Professional Documents
Culture Documents
br Jan2015
Fonologia
do
Ingls
January 2015
FALE-UFMG
Thas Cristfaro-Silva
www.letras.ufmg.br/cristofaro
30-1
30-2
5. Exemplos:
1a. arte
2a. art
()
1b. artes
2b. arts
3a. tarde
4a. card
()
3b. tardes
4b. cards
30-3
Fontica e Fonologia
[] //
1. Leitura (letra-som) x Escrita (som-letra)
cassa caa
cela sela
2. Correspondncia letra-som:
cachorro 8L/6S
afta
4L/5S
advogando 9L/9S
30-4
Parmetros Articulatrios
1. cavidade oral
2. cavidade nasal
3. cavidade nasofaringal
4. cavidade faringal
5. lbio superior
6. dentes superiores
7. alvolos
8. palato duro
9. palato mole (vu palatino)
10. vula
11. lbio inferior
12. dentes inferiores
13. pice da lngua
14. lmina da lngua
15. parte anterior da lngua
16. parte mdia da lngua
17. parte posterior da lngua
18. epiglote
19. laringe
20. esfago
21. glote
anterior
arred
central
noarred
posterior
noarred
arred
alta
mdia-alta
mdia-baixa
baixa
arred
noarred
alta
mdia-alta
mdia-baixa
baixa
arred
noarred
arred
noarred
anterior
Nasais
central
posterior
noarred
arred
30-5
Ditongos
Crescentes
Decrescentes
Nasais
30-6
Consoantes do Portugus
Smbolo
Exemplo Ortogrfico
AfricadaAlveopalatal Desvozeada
ou
carta, amar
ou w
ou
30-7
Encontra-se venda uma gravao dos sons adotados pelo Alfabeto Internacional de
Fontica. (http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA). Dentre estes sons temos a gravao das Vogais
Cardeais (e obviamente das consoantes tambm). Este material, elaborado pelo Professor
John Wells do University College London, pode ser obtido em fita cassete (U$12) ou em CD
(U$17) (http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/cassette.htm).
retrada
qualidade mais posterior avanada
qualidade mais anterior
30-8
http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipa.html
30-9
English Vowels
http://www.helsinki.fi/hum/hyfl/projektit/vokaalikartat_eng.html#italian_vowels
http://www.helsinki.fi/hum/hyfl/projektit/vokaalikartat_eng.html#italian_vowels
American English vowels: Mean formant values of 33 male speakers for ten American English vowels.
The test words were of the form /hVd/ and each speaker produced the testwords twice. The keywords
were not includedin the data. Vowel length is not shown in the figure.
Data from: G. E. Peterson & H.L.Barney (1952) Control methods used in a study of the vowels. Journal
of the Acoustical Society of America, 24, 175-184
30-10
Oclusivas
vozeadas
desvozeadas
Africadas
vozeadas
desvozeadas
Fricativas
vozeadas
desvozeadas
Nasais
Laterais
Rtico
Aproximante
12
VOGAIS
alta
mdia
baixa
vozeadas
vozeadas
vozeadas
vozeadas
glotal
velar
alveopalatal
alveolar
labiodental
interdental
24
CONSOANTES
bilabial
anterior
central
posterior
no-arredondada
longa
breve
No-arredondada
longa
breve
arredondada
longa
breve
8 DITONGOS
Ditongo crescente
Ditongo decrescente
terminado em
terminado em
30-11
Vogais longas
curtas
Ditongos
Ditongos
Consoantes
decrescentes
crentralizados
desvozeadas
ssw
12 vogais
8 ditongos
44 sons
Thas Cristfaro-Silva2004
24 consoantes
30-12
Informaes importantes
OUTROS SMBOLOS
Indica a vogal tnica: ''black'' k
Indica o limite silbico: ''practice'' .
Representa os casos em que ocorre em: posio tona
final - como em ''happy'' hp.; ou quando seguido de
outra vogal (i+vogal) - como em ''react'' r.; ou em
alguns prefixos como ''be-, re'' - como em ''believe''
.. Nestes casos uma vogal breve/tensa - -
pronunciada.
Representa os casos em que ocorre seguido de outra
vogal (u+vogal) - como em ''cruel'' .. Nestes casos
uma vogal breve/tensa - - pronunciada.
O t-d que se tornam um tepe ou ''flap'' e tpico da
pronncia norte-americana ''city'' .
Plural e 3psp
Adicione
Adicione
em , , , , ou
Adiciona
Pass e Particpio
Pass
Adicione
Adicione
em ou
Adicione
Em ingls:
Vogais longas so tensas (tense) e vogais breves so frouxas (lax).
