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English phonetic and phonology riassunti

Lingua inglese 1 (Università degli Studi di Firenze)

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English Phonetics and

Phonology
(schemi)

- Introduction
1.3) Phonemes and other aspects of pronunciation

Phonemes are what we call a small number of regularly used sounds. We use a
number of special symbols to transcribe them, which are all represented in the chart
of the International Phonetic Association (IPA).
Even though the primary interest of phonology is the use of phonemes, we also look at
larger speech units such as the syllable, and at aspects of speech such as stress,
(which could be described as the relative strength of the syllable), and intonation,
(which is the use of the pitch of the voice to convey meaning).
1.4) Accents and dialects

Languages have different accents: they are pronounced differently by people from
different geographical places, from different social classes, or different ages, and
different educational backgrounds.
The word accent is often confused with dialect  it refers to a variety of a language,
different in matters such as vocabulary, grammar, and word order. Differences of
accents, on the other hand, are pronunciation differences only.
The accent we concentrate on is British English. It has been identified for a long time
by the name Received Pronunciation (RP). This name caused confusion. Since most
announcers and newsreaders on BBC used this accent, a preferable name is also BBC
pronunciation. Nevertheless, BBC doesn’t have to be considered an official accent.
Talking about accents, it must be considered a difference between England and Britain.
The range of different accents, in fact, becomes wider and wider if we consider the
accents of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The distinction most frequently made
within the accents of English is between northern and southern. Most people, in
fact, identify a pronunciation typical of someone from Lancashire or Yorkshire as
“northern”.
A term which is widely found nowadays in Estuary English. In fact, this pronunciation
manifests some characteristics of the accents of the London area, such as glottal
stops. The term estuary refers to the Thames estuary.

- The production of speech sounds

2.1) Articulators above the larynx

All the sounds we make when we speak are the result of muscles contracting. The
muscles in the chest that we use for breathing produce the flow of air; muscles in the
larynx produce many different modifications in the flow of air from the chest to the
mouth.

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After passing through the larynx, the air will pass through the vocal tract, which ends
at the mouth and nostrils. We call the part comprising the mouth the oral cavity and
the part that leads to the nostrils the nasal cavity. Here the air from the lungs
escapes into the atmosphere.
We have a large set of muscles that can produce changes in the shape of the vocal
tract. These different parts are called articulators, and the study of them is called
articulatory phonetics.

i) The pharynx is a tube which begins just above the larynx. It is about 7 cm
long in women and 8 cm in men, and its top it’s divided into two: one part
being the back of the oral cavity, and the other being the beginning of
the way through the nasal cavity.
ii) The soft palate or velum is what allows air to pass through the nose and
through the mouth. If it is raised, air cannot escape through the nose.
An important thing about the soft palate is that it is one of the articulators
that can be touched by the tongue. When the tongue is in contact with the
lower side of the soft palate, we call these sounds velar.
iii) The hard palate is often called the “roof of the mouth”. A consonant
made with the tongue close to the hard palate is called palatal. Es. j
iv) The alveolar ridge is between the top front teeth and the hard palate. It is
covered in little ridges. Sounds made with the tongue touching here (such as
t, d, n) are called alveolar.
v) The tongue is very important, as it can be moved in different places. It is
usually divided in different parts: tip, blade, front, back and root.

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vi) The teeth are divided into upper and lower. The tongue is in contact with
the upper side teeth for most speech sounds. Sounds made with the tongue
touching the front teeth, such as θ, ð, are called dental.
vii) The lips are important in speech. They can be pressed together (when we
pronounce p, b), brought together into contact with the teeth (as in f, v), or
rounded to produce the lip shape for vowels like uː. Sound in which the lips
are in contact with each other are called bilabial, while those with lip to
teeth contact are called labiodental.
The larynx could also be described as an articulator. Secondly, the jaws are sometimes
called articulators. Finally, although there is nothing active that we can do with the
nose and nasal cavity when speaking, they are a very important part of our equipment
for making sounds, (which is sometimes called our vocal apparatus), particularly
nasals consonants such as m, n.
2.2) Vowel and consonant

The most common view is that vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction
to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips. This main difference, due to
its uncertainties (e.g., No obstruction of air in “hay”), is not only the one we use to
differ vowels from consonants.
What we have to consider is the distribution of the sounds, which are the different
contexts and positions in which particular sounds can occur. Studies have shown how
two groups of sounds with quite different patterns of distribution can be identified,
which are those of vowel and consonant. Consonants, in fact, never occur in the
middle of a syllable or after a word beginning with h. Vowels, on the other
hand, never occur after bi.
As concerns vowels, we have to look and consider the shape and position of the
tongue in order to identify them. Firstly, the vertical distance between the upper
surface of the palate, and, secondly, the part of tongue, between front and back,
which is raised highest.
i) In a vowel like iː we can see how the tongue is held up close to the roof of
the mouth. If we turn it into an æ, we can see how the distance between the
surface of the tongue and the roof of the mouth is now much greater.
Therefore, we would describe iː as a relatively close vowel and æ as a
relatively open vowel.

ii) In making the two previous vowels, we can see that it is the front part of
the tongue that it is raised highest. We could therefore describe iː and æ as

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front vowels. By changing the shape of the tongue, we can produce vowels
in which a different part of the tongue is the highest point. A vowel in which
the back tongue is in the highest point is called a back vowel.
Phoneticians have developed a set of vowels which are arranged in a close open front
back diagram which can classify the vowels of any language but are not the vowels
of any particular language. These cardinal vowels are a standard reference system.
If you learn the cardinal vowels, you are not learning to make English sounds, but to
make the range of vowels that the human vocal apparatus can make. It has become
traditional to locate cardinal vowels in a four-sided figure, design recommended by the
IPA. The vowels in the figure are called primary cardinal vowels. There are other
cardinal vowels (secondary cardinal vowels) that sound less familiar to European
speakers.

Cardinal vowel n.1 [i] is defined as close and as front, and it is possible to make
without any friction noise. Cardinal vowel n.5 [ɑ] is defined as the most open and
back vowel possible. Cardinal vowel n.8 [u] is fully close, and [a] is fully open
and front. These are basically the extremes of vowel quality.
There is another important variable of vowel quantity, which is lip position. We can
consider three possible stages:
i) Rounded: where the corners of the lips are brought towards each other, and
the lips pushed forwards. E.g. [u]
ii) Spread: with the corners of the lips moved away from each other. E.g. [i]
iii) Neutral: where the lips are not noticeably rounded or spread.
2.3) English short vowels

The symbols for the short vowels are: ɪ, e, æ, ʌ, ɒ, ʊ. Short vowels are only
relatively short.

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ɪ (‘bit’, ‘pin’, ‘fish’). It’s more open, and nearer to the centre. The lips are
slightly spread.
e (‘bet’, ‘men’, ‘yes’). It’s a front vowel between cardinal vowels. The lips are
slightly spread.
æ (‘bat’, ‘man’, ‘yes’). The vowel is front, but not quite as open as the cardinal
vowel a. The lips are slightly spread
ʌ (‘cut’, ‘come’, ‘rush’). It is a central vowel, more open than the open-mid
tongue height. The lip position is neutral.
ɒ (‘pot’, ‘gone’, ‘cross’). The vowel is not quite fully back, and between open-
mid and open in tongue height. The lips are slightly rounded.
ʊ (‘put’, ‘pull’, ‘push’). It’s more open and nearer to the centre. The lips are
rounded.
There is another short vowel, for which the symbol is ə. This central vowel – called
schwa – it is heard in the first syllable of the words ‘about’, ‘oppose’, ‘perhaps.

