: Sonority | [PGG], 6.6 |
20 | Stress I: Prominence | [PGG], 10.1 |
21 | Stress II: Rhythm | [PGG], 10.5 |
22 | Stress III: Weight | |
23 | Prosodic morphology: Reduplication and truncation | |
24 | Loanword phonology | |
25 | Review |
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Visit the post for more. Hi! Got an English text and want to see how to pronounce it? This online converter of English text to IPA phonetic transcription will translate your English text into its phonetic transcription using the International Phonetic Alphabet. Paste or type your English text in the text field above and click "Show transcription" button (or use [Ctrl+Enter] shortcut from ...
Assignment - pronunciation: audio and phonetic transcription assignment American English: [əˈsaɪnmənt] IPA /UHsIEnmUHnt/ phonetic spelling Mike x0.5 x0.75 x1 Lela x0.5 x0.75 x1 Watch my latest YouTube video "Don't use a dictionary when you learn a language!"
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A Course in Phonetics. Chapter 2 - Phonology and Phonetic Transcription. Example 2.1 - Table 2.1: The Transcription of Consonants.. Example 2.2 - Table 2.2: The Transcription of Vowels.. Example 2.3 - Unstressed vowels. Homework Exercises
Phonetics exercises with key. Phonetic Quizzes as worksheets to print. Phonetic Crossword puzzles. Phonetic Board Game using IPA Decoding. Phonetic Charts and Flash Cards. Transcription exercises. phonetics resources - chart. Vowels: phonetic chart pdf. Phonemic typewriter 1.
Phonetic transcription exercises. Phonetic symbols - international phonetic alphabet. Intermediate level esl. Index of contents. Phonetic: vowel sounds Phonetic: vowels - 2 Phonetic: consonants Phonetic: transcription Home. Worksheets - resources.
Phonetic transcription is an invaluable resource in the field of speech therapy. It helps speech-language pathologists accurately assess and diagnose speech disorders and articulation difficulties. Transcribing speech sounds also allows for targeted intervention and the development of personalized therapy plans.
Example 2.2. Table 2.2 The Transcription of Vowels. [change the talker] A Course in Phonetics.
The 'th' in thin is different from the 'th' in this . The first is unvoiced, the second voiced so they are transcribed as /θ/ and /ð/. The 'c' in cider is transcribed as /s/ not as in cake, of course. The final 's' on matches is voiced so it is transcribed as /z/. It is a different sound from the beginning of cider.
Write: short sentences - 1. Phonetic transcription: short sentences - 1. Phonetic symbols exercises - international phonetic alphabet. Intermediate level esl.
Definitions. noun. a task or piece of work assigned to someone as part of a job or course of study. a homework assignment. the attribution of someone or something as belonging. the assignment of individuals to particular social positions. an act of making a legal transfer of a right, property, or liability. an assignment of leasehold property.
3. Synthesis. In this exercise you can combine prediction for a given text with the actual pronunciation. First, open the text and predict an SBE speaker's pronunciation. You can look at one possible solution. Now you can open the sound and compare the BBC speaker's pronunciation with what you have predicted. There will, most probably, be ...
This IPA keyboard allows you to type pronunciations of English words as they appear in major English dictionaries from publishers like Longman, Oxford, etc. Dictionary transcriptions are "phonemic transcriptions". They only give you the broad-strokes view of the pronunciation - just enough to make sure you won't confuse two different words.
The core of the assignment is to describe some of the phonetics and phonology of the TRAP vowel (/æ/) in the accent of a speaker from Long Island. ... The transcription of the lax and tense versions of the TRAP vowel (and any other allophones that you identify) Use your ears and spectrograms.
Part 2: Phonetic Transcription. In this section you will do some basic creation and editing of phonetic pronunciations. ARPAbet Transcriptions (20 points) We often process speech data in phonemes instead of words. Find and correct the mistakes in the ARPAbet transcriptions of the following words: three [dh r i] sing [s ih n g] eyes [ay s]
First Assignment - Phonetic transcription task. Phonetic transcription assignment. Module. English Literature and Language. 226 Documents. Students shared 226 documents in this course. University University of Derby. Academic year: 2015/2016. Uploaded by: Anonymous Student.
Terms in this set (40) Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Fued, Bull, Spore and more.
Gumdrop. ʌ ɑ. Phonetic Transcription of Front, Back, and Central Vowels. 5.0 (3 reviews) Bedbug. Click the card to flip 👆. E ʌ. Click the card to flip 👆. 1 / 50.
Phonetics I: Acoustics of vowels, using Praat Thai vowels 9 Phonetics II: Acoustics of consonants English consonants 10 Phonetics III: Suprasegmentals 11 Feature geometry [PGG], 4.2; 4.4 12 Course review 13 Sociolinguistic variables 14 American English dialects 15 Tone I: African languages [PGG], 7.2; 7.3 16
Interrupt. intɚʌpt. Gabardine. gæbɚdin. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Minute, Windbag, Cranky and more.
LG105 First Assignment - Phonetic transcription task. Transcription: Obviously alphabets do not and should not correspond to sounds; at best they correspond to the phonemes specified in the mental dictionary. The actual sounds are different in different contexts so true phonetic spelling would only obscure their underlying identity.