2010-11 LINGUA INGLESE 1 modulo A/B Introduction to English Linguistics prof. Hugo Bowles

1. 2010-11 LINGUA INGLESE 1 modulo A/BIntroduction to English Linguisticsprof. Hugo Bowles Lesson 2 Consonant soundss

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4. Phonetics and phonology

5. Standard British English v. Standard Italian

6. English is not a phonographic language • Many sounds have several different spellings, • e.g. go, though, foe, slow, boat; • or George, Joe, badge, village • Many “same spellings” have different sounds, • e.g. <ough>: though, cough, bough, through, thought, and enough.

7. The problem of pronunciation for learners of ESL • Learners cannot rely on the spelling of a word • The problem is the opposite for native speakers – English schoolchildren spend incredible amounts of time learning to read and esp. to write. Many adults have very poor spelling. • To learn to pronounce English correctly it is of great help to learn to read phonemic transcription and/or have a CD dictionary with sound

8. Why study phonetics and phonology? • Of particular importance for learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) because it has a practical application • English has a far larger repertory of phonemes than languages like Standard Italian • English is not a phonographic language, i.e. spelling generally does give a clear indication of pronunciation

9. Key concepts: the phone • Each time a speech sound is produced it is different • Each time you produce a /t/ it will be ever so slightly different • Hence the concept of the phone: a physical realisation of a speech sound

10. Key concepts: the phoneme • The smallest speech sound that has linguistic value • When a series of phones are similar in terms of articulation and can be distinguished from another group in terms of meaning and collocation, the group is given a name e.g. /t/. This is a phoneme. • The phoneme is an abstract term, specific to a particular language.

11. How many consonant sounds are present in these three words? • cat • this • kick

12. BREAKFAST • /b/ • /r/ • /k/ • /f/ • /s/ • /t/

13. Articulation • /b/ • /d/ • /g/ • /k/ • /p/ • /t/

14. Speech sounds can be divided into three main types: • Stops (or plosives) and affricates • Fricatives • Vowels and approximants

15. We will first focus on stops and fricatives which are classified according to • the place in which they are articulated • whether they are voiced or not (vibration of vocal folds) • whether they are oral or nasal (for stops only)

16. Places of articulation 1. Bilabial (lips) 2. Labio-dental (lips-teeth) 3. Interdental Dental (teeth) 4. Alveolar ridge 5. Post-alveolar 6. Palatal (palate) 7. Velar (velum) 8. Glottal (glottis) 9. Uvula (uvulum) 9

17. Voicing: A consonant may be • Voiced (lenis) • Voiceless (fortis)

18. A stop is composed of three phases • Closure • Hold (the passage of air from the lungs is blocked) • Release – the difference in air pressure between the area behind the closure and the atmosphere results in a small explosion

19. The place of articulation is where the passage of air is blocked • For example /t/ and /d/ are both produced by blocking the passage of air at the alveolar ridge/dental region

20. English plosives (stops) • /p/ and /b/ are voiceless and voiced bilabials i.e. produced with both lips • /t/ and /d/ are voiceless and voiced alveolars • /k/ and /g/ are voiceless and voiced velars

21. What consonant pair is this?

22. That’s right! /p/, /b/

23. And this?

24. /k/, /g/

25. What is the difference between these two slides?

26. In the first (/b/, /p/) the passage of air to the nose is blocked by the raised velum.In the second this passage is open, giving us a nasal. What consonant is it?

27. It’s /m/

28. Let’s look at other positions – in the alveolar position we have /t/ and /d/, and the nasal /n/:

29. In a similar way at the velum we have /k/ and /g/, and the nasal / ŋ /:

30. Fricatives • Are created by forming a constriction through which air from the lungs may pass, but not freely. • This lack of freedom causes audible turbulence, or friction, hence the name fricative. • As for stops they may be voiceless or voiced .

31. Let’s look at a fricative pair which causes non-native speakers of English a lot of trouble, / θ / and / δ /:

32. Air passes through a small gap between the tongue and the upper teeth causing a low friction sound:

33. In the alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/, the friction noise is quite loud, as air hits the upper teeth causing a hiss.

34. What fricative pair is represented here?

35. That’s right - /f/,and /v/

36. And here?

37. This is the post-alveolar pair / ʃ/ and / Ʒ /. Note that a small shift of the tongue from the /s/, /z/ position directs the flow of air onto the alveolar ridge.

38. Affricates These may be considered as stop + fricative

39. An affricate is composed of the following stages • Closure • Hold • A small opening instead of the complete opening of the stop. • This small opening causes friction just like a fricative

40. Affricates - articulation • The place of articulation is always the same for both stages • Affricates are always either voiced or unvoiced

41. In English we have two affricates: • /tS/ church and /tZ/ George • Both are realised in the post-alveolar position

42. Here are the two main phases. 1. Hold

43. 2. Release with constriction

44. Here is the IPA consonant chart White represents standard British English consonants, light blue possible allophones, and dark blue exotic consonants

45. http://davidbrett.uniss.it/index • These slides were produced by David Brett, a phonetics expert who teaches at the University of Sassari. CHECKING DESCRIPTION OF CONSONANTS - click on the Index (on the left) - click on “The articulation of speech sounds” - click on “SPEECH ANIMATOR” - click on Close - click on the consonant phonemes to hear the sound and see the description THIS EXERCISE IS FOR CHECKING THE DESCRIPTION

46. http://davidbrett.uniss.it/index UNDERSTANDING CONSONANTS • click on the Index (on the left) • click on “The articulation of speech sounds” • click on “Match phonemes with pictures” • do the exercises for “Consonants: diagrams, symbols and definitions Use the CHECK to check your answers Use the KEY to see the right answers Use RESET to do a new exercise I ALWAYS PUT 5 OF THESE IN YOUR EXAM !!!!

47. http://davidbrett.uniss.it/index DESCRIBING CONSONANTS • click on the Index (on the left) • click on “The articulation of speech sounds” • click on “Articulation description exercise” • decide the Voice, Place and Manner of each sound Use the CHECK to check your answers Use the KEY to see the right answers Use RESET to do a new exercise THESE EXERCISES WILL HELP YOU A LOT TO PRACTICE FOR YOUR EXAM