- Voicing and consonants

4.1) The larynx

The larynx has several very important functions in speech. The larynx is in the neck.
Its main structure is made of cartilage, a material that is similar to bone but less
hard. The larynx’s structure is made of two large cartilages. These are hollow and are
attached to the top of the trachea, where air can pass when we breathe. The front
of the larynx comes to a point, and you can feel it in front of your neck. This point is
commonly called the Adam’s Apple.

Inside the box made by these two cartilages are the vocal folds, which are two thick
flaps of muscle also commonly known as the vocal cords. At the front the vocal folds
are joined together and fixed to the inside of the thyroid cartilage. At the back they are
attached to a pair of small cartilages called the arytenoid cartilages. If they move,
the vocal cords move too.

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The arytenoid cartilages are attached to the top of the cricoid cartilage, but they can
move the vocal folds apart or together. We use the word glottis to refer to the
opening between the vocal folds. If the vocal folds are apart, we can say that the
glottis is open; if they are pressed together, we say that the glottis is closed.

These changes of the glottis position are very important in speech, leading to four
easily recognizable states of the vocal folds.
i) Wide apart: the vocal cords are wide apart for normal breathing, and
usually during voiceless consonants like p, f, s.
ii) Narrow glottis: if air is passed through the glottis when it is narrowed the
result is a fricative sound, for example h. The sound is not very different
from a whispered vowel. In fact, it is called a voiceless glottal fricative.
iii) Position for vocal fold vibration: when the edges of the vocal folds are
touching each other, or nearly touching, air passing through the glottis will
usually cause vibration. This air, therefore, pushes the vocal folds apart so
that a little air escapes. As air escapes, the folds are brought together again.
This opening and closing happens very rapidly and is repeated regularly,
roughly between two and three hundred times per second in a woman’s
voice, and about half that rate in an adult’s man voice.
iv) Vocal folds tightly closed: the vocal folds can be firmly pressed together
so that air cannot pass between them. When this happens in speech, we call
it a glottal stop or glottal plosive, for which we use the symbol ʔ.

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4.2) Respiration and voicing.

The normal way for the airflow to be produced is for some of the air to be made to
move out of the lungs, process that we call egressive pulmonic airstream.
Nevertheless, there are other ways of making air move in the vocal tract but are not
relevant in the study of English.
How is the air moved into and out of the lungs? The lungs are like sponges that can
fill with air, and they are contained within the rib cage. If the rib cage is lifted
upwards and outwards there is more space in the chest for the lungs and they expand,
with the result that they take in more air. If the rib cage returns to its rest position,
some of the air is expelled and can be used for producing speech sounds. If we want to
make the egressive pulmonic airstream continue without breathing in again – e.g., for
long sentences – we can make the rib cage press down on the lungs so that more air is
expelled.

To make speech sounds we must obstruct the airflow in some way. We obstruct
the airflow by making one or more obstructions or strictures in the vocal tract, and one
place where we can make a stricture is in the larynx, by bringing the vocal folds close
to each other. There will be no vocal fold vibration unless the vocal folds are in the
correct position and the air below the vocal folds in under enough pressure to be
forced through the glottis.
If the vocal folds vibrate, we will hear what we call voicing or phonation. There are
many different sorts of voicing that we can produce. We can make changes in the

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vocal folds themselves, for example, making them longer or shorter, more tense, or
more relaxed, or be more or less strongly pressed together.
The pressure of the air below the vocal folds (the subglottal pressure) can also be
varied. Three main differences are found:
i) Variations in intensity: we produce voicing with high intensity for shouting
and low intensity for speaking quietly
ii) Variations in frequency: if the vocal folds vibrate rapidly, the voicing is
high frequency; if there are fewer vibrations per second, the frequency is
lower
iii) Variations in quality: we can produce different voice qualities, such as
harsh, breathy, murmured, or creaky.

4.3) Plosives

A plosive is a consonant articulation with the following characteristics:

a) One articulator, or two, is moved against another , so as to form a stricture that
allows no air to escape from the vocal tract. The stricture is, then, total.
b) After this stricture has been formed and air has been compressed behind it, it is
released, which means allowed to escape.
c) If the air behind the stricture is still under pressure when the plosive is released,
the escape of air will produce noise loud enough to be heard. This noise is called
plosion.
d) There may be voicing during part or all of the plosive articulation.
Each plosive consonant has four different phases in its production:
i) Closing phase: the first phase is when the articulator or articulators move
to form the stricture for the plosive.
ii) Compression phase: the second phase is when the compressed air is
stopped from escaping.
iii) Release phase: the third phase is when the articulators used to form the
stricture are moved so as to allow air to escape.
iv) Post-release phase: the fourth phase is what happens immediately after
the release phase.

4.4) English plosives

English has six plosive consonants: p, t, k, b, d, g. The glottal plosive ʔ occurs

frequently but it is of less importance. The plosives have different places of
articulation.
The plosives p, b is bilabial since the lips are pressed together.

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On the other hand, t, d are alveolar since the tongue blade is pressed against the
alveolar ridge.

The plosives k, g are velar, as the back of the tongue is pressed against the area
where the hard palate ends, and the soft palate begins.

The plosives p, t, k are always voiceless, whereas b, d, g and voiced.

All six plosives can occur at the beginning of a word (initial position), between other
sounds (medial position), and at the end of a word (final position). We also have to
look at the plosives preceding vowels (CV), between vowels (VCV), and following
vowels (VC).
i) Initial position: the closing phase for p, t, k and b, d, g, takes place
silently. During the compression phase there is no voicing in p, t, k,
whereas in b, d, g there is a little voicing. If the speaker pronounces them

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very slowly there may be voicing during the entire compression phase, while
in rapid speech there may be no voicing at all. The release of p, t, k is
followed by audible plosion, that is burst of noise in the post release phase,
making a sound like h. This is called aspiration. Then the vocal folds come
together, and voicing begins. The release of b, d, g is followed by weak
plosion, whereas in the initial p, t, k we can hear an aspiration. The
release of air comes very quickly, but the ear distinguishes clearly between
p, t, k and b, d, g. Experiments have shown that we perceive aspiration when
there is a delay between the sound of plosion and the begging (or onset) of
voicing. In initial position, b, d, g cannot be preceded by any consonant , but
p, t, k may be preceded by s, and in this case it is unaspirated. In this
case, English speakers may hear the unaspirated plosives as the aspirated
ones.
ii) Medial position: the pronunciation of plosives in medial position depends
on whether the syllables preceding and following the plosive are stressed. In
general, we can say that a medial plosive may have the characteristics
either of final or of initial position.
iii) Final position: final b, d, g normally have little voicing. If there is voicing,
it is at the beginning of the compression phase. The plosion following the
release of plosives is very weak and often not audible. The difference
between p, t, k and b, d, g is primarily the fact that vowels preceding p, t,
k are much shorter. This effect is sometimes known as pre-fortis clipping.
4.5) Fortis and lenis

It’s not very accurate to call the b, d, g plosives voiced, as any voicing of them seems
to have no perceptual importance. Some phoneticians say that p, t, k are produced
with more force than b, d, g. For this reason, the voiceless plosives p, t, k are
sometimes called fortis (which means strong), and b, d, g, are then called lenis
(meaning weak).

