EnglishPronunciatio

English• • •Pronunciation In

UseSelf-study andclassroom use

Mark Hancock M C AMBR I D G Ev UN I VE R S ITY PRESS

Section A Letters and sounds

Contents

To the studentTo the read1erMap of ccereers described in phonological terms

57

•' 012141618202224262830323436384042...4648

leJl./tt:IfbI, /pI"',hi!d!. /tIIi :!, lei

'~. hJ/fl, Iv!IgI, M/hI,/w/, Ij!la l1, hiIJI, /d:/,ItJI!V,Ir!lo:(r)/,lea(rYfmJ, /n1,1r;j/1~.loI

/9/, INIAI,IuI, fu:l13:(rll, /::l:(r )l1:>11, /aJ.JI

Bye. buy Introducing Ietttn and soundsP~.plall

&uk,t=1<Ria, ri$eDoumt~

Mm, WIn

Carrot. ubbageFew, viewGate, KateHear,~·rt. yearWine, wmSheep , ;UP. theapFlies. friesCar. careSome. $Nn. sungN ote, notArthur's mQtherSun, fitlJ, J_Shin, shortTO)!. town

123456789

1011121314151617181920

Section B Syllables, words and sentences21 Eye,~ mine Introducing lI}'l.I.abks22 Sahmlay &pkmlNr 13th lntroducing word scess23 R-m.~ told her Introducing seeeeece stress

SO5254

Syllabl~s

24 Dh, no snow! Ccesceanes at the start o f syllables25 Go - goal - gold Consonants at the end of syllables26 PauJ'$ ulh. Mu's flJXn Syllables: plural and other -6 cndinp2 7 P~e pl4yed. Rit4 rn kd SyUables: adding past tense endings

56586062

Word st ress28 REt:ord, rrt:ORD Stress in two-syllablc words29 Sewndhand, booluhop Stress in compound words30 Unforgett4hle Stress in longer words 13 1 Pub/it;, pub licity Stress in lo nger words 2

64666870

]

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Sentence stress3 2 DON'T LOOK NOW! Sentences with all the words stressed n33 THAT could be the MAN Unstressed words 7434 I'll ASK her (Alaska) Pronouns and contractions 7635 She was FIRST Pronouncing the verb be 7836 WHAT do you THINK? Auxiliary verbs 803 7 A PIECE. of CHUSE Pronouncing shon words (a, of. or) 8238 Petsenter, petcentre Joining words 1 843 9 After eight, after rate Joining words 2 8640 Greet gJU!sts, Greek gue$ts Joining words 3 88

Section C Conversation4 1 Could you say that again? Understanding conversation 9042 'Was that the question f" he asked. Reading aloud: 'pronouncing punctuation ' 9243 A shirt and a tie I a shirt and tie Grouping words 9444 Ehm •.. Showing that you want to continue 9645 Well, anyway . .. Telling a story 9846 I mean, it 's sort of like .. . Understanding small talk 10047 Right. OK ... Understanding insrrucrions 10248 'Like father like son ' as they say Quoting speech 10449 He JJliJl win Introduction to emphatic stress 10650 Schwam ... bJJm Schwam Emphasising added details 10851 I think you're in ~seat Emphasising important words 11052 o,ips or salad? Emphasising contrasting alternatives 11253 Fifty? N o, fifka! Emphasising corrections 11454 Look who's talking! Introducing tones 11655 Here? Yes, here! Asking and checking tones 11856 Where were you born? Tones in asking for information 12057 We're d osed tomorrow Tones in new and old information 12258 Dh , really? Continuing or finishing tones 12459 It's fun. isn" it? Agreeing and disagreeing rcnes 12660 It was brilliant! High tones 128

Section D Reference01 Introduction to phonemic symbols 1300 2 Pronunciation test 13703 Guide for spea kers of specific languages 1410 4 Sound pairs 14405 Sentence stress phrasebook 1610 6 Glossary 162

~ 166

Acknowledgements 200

To the student

English ProtfJl7ldation in Use is a book to help students of English to work on pronunciation.,for both speaking and undersranding. It is wrinm mainly for students of inn:rmediare bel

What will I need?You will need a cassette o r CD playe r to listen to the reco rded material that goes with this book.It will be very useful if you ha ve equipment [ 0 record you r own voice, so that you can hear yourown progress. This symbol ® indicates the track nwnber for reco rded material l.e. CD orcassette A. track 1.