Vogais longas podem ocorrer em final de slaba e de palavra em ingls .
Vogais breves no ocorrem em slabas abertas em ingls (ou seja, em finald e slaba
incluindo final de palavra) que equivalente a dizer queVogais breves sempre
ocorrem em slabas travadas em ingls.
As vogais em ingls so tipicamente orais mesmo quandoseguidas de consoantes
nasais.
30-13
Forma
fraca
sobre as formas fracas
Observao
antes de consoantes
aps I (am)
nos outros casos
antes de vogais
am
an
and
are
as
at
be
but
can
antes de consoantes
antes de vogais
do
does
for
from
has
have
had
her
him
his
is
antes de consoantes
antes de vogais
aps
aps
aps
must
of
shall
should
some
than
that
the
them
to
us
was
were
Will
Would
you
your
quando 'some' quer dizer 'uma certa quantidade' ocorre a forma forte.
aps vogais e
aps I, he, she, we, you, they
30-14
Letters
are
written ,
sounds
are
spoken.
It
is
very
useful
to
have
written
letters
to
remind
us
but
this
is all
they
do;
they
cannot
make
sounds
which
we
do
not
already
of
corresponding
sounds,
us
pronounce
know; they
simply
remind us.
In
ordianry
English spelling is not
always
easy
to
know what sounds the letters stand for;
busy, women, pretty,
village
the letters
example, in
the
words
city,
for
i,
y,
u,
o,
e
and
a
all
stand
for
the
same
vowel
sound,
the
one which occurs
in
sit.
30-15
Exercises
Ex 01: Escreva o smbolo fontico inicial das palavras
1.
cheiro
2.
gato
4.
7.
10.
junto
couro
cinema
5.
8.
11.
cheque
tipo
girafa
3.
6.
9.
12.
Ex 02: Indique o nmero de sons que ocorrem em cada uma das palavras abaixo:
03
1. sal
6. liquidao
2. casa
7. dogma
3. carro
8. cinto
4. pasta
9. quadro
5. gueto
10. xcara
janela
chuva
dica
rato
11. impregna
12. tardes
13. quilo
14. tambm
15. goiaba
Ex 03: Classifique o som intervoclico nas palavras abaixo. Escreva o smbolo fontico correspondente. Siga o exemplo.
Palavra
Smbolo
Classificao
1. passa
Fricativa alveolar desvozeada
2. cara
3. gata
4. bala
5. palha
6. banha
7. garra
8. casa
9. caj
10. acha
Ex 04: Escreva o smbolo fontico correspondente ao segmento inicial das palavras abaixo:
Palavra
Smbolo
Palavra
Smbolo
1. chave
6. gato
2. tijolo
7. dia
3. jaca
8. lua
4. cama
9. xarope
5. gelo
10. rapaz
Ex 05: D um exemplo de palavra do portugus brasileiro que tenha o segmento classificado abaixo. Indique o
seu smbolo fontico
Segmento
Smbolo
Exemplo
1. Oclusiva bilabial desvozeada
capricho
f. fricativo
b. desvozeado
g. lateral
c. nasal
h. bilabial
d. oral
i. alveolar
e. oclusivo
j. velar
___________________________________________________________________________
Ex 07: Selecione uma das palavras abaixo cujo segmento inicial corresponda ao segmento listado abaixo.
lado cravo frio vaca tipo moa gado zero
a. Oclusiva velar vozeada
gado
b. Africada alveopalatal desvozeada
________________
c. Fricativa labiodental vozeada
________________
d. Nasal bilabial voeada
________________
e. Lateral alveolar vozeada
________________
f. Fricativa labiodental desvozeada
________________
g. Fricativa alveolar vozeada
________________
h. Oclusiva velar desvozeada
________________
Ex 08: Para cada um dos segmentos listados abaixo escreva o correspondente vozeado. Siga o exemplo.
Ex 09:
Ex 10:
lua
mala
cena
falha
lata
cinema
sol
tarde
chuva
mame
ala
canjica
dado
melo
car
pulga
doce
salsa
muda
sal
pano
droga
cassino
bola
tropa
traa
calota
carro
massa
selo
grade
soda
caneta
folha
lama
Ex 11: Classifique as vogais tnicas orais do portugus de acordo com as categorias listadas abaixo. As vogais a
serem classificadsa so: ,,,,,,
Anterior
Central
Posterior
Alta
Mdia-alta
Mdia-baixa
Baixa
Ex 12: Nas palavras abaixo indique o smbolo fontico da vogal tnica.
1.
bal
2.
piv
4.
7.
10.
pav
roa
pea
5.
8.
11.
mdico
pssaro
fossa
3.
6.
9.