- Fricatives and affricates

6.1) Production of fricatives and affricates

Fricatives are consonants with the characteristic that air escapes through a narrow
passage and makes a hissing sound. Fricatives are continuant consonants, which
means that you can continue making them without interruption as long as you have
enough air. Plosives are not continuants.
Affricates are complex consonants. They begin as plosives and end as fricatives.
E.g., ‘church’  it begins with the articulation of t, but then it shifts to the fricative ʃ,
concluding as tʃ. However, the definition of an affricate is more restricted than we
think. In fact, we cannot class all sequences of plosive plus fricative as affricates. An
example of this if the kf in ‘breakfast’, which is not considered as an affricate. It is
usually said that the plosive and the following fricative must be made with the same

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articulators, so they have to be homorganic. The plosives t, d, and the fricatives ʃ, ʒ

are homorganic. Even though we could count many different affricates, we normally
only consider tʃ and dʒ as affricate phonemes of English. They are single,
independent phonemes.
6.2) The fricatives of English

The fortis fricatives are said to be articulated with greater force than the lenis,
and their friction noise is louder. The lenis fricatives, on the other hand, have very
little or no voicing in initial or final positions, bur are voiced in between voiced sounds.
The fortis fricatives have the effect of shortening a preceding vowel in the same
way as fortis plosives do. Thus, in words like ‘ice’ ais and ‘eyes’ aiz, the ai diphthong
in the first word is considerably shorter than ai in the second.
f, v (‘fan’, ‘van’, ‘safer’, ‘saver’, ‘half’, ‘halve’)
These are labiodental: the lower lip is in contact with the upper teeth. The fricative
noise is never very strong and is scarcely audible in the case of v.

Θ, ð (‘thumb’, ‘thus’, ether’, ‘father’, ‘breath’, ‘breathe’)

The dental fricatives are sometimes described as if the tongue were placed between
the front teeth. The tongue is normally placed behind the teeth, with the tip touching
the inner side of the lower teeth. The air escapes through the gaps between the
tongue and the teeth. The fricative noise is weak.

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s, z ( ‘sip’, ‘zip’, ‘facing’, ‘phasing’, ‘rice’, ‘rise’)

These are alveolar fricatives, with the same place of articulation as t, d. The air
escapes through a narrow passage along the centre of the tongue, and the sound
produced is comparatively intense.
ʃ, ʒ (‘ship’, initial ʒ is very rare in English, ‘Russia’, ‘measure’, ‘Irish’,
‘garage’)
These fricatives are called post-alveolar, which can be taken to mean that the
tongue is in contact with an area slightly further back than that for s, z. You feel the
tongue moving backwards.

The air escapes through a passage along the centre of the tongue, as in s, z, but the
passage is a little wider. Most BBC speakers have rounded lips for these phonemes.
The fricative ʃ is a common and widely distributed phoneme, but ʒ is not. In fact, the
distribution of this sound is more limited compared to the one of ʃ. Very few
English words begin with ʒ (French origin), and not many ends with this consonant.
Only medially, in words such as ‘measure’ meʒə, ‘usual’ ju:ʒuəl is found commonly.
h (‘head’, ‘ahead’, ‘playhouse’)
This place of articulation of this consonant is glottal. This means that the narrowing
that produces the friction noise is between the vocal folds. If you breathe out silently,
then produce h, you are moving your vocal folds from wide apart to close together.
However, this is not producing speech. For example, if we produce the word ‘hat’ the
tongue, jaw and lip positions for the vowel are all produced simultaneously with the h
consonant, so that the glottal fricative has an æ quality. This happens for all vowels
following h. According to this, phonetically h is a voiceless vowel with the
quality of the voiced vowel that follows it.
Phonologically, on the other hand, h is a consonant. As well as being found in
initial position, it is found medially in words such as ‘ahead’, ‘greenhouse’,
‘boathouse’. It is noticeable that when h occurs between voiced sounds it is
pronounced with a weak slightly fricative voicing that we call breathy voice. Many
English speakers, in reality, when they speak omit the h in non-initial unstressed
pronunciations of the words ‘her’, ‘he’, ‘him’, ‘his’, and auxiliary ‘have’, ‘has’, ‘had’.
There are two rather uncommon sounds. The first sound is produced by some speakers
in words which begin orthographically with ‘wh’. Most BBC speakers pronounce the
initial sound in such words (e.g., ‘which’, ‘why’, ‘whip’, ‘whale’) ad w, but there are
some who pronounce the sound used by most American and Scottish speakers, a

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voiceless fricative with the same lip, tongue, and jaw position as w. The phonetic
symbol for this voiceless fricative is ʍ.

The sound ʍ, however, is not a phoneme, but is a realization of a sequence of two

phonemes, h, and w. However, there is no h sound in the “voiceless w”. A very
similar case is the sound found at the beginning of words such as ‘huge’, ‘human’,
‘hue’. Phonetically this sound is a voiceless palatal fricative (ç). There is no glottal
fricative at the beginning of huge. However, it is usual to treat this sound as h plus j.
6.3) The affricates of English

The only two affricate phonemes are tʃ and dʒ. We have a fortis/lenis pair, and the
voicing characteristics are the same as for these other consonants. tʃ is slightly
aspirated in the position where p, t, l are aspirated. The place of articulation is post-
alveolar. When tʃ is final in a syllable, it has the effect of shortening a preceding
vowel, as do other fortis consonants. tʃ, dʒ have rounded lips.
6.4) Fortis consonants

All the consonants described so far belong to pairs distinguished by the difference
between fortis and lenis. The first point concerns the shortening of a preceding
vowel by a syllable-final fortis consonant. The effect is most noticeable in the case of
long vowels and diphthongs, although it does also affect short vowels. If something
other than a vowel precedes a fortis consonant, we can find syllables ending with l, m,
n, ŋ, followed by a fortis consonant such as p, t, k as in ‘belt’ belt, ‘bump’ bʌmp,
‘bank’ bæŋk. The effect on those continuant consonants is the same as on a vowel:
they are considerably shortened.
Fortis consonants are usually articulated with open glottis. However, with plosives an
alternative possibility is to produce the consonant with completely closed glottis.
This type of plosive articulation, known as glottalization, is found widely in
contemporary English pronunciation. The glottal closure occurs immediately before p,
t, k, tʃ, especially of tʃ at the end of a stressed syllable. If we use ʔ to represent a
glottal closure, we can see a different phonetic transcription of words.

There is a similar glottalization of p, t, k.

