Phonetics

Phonetics carries about 2 of the 16 English questions (our estimate), and the official model paper shows exactly what they look like: "The word 'procrastination' has its stress on the … syllable" and "Which of the following pairs have the same initial vowel sound? (ago, alone)". Both are answerable with a short rule set and a little practice reading phonetic values aloud.

3.2 Phonemes (vowels and consonants)

English spelling is not phonetic, so we count sounds, not letters. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that changes meaning (ship /ʃɪp/ versus sheep /ʃiːp/ — the pair is a minimal pair).

Vowels (20). Twelve monophthongs (single, steady sounds): short /ɪ e æ ʌ ɒ ʊ ə/ and long /iː ɑː ɔː uː ɜː/. Eight diphthongs (glides): /eɪ aɪ ɔɪ aʊ əʊ ɪə eə ʊə/. Examples:

The schwa /ə/ is the commonest vowel sound in English and occurs only in unstressed syllables: ago /əˈgəʊ/ and alone /əˈləʊn/ begin with the same sound, while owl /aʊl/ and all /ɔːl/, inn /ɪn/ and eel /iːl/, up /ʌp/ and on /ɒn/ do not.

Vowel length matters: bit /ɪ/ versus beat /iː/; pull /ʊ/ versus pool /uː/.

Consonants (24). Plosives /p b t d k g/; fricatives /f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h/; affricates /tʃ dʒ/; nasals /m n ŋ/; liquids /l r/; glides /j w/. Voiceless versus voiced pairs: /p b/, /t d/, /k g/, /f v/, /θ ð/, /s z/, /ʃ ʒ/, /tʃ dʒ/.

• /θ/ (voiceless) in thin, think, bath; /ð/ (voiced) in this, then, bathe.
• /ʃ/ in ship, nation, sure; /ʒ/ in vision, measure, pleasure; /tʃ/ in chair, ture; /dʒ/ in jug, general, badge.
• /ŋ/ in sing, think; /h/ in hat; /j/ in yes, use.
• Silent letters: k in knife, know; b in climb, comb, doubt, debt; w in write, answer; p in psychology, pneumonia; g in gnat, sign; h in hour, honest; l in walk, calm; t in listen, castle; n in autumn, column.
• The same letter can give different sounds: c in cat /k/ and city /s/; s in sun /s/ and rose /z/; -ed is /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after /t d/ (wanted); -s is /s/, /z/ or /ɪz/ (cats, dogs, buses).

3.3 Syllables and stress (word and sentence)

A syllable has one vowel sound: beau-ti-ful (3), ed-u-ca-tion (4), com-mu-ni-ca-tion (5), pro-cras-ti-na-tion (5). Count vowel sounds: the-ater is 3, name is 1.

Word stress is the syllable pronounced louder, longer and higher. Rules of thumb:

• Words ending -tion, -sion, -ic, -ical, -ity, -ify, -ian, -ious stress the syllable before the ending: edu-CA-tion, pro-cras-ti-NA-tion, eco-NOM-ic, ca-PA-ci-ty, pho-TOG-ra-pher.
• Words ending -graphy, -logy, -ate, -ment (long words): pho-TOG-ra-phy, bi-OL-o-gy, ECO-no-my → e-CON-o-my.
• Two-syllable nouns and adjectives are usually stressed on the first syllable (TAble, PREsent, REcord); two-syllable verbs on the second (preSENT, reCORD, deCIDE). Stress shift marks the change of word class: a PREsent / to preSENT; an INcrease / to inCREASE; a REcord / to reCORD; an OBject / to obJECT.
• Compound nouns are stressed on the first part (BLACKboard, GREENhouse); compound adjectives and verbs on the second (bad-TEMpered, underSTAND).
• Prefixes are generally unstressed (re-TURN, un-HAPpy); suffixes -ful, -less, -ness, -ing do not move the stress (BEAUtiful).

Sentence stress. In connected speech, content words (nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, negatives, question words) carry the stress; function words (articles, prepositions, auxiliaries, pronouns, conjunctions) are weak and their vowels reduce to /ə/.

I want to go to the market. Stress changes the focus: I didn't steal the money (I did something else) versus I didn't steal the money (another money).

Intonation: a falling tune for statements, wh-questions and commands; a rising tune for yes/no questions and uncertain lists (the last item of a list falls).