12.
japons
poo
corda
medo
___________________________________________________________________________
Ex 13:
l
cem
sabo
sim
bombom
hora
rua
canto
mulher
surda
rum
pompom
atum
bem
tom
placa
moda
cabelo
anjo
flor
13. these
14. orange
15. cow
16. service
Ex 15: Em cada grupo de palavras abaixo circule aquelas que satisfaam a condio pedida:
a. Termina em som consonantal
lady
employee
laugh
drama
piece
house
b. Termina em som voclico
high
snow
assume
him
scene
spy
c. Termina em som consonantal
coffee
late
tough
home
niece
unique
d. Termina em som voclico
party
plane
star
edge
scene
fly
Ex 16: Transcreva foneticamente as palavras abaixo
1
niece
6
2
bead
7
3
heavy
8
4
is
9
5
meat
10
quite
law
one
sigh
piece
it
green
tree
English
1
prices
6
hope
2
said
7
ready
3
says
8
trees
4
eggs
9
cars
5
sleeps
10
cups
Ex 19: Transcreva foneticamente as palavras abaixo
1
books
6
forks
2
door
7
true
3
good
8
bored
4
pot
9
God
5
boom
10
kisses
___________________________________________________________________________
Ex 20: Transcreva foneticamente as palavras abaixo
1
boys
6
this
2
they
7
cheap
3
stay
8
these
4
thought
9
shame
5
rouge
10
Jane
Ex 21: Transcreva foneticamente as palavras abaixo
1
love
6
bus
2
cow
7
water
3
ugly
8
does
4
bird
9
gold
5
just
10
cold
Ex 22: Transcreva foneticamente as palavras abaixo
1
kings
6
man
2
rooms
7
men
3
noses
8
hanged
4
women
9
beers
5
woman
10
bears
Ex 23: D um exemplo em forma ortogrfica e fontica de cada um dos sons consonantais do ingls listados
abaixo:
som
ortografia
fontica
som
ortografia
fontica
rouge
[ru:]
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________
Ex 28: Escolha UMA das opes como a transcrio fontica da palavra em forma ortogrfica. Marque-a com
um X ou circule-a.
1. bird
2. walk
3. mail
4. middle
5. night
6. never
7. family
8. dream
9. woman
10. complete
Ex 29: Escolha a uma das opes como a transcrio fontica da palavra em forma ortogrfica:
1. rich
2. search
3. fetch
4. bridge
___________________________________________________________________________
5. surge
6. catch
Ex 30: D um exemplo de palavra para cada um dos sons listados abaixo (em transcrio fontica e ortogrfica)
Som Fontica
Ortografia
Som
Fontica
Ortografia
Ex 31: Escreva a forma ortogrfica e a forma fontica de 3a. psp e do passado dos verbos listados na tabela
abaixo (indique todo o verbo e a terminao verbal):
Fontica
Ortografia
Presente
Passado
2.
4.
6.
8.
small
thing
hat
fantasy
___________________________________________________________________________
9.
11.
13.
15.
17.
19.
because
rice
niece
basic
was
street
10.
12.
14.
16.
18.
20.
never
ask
slow
these
study
money
Ex 34: Em cada par de pronncia circule aquela que parece ser mais prxima a um enunciado de falante nativo.
Indique a forma ortogrfica que voc identificou.
Pronncia
Ortogrfica
1.
2.
3.
4.
Ex 35: Em cada par de pronncia marque com um (x) xis aquela que parece ser mais prxima a um enunciado
de falante nativo. Na forma que no foi selecionada circule o(s) desvio(s) da pronncia nativa.
Ex 36: Em cada par de pronncia circule aquela que parece ser mais prxima a um enunciado de falante nativo.
Indique a forma ortogrfica que voc identificou.
Pronncia
Ortogrfica
1.
2.
3.
4.
___________________________________________________________________________
Referncias
ABERCROMBIE, David. Elements of General Phonetics. Edinburgh University
Press. Edinburgh. 1967.fontica e fonologia do ingls
CRISTFARO-SILVA, Thas. O Ensino de Pronncia de Lngua Estrangeira. IN;
Em torno da Lingua(gem): questes e anlises. UESB. Vitria da Conquista.
CRISTFARO-SILVA, Thas. Pronncia do Ingls para Falantes do Portugus
Brasileiro. FALE. 2005.
CRISTFARO-SILVA, Thas. Fontica e Fonologia do Portugus.:roteiro de
estudos e guia de exerccios. Editora Contexto. 2001.
CRISTFARO-SILVA, Thas. (2000). O Mtodo das Vogais Cardeais e as Vogais
do Portugus Brasileiro. Revista de Estudos da Linguagem UFMG. Volume 8.
Nmero 2, jul-dez 1999.