- Nasals and other consonants

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There remain the nasal consonants – m, n, ŋ – and four others – l, r, w, j. These

four are not easy to fit into groups. All of these seven consonants are continuants
and usually have no friction noise but are very different from each other.
7.1) Nasals

The basic characteristic of a nasal consonant is that the air escapes through the
nose. For this to happen, the soft palate must be lowered. If it is raised, air cannot
pass through the nose. In nasal consonants, however, air does not pass through the
mouth. It is prevented by a complete closure in the mouth at some point. The three
types of closure are: bilabial (lips), alveolar (tongue blade against alveolar ridge),
and velar (back of the tongue against the palate). This set of places produces three
nasal consonants – m, n, ŋ – which correspond to the three places of articulation for
the pairs of plosives p b, t d, k g.
The consonants m, n are simple, and their distribution is quite similar to those of the
plosives. However, ŋ is a different matter. The place of articulation of ŋ is the same as
that of k, g. What is unusual is its distribution:
i) In initial position we find m, n occurring freely, but ŋ never occurs in this
position.
ii) Medially, ŋ occurs quite frequently, but there is a rule concerning the
question of when ŋ may be pronounced without a following plosive. When
we find the letters ‘nk’ in the middle of a word, a k is always pronounced.
However, some words with orthographic ‘ng’ in the middle will have a
pronunciation containing ŋg.

The important difference between these two words is their morphology.

The words of column B can be divided into two grammatical pieces: ‘sing’
+ ‘er’, ‘hang’ + ‘er’. These pieces are called morphemes, whereas the
words in column A cannot be divided into two morphemes. For this, we can
say that ŋ occurs without a following g if it occurs at the end of a
morpheme; if it occurs in the middle of a morpheme, it has a following
g.
Words ending with orthographically ‘ng’ always end in ŋ. Examples of this
are ‘song’ soŋ, ‘bang’ baŋ. So, no g is pronounced after ŋ at the end of a
morpheme.
An exception to the above rule concerns the comparative and superlative
suffixes ‘-er’ and ‘-est’. Instead of the predicted pronunciation (no
pronunciation of g after ŋ), ‘longer’ and ‘longest’, we pronounce the g
following the ŋ. The rule, for this reason, must be modified: comparative
and superlative forms of adjectives are to be treated as a single morpheme.
iii) A third way in which the distribution of ŋ is unusual is the small number of
vowels it is found to follow. It rarely occurs after a diphthong or a long vowel,
so only the short vowels are regularly found preceding this consonant.
The velar nasal consonant ŋ is, in conclusion, phonetically simple but
phonologically complex.
7.2) The consonant l

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The l phoneme (as in ‘long’ loŋ, ‘hill’ hil) is a lateral approximant. This means that
the passage of air through the mouth does not go in the usual way in the centre of the
tongue. Instead, there is a complete closure between the centre of the tongue and the
part of the roof of the mouth where contact is made (alveolar ridge). For this reason,
air escapes along the sides of the tongue. The lateral approximants is therefore
somewhat different than the others, as there is less contact between the articulators.
When we produce this sound, we can feel how the sides of the tongue are pulled in
and down while the centre is raised.
We find l initially, medially, and finally, therefore its distribution is particularly limited.
In BBC pronunciation, the realization of l found before vowels sounds quite different
from the one made in other contexts. For example, the realization of l in the word ‘lea’
li: it’s different than the one in ‘eel’ i:l. The sound in ‘eel’ is what we call a “dark l”, as
it has a quality rather similar to an [u] vowel, with the back of the tongue raised. The
phonetic symbol for this sound is ɫ. The sound in lea, on the other hand, is called
“clear l”, as it resembles an [i] vowel with the front of the tongue raised. The dark l
is also found when it precedes a consonant, as in ‘eels’ i:lz. Therefore, clear l
never occur before consonants or before a pause, but only before vowels; dark l
never occurs before vowels. Moreover, we can say that clear l and dark l are
allophones. Most American and lowland Scottish speakers use “dark l” in most
positions, while most Welsh and Irish speaker have “clear l” in all positions.
Another allophone of l is found when it follows p, k at the beginning of a stressed
syllable. The l is then devoiced and pronounced as a fricative. The situation is similar
to the aspiration found when a vowel follows p, t, k in a stressed syllable: the first part
of the vowel is devoiced.

7.3) The consonant r

This phoneme can be described as a post-alveolar approximant. An approximant is

an articulation in which the articulators approach each other but do not get sufficiently
close to each other to produce a complete consonant. Articulators are always in some
positional relationship with each other.
The important thing about the articulation of r is that the tip of the tongue approaches
the alveolar area in the way that it would for t or d, but never actually makes contact
with any part of the roof of the mouth. The tongue is, in fact, usually slightly curled
backwards with the tip raised. This tongue shape is called retroflex. The curling
process usually carries the tip of the tongue to a position slightly further back in the
mouth that it would for t, d, so for this reason is called “post-alveolar”. A rather
different r is to be found at the beginning of a syllable preceded by p, t, k
(‘press’, ‘tress’, ‘cress’). In this case is voiceless and fricative. The lips are usually
slightly rounded.
The distributional peculiarity of r in the BBC accent is that it only occurs before
vowel. In fact, in words like ‘red’ red, ‘arrive’ ariv ‘hearing’ hieriŋ r is followed by a
vowel. But in words in which the r in in the middle of a syllable there is no
pronunciation of r.

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Many accents of English do pronounce r in words like those, for example most
American, Scottish and West of England accents. Those accents which have r in
final position (before a pause) and before a consonant are called rhotic accents,
while accents in which r only occurs before vowels (such as BBC) are called non-
rhotic.
7.4) The consonant j and w

These consonants are known as approximants. Phonetically they are like vowels,
while phonologically like consonants. For this reason, they were known as
semivowels. From the phonetic point of view the articulation of j is the same as [i]
but is very short. In the same way, w is similar to [u]. Nevertheless, we use them like
consonants. For example, they only occur before vowel phonemes. Another reason is
that we use the indefinite article ‘a’ before them, as we would do before a consonant.
Same thing occurs with the pronunciation of the definite article ‘the’ as ðə, as we
would do before consonants.

It is important to remember that pronouncing them as affricates or fricatives is a

mispronunciation. Only in special contexts we do hear friction noise in j or w, and
this is when they are preceded by p, t, k, at the beginning of a syllable.

When p, t, k come at the beginning of a syllable and are followed by a vowel, they are
aspirated. It means that the beginning of a vowel is voiceless. However, when p, t, k
are followed by one of l, r, j, w, these last ones lose their voicing and become
fricative. So, words like ‘play’ plei, ‘tray’ trei, ‘quick’, kwik, ‘cue’, kju:, contain
devoiced and fricative l, r, w, j, whereas ‘lay’, ‘ray’, ‘wick’, ‘you’ contain voiced l,
r, w, j.