Also, when you are srudying individua l sounds, it issometimes useful if you have a mirror. With this, you canco mpare the shape of your own mouth to the mouth ind iagrams like this one from Unit 8.

See page 163 foe a Labelled diagram of the mouth and th roat.

How is English Pronunciation in Use organised?

There are 60 units in the book . Each unit looks at a differmr point of pronunciation. Each unithas rwo pages. The page on the left has explanations and examples, and the page on the righthas exercises. The 60 units are d ivided into three sections of 20 units eac h. Section A is a bouthow to say and spell individual sounds. Section B is about joining sounds to make words andsentences. Section C is a bout pronunciation in conversa tion.

After the 60 units., there is a founh section, Section D, which co ntains the following:

• Introduction to phonemic symbols• Pronuncia tion t l:5t

• Guide for speakers of specific languages• Sound pain• Seereece suess phrascbookoG"""""At the end of the book there is a Key with answers.

With the book, there is also a set of four cassettes or CDs, one for each seaion of the book.

What order shall I do the un its in?It is better if you balance the work that you do from the th ree sections: first, do a unit fromSection A, then a unit from Section B, then a unit from Section C, then ano ther un it fromSection A, and so on .

So, for exa mple , you could begin like this:

Unit I , then Unit 2 1. then Unit 41 , the:n Unit 2, etc. At the end of each uni t, you will find a notetelling you where to go next .

If you have problems in hearing the difkrence between individual sounds in Sa.:rion A of thebook, you wil l be directed to one of the: exercises in S«rion D4 SoJmJ pairs.

5

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You may want to focus your work more close ly. If so, beee are more Wfeas:

• Do the Pronunaatiotr tnt in Section o . Count your score for each section. If you did speciallywell in anyone of the sections, then you may want to row the units in that section of the book.

• Look at Section 0 3 Guide for speaken of specific languages. Find your own language (thelanguages are in alphabetical o rder], The noees there will tell you which units are less importantfor speakers of your language and which sound pairs in section D4 are recommended.

Do I need to know the phonemic symbols?It is possible to use this book without knowing phonmUc symbols, Ho~C"r, it is U5C'fuJ to learnthem because they make it easier to ana lyse the pronunciation of words. Also, many dictionariesuSC' phonemic symbols to show pronunciation. In Section 0 1 Introduction to phon~jc symbols,you will find a table of the phonemic symbols, plus a set of puzzles to help you learn them.

Is this book only about pronunciation in speaking?No, it M 't. Pronunciation is important fe r both listening and speaking. In many of the units.especia lly in Secrions B and C. the pronunciation point is more important for listening thanspeaking. For example. when they are speaking fast, many native speakers join words together incertain ways. You need to be able to understand this when you hear it, but it does ReX matter ifyou do not speak in this way. People will still understand you. Pronunciation points like this areshown with a grey background and this sign: ~

It is your dlOic:e whether you want to just focus on listening, o r whether you want to try tospeak that way too.

What accent of English is used in this book?For a model for you to copy when speaking, we have used only one accent, a Southern Britishaccent . But when you are listening to people speaking English. you will hear many differentaccems, If you are not used to these, it can be very di fficult to undcmand what is being said. Forthis reason, you will hear a variety of acceers in some parts of the Iistming material. foe this book.

What is the Sentence stress phrasebook?It can help you to speak more fluently if you say some: very common expressions with a fixedpronunciation, like a single word. In Section 0 5 $mtolt:e stress pbrasebook, some commonexpressions are given. and they are grouped together by the way they sound: by their sentC'fJUsITus or rhythm. You an practise listening and repeating these to improve your fluency.

What is in the Glossary?In this book. there are some words wbjch are specific to the subject of pronunciation.You a n find an explanation of the meaning of these words in Section D6 Glou.:try.

How should I use the record ings?When you are working with the recording, you should replay a track as often as you need to.When you are doing an exercise you may also need to pause the recording alter each sentence togive you lime to think or 10 write your answers, When you are instructed 10 repeat singk weedsthere is a space on the recording for you 10 do so, but if you are repeating whole senrena:s youwill have to pause the recording each time.

To the teacher

Although English Prom4ndatiOf1 in Uu has hem written SO that it can be used for self-srudy, itwill work equally well in a dass situation. In a classroomcontext, the learners can get immediategui<bncc and feedback. from the teacher. Also, they ca n practise some of the dialogues and otherexercises in pairs. You can direct students with particular pronunciation difficulties to do specificunits on thrir own.