LADEFOGED, Peter. A Course in Phonetics. 3rd. ed. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.
1993.fontica e fonologia do ingls
O'CONNOR, J. D. Better English Pronunciation. 2nd ed. Cambridge Univesrity
Press. 1980.Excelente livro de pronncia do ingls
KREIDLER, Charles. The Pronunciation of English: A Course Book in Phonology.
Blackwell. 1989.Excelente livro de fonologia do ingls
WELL, J. Why phonetic transcription is important. Online. 2008.
Dicionrios
JONES, D. English Pronuncing Dictionary. Cambridge University Press. 1997 (1st ed
1917 by J. M.Dent &Sons Ltd.). 15th ed. Edited by Peter Roach and James Hartman.
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS. CIDE (Cambridge International Dictionary of
English). 2000.
KENYON, J. S. & Knott. Pronouncing Dictionary of American English. G & C
Merrian & Co. 1953.
WELLS, John. Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Longman. 1990.
___________________________________________________________________________
Instrues Praat
1) Para abrir o PRAAT: clicar no cone no seu explorer
Duas janelas:
Praat objects abre arquivos, faz gravaes, etc.
Praat picture imprime
Para gravar:
Na janela do praat objects, clique em new, record mono sound ou record stereo sound. Para salvar um som que voc
acabou de gravar clique em save to list, na caixa de gravao, depois selecione o som e v no menu Write, Write to
Wave file.
Para abrir um arquivo j existente:
Clique no menu read depois read from file.
Se for um som longo, clique no menu read, depois open long sound file.
Para editar:
Selecione o dado que voc quer editar na janela em branco, que aparece do lado esquerdo no praat objects. Clique em
edit. A aparece o som editado. Em cima o oscilograma, ou seja, a onda, e em baixo o espectrograma.
Espectrogramas:
Banda larga estrutura do formante
Banda estreita - harmnicos
Se o espectrograma no visvel no sound editor, clique em show spectrogram. O default o espectrograma visvel.
Voc pode ajustar os parmetros do espectrograma, clicando em Spectrogram settings ou Advanced spectrogram
settings. No spectrogram settings aparece uma janela com as opes:
View range
Window length define banda larga e banda estreita. Banda larga: 0,003 a 0,005 (depende do informante) Banda
estreita: 0,03
Dynamic range o default do praat 50 db. Se voc aumenta, as linhas escurecem, se diminui, clareiam. Se h um
sinal com muito rudo, a soluo diminuir (passar pra 30 ou 40 db).
- Voc pode pegar o valor da intensidade, do pitch ou dos formantes, clicando no menu correspondente a esses
parmetros. Se voc pedir show formants, vo aparecer pontos vermelhos indicando o lugar dos formantes.
Para editar
Para recortar uma palavra, primeiro voc seleciona a palavra. Depois voc salva. Para salvar, clique em file, write
selection to wav file, d um nome.wav, por exemplo, onda.wav e salve.
Para abrir novamente esse som. V ao praat objects, clique em open, depois em edit.
Para imprimir:
Para imprimir ou para inserir o espectrograma em algum documento do word, voc precisa transferi-lo para a janela
praat picture.
Para transferir a onda.
Selecione a onda. Clique em file, extract selection. O nome sound untitled aparece na janela do praat objects.
Selecione esse som. Clique em draw. Quando voc d ok, esse som aparece na janela do praat picture dentro da caixa
cor de rosa. O espao dessa caixa cor de rosa, ser o espao ocupado pela onda. A partir da voc pode imprimir,
clicando em print, ou criar um arquivo de figuras para inserir em qualquer documento do word.
Para criar um arquivo, clique em: Write to windows metafile. D um nome .emf, por exemplo, onda.emf.
Para transferir espectrograma.
No janela sound, onde est o espectrograma, v em spectrogram e extract visible spectrogram. No praat objects
aparece spectrogram untitled. Selecione, v janela do praat picture e defina o tamanho da caixa cor de rosa. Em
seguida, clique em paint. O espectrograma aparecer na janela do praat picture. Para imprimir clique em print. Para
salvar como uma figura do word, clique em file, write to windows meta file. D um nome .emf, por exemplo,
espectrograma.emf.
___________________________________________________________________________
13. [ cheiro
16. junto
19. couro
22. cinema
14. gato
17. cheque
20. tipo
23. girafa
15. janela
18. chuva
21. dica
24. rato
Ex 02: Indique o nmero de sons que ocorre em cada uma das palavras abaixo:
03
1.sal
09 ou 10
6. liquidao
07 ou 08
04
2. casa
05 ou 06
7. dogma
05 ou 06
04
3. carro
04
8. cinto
04
05
4. pasta
06
9. quadro
05
04
5. gueto
06
10. xcara
06
11. impregna
12. tardes
13. quilo
14. tambm
15. goiaba
Ex 03: Classifique o som intervoclico nas palavras abaixo. Escreva o smbolo fontico correspondente. Siga o exemplo.