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- The syllable
8.1) The nature of the syllable

Phonetically, syllables are usually described as consisting of a centre which has

little or no obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud; before and
after this centre there will be greater obstruction to airflow and/or less loud sound.
i) A minimum syllable is a single vowel in isolation (ex. The words ‘are’ ɑ:, ‘or’
ɔ:, ‘err’ ɜ:). These are preceded and followed by silence. Isolated sounds such as
m or ʃ must also be regarded as syllables.
ii) Some syllables have onset – they have one or more consonants preceding
the centre of the syllable.
ex. ‘bar’ bɑ: ‘key’ ki: ‘more’ mɔ:
iii) Some syllables may have no onset but have a coda – they end with one or
more consonants.
ex. ‘am’ æm ‘ought’ ɔ:t ‘ease’ i:z
iv) Some syllables have both onset and coda:
ex. ‘ran’ ræn ‘sat’ sæt ‘fill’ fɪl
Looking at them from the phonological point of view is quite different. What this
involves is looking at the possible combinations of English phonemes. The study of the
possible phoneme combinations of a language is called phonotactics.
It is simplest to start by looking at what can occur in initial position. We find that the
word can begin with a vowel, or with one, two or three consonants. In the same way,
we can look at how a word ends when it is the last word spoken before a pause; it can
end with a vowel, or with one, two, three or four consonants. No current word ends
with more than four consonants.
8.2) The structure of the English syllable

If the first syllable of the word in question begins with a vowel, we say that this initial
syllable has a zero onset. If the syllable begins with one consonant, that initial
consonant may be any consonant phoneme except ŋ; ʒ is rare.

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When we have two or more consonants together, we call them a consonant cluster.
Initial two-consonant clusters are of two sorts in English. One sort is composed of s
followed by one of a small set of consonants: ex. ‘sting’ stiŋ. The s in these clusters is
called the pre-initial consonant and the other consonant is the initial consonant.
The other sort begins with one set of about fifteen consonants, followed by one of the
set l, r, w, I, as in, for example, ‘play’ plei. We call the first consonant of these
clusters the initial consonant and the second the post-initial. When we look at
three-consonant clusters we can recognise a clear relationship between them and the
two sorts of two-consonant cluster. Ex. split ‘split’. In fact, the number of possible
initial three-consonant clusters is quite small.
If there is no final consonant, we say that there is zero coda. When there is one
consonant only, this is called the final consonant. Any consonant may be a final
consonant except h, w, j. There are two sorts of two-consonant final cluster, one being
a final consonant preceded by a pre-final consonant and the other a final consonant
followed by a post final consonant. The pre-final consonants form a small set: m, n,
ŋ, l, s. We can see them in ‘bump’ bʌm, ‘belt’ belt. The post final consonants also
form a small set: s, z, t, d, θ. Examples are ‘eighth’ eitθ, ‘bagged’ bægd. These
post-final consonants can often be identified as separate morphemes. A point of
pronunciation can be pointed out here: the release of the first plosive of a plosive-plus-
plosive cluster such as the g in bægd or the k in bækt is usually without plosion and
is therefore practically inaudible.
There are two types of final three-consonant cluster; the first is pre-final plus final plus
post-final (ex. ‘helped’ helpt); the second one is final plus post-final 1 plus post-final 1
(ex. ‘next’ nekst).
Most four consonant cluster can be analysed as consisting of a final consonant
preceded by a pre-final and followed by post-final 1 and post-final 2 (ex. ‘prompts’
prɒmpts).
In the case of a syllabic consonants, we do not analyse the word ‘students’
stju:dnts as consisting of one syllable with the three-consonant cluster stj for its
onset and a four-consonant final cluster dnts. We say that the word contains two
syllables; in other words, we treat the word as though there was a vowel between d
and n.
The vowel and the coda are known as the rhyme. The rhyme is divided into the peak
(normally the vowel) and the coda. The syllable may also have an onset, but this is
not obligatory.
Syllable
Rhyme
Onset Peak Coda
8.3) Syllable division

There are still problems with the description of the syllable: an unanswered question is
how we decide on the division between syllables. It often happens that one or more
consonants from the end of one word combine with one or more at the beginning of
the following word, resulting in a consonant sequence.

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A more difficult case is the word ‘extra’ ekstrə. One problem is that by some
definitions the s in the middle, between k and t, could be counted as a syllable. The
possibilities are multiples.
One of the most widely accepted guidelines is what is known as the maximal onsets
principle. This principle states that where two syllables are to be divided, any
consonants between them should be attached to the right-hand syllable, not the left. If
we followed this rule, we would have to divide ‘extra’ as e.kstrə, but we know that an
English syllable cannot begin with kstr. Our rule must therefore state that consonants
are assigned to the right-hand syllable as far as possible within the restrictions
governing syllable onsets and codas. The maximal onsets principle must therefore also
be modified to allow a consonant to be assigned to the left syllable if that prevents
one of the vowels, ɪ, e, æ, ʌ, ɒ, ʊ, from occurring at the end of a syllable.
When one consonant stands between vowels, and it is difficult to assign the consonant
to one syllable or the other we could say that the consonant belongs to both syllables.
The term used to describe this is used ambisyllabic.

- Strong and weak syllables

9.1) Strong and weak

Some syllables are strong while many others are weak. Stress is very important in
deciding whether a syllable is strong and weak. Elision is a closely related subject,
and in considering intonation the difference between strong and weak syllables is
also important.
When we compare weak syllables with strong syllables, we find the vowel in a weak
syllable tends to be shorter or lower intensity and different in quality. For example, in
the word ‘data’ the second syllable is shorter than the first. In a word like ‘bottle’ bɒtl
the weak second syllable contains no vowel at all, but consists entirely of the
consonant i. we call this a syllabic consonant.
Any strong syllable will have as its peak one of the vowel phonemes, but not
ə, i, u. If the vowel is one of I, e, æ, ʌ, ɒ, ʊ, then the strong syllable will always have
a coda as well. Weak syllables can only have one of a very small number of possible
peaks. At the end of a word, we may have a weak syllable ending with a vowel:
i) the vowel ə ‘schwa’ (‘better’ betə)
ii) a close front unrounded vowel symbolised as i (‘happy’ hæpi) ;
iii) a close back rounded vowel symbolised u (‘thank you’ θæŋk ju);
We also find weak syllables in word-final position with a coda is the vowel is ə (ex.
‘open’ əʊpən).
Inside a word, we can find the above vowels acting as peaks without codas in weak
syllables (ex. ‘photograph’ fəʊtəgrɑ:f).
In addition, the vowel ɪ can act as a peak without a coda if the following syllable
begins with a consonant (ex. ‘architect’ ɑ:kɪtekt).
9.2) The ə vowel (“schwa”)

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The most frequently occurring vowel in English is ə, which is always associated with
weak syllables. In quality it is mid and central. It is generally described as lax – not
articulated with much energy. Variation is not important.
Not all weak syllables contain ə, though many do. The question to ask is: if the
speaker were to pronounce a particular weak syllable as if it were strong instead,
which vowel would it be most likely to give?
i) Spelt with ‘a’; strong pronunciation would have æ (ex. ‘attend’ ətend)
ii) Spelt with ‘ar’; strong pronunciation would have ɑ: (ex. ‘particular’
pətɪkjələ)
iii) Adjectival endings spelt ‘ate’; strong pronunciation would have eɪt (ex.
‘intimate’ ɪntɪmət)
iv) Spelt with ‘o’; strong pronunciation would have ɒ or əʊ (ex. ‘tomorrow’
təmɒrəʊ)
v) Spelt with ‘or’; strong pronunciation would have ɔ: (ex. ‘forget’ fəget)
vi) Spelt with ‘e’; strong pronunciation would have e (ex. ‘settlement’
setlmənt)
vii) Spelt with ‘er’; strong pronunciation would have ɜ: (ex. ‘perhaps’
pəhæps)
viii) Spelt with ‘u’; strong pronunciation would have ʌ (ex. ‘autumn’ ɔ:təm)
ix) Spelt with ‘ough’ (ex. ‘thorough’ θʌrə)
x) Spelt with ‘ou’; strong pronunciation might have aʊ (ex. ‘gracious’ greɪʃəs)
9.3) Close front and close back vowels