In order ro simplify the jargon in the: book. many of the terms you may be familiar with are DO(

used. For example, the rerm initi4l ronsonant~ is nee used. 1be unit on initial COIUOn;lnld usters is called Unit 24 Dh. no srrow!: Consonams at thr start of syllables. The following is anexplanation of how the book is organised,. ending with the map of COIlttIUS described inpbonoIogical terms,

Section A aims to cover the sounds of English and their main spellings. The units are organisedby letters rather than sounds. The intention is that this would be a more intuitive route: in fornon-specia list users. At the same rime, this organisation helps to highlight sound-spellingregularities in Engl ish.

The vowels are covered first via the five vowel letters of the alphabet, and their ' long' and 'short'pronunciations, for example the letter A as in tape or tap . The remaining vowel sounds arepresented as vowels which typically occur before a letter R. The consonant sounds are presentedthrough either their most common spele lett tt, o r by one of their main spellings. The ordering ofebese units is more or leu alphaberial.

The units in Sa:rion A are nor presented as minimal pairs.. Vowels are paired according (0 theirspelling. not' their potential for being confused with one anorhn. Consonants are paired mainlywhere mer share me same place of articulation. The units were not organised as minimal pa into.- two reasons:• Any sound can form a minimal pair with a number of other sounds,. nor just one. Organising

units according to minimal pain would therefore lead to a huge number of units and a kit ofduplication.

• Many minimal pairs will be reduedanr for any given learner, so learners need to be sdeaive.Porenrial1yconfusing minimal pain are garhered rogether in Section D4 SowJJ p.nn. Learnersarc encouraged to select from these according to their own needs.

Ahemarives are induded for those areas of pronunciation which are especially St»Cepribk: tovariarion across differen r varieties of English. For example, when: there is a letter R with novowel after it, many speakers do nor pronounce the R and many ceber speakers do pronounce ie,and both varieties are peesenred,

Ma ny vowel sounds are treated as local varia nts of vowel . R. For instance, the diphthong !l:tl isinitia lly presented nor as a sound in itself, bur as a variant of fill when it occurs before R or L

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Some of the pronuncia tio n points in the book are potentiaUy irrelevant to some learners. For

instance, for learnen whose aim is mainly to communicate with cxher non-native speakers of

Eng.lish, accurate production of the sounds IW and IN is probably not: necessary. Resea rch

suggests that where speakers substitute these sounds wit h other approxima tions such as JtJ and

Id!, communicatio n is not impeded Uennifff Jenkins: 2000)". In many such cases, readers a re

advised of th is fact in the units. These pronunciation points are ~erthekss induded. My feeling

is that a disriocrion can bedrawn between what we aim for and what we settk for. Thus, a

learner might aim for JfJI and sctk for JtJ (or lsi).

Similarly, even in cases where a leamer does aspire to communicate with native spea kers, there

are many pronunciation features where receptive competence would be sufficient. Fo r instance,

such a learner would need ro undefSt2J1d speech with wea k forms, but not necessarily produce it.

This is indicated in the units by a grey background shade and the sign ' Important for listening'.

Nevertheless, there may be exercises which ask the learner to produce such features. I ha ve

observed that in many cases, there is no better awareness-raiser than eo an~pt ro produce. even.

if the a im is receptive competence.

Section B focuses o n pronunciation units wh ich are bigger than individual sounds. The units a re

in three blocks, dealing in tu m with syllables, word seress an d sentence seress. As the tide of the

section suggests., these features are looked a t more o r kss in isolation from a communicative

context . For instance, in the case of word mess, it is the form as it may a ppear in a dictionary

tha t is dealt with here . Similarly, in the case of sentence stress, we focus o n an unmarked form in

Section B. For example, 'What do you th ink?' is p resented with the stress pattern 0000. In a

spec:ifil; conversational context, this same sentenCe could be sa id with the Sl:re$S pattern 0000,

bu t sentences in conversational context are dealt with in Section C rather than Section B.

Section C focuses on pronunciation features which emerge in the context of conversation. These

include discourse organisation, prominence and tone. Note that there is a lot of grey shading in

this section,. indicating ma terial that is more important for listening than for production. It is felt

that while productive mastery of many features of intonation will be beyond the reach of ma ny

learners, they ma y nevertheless benefi t from a receptive awareness of them.

Note: The materia l in Section 0 3 Guik fo,. spelllr.m ofSfHcific languages is based on the

pronunciation notes in Learner English (Mkhael Swan and Bemard Smith: 2001)... .