Palavra
Smbolo
Classificao
1. passa
Fricativa alveolar desvozeada
2. cara
Tepe alveolar vozeado
3. gata
Oclusiva
alveolar desvozeada
4. bala
Lateral alveolar vozeada
5. palha
6. banha
7. garra
8. casa
9. caj
10. acha
Ex 04: Escreva o smbolo fontico correspondente ao segmento inicial das palavras abaixo
Palavra
Smbolo
Palavra
1. chave
6. gato
2. tijolo
7. dia
3. jaca
8. lua
4. cama
9. xarope
5. gelo
10. rapaz
Smbolo
Ex 05: D um exemplo de palavra do portugus brasileiro que tenha os egmento classificado abaixo. Indique o seu smbolo
fontico
Segmento
Smbolo
Exemplo
1. Oclusiva bilabial desvozeada
capricho
chave
jogo
meu
foi
cappuccino
dar
dia
Ex 06: Marque as consoantes que tenham a propriedade articulatria listada esquerda (3 em cada grupo)
a. vozeado
b. desvozeado
___________________________________________________________________________
c. nasal
d. oral
e. oclusivo
f. fricativo
g. lateral
h. bilabial
i. alveolar
j. velar
Ex 07: Selecione uma das palavras abaixo cujo segmento inicial corresponda ao segmento listado abaixo.
lado cravo frio vaca tipo moa gado zero
a. Oclusiva velar vozeada
gado
b. Africada alveopalatal desvozeada
tipo
c. Fricativa labiodental vozeada
vaca
d. Nasal bilabial voeada
moa
e. Lateral alveolar vozeada
lado
f. Fricativa labiodental desvozeada
frio
g. Fricativa alveolar vozeada
zero
h. Oclusiva velar desvozeada
cravo
Ex 08: Para cada um dos segmentos listados abaixo escreva o correspondente vozeado. Siga o exemplo.
x
Ex 09:
-----
-----
Ex 10:
lua
cinema
ala
pulga
pano
traa
grade
mala
sol
canjica
doce
droga
calota
soda
cena
tarde
dado
salsa
cassino
carro
caneta
falha
chuva
melo
muda
bola
massa
folha
lata
mame
car
sal
tropa
selo
lama
Ex 11: Classifique as vogais tnicas orais do portugus de acordo com as categorias listadas abaixo. As vogais a serem
classificadsa so: ,,,,,,
anterior
Mdia-alta
,,
,
Central
Mdia-baixa
,
Posterior
,,
Alta
Baixa
13. bal
16. pav
14. piv
17. mdico
15. japons
18. poo
19. roa
22. pea
20. ] pssaro
23. fossa
21. corda
24. dedo
Ex 13:
l
cem
sabo
sim
bombom
hora
rum
placa
rua
canto
mulher
pompom
atum
bem
tom
moda
cabelo
anjo
flor
9. vulture
10. cheese
11. baby
12. drama
surda
13. these
14. orange
15. cow
16. service
Ex 15: Em cada grupo de palavras abaixo circule aquelas que satisfaam a condio pedida:
e. Termina em som consonantal
lady
employee laugh
drama
piece
house
quite
f. Termina em som voclico
high snow
assume
him
scene
spy
law
g. Termina em som consonantal
coffee late
tough
home
niece
unique
one
h. Termina em som voclico
party plane
star
edge
scene
fly
sigh
2
bead
7
3
heavy
8
4
is
9
5
meat
10
piece
it
green
tree
English
2
basic
7
rice
3
beauty
8
cough
4
of
9
young
5
fantasy
10
crisis
1
prices
6
hope
2
said
7
ready
3
says
8
trees
4
eggs
9
cars
5
sleeps
10
cups
1
books
6
forks
2
door
7
true
3
good
8
bored
4
pot
9
God
5
boom
10
kisses
30-26
30-27
1
2
3
4
5
boys
they
stay
thought
rouge
6
7
8
9
10
this
cheap
these
shame
Jane
1
2
3
4
5
love
cow
ugly
bird
just
6
7
8
9
10
bus
water
does
gold
cold
1
kings
6
man
2
rooms
7
men
3
noses
8
hanged
4
women
9
biers
5
woman
10
bears
Ex 23: D um exemplo em forma ortogrfica e fontica de cada um dos sons consonantais do ingls listados abaixo:
som
ortografia
fontica
som
ortografia
fontica
pot
this
bus
these
tea
shoe
dad
rouge
cow
home
ugly
shame
cheap
no
just
ring
thin
love
the
right
phone
yes
very
water
me
toy
Tom
book
you
men
busy
they
door
it
man
about
does
bird
beers
30-28
now
tour
cold
bears
b.
