1. Introduction to pronunciation

This course explains the basics of pronunciation. Although the subject matter is phonetics, no specialised linguistic knowledge is required for this course. At the end of this course you should be able to distinguish words which sound similar but not the same. You should also be able to look up any English word in a dictionary and find out how it should be pronounced. Please note that the sound files, indicated by the logo , are British English.

2. Sounds of speech

When you listen to speech you hear an almost continuous chain of sounds. You don not actually hear the boundaries of words. If you were asked to listen to Chinese and write down the separate words you would probably not be able to do that. In your head you are able to break down this chain into separate words because you are familiar with the sounds and can create meaningful words with them. English has basically three kinds of sounds.

Vowels, for example a, e, o, i

Consonants, for example p, b, t, d, k, g

Diphthongs, being a combination of two (or more) vowels, for example oi, ue, ai

Creating sounds

You can view the lungs, throat, mouth and nose as a system of tubes and valves which can regulate airflow. When you speak you actually breath out and direct the air through your throat and mouth or nose creating different sound. The sound largely depends on:

the vocal cords
for vowels: the shape of the mouth (mainly determined by the position of the tongue)
for consonants: the obstruction of airflow (by valves, tongue or lips)

a. Vocal cords

The vocal cords are used to make a sound voiced or voiceless. Vowels are always voiced, but consonants can be voiced or voiceless. For example the difference between underlined sound in prize (voiced) and price (voiceless). Most consonants have a voiced and a voiceless version:

Voiced	Voiceless	Compare:
b	p	be – pea
d	t	dear - tear
g	k	goat – coat (the c is also a k sound here)
z	s	zeal - seal
v	f	veal - feel

Assignment:

Say t-d-t-d-t-d and notice that your mouth is doing exactly the same thing to produce the t and the d. The only difference is that you switch the vocal cords on and off. Do the same thing for the other pairs.

b. Vowels: the shape of the mouth

The shape of the inside of the mouth is mainly determined by the position of the tongue. The tongue can move up and down and from front to back. By moving the tong to a low position, the cavity in your mouth becomes larger and the sound sounds more like a-sound in harm or the a sound in had.. By moving your tongue up, the cavity becomes smaller and the sound is more like i-sound in heed or the u sound in who’d. The shape of the lips also influences the sound.

Have a look at the lips and tongue positions when pronouncing different words.

Listen how these words are pronounced in British English :

A very small difference in the position of the tongue can result in a different vowel and consequently a different word with a different meaning. Compare the pairs below. Click on the one of the words to hear how the pair is pronounced in British English.

bed

bad

mess

mass

six

sax

butter

better

c. Consonants: the obstruction of airflow

Valves:

In the throat (epiglottis/glottis): say I and then hi. With I you start the sound by closing and opening a valve in your throat. With hi you don’t.
In the back of the mouth (uvula): not commonly used in English. It is used to produce the rolling-r sound in Dutch.

Notice that using or not using a valve can result in a different word with a different meaning.

Tongue:

Some consonants are made by lifting the back or the front of the tongue:

Back: k,g
Front: t, d, th, l

Lips:

The lips are used to make the p and the b.

3. Stress

If you would record separate sounds and then paste them one after the other, it would be very difficult to understand the words and sentences. The reason is that not only the sounds are important, but also stress (=emphasis). For example, there is a clear difference in meaning between present(=gift) and present (=to show). Many dictionaries indicate not only the pronunciation of a word, but also the stress pattern. It is mostly indicated by underlining the stressed part of the word (e.g. /likwid/ for liquid) or by putting an apostrophe-like symbol before the stressed part (/ ^|likwid/)

Long words often have one rather heavily stressed part (primary stress, often indicated with an apostrophe at the top of the line) and a part that is also stressed, but with less intensity (secondary stress, often indicated with an apostrophe at the bottom of the line).

Assignment:

Find out how stress is indicated in your dictionary and find out what the stress patterns are of the following words:

negotiation
personnel
personal
magazine
extravagant
severance
telephonist

Assignment :

Find out how the following pairs are stressed.

Noun:	Verb:
(the) contract	(to) contract
(the) desert	(to) desert
(the) export	(to) export
(the) import	(to) import
(the) insult	(to) insult
(the) object	(to) object
(the) permit	(to) permit
(the) protest	(to) protest
(the) record	(to) record

4. Writing words the way they sound

As you have probably noticed, the spelling of a word does not clearly indicate how the word should be pronounced. Phonetic alphabets are designed (and necessary) for writing down words in a way that records how they sound. Ideally, someone who never heard the original word or phrase should be able to recreate it simply by reading the written transcription out loud.

Specialised alphabets

You may wonder why we do not simply write everything down the way it is pronounced. Several attempts to do so have been made. For example George Bernard Shaw’s proposed alphabet for English. One way of writing down pronunciation is now generally accepted and used in most dictionaries: the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

The International Phonetic Alphabet

The IPA uses one symbol for each separate sound. Most symbols are from the roman alphabet. The alphabet is used internationally. This means that it can be used for every language and that the symbols represent the same sounds in each language. If you do not know how to pronounce a word you can look it up in the dictionary and look at the transcription. Using the key to the phonetic symbols that are used, you should be able to pronounce the word.

Assignment:

1. Have a look at your English language dictionary and find out how the pronunciation of words is indicated. Also look at the key to the phonetic symbols that are used.

2. Find out how the following words should be pronounced (i.e. write down the sounds and the stress pattern). Also pronounce the words yourself.

executive
vouchers
miscellaneous
cough
admirable
antipodes
clerk
gauge
recipe
preface

3. Click the words below and compare your pronunciation to what you hear. Note that the pronunciation here is British English. The files are in Realaudio format.

More information on pronunciation: see Links on Speaking