Nevertheless, I have had to extrapolate fro m the information peesenred there, as many of the

minimal pairs presented in this book are not specifica lly mentioned in the pronunciation notes in

that book•

•Jcnk.... J. 2000 '1'W PbutuIoo of begIUh ..._,~l.<MptI~. Odord: Odord~ Prfta.

....swan, M. and B. SntiIh 200 1 z.-.wr begIUh~ FmPoaI. Cambridlr. Camllri</slo tJnn.enitJ f'no-.

Map

ofcontents

describedin

phonologicalterm

s

i(eI•

ALettersand

soundsB

Syllabln,words

andsentences

CConversation

1Introduction

tovow

elsand

consonants21

Introductionto

syllables41

Repairstratrgies

2The

vowelsoundslel/,lrel22

Introductionto

wordstress

42Pronouncing

punctuation

3The

consonantsounds{bl./pl23

Introductionto

sentencestress

43Grouping

words:chunking

4The

consonantsoundsIsI.Iz/24

Syllables:initialconsonantclusters44

Kttping

yourspeakingtum

:floorholding

5The

consonantsoundsId!.ftl25

Syllables:finalconsonantclusters45

Discourse

markersin

stOfYtelling:

back-channelresponses

6The

vowelsoundsli:/.fel

26Syllable

structureand

-sendings46

D iscoursem

arkers:'throwaw

ay'words

7W

eakvow

els/:JI./II27

Syllablestructure

and-ed

endings47

Discoursem

arkers:signallingnextstage:

ctence-o r-statem

arker

8The

consonantsoundsIfI,Ivl28

Word

stress:twc-svnabre

words

48Pitch

inpronouncing

directspttd1

9The

consonantsoundsIgI,/kJ29

Word

stress:compounds

49Contrastive

stress

10The

sounds/hi.Iw/,Ijl

30W

ordstress:sufflxes

with

penultimatestress

50New

andold

information

11The

vowt=1soundsfall,/1131

Word

stress:suffixesw

ithante-penultim

atestress

51Em

phaticstresson

importantinform

ation

12Tht=consonantsoundsIfI.fd3l.Itfl

32Sentence

stress:shortimperativ«=s

52C

ontrastivestress

onalternatives

13The

consonantsoundsll/./rl33

Sentencestress:unstressed

words

53Contrastive:stress:corrm

ing

14The

vowt=1soundsla:(r1/,It=;(rll34

Sentencestress:wt'ak

formsof

54Introduction

totone:intonational

idioms;

contractionsofpronounsfalland

risetones

15The

consonantsoundsIrnJ./n/,luI35

Sentencestress:weak

formsofcontractions

ofbe

55Intonation:open

andch«=Ckquestions

16Tht=vow

t=lssounds/<JUf,lol36

Sentencestress:w

eaktoensofcontractions

56Tonic

stressplacem

entofauxiliaries

17The

consonantsounds19/,I{)(37

Sentencestress:w

eakform

sofarticles,57

Intonation:oldand

newinform

ation•

prepositionsand

connectors

18The

vowelsou

nds/,J,/u/./u:138

Unking

consonanttovow

el58

Intonation:continuingorfinishing

tones

19The

vowelsounds13:lrl/.I;:,:(rl/39

Linkingvowt=1to

vowel

59Intonation:opinion.disagreem

ent,tag

questions

20The

vowelsounds

J:n/./au/40

Assimilationand

t=lision60

Hightones:evaluative

comm

ent

Glossary;U."ttII1 An accent is me way the people of a place: prooounce: rheir 1artgu2ge. For example,people in London and Sydney both speak English. but they have diffnmt accents.

auxiliary verb An auxi liary verb is 11 verb which does nor have a meaning by itself; it helps thegrammar of the sentence. For example, in Do yoe like musid, do is an a uxiliary ver b.

C In dais book. the symbol C reeans consoru.nt socod.

careful \ pccdl l {;N \P<-'-ch People pronounce: senr~ dilkrendy when they speak carefully.For exampk, you may use careful speech when you are talking in public o r reading aloud. But innormal conversation you would USC' fast speech.

con...m.J.1l1 so und A consonant sound is a sound we make by obstructing the flow of a ir fromthe mouth.

cuntr.-.,inn A contraction is a shan form of an auxiliary verb in writing. For example, are isconuacred to re in rhty'" .

cmrh.l\i\;n~ Emphasising in speech is like underlining in writing; we use it to make one wordstand OU t as mor e: importan t than the o thers . We ca n emphasise words by pronouncing themloude r. longa' and/or higher.

minimal pair U rwo words are pronounced nearly me same. bu t they hne just one sounddifkr'mt., they are a minim..al pair, For elt2mp!e, in the pair ship Ifl ~ and shup /fi :~, only thesecond sound is difmrot.

na tive \ pe:akcr IC you a re 11 native speaker of a language, that language is your first language.the language which you lea rn t as a young ch ild.

phonemic \~mhol A phonemic symbol is a kne- which represenrs a sound. FOI" example, thefirst IOUnd in shoe is represented by the pbonemic 5ymbol l fl.

m~mc Two words rhyme if they have the same final vowel o r vowel and consonant sounds.For exampk, go rhymes with show and hat rhymes with cot.