Ex 28: Escolha UMA das opes como a transcrio fontica da palavra em forma ortogrfica. Marque-a com um X ou circule-a.
11. bird
12. walk
13. mail
14. middle
15. night
16. never
17. family
18. dream
19. woman
20. complete
Ex 29: Escolha a uma das opes como a transcrio fontica da palavra em forma ortogrfica:
1. rich
2. search
3. fetch
4. bridge
5. surge
6. catch
30-29
Ex 30: D um exemplo de palavra para cada um dos sons listados abaixo (em transcrio fontica e ortogrfica)
Som Fontica
Ortografia
Som Fontica
Ortografia
thin
try
Mum
enjoy
light
now
joke
say
that
free
church
bed
write
bad
fact
word
wrong
is
home
dog
Ex 31: Escreva a forma ortogrfica e a forma fontica de 3a. psp e do passado dos verbos listados na tabela abaixo (indique todo
o verbo e a terminao verbal):
Fontica
Ortografia
Presente
Passado
snow
beg
please
decide
kiss
grab
aim
whistle
open
practice
help
depend
arrive
pick
push
taste
protect
enjoy
free
sniff
science
English
house
because
rice
niece
basic
was
street
small
thing
hat
fantasy
never
ask
slow
these
study
money
30-30
Ex 34: Em cada par de pronncia circule aquela que parece ser mais prxima a um enunciado de falante nativo. Indique a forma
ortogrfica que voc identificou.
Pronncia
Ortogrfica
thank you
1.
very good
2.
Yes, Im well.
3.
Ex 35: Em cada par de pronncia marque com um (x) xis aquela que parece ser mais prxima a um enunciado de falante
nativo. Na forma que no foi selecionada circule o(s) desvio(s) da pronncia nativa.
I love cakes.
Im very concerned.
It is a miracle.
2.
It is cold.
3.
Im going home.
4.
JOHN WELLS
and the Arabs? Or indeed with those who will shortly be your
partners in the European Union the Italians, the Spanish, the
Austrians to the extent that they will be speaking English
with them rather than French, German or some other EU
language? Clearly, Polish learners will want to be able to
interact with both native speakers (NSs) and non-native
speakers (NNSs).
The teaching of English to speakers of other languages may
indeed have different aims in, for example, Britain, Nigeria,
and Japan respectively. In teaching English to immigrants in
Britain, the main aim is clearly to enable learners to interact
with British people, native speakers. In Nigerian primary
schools, it is to enable them to participate in the public life of
their country by interacting with other Nigerians. In Japan a
main focus might indeed be the use of English to
communicate with the Chinese or the Latin Americans.
What are the students personal aims and aspirations in
language learning? Different students in the same class of
school or university may well have rather different aims.
Some just want enough English to communicate at a basic
level, or indeed just enough to pass some examination. Others
aim to achieve the best they possibly can. We must cater for
both types and for those who fall somewhere between.
Speaking personally, I must say that my own aspiration in
learning languages is NS-like proficiency. I acknowledge that
I may be unlikely to attain it. But that doesnt stop me aiming
for it. I try to inspire my students with the same high ideal. If
it were suggested that I should not even aim so high, I should
feel short-changed.
looked [l8kt]. Nigerians typically treat the past tense as [d] and then
apply voicing assimilation, giving [lugd]. Arabs speaking English
often treat it as [,d], giving [l8k,d]. Arguably, both of these forms are
mispronunciations arising simply from defective teaching: no one has
ever taught such NNSs how the English regular past tense is
pronounced. There is no more reason to regard them as acceptable
than there is for *childs instead of children or *teached instead of
taught.
In cases where NSs make differences in pronunciation that are
not reflected in spelling, NNSs tend to ignore them. Although the
difference between the noun entrance [entrns] and the verb to
entrance [,ntr$ns] can be coped with, the difference between the verb
to separate [sepre,t] and the adjective separate [seprt, sep()r,t]
may be lost, as is that between the verb to document [-ment] and the
noun a document [-mnt]. South and southern have different vowels
for NSs ([sa87, s'()(r)n]), but often not for NNSs. There are many
other ways in which English spelling misleads NNSs, who unlike NSs
learn visually rather than auditorily. NSs pronounce front with the
STRUT vowel (RP [frnt]); NNSs often use the LOT vowel ([frcnt]),
purely because of the way it is written. There are two possible
remedies for this general problem (if it is indeed a problem): either we
must reform English spelling (and I might mention that I have just
become President of the Simplified Spelling Society) or teachers of
English to speakers of other languages must teach the pronunciation
of each word as well as its spelling. This implies teaching the use of
phonetic symbols, at least passively for reference.