(a) A spectrogram of one vowel: dark bands are its formants

(b) Vowel chart from F1 and F2 (Peterson and Barney means)

(a) A metronome: English stressed syllables fall at roughly even beats

(b) Same three stresses, 3, 6 and 9 syllables, equal time

Practice questions

Set A — Recall (12 questions)

1. The number of vowel phonemes (including diphthongs) in Received Pronunciation isa5b12c20d24
2. The number of consonant phonemes in English isa21b24c26d20
3. The number of syllables in "beautiful" isa3b4c2d5
4. The word "procrastination" has its primary stress on the ___ syllable.a2ndb3rdc5thd4th
5. Which pair has the same initial vowel sound?aup, onbago, alonecinn, eeldowl, all
6. Which word contains the voiceless /θ/ sound?athinbthiscthendbathe
7. Which word contains the /ʃ/ sound?achairbmeasurecjudgedship
8. In which word is the letter "b" silent?abubblebrubbercclimbdbring
9. Which word contains a diphthong?abitbbedccutdboy
10. The noun "present" is stressed on theasecond syllablebfirst syllableceither syllabledneither syllable
11. In a sentence, stress usually falls onacontent wordsbarticlescprepositionsdauxiliaries
12. Which word has the long vowel /uː/?aputbfootcfooddgood

Set B — Understanding (6 questions)

1. In "photographer" the primary stress is on thea1st syllableb2nd syllablec3rd syllabled4th syllable
2. The number of syllables in "communication" isa4b6c5d3
3. Which word contains the /ʒ/ sound?avisionbviciouscvisitdvivid
4. The words "ship" and "sheep" differ inaa consonantba vowelcstressdnumber of syllables
5. In "psychology" the silent letter isaybscldp
6. The word "economy" has primary stress on thea1st syllableb3rd syllablec2nd syllabled4th syllable

Group D — Model answers for long questions (10 marks each, for deeper revision)

1. Describe the English phonemes (vowels and consonants), with the classification of consonants and phonetic transcription of words. [10]
2. Explain syllables, word stress and sentence stress, with rules and examples. [10]

(a) Spectrogram

(b) Metronome

Model answer D1: The English phonemes (10 marks)

Introduction. English spelling is not phonetic, so we count sounds and not letters. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that can change meaning: ship /ʃɪp/ and sheep /ʃiːp/ differ only in one phoneme.

Received Pronunciation (RP) has 44 phonemes: 20 vowels and 24 consonants.

Vowels (20).

1. 12 monophthongs (pure vowels): short /ɪ e æ ʌ ɒ ʊ ə/ and long /iː ɑː ɔː uː ɜː/. Examples: sit /sɪt/, bed /bed/, cat /kæt/, cup /kʌp/, hot /hɒt/, put /pʊt/, about /əˈbaʊt/, see /siː/, car /kɑː/, saw /sɔː/, blue /bluː/, bird /bɜːd/.
2. 8 diphthongs (glides): /eɪ aɪ ɔɪ əʊ aʊ ɪə eə ʊə/. Examples: day /deɪ/, my /maɪ/, boy /bɔɪ/, go /ɡəʊ/, now /naʊ/, here /hɪə/, air /eə/, tour /tʊə/.

Consonants (24) are described by manner and voicing.

Notes. A sound is voiced when the vocal cords vibrate (put a finger on the throat while saying /z/ and /s/). The fricatives /θ/ (thin) and /ð/ (this) are formed with the tongue tip between the teeth, and Nepali speakers often replace them with /t̪/ and /d̪/.

Transcription practice.

The word box has three letters but four sounds, while sing has four letters but three sounds, which shows that letters and phonemes are different.

Conclusion. The phoneme chart is the key to correct pronunciation and to dictionary symbols, and minimal pairs prove that each phoneme is distinct.

Model answer D2: Syllables and stress (10 marks)

Introduction. A syllable is a unit of speech with one vowel sound, with or without consonants round it. Book has one syllable, teacher two (/ˈtiː.tʃə/), information four (/ˌɪn.fəˈmeɪ.ʃən/). Stress is the extra force given to a syllable.

Word stress rules.

1. Two-syllable nouns and adjectives are usually stressed on the first syllable: TAble, PRESent (noun), HAPpy.
2. Two-syllable verbs are usually stressed on the second: preSENT (verb), deCIDE, beGIN.
3. Noun–verb pairs change stress: REcord (noun) / reCORD (verb), IMport / imPORT.
4. Compound nouns take stress on the first part: BLACKboard, GREENhouse; compound verbs on the second: underSTAND.
5. Words ending in -tion, -sion, -ic, -ical, -ial are stressed on the syllable before the ending: eduCAtion, ecoNOmic, poLItical, ofFIcial.
6. Words ending in -ity, -graphy, -logy are stressed on the third syllable from the end: aBILity, phoTOgraphy, bioLOgy.
7. Prefixes and suffixes such as un-, -ness, -ing usually do not move the stress: HAPpy → unHAPpy.

Sentence stress and rhythm. In connected speech the content words (nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs) are stressed and the function words (articles, prepositions, auxiliaries) are weak and often contain /ə/.

English is stress-timed, so the two sentences below, which have different numbers of syllables, take nearly equal time between the stressed words:

DOGS chase CATS The DOGS are CHASing the CATS.

Intonation. A falling tone is used for statements, commands and wh-questions (Where do you live?). A rising tone is used for yes/no questions (Are you coming?) and for lists that are not finished.

Conclusion. Correct stress and rhythm help a listener understand speech and decide the meaning and the part of speech of a word.