Two other vowels are commonly found in weak syllables, one close front (in the
general region of i:, ɪ) and the other close back rounded (u:, ʊ). In strong syllables it
is comparatively easy to distinguish i: from ɪ, while in weak syllables the difference is
not so clear.
One common feature is that the vowels in question are more like i: or u: when they
precede another vowel, less so when they precede a consonant or pause. There is
really no possibility in these contexts of a phonemic contrast between i: and ɪ, or
between u: and ʊ. Effectively, the two distinctions which undoubtedly exist within
strong syllables, are neutralised in weak syllables of BBC pronunciation.
The i in ‘easy’ i:zi is neither the i: of ‘beat’ nor the ɪ in ‘bit’, and is not in contrast with
them. We can set up a corresponding vowel u that is neither the u: of ‘shoe’ nor the ʊ
of ‘book’.
We find i occurring:
i) In word-final position in words spelt with final ‘y’ or ‘ey’ after one or
more consonant letters (ex. ‘happy’ hæpi) and in morpheme-final position
when such words have suffixes beginning with vowels (ex. ‘happier’
hæpiə);
ii) In a prefix such as those spelt ‘re’, ‘pre’, ‘de’ if it precedes a vowel and is
unstressed (e.g. in ‘react’ riækt);

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iii) In the suffixes spelt ‘iate’, ‘ious’ when they have two syllables (e.g., in
‘appreciate’ əpri: ʃeit);
iv) In the following words when unstressed: ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘we’, ‘be’, ‘me’.
Weak syllables with close back rounded vowels are not so commonly found. We found
u most frequently in the words ‘you’, ‘to’, ‘into’, ‘do’, when they are unstressed and
are not immediately preceding a consonant. This vowel is also found before another
vowel within a word, as in ‘influenza’ ɪnfluenzə.
9.4) Syllabic consonants

These are syllables in which no vowels Is found. In this case, a consonant, either l, r
or nasal, stands as the peak of the syllable instead of the vowel. We use a vertical
mark (,) to signal it.
9.4.1) Syllabic l

Syllabic l is perhaps the most noticeable example. It occurs after another consonant,
and the way it is produced depends to some extent on the nature of that consonant. If
the preceding consonant is alveolar, as in ‘bottle’, the articulatory movement is quite
simple. The sides of the tongue are lowered to allow air to escape over them (this is
called lateral release). The tip and the blade of the tongue do not move until the
articulatory contact for the l is released. In some accents we often find a close back
rounded vowel instead – particularly London and Estuary English.
Examples are:
i) with alveolar consonant preceding
ex. ‘cattle’ kætlˌ ‘bottle’ bɒtlˌ
ii) with non-alveolar consonant preceding:
ex. ‘couple’ kʌplˌ ‘trouble’ trʌblˌ
Such words usually lose their final letter ‘e’ when a suffix beginning with a
vowel is attached, thus: ex. ‘bottle’ – ‘bottling’ bɒtlˌ - bɒtlˌ bɒtlˌɪŋ
Similar words not derived in this way do not have the syllabic l  ex. ‘coddling’ kɒdl
ˌɪŋ vs ‘codling’ kɒdlɪŋ.
In some less common or more technical words, it is not obligatory to pronounce
syllabics l and the sequence əl may be used instead.
9.4.2) Syllabic n

A general rule could be made that weak syllables which are phonologically composed
of a plosive or fricative consonant plus ən are uncommon except in initial position
words. Ex. ‘threaten’ θretnˌ
Syllabic n n, is most common after alveolar plosives and fricatives; in the case of t,
d, s, z followed by n  ex. ‘eaten’ i:tn,. We do not usually find n, after l, ʧ, ʤ, so for
example ‘sullen’ is sʌlən.
Syllabic n after non-alveolar consonants is not so widespread. In other words, where
the syllable is spelt ‘an’ or ‘on’ it is rarely pronounced. After bilabial consonants, in
words like ‘happen’, we can consider it equally acceptable to pronounce them with
syllabic n.

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After f, v, syllabic n is more common than ən.

If n is preceded by l and a plosive, as in ‘Wilton’, both pronunciations are possible. If s
precedes, as in ‘Boston’, a final syllabic nasal is less frequent, while clusters formed by
nasal + plosive + syllabic nasal are very unusual. Other nasals also discourage a
following plosive plus syllabic nasal.
9.4.3) Syllabic m, ŋ

We find them in words like ‘happen’, whose hæpm, pronunciation is acceptable.

Examples of possible syllabic velar nasals would be ‘thicken’ θɪkŋ and ‘broken key’
brəʊkŋˌ ki:, where the nasal consonant occurs before velar consonants.
9.4.4) Syllabic r

In many accents of the type called “rhotic” syllabic r is very common. The world
‘particular’ could be pronounced as pətɪkjələ. Syllabic r is less common in BBC
pronunciation: it is found in weak syllables such as the second syllable of ‘preference’.
There are a few pairs of words in which a difference in meaning appears to depend on
whether a particular r is syllabic or not: ‘hungry’ hʌŋgri vs ‘Hungary’ hʌŋgr,i
But we find no case of syllabic r where it would not be possible to substitute either non
syllabic r or ər.
9.4.5) Combinations of syllabic consonants

It is not unusual to find two syllabic consonants together. Examples are: ‘national’
næʃnˌlˌ; ‘visionary’ vɪʒnˌri. In examining colloquial English, it is often more or less a
matter of arbitrary choice how one transcribes such a word. Transcription has an
unfortunate tendency to make things seem simpler.

- Stress in simple words

10.1) The nature of stress

We will mark a stressed syllable in transcription by placing a small vertical line (‘)
high up.
We can study stress from the points of view of production and of perception. The
production of stress is generally believed to depend on the speaker using more
muscular energy than is used for unstressed syllables.
All stressed syllables have one characteristic in common, and that is prominence.
Stressed syllables are usually more prominent than unstressed syllables. What makes
a syllable prominent? At least four different factors are important:
i) Most people seem to feel that stressed syllables are louder than unstressed
syllables;
ii) The length of syllables is usually longer if they are stressed;
iii) Every voiced syllable is said on some pitch. It is essentially a perceptual
characteristic of speech. To place some movement of pitch on a syllable is even
more effective in making it sound prominent;
iv) A syllable will tend to be prominent if it contains a vowel that is different in
quality from neighbouring vowels.

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10.2) Levels of stress

There is a two-level analysis of stress. The prominence that results from this pitch
movement, or tone, gives the strongest type of stress; this is called primary stress.
In some words, we can observe a type of stress that is weaker than primary stress but
stronger. The second strongest stress is called secondary stress. It is usually
represented in transcription with a low mark (,).
There is also a third level which can be called unstressed and is regarded as being
the absence of any recognizable amount of prominence.
In order to decide on stress placement, we could use some information:
a. whether the word is morphologically simple, or whether it is complex
(contains more affixes);
b. what the grammatical category of the word is;
c. how many syllables the word has;
d. what the phonological structure is.
One component of a syllable is the rhyme, which contains the syllable peak and the
coda.