3. Phonology of EIL?
Jenkinss proposals still require the mastery of a fair number of
difficult pronunciation points that are not in practice mastered by
many users of EIL.
The consonant [f], a major problem for Koreans, Filipinos and
others. Korean [ph] instead of [f] is likely to trigger a breakdown in
communication, as Jenkins shows; Korean [h] (their other L1
possibility) is hardly a better substitute. We have to teach the
articulatory difference between bilabial plosive [p] and labiodental
fricative [f]; we have to train the learner not only to produce the
difference but also to perceive it (the latter task being often
overlooked). There is no way to avoid drilling the learner with
minimal pairs such as porkfork, copycoffee.
Other consonantal differences that constitute serious problems
for some learners, but which Jenkins rightly insists must be mastered,
include [bv, rl, s6, sz, t6d=, jd=]. Failure to discriminate one or
two of these pairs can perhaps be condoned, given sufficient
redundancy in the context to disambiguate otherwise ambiguous
messages. We can readily cope with Swedish English in which every
/z/ becomes [s], provided that all the rest of the pronunciation is pretty
NS-like. But Japanese English in which [b-v] and [r-l] are confused,
together with various vowel confusions and phonotactic problems,
ends up unintelligible.
I am in favour of Jenkinss suggestion that l-vocalization
should be allowed, indeed encouraged for those learners for whom
dark /l/ constitutes a problem. There are millions of Londoners and
others who say [m,ok] for milk, [bob] for bulb, [bcto] or [bco] for
bottle, etc., and I see no reason why the French or the Cantonese
should not do likewise.
Allophonic reduction in vowel length (pre-fortis clipping, as
in right as compared with ride) helps intelligibility, but is difficult to
Thank you [71k ju], or as we might say in the LFC [te1k ju veri
mat6].
References
Jenkins, Jennifer, 2000. The Phonology of English as an International
Language. Oxford University Press.
Lewis, Jack Windsor (ed.), 1995. Studies in General and English
Phonetics. London: Routledge.
Ortiz-Lira, Hctor, 1995. Nucleus placement in English and Spanish:
a pilot study. In Lewis 1995. Wells, J.C., 1982. Accents of
English. Three volumes. Cambridge University Press.
1
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/whytranscription.htm
June 2008
95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP users please download Lucida Sans Unicode free of charge and install it on your system, and/or install a newer
browser.
This talk was given at Seoul National University, Korea, in 1996 and published in Malsori (Phonetics), the Journal of the Phonetic Society of
Korea, No. 31-32:239-242, December 1996.
1. Introduction
In this talk I want to discuss the usefulness and importance of phonetic
transcription for people studying languages. Since most of you here are
phoneticians, you are presumably already convinced of this; I may be preaching
to the converted. Nevertheless, there are many language teachers who appear to
be far from converted, and I believe that certain arguments do need to be
spelled out.
The principal reason for using phonetic transcription is easily stated. When
we transcribe a word or an utterance, we give a direct specification of its
pronunciation. If ordinary spelling reliably indicated actual pronunciation,
phonetic transcription might be unnecessary; but often it does not.
the
language
learner,
passive
acquaintance
with
phonetic
2
the language or a good pronunciation. Almost everyone can benefit from explicit
pronunciation teaching, in which the use of phonetic transcription has an
important role.
relevant
information
about
its
grammatical
status
and
about
its
pronunciation.
There are various ways of giving information about pronunciation:
respelling using orthographic conventions of the learners language, respelling
using orthographic conventions of the target language, or phonetic notation. All
of these can be regarded as types of phonetic transcription, though they may
well vary considerably in quality.
thin and this respectively; or the vowel sound of the word nurse (no matter
whether we take British RP or GenAm as our pronunciation model for English).
diphthong in soul, own (not to mention still other possibilities for ou exemplified
in the words group, thought, could, cough, double, tourist, journey ). There is no
3
dictionaries have led the way in employing IPA notation, which is unambiguous
and systematic.
write has to be ignored. This word is pronounced identically with the much less
common word rite. We can show this by transcribing them: they are both
Strangely enough, there are many native speakers of English to whom facts
such as this are not self-evident. English people beginning the study of
phonetics sometimes imagine that words such as write and wrong begin with a
w-sound. Or they may believe that know ends with one (but not no). They are so
dazzled by their knowledge of the spelling that they hold quite mistaken views
about pronunciation. And there are learners of English as a foreign language
who get equally misled by the spelling.