\Cntcnn' vtrc...\ Sentence srress is the pa ttern of strong and wea k syllables in a sentence. Fo rexample. me sentence How do you dol is no rma lly said with this sentence stress pattern: 0000(me first and last syllables strong., the second and third syllables weak).

sound A sound is the minimum scgrncnt of the pronunciation of a word. For example, theword this has three sounds: IH/, /II and N .

vtre...\ pancm The pattern of strong and weak syllables in a wo rd o r sentence is its stresspattern. In this book, Stress patterns arc represented by big and small circles. Fo r example. thestress pattern of the word pronJ<lnCation is 00000.

\~ lI.lbl.: A syllable is a word or part of a word that has one vowel sound. It may also have oneor mcee consonant sounds. For example, ago has two syllabln. The first syllabI.: is just onevowe l sound. The: second syllab le is a consonant sound followed by a vowd sound.

jow - - --

"'" .,- ---..----

EItfIish Proncmc:Xrtion in Use 163

tone A tone is thC' way your voce gOC'S up o r down whC'11 you say a sentence . This ca n change

the meaning of the sentence.

uuvtrc....ccd An unstressed syllable is one which is not pronounced strongly.

•'o wel ,ound A vowel sound is a sound we make when WC' don't o bstruct the' air flow from the

mouth in speaking.

V In this book. the symbol V mC'aRS~I sound.

wlIrd ,Ir''''' Word seress is the patte rn of strong and weak syllables in a word. For example, the

word d«UUd has rhree syllables and tbC' second OOC' is pronou~ more strongly. So d«4kd

has this word suns pattern; 000.

weak \11w c1, Unst ressed syllabIC'S often co nta in a weak vowel. The most common weak vowel

is /.v. This is tbe first~I sound in about, for example. The vowel iii is also SOtnC'rimC's weak,

in the second syllable of orallgC', for example.

voice Man y pairs of consonant so unds are similar:, bur one of them is voiced and the oeber is

not. For example, IdJ is similar to It.!, but IdJ is voiced and It.! is not. A consonant is voiced wben

there is vib ration in tbC' throat.

Key

1 . 1 LaS!: wult, I _ t my son Jamie to the shops to buy SOt'f'Ie food. He got a pleU of meatand two pears. On the way home, the bag broke. The food fell onto the road and gotdirty. In the end, Jamie tMtw the food in the bin.

1.2 I dog eve2 rabbit CVCVC3 frog CCVC

1. 3 1 Phil the fox A2 M ary the canary B3 Ida the spider B4 Claire the bear B

4 gorilla CVCVCV5 snake CCVC6 bee CV

5 Polly the parrot A6 Deborah the zebra B1 Myrtle the turtle B8 Kitty the ca t A

2.1I/'~ II'"ta bl< ..'" tra in eight h.M cat mop ~t<ok, ~at

2.2 1 eight, ate 3 main 5 rain2 made. maid o tap' 6 hare

2.3 I uk 3 watch S care 7 he..21.. 4 said 6 square

2.4 I man 2 ca p 1 heart o pen 5 hay

3. 1 SID: Where are the pears?JOE: Bun?I!l Did you say lw4n?SID: No,. pears. you know. fruit!joe Oil, I sec, pears with a PI They're in the padt..SID: What, in the badt. of the truck?JOE: No. in the pack, you know, with a PISID: O h, I sec, pad with a PI Would you like one?JOE: No, I'U have a fN.tUh, please.Sm: A beac:h?!11

3.2 1 ""'p 2 """ 3 pill O- S spea

3.3 1 lamb 3 cupboard 5 receipt 7 combing2 climb o phcec 6 psychology

3,4 1 There's a bear in tha t tree, 4 Say 'boil'.2 He had the peach to himself. 5 This is a nice affair.1 1bey've earned it.. 6 Would you like a coffee?