- World-class pair
11.6) World-class pair

There are several dozen pairs of two-syllable words with identical spelling which differ
from each other in stress placement, apparently according to word class. All appear to
consist of prefix + stem.
If a pair of prefix-plus-stem words exists, both members of which are spelt identically,
one of which is a verb and the other of which is either a noun or an adjective, one of
which is a verb and the other od which is either a noun or an adjective, then the stress
is placed on the second syllable of the verb on the first syllable of the noun or
adjective.
abstract ˈæbstrækt (A) æbˈstrækt (V)
conduct ˈkɒndʌkt (N) kənˈdʌkt (V)
contract ˈkɒntrækt (N) kənˈtrækt (V)
contrast ˈkɒntrɑ:st (N) kənˈtrɑ:st (V)
desert ˈdezət (N) dɪˈzɜ:t (V)
escort ˈeskɔ:t (N) ɪˈskɔ:t (V)
export ˈekspɔ:t (N) ɪkˈspɔ:t (V)
import ˈɪmpɔ:t (N) ɪmˈpɔ:t (V)
insult ˈɪnsʌlt (N) ɪnˈsʌlt (V)
object ˈɒbʤekt (N) əɒˈʤekt (V)
perfect ˈpɜ:fɪkt (A) pəˈfekt (V)

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permit ˈpɜ:mɪt (N) pəˈmɪt (V)

present ˈpreznˌt (N, A) prɪˈzent (V)
produce ˈprɒdju:s (N) prəˈdju:s (V)
protest ˈprəʊtest (N) prəˈtest
rebel ˈreblˌ (N) rɪˈbel (V)
record ˈrekɔ:d (N, A) rɪˈkɔ:d (V)
subject ˈsʌbʤekt (N) səbˈʤekt (V)

- Weak forms
12) Weak forms

English words can be pronounced in two different ways; these are called strong
forms and weak forms. As an example, the word ‘that’ can be pronounced ðæt
(strong form) and ðət (weak form). The sentence ‘I like that’ is pronounced aɪ laɪk
ðæt (strong form); the sentence ‘I hope that she will’ is pronounced aɪ həʊp ðət ʃi
wɪl (weak form). It is possible to use only strong forms in speaking. Most native
speakers of English find an “all-strong form” pronunciation unnatural; speakers who
are not familiar with the use of weak forms are likely to have difficulty understanding
speakers who use weak forms.
We must distinguish between weak forms and contracted forms. Certain English
words are shortened so severely (usually to a single phoneme) and so consistently
that they are represented differently in informal writing.
Almost all the words which have both a strong and weak form belong to a category
that can be called function words. These function words are words such as auxiliary
verbs, prepositions, conjunctions. It is important to remember that there are
certain contexts where only the strong form is acceptable.
We can say that strong form is used in the following cases:
i) For many weak-form words, when they occur at the end of a sentence; for
example, the word ‘of’ has the weak form əv in the following sentence: ‘I’m fond
of chips’ aɪm ˈfɒnd əv ˈʧɪps
However, when it comes at the end of the sentence it has the strong form ɒv:
‘Chips are what I’m fond of’ ˈʧɪps ə ˈwɒt aɪm ˈfɒnd ɒv
Many of the words given below never occur at the end of a sentence (e.g. ‘the’,
‘your’). Some words do occur in their weak forms in final position.
ii) When a weak form word is being contrasted with another word; for
example, ‘The letter’s from him, not to him’ ðə ˈletəz ˈfrɒm ɪm nɒt ˈtu: ɪm
A similar case is what we might call a co-ordinated use of preposition: ex. ‘I
travel to and from London a lot’ aɪ ˈtrævlˌ ˈtu: ən ˈfrɒm ˈlʌndən ə ˈlɒt
iii) When a weak-form word is given stress for the purpose of emphasis; for
example, ‘You must give me more money’ ju ˈmʌst ˈgɪv mi ˈmɔ: ˈmʌni

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iv) When a weak-form word is being “cited” or “quoted”; for example, ‘You
shouldn’t put “end” at the end of a sentence’ ju ˈʃʊdnˌt pʊt ˈænd ət ði ˈend
əv ə ˈsentəns
Another point to remember is that when weak-form words whose spelling begins
with ‘h’ occur at the beginning of a sentence, the pronunciation is with
initial h, even though this is usually omitted in other contexts.
Weak forms:

1. ‘the’
Weak forms ðə (before consonants)
‘Shut the door’ ˈʃʌt ðə ˈdɔ:
ði (before vowels)
‘Wait for the end’ ˈweɪt fə ði ˈend
2. ‘a’, ‘an’
Weak forms ə (before consonants)
‘Read a book’ ˈri:d ə ˈbʊk
ən (before vowels)
‘Eat an apple’ ˈi:t ən ˈæplˌ
3. ‘and’
Weak form: ən (sometimes n, after t, d, s, z, ʃ)
‘Come and see’ ˈkʌm ən ˈsi:
‘Fish and chips’ ˈfɪʃ nˌ ˈʧɪps
4. ‘but’
Weak form: bət
‘It’s good but expensive’ ɪts ˈgʊd bət ɪkˈspensɪv
5. ‘that’
This word only has a weak form when used in a relative clause; when used with a
demonstrative sense it is always pronounced in its strong form.
Weak form: ðət
‘The price is the thing that annoys me ’ðə ˈpraɪs ɪz ðə ˈθɪŋ
ðət əˈnɔɪz mi

6. ‘than’
Weak form: ðən
‘Better than ever’ ˈbetə ðən ˈevə

7. ‘his’ (when it occurs before a noun)

Weak form: ɪz (hɪz at the beginning of a sentence)
‘Take his name’ ˈteɪk ɪz ˈneɪm
8. ‘her’
When used with a possessive sense, preceding a noun; as an object pronoun, this
can also occur at the end of a sentence.
Weak forms: ə (before consonants)
‘Take her home’ ˈteɪk ə ˈhəʊm
ər (before vowels)
‘Take her out’ ˈteɪk ər ˈaʊt
9. ‘your’
Weak forms: jə (before consonants)
‘Take your time’ ˈteɪk jə ˈtaɪm
‘On your own’ ˈɒn jər ˈəʊn
10. ‘she’, ‘he’, ‘we’, ‘you’

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This group of pronouns has weak forms pronounced with weaker vowels than the i:,
u:. We use the symbols i, u to represent them.
Weak forms;
a) ‘she’ ʃi
‘Why did she read it?’ ˈwaɪ dɪd ʃi ˈri:d ɪt
‘Who is she? ˈhu: ˈɪz ʃi
b) ‘he’ i (the weak form is usually pronounced without h except at
the beginning
of a sentence)
‘Which did he choose?’ ˈwɪʧ dɪd i ˈʧu:z
‘He was late, wasn’t he?’ hi wəz ˈleɪt ˈwɒznˌt i
c) ‘we’ wi
‘How can we get there?’ ˈhaʊ kən wi ˈget ðeə
‘You like it, do you?’ ju ˈlaɪk ɪt ˈdu: ju
11. ‘him’
Weak form: ɪm
‘Leave him alone’ ˈli:v ɪm əˈləʊn
‘I’ve seen him’ aɪv ˈsi:n ɪm

12. ‘her’
Weak form: ə (hə when sentence-initial)
‘Ask her to come’ ˈɑ:sk ə tə ˈkʌm
‘I’ve met her’ aɪv ˈmet ə
13. ‘them’
Weak form: ðəm
‘Leave them here’ ˈli:v ðəm ˈhɪə
‘Eat them’ ˈi:t ðəm
14. ‘us’
Weak form: əs
‘Write us a letter’ ˈraɪt əs ə ˈletə
‘They invited all of us’ ðeɪ ɪnˈvaɪtɪd ˈɔ:l əv əs

They next group of words occur in their strong forms when they are in final
position in a sentence;

15. ‘at’
Weak form: ət
‘I’ll see you at lunch’ aɪl ˈsi: ju ət ˈlʌnʧ
In a final position: æt
‘What’s he shooting at?’ ˈwɒts i ˈʃu:tɪŋ æt
16. ‘for’
Weak form: fə (before consonants)
‘Tea for two’ ˈti: fə ˈtu:
fər (before vowels)
‘Thanks for asking’ ˈθæŋks fər ˈɑ:skɪŋ
17. ‘from’
Weak form: frəm
‘I’m home from work’ aɪm ˈhəʊm frəm ˈwɜ:k
In final position: frɒm
‘Here’s where it came from’ ˈhɪəz weər ɪt ˈkeɪm frɒm
18. ‘of’
Weak form: əv

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‘Most of all’ ˈməʊst əv ˈɔ:l

In final position: ɒv
‘Someone I’ve heard of’ ˈsʌmwʌn aɪv ˈhɜ:d ɒv

19. ‘to’
Weak forms: tə (before consonants)
‘Try to stop’ ˈtraɪ tə ˈstɒp
tu (before vowels)
‘Time to eat’ ˈtaɪm tu ˈi:t
In final position: tu (also tu: )
‘I don’t want to’ aɪ ˈdəʊnt ˈwɒnt tu
20. ‘as’
Weak form: əz
‘As much as possible’ əz ˈmʌʧ əz ˈpɒsəblˌ
In final position: æz
‘That’s what it was sold as’ ˈðæts ˈwɒt ɪt wəz ˈsəʊld æz
21. ‘some’
This word is used in two different ways. In one sense (typically before a countable
noun) it has the strong form: ‘I think some animal broke it’ aɪ ˈθɪŋk sʌm ˈænɪməl
ˈbrəʊk ɪt
It is also used before uncountable nouns (meaning “an unspecified amount of”) and
before other nouns in the plural; in such uses it has the weak form səm: ‘Have some
more tea’ ˈhəv səm ˈmɔ: ˈti:
In final position: sʌm
‘I’ve got some’ aɪv ˈgɒt sʌm
22. ‘there’
When this word has a demonstrative function, it always occurs in its strong form
ðeə (ðeər before vowels); for example:
‘There it is’ ˈðeər ɪt ɪz
‘Put it there’ ˈpʊt ɪt ˈðeə
Weak forms: ðə (before consonants)
‘There should be a rule’ ðə ˈʃʊd bi ə ˈru:l
ðər (before vowels)
‘There is’ ðər ˈɪz
In final position: the pronunciation may be ðə or ðeə.
‘There isn’t any, is there?’ ðer ˈɪznˌt eni ɪz ðə
or ðer ˈɪznˌt eni ɪz ðeə

The remaining weak-form words are all auxiliary verbs, which are always used in
conjunction with another “full” verb. In their negative form (combined with ‘not’)
they never have the weak pronunciation, and some (don’t, can’t) have different
vowels from their non-negative strong forms.

23. ‘can’, could’

Weak forms: kən, kəd
‘They can wait’ ˈðeɪ kən ˈweɪt
‘He could do it’ ˈhi: kəd ˈdu: ɪt
In final position: kæn, kʊd
‘I think we can’ aɪ ˈθɪŋk wi ˈkæn
‘Most of them could’ ˈməʊst əv ðəm ˈkʊd
24. ‘have’, ‘has’, ‘had’
Weak forms: əv, əz, əd (with h in initial position)

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‘Which have you seen?’ ˈwɪʧ əv ju ˈsi:n

‘Which has been best?’ ˈwɪʧ əz bi:n ˈbest
‘Most had gone home’ ˈməʊst əd gɒn ˈhəʊm
In final position: hæv, hæz, hæd
‘Yes, we have’ ˈjes wi ˈhæv
‘I thought we had’ aɪ ˈθɔ:t wi ˈhæd
25. ‘shall’, ‘should’
Weak forms: ʃəl or ʃlˌ; ʃəd
‘We shall need to hurry’ wi ʃlˌ ˈni:d tə ˈhʌri
‘I should forget it’ ˈaɪ ʃəd fəˈget ɪt
In final position: ʃæl, ʃʊd
‘I think we shall’ aɪ ˈθɪŋk wi ˈʃæl
‘So you should’ ˈsəʊ ju ˈʃʊd
26. ‘must’
This word is sometimes used with the sense of forming a conclusion or deduction;
when ‘must’ is used in this way, it is less likely to occur in its weak form than when it
is being used in its more familiar sense of obligation.
Weak forms: məs (before consonants)
‘You must try harder’ ju məs ˈtraɪ ˈha:də
məst (before vowels)
‘He must eat more’ hi məst ˈi:t ˈmɔ:
In final position: mʌst
‘She certainly must’ ʃi ˈsɜ:tn,li ˈmʌst
27. ‘do’ də (before consonants)
‘Why do they like it?’ ˈwaɪ də ðeɪ ˈlaɪk ɪt
du (before vowels)
‘Why do all the cars stop?’ ˈwaɪ dəz ɪt əˈraɪv
In final position: du:, dʌz
‘We don’t smoke, but some people do’ ˈwi: dəʊnt ˈsməʊk
bət ˈsʌm pi:plˌ ˈdu:
‘I think John does’ aɪ ˈθɪŋk ˈʤɒn dʌz
28. ‘am’, ‘are’, ‘was’, were’
Weak forms: əm
‘Why am I here?’ ˈwaɪ əm aɪ ˈhɪə
ə (before consonants)
‘Here are the plates’ ˈhɪər ə ðə ˈpleɪts
ər (before vowels)
‘The coats are in there’ ðə ˈkəʊts ər ɪn ˈðeə
wəz
‘He was here a minute ago’ hi wəz ˈhɪər ə ˈmɪnɪt əˈgəʊ
wə (before consonants)
‘The papers were late’ ðə ˈpeɪpəz wə ˈleɪt
wər (before vowels)
‘The questions were easy’ ðə ˈkwestʃənz wər ˈi:zi
In final position: æm, ɑ:, wɒz, wɜ:
‘She’s not as old as I am’ ʃɪz ˈnɒt əz ˈəʊld əz ˈaɪ æm
‘I know the Smiths are’ aɪ ˈnəʊ ðə ˈsmɪθs ɑ:
‘The last record was’ ðə ˈlɑ:st ˈrekɔ:d wɒz
‘They weren’t as cold as we were’ ðeɪ ˈwɜ:nt əz ˈkəʊld əz
ˈwi: wɜ:

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