corresponds to BrE //, AmE /o/, as in home, nose, vote. But sometimes, as
in love, come the vowel is //; and in move it is /u/. Where the letter o denotes
a short vowel, the sound is usually BrE //, AmE //, as in lot, top. But in many
other cases it is //, as in front, monkey. In the case of the combination or the
sound is usually // (with or without a following r-sound depending on whether
core. But after the letter w we find a quite different vowel sound BrE //, AmE
// in work, word, world, and in BrE another one again, //, in worry. In
unstressed syllables the pronunciation is usually /, /), as in minor, tractor and
also in information, Oxford (even though many EFL learners wrongly believe
4. Ambiguous spelling
Some English spellings are entirely ambiguous. If you see the spelling
entrance, you will need the context to decide whether it denotes the way in,
pronounced /entrns/, or the verb meaning to fill with wonder and delight, to
/ntrns/. Other homographs (same spelling, different pronunciation and
meaning) include bass, bow, buffet, does, gill, lead, live, minute, putting, read,
resume, tear, tinged, wind, wound (Carney 1994: 397-399; Cruttenden 1994:
211-212). As soon as we transcribe them, we show the difference in
pronunciation.
4
There are also some tricky verb-noun and verb-adjective pairs. English has
nearly a hundred words of the type conduct, digest, incense, object, pervert ,
where the same spelling is used for a verb, with final stress, and for the related
noun, with initial stress. Associated with the stress difference there is often a
difference in vowel quality, because of the phenomenon of vowel reduction.
Tiresomely, there are many other English disyllabic verb-noun pairs where
both are pronounced alike, with no difference of stress: thus control, promise.
separated at the crossroads. Here, as you observe, the suffix has a strong vowel,
the diphthong /e/. But the corresponding adjective, spelt identically, is usually
nowadays more usually //. One consequence is that the structural description
for the process I call compression is now met, so that the basic three syllables
readily get reduced to two.
paid
her
complim//nt;
Relevant here is the whole question of strong and weak forms of function
words (see e.g. Cruttenden 1994: 228-229). Words such as of, can, them have a
strong form with a strong vowel, /v, kn, em/, used mainly when accented,
and a weak form with a weak vowel, /v, kn, m/, used otherwise. This
alternation is not shown in spelling, but anyone who fails to apply it in casual
speech sounds very un-native-like.
Facts of this kind are not revealed in ordinary spelling, but are immediately
5
make both our native-speaker and our EFL students of phonetics do this kind of
exercise.
we
releasing
rliz
rlis
polluting
plt
plut
nuclear
nklj
njukli
chemicals
kemkls
kemklz
instead of
we
that phonemic contrast in their mother tongue. Unlike please, which does
contain /z
z/, release has /s
s/. In pollute and nuclear, the spelling suggests only
/u/, not //; perhaps the student was misled by familiarity with the spoken
form of these words, in which however the relatively short duration of the vowel
is caused by pre-fortis clipping (Wells: 1990: 136), not by inherent shortness.
Even advanced students sometimes forget the phonetic rules for regular
plural and past tense formation in English. Although spelt with s, the plural
z/ if the preceding segment is voiced and non-sibilant.
ending is pronounced /z
6. Types of transcription
For the last part of this talk I would like to consider phonetic transcription
from a more general point of view. Beginners in phonetics often imagine that in
transcription we can use one symbol for each sound, a separate phonetic
symbol for each sound-type our ears or our machines can detect.
However this approach is not practical. What might appear to be the same
sound in two different languages usually turns out, on closer inspection, to
exhibit certain differences. Even within a given language, the same sound
6
usually comprises a fair number of different variants associated with different
positions in the word or different phonetic environments. This is what lies
behind the development, over the course of the past hundred years, of the
notion of the phoneme (or of more sophisticated phonological units). It also
explains why all phonetic transcription depends for its interpretation upon two
things: the transcribed text itself, but also the conventions for its interpretation
(Abercrombie 1964: 16-24; Jones, 1956: App. A).
The phonemic principle allows us to use the same transcription symbol for
all the variants of a given phoneme. We can write the same /tt/ in English /tp,
stp, lt, rtn, btl/, despite the clear differences in aspiration and type of
release. We can write the same /a/ in now, louder, mouth, outing, despite
differences in the duration of the diphthong. These differences, though real, are
References
x
Abercrombie, D., 1964. English Phonetic Texts. London: Faber and Faber.
Carney, Edward, 1994. A Survey of English Spelling. London and New York:
Routledge.
Edward Arnold.
x
x
Jones, D., 1956. Outline of English Phonetics, 8th edn. Cambridge: